REGULAR PRESS BRIEFING BY THE INFORMATION SERVICE

Marie Heuzé, the Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing which provided information about the Secretary-General's visit to London and Munich, the Secretary-General's statements on Togo,
the UN Special Representative holding talks in Iraq, the Security Council meeting on Sudan and other Sudanese developments, the second Preparatory Committee for WSIS, the Guyana floods, Geneva activities, human rights and other issues. Spokespersons for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees, the International Telecommunication Union, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme, the International Labour office, the United Nations Children's Fund and the International Organization for Migration participated in the briefing.

Secretary-General to Visit London and Munich

Mrs. Heuzé said the Secretary-General was today flying to London where he will meet with Prime Minister Tony Blair and other senior government officials. The Secretary-General and the Prime Minister will attend an event at which the Secretary-General will make a major speech on his 2005 agenda for both development and collective security. The Secretary-General will then travel to Munich where he will attend an annual security conference and deliver a speech on "A More Secure World: The Role of the United Nations." In Munich, the Secretary-General will also hold meetings with German officials, including Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The Secretary-General will return to New York on Sunday.

Secretary-General's Statements on Togo

The Director said the Secretary-General had expressed his deep sorrow upon learning of the sudden death of President Gnassingbe Eyadema of the Republic of Togo. In a second statement issued yesterday following the swearing-in of Faure Gnassingbe as the new president of Togo, the Secretary-General had expressed his concern that the transfer of power that had taken place in Togo following the death of President Eyadema had not been done in full respect of the provisions of the Constitution. The Secretary-General re-emphasized the need for constitutionality and respect for the rule of law.

UN Special Representative Holds Talks in Iraq

The Director said that the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, had met with Sheikh Hareth al-Dhari, head of the Association of Muslim Scholars, over the weekend and told him that the United Nations was exploring means to encourage a broad-based national dialogue among all Iraqis. Mr. Qazi also met with the Interim Iraqi Minister of Planning, Mahdi Hafeth, for similar talks on the political environment in the country.

Sudan

Mrs. Heuzé said the Security Council was today holding a public meeting on Sudan. Invited and expected to attend were Sudanese Vice President Osman Taha, Chairman of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM/SPLA) John Garang, and African Union Representative Baba Gana Kingibe. Asked about this meeting, the Secretary-General told reporters that he believed it was important to have them all here to discuss not only the peace process but the implementation of the process and the actions they needed to take on the ground to make it hold.

Meanwhile, the UN Mission in Sudan continued to report on insecurity in Darfur. So the Security Council meeting would discuss the peace process, the insecurity, and also the report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council in which he formally recommended that the United Nations establish a peace-support mission in southern Sudan made up of 10,130 troops and 755 civilian police. The Director recalled that copies of the Secretary-General's report had been distributed at the end of last week.

Marco Jimenez of the International Committee of the Red Cross said there would be a press briefing on Wednesday, 9 February at 10:30 a.m. by Christoph Harnisch, ICRC's Delegate General for Africa, at ICRC headquarters. He would be speaking to journalists about his mission to Sudan from 25 January to 5 February.

Jennifer Pagonis of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees said that UNHCR's Deputy High Commissioner, Wendy Chamberlin, would be leaving next weekend for a week-long trip to southern Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, where she would look at UNHCR's initial efforts to lay the groundwork for the eventual return of refugees to south Sudan. The peace agreement between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army raised hopes for the return home of some 500,000 refugees from south Sudan currently living in neighbouring countries. However, major investment was needed to rehabilitate communities before such returns could begin. The conflict in the south had also displaced an estimated 4 million more people within Sudan.

Geneva Activities

The Director said that the Conference on Disarmament was holding a public plenary meeting this morning.

The Working Group on a draft legally binding normative instrument for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearances was continuing its work which would conclude on 11 February. It was meeting in public in Room XII.

Second Preparatory Committee Meeting for WSIS

Gary Fowlie of the International Telecommunication Union said there would be a press conference on 16 February from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Room III on the second Preparatory Committee meeting for the World Summit on the Information Society which would be held from 17 to 25 February at the Palais des Nations. Participating would be Mr. Y. Utsumi, Secretary-General of ITU and Secretary-General of the WSIS; and Mr. J. Karklins, President of the Preparatory Committee.

Human Rights

José Luis Díaz, Spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said High Commissioner Louise Arbour would be going to Moscow from 9 to 13 February. The visit, her first to the country as High Commissioner, came at the invitation of the Russian Government. The High Commissioner expected to meet with a number of senior Russian officials as well as representatives of civil society and human rights organizations working in the Russian Federation. A press release on the visit would be issued shortly.

Guyana Floods

Elizabeth Byrs of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that available was an embargoed press release on the UN Flash Appeal for $ 3 million in response to the emergency humanitarian situation created by the recent floods that hit Guyana during the second week of January. Also available was the latest situation report on the situation in Guyana. There was a need for test kits for leptospirosis after health authorities had reported two confirmed deaths and eight suspected deaths from this disease. If not treated, leptospirosis could cause kidney damage, meningitis, liver failure, respiratory distress and in rare cases death. She hoped that the generosity of the donor community in response to the tsunami disaster would not reflect negatively on other disasters around the world.

Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said that WFP's portion of the Flash Appeal was for $ 800,000 to feed 20,000 persons for the next six months. The first contributions would go to provide food aid to 8,000 children under the age of five and 2,000 pregnant or lactating women. WFP would then start distributing rations to families which had been affected by the floods. These were the worse floods which Guyana had seen in a century and at least 300,000 persons, almost half the population, had been affected. WFP had already distributed high-energy biscuits to children who had been displaced and were living in shelters.

Other

Corinne Perthuis of the International Labour Office recalled that every four years, the regions of the ILO met to discuss the most relevant workplace issues of the day. This year, the 7th European Regional Meeting of the ILO was being convened under the theme "East-West: A common future". During its four-day session, from 14 to 18 February in Budapest, worker, employer and government delegates from 50 European and Central Asian Member States would pursue new ways of dealing with the mounting challenges of economic transformation and globalization. The meeting would be about the management of change during peoples' working lives: change from school to work (youth employment), between jobs (balancing flexibility and security in the labour market), from one country to another (managing migration) and from employment to retirement (managing ageing and pension reform). A note to correspondents would be available later today.

Damien Personnaz of the United Nations Children's Fund said that available was a press release on how UNICEF had begun to assist some 50,000 people in the district of Ituri in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo where recent outbreaks of violence had forced civilians to escape this already war-torn region into camps. About 10,000 families had managed to seek refuge in four sites, out of which three were currently being protected by the MONUC peacekeeping forces. UNICEF's relief operation included the provision of safe water, access to sanitation facilities, the provision of shelter and cooking materials as well as distributing high-energy biscuits for malnourished children.

Jemini Pandya of the International Organization for Migration said a report by a joint mission by IOM and a number of agencies to assess the impact of the tsunami on Burmese migrant workers in southern Thailand said that at least 7,000 registered migrants and their families were likely to be affected by the disaster. The mission's report recommended measures to allow all migrants to access basic humanitarian assistance without fear of reprisal. In Norway, an IOM programme which began on 7 February would allow immigrants living in the country who had lost close family in the tsunami to return temporarily to their country of origin. Up to 135 immigrants would be reunited with surviving relatives and would be able to participate in memorial ceremonies and take care of other family matters.

As the Spokesperson for the Economic Commission for Europe was unable to attend, a press release was distributed on this year's Gunnar Myrdal Lecture. On 22 February at 6 p.m., Mr. Pascal Lamy, former Trade Commissioner for the European Commission and current President of "Notre Europe", would deliver the Myrdal lecture, speaking about "Global Governance: Lessons from Europe".