SG/SM/7600

TRANSCRIPT OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY SECRETARY-GENERAL KOFI ANNAN AT HEADQUARTERS, 25 OCTOBER

- 2 - Press Release SG/SM/7600 25 October 2000

The Secretary-General: I am pleased to announce today my nomination to the General Assembly of Ruud Lubbers, former Prime Minister of the Netherlands, for appointment as the next United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

As you know, I have been reviewing for some time now several candidacies to replace Sadako Ogata, who has done such a remarkable job in her 10 years in office. This was an extremely difficult decision to make, both because of the importance of this post and because I was fortunate to receive expressions of interest from a number of outstanding candidates. I also conducted my own search and solicited some additional candidacies. I gave them all my most serious consideration, but in the end I could only choose one person. Mr. Lubbers brings with him an extraordinary record of high-level accomplishment, not just as Prime Minister for 12 years -- the longest-serving holder of that office in his country's recent history -- but also as a scholar, as a professor and an active participant in the work of various private sector and non-governmental organizations. A summary of his career will be handed out to you.

Let me add a word of appreciation to Prime Minister Wim Kok and the Government and people of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, who have always been in the forefront of support for United Nations humanitarian action, especially in favour of refugees. It is particularly satisfying to appoint a leader who has held the highest office in the Government of the Netherlands -- the country which in 1951 provided UNHCR with its first-ever High Commissioner, Dr. W.J. Van Hoeven- Goedhart.

Before giving the floor to Mr. Lubbers to make some remarks, I would like to add a personal word to each of the exceptionally well-qualified men and women who made themselves available for consideration for this post. I recognize that you, and many of your admirers in the international community, will feel disappointed that I have not found it possible to offer you this post. But I sincerely hope that your outstanding personal and professional qualities will continue to be placed at the service of the United Nations, and humanity.

I am also pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, a national of Saudi Arabia, as the next Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

As you know, I have been reviewing for some time now several candidacies to fill the shoes of Nafis Sadik, who has done such a remarkable job in her 13 years in office. I was fortunate to receive expressions of interest from a number of excellent candidates, and I should like to thank the governments who put forward so many good names. I felt that Nafis should be replaced by a woman, preferably a national of a developing country, who could carry on the remarkable work she has already done and build on her legacy. Dr. Obaid, with a quarter of a century in the United Nations system and two years within UNFPA, struck me as the ideal candidate for the job.

Dr. Obaid is an outstanding United Nations professional. She is fully conversant with the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and with the role of the United Nations in forging the new global population agenda. I am confident she will be an effective advocate for UNFPA�s invaluable work. Her record in working for reproductive rights for women, in promoting choice and improving women�s health is second to none. She is conscious of the vital importance of promoting the rights of women and adolescent girls in order to safeguard their reproductive health, and she is aware of the need to focus on the threat posed by HIV/AIDS. Dr. Obaid has a strong academic background in sociology and cultural anthropology, which she studied in this country, and her work in social affairs for the United Nations has made her sensitive to the culture issues involved in our work in this field.

Mr. Lubbers: Of course, I am very honoured by the request of the Secretary- General. It came a little bit suddenly, but I am really honoured by the invitation he made and the suggestion he will make to the General Assembly. I will feel very privileged to succeed Mrs. Ogata, with whom I also worked personally for a number of years -- her first four years, when I was still in office as Prime Minister of the Netherlands.

On a more personal note, I entered politics in the Netherlands in 1973. I was in politics for 21 years, of which the last 12 as Prime Minister. I did so, of course, from 1973 all the way, to serve the public cause. In 1994, I thought it better after those 12 years to leave office -- better for democracy and maybe better for myself. I made the mistake not of losing elections, but of just walking out, but I thought it was good. Then I tried to serve society in another way. I became a part-time professor of globalization and sustainable development and partnered a lot with non-governmental organizations, which brought me to the international presidency of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as of 1 January.

So, at the very same moment that I left the political arena and the intergovernmental institutions, the Secretary-General came to me. It was sort of a shock, but a pleasant one, because I felt �Yes, this is good�. Probably, it is the last opportunity for me in my career to serve the United Nations and to serve it in the capacity of High Commissioner for Refugees, which is basically about -- as you all know -- people most in trouble. So I feel privileged to serve, especially in that position. I will do my utmost to do what has to be done and to succeed Mrs. Ogata in a way which she will appreciate as well.

Dr. Obaid: I would like again to thank you, Mr. Secretary-General, for demonstrating your confidence and trust in me by selecting me to be Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund. I have been an international civil servant for 25 years and therefore my commitment to the United Nations, the goals of the United Nations and now, specifically, to the ICPD and the goals of ICPD are well-grounded in my history.

I would like to tell the Secretary-General that one pride that I take is in the fact that he has entered history in many different ways, but today all Saudi women are recognizing that he has �broken the ceiling� one more time for Saudi women, and we thank him for that.

I also would like to put forth that the work, the leadership and the courage of Dr. Sadik have made a very strong UNFPA and I am inheriting a very strong UNFPA. I will continue to ensure that what we have started in terms of programmes will continue. Luckily, and we are very honoured I think, many of the issues that we work for at UNFPA were adopted at the Millennium Summit. Therefore, all the issues of maternal mortality, education for girls, prevention of HIV/AIDS and poverty have been mainstreamed into the Millennium Declaration. I therefore believe that the whole Organization, under the leadership of the Secretary- General, will be working together and I will be one of his active team.

Question: I would like to ask you this question, Mr. Secretary-General, since we all know that you are addressing very carefully the root causes of the problems that your nominees are going to fight in the coming period. Do you believe that, in the near future, we are going to have a smaller army of the refugees who are travelling from country to country and that all these problems which are under the scope of the United Nations Population Fund are going to diminish?

The Secretary-General: I wish I could be hopeful and tell you that the caseload for UNHCR and possibly for UNFPA will be reduced. I think, in time, it will be, but for the moment, when you look around the world and the crises we are dealing with, they still have a large caseload of refugees to deal with, whether in Africa or Asia. You take the situation in Central Africa; you take the situation of the Afghan refugees who are in Pakistan, Iran and that region -- there is constant movement of people and displacement of people within and between nations, which are going to demand the attention, the creativity and the energies of the new High Commissioner and his Office.

I think that UNFPA also has its work cut out for it. I do not think that we can be complacent and assume that the caseload is dropping. I think we should move ahead at full speed and tackle all these issues. Unfortunately, I do not think it is dropping at the rate we would want to see it drop, and in some regions, in fact, it is growing.

Question: I have one question for you, Mr. Secretary-General, and one question for Mr. Lubbers. You hinted, Mr. Secretary-General, that you also did your own research. Why did you think of Mr. Lubbers and when did you first get the idea of nominating him? When did you, Mr. Lubbers, first hear about the idea that you might be the successor of Mrs. Ogata?

The Secretary-General: I think that when you have this sort of position to fill and you have defined the criteria and the type of individual you are looking for, you hope that you will be able to find that individual among the candidates who have put their names forward, suggested by Governments. But you are never sure that you will, and so I also tend do a search of my own to really broaden the field of candidates.

As I said, it wasn�t an easy choice. It was a very difficult decision to make, because there were so many outstanding candidates. In the end, I settled on Mr. Lubbers for the very reasons that I declared a few moments ago. I think his name came up rather late in the game and I started thinking about him about three weeks [ago], after I started consultations with Member States on the appointment of the next Commissioner. I am happy he is here with us today and that he has been able to free himself to join.

You should understand that, in these sort of processes, I cannot go into lengthy detail about why this person was selected, why the other was rejected and all that, because really they are all very outstanding people. In fact, some of them did not even put themselves up; their names came out of a search somewhere. So don�t expect me to go into details.

Mr. Lubbers: The timing, you heard, was three weeks maybe, since the first part of the conversation. I was very surprised when the Secretary-General approached me to explain the excellent qualities of the Dutch candidate Jan Pronk, who happens to have been a friend of mine for decades. The Secretary-General knew I was sincere about that and he told me that he appreciated Jan Pronk but, at the very same time, he had serious doubts if it was appropriate for him to pursue that possibility. He asked me at least to think about the possibility of accepting such a position.

Then, of course, I said �My candidate is Jan Pronk and my Prime Minister is Wim Kok, so I trust you will consult the Dutch Prime Minister. Talk with him�. Then the Secretary-General asked me not to do so and to speak with nobody. So I did not speak about this with anybody over the past two weeks, and then I received a call last Monday evening to come here as quickly as possible. And I received a call from Prime Minister Kok in the same line of thinking, and that�s that.

The Secretary-General: Now you have all the facts.

Question: The name of Jan Pronk has already been mentioned. He was on top of the list of the Dutch Government. He was the nominee of the Dutch Government. You said the nominating process was extremely difficult and you came with your own candidates. What was the problem of the candidacy of Mr. Jan Pronk? Where was there resistance and who said �No, he�s not the best candidate available�?

The Secretary-General: I don�t want to get into that. I think I�ve given you enough to be able to write your stories. I don�t want to get into details of who blackballed whom, who didn�t want whom. I don�t think it is fair to the process or to those governments and others who participate in it.

I think what is important here is that, this morning, after a long process, we have an outstanding candidate whom I hope we will all support -- governments, non-governmental organizations, the staff -- for him to get the work done. As I said, I am sorry that some of the outstanding candidates did not make it and I hope they will continue to put their talents at the service of the United Nations and the international community. I think we should leave it there.

Question: Both these agencies and both these issues have their own controversies, both refugee and population issues, and both of them have had difficulties in raising funds and getting international support. What would you like to see as the priorities for each of them and what would you like the international community to do in terms of supporting them, particularly as they change leaders?

The Secretary-General: I think we will need support from the international community at various levels. We often think in terms of money and material and financial resources, but we will also need the governments to help us protect refugees. We would want to work with the governments to treat immigrants fairly. We tend to think that these problems are only in the third world, but they are becoming major problems in the developed countries in Europe and, to some extent, here. And we need to get the governments to be sensitive to the needs of refugees and the need to protect them.

We would also be grateful if they continued their financial support for the Organization and work with us in protecting the vulnerable in these two programmes, which, as you said, are of extreme importance to millions of people around the world. So the request for support is financial, legal protection of refugees and political support.

Question: Mr. Secretary-General, Mr. Lubbers, some of the candidates had a lot of experience for the refugee post: being in the field; working with people; the emergencies. Things that can go right or wrong and how you deal with them immediately affect everything, sometimes the operation. You, Mr. Lubbers, are more used to being in government back home. Why, Mr. Secretary-General, did you select him -- not dealing with kicking out the others, but talking about him personally? He does not have as much field experience. Maybe Mr. Lubbers can comment on that.

The Secretary-General: I think that when you are filling these sorts of posts and positions, obviously one option is to look at field experience. UNHCR, luckily, has lots of good people with considerable field and operational experience. What Mr. Lubbers brings to the job is that leadership at the highest level, that experience, that judgement and that ability to reach out to governments and get them to work with us on these issues, and to get them to support the programmes that we are doing. So he does come with considerable experience, with judgement, with the experience of running a country -- and I do not think that can be minimized. In organizations, you do not want everyone to be the same; you want people with different talents, who complement each other. And I think he is bringing to the House something that the House probably will lack when Mrs. Ogata moves on.

Mr. Lubbers: I think all the wisdom is there, especially this morning. Maybe I would like to add one thing. It is not easy for me to depart from what I am doing, basically in relation to non-governmental organizations. Having been for 21 years in politics, I think it not a handicap when you have worked with non- governmental organizations. Secondly, it is the experience, as the Secretary- General said -- in a different way, however. I am really looking forward to serving the specific cause of people who really are in trouble and to applying my creativity there. I hope that it will be a positive creativity.

So the motivation is there. And, as the Secretary-General said, I will rely on the excellent people who are there already within the organization.

Question: A question for Mr. Lubbers: There has been, as you know, some rising discussion here about the internally displaced persons and the refugees, by the classical definition. In the 30 hours you have had to consider this, do you see in your mandate or in your own mind any difference between those two groups, and in any case how do you think the question of internally displaced persons, which is going to be so much more to the fore in the coming decade, should be dealt with.

The Secretary-General: Let me say something about that first, because it is a hot issue that we are all struggling with. I think one of the suggestions which had been made by some is that internally displaced persons should be added to the refugee caseload, and that the UNHCR should deal with them. I have resisted that, on the basis that UNHCR is already overloaded, and that if we were to ask them to take on the millions of internally displaced persons in the world we would break the back of an organization that has done so well. So the way we have dealt with the internally displaced persons recently is to pool our efforts and get all the United Nations agencies and programmes to work together. In some situations, we ask the United Nations Children�s Fund (UNICEF) to take the lead; sometimes it is Red Cross; and it could be UNHCR. We are thinking through what else we can do to really tackle this issue of internally displaced persons much more effectively.

The problem is that governments are asking us to take on the issue of internally displaced persons, but they are not giving us the money to do it. I would hope that, as we look at this problem critically and come up with additional suggestions or approaches, the governments will not only back us but will make the resources available, because we are dealing here again, like the refugee caseload, with millions and millions of people.

You may want to add something.

Mr. Lubbers: No, I perfectly agree, and I can assure you that this is not new for me. I was not within the organization, but, as I told you, I was working on globalization, and it is clear that I faced this problem early. But, as the Secretary-General said, this has to be approached with prudence, because the institution has to be strong. But the problem is real, and I am looking into possibilities, maybe also in terms of teamwork with the whole of the family of the United Nations, to give attention, of course, also to those people: displaced persons within countries.

Mr. Eckhard: We wanted to do a few questions on international issues. Does anyone have a question concerning UNFPA?

Question: American critics of the United Nations often find that your programme, the UNFPA, is one of the ones that make them most uncomfortable. I wonder if it is too soon to ask you how you will be approaching Washington or dealing with it, both as a political matter and in terms of donor funding.

Dr. Obaid: I think we have very well-established relations with Washington. We have lots of negotiations going on under the present leadership regarding our issues. But, I think, how we approach it and what we will do will have to wait to see what the elections bring.

Question: Ms. Obaid, what is your relationship with your own Government, with the Saudi Arabian Government? You have to deal with many issues of the status of women, on which your Government is not exactly the most progressive. So what exactly is your relationship with that Government?

Dr. Obaid: Well, I have been endorsed by the Government. I have been in the United Nations for 25 years, and I have been, from the very first day in 1975, responsible for women�s programmes in the Arab region, which is a difficult region for that issue. The Government has not interfered throughout my years. I am an international civil servant, and I am accountable to the Secretary-General and to our Executive Board. And therefore, I assume there will not be any -- if that is what you mean.

However, the Saudi Arabian Government has taken, recently, very open steps towards becoming proactive in the United Nations community. They have joined the Human Rights Commission; they have signed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This opening up will have an impact for sure on the situation of Saudi women.

Question: I just wonder up to what point Emma Bonino was on your list of finalists? Everybody wants to know.

The Secretary-General: Emma was one of the candidates considered, yes. There were two Italian candidates on that list: Emma Bonino and Senator Migone.

Mr. Eckhard: A question or two on other issues?

Question: Mr. Secretary-General, this is the first time we have had a chance to talk to you since Jordan confirmed that it was going to go ahead with its withdrawal from the Sierra Leone peacekeeping force. I am wondering if I could ask a couple of questions, obviously related to Britain�s interest in that. Were you disappointed that Britain�s offer of an over-the-horizon force was not sufficient to convince the Jordanians that they should stay? And are there circumstances in which you could envisage now that over-the-horizon force having to be called upon perhaps to cover the withdrawal of the departing contingents?

The Secretary-General: I think that one of the requests that the Jordanians made was that they would be prepared to play their role -- and they have been very active in United Nations peacekeeping operations, and in fact, while they are withdrawing from Sierra Leone they will be participating in the Eritrean-Ethiopian operation. They had hoped that there would be more countries from the developed countries joining them on the ground, participating in these peacekeeping operations. They did not believe that the British offer was sufficient. They had also hoped that others would join. At least the British made a gesture; others have not. Of course, this also raises a very serious question that we all need to think through, not least the Security Council: can the Council adopt resolutions that require us to deploy troops when those in the Council do nothing, particularly the major counties with large forces? Is the question posed by Jordan going to be posed in future operations?

As to the second question, I think a force on the horizon that could go in to assist the troops on the ground is always helpful. You will recall, at the early stages, when 500 of the soldiers were taken hostage, I did ask for a rapid- reaction force. We did not get it, but the arrival of the British troops and the naval ship did have the right psychological impact and reinforced the troops, allowing us to consolidate and build up the force.

We are going to try and replace the troops who are withdrawing; it is going to take time. I have asked the governments concerned to show some flexibility in the withdrawal of their own troops. It is a sovereign decision and it is their decision. But in its application, it would be good if they were to show some flexibility to give us time to replace those who are withdrawing. I hope we will be able to get that flexibility.

Question: As a quick follow-up to that, when do you plan to appoint a new Force Commander in Sierra Leone? But my question was whether you had any comment on the unfolding situation in C�te d�Ivoire, and on the results of that election.

The Secretary-General: I think I will designate a new Force Commander in the next few days, at the latest within a week. He will be someone of experience, someone who has done peacekeeping before, and who should be able to lead the men in the field and mould them into a cohesive, active force.

On C�te d�Ivoire, I have been following the developments very, very closely, and I must say I was really amazed by the audacity of General Guei, trying to violate the rights of the people twice in a year. Obviously, I do not have the final details of what is happening on the ground; we are following it very, very closely. There are reports that he has left the country; others are saying he is still in the country. I do not know where he is or how things will eventually evolve.

But I think that what has happened in C�te d�Ivoire and what happened in Serbia recently send out a message that the people are getting to know their rights, and that people are going to assert their rights. The days of coups d��tat, the days of the manipulation of elections, are over. I think those who would want to do that in future should be very, very careful. I think the most powerful tool is transparency, and the awareness of the public as to their rights, and their insistence that their voice must be heard. I think that if this process continues democracy will be in good shape.

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