Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19981224
Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, informed correspondents at today's noon briefing that the Security Council was not scheduled to meet until Tuesday, 29 December, when consultations were planned on Ethiopia and Eritrea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and possibly also on the maintenance of peace and security and post-conflict peace-building.
Continuing, Mr. Almeida e Silva said that the open meeting on post- conflict peace-building, which had been suspended last week, was concluded last night. The Council might discuss a presidential statement on the subject. The briefing on Ethiopia and Eritrea, which had been scheduled for yesterday, was postponed due to the Council's full schedule. It was not yet clear when it would next take up the Iraqi situation.
On Iraq, the Deputy Spokesman said that the Office of the Iraq Programme was undertaking an assessment of the humanitarian impact of the military action there, on which it might be able to report to the Security Council by the middle of next week. The regular weekly update on implementation of the "oil-for-food" programme would be made available at the beginning of the week.
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In a final note, he said the Secretary-General was receiving a very large number of calls and communications from people around the world, in particular, from the United States, expressing concern about the situation in Iraq. One letter that really moved the Secretary-General was written by a four-and-one-half year-old boy who attended the United Nations International School in New York.
The Deputy Spokesman read the letter, as follows:
"Dear Mr. Annan,
Please talk to the President of Iraq. Please make up. Work it out."
The Secretary-General's handwritten note said:
"Dear Lucas,
Thank you for your kind letter. I am glad to see that one is never too young to speak out for peace. I promise you I will work very hard for peace in Iraq and everywhere else in the world. Good luck to you and happy holidays.
Sincerely,
Kofi Annan."
In response to a question, the Deputy Spokesman said correspondents could receive copies of the exchange of letters.
Replying to another question, he said he did not have any more details on the Secretary-General's conversation yesterday with the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Tariq Aziz.
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