  We present Ulysses and NEAR data from the detection of the short or
intermediate duration (2 s) gamma-ray burst GRB000301C (2000 March 1.41 UT).
The gamma-ray burst (GRB) was localised by the Inter Planetary Network (IPN)
and RXTE to an area of 50 arcmin^2. A fading optical counterpart was
subsequently discovered with the Nordic Optical Telescope (NOT) about 42h after
the burst. The GRB lies at the border between the long-soft and the short-hard
classes of GRBs. If GRB000301C belongs to the latter class, this would be the
first detection of an afterglow to a short-hard burst. We present UBRI and JHK
photometry from the time of the discovery until 11 days after the burst.
Finally, we present spectroscopic observations of the optical afterglow
obtained with the ESO VLT Antu telescope 4 and 5 days after the burst. The
optical light curve is consistent with being achromatic from 2 to 11 days after
the burst and exhibits a break. A broken power-law fit yields a shallow
pre-break decay power-law slope of a_1=-0.72+-0.06, a break time of
t_b=4.39+-0.26 days after the burst, and a post-break slope of a_2=-2.29+-0.17,
which is best explained by a sideways expanding jet in an ambient medium of
constant mean density. In the optical spectrum we find absorption features that
are consistent with FeII, CIV, CII, SiII and Ly-a at a redshift of
2.0404+-0.0008. We find evidence for a curved shape of the spectral energy
distribution of the observed afterglow. It is best fitted with a power-law
spectral distribution with index b ~ -0.7 reddened by an SMC-like extinction
law with A_V~0.1 mag. Based on the Ly-a absorption line we estimate the HI
column density to be log(N(HI))=21.2+-0.5. This is the first direct indication
of a connection between GRB host galaxies and Damped Ly-a Absorbers.
