DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by welcoming the Director of the Division of Public Affairs at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Djibril Diallo. Mr. Diallo would brief correspondents on events related to the observance of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, occurring on Saturday, 17 October.

On Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard then said, the Secretary-General had met on Friday with the Chargé d'affaires of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the United Nations. The Secretary-General had expressed his concern about the dangerous situation in Kosovo, and he had called for every effort to be made for a permanent solution to be reached.

This morning, the Secretary-General had called President Slobodan Milosevic to personally urge him to take the necessary steps to comply with Security Council resolutions on Kosovo as a prerequisite to a political solution, Mr. Eckhard continued. The Secretary-General had urged Mr. Milosevic to continue to work with United States representative Richard Holbrooke in pursuance of that objective.

In view of the dangerous level of tensions between Iran and the Taliban of Afghanistan, the Secretary-General had authorized his Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, to pay a one-day visit to Kandahar on 14 October, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary-General's decision had followed two days of talks in Islamabad, on 10 and 11 October, between Mr. Brahimi and a delegation of senior Taliban representatives.

"The Secretary-General wishes to emphasize the exceptional nature of Mr. Brahimi's visit", the Spokesman emphasized, recalling that in view of serious security concerns, all international United Nations staff had been withdrawn from Afghanistan on 22 August, one day after the fatal shooting in Kabul of Military Adviser Lieutenant Colonel Carmine Calo serving with the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA).

However, the Taliban leadership had given Mr. Brahimi assurances that they would seriously address unresolved concerns, in particular the Taliban's sharing of information concerning their investigation into the killing of Lieutenant Colonel Calo, as well as other security concerns regarding the possible return of international United Nations staff to Afghanistan.

The Secretary-General's report on Afghanistan to the General Assembly and the Security Council was on the racks today, Mr. Eckhard added. In that report, the Secretary-General had underlined the critical importance of his Special Envoy's current mission to the region. The outcome of the Special Envoy's efforts, the Secretary-General stated, would depend on the determination of all parties involved, Afghan as well as neighbours, to reach

agreements on a pragmatic and practical formula to return Afghanistan to stability and an appreciable degree of normality.

On Sudan, Mr. Eckhard said, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Sergio Vieira de Mello had reported today that the Government of the Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement had both agreed to extend the humanitarian ceasefire in the famine-stricken area of Bahr Al-Ghazal in southern Sudan for an additional three-month period. The cessation of hostilities would enable the United Nations and non-governmental organization relief agencies to reach some 700,000 Sudanese who were suffering in that region. That was particularly important now, as the rainy season, when fighting is relatively light, would come to an end. The Under-Secretary-General had said, however, that he remained concerned over the continuing serious humanitarian situation elsewhere in southern Sudan. He also remained concerned over the need for the intensive relief operation to continue until next year's harvest. Mr. Vieira de Mello had pledged to work closely with the humanitarian organizations active in the region for a further extension of the ceasefire. The full text of the statement was available in room S-378.

The General Assembly's First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) had opened its general debate this morning, Mr. Eckhard noted. The Secretary-General had addressed the Committee saying that, "Given the potential devastation from the use of even one nuclear weapon, nuclear disarmament should be at the top of the United Nations agenda." The Committee should take the lead in working to rid the world of nuclear weapons and of the menace of chemical and biological weapons, he had added.

Also, Mr. Eckhard continued, the Secretary-General had discussed the connection between disarmament and development. He had noted that even when an arms race did not lead directly to conflict, it still constituted a cruel diversion of skills and resources away from development. While so many human needs remained unsatisfied, the Secretary-General said, millions of people earned their livelihood on weapons "they can only hope will never be used". That was "a terrible waste and deep shame".

On behalf of the Secretary-General today, Mr. Eckhard continued, the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, had delivered a speech to an international conference in Brussels. The speech had focused on the transnational dimension of the small arms issue. Mr. Dhanapala had laid out a positive agenda for the United Nations to take action in response to the problem. Among other initiatives, Mr. Dhanapala had said, the Organization was working to develop an international treaty to combat illicit trafficking and manufacture of firearms and their components, as well as of ammunition. The full text of the speech was available in room S-378, as was the text of the speech Mr. Dhanapala had delivered on Saturday to the Swedish Institute of International Affairs on the subject of nuclear weapons.

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The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Louise Arbour, would be a guest at tomorrow's noon briefing, Mr. Eckhard announced. And while the Security Council was not meeting today, tomorrow it was expected to discuss Iraq, hearing briefings by the Executive Director of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), Richard Butler, and by the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed El-Baradei.

Mr. El-Baradei would meet with the press at the Security Council stake- out at 12:30 p.m. following his briefing of the Council, the Council schedule permitting, Mr. Eckhard added. His briefing to Council members would cover Iraq, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, illicit nuclear trafficking and the strengthening of the IAEA Safeguard System, Mr. Eckhard added, while Mr. Butler would brief on UNSCOM's 180-day report. Also tomorrow, the Council was expected to hold consultations on Angola, as the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) would expire on 15 October.

"Here's a pop quiz", the Spokesman then said. "What do The Lion King, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and Crocodile Rock have in common?" The correct answer, he said, was Sir Elton John, the award-winning singer and songwriter who would tomorrow be recognized at Headquarters when the Secretary-General named him as the latest United Nations Messenger of Peace. In addition to being a pop sensation, Sir Elton was a noted philanthropist and in his capacity as Messenger of Peace, he would be promoting the United Nations efforts to fight the AIDS epidemic.

A fact sheet and a press release would be made available for correspondents, Mr. Eckhard said, adding that Sir Elton was expected to speak with the press in room S-226 after his meeting with the Secretary-General. That was expected to be at 12:45 p.m., so there would be running tomorrow around noon room S-226 and the Security Council stake-out. [It was later announced that Sir Elton had postponed tomorrow's event.]

On signatures and ratifications, Mr. Eckhard announced, Panama and Guinea had ratified the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, which had brought to 47, the number of parties to that Convention. Panama had also ratified the Convention on Chemical Weapons, becoming the 119th party to that Convention.

On the racks today, for anyone counting, there were some 50 new reports, some of interest to many, Mr. Eckhard said. As a sampling, Mr. Eckhard mentioned the Secretary-General's report on trafficking in women and girls (document A/53/409); a programme of action by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on a culture of peace (document A/53/370); the report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on world commodity trends and prospects (document

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A/53/319); and the Secretary-General's report on the situation in Central America (document A/53/350).

The World Chronicle television programme today would feature the Director of the Division for Social Policy and Development, of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, John Langmore. That would be aired at 2:30 p.m. on in-house channels 6 and 38.

Several correspondents asked about the telephone call between the Secretary-General and President Slobodan Milosevic.

The Secretary-General had placed the call, feeling it was his duty to urge the President to comply with Security Council resolutions, Mr. Eckhard said, adding, "It was something he had to do" when pressed on whether the Secretary-General had been encouraged by the exchange. President Milosevic had assured the Secretary-General of being in the process of complying and trying to come into full compliance with Security Council resolutions. The two had also discussed some of the details of the discussions between the President and Mr. Holbrooke, which the Spokesman said he was not at liberty to disclose.

Asked whether the Secretary-General had mentioned any peace dividend in his address to the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), Mr. Eckhard referred the correspondent to the text of the Secretary-General's address.

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said the General Assembly would meet this afternoon to hear the remaining nine speakers in the debate of agenda item 164, which was the Secretary-General's report on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa. The Assembly would also consider an additional report of the Committee on Conferences, which would enable the Committee on Information to meet during the main part of the fifty- third session.

All six Main Committees were also meeting today, Ms. Mihalic said. The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) had heard an address by the Secretary-General and then had opened its general debate with eight speakers inscribed for the morning. This afternoon, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) would continue its general debate of decolonization issues. The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) had held a panel discussion this morning on the state of the world economy before resuming consideration of macroeconomic policy questions.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), Ms. Mihalic said, had continued its general debate on crime prevention and criminal justice and on international drug control. The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) had begun with a consideration of the first

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report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) on its activities during the fifty-second session. Then the Fifth Committee had taken action on two draft resolutions regarding cost savings in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) resulting from a restructuring of the intergovernmental machinery and reform of the secretariat, as well as regarding arrangements for the International Trade Centre.

The Sixth Committee (Legal) had completed elections for its bureau, the spokesman then reported. The Committee had elected two Vice-Chairmen, one from Lesotho and another from the Netherlands, and it had elected a Rapporteur from Lithuania. It had then proceeded with its consideration of the report of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL).

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