DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon. Our guest at the briefing today, who should be here in just a few minutes, is David Stephen, who is the Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and Director of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia. He was here for some meetings in the Secretariat, and he’ll give you the latest.

**East Timor

After the violence of yesterday, today was relatively quieter in Dili. However, we continue to be gravely concerned with security conditions in East Timor overall. This new wave of violence is now reaching other areas of the territory. Just before coming down here, I received word that two United Nations local staff were killed today in Maliana. We have no further details at this time. As soon as we get them, we will share them with you.

Ian Martin, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General, held a press conference in Dili this morning in which he reiterated that “only by preventing armed groups from continuing to move around and terrorize others in Dili and elsewhere in East Timor can security be restored.” He called on the leaders of the pro-integration forces and Armed Forces for the National Liberation of East Timor (FALINTIL), as well as the Indonesian Police and Military, to fulfil their commitments, respectively to order their members not to move around with weapons and to arrest any who were found to do so. He also said that he was particularly concerned about the safety of the local staff and he stated that the Indonesian authorities must recognize that the “security of United Nations personnel extends to our local staff as much as it does to our international staff”.

On the ballot counting, the news is that the reconciliation of the ballots has concluded. The next step in the procedure is to mix the ballots up and then to begin counting them. In answer to a question on the ballot results announcement, Ian Martin said this morning that he could not predict how long either the counting process or the Electoral Commission’s considerations would take.

The independent Electoral Commission began its hearing this morning into complaints received from the United Front for East Timor Autonomy concerning alleged irregularities in the popular consultation. The Commissioners have stated that they are determined to investigate as thoroughly as possible every material allegation. The hearing started today and will continue tomorrow. It is open to the public and to the media. More details are contained in a press release which was issued in Dili and which we have for you in my office. We also have available the transcript of Ian Martin’s press conference.

Meanwhile in Jakarta, Ambassador Jamsheed Marker, the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General, met with Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and General Wiranto. I have at this time no read-out of those meetings.

I’d like to issue a correction to some imprecise wording that I used yesterday on the subject of East Timor: In response to a question, I made a reference to “Indonesian soil”, and what I meant was “Indonesian-administered soil”. As you know, the United Nations has never recognized Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor. By extension, when I said that Indonesia would have to approve a peacekeeping mission as the host country, in fact, that approval would be required from both Portugal and Indonesia, as parties to the 5 May Agreement.

And finally, in response to a question of yesterday on the two unaccounted staff members: We are still awaiting final confirmation, but the preliminary information is that one of these two was killed and the other was injured. These two staff were victims of the same act of violence which happened in Atsabe on Monday when another UNAMET staff member was murdered. We also heard that the suspects in the killing have been arrested. But again, we are waiting for confirmation on this point.

**Release of CARE Workers in Belgrade

The following statement is attributable to the Spokesman of the Secretary-General.

The Secretary-General was deeply relieved to learn of the release yesterday from prison of Steve Pratt and Peter Wallace, two of the three CARE relief workers who had been convicted by the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on 29 May of this year of passing on secret information. He welcomes the decision of the Yugoslav Government to grant their release on humanitarian grounds. It is also his hope that the remaining CARE worker still in custody, Branco Jelen, will also be released soon.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding consultations today. The first item on their agenda was the adoption of their programme of work for the month of September. Kieran Prendergast, the Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, then began his briefing on the political situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). That started just a few minutes ago. And he will be followed by Hedi Annabi, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, who will discuss the deployment of United Nations observers in the DRC. Council members were also expected to consider the draft report of the Security Council to the General Assembly. Following consultations, they may hold a formal meeting to adopt that report.

**Kosovo

The United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) yesterday afternoon issued a new regulation on the establishment of a customs service for the province. We made the regulation and the press release available to you yesterday afternoon.

The new regulation establishes customs rates, excise duties and a sales tax on imported goods for the period in which UNMIK holds executive authority in Kosovo. All customs revenues are to be allocated to the Kosovo budget. Fees will be collected in Deutsch Marks.

Another regulation establishing the Deutsch Mark as the official currency in Kosovo is expected to be issued as early as this afternoon.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bernard Kouchner, will officially open the UNMIK Customs Service at a border crossing between Kosovo and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia tomorrow afternoon.

Kouchner is expected to be in New York for a couple of days beginning next Wednesday.

Also on Kosovo, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today that much remains to be done to return normal schooling to all of Kosovo’s children by the formal opening of school there on 1 November. Though the province’s children are now involved in catch-up classes, as we announced to you yesterday, a massive rehabilitation campaign is necessary to rebuild the schools, supply them and make them safe from such dangers as landmines. We have a UNICEF press release available on that subject.

**Iraq

I think you saw a news report today, and maybe it even moved on the wires yesterday, concerning a decision by the Sanctions Committee on Iraq to allow oil to flow from Iraq to Turkey as a humanitarian gesture to provide some financial relief because of the earthquake there. We have a statement by the Spokesman of the Chairman of the Sanctions Committee on that subject in my office, if you are interested.

**Kyrgyzstan

A multi-agency United Nations humanitarian mission is expected to make a one-day fact-finding trip -- pending security clearance -- to an area in southern Kyrgyzstan where authorities say some 6,000 people were displaced by fighting and have sought refuge since fighting erupted there two weeks ago.

According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the mission consists of representatives of agencies based in Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are among the agencies participating.

Kyrgyz authorities requested international assistance to help the victims of the fighting, which reportedly began when up to 1,000 gunmen from neighbouring Tajikistan crossed into the Batkan district of Kyrgyzstan on 22 August.

**Francophonie Summit

The Secretary-General leaves this afternoon for Canada, where he will attend the Eighth Francophonie Summit, which is taking place this week in Moncton, New Brunswick – or should I say “Moncton, le nouveau Brunswick”.

The Heads of State begin arriving in Moncton this afternoon, and tomorrow the Secretary-General will be one of the speakers addressing the participants on the subject of youth. His topic will be “Youth and the Dialogue among Civilizations”. We will make that text available to you on an embargoed basis.

He will return to New York tomorrow afternoon.

**Holy See

The Special Rapporteur on religious intolerance, Abdelfattah Amor, is currently on a visit to the Holy See which will last through tomorrow.

Yesterday, he was received by His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

Over the course of his trip, Mr. Amor will be meeting with other high officials of the Holy See.

**International Labour Organization

People in the United States work longer hours than their counterparts in Japan -- adding the equivalent of almost two working weeks to their schedules each year, according to a new study by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

This study is full of interesting statistics, but I can't tell you more because it is under embargo until Monday. However, you can pick up copies in my office and read it for yourselves.

**Treaties

Slovenia has just ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

That Treaty now has 152 signatories and 43 parties.

**Press Conferences

A press conference tomorrow at 11 a.m. in this room on the “Microcredit Summit Campaign Report” is sponsored by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and will feature speakers Sam Daley-Morris, the Director of the Microcredit Summit Campaign, Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM, and Ambassador Anwarul Karim Chowdhury of Bangladesh.

Any questions before we get to David?

**Question and Answer Session

Question: The Australian Foreign Minister said that Australia had been deeply involved in discussions about a peacekeeping force in East Timor in the event of a vote for independence. Can you tell us what the status of these discussions is?

Spokesman: I have nothing to add to what I have already said to you. The President of the Security Council, speaking to the press after yesterday’s closed consultations, said that the subject of a peacekeeping force had come up, but had not been discussed. I think that on this subject you would have to keep your eyes focussed on Member States at the moment. There is to my knowledge no contingency planning along these lines taking place within the United Nations Peacekeeping Department.

Question: Does the Secretary-General have any particular feelings about the several options open to dealing with violence in East Timor?

Spokesman: As I mentioned to you yesterday, he is at this point not prepared to get out in front of the Security Council. You have in Indonesia a substantial security capability, with the police backed up by the military. They managed to keep perfect order on the day of the balloting. I think the task now, for the international community, is to put pressure on Indonesia to repeat that performance on a daily basis.

Question: Can the new rules for customs regulations for Kosovo be made available?

Spokesman: Yes, the text of the regulation that was adopted came through on our fax, so you can pick it up in my office.

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