DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19991101The following is a near-verbatim transcript of todays noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Shirley Brownell, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.
Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General
Good afternoon, everyone. Our guests at the briefing today are Richard Jolly, the Special Adviser to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator, and Nadija Haq, the Director of the Mahbub Ul Haq Human Development Centre in Islamabad. They will be introducing to you the South Asia Human Development Report 1999.
**Secretary-General `Distressed by Cyclone Devastation in India; UN Readies Joint Team to Coordinate International Response
The following is a statement attributable to the Spokesman concerning the effects of the cyclone in India: The Secretary-General is distressed by the devastation caused by the powerful cyclone on 29 October that is reported to have affected more than 10 million people, in eight districts of the Indian state of Orissa. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is mobilizing the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination team (UNDAC) to assist the United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations agencies in the country with the coordination of the international response to this disaster, including damage assessment and relief efforts.
The Secretary-General extends his condolences to the Government of India and to the families affected and reiterates the readiness of the United Nations system to assist in relief and recovery efforts being undertaken by the Indian Government.
**Secretary-General Signs Book of Condolences for Slain Armenian Prime Minister
The Secretary-General this morning went to the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations, where he joined other members of the diplomatic community in signing a book of condolences on the tragic death of Armenias Prime Minister, Vazgen Sarkissian.
Meanwhile, youll see that the United Nations flag is at half-mast today in observance of the Prime Ministers death.
**Serb Resistance Leader Shot in Pristina; Kouchner calls Attack `Cowardly
Momcilo Trajkovic, President of the Serb Resistance Movement and one of the main Serbian interlocutors of the United Nations in Kosovo, was shot at around 10:30 p.m. Sunday in his home in Pristina by unknown assailants. gunshot wound in his upper right thigh. He was hospitalized, underwent surgery and was released today. This was not only a bad attack, says Bernard Kouchner, it was also stupid, an attack perpetrated by idiots and cowards.
I call on the people to end the violence, he said. People must understand this is in their own interest. They must stop. He added, Here, a six-year-old child is in danger if he is speaking Serbian. Im sure the mothers of Kosovo understand me: this must stop.
We have copies of a press release and todays press briefing notes from Pristina, if you need more information on this incident and other developments.
**Kouchner to Brief Security Council Friday
We would also like to inform you that Kouchner will be in New York on Friday of this week. He will brief the Security Council and then you, tentatively at 1 p.m. on Friday.
And as I was talking to the Mission this morning, I heard someone singing Happy Birthday in the background. Apparently, Bernard turned 60 today.
**Deputy Secretary-General Addresses ICRC in Geneva
This morning, the Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, addressed the twenty-seventh International Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Geneva.
She noted that belligerents increasingly take care to avoid direct confrontation with each other. Instead, their favoured strategy to gain ground is the exercise of terror against defenceless civilians. The United Nations, as well as the Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, are both at the forefront of humanitarian action in the most dangerous battle zones.
She said the protection of civilians in armed conflict is ultimately a matter of political will -- the will to confront the cruel but complex realities of conflict today.
You can pick up copies of the speech in my office.
**Security Council to Set Programme of Work under New President
As today is the first day of the month, the President of the Council for November is Ambassador Danilo Türk of Slovenia. He is holding bilateral consultations with Council members to define the programme of work for November. For this reason there are no Security Council consultations scheduled for today.
**Last Indonesian Troops Leave East Timor Saturday
The last Indonesian Army (TNI) troops left East Timor on Saturday. There was a farewell ceremony at the airport which was attended by members of the Indonesian Task Force on East Timor; TNI officers; the commander of the multinational force (INTERFET), Major General Peter Cosgrove; United Nations senior officials; Ian Martin, Acting Special Representative of the Secretary- General. Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the National Council of Timorese Resistance, was also present. When asked by the press on the significance of Mr. Gusmao's presence in that event, Ian Martin said: "It is an extremely historic day. What has happened, has happened in a way I hope will be very positive for the future. I think it was a great gesture on the part of Mr. Gusmao to want to be present."
**Repatriation from West Timor Continues Despite Limited Access to Camps, UNHCR Says
Meanwhile, organized returns from West Timor have continued and today 923 Timorese returned from Atapupu and another 200 from Kupang -- both locations in West Timor.
Although the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been able to conduct repatriation from West Timor, it has only limited access to refugee camps because of the presence of militia groups. During a meeting with Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Friday, the UNHCR reiterated its request to the Indonesian Government for full access to these camps which, the Government says, is hosting 219,000 refugees from East Timor.
For more details, please see the UNHCR update on East Timor, available in my office.
**INTERFET Report to Security Council out Today
Still on East Timor, I wish to bring to your attention that out on the racks today is the report of the multinational force, INTERFET. The report is issued as requested by the Security Council.
**Australian Foreign Minister Meets with Secretary-General Today, Press Tomorrow
I would also like to tell you that Alexander Downer, the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia, is in New York today. He will meet with the Secretary-General this afternoon and they will be reviewing the situation on the ground in East Timor. Then Mr. Downer will also meet with you. He has scheduled a press conference in this room for 11:30 tomorrow morning, again to discuss East Timor
**Team of ICT Judges Arrives in Rwanda Today to Inspect War Crime Sites
A team of three judges from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, arrived today in Rwanda to get first hand knowledge of the sites where crimes were allegedly committed by Ignace Bagilishema, former mayor of a commune in the Kibuye prefecture. The judges will be in Kibuye until 4 November 1999.
The defence has specifically requested this judicial visit, which is the first of its kind, in this case.
You will find more details in the briefing notes from the tribunal available in my office.
**Global Compact between the United Nations and Business Community; Press Kits Available
"Thriving markets and human security go hand in hand." That's the message of the Secretary-General's Global Compact between the United Nations and the world business community, which he presented earlier this year to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
We now have these new press kits containing all the information you need on the principles behind the Global Compact. They have detailed fact sheets on the United Nations and business, including one which outlines the contribution of the United Nations system to commercial order and openness.
You can pick up a press kit at the press documents counter.
**Secretary-General to Address International Business Reps. Tomorrow
And a reminder that tomorrow, the Secretary-General will address a meeting being organized at United Nations Headquarters by Reverend Leon Sullivan. Among the 500 participants expected to attend will be representatives of international businesses. Reverend Sullivan is expected to outline a set of his own corporate responsibility principles. The meeting will take place in Conference Room 2 at 10 a.m. The Secretary-General is scheduled to speak at noon at that event.
**UNDP Launches Programme to Fight Drug Trafficking in Malawi
We have available upstairs a press release from the United Nations Development Programme office in Malawi, on the launching of a new half-a-million dollar project designed to fight drug production, trafficking and abuse in Malawi. The project, which will last three years, will be executed in cooperation with the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention.
**`Making Children Count; New Web Database Presented by UNICEF
From UNICEF we have a note saying that they will make a presentation of the newly-launched Making Children Count initiative today at 1:15 p.m. in Room 8, which is just off the Viennese Café. Making Children Count is a new Web-based database of the measures taken around the world to implement the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which celebrates its tenth anniversary later this month.
**UNCA Press Conference
Finally, the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) will host a briefing today by Letty Scott, an Australian Aborigine woman whose husband died while in police custody.
Ms. Scott will talk about Aboriginal rights in Australia. Thats at the UNCA Lounge at 11 a.m. tomorrow.
Any questions before we go to Shirley?
**Question and Answer
Question: Is there any objection to the letter by the Minister for Foreign Affairs from Angola regarding the modalities of the mission there? If there is none, when is the accord going to be signed?
Spokesman: Ill have to look into that. I know the intention at the senior levels of the Secretariat late last week was to get together to discuss that letter. I think there was some forward movement today, but I dont have the details with me. There was nothing that was ripe enough to announce. So Ill have to get back to you on that.
Immediately after the briefing, the Spokesman made the following announcement:
The Secretary-General had informed the Security Council of his intention to designate Alvaro de Soto, who is the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, his Special Adviser on Cyprus here at Headquarters, at the rank of Under-Secretary-General, effective today.
He then intends to appoint Mr. de Soto his Special Representative and Chief of the United Nations Mission in Cyprus, resident in Cyprus, in the course of the spring.
In the meantime, James Holger remains in Nicosia as the Acting Special Representative and Chief of the United Nations Mission.
Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President
I shall begin with two statements which General Assembly President Theo- Ben Gurirab intends to read at this afternoons plenary meeting, on the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 and on the cyclone in the Indian State of Orissa:
Statement on Plane Crash
It was with utter shock and deep sadness that I learned yesterday of the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990, which was lost in international waters during the early hours of Sunday, 31 October, off the coast of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts.
The plane, a Boeing 767-300 bound for Cairo, disappeared from radar screens 55 minutes after taking off from John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. There were 217 people on board. Aviation authorities and news reports indicate that the passenger list included 62 Egyptians, 3 Syrians, 2 Sudanese, 1 Chilean and 131 others, many believed to be Americans.
I wish to join other world leaders and sympathizers everywhere in expressing deep sorrow and profound sympathy over this terrible tragedy, and offer condolences to the bereaved families, relatives and friends of all those on board whose lives ended so tragically.
I would also like to commend the ongoing joint search and rescue operation by the officials of the Governments of the United States and Egypt, to establish the cause of the plane crash and identify the victims.
Statement on Cyclone in India
Thousands of people died, 1.5 million were left homeless and more than a third of the states 35 million population have been left in a state of anguish and devastation following a powerful cyclone which hit the Indian state of Orissa, in the Bay of Bengal, over the weekend.
Reports describe a grim picture of death, suffering and destruction. The Prime Minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, has described the devastation as a national calamity, while the states Chief Minister has referred to it as the cyclone of the century. Worst affected were the people who had very little to begin with, and who are now left in a hopeless situation.
Judging from the scale of the destruction, it is obvious that human beings are helpless against forces of nature, such as cyclones, hurricanes or earthquakes. This latest disaster is proof enough that, despite years of persistent international efforts in disaster prevention, their number and cost continue to rise.
Less than two weeks ago, on 13 October, the United Nations observed World Disaster Reduction Day, which highlighted the importance of disaster prevention. I stressed, on that occasion, the need to strengthen and broaden disaster reduction programmes in our efforts to limit the impact and costs of human suffering. I reiterate that disaster reduction must become an essential element of international strategies and national development plans if we are to mitigate - since we cannot prevent -- their devastating effects.
I extend condolences to the Government and the people of India, and in particular those of Orissa state, for the great loss they have sustained. I also call upon the entire international community, including in particular the humanitarian agencies, to respond swiftly and generously to Indias urgent appeal for emergency relief assistance for the many thousands of victims. Copies of both statements are available in room 378.
The Assembly will meet this afternoon, on the request of the Secretary- General for the inclusion in the agenda of an additional item, on Financing of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (document A/54/234). The Assembly is taking up the request on an urgent basis, to enable the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) to consider the item. The Security Council, in resolution 1270 (1999), decided to establish a 6,000-member force, UNAMSIL, for an initial period of six months. Acting under Chapter VII of the Charter, the Council also decided that in the discharge of its mandate, UNAMSIL may take the necessary action to ensure the security and freedom of movement of its personnel and to protect civilians under imminent threat of physical violence.
A reminder that the Assembly will meet on Wednesday, 3 November, to hold elections, simultaneously with the Security Council, for five members of the International Court of Justice. The related documents are A/54/305, 306 and Add.1, and 307.
Last Friday, after five rounds of voting, the Assembly elected the following 18 members to the 54-member Economic and Social Council, for a three-year term starting 1 January 2000: Angola, Austria, Bahrain, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Fiji, France, Germany, Greece, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Sudan and Suriname.
The Assembly also adopted the resolutions contained in eight Fifth Committee reports, pertaining to, among other things, the establishment of a multi-year Development Account and its modalities and the financing of three peacekeeping operations, including the United Nations Mission in East Timor. Guyana, on behalf of the Group of 77 developing countries and China, as well as Cuba, said they interpreted the resolution to mean that the savings realized from efficiency measures would form the maintenance base for the Account, and that this would not lead to budget and post reduction exercises. Finland spoke for the European Union and associated States.
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), at two meetings today, is approving draft resolutions in clusters, commencing with 16 draft resolutions and one draft decision in the nuclear weapons cluster. There are 10 clusters altogether: (1) nuclear weapons; (2) other weapons of mass destruction; (3) outer space (disarmament aspects); (4) conventional weapons; (5) regional disarmament and security; (6) confidence-building measures, including transparency in armaments; (7) disarmament machinery; (8) other disarmament measures; (9) related matters of disarmament and international security; and (10) international security. The Committee will continue this exercise through 9 November.
At two meetings today, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) will consider the question of financing for development, dealing with the sub- item on high-level international intergovernmental consideration of financing for development. It has before it the report of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the General Assembly on Financing for Development (A/54/28). A high-level intergovernmental event on this subject is scheduled to take place in 2001, and will address national, international and systemic issues relating to financing for development in a holistic manner in the context of globalization and interdependence. Annexed to the report are ideas, issues and experiences that provide the basis for further discussion on an agenda for the event. Consideration of a related sub-item, relating to the net transfer of resources between developing and developed countries, has been postponed until 15 November.
This afternoon, before concluding discussion of the agenda item, the Committee will hear the introduction of four draft resolutions: the World Solar Programme 1996-2005 (A/C.2/54/L.16); report of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (A/C.2/54/L.17); protection of global climate for present and future generations of mankind (A/C.2/54/L.18); and globalization and interdependence (A/C.2/54/L.19).
Tomorrow morning and again on Wednesday, there will be the 1999 United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities. There is no pledging conference this year for the World Food Programme, as I had stated on Friday. That was a typographical error in the Committees programme of work.
This morning, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) is concluding its discussion on promoting and protecting the rights of children, before taking up the item on the programme of activities of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People 1995-2004. According to the report (A/54/487), two problems faced in implementing the Decades activities are the limited human resources available and the lack of funding for the activities themselves. The programme of activities for the Decade includes a proposal to establish a permanent forum for indigenous people in the United Nations system.
The Committee will also hear the introduction of a draft resolution, entitled Use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination (A/C.3/54/L.27). That draft urges all States to exercise the utmost vigilance against the menace posed by the activities of mercenaries, and to take the necessary legislative measures to ensure that their territories, as well as their nationals, are not used for the recruitment, assembly, financing, training and transit of mercenaries for the planning of activities designed to destabilize or overthrow the government of any State, or threaten the territorial integrity and political unity of sovereign States, or to promote secession or to fight the national liberation movements struggling against colonial or other forms of alien domination or occupation.
There is no Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) meeting today. Tomorrow, it takes up the item on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Documents on the item include the fifty-third report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (A/54/338) and reports of the Secretary-General on Palestine refugees properties and their revenues (A/54/345); offers by Member States of grants and scholarships for higher education, including vocational training for Palestine refugees (A/54/376), persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 and subsequent hostilities (A/54/377); and University of Jerusalem Al Quds for Palestine refugees (A/54/385).
This morning, the Fifth Committee is continuing its general discussion relating to the United Nations common system. Discussion will also continue this afternoon on the proposed programme budget for 2000-2001. The Committees consideration of the item on financing of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, which was to take place tomorrow, has been postponed.
All this week, the Sixth Committee will continue its discussion of the report of the International Law Commission. There are two meetings today.
The Committee on Information resumed its twenty-first session this morning, and is expected to hold several meetings this week, to consider the Secretary-Generals report on the multilingual development, maintenance and enrichment of United Nations Web sites (A/AC.198/1999/9). Web site management is a completely new activity that has been carried out on an ad hoc basis, the report states. Accordingly, a specific mandate and appropriate budgetary allocation are required for its continuation and further development. The current approach is under-resourced and unsustainable, and it requires a viable allocation of resources from within the regular programme budget. The Secretary-General recommends that a third option proposed in the report be pursued, in order to ensure a realistic and cost-effective use of limited resources, achieve a balanced linguistic diversity of the United Nations Web site and establish a sound foundation for its future expansion.
Copies of the appointments of Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab are available in room 378 and also on the Internet. Besides chairing this afternoons plenary, the President will attend a reception, this afternoon, hosted by Algeria, and another one this evening, hosted by the United States for the Committee on Relations with the Host Country.