BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19991104The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's 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. I would like to welcome to the briefing Steven Allen, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He will be telling you about his work in just a minute.
**Miyet and Vendrell to Brief Security Council
The Security Council is holding closed-door consultations today.
Bernard Miyet, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, is briefing Council members on the just-released second report of the Secretary- General on the initial United Nations deployment in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
As you recall, the report recommends an extension of the current mandate, which expires on 6 November, until 15 January 2000. The Secretary-General is also seeking from the Council prior authorization for the second stage of deployment of up to 500 military observers.
You can hear more about this at 1 p.m. in this room when the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darioush Bayandor, will be briefing you.
Following the item on the DRC, Francesco Vendrell, Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs, will brief the Council on developments in Bougainville since the last briefing to the Council in June. He will also report on the progress in the peace process. He is the temporary replacement for Alvaro de Soto.
**Ingushetia Burdened as Thousands Cross Chechen Border; UNHCR Still 'Concerned' by Military Crackdown
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that about 1,300 people crossed the border from Chechnya to Ingushetia today, down from an estimated 5,000 on Wednesday, when the Russians substantially relaxed border controls. There is a line 11 kilometres long on the Chechen side of the border, so the situation at the border, although somewhat diffused, is still very difficult. The wider opening of the border has increased the burden on Ingushetia, which now has almost 200,000 people displaced from Chechnya.
UNHCR said it continues to be very concerned about both the border situation and continued civilian casualties of Russia's military crackdown in Chechnya.
Meanwhile, the United Nations humanitarian assessment mission, which began its work yesterday in Ingushetia, today met with senior officials of the "ministries", as they are called, such as Regional Migration, Health, Education and Emergency Services.
**Special Rapporteur on Executions Arrives in Dili Today
Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Arbitrary Executions, arrived in Dili today and met with the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary General, Ian Martin. The Special Rapporteurs on Violence against Women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, and on Torture, Nigel Rodley, are expected in Dili on 6 November. All three Rapporteurs will have a series of private or group meetings with key Timorese leaders and representatives of the international community in East Timor. They will also interview victims and witnesses of events which occurred in East Timor in the recent past
**UNHCR Reports Continued Problems with West Timorese Militia; Gunmen Attempt to Disrupt Repatriation Efforts
Meanwhile, UNHCR reports continued problems with the militia in the refugee camps in West Timor. There were two incidents today in the West Timor border town of Atambua, apparently aimed at disrupting the repatriation programme -- militia gunmen opened fire in the air before a departing convoy and in front of the UNHCR office. There were no injuries reported in either incident. UNHCR fears the situation will deteriorate further unless Indonesian officials step in to control militia activity.
And from the East Timorese enclave of Ambeno in West Timor, UNHCR reports that as many as 44,000 East Timorese will probably return once the Indonesian Army opens the border. It is also reported that between 700 to 1,000 East Timorese are returning on their own on foot every day from the Soso area south of Atambua in West Timor.
To date some 41,000 East Timorese have returned to the territory.
For more details on the UNHCR action in West Timor, please refer to their update, available in my office.
**Secretary-General's Report On Human Rights in Myanmar out Today
The Secretary-Generals report to the General Assembly on Myanmar is out on the racks today. In it, the Secretary-General reports on his good offices mandate entrusted to him by the General Assembly, asking him to maintain discussions with the Government of Myanmar on the situation of human rights and the restoration of democracy in that country. As part of this mandate, his Special Envoy at that time, Mr. Alvaro de Soto, visited Myanmar last month, accompanied by a World Bank official.
The Secretary-General says he welcomes the visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to prisons, something the General Assembly had repeatedly asked the Government to allow. However, he is unable to report concrete progress on other issues which the international community has raised time and again in successive resolutions of the General Assembly and the Commission on Human Rights, particularly as regards the opening of a substantive dialogue with the National League for Democracy and other political forces in Myanmar.
**Criminal Tribunal Medical Team Reports Tuta Too Ill to Travel for Trial
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has sent a medical team to Zagreb, Croatia, to assess the health condition of Mladen Nalitilic, commonly called Tuta, after the Government of Croatia indicated that his health would not allow him to travel to The Hague and stand trial. Naletilic was indicted by the Tribunal last year for crimes against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions and violations of the laws or customs of war.
The medical team came back to The Hague yesterday and reported to the Tribunals registry that Naletilic is currently unfit to travel to The Hague. As a result, the Registry has informed the Prosecutors office that it cannot recommend his transfer to the Tribunals custody. According to the medical team, who noted the professional way in which the doctors in Zagreb received them, Naletilic will have to undergo further treatment, which could take two to three weeks. Once this has been completed, a determination will be made as to whether he is fit to travel.
**WHO Launches Global Anti-Tobacco Campaign
The World Health Organization (WHO) today launched a global campaign to counter what it calls the "tobacco industry deception around the world.
The campaign -- called "Tobacco Kills, Don't Be Duped" -- brings together senior health and media representatives from 20 countries. They will be looking at California's successful anti-smoking programme to expose big tobacco's worldwide campaign of deception.
WHO Director-General Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland has called tobacco a disease which is "communicated through advertising".
You can read more in a press release from WHO.
**New UNICEF Report Suggests Child Welfare Seen as 'Optional Extra' In Central/Eastern Europe
Ten years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has found that contracting economies, fraying social welfare nets and the spread of armed conflict have lowered living standards for a majority of the 150 million children in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
After the Fall, a new report released today by UNICEF, suggests that the welfare of the region's children is often seen as an "optional extra" among numerous competing social and economic priorities. The report observes that armed conflicts have erupted in about one third of the region's countries since the late 1980s.
We have a press release if you want more details.
**FAO Distributes Seeds, Fertilizer in Kosovo
The United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) today announced that it has distributed seeds and fertilizers in Kosovo in advance of the coming winter as part of a $6.7 million project.
Some 14,500 metric tons of winter wheat seeds and 9,000 metric tons of fertilizers were handed out to more than 70,000 farming families in the province.
In the next few weeks, FAO will establish a seed-quality control lab in Pristina and launch a vaccination campaign to protect Kosovo's livestock from disease.
We have a press release from FAO with the details.
**DPI Photo Exhibit Opens in Munich
The Department of Public Information (DPI) photo exhibit: "United Nations Peacekeeping - A Half Century of Experience" opens in about an hour at the University of Munich, Germany. This is the first stop in a three-city, three- month tour of the country, under the sponsorship of the United Nations association of Germany. The exhibit was originally displayed at United Nations Headquarters last year, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of United Nations peacekeeping. It has been updated to reflect recent developments and new missions.
In an open letter addressed to visitors to the exhibit, the Secretary- General notes that the exhibit "offers much food for thought about United Nations peacekeeping and about the need for all of us to come together to create a more peaceful, secure and prosperous world for all people". The Secretary-General also draws attention to Germany's valuable contribution to United Nations peacekeeping, including its participation in the standby arrangements system.
Today's opening ceremony will feature former Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping General Manfred Eisele as keynote speaker, along with a number of other dignitaries.
In December the exhibit will travel to Berlin, and then in January, to Kiel.
**UNEP Press Release on Migratory Species Conference Available Today
A press release is available on the racks from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) concerning the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals. This opens on Saturday, 6 November, in Cape Town, South Africa.
Klaus Toepfer, UNEP's Executive Director, says "Because they cross national borders and depend on more than one habitat during their annual life cycle, migratory species are among the world's most vulnerable animals and many are close to extinction ... The Convention provides a forum", he says, "for international cooperation that is absolutely vital to the species' survival in the wild".
**Payments
Money. Uganda completed payment on its regular budget dues today with a check for over $40,000.
We now have 114 Member States paid in full.
**Press Conferences
As I already mentioned to you, Darioush Bayandor, Humanitarian Coordinator for Kinshasa, will be here at 1 p.m.
The guest at tomorrow's noon briefing will be Thomas Hammarberg, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights in Cambodia.
And three press conferences tomorrow:
11 a.m. Roberto Garreton, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
1 p.m. Bernard Kouchner, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General and head of United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo.
1:45 p.m. Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM, and Julia Hauserman, President of Rights and Humanity. That was originally scheduled for this morning and it was put off until tomorrow.
Any questions before we go to Shirley?
**Questions and Answers
Question: [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Mrs. Sadako] Ogata is scheduled to meet with the Secretary-General this afternoon; can we have a readout of her position on Chechnya?
Spokesman: We'll see what we can get for you.
Question: The Secretary-General's report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo has two different document numbers -- one for the French translation and one for the English. Which one is correct?
Spokesman: And it's the same report? I don't know how they do the numbering, so we'll have to look into that for you.
Question: Do you have any update on the United Nations military observers who were briefly taken hostage in Sierra Leone?
Spokesman: Well, we reported that incident yesterday -- that they had been detained for four hours and then they returned safely to their base. Do you want anything more than that?
Question: The Secretary-General added appointments with Ambassadors from Gabon and Gambia this morning. Was that for some particular reason?
Spokesman: I'll have to look into that. I don't know why that was done.
OK. Shirley.
Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President
The General Assembly this morning took up the question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas), the report of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country and the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
On the Falklands (Malvinas), the Assembly decided to defer consideration of the item and to include it in the provisional agenda of its fifty-fifth session.
In connection with the report of the Host Country Committee, the Assembly took note of the Presidents appointment of Malaysia as a member of that Committee from among the Asian States. This stemmed from a decision by the Assembly to expand the membership by four, thereby bringing to 19 the total membership of the Committee. (The other 18 members are: Bulgaria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Côte dIvoire, Cuba, Cyprus, France, Honduras, Hungary, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Russian Federation, Senegal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States as the host country.)
Concerning the IAEA, its Director-General, Mohamed Elbaradei, presented the Agencys 1998 report to the Assembly, and Brazil introduced draft resolution A/54/L.21 which would have the Assembly take note of the report. It would also welcome the measures taken by the Agency in support of efforts to prevent illicit trafficking in nuclear materials and other radioactive sources, and would bear in mind, while drafting an international convention on the suppression of acts of nuclear terrorism, the work being done by the Agency in that area. The Assembly will vote on the draft at a later date. Nineteen speakers are inscribed on the list for this item, and the Assembly may meet again this afternoon to hear the remaining speakers.
The Agencys annual report is a glossy, 143-page document. Reviewing the past year, the IAEA said that the international dimension of nuclear safety became increasingly recognized; the need for sustainable development continued to be a priority; the requirements for electricity-generation without the emission of environmental pollutants, and especially the emission of greenhouse gases, grew in urgency; and the importance of worldwide moves towards a strengthened non- proliferation regime was heightened. Against this background, the Agency said it set in motion a re-examination and redirection of its functioning, in order better to meet the needs and interests of the 129 members parties to its statute.
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) is taking action, this morning, on draft texts on nuclear weapons, other weapons of mass destruction and conventional weapons. Action on a revised text on the preservation of and compliance with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (A/C.1/54/L.1/Rev.1), sponsored by Belarus, China and the Russian Federation, was postponed for consultations. France introduced a new amendment that would add a new preambular paragraph as well as a new operative one. Just before coming to the briefing, I was told that Russia had requested a vote on the existing text. So the Committee may be voting on it now.
This morning, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) continued its discussion of two items under sector policy questions: industrial development cooperation, and business and development.
Dialogue is under way in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson, and several human rights experts, who are here to present their reports under the item on human rights questions.
In opening remarks, Mrs. Robinson highlighted the human rights challenges she said awaited us as we enter the next century. There were the twin challenges of human rights protection and conflict prevention; of embedding a culture of respect for human rights in societies, institutions and cultures; the need to eliminate racial discrimination, racism and related intolerance; to protect the rights of the child; to prevent massive violations of human rights such as occurred in Cambodia, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kosovo and East Timor; to raise the concept of prevention to the international level; and personal accountability and the end of impunity for gross violations of human rights. She concluded: I do not think that respect for human rights is an impossibly idealistic goal. But it will require responsible decision-making by governments. Nor do I despair of the United Nations as the focus for international human rights action. Its universality and impartiality, and its ability to listen to the weakest over the influence of the strong, make it indispensable.
Todays participants are: Sir Nigel Rodley (Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture); Kamal Hossain (Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan); Rajsoomer Lallah (Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar); Max van der Stoel (Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Iraq); Roberto Garreton (Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of the Congo); Leonardo Franco (Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Sudan); Adama Dieng (Independent Expert on the Situation of Human Rights in Haiti); and Thomas Hammarberg (Special Representative on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia). The discussion on the human rights cluster of items will continue through 11 November.
The Committee will vote this afternoon on a draft resolution (A/C.3/54/L.29), under which the Assembly would reaffirm the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the option of a state, and would express the hope that the Palestinian people would soon be exercising their right to self- determination, which is not subject to any veto, in the current peace process. A draft resolution on the International Decade of the Worlds Indigenous People (A/C.3/54/L.45) will be introduced.
The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) will be taking action, this afternoon, on 12 draft resolutions - five dealing with the rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs in the occupied territories (A/C.4/54/L.8 to L.12), and seven dealing with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) (A/C.4/54/L.13 to L.19). Among those texts, one on the occupied Syrian Golan (A/C.4/54/L.12) calls upon Israel to desist from imposing Israeli citizenship and Israeli identity cards in the occupied Syrian Golan, and to desist from its repressive measures against that population.
At the first of two meetings today, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) will conclude discussion of the item on the United Nations common system, then continue its section-by-section examination of the proposed programme budget for 2000-2001. Yesterday, it began but did not conclude section 5, peacekeeping operations. Tomorrow, the Committee will fill vacancies in six bodies, including the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ). The others are: the Committee on Contributions, the Board of Auditors, the Investments Committee, the United Nations Administrative Tribunal and the United Nations Staff Pension Committee. Because all six are clear slates, there will be no secret ballots. The related documents are: A/54/101/Rev.1 to 105 and A/C.5/54/5 to 10.
The Sixth Committee (Legal) is meeting twice today on the report of the International Law Commission.
Copies of the appointments of Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab are available in room 378 and can also be found on the Internet. He meets this afternoon with the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Vladimir Petrovsky, and later with the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, to discuss the Millennium Assembly and Security Council reform.
I was asked yesterday how long judges can serve on the International Court of Justice. The answer is that there is no limit. However, they have to stand for re-election after each nine-year term. Any questions?
**Questions and Answers
Question: There are Special Rapporteurs for various human rights situations, but an Independent Expert for Haiti. Why is that?
Spokeswoman: I will check with the human rights people and get back to you.
Question: When is the next meeting of the Committee on Information?
Spokeswoman: The Committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow to conclude its resumed session. I will check with the secretariat and inform you.
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