BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

BRIEFING BY 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, and Shirley Brownell, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon. Our guest for the noon briefing today is Thomas Hammarberg, Special Representative for the Secretary-General on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia. He will be here at 12:20 and, of course, we will have Bernard Koucher at 1 p.m.

**Security Council Consultations

The Security Council held consultations this morning on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Following that, the Council held a formal meeting and adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the current United Nations mission in that country until 15 January 2000.

The Council is now holding a private meeting in the Security Council Chamber during which Bernard Kouchner, Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Kosovo, is briefing members. The Secretary-General is attending that briefing. As you know, Kouchner is scheduled to be here to brief you at 1 p.m. or as soon as the Council session is over. When I was down there about a half-hour ago, the questioning looked like it might last some time.

While I am talking about the Council, the United Nations Correspondents Association has asked us to inform you that at 2 p.m. today, the President of the Council, Ambassador Danilo Turk, will meet correspondents in the UNCA Club.

**East Timor

The Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor, Ian Martin, held a press briefing in Dili this morning and told journalists that today, for the first time, United Nations civilian police went to the East Timor enclave of Ambeno. There are now military observers in all 13 regencies (municipalities) and civilian police in almost all districts. More details are available in the transcript of that press briefing, which you can pick up in my office.

Today, some 200 volunteers were due to start a clean up of the main drains in Dili's central precinct. In addition to the volunteers, this action involves the National Council of Timorese Resistance, the East Timor Public Works Department and the multinational force in East Timor (INTERFET).

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This type of work will be ongoing, and it is of great importance because the rainy season is just starting.

Although the return of East Timorese continue from West Timor, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has once again expressed alarm at the harassment by militiamen of UNHCR staff and refugees wishing to go home to East Timor. The UNHCR has brought the matter to the attention of Indonesian authorities in Kupang, West Timor and Jakarta. The incidents of intimidation are happening almost daily now.

Today, militiamen stoned a convoy of six trucks which was to pick up refugees who had volunteered to go back to Dili from a refugee camp in Atambua. The windshield of one truck was smashed and glass splinters injured a UNHCR local staff member.

Despite the incident, 1,150 refugees returned aboard two ferries today. This is the largest group to return to Dili from the West Timor town of Atapupu, which is 20 km north of Atambua. Another 365 refugees flew from Kupang to Dili today. Since 8 October, more than 42,500 Timorese have returned from West Timor, as well as other parts of Indonesia, and around 13,000 of them returned on their own.

For more details on the returns from West Timor, please see the UNHCR briefing note available in my office.

**Chechnya

The UNHCR reported today that in the past two days, more than 8,000 people have crossed the Ingush-Chechen border, which is now open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. The stream continues. While the border situation is better, the burden increases upon Ingushetia which now hosts nearly 200,000 people displaced from Chechnya.

The UNHCR said it is planning more convoys to Ingushetia, including the supply of winterized tents, baby food, and hygiene kits. The Ingush authorities say 400 babies have been borne among the refugee population since the crisis began.

The United Nations humanitarian assessment mission is on its way to Dagestan today.

**United Nations Response to India Cyclone

According to information by Indian authorities, there are now over 1,300 people dead and more than 10 million affected by the cyclone that hit 12 districts in the Indian state of Orissa last week. In response, the United Nations Disaster Management Team, which comprises the various United Nations agencies present in the country, is working closely with the authorities to assist with the collection and analysis of information on the disaster as part of efforts to ensure prompt and adequate response to the victims.

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In addition, a United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) team has been deployed to the country and is currently finalizing preparations to assess the extent of the damage in the affected areas, along with relief workers from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

The WFP says that although it has rice and wheat ready to distribute, the severity of the tidal wave and flooding has left most people homeless and without cooking utensils. The WFP says, however, that it has begun distributing ready-to-eat food in the form of high protein biscuits to the worst-hit victims of this enormous humanitarian crisis. In a new $200,000 emergency appeal, the WFP is targeting 250,000 people for the next four weeks until the water recedes and rice distribution can begin. The 250,000 beneficiaries will receive 100-gram biscuits per day for 10 days. The WFP says it is estimated that 300,000 are in severe need and that a total of at least 10 million in 50,000 villages have been affected.

**Afghanistan

From the office of the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan, we have good news on child immunizations. International monitors, including senior staff from UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), reported a very good turn-out in Afghanistan's latest polio eradication immunization campaign. While the overall result will not come out until next week, it is expected that the coverage will exceed the 3.6 million Afghan children immunized during the previous round in May and June of this year.

We have more details in a press release upstairs.

Meanwhile, from the WFP we have learnt that the agency is planning a new education programme in Afghanistan. The agency plans to provide a "food incentive" for 50,000 children who attend primary schools in the remote Afghan province of Badakhshan. Because there are fewer girls enrolled in school there than boys, they will receive greater incentives to attend.

The WFP also plans to provide food aid to some 1.5 million Afghans of all ages throughout the country next year.

We have more information in a press release upstairs.

**Talks on Climate Change End

Ministers and officials from 166 governments concluded two weeks of climate change talks in Bonn, Germany, today, and decided to complete by November 2000 the outstanding details of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, in the hope that enough Governments will ratify it so that it can enter into force by the year 2002 -- ten years after the Climate Change Convention was signed at the Rio Earth summit. The deadline for completing the Protocol is the sixth Session of the Conference of Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP-6) which will take place from 13 to 24 November 2000 in The Hague. It is hoped that having a Protocol that is fully operational and in force will ensure

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greater emissions reductions by industrialized countries. So far, only 16 countries, all from the developing world, have ratified it, out of the 55 needed for it to enter into force. Eighty-three countries plus the European Union have signed it.

**Rwanda Tribunal Orders Unconditional Release for Barayagwiza

The Rwanda Tribunal’s Appeal Chamber, sitting in The Hague, has ruled that the accused Jean Bosco Barayagwiza should be released unconditionally. In a decision dated 3 November, the court ruled that his fundamental human rights were seriously violated as a result of the Prosecutor’s failure to prosecute the case against him diligently. Barayagwiza, a former political adviser in the Rwandan Foreign Ministry, was arrested in Cameroon in 1997 on genocide- related charges at the request of the Prosecutor. He was detained for several months without trial, first in Cameroon and subsequently at the United Nations Detention Facility in Arusha, where he was transferred in November 1997.

**International Labour Organization (ILO)

The Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Juan Somavia, today urged business leaders to become "part of the solution" to the problems arising from globalization by addressing social equity, human dignity and labour rights.

In an address to some 600 CEOs, as well as government and labour leaders gathered for an ILO "Enterprise Forum" in Geneva, Somavia said, "Business is facing intensified social demands for good corporate practices." He added that a good corporate social image is increasingly essential for business success.

If you are interested, there is a press release available.

**Payments

Malawi gave us over $20,000 today, and becomes the 115th Member State paid in full.

**Press Conferences

We already told you about Bernard Kouchner here at 1 p.m. approximately, then at 1:45 a press conference that had been postponed from earlier in the week -- Noeleen Heyzer and Julia Hausermann, who are respectively the Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the President of Rights and Humanity.

**The Week Ahead

We have a long document, I will just give you some of the highlights.

On Saturday, international participants in the New York City marathon will come to the United Nations for the twenty-first international friendship

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run. Some 10,000 international athletes will gather at United Nations Headquarters for an 8 a.m. ceremony that will feature performances, remarks by local officials and greetings from Gillian Sorenson, Assistant Secretary- General for External Relations.

On Sunday, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitiarian Affairs will lead a donor mission to Sierra Leone to highlight the critical needs of the consolidated inter-agency appeal, as well as the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme in that country.

On Monday, the Security Council has scheduled a private meeting to hear a briefing by the High Representative for Bosnia, Wolfgang Petritsch. In the evening, the Secretary-General will speak at the International Peace Academy at an event being held in honour of Brian Urquhart, former Under-Secretary- General for Political Affairs, and the father of peacekeeping.

On Tuesday, Security Council consultations are scheduled on the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) and in Somalia. Also, subject to confirmation, we hope to have at the noon briefing here, Judge Gabrielle Kirk McDonald, outgoing President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

On Wednesday, the Secretary-General leaves town on his way to Japan to begin an extended Asia trip. He will be gone for about two weeks.

On Thursday, Security Council consultations take up the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) and a lunch with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogato, to hear an update on the world refugee situation. And, finally, also on Thursday, MTV will air a tribute to the rock star Bono of U2, who will be receiving the Europe Music Award. A video message by the Secretary-General will be featured as part of the tribute.

**Weekly Quiz

This year, as in previous years, the General Assembly is discussing the status of women. The Secretary-General's latest report on the subject shows that we've made some progress -- for example, the number of women at the top levels of the Organization has reached 24 per cent, or nearly one in four. The Secretary-General welcomes the General Assembly's scrutiny of our efforts, but one thing that the Assembly's delegates are not looking at is the percentage of women at the highest levels of their own missions. So today's quiz will turn the tables a bit.

Question 1: The United Nations has 188 Member States. How many of them are headed by female ambassadors?

Answer: There are ten female Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, comprising 4 per cent of the total. They are from Australia, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Finland, Guinea, Jamaica, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Liechtenstein and Turkmenistan.

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Question 2: The General Assembly's Social, Humanitarian and Cultural (Third) Committee deals with the status of women, and 35 per cent of the delegates to that Committee are women. What percentage of delegates dealing with disarmament are women? Is it a) 2 per cent, b) 15 per cent, or c) 20 per cent?

Answer: Fifteen per cent of the delegates to the Disarmament and International Security Committee are women.

Question 3: With the new composition of the Security Council on 1 January, there will be a woman sitting in one of the 15 seats. Which country will she represent?

Answer: Jamaica, represented by Patricia Durrant.

**Question and Answer Session

Question: What is the latest on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, both internally and on the part of the United Nations?

Spokesman: That’s a very difficult question to answer. We continue to try to assure the Government that the intentions of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are to help bring an end to the conflict there so that the region as a whole can settle down. There continue to be deep suspicions of the United Nations, dating back to its role in that country in the early 1960’s. We’re having difficulty overcoming those.

As to the parties to the peace agreement, we’re trying to hold everyone’s feet to the fire as far as their commitment to the agreement, but that’s quite wobbly. We’ve had difficulty getting satisfactory assurances from the Government of security guarantees that would permit us to deploy our people throughout the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and we’ve also had difficulty getting them to agree to allow us to deploy everywhere in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So this resolution that has been adopted today is a bit of a technical rollover. There is no mention of moving to the second phase, at least not now, which would be the deployment of 500 observers. We’re still trying to deploy the initial ninety there.

Question: Which countries will the Secretary-General be visiting in Asia?

Spokesman: In order, Japan, China, then he will go to Turkey for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit and then he will do an official visit to Turkey after the summit. That will be three countries and four events.

Question: Has a replacement for Judge McDonald been appointed as yet?

Spokesman: No. Later this month. We have to wait a little for that to happen.

Question: Has a successor been appointed for Karl Paschke?

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Spokesman: Not yet. The Secretary-General is still looking at candidates. He’s looking for someone strong and is asking for a big list.

**Correction Here is a correction. Krgyztan got a new female Permanent Representative on 24 October. So, Protocol will have to update their list.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon. The next plenary meeting is on Monday, 8 November, when the General Assembly will take up the reports of the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. The Presidents of the two Tribunals will introduce their reports (ABM) (A/54/187 and 315). The Assembly will also select the countries that will nominate four members of the 11-member Joint Inspection Unit for a five-year term commencing on 1 January 2000.

At the time of the briefing, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) had resumed its meeting, which was suspended at 11 a.m., to comply with the 24-hour rule regarding the submission of amendments, in this case the text proposed by France (A/C.1/54/L.56). The Committee is expected to take action on a revised text on the preservation of and compliance with the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty (A/C.1/54/L.1/ Rev.1), sponsored by Belarus, China and the Russian Federation. Before suspending, the Committee voted on draft texts dealing with confidence- building measures, including transparency in armaments; disarmament machinery; and international security. There was a recorded vote on the draft on the maintenance of international security -– stability and development of South- Eastern Europe. The vote was 137 in favour to none against, with Belarus and China abstaining.

The original ABM Treaty text, L.1/Rev.1, would call on the parties to the ABM Treaty to limit the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems and to refrain from deploying them for a defence of the territory of its country and not to provide a base for such a defence or transfer to other States or deploy outside its national territory ABM systems or their components limited by the Treaty. France’s amendment would add a seventh preambular paragraph, “Recalling finally the widespread concern about the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery”, as well as a new paragraph, after operative paragraph four, which “Urges all Member States to support efforts aimed at stemming the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery”.

Dialogue is continuing in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Mary Robinson, and human rights experts, who are here to present their reports under the item on human rights questions and situations. Today’s participants are: the Special Representatives on Cambodia, Iran and Rwanda; the Special Rapporteurs on the Sudan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Yugoslavia; and the Independent Expert on Haiti. Statements are being made on behalf of the Special Rapporteurs on Iraq and Burundi, and the Secretary-General’s Representative on Internally Displaced Persons.

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Also this afternoon, the Committee will take action on a draft on strengthening the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme, in particular its technical cooperation capacity (A/C.3/54/L.24), after hearing the introduction of four drafts dealing with the girl child (A/C.3/54/L.46); measures to combat contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance (A/C.3/54/L.26); torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (A/C.3/54/L.50); and the International Covenants on Human Rights (A/C.3/54/L.52).

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning filled vacancies in six subsidiary organs. Recommended for appointment to the 16-member Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) for a three-year term starting 1 January 2000 were: Mr. Gerard Biraud (France), Ms. Norma Goicochea Estenoz (Cuba), Mr. Vladimir V. Kuznetsov (Russian Federation), Ms. Susan M. Shearouse (United States) and Mr. Roger Tchoungui (Cameroon).

Recommended for appointment to the 18-member Committee on Contributions for a three-year term starting on 1 January 2000 were: Mr. Alvaro Gurgel de Alencar Netto (Brazil), Mr. Ju Kuilin (China), Mr. Sergei I. Mareyev (Russian Federation), Mr. Angel Marron (Spain), Mr. Hae-Yun Park (Republic of Korea) and Mr. Ugo Sessi (Italy).

For the three-member Board of Auditors, the Auditor-General of South Africa has been nominated by that Government to serve a three-year term beginning on 1 July 2000. Recommended for reappointment to the nine-member Investments Committee for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 2000 were: Ms. Francine J. Bovich (United States), Mr. Takeshi Ohta (Japan) and Mr. Peter Stormonth Darling (United Kingdom).

Recommended for reappointment to the seven-member United Nations Administrative Tribunal for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 2000 were: Mr. Julio Barboza (Argentina) and Mr. Mayer Gabay (Israel). And recommended for appointment as an alternate member of the United Nations Staff Pension Committee, from the date of appointment to 31 December 2000, was Amjad Hussain B. Sial (Pakistan).

Because the number of candidates equalled the number of vacancies in the six bodies, there were no secret ballots. The related documents are: A/54/101/Rev.1 to 105 and A/C.5/54/5 to 10.

The Committee then continued its consideration of the items on the United Nations common system and the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2000-2001, taking up sections 11 to 15.

The Sixth Committee (Legal) is concluding its two-week consideration of the report of the International Law Commission on the work of its fifty-first session.

As we meet, the Committee on Information is concluding its resumed twenty-first session. It will adopt its report (A/54/21), as amended, to the

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General Assembly. Paragraph 35 of the draft resolution on United Nations public information policies and activities was revised to take note of two reports of the Secretary-General on United Nations Web sites, and to request him to continue to develop proposals that are cost effective and with a focus on textual content, for consideration at its next session.

Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab departs tonight for Germany, to participate in the Founding Congress of the Centre for Global Ethics in Wittenberg. The Centre’s objective is to create a forum for worldwide communication that brings together diverse social, religious and cultural groups in hopes of building a better world for our children, our neighbours and ourselves. The Centre will sponsor dialogue in all areas of culture, encourage mutual understanding among peoples and provide guidance to world leaders in politics, business and society. The Co-Chairmen are: Mr. Andrew Young, former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, and Mr. Hans- Dietrich Genscher, former German Secretary of State.

Looking ahead to next week: on Tuesday, 9 November, the Assembly will consider the item on the "Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba". On 10 November, it will discuss the item on the Bethlehem 2000 celebration. The following day, 11 November, the Assembly will hold a special meeting for the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The First Committee will continue taking action on all draft resolutions and decisions before it, concluding that exercise on 9 November.

On 8 November, the Second Committee will discuss the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. It will then take up two items: training and research, and the permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab populations in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources. On 9 and 10 November, the Committee will consider the report of the Economic and Social Council.

The Third Committee will continue its consideration of human rights questions through Thursday, 11 November. From 10 to 12 November, the Fourth Committee will discuss the effects of atomic radiation. On Monday, 8 November, the Fifth Committee is expected to conclude its section-by-section discussion of the proposed programme budget for 2000-2001, and, under the same item, discuss the report of the Standing Committee of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board and the related ACABQ report. The Committee will also consider the 1998-1999 programme budget.

From 8 to 10 November, the Sixth Committee will discuss the Convention on jurisdictional immunities of States and their property. On 11 November, it takes up the item on the review of the Statute of the United Nations Administrative Tribunal. On Friday, 12 November, it takes up the item on the United Nations Programme of Assistance in the Teaching, Study, Dissemination and Wider Appreciation of International Law, and begins its discussion of measures to eliminate international terrorism.

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