DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS 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

Everything moves slowly on Friday. Sorry I'm late. I understand we have some visiting journalists from Latin America. Welcome to the briefing.

**Secretary-General in Istanbul: Day Two

In the margins of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OCSE) Summit in Istanbul, the Secretary-General today had a series of bilateral meetings and visited the site of the earthquake that devastated an area south-east of Istanbul on 17 August.

He first met Robin Cook, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, and then President Jacques Chirac of France.

At mid-morning he had a session with Glafcos Clerides to discuss preparations for the proximity talks on Cyprus planned for New York, beginning on 3 December, and just a short time ago, concluded a meeting with Rauf Denktash on the same subject.

In late morning, he met Romano Prodi, the President of the European Commission, and Constantine Simitis, the Prime Minister of Greece. The last meeting of the morning was with the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States to discuss the situation in Kosovo. Bernard Kouchner, his Special Representative for Kosovo, was also present at that meeting.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan flew by helicopter to the earthquake site at Izmit-Kosekoy, where they visited two of the 100 tent cities in the area temporarily housing some 70,000 people.

**OSCE Passes Resolution to Convene Conference on Small Arms

At the Summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Istanbul today, the OSCE passed a resolution on small arms. In that decision, the participating OSCE States supported the United Nations General Assembly's decision to convene a Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons' to be held no later than the year 2001.

**Displaced Chechens in Ingushetia Want Fighting to End so They Can Return Home, Ogata Says

Sadako Ogata, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, is back in Moscow, where she is was to meet again today with Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

The UNHCR reported today that during her visit on Thursday to Ingushetia, she saw a train settlement housing people displaced from Chechnya, many of them traumatized and very vocal about their suffering. She found very difficult conditions on the ground, including problems with bad drainage, sanitation and many complaints about the lack of basic necessities. The displaced receive only one hot meal a day. The people told the High Commissioner they were very frustrated and wanted the fighting to stop so that they could go home.

At the border, the huge backups of the last few weeks seem to have abated. At the end of the day Thursday, there were only about 10 cars waiting. Considerable shelling could be heard just across the border.

Later on Thursday, Ogata was taken by helicopter inside northern Chechnya, which is under control of Russian forces. The Russian authorities showed her possible accommodation centres that could be used for returnees. In meetings with Russian officials, the High Commissioner's party detected more concern about the humanitarian situation and a greater willingness to accept international aid.

Earlier today the Secretary-General spoke to Ogata, who is undertaking this mission as his Special Envoy, and she reported that the trip was going well. She informed the Secretary-General that she had held good discussions with the Russian Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Minister of Emergency Situations. She told him that her talks had provided a good basis for future cooperation between the United Nations and Russia on humanitarian assistance.

**Security Council

The Security Council began work today with a briefing from Carolyn McAskie, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), on the situations in Sierra Leone and Guinea.

They are then scheduled to hold a formal meeting on an extension of the "oil-for-food" programme. Phase VI of that programme is set to expire on Sunday. Under a draft resolution submitted to the Council, phase VI would be extended by two weeks, until 4 December. The Council is ready to vote on that draft shortly.

Under "other matters," the Council is also set to meet informally on the situation in the Prevlaka peninsula -- which, of course, is southern Croatia. They will be briefed by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Young-Jin Choi.

Also under "other matters," the Council is expected to take up a draft resolution on the role of the Security Council in the prevention of armed conflict. The Council intends to hold a formal meeting on this subject on Monday.

**UN Coordinator in Afghanistan 'Deplores' Bombings in Panjshir Valley

The United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan today deplored the bombing of displaced persons in the Panjshir Valley.

A Taliban warplane bombed the Bazarak market area yesterday, Thursday. The bombs hit the location where some displaced persons were staying in tents, and one of the public schools. Twelve people died, of whom 10 were displaced persons. Of the fifty-six injured, 24 were hospitalized.

The area which was bombed is three and one half kilometres from the United Nations office in Bazarak. However, no United Nations or international agency staff were harmed. The United Nations established an office in Bazarak in September to respond to the needs of approximately 65,000 people from Shomali who fled to Panjshir during fighting that began in late July.

**UN Sends Observer to Meeting of Afghan Political Leaders

In another development regarding Afghanistan, the United Nations will be sending an observer to the Rome Meeting of Afghan political leaders and intellectuals, which will begin on Monday, 22 November, and last for four days. The meeting will be attended by the former monarch of Afghanistan, King Zafir Shah, and is intended to set the stage for convening an emergency meeting of the Loya Jirgah. That body, you will recall, is a Grand Assembly composed of traditional Afghan leaders and intellectuals. About 70 Afghan leaders are expected to participate in the Rome Meeting, which is being supported by the Government of Italy.

**UN Survey Team in Democratic Republic of the Congo Nears Completion of First Leg of Mission

The United Nations Observer Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) is about to complete the first leg of its technical survey of that country, which is aimed at assessing conditions on the ground in preparation for the deployment of the remaining military liaison officers.

The technical survey team was in Kananga today, the last stop of the first leg of the mission and the only Government-held site included on this leg.

The team, comprising six civilians and four military staff has visited Gbadolite, Goma, Kisangani and Bukavu. The team will continue to survey the remaining 13 sites, and at same time begin deploying the remaining military liaison officers.

**Secretary-General Names New Special Representative for Sierra Leone

The Secretary-General has appointed Oluyemi Adeniji of Nigeria as his Special Representative for Sierra Leone and Head of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). Mr. Adeniji will succeed Francis Okelo who has been serving as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General since June 1998. The Secretary-General would like to pay tribute to Mr. Okelo for his dedication and his commitment in carrying out his tasks under the extremely difficult conditions in Sierra Leone.

Mr. Adeniji’s appointment coincides with the critical phase of the implementation of the Lomé Peace Agreement, as well as the major expansion of the United Nations mandate in Sierra Leone. He has been serving as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Mission in the Central African Republic.

His biography and the full text of a statement on his appointment are available in my office.

**Martin's Farewell to East Timor

Ian Martin bid farewell today in a press conference in Dili, which we plan to make available upstairs. He said that the United Nations and the National Council on Timorese Resistance had begun today a dialogue on possible joint structures for future cooperation, and the discussions had set a tone for working together.

Martin, Sergio Vieira de Mello and Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao were accompanied afterward by a Gurkha bagpiper as they walked between hundreds of local and international staff, at the end of Martin's term in East Timor. I understand that Mr. de Mello and Gusmao are to continue their talks on cooperation this afternoon. Ian Martin is now on his way to Darwin, Australia and then home.

**International Human Rights Team heads to Dili

On Sunday, the five-member International Commission of Inquiry on human rights violations in East Timor will go to Dili. The Commission, headed by Sonia Picado of Costa Rica, will interview witnesses and visit sites where rights violations were reported to have taken place in East Timor. They will then return to Geneva to prepare their final report to the Secretary-General which must be submitted by 31 December.

The National Indonesian Human Rights Commission on East Timor has also been in the news. At their request, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is providing them assistance in carrying out their own mandate. An expert from the Human Rights’ Office is working with them in Dili.

**Notes From Kososvo

A memorial service for the victims of the WFP plane crash a week ago was held today in Pristina. Also in Pristina today the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) reported on Wednesday’s donor meeting in Brussels, which we mentioned to you here yesterday as resulting in new pledges of just over $1 billion.

The United Nations Mission said that Bernard Kouchner, the Special Representative, had presented a programme of some $2.3 billion which will be needed for long-term development and reconstruction in Kosovo over the next four to five years. Among the priority needs for Kosovo were housing, energy, and agriculture.

We have available from Pristina today remarks made by Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in Kosovo to look into the situation of maternal and infant heath care, and press releases on two new regulations issues there -- one on NGO registration and another on the appointment of judges.

**Human Rights High Commissioner Robinson to Visit Latin America

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, will embark Sunday on a ten-day tour of three Latin American countries, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Ecuador. During her visit she will meet with Government and non-governmental organizations representatives, including indigenous groups. While in Mexico, she is also scheduled to go to Chiapas. She will return to Geneva on the 30 November.

**Emergency Food Distribution to Burundian Regroupment Camps Resumes

We have a press release from the World Food Programme (WFP), saying that they announced this morning that much-needed distribution of emergency food supplies for tens of thousands of people living in Burundian regroupment camps will resume on Monday after a five-week halt.

**UNEP Press Releases Available

And available on the racks are two press releases from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). One is on the results of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species, which met the past two weeks in Cape Town, South Africa. And the second release concerns the resumption in January 2000 of the David Attenborough-hosted Earth Report TV series on the BBC. The series, which can be seen in over 180 countries, is produced through assistance and with technical input from UNEP and the World Wildlife Fund.

**UNCA Press Conference Today

The Correspondents Association (UNCA) has asked me to give you a second call on a presentation this afternoon at 4 p.m. by Mikhial Lessin, Minister of Public Information and Media of the Russian Federation, who will be talking to you about the Northern Caucasus and Chechnya, in the UNCA Club.

**The Week Ahead

We have the weekly "Week Ahead" feature for you today. I'll give you just a few of the highlights.

Saturday, 20 November

Tomorrow, the Secretary-General is expected to deliver a speech to commemorate African Industrialization Day.

He will also deliver a speech for Universal Children's Day, which this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Monday, 22 November

The General Assembly to discuss the Law of the Sea and Ocean Affairs. The President of the Law of the Sea Tribunal, Chandrasekhara Rao, and the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority, Satya Nandan, will address the Assembly.

Tuesday, 23 November

The Security Council has scheduled consultations on Kosovo.

Tuesday is also World Humanitarian Day. The Secretary-General will preside over the second global launch of the Consolidated Inter- agency Appeals in Geneva.

Wednesday, 24 November

The Security Council is scheduled to hold consultations on the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) -- that’s on the Golan Heights -- and on the United Nations Civilian Police Mission in Haiti (MIPONUH).

Thursday, 24 November

Its Thanksgiving, so Headquarters will be closed and we can all enjoy the turkey if there are no last minute emergencies.

**Quiz of the Week

It can't be Friday without a quiz, so put on your thinking caps.

Next Tuesday is World Humanitarian Day, and the Secretary-General will, of course, oversee the Coordinated Inter-Agency Appeals asking for money to deal with 14 complex emergencies. So, in honor of that effort, this week's quiz will deal with United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and what they call "the forgotten people."

First question: True or false: One out of every three people in the Republic of the Congo -- that's Congo-Brazzaville -- has been displaced in the past two years. [Several correspondents answered correctly from the floor.

Answer: True. Every third Congolese has been displaced since 1997, a total of 810,000 displaced people. Of that amount, 200,000 urban residents have returned home, but 610,000 urban and rural Congolese are still displaced. Second question: "Stunting," or low height for one's age, has affected many North Korean children since that country's food shortages worsened since 1994. What is the percentage of North Korean children who suffer from stunting?

A. 40 percent B. 50 percent C. More than 60 percent

Answer: 'C'. According to North Korea's 1998 Nutrition Survey, 62 percent of all children are affected by stunting.

Last question: True or false: Fewer than two-thirds of all residences and buildings in East Timor were destroyed during the violence following the 30 August vote.

[Several correspondents answered from the floor.

Answer: False. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 70 percent of all private residences, public buildings and essential utilities were destroyed in the two-week period after the vote.

Now, for more information on all of that and on the Appeals, we invite you to OCHA's Website, called "ReliefWeb", at .

Are there any questions before we go to Shirley?

**Question and Answer

Question: Does Headquarters have a “Y2K” command post that's going to be set up over the New Year's weekend? Can you give a sense of whether the whole building's going to be shut down or will there be a place for correspondents to check in?

Spokesman: We've been dealing with the Y2K issue for more than a year now. We expect that by the end of this month to be 100 percent Y2K compliant. We have asked all our suppliers to give us in writing their assurance that they are Y2K compliant. We've been liaising with New York City and it's essential services -- phone, electricity, etc.,-- and we're assured that they are all Y2K compliant. We've also done this with all of our overseas missions, all peacekeeping operations, all foreign offices, and by the end of this month, the entire United Nations system is expected to be compliant.

I'll have to look into whether there's some kind of hotline number that you can call if something goes wrong on the 1st of January. I'm not saying that we're not nervous that something might still go wrong, but we feel we've done everything we can to become compliant. Now we just have our fingers crossed and we're waiting for the First.

Ok. Shirley.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon.

Tomorrow is Africa Industrialization Day, proclaimed by the General Assembly, within the framework of the Second Industrial Development Decade for Africa (1993-2003). Observance of the Day is intended to mobilize international support to the industrialization of Africa.

To mark the occasion, Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab made a statement in plenary, in which he said that, with the globalization of economic activities, Africa faced a number of challenges. The continent was yet to adequately define workable policies and structures to meet the demands of the changing global business environment. For Africa to become a competitive partner in the global economy, concrete steps needed to be taken to transform the continent’s enormous natural resources into manufactured products that would satisfy the basic needs of its peoples. Copies of his statement are available in room 378.

The Assembly this morning concluded its discussion on assistance in mine action, hearing seven speakers. The President announced that a draft resolution on the item would be submitted at a later date.

The Assembly then turned its attention to agenda item 20, on strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance. When it has heard all 34 speakers, at two meetings today, the Assembly is expected to adopt a resolution on emergency response to disasters (A/54/L.17/Rev.1).

Introduced by Greece and Turkey, the draft would have the Assembly express solidarity with the Governments and peoples of those two countries, as they cope with the consequences of earthquake disasters. It would note with satisfaction the decision taken by the two Governments to establish a joint Standby Disaster Response Unit comprising contingents drawn from governmental and non-governmental organizations and agencies of both countries to reinforce and expand existing standby arrangements of the United Nations system, with no financial implications to the programme budget of the United Nations.

Two other drafts were be introduced -- on Chernobyl and Central America -- but they will not be acted upon today pending further consultations. The first text, on strengthening of international cooperation and coordination of efforts to study, mitigate and minimize the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster (A/54/L.22), was be introduced by Belarus. It would have the Assembly invite States, particularly donor States, relevant multilateral financial institutions and other organizations, to continue to provide support to the ongoing efforts made by Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine to mitigate the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster.

By the second draft, on international assistance to and cooperation with the Alliance for the Sustainable Development of Central America (A/54/L.29), introduced by Nicaragua, the Assembly would emphasize the importance of supporting and strengthening the efforts of the Central American countries to implement the strategic framework to reduce vulnerability to and the impact of natural disasters in the region. It would appeal to the organs of the United Nations and others to continue providing the support needed by Central American governments to complete mine-clearance activities in the region, and also to attain the objectives of the programme for its sustainable development.

On Monday, the Assembly takes up the item on oceans and the law of the sea. The President of the Law of the Sea Tribunal, Chandrasekhara Rao, and the Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority, Satya Nandan, will address the Assembly.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) will complete its work today, after taking action on the remaining draft texts before it on refugees and related questions, the elimination of racial discrimination, human rights questions and situations and the report of the Economic and Social Council.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) is this morning considering the item on human resources management. Introducing the various reports of the Secretary-General, Assistant Secretary-General Rafiah Salim said the Secretary-General had set forth his vision for a forward-looking human resources management policy in his report entitled “Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform”. He had also presented his strategy plan for human resources to the fifty-third Assembly session. That vision and strategy remained valid today. Two other items being taken up for the first time relate to the issue of gratis personnel, and revised estimates arising out of resolutions and decisions adopted by the Economic and Social Council in 1999.

The Sixth Committee (Legal) will conclude its work this morning after taking action on draft texts on and establishment of the International Criminal Court (A/C.6/54/L.8/Rev.1); the convention on jurisdictional immunities of States and their property (A/C.6/54/L.19); the United Nations Programme of Assistance in the Teaching, Study, Dissemination and Wider Appreciation of International Law (A/C.6/54/L.14); and the report of the International Law Commission on the work of its fifty-first session (A/C.6/54/L.7/Rev.1).

By the end of today, the First, Third, Fourth and Sixth Committees will have completed their work.

As to the appointments of the President, he met, this morning, with the Chargé d’Affaires of the Federated Republic of Yugoslavia before presiding over the plenary meeting. The Fourth Annual World Television Forum concludes this afternoon, after a second day of workshops. Assembly President Gurirab will attend the closing session. The President travels to Chicago tomorrow, where he will deliver the keynote address at the Tenth American Model United Nations International Conference.

Looking ahead to next week: on Wednesday, the Assembly will consider three items -- building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal; zone of peace and cooperation of the South Atlantic; and cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity.

Spokesman: Any Questions for Shirley? Ok. Enjoy your weekend.

[Note: The deployment of United Nations troops in Sierra Leone is scheduled to begin on 25 November and not on 22 November as announced in the briefing yesterday.]

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