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

Thank you to the two of you who've shown up. Good afternoon.

**Secretary-General Ends Two-week Trip to Asia

A tired Secretary-General is on his way home after two weeks in Asia. Before leaving Geneva this morning, he met with Jean-Christian Cady, the new Deputy Special Representative for East Timor, whose appointment we announced yesterday.

He then met with his new Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kamel Morjane. His last appointment before departing for the airport was with Carl Bildt, his Special Envoy for the Balkans. He will arrive in New York this afternoon, and go directly to the residence.

**Secretary-General to Deliver Address on Development at WTO Conference in Seattle

On Monday afternoon, the Secretary-General will leave for a short visit to Seattle to attend the World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting. He'll give an important address on development on Tuesday morning, in which he will appeal to governments to make trade work for the poor. We'll have a background briefing by a senior United Nations official on that speech in this room at 12:30 on Monday, right after the noon briefing. Delegates can watch that briefing in Viewing Room 4. We will make available an embargoed copy of the speech on Friday.

In Seattle, in the afternoon, the Secretary-General will meet with Bill Gates, Sr. and other officials of the Gates Foundation for a review of United Nations programmes. He later will have a private meeting with Microsoft executive Bill Gates, Jr. He'll also talk at a Rotary Club event and take questions from the audience. Marie Okabe of my Office will accompany the Secretary-General on this trip.

We have the simplified version of his programme available for you in the Spokesman's office. The Secretary-General will return to New York in mid- afternoon on Wednesday.

**UNCTAD "Fact Sheet" for WTO Conference Concerns Available

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has provided a fact sheet on developing countries' main concerns at the WTO Conference next week in Seattle. We have copies of that available for you in my office. Among the highlights, they say that the priority concerns for developing countries include the implementation of WTO agreements on special and differential treatment for developing countries; the correction of imbalances in previous WTO agreements; and improved market access for exports from developing countries.

The UNCTAD says that several factors favour rapid progress in the upcoming negotiations, but some political developments -- including the lack of guiding trade legislation in the United States -- has reduced expectations for any dramatic progress.

**Security Council Consultations Continue; UNDOF, Haiti Mission to be Discussed

The Security Council has a busy day today. They had consultations on the United Nations Civilian Police Mission in Haiti (MIPONUH). The Mission is set to expire next Tuesday, but, following a meeting of experts yesterday, the Council will be presented with a draft resolution for a three-month "continuation" of MIPONUH, and members will discuss that draft shortly.

In a related matter, we have available on the racks today a letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the General Assembly, which underlines the need for "a viable transition to other forms of assistance to Haiti" after MIPONUH's mandate expires.

He includes the report of a needs-assessment mission which went to Haiti from 11 to 15 October, which recommends a dual programme of political support and technical assistance for the justice, human rights and police sectors.

After discussing Haiti, the Council will then take up the extension of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) -- that’s the peacekeeping force on the Golan Heights -- that is also set to expire next Tuesday. After today's consultations, the Council is expected to vote on a draft resolution to extend UNDOF by six months, until 31 May next year. It is also expected to issue a draft Presidential Statement on the same subject.

Finally, the Council also has informal consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on which some Member States have circulated a draft resolution that would authorize the Secretary-General to equip 500 military observers with a view to future deployment.

**UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Dispatches Remaining Military Liaison Officers

Concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the United Nations Observer Mission there today began dispatching the first of the remaining military liaison officers (MLOs) in the wake of the successful completion of the technical assessment of five locations across the country.

Four officers arrived in Gbadolite on Wednesday afternoon local time. Tomorrow, Thursday, another team of four should be leaving for Kananga, which is a Government-held town.

As you recall, the United Nations Technical Survey Team visited five locations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, starting with Gbadolite and then moving on to Goma, Kisangani, Bukavu and Kananga. At each location, they met with local authorities as well as representatives of United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations. It completed its work on Friday, 19 November.

**Registration of Combatants Still Slow in Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone the registration of combatants to the disarmament programme continues at a slow pace. As of today, 1,125 ex-combatants have disarmed, out of an estimated 45,000.

Of this 1125, 102 are from the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), 523 are from the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), and 500 are from the Civil Defence Force. There were a total of 108 children among them.

Meanwhile, reports of human right abuses are still coming in. The United Nations team that went to Kabala yesterday, in the northern part of the country, met civilians and heard victims and witnesses speaking of rape, abduction, maiming and branding by ex-rebels.

**Sergio de Mello's First Field Visit as Special Representative

We have a briefing note from East Timor saying that Special Representative of the Secretary-General Sergio Vieira de Mello made his first field visit as Special Representative to the western region of East Timor. He travelled with the independence leader Xanana Gusmao and members of his party, the CNRT. On that trip, Gusmao thanked the international community for its hard work, but said there is a need for closer cooperation between INTERFET, which is the multi national force authorized by the United Nations, FALINTIL, which is the local independence-fighters’ force, and the local community. He urged them to work together and to ensure a flow of information to the United Nations mission there (UNTAET) and to humanitarian organizations.

De Mello said "we travelled together because we have been working together since I arrived". He added. "I did not come here to impose a system from the outside, I came to work hand in hand with the East Timorese."

**UNMIK Announces Agreement with German Bank to Rehabilitate Water Supply Systems in Western Kosovo

We also have press briefing notes from Pristina in Kosovo. They say that the United Nations Interim Administration there (UNMIK) has announced that a German bank is scheduled to sign an agreement on Friday with the UNMIK, pledging 9.3 million deutschemarks to rehabilitate the water supply systems in the five Western Kosovo towns of Pec, Prizren, Djakova, Rahovac and Suva Reka. The first phase will involve repairs to damaged water and drainage systems. Ultimately, a private water company will be created and sewage and irrigation systems will be rehabilitated.

The UNMIK also made a public appeal today for experienced snow plough drivers and mechanics. As you know, the harsh Balkan winter has already set in.

Meanwhile, the Special Representative, Bernard Kouchner, along with the heads of Kosovo's major political parties, including Ibrahim Rugova and Hashim Thaci, are in Paris today for the Inter-Parliamentarian Forum on "The Balkans: From Stability to Reconstruction". This one-day-forum is being held under the auspices of the French National Assembly.

**Rwandan War Crimes Suspect Pleads "Not Guilty" before Criminal Tribunal

This morning, in Arusha, Mika Muhimana, a former Rwandan businessman from Kibuye province, pleaded not guilty before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to seven counts charging him with genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Conventions. Muhimana, who was arrested in Dar es Salaam on 8 November, is accused of having conspired with others to kill Tutsis in Kibuye and to have participated in attacks on Bisesero hill where thousands of men, women and children had sought refuge in 1994.

You can get a press release with more details in my office.

**New President Sworn in for Yugoslavia Tribunal

In The Hague, Claude Jorda, the new President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, was sworn in this morning as a member of the Appeals Chamber of the Tribunal for Rwanda.

Tomorrow, Radislav Kirstic will enter his plea of guilty or not guilty before the Tribunal. Krstic has been indicted for crimes against humanity allegedly committed after the fall of Srebrenica in 1995.

You can get more details in my office.

**Fréchette to Receive Honorary Degree from University of Toronto

The Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, departed from New York today to Toronto, Canada, where she is adding to her already impressive list of honorary degrees, one from the University of Toronto.

While picking up that degree, the Deputy Secretary-General is going to deliver an address which deals, among other things, with the need for a "renewed and re-imagined" role for the public sector following the Cold War, and new links between the public and private sectors.

We have copies of the text of her address in my office. It is embargoed 6:00 p.m. EST tonight.

**Payment

We got a check today for over $5.9 million. That is from Saudi Arabia, which now is paid in full and is the 116th Member State to be paid in full for this year.

**The Week Ahead, So Far

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and we know that many of you will not be around Friday as you take the bridging day off to make a four-day weekend. So we've put together an advance copy of the “week ahead” roundup for you. You can pick it up and read it while you're eating your turkey. A more comprehensive “week ahead” will be available on Friday, as usual, for those of you who'll be coming in. **Louis Foy, Long-time UN Correspondent Remembered

Louis Foy, the long-time correspondent at the United Nations for Agence France-Presse and the French newspaper France-Soir, passed away quietly on 11 November. He was one of the founders of the United Nations Correspondents Association, and served as its President in 1971 and was a member of its Executive Committee for years. We remember his tall, sloping presence and his wry smile -- he was intelligent, thoughtful and helpful to us all. We'll miss him.

**WFUNA Visionary, Annabelle Weiner, Friend of Artists, UN, Dies

Another bit of sad news: Annabelle Weiner, the Deputy Secretary-General of the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA), passed away last Saturday evening. She took a simple idea and turned it into a bedrock funding source for the WFUNA. Each time the United Nations issued a new stamp, Annabelle produced a first-day cover for it -- an envelope graced with a work of art, turning it into a collector's item. She talked artists -- great ones and up-and-comers--into donating their works to this cause. In that circle were artists like Chagall, Miró, Peter Max and Calder, and personalities like Grace Kelly and Gloria Swanson. The United Nations was central to her life for 35 years, right up to the end of it. Her friends and admirers crowded into the Church Centre yesterday afternoon to pay her tribute. Thank you, Annabelle.

**Questions and Answers

Any questions?

Question: On Turkey, do you have any figures or information about how much the United Nations helped following the earthquake?

Spokesman: Let me get that figure for you. I'm sure I can get it from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Question: This is a security matter, so I know it may be difficult to discuss, but there is widespread word in the papers and elsewhere: what is the United Nations concern regarding Osama Ben Laden's alleged threats against the United Nations and its agencies in Pakistan and elsewhere?

Spokesman: We don't discuss security concerns. We did see the article in The Washington Post today, and someone in the Secretariat violated some rather sacred rules. We're not very happy about that. I would have nothing to say on the record concerning that subject.

Question: Any word on what Iraq is doing regarding oil movements from the ports? What's the latest official word on [the “oil-for-food”] situation?

Spokesman: No. I assume that the last loading of ships took place overnight, local time, at the main Iraqi port. I did not get official confirmation that that had happened, but we announced last night that it was expected to happen overnight. So, there's nothing new to add today.

Question: It's sort of a confusing picture. It seems like Iraq is cutting off oil while apparently going ahead with Phase VII of the humanitarian exchange program. Is there some cause for worry, or has the tension subsided on this issue?

Spokesman: I don't want to talk about tensions. I have nothing to add to what I said yesterday. The Iraqi Ambassador met with the head of the Iraq Programme and told him that Iraq was prepared to continue cooperating with the “Oil-for-Food” Programme, and since we have a lot of supplies in the pipeline, that work can continue and we announced that it is continuing. The “Oil-for- Food” question is apparently now being debated alongside -- and perhaps even in connection with -- efforts by the five permanent Council members to come to an agreement concerning an omnibus resolution on Iraq; weapons monitoring and so on. So I don't think I want to guess where that's going. We'll just have to wait and see if they can sort it out.

Question: The draft resolution on the Democratic Republic of the Congo which talks about equipping 500 personnel with a view to deployment, is there a precedent for that?

Spokesman: I'm not sure there is. I believe the members are trying to come up with something that would be acceptable to all of them and keep the United Nations role in the Congo moving forward, the next step being the deployment of these 500. So they're talking about the authorization to equip. I think you'd really have to speak to the members if you want any more details than that, as far as their motivation goes.

Shirley.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon.

At the time of the briefing, the General Assembly was hearing the final speakers on the item on oceans and the law of the sea. It was then expected to take action on three related draft resolutions. In them, the Assembly calls upon all States to become parties to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, calls upon States and other entities that have not done so to ratify or accede to the Agreement relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, and also decides to establish an open-ended informal consultative process to review developments in ocean affairs by considering the Secretary-General’s annual comprehensive report on the subject.

A recorded vote is expected on the first draft, on oceans and the law of the sea (A/54/L.31). Last year, the Assembly adopted the other texts, L.28 and L.32, by consensus.

Among the speakers this morning was the President of the Law of the Sea Tribunal, Chandrasekhara Rao, who said that the Tribunal is a world court designed by the Convention to play a central role in the resolution of law of the sea disputes. In the three years of its existence, he said, the court had been able to prepare efficient, cost-effective and user-friendly rules, guidelines and procedures for promoting settlement of disputes without unnecessary delay or expense. He hoped that States and other entities would continue to make full use of the Tribunal for achieving rapid settlement of law of the sea disputes and ensuring uniform and consistent application of the Convention. The President of the International Seabed Authority, Satya Nandan, also spoke.

As I announced over the loudspeaker, His Serene Highness Crown Prince Albert of Monaco is at Headquarters today. He will chair the plenary meeting as the Assembly considers the item on building a peaceful and better world through sport and the Olympic ideal. After hearing speakers, the Assembly is expected to adopt a resolution (A/54/L.26), to be introduced by Australia, which has 168 sponsors. In it, the Assembly urges Member States to observe the Olympic Truce during the games of the XXVII Olympiad, to be held at Sydney, Australia, from 15 September to 1 October 2000, the vision of which, at the dawn of the new millennium, is to be a highly harmonious athlete- oriented and environmentally committed Olympic Games. The Assembly calls on all States to cooperate with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in its efforts to use the Olympic Truce as an instrument to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation in areas of conflict, beyond the Olympic Games period. The Secretary-General is requested to promote the observance of the Olympic Truce among Member States by drawing the attention of world public opinion to the contribution such a truce would make to the promotion of international understanding and the preservation of peace and goodwill, and to cooperate with the IOC in the realization of this objective.

The Assembly is also expected to adopt a resolution on the zone of peace and cooperation of the South Atlantic (A/54/L.35), to be introduced by Argentina. In it, the Assembly welcomes decisions taken by two African organizations –- the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) -- regarding illicit trafficking in small arms; welcomes the restoration of democracy in Nigeria, the signing of the peace agreement in Sierra Leone, Liberia’s decision to destroy arms and ammunition, the Ceasefire Agreement on the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and calls for its full implementation; reaffirms the importance for Member States to contribute to an effective and lasting peace in Angola, and reiterates that the primary cause of the present situation was the failure of National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to comply with its obligations; notes the commitment of the provisional Government of Guinea- Bissau to hold legislative and presidential elections on 28 November this year; views with concern the increase in drug trafficking and related crimes, and calls upon the international community and the States members of the zone to promote regional and international cooperation to combat all aspects of the problem of drug and related offences. The related report of the Secretary- General (A/54/447) contains the replies received from Argentina and Brazil, and from five United Nations bodies, indicating their views on the implementation of the declaration of the zone of peace and cooperation of the South Atlantic.

At the outset of this morning’s meeting, the Assembly paid tribute to the memory of Senator Amintore Fanfani of Italy, President of the twentieth session of the General Assembly in 1965, who died last Saturday. The Acting President said Mr. Fanfani played a prominent role in this Organization and made a major contribution towards the achievement of the objectives set out in the Charter. On behalf of the Assembly, he conveyed to the members of the family of Mr. Fanfani and to the Government and the people of Italy deepest and most heartfelt condolences. The Assembly then observed a minute of silence in tribute to his memory. The representative of Italy responded.

At a meeting earlier today, the General Committee decided to recommend that the Assembly include in the agenda of the current session an additional item entitled “International recognition of the Day of Vesak” (A/54/235), and that the item be considered directly in plenary. The representative of Sri Lanka made a statement on behalf of the 16 sponsors, who are seeking the international observance of the Day -- the most sacred day to over 150 million Buddhists worldwide -- at Headquarters and other United Nations offices. The representatives of India, Spain, Bangladesh, Thailand, Pakistan, the Lao Peoples’ Democratic Republic, Bhutan and Cyprus also spoke in favour of the request. The Assembly will consider the report of the General Committee at a date to be announced.

This morning, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) has before it 16 draft texts for action, seven of which are alternative texts. They deal with the report of the Economic and Social Council (A/C.2/54/L.31 and L.41); renewal of the dialogue on strengthening international economic cooperation for development through partnership (A/C.2/54/L.9 and L.45); international cooperation to reduce the impact of the El Niño phenomenon (A/C.2/54/L.29 and L.43); the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction: successor arrangements (A/C.2/54/L.28 and L.44); economic and technical cooperation among developing countries (A/C.2/54/L.5 and L.47); the United Nations Staff College in Turin, Italy (A/C.2/54/L.26 and L.42); the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (A/C.2/54/L.30 and L.46); unilateral economic measures as a means of political and economic coercion against developing countries (A/C.2/54/L.40); and permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources (A/C.2/54/L.32).

Copies of the appointments of Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab are available in room 378 and also from the Internet. After chairing the General Committee meeting, he met with Crown Prince Albert of Monaco. At 1:15 p.m., the President hosts his monthly luncheon for the Chairmen of the Main Committees and senior Secretariat officials. At 3 p.m., he is scheduled to meet with the Permanent Representative of Japan, Ambassador Yukio Satoh, regarding the President’s visit to Japan, Security Council reform and the Millennium Summit.

Spokesman: Any questions for Shirley?

Spokesman: Going back to the question on [United Nations relief assistance to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey], it looks like something close to $50,000 came from the international community and about $380,000 in total was spent. I have a fact sheet here for you that you can have.

Thank you very much.

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