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

Good afternoon.

**United Nations Mourns Mitch Werner

There is sadness on the 38th floor today. Mitch Werner, Gillian Sorensen’s Deputy in External Relations, lost his battle with cancer over the weekend. He passed away Sunday, at the age of 48, leaving his wife Roberta and two children, Jennifer and Matthew.

Many of you got to know him when he worked for the Information Department. He later left the United Nations and eventually became Vice President of the United Nations Association of the United States. He returned to us in 1997 to work with the current Secretary-General.

A native New Yorker with a keen political sense, he always worked for what he believed in and he died too young. We’ll miss him.

The funeral was held this morning. The Secretary-General's Office will organize a memorial service for him in early January. The family asks that instead of sending flowers, Mitch's friends make a contribution to the United States Committee for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

I’d like to welcome to the briefing today Randolph Kent, who is the Humanitarian Coordinator of Somalia. He will talk to you shortly about the situation in that country.

[Mr. Kent’s press briefing will be issued separately.]

**Cyprus Proximity Talks Begin Today

The Cyprus talks resumed this morning at 11 a.m. when the Secretary-General and his Special Adviser for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, met with His Excellency Glafcos Clerides; and then at 12:15 p.m. he is to meet with his Excellency Rauf Denktash. Over the weekend, Mr. de Soto met with each of the parties.

**Taliban and Northern Alliance Cooperate, Allow Aid to Thousands in Panjshir Valley

Earlier today, an eight-truck humanitarian convoy carrying about 70 tons of aid travelled from Kabul, Afghanistan, across the front lines to the Panjshir Valley where there are some 65,000 displaced persons.

The permission to cross the front lines followed about a six-week engagement by the United Nations on humanitarian access to the Panjshir Valley with the Taliban and the opposition Northern Alliance. The United Nations had set up a joint committee made up of representatives of the Taliban and the Northern Alliance to plan this operation in a rare example of cooperation.

**Weekend Trek to Refugee Camp in West Timor Reveals “Appalling” Conditions, Joint UN Medical Team Reports

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), working with the Indonesian Government, the World Health Organization and others, dispatched a 41-member medical team over the weekend to the refugee camp in Tua Pukan in West Timor. Local authorities estimate that 170 deaths occurred in that camp since September, 35 of them between 22 November and 1 December. And most of those recent deaths were children under the age of five.

Conditions in the camp were described as appalling. Half the 192 latrines there don’t work, water sources are contaminated and the water that is being trucked in is untreated.

There was some movement on the issue of separating the refugees from the militias -- at least at the talking stage -- who continue to impede humanitarian workers access to the camps. UNHCR representatives met today with the new Indonesian military commander for West Timor, Major General Kiki Syahnakri. Militia leaders also attended that meeting to deal with the situations in the camps. The Chief Military Observer of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) has been in Jakarta discussing this issue, among others. The Commander of the multi-national force (INTERFET), General Peter Cosgrove, will meet Major General Kiki tomorrow.

**Signs of “Normal Life” Returning to Dili

In Dili over the weekend there was another sign of the gradual return to normal life, when 30 traffic wardens wearing orange hats and vests were turned out on the streets. They had been trained by INTERFET.

**”Failure not an Option” in Fight Against AIDS Epidemic in Africa, Secretary-General warns

This morning, the Secretary-General opened a private meeting at United Nations Headquarters to form an international partnership against HIV/AIDS in Africa by calling for a response to the epidemic, which he said would make humanity live up to its name. He urged governments to "break the conspiracy of silence at every level;" to meet the needs of those already infected with HIV and make effective treatments available and affordable; and to speed up work on developing a vaccine.

He said that over the next two days, the participants in this private meeting should join together to develop a plan of action no later than next May that would be used to cut the rate of HIV infections among the young by 25 per cent by the year 2005. "Our response so far has failed Africa," he warned. "From now on, let us resolve that failure is not an option."

We have copies of his speech upstairs.

The two-day meeting includes representatives from African and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) governments, United Nations agencies, civil society and the private sector. It is intended to be the start of a process to launch a five- year initiative to reduce HIV infections, particularly among 15 to 24- year-olds in the most affected countries.

The actual launch of the International Partnership against AIDS in Africa is expected next spring.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo: Plight of Displaced in Nation’s Interior “Precarious”, WFP Reports

The World Food Programme (WFP) announced today that aid agencies working out of major urban centres in the Democratic Republic of Congo are beginning to reach more people displaced by the conflict. However, recent assessments indicate that countless others are still trapped in the nation's interior without access to humanitarian assistance.

Over the past three weeks, WFP says its staff visited six locations in both government-held and rebel-controlled areas to gather more information on the plight of the displaced.

The United Nations estimates that there are more than 800,000 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo who have been uprooted from their homes by the war and are living in precarious conditions throughout the country. Unless new funds are pledged soon, agencies like WFP will not be able to provide even survival rations for the tens of thousands of malnourished struggling to survive.

**Notes from Rwanda Tribunal: Rutaganda Sentenced to Life in Prison

This morning in Arusha, Tanzania, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda handed over its sixth conviction by sentencing Georges Anderson Rutaganda to spend the rest of his life in prison, following his conviction on one count of genocide and two counts of crimes against humanity.

The judges found that Rutaganda bears individual criminal responsibility in particular "for having ordered and carried out murders and for causing serious bodily and mental harm to members of the Tutsi ethnic group during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994."

A press release with more details is available in my office.

Meanwhile, Carla del Ponte, the Tribunal's Prosecutor, began her visit to Kigali, Rwanda yesterday. Upon her arrival, she visited a memorial honouring the victims of genocide in Gikongoro. Today she is working with her staff in her office in Kigali, and she will be in Rwanda until Wednesday.

**UN Receives Letters from Honduras, Nicaragua on Maritime Border Dispute

You’ll recall that on Friday, we confirmed receipt of a letter from the Government of Honduras requesting that international observers be sent to its border with Nicaragua. This followed tension between the two countries over their maritime border with Colombia. This morning, we received a letter from the Foreign Minister of Nicaragua. Tomorrow, the Foreign Minister of Honduras, Mr. Flores Bermudez, is expected at Headquarters and will hold a press conference in this room at 11.30 a.m.

We understand that the Organization of American States (OAS) also received a request for observers from Honduras and that its Permanent Council is meeting on this issue in Washington today.

**OSCE Reports on Human Rights Violations in Kosovo out Today

We have briefing notes from Kosovo. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) released two human rights reports today that document extensive human rights violations in Kosovo. The press release and the reports are on their Web-site.

The World Health Organization (WHO) today signed a license agreement in Geneva with a private pharmaceutical company that can help the agency in it’s fight against African sleeping sickness. That disease has hit some African countries especially hard; an estimated 55 million people in 36 sub-Saharan African countries are exposed to the risk of contracting the sickness, according to the WHO.

Today’s agreement, signed with the company Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc., would allow WHO and its partners to ensure the availability of a drug which is used to treat African sleeping sickness.

We have a press release on that.

**UNCA Announcements

The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) has asked us to inform you of a briefing by the Coalition for an International Criminal Court (ICC). That’s tomorrow at 11 a.m. in the UNCA Club, and it’s on the subject of the preparatory commission for the establishment of the ICC. Finally, also from UNCA, they’ve asked me to remind you that the election season has begun. Voting is scheduled to take place from today through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on the third floor, outside the UNCA Club. All of those who are registered are invited to exercise your voting rights –- so all of you be sure to vote and take part in UNCA democracy.

That’s all I have for you, Are there any questions before we go to Shirley?

**Questions and Answers

Question: What was in the letter from Nicaragua? Did the Government request the Secretary-General to ask the Security Council to take action in this dispute?

Spokesman: I don’t have those details, I’m sorry.

Question: Was there any progress in the first day of the Cyprus proximity talks? How will the meetings continue from here on?

Spokesman: There is a news blackout, so we can’t talk about any of the substance of the talks. I expect that they would continue to take place on a daily basis –- meeting with first one part and then the other –- and that will go on until they feel the can no longer make progress or until they have a breakthrough to announce. We have scheduled something like ten days [for the talks] on a tentative basis, but, we’re prepared to stay longer if necessary.

[During the press briefing on Somalia by Randolph Kent, the Spokesman was asked the following question: Will the Cyprus talks continue tomorrow and will they be led by Mr. Desoto? The Spokesman responded: We’re on Somalia now, but the answer is “yes” to your question.]

Ok. Shirley.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

The General Assembly, this morning, is considering items on cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as well as with the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. The Assembly will also take action on a draft resolution dealing with the Preparatory Commission, and one on multilingualism in the United Nations Secretariat.

As the meeting got under way, the Assembly decided to include in its current agenda two additional items -- “International recognition of the Day of Vesak” and to consider it directly in plenary, as recommended by the General Committee (A/54/250/Add.2), and “Financing of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor” and to allocate it to the Fifth Committee, as requested by the Secretary-General (A/54/236 and Add.1). Responding to another request by the Secretary-General, the Assembly decided to hold elections on 2 March 2000, simultaneously with the Security Council, to elect a member of the International Court of Justice to serve for the remainder of the term of Judge Stephen Schwebel, President of the Court, who has resigned effective 29 February 2000, but whose term would have expired on 5 February 2006 (A/54/624).

At the time of the briefing, the Assembly was hearing a number of speakers before taking action on the draft resolution on multilingualism (A/54/L.37). By adopting that text, introduced by France, the Assembly requests the Secretary-General to appoint a senior Secretariat official as coordinator of questions relating to multilingualism throughout the Secretariat and to submit a report in 2001.

The Secretary-General’s report on the subject (A/54/478) says he is committed to promoting the learning of all official and working languages of the Organization by Secretariat staff and to ensuring that adequate human and financial resources are available for maintaining the teaching of those languages. The importance of developing the linguistic competence of Secretariat staff is recognized and is reflected in the current budget and in the proposed programme budget for the 2000-2001 biennium.

The report draws attention to the information materials produced and disseminated by the Department of Public Information aimed at furthering global awareness of the multicultural nature and linguistic diversity of the Organization. It concludes by stating that the Secretariat continues to follow the policy of promoting the learning and use of the official and working languages of the Organization in all its activities, and that, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 50/11, the Organization is exerting every effort to continue to promote multilingualism.

By adopting the resolution on cooperation between the UN and the CTBT Organization (A/54/L.48), to be introduced by Austria, the Assembly invites the Secretary-General to take the appropriate steps to conclude with the Executive Secretary an agreement to regulate the relationship between the United Nations and the Preparatory Commission. The agreement would then be submitted to the General Assembly for its approval.

Also this morning, the Assembly heard 10 speakers on cooperation between the United Nations and the OSCE, including Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek of Norway, OSCE Chairman-in-Office. Austria, which will succeed Norway as OSCE Chairman, also spoke. A draft resolution under this item will be submitted at a later date.

In his report on the subject (A/54/537), the Secretary-General says that good contacts have been established and maintained with OSCE officials and representatives, that cooperation between the two organizations takes place on a multitude of levels and, during the past year, has intensified in peacekeeping efforts in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. The relationship between OSCE and UNHCR has developed into a comprehensive strategic partnership, according to the report, which also cites the growing cooperation between OSCE and the Economic Commission for Europe and the United Nations Development Programme, and with the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the human rights field.

The Secretary-General states that the authorization by the Security Council, in its resolution 1244 of 10 June 1999 to establish an international civil presence in Kosovo, required an integrated approach with a clear distribution of labour. Agreement was reached with the OSCE to take the lead role in institution-building in Kosovo and in the creation of institutions of democracy, pluralism, human rights and the rule of law. The cooperation established between OSCE and the United Nations in Kosovo and elsewhere in the Balkans bears testimony to the complementarity of the two organizations and the many advantages that stand to be gained from a rational division of labour based on their respective strengths. The Secretary-General is sure that this valuable practical experience of cooperation and burden-sharing can be usefully applied in future undertakings where the United Nations is working side by side with one or several regional organizations.

This afternoon, the Assembly will take action on various reports of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) (A/54/573-584). These include reports on the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples; implementation of the decolonization Declaration, which is also a plenary item; the effects of atomic radiation; international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space; the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East; the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories; comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping operations in all their aspects; questions relating to information; East Timor; and Non-Self-Governing Territories.

Tomorrow, the Assembly will take up the item on the return or restitution of cultural property to the countries of origin (A/54/436).

I wish to draw attention to the latest programme of work of the plenary, A/INF/54/3/Add.4, available on the racks today. It covers the period from today through 14 December, the tentative date for the closing of the main part of the regular session.

This morning, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) is considering the financing of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). The Secretary-General’s proposed budget for UNMIK, for the period from its inception on 10 June 1999 to 30 June 2000, provides for a total strength of 9,812 personnel and amounts to $456,451,200 gross, including $200 million previously authorized by the Assembly (A/54/494). In its related report (A/54/622), the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions recommends that, for the period in question, the Assembly appropriate $427,061,800 gross for UNMIK, including the $200 million already authorized.

The ACABQ notes that the size, scope and mandate of UNMIK are unique in the United Nations, and it recognizes the difficulties inherent in preparing the initial budget for such a mission without the benefit of precedent or operational experience. The Advisory Committee says it for this reason that it has indicated that its recommendations for reductions in post and other resources can be revisited in future budget submissions on the basis of experience.

Concerning the appointments of Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab, this morning he met with the Foreign Minister of Andorra, Mr. Albert Pintat Santolaria, and the Permanent Representative, Ambassador Juli Minoves-Triquell. He is presiding over this morning’s plenary meeting and will do so again this afternoon. This evening, the President will attend a reception hosted by the Chairman of the Fifth Committee, Ambassador Penny Wensley (Australia), in honour of the bureau, delegates and secretariat of the Committee.

Spokesman: Any questions for Shirley? If not we’ll go to Randolph Kent.

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