DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000217The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Marie Okabe, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Good afternoon.
**In East Timor, Tears, Cheers as Secretary-General Pledges UN Support for 'New Era of Peace'
The Secretary-General arrived in Dili, East Timor, from Jakarta, Indonesia in the late morning on Thursday. At the airport, he met jointly with the Transitional Administrator in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello and independence leader Xanana Gusmao, President of the National Council of Timorese Resistance. He then met with Gusmao alone. They drove through the town of Dili where about half of the buildings were burnt out shells -- many with tidy piles of charred rubble in front. Clean-up had begun in preparation for rebuilding.
The party then travelled in Russian United Nations helicopters to the town of Liquica -- about 25 miles west of Dili -- which had been a base for anti- independence militia and where post-referendum killing, rape and destruction were severe. As a result, it has been called "the killing field" of East Timor. On descending from the helicopter, the Secretary-General was surrounded by villagers. An old man came up to him, embraced him tightly and cried. They walked on to the village church where hundreds had been massacred in April of 1999. The Secretary-General laid a wreath at a monument to the dead. Survivors standing by began to cry and then wail. One after another came up to him and embraced him, crying. They also embraced his wife. The Secretary-General and his party then continued walking down the road, which he was told had just been named "Avenue of the Secretary-General of the United Nations".
The crowd, which had swelled to 5,000, by United Nations police estimates, poured onto the soccer field where Xanana Gusmao introduced the Secretary- General. Referring to the church massacre, he said that he found it "shocking" that "a house of worship should be desecrated" in this way. He called for justice to prevail over impunity. "Justice should be handed down in a courtroom", he said, "not in the street". He pledged United Nations support to usher in a new era in which East Timorese might live in dignity and peace.
He then met with United Nations representatives and then attended a special meeting of the National Consultative Council. He also had a smaller meeting with Bishop Carlos Filipe Belo and Bishop Basilio Nascimento.
We have copies of the Secretary-General's speech in Liquica, and an embargoed address to the people of East Timor which he plans to deliver at 8:30 a.m., which is 7:30 p.m. our time (Eastern Standard Time). Both copies are available upstairs.
Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 17 February 2000
**Security Council Recommends Admission of Tuvalu
This morning, the Security Council held a formal meeting to consider the application of the Pacific island chain of Tuvalu to become a Member State of the United Nations.
By a vote of 14 to none, with 1 abstention, the Council decided to recommend Tuvalu's application for admission to the General Assembly. It is now up to the Assembly to consider the question of Tuvalu's admission at its next formal session.
Tuvalu became independent in 1978 and has a population of about 10,000; if admitted, it would become the 189th Member State of the United Nations.
After its formal meeting, the Council went into informal consultations.
Tomorrow the Council will have informal consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. And it has also scheduled informal consultations on Somalia for next Tuesday.
**In Washington, Gambari Delivers Secretary-General's Message of Hope to Summit on Africa
Today in Washington, D.C., Ibrahim Gambari, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa, delivered a message on behalf of the Secretary- General at the National Summit on Africa which was opened by United States. President, Bill Clinton.
The Secretary-General's message expressed the hope that the Summit would draw attention to the new opportunities for foreign investment in Africa, and emphasized that the United Nations had made Africa a priority in every facet of its work.
He particularly drew attention to United Nations efforts in Angola and Sierra Leone, as well as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where, he noted, the United Nations anxiously awaits Security Council authorization of the deployment of 500 military observers, backed up by more than 5,000 military personnel.
The full text of the Secretary-General's message is available in a press release on the racks.
We also have copies in the Spokesman's Office of a speech delivered at the National Summit by K.Y. Amoako, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa. He noted that today, 21 per cent of Africa's peoples are in war and conflict, while the region has the highest levels of poverty and the most unequal income distribution of any in the world.
He urged the United States to become more involved in helping Africa and added that when the United States pays its UN dues and makes voluntary contributions to the United Nations, it is helping Africa.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 17 February 2000
We also have upstairs from the Economic Commission for Africa an announcement that it will hold a regional conference on the problem of "brain drain" in Africa at its headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 22 to 24 February.
**Cyanide Spill Update: UNEP Task Force Continues Water Sampling
With regard to the cyanide spill from the Romanian gold mine, the mobile lab from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Balkans Task Force is continuing its water sampling of the Danube River. Yesterday, they were working near Pancevo in Serbia and today, upstream, at the Iron Gate dam area near the Hungarian/Romanian border. The first preliminary analysis is expected late tomorrow afternoon.
Concurrently, Pekka Haavisto, Chairman of the Task Force, has been touring affected areas in Hungary and Romania with the Environment Ministers of the countries along with the European Environment Commissioner, Margot Wallstrom. They are discussing possible next steps.
**UN Disarmament Operations Called 'Well-established Feature of Post-War Peacekeeping' in Report out Today
On the racks today are copies of the Secretary-General's report on the United Nations peacekeeping role in disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. The report, which summarizes United Nations analyses about its disarmament work, is in response to a request by the Security Council in July 1999 for the Secretary-General's recommendations on further disarmament work.
The report notes that, although United Nations disarmament, demobilization and reintegration operations are fairly recent, they have "rapidly become a well-established feature of post-cold war peacekeeping".
It adds that United Nations peacekeepers can help to reassure former combatants to disarm and even, if necessary, offer incentives to do so. The Secretary-General notes that a non-governmental operation in Mozambique allowed for weapons to be exchanged for such tools as sewing machines, bicycles, hoes and construction materials, which helped to benefit entire communities.
United Nations peacekeepers, the report notes, can also be used to destroy weapons -- sometimes "the best scenario for the disposal of weapons" -- and to monitor regional arms flows.
Please see the report for more information.
**Note from Kosovo
We have a press release from Pristina announcing the appointment today of the first international prosecutor in Mitrovica as part of the emergency measures to restore security in the divided city.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 17 February 2000
The United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) decided that the pressure upon the fledgling local judiciary was so great as to warrant the immediate appointment of international jurists to quickly prosecute those suspected of inflaming the situation in Mitrovica.
**WHO Announces 'Recipe' for Vaccine to Fight New Flu Bug
The World Health Organization (WHO) has come up with a "recipe" for the vaccine to combat the flu season that has hit the Northern Hemisphere this year. Scientists and researchers, gathered in Geneva this week, identified the three components needed to deal with the new influenza viruses. We have a release from WHO with more information.
**Dhanapala Warns of 'Dangerous New Era' in Disarmament Efforts in Speech to Asian and Pacific Nations
We also have copies of a speech delivered by Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala, delivered on Tuesday at the opening of a three-day regional disarmament meeting of Asian and Pacific nations, held in Kathmandu, Nepal. He said that global disarmament efforts are "entering a dangerous new era", and warned that, while leaders of nuclear-weapon States talk about wanting to disarm, they balk at negotiating concrete measures to do so.
**UNICEF Press Release
Finally, we also have a press release from UNICEF about Carol Bellamy's tour, planned for tomorrow, of flood-affected areas in Mozambique.
That's all the information I have, so I'll turn it over to you.
**Question and Answer
Question: Has the United Nations mission to Tajikistan arrived yet? Are they planning to scale back the operation because of the latest upsurge of violence there?
Associate Spokesman: I just read this morning that a United Nations team has arrived. In our office upstairs, you can pick up copies of the bi-weekly newsletter put out by the mission in Tajikistan that can give you more details on our efforts there. I have not heard anything today, however, about any scaling back of our operations.
If there are no more questions, have a good afternoon.
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