DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000605The following is a near-verbatim transcript of todays noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and by Shirley Brownell, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.
Spokesmans Briefing
Thanks for being so patient.
**Beijing Plus Five
The General Assembly today began a one-week special session to review progress on women's issues since the Beijing Summit five years ago. Shirley will give you a full report in a few minutes.
**Kidnapped Personnel in Georgia Released
This morning, just within the last hour or so, a United Nations helicopter travelled to the Kodori Valley in Georgia's Abkhazia region to pick up four persons -- including two Danish United Nations military observers, a British member of the non-governmental organization Halo Trust and an Abkhaz -- who had gone missing on Thursday last. The four are now on board the United Nations helicopter and are believed to all be in good condition.
On Saturday, the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) determined that the group -- which had comprised five members, including another Abkhaz who was released on Saturday -- had been kidnapped by members of a local militia group known as the Swans.
Today, the Mission was allowed to pick up the four remaining kidnappees, who are now to be transported by helicopter to a nearby town, Senaki, and fly from there on a fixed-wing aircraft to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. After that, the four expect to return to the United Nations base in Sukhumi for a debriefing.
The United Nations did not negotiate with the kidnappers, nor did it pay any ransom. The United Nations thanks the efforts of the Government of Georgia, which helped to obtain the release of the five people.
**Work on Confirming Withdrawal Nearing End in Lebanon
Today in Lebanon, the United Nations is at the final stages of marking portions of a "practical line" for the purpose of confirming Israel's withdrawal, in accordance with Security Council resolutions.
The United Nations experts -- including cartographers and legal and military advisers -- are on the ground today conducting the task of identifying the withdrawal line, and are currently meeting at the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in Naqoura.
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Terje Roed-Larsen, has arrived back in Lebanon early this morning after visiting Israel and he is still conducting intensive contacts with all concerned parties. Yesterday, he met with
Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 5 June 2000
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and also attended a joint United Nations-Israeli meeting of cartographic, legal and military experts that was held in northern Israel.
There remain a few issues to be resolved regarding the withdrawal line, but the Secretary-General, on entering the building today, told reporters that he expected to be able to confirm Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon within the next few days.
We expect later today to issue a press release by Mr. Larsen that would provide some further information on the final phase of the confirmation process.
**Sierra Leone
United Nations peacekeepers have retaken the strategic crossroads at Rogberi Junction, about 60 kilometres north-east of Freetown, and built up their troop strength there to 700.
The take-over took place Friday afternoon. Two companies of Indian peacekeepers encountered two roadblocks, one about 3 kilometres south of Rogberi and the other about 800 metres away from the same town. The troops broke through both roadblocks, causing the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) to resort to sporadic fire. The RUF also fired at a United Nations helicopter, which retaliated with machine-gun fire. The RUF vanished into the bush, according to the United Nations mission. No casualties were reported on either side and the United Nations troops are reported to be in full control of the situation.
The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone is now planning daily aggressive patrols on a key route from Freetown to Lunsar and back to Lungi, where the airport is.
Meanwhile, in Kailahun, a supply convoy of five trucks was detained by the RUF. One truck was allowed in over the weekend to resupply more than 200 United Nations personnel encircled there. Negotiations continue for the release of the four other vehicles. There were no personnel detained from that convoy.
In New York today, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, is scheduled to meet with the Permanent Representatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries to discuss troop contributions.
On the humanitarian front, a 15-day campaign to vaccinate some 160,000 children under the age of five and 225,000 women of child-bearing age began in Freetown.
**Kosovo
The United Nations mission in Kosovo has ordered an Albanian daily to stop publication for eight days for hate content which led to the murder of a Serb United Nations staff member.
The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, noted that an article published in the publication Dita on 27 April had put the staff member at risk of life from vigilante violence by including such personal details as his name, family details, place of work and movements. It even showed a photograph of him and gave his address. Petar Topoljski, age 25, went missing about a month ago and was found murdered a week after his disappearance.
The editor of the daily said after the murder that his paper would continue to publish the names of individuals it considered to be "involved against Albanians".
Also over the weekend, the Serb National Council of Kosovo announced that it would boycott meetings of the United Nations-led interim government this week in protest over an upsurge of violence.
Mr. Kouchner expressed his regret over the decision and said he would present the case of the Serbs to the United Nations in New York, where he is scheduled to brief the Security Council this Friday.
**Council Receives Report on Iraq, Ethiopia-Eritrea
The Council, meanwhile, which on Saturday night ended a weekend retreat with the Secretary-General near Tarrytown, New York, on the subject of peacekeeping, is not holding any meetings today.
The Council has received a number of reports by the Secretary-General in recent days, including the first quarterly report on the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) on Iraq. That report notes that the Commission's Executive Chairman, Hans Blix, is currently engaged in reviewing potential staff members and that appointments have already been offered to fill a number of senior positions.
In the latest report on the "oil-for-food" programme, the seventh phase of which expires on Thursday, the Secretary-General notes that revenues from oil exports earned under Phase VII are estimated to reach some $8.4 billion, of which about $5.64 billion will be available to the humanitarian programme.
Also out on the racks today is the report of the Secretary-General on the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. In it he notes that since Ethiopia declared the end of the war on 31 May, "no major combat has been reported", although there continue to be reports of some fighting, with both sides accusing each other of attacks.
The Secretary-General notes that proximity talks, held under the auspices of the Organization for African Unity (OAU), have been going on between the two sides in Algiers since 30 May, and he urges the two parties to cooperate fully with the OAU.
Last, I'd like to draw your attention to an exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, on the establishment of a United Nations Peace-Building Support Office in Tajikistan, for a one-year term starting 1 June.
**Special Events Connected with Special Session
I mentioned the special session of the General Assembly. The Secretary- General was among the guests at an opening ceremony hosted by the Beijing +5 NGO Host Committee at 11:30 a.m. today on Dag Hammarskjold Plaza. The gathering also featured Queen Noor of Jordan, United States Lt. General Claudia Kennedy, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, as well as other guests and numerous representatives of non-governmental organizations.
Also, there will be a special panel on microcredit today from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Conference Room 4. Attending the high-level panel will be United States First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton; United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Executive Director Noeleen Heyzer; managing director of the Grameen Bank Muhammed Yunus; General Secretary of the Self-Employed Women's Association, Ela Bhatt; and Vice-President of the Women's Environment and Development Organization, Chief Bisis Ogunleye of Nigeria.
Journalists are asked to please be seated by 12:30 p.m.
**UNEP -- World Environment Day
Today is World Environment Day and it's just about over in Adelaide, Australia, where international observances were held under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
To observe World Environment Day in Afghanistan, children in Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul City are planting kenaf seeds made available through a joint effort of the United Nations system worldwide and in Afghanistan. Also, in Mazar, a formal planting ceremony was organized by the youth there in celebration of the Day.
**WHO Study
The Japanese have the longest healthy life expectancy -- 74.5 years among 191 countries versus less than 26 years for the lowest-ranking country, which is Sierra Leone. That's according to new rankings by the World Health Organization (WHO) released today.
Previously, life expectancy estimates were based on the overall length of life based on mortality data only. For the first time, WHO has calculated healthy life expectancy for babies born in 1999 based on an indicator called Disability Adjusted Life Expectancy (DALE), which was developed by WHO scientists.
You can pick up a press release.
**Press Conferences
Finally, on press conferences, two this afternoon: [at] 3 o'clock, Juan Somavia, Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), will be joined by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director of UNIFEM to discuss the progress of the Microcredit Summit Campaign and its impact on low-income women.
And then at 3:30 p.m., Representative Joseph Crowley and Representative Carolyn Maloney, members of the United States House of Representatives, will be joined by Joan Dunlop of Women's Lens on Global Issues and Nancy Belden of Belden, Russonello and Stewart to announce the results of a new national poll, "Connecting Women in the US and Global Issues".
And then tomorrow at 2 p.m., the United States Permanent Mission is sponsoring a press conference by Equality Now, featuring international activists from Ethiopia, Kenya, Kuwait, Nepal and Peru. They will be discussing reform of discriminatory laws in their respective countries, including an update on the most recent developments in the women's suffrage movement in Kuwait.
Those will be here in Room 226.
**Question and Answer Session
**Question: When is Mr. Larsen expected back in New York? Will the Secretary-General give a formal report to the Security Council on the withdrawal and when?
**Spokesman: Ah, when is the question. First we'll have to see how quickly Mr. Larsen can finish up what he's doing on the ground.
I don't think the Secretary-General will wait for him to come to New York. I think, probably within 24 hours of their resolving these remaining issues concerning the practical line on the ground, the Secretary-General will be able to confirm the Israeli withdrawal. That's the time-frame. Mr. Larsen's longer-term plans, we'll have to check for you.
**Question: This confirmation would be in written form to the Council?
**Spokesman: I assume that would be in a letter to the Council. I'll double check for you after the briefing.
**Question: Did the Security Council discuss specifically the crisis in Sierra Leone over the weekend? Were any lessons drawn?
**Spokesman: Yes, Sierra Leone was a major element on the agenda, but not so much as a mission, but the lessons that could be learned from the mission for future missions. It was, of course, a closed, confidential meeting. I can't go into too much detail.
But they were looking at the challenges to peacekeeping today, the kinds of issues that will be addressed by Lakhdar Brahimi, head of the United Nations Panel on Peace Operations, who is preparing for the Secretary-General a major report on United Nations peace operations that will be forwarded to the Millennium Summit in September. I guess you could generally say it was a kind of lessons-learned exercise based largely on Sierra Leone.
**Question: What are the remaining issues in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon? Is it the water issue?
**Spokesman: I can't get into those questions, I'm sorry. But there are about three issues that are basically technical in nature and the Secretary- General hopes that they can be resolved within a day or so.
**Question: On the Kosovo paper, is there something in the mandate that permitted the United Nations in Kosovo to exercise that form of censorship?
**Spokesman: Well, there is an administrative provision that provides for this. And Kouchner specifically cited Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) empowering him to protect human rights in Kosovo, including the right to life. When you're talking about hate media -- you'll recall when Radio Mille Collines was broadcasting hate messages in Rwanda in 1994, there was a debate over whether it should have been shut down or the signals jammed.
Of course that runs up against the freedom of expression issue. But I think in this case it was Bernard Kouchner's call that hate media would not be tolerated in Kosovo. The stakes are too high and in this particular case, he could trace a message printed by this newspaper to the murder of one of his own staff.
**Question: How many people were at the retreat?
**Spokesman: It was the 15 members of the Council -- I don't know that they had any staff with them -- and the Secretary-General took two people from his staff, so it was a relatively small gathering.
**Question: Can you tell us something about reports that there are not enough blue helmets for the reinforcement peacekeepers in Sierra Leone?
**Spokesman: I saw that story. I don't know whether they might have been confused by the fact that some of the previously arriving units came without helmets and without flak jackets and we had to bring in several thousand helmets from our depot in Brindisi, Italy, at which time I think we brought roughly twice the number of helmets.
We were shy about 2,000; that is there were about 2,000 troops who arrived without helmets who should have had them, and we brought in about 4,000. But I can't confirm this story, which we also saw this morning.
Spokeswomans Briefing
With us here today is Ms. Yakin Erturk, Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women. She is here to answer any substantive questions you may have concerning the special session.
As Fred told you at the outset, the General Assembly convened this morning for its twenty-third special session, entitled Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century.
Over the next five days, Member States will review and appraise the progress made towards implementing the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women. At that 1995 Conference, held in Beijing, China, governments committed themselves to ensuring that a gender perspective would be reflected in all their policies and programmes, and they adopted the Platform for Action, which spelled out actions to be taken at all levels, in 12 critical areas, to remove existing obstacles to womens advancement.
At the conclusion of the special session, on Friday, 9 June, governments will adopt an outcome document containing further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
Elected as President of the special session was the current Assembly President, Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Information and Broadcasting of Namibia.
Addressing the special session, the President said it offered an ideal opportunity to assess how far Member States had come in fulfilling their promises, to address the shortcomings, to face the new challenges and to renew their commitments. The international community could then move forward with renewed dedication and energy. The time for urgent and speedy progress had never been more propitious.
At the same time, governments' policies on gender equality and the implementation of the Platform could not be an afterthought or remain simply at the level of political pronouncement or election ploy. Resources for gender equality goals must be mobilized and utilized. They must be a visible part of international development cooperation.
The President concluded by saying: This special session must strive to live up to the expectations of billions of women in the world. Our deliberations this week will encourage and strengthen the devotion of all those struggling but brave women. Let us not disappoint them. (Copies of the Presidents statement are available in room 378.)
Addressing the special session, the Secretary-General said that five years ago, delegates and non-governmental organizations went to Beijing to right wrongs and promote rights; to show the world that when women suffer injustice, we all suffer; that when women are empowered, we are all better off.
There had been progress since then, he said, but much remained to be done. All the many challenges could be met only if women were enabled to build on the best this new world has to offer, rather than condemn them to suffer the worst of it. That meant, above all, that women must be educated and enabled to play their part in the global economy.
Study after study had confirmed that there is no development strategy more beneficial to society as a whole -- men and women alike -- than one which involves women as central players, the Secretary-General said. Implementing the Beijing Platform would be crucial to achieving all the Millennium goals he had asked the worlds leaders to adopt on behalf of all the worlds people. (The Secretary- General's statement is also available in room 378).
The Chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women acting as the preparatory committee for the special session, Christine Kapalata (United Republic of Tanzania), introduced the Commissions report (document A/S-23/2 and Adds. 1 and 2 (Parts I to IV) on the intergovernmental process.
A total of 31 speakers are inscribed for todays debate, among them, the Vice-Presidents of the Gambia and Gabon, and the Prime Minister of Namibia. The Journal lists all the names and titles of the speakers.
Over the next five days, 179 governments will address the special session in plenary, along with 26 observers and heads of United Nations programmes, specialized agencies and other entities, for a total of 205 speakers. Time permitting, a limited number of non-governmental organizations will be permitted to make statements in that debate.
Statements will also be made in the special sessions Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole, which was established by the Assembly this morning and which started work at 11:30 a.m. in Conference Room 2. Ms. Kapalata was elected Chairperson.
The Assembly adopted a 10-item agenda recommended by the Preparatory Committee and decided to consider all the items directly in plenary. At the same time, it allocated items 8 and 9 to the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole. Under those two items, the Ad Hoc Committee will consider a text entitled "Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action."
I would like to draw your attention to an information note, Rev. 1 of 19 May, which deals with arrangements for the special session, in particular, to section g on media arrangements and services.
Prior to presiding over the special session, the Assembly President met at 9:30 a.m. with Prime Minister Hage Geingob of Namibia. He will attend the luncheon, at 1:15 p.m. today, hosted by the Secretary-General on the occasion of the special session. At 5 p.m., the President will meet with Madame Wu Yi, State Councillor of China, who addressed the Assembly this morning. And at 6:30 p.m., he will host a reception on the occasion of the Women 2000 session.
Finally, in a message to mark World Environment Day, the Assembly President said: If generations to come are to enjoy this environment millennium, the time to act to save the planet is now. We have only one Earth. Let us, therefore, commit ourselves to ecologically sustainable development and pledge to preserve planet Earth as a healthy and precious environment for generations of today and generations yet unborn. That message was issued in Press Release GA/SM/170 on 2 June.
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