DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000608The following is a near-verbatim transcript of todays noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Shirley Brownell, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.
Good afternoon.
The guest at todays noon briefing, arriving shortly, will be Hans Corell, the United Nations Legal Counsel, who will talk to you about the Secretary- Generals call for ratification of human rights conventions, particularly on womens rights.
**Spokesmans Statement on Progress and Outcome of Women 2000
On the Women 2000 Conference currently taking place, we have the following statement attributable to the Spokesman:
"The Secretary-General notes that there has been some progress overnight toward finalizing the outcome of the Beijing +5 process. He welcomes the spirit of cooperation shown by delegations.
"The Declaration and Platform for Action of the Beijing Conference marked a major step forward in the advancement of women, particularly in the developing world. They provide principles, goals and policy approaches that women in all parts of the world find of great value in their daily struggle to improve their lives. It is important that the outcome document for Beijing +5 maintains in full all of the commitments in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Every major United Nations event on the advancement of women has marked some further forward movement on earlier events. The Secretary-General hopes that the final outcome of Beijing +5 will maintain this tradition and be seen by women around the world as an important step forward for the full implementation of the Beijing consensus.
"The Secretary-General urges all Member States to work together in the spirit of cooperation to ensure the gains made by women in Beijing five years ago are consolidated, protected and advanced further."
**UNIFIL, in Tandem with Israeli, Lebanese Experts Begin Verification Work in Lebanon
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has begun work, in tandem with experts from Israel and Lebanon, on verifying Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in accordance with Security Council resolutions. That work began at about 4:00 in the afternoon, local time, after Israel resolved one outstanding issue regarding the withdrawal line, which allowed the United Nations teams to begin their work.
Four United Nations verification teams are investigating the withdrawal line previously marked by United Nations experts, from both the Israeli and Lebanese sides of the border. On either side of the border, Israeli and Lebanese experts have been working with the United Nations teams, often in close proximity to each other.
Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 8 June 2000
The verification work is to end at sunset -- within about an hour from now -- and is expected to resume tomorrow morning. The United Nations Mission said that it is unlikely that all the needed verification work will be completed by sunset today, although the United Nations expects the work to be completed within a relatively short span of time, possibly by tomorrow.
Once the verification work is completed, the United Nations Force Commander in Lebanon, General Seth-Kofi Obeng, will inform the Secretary- General. The Secretary-General would then inform the Security Council by a letter.
The Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Terje Roed Larsen, arrived yesterday afternoon at the end of a two-week visit to Lebanon, with trips to Israel and Syria. This morning, he met with the Secretary-General and briefed him on his visit.
**Spokesmans Statement on Democratic Republic of Congo
The following statement, also attributable to the Spokesman, concerns the Democratic Republic of the Congo:
"The Secretary-General this morning had contact with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, as well as with United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, who headed the Security Council mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in early May, with a view to ending the fighting between their forces in Kisangani.
"They discussed the persistent outbreaks of fighting between Rwandan and Ugandan forces in Kisangani, in which a significant number of civilians were killed and at least five United Nations staff injured. The Secretary-General stated that the fighting was lamentable and regardless of who had initiated it, that it must end immediately.
"In response, the two Presidents agreed to a ceasefire as of 4 p.m. local time today - which is 10 a.m. New York time - and to withdraw their troops consistent with the agreement reached between the two sides on 21 May.
"Under Phase I of that agreement, the Rwandan troops will withdraw south across the Congo River, toward Ubundu and Lubutu, and the Ugandan troops will pull back to positions north and east of Kisangani, toward Banalia and Bafwasende.
"The United Nations Force Commander, Major General Mountaga Diallo, has been instructed to deal directly with the Rwandan and Ugandan Chiefs of Staff on moving towards the second phase of the ceasefire agreement, which would involve further pullbacks.
"The United Nations Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) now has 20 military observers on the ground in Kisangani. It was agreed this morning to increase immediately that number and to position these observers with both the Ugandan and Rwandan troops.
"The Secretary-General hopes that with the demilitarization of Kisangani, the Democratic Republic of the Congo will move closer to a comprehensive ceasefire and eventually a stable and durable peace under the Lusaka ceasefire agreement."
**Notes from Sierra Leone: Mission in Contact with RUF on Release of UN Personnel Held in Pendembu
The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) continued contacts with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) on the release of 21 Indian personnel who had been based in Kuiva and are currently being held in Pendembu.
In the northern town of Kabala, the United Nations Mission reports continuing fighting between the RUF and Sierra Leone Army troops, although it adds that the fighting has not involved United Nations troops. We have about 300 Kenyan troops in Kabala.
The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Freetown reported that according to displaced persons accounts, the fighting in Kabala is causing panic among citizens, causing thousands to flee into the bush. Hostilities in May have resulted in more than 64,000 people to flee their homes in Sierra Leone. The number is expected to climb, as registration is ongoing in a number of areas. There are reports of large-scale population movements in areas of the northern and eastern Province that cannot be confirmed due to inaccessibility.
In Freetown today, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook met for 45 minutes with Oluyemi Adeniji, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and with Force Commander Vijay Kumar Jetley, and expressed his support for the work of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone.
Later tonight, the assessment team led by former United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Manfred Eisele, is scheduled to leave Sierra Leone and begin writing a report on its findings.
In New York, the Security Council is expected to discuss the latest report by the Secretary-General on Sierra Leone and a draft resolution formulated in response to recommendations in that report.
**Security Council: Consultations on Horn of Africa; Oil-for-Food Programme
The Security Council began its work today with closed consultations on the Ethiopia-Eritrea dispute, on which it had a briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast. The two Governments remain involved in proximity talks in Algiers under the auspices of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). However, continued fighting has been reported today along the border, particularly at the Bure front.
The Council is now holding consultations on Sierra Leone, also briefly held consultations on a draft resolution concerning Phase VIII of the oil-for- food programme for Iraq and experts are currently meeting on that subject. If agreement is reached on a text, the Council is expected to proceed to a vote on that resolution after its consultations. Phase VII of the program expires today.
**Secretary-General Travels to Washington, then to California
The Secretary-General will travel for three days starting tomorrow, 9 June, first to Washington, D.C., where he will deliver the keynote address at the national convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and from there to San Francisco, California, where he will deliver a commencement speech at Stanford University.
While he is in California, he will also attend a private reception to support the efforts of an organization called Roots of Peace, a California-based non-profit which intends to use demined land for agricultural production. On Sunday night, the Secretary-General and his wife, Nane Annan, will be the guests of Scott Cook, the founder and Chairman of Intuit, at a dinner with about 10 Silicon Valley executives in Palo Alto.
On Monday afternoon, the Secretary-General is expected to return to New York. We have a note to correspondents available upstairs with more details.
**Piet Tallo, West Timorese Governor Visits Dili, East Timor
For the first time since September of last year, the Governor of West Timor, Piet Tallo, visited Dili, East Timor, today. The main topics discussed during the meetings with the United Nations Mission (UNTAET) and the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) were return of refugees, pensions of East Timorese former civil servants in the Indonesian Administration, as well as border issues and how to increase trade and investment between the two sides of the island. Agreement was reached on additional measures aimed at accelerating the refugee repatriation process.
For more details, you can pick up the UNTAET briefing notes.
**Rwanda Criminal Tribunal Orders Release of Memorandum
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda today ordered the release of a document written by a former United Nations employee concerning the 6 April 1994 plane crash in which the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi were killed.
The three-page memorandum was written in 1997 by Michael Hourigan, a former member of one of the investigative teams of the Office of the Prosecutor for the Tribunal, while he was acting on his own initiative. Youll recall that that memorandum was found earlier this year at United Nations Headquarters where Mr. Hourigan briefly worked for the Office of Internal Oversight Services.
The memorandum was then transmitted to the Tribunal and, today, two separate Trial Chambers ruled that it should be released to the parties. Neither Trial Chamber ruled on the admissibility or relevance of the memorandum. We have a press release upstairs with more details.
**High-Level Panel on Womens Conference
A high-level panel will be held on Friday, 9 June, from 3:15 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., in Conference Room 3, on The Historical Journey, 25 Years of International Womens Conference.
A historical perspective on the work done by the United Nations for women will be given by Ms. Leticia Shahani, the Secretary-General of the World Conference to Review and Appraise the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women, and Ms. Gertrude Mongella, Secretary-General of the Fourth World Conference on Women. For further information, contact Yasmin Padamsee at (212) 963-7704.
Press Conferences this afternoon:
At 2 p.m., the Centre for Reproduction Law and Policy will hold a press conference to assess progress made, particularly in the area of women's reproductive and sexual health rights, during the Beijing +5 review process (sponsored by the United States Mission);
At 3 p.m., Elisabeth Rehn, former Special Representative of the Secretary- General for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Netumbo Nandi-Ndiatwah, Minister for Women's Affairs and Child Welfare of Namibia, to discuss the "Namibia Declaration";
And at 3:45 p.m., Shazia Rafi, Secretary-General of Parliament for Global Action will discuss its Panel on Women in Power, which is being organized by the United Nations Committee for Parliamentarians for Global Action and the Permanent Mission of Sweden.
Well go to Shirley and then Mr. Hans Corell. First, your questions for me, if you have any.
**Questions and Answers
Question: On the situation in Lebanon: is it true that the number of soldiers will be reduced from the number previously announced?
Spokesman: I have no information on that at this time.
Question: Is it true that the Secretary-General will travel to Lebanon?
Spokesman: I have nothing to say about that at this time either.
Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President
The Director of the Division for the Advancement of Women, Ms. Yakin Erturk, is here to answer any substantive questions you may have concerning the special session.
The General Assembly is in the penultimate day of its twenty-third special session on Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty- first Century. A further 37 speakers will be heard from today, as governments continue their review and appraisal of the progress made towards womens advancement, through their implementation of the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995.
The two Working Groups of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole are continuing their negotiations on the outcome document entitled Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action
(document A/S-23/2/Add. 2, Parts I to IV). The special session concludes tomorrow, 9 June, at which time governments are expected to adopt that document.
Five p.m. today is the deadline for submitting any text that has to be translated into the official languages.
Yesterday, according the Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee, Ms. Christine Kapalata (United Republic of Tanzania), Working Group I made appreciable progress. It had agreed, in the Introduction, to include reference to the report of the Fourth World Conference on Women. There had also been some semblance of agreement as regards paragraph 2, which refers to the sovereignty of Member States. She believed that delegates might settle for language already contained in the Platform for Action. Additional paragraphs in parts II and III of the document had also been agreed.
Ms. Kapalata said there was no meeting of minds between two delegations concerning references throughout the document to unilateral coercive measures and sanctions. Other delegations were, however, satisfied with the language.
Working Group II had made a lot of progress, she said, having tackled almost 50 per cent of what had been pending. It should be able to clear up the rest of the text today, she said.
In the Contact Group, which has been considering the most difficult paragraphs, agreement had been reached on those dealing with globalization and the debt burden, she said.
Working Group I has been dealing with three areas: part I, the Introduction; part II, on Achievements and obstacles in the implementation of the 12 critical areas of the Platform for Action; and part III, on Current challenges affecting the full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action. Working Group II has responsibility for part IV of the document, on Actions and initiatives to overcome obstacles and to achieve the full and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.
On the racks today are additional parts of the draft report of the Ad Hoc Committee (document A/S-23/AC.1/L.1/Adds. 2, 3 and 4); Add. 1 was issued yesterday. They show the revised paragraphs of parts III and IV of the outcome document that have been agreed by delegations.
Also available today is the report of the Credentials Committee on the credentials of representatives to the special session (A/S-23/7).
The Assembly President, Theo-Ben Gurirab (Namibia), is presiding over the special session. He met, at 9:30 a.m., with Ambassador Antonio Monteiro of Portugal. This evening, he is invited to a reception hosted by the Secretary of State for the Status of Women of Canada, Ms. Hedy Fry, on the occasion of the special session; and to a dinner hosted by Ambassador Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt, in honour of First Lady Suzanne Mubarak of Egypt.
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