In progress at UNHQ

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

6 September 2000



Press Briefing


DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

20000906

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon and welcome to the regular noon briefing. The Summit is the main story of the day, and so I’ll turn over the microphone to Thérèse Gastaut, the Spokeswoman for the Co-Chairs of the Millennium Summit. I will then do my presentation and then we’ll both take your questions.

[The press briefing by Ms. Gastaut will be issued separately.]

**Secretary-General Opens Millennium Summit on “Somber Note”, Calls for Moment of Silence to Honour UNHCR Staff Killed in West Timor Today

At the opening of the Millennium Summit this morning, the Secretary-General asked heads of State and government to observe one minute of silence in honour of three staff members of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) killed today in Atambua, West Timor, in Indonesia. Regretting having to open the Millennium Summit proceedings on such a somber note, the Secretary-General said: "This tragedy underlines once again the dangers faced by unarmed humanitarian workers serving the United Nations in conflict or post- conflict situations".

Since 1992, 193 United Nations civilian personnel have been killed in the line of duty. The number of civilian personnel killed have been on the rise since they have been called to work in increasingly dangerous situations. For instance, for the first time, in 1998, the number of United Nations civilian staff killed exceeded that of their military counterparts -- out of a total of 52 United Nations fatalities, 29 were civilians.

Speaking to the press here at United Nations Headquarters, the High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, said she very much hoped that "this tragedy will open the eyes of the world leaders assembled here -- that there are conflicts that have to be prevented and stopped".

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, after debriefing United Nations personnel in Dili who were evacuated from Atambua, said that "the Indonesian Army and the Indonesian Police do not have sufficient resources in West Timor to control the monster created in East Timor and which is now on the other side of the border". And he added: "The staff will not return until we have a credible demonstration that the Indonesian Government is prepared to protect them and protect the refugees they are there to help. A credible demonstration is to restore Indonesian control over West Timor and to arrest and disarm the militia who constitute a greater threat to Indonesian security than to East Timor."

The three aid workers were killed during a rampage by militia at around noontime today local time, after the body of one militia leader, known as Moruk, was found on Tuesday. The killers or the situation leading to this murder are unknown.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 6 September 2000

Initial reports have it that a large number of militia members carrying automatic weapons burned the UNHCR office and looted United Nations compounds and property in Atambua, a town in West Timor close to the East Timor border. The militia were also reported to be going house to house looking for international staff and to have stolen all United Nations radio equipment, making communications between United Nations personnel and other United Nations bases close to impossible.

The United Nations Mission in East Timor was informed of the problems in West Timor early in the afternoon, and immediately sought clearance from the Indonesian military authorities to evacuate United Nations personnel to East Timor. By evening, 44 United Nations and non-governmental organization (NGO) representatives were evacuated by four United Nations helicopters. They first went to the East Timorese town of Balibo and then were flown to the capital, Dili.

Some staff remain in West Timor. They are said to be in hiding and we can give no further details without putting their lives at further risk.

Tomorrow, Thursday, United Nations and NGO staff in Kupang, the capital of West Timor, will be evacuated as well.

**Notes from East Timor

Also on East Timor: the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, sent a message to the people of Suai, East Timor, to mark the first anniversary of a massacre of 100 people which took place there a year ago.

In her message, the High Commissioner restated her commitment to “assist the people of East Timor in confronting the past in order to sow the seeds of a peaceful future”.

The full press release is available upstairs in my office, and we also have the press release issued by UNHCR in Geneva today on the attack on their offices in Atambua.

** Millennium Summit Offers Opportunity to ‘Change the United Nations’, Secretary-General Says

This morning, the Secretary-General opened the Millennium Summit by noting that "never before have the leaders of so many nations come together in a single Assembly". He said the occasion provided a unique responsibility to change the United Nations to fulfil its tasks in what he called "an era in which the rule of law must prevail".

He urged Member States to consider the report by the panel of experts, chaired by Lakhdar Brahimi, on strengthening the United Nations work in peace and security matters, and to take up the ideas on other improvements to the United Nations system addressed in his Millennium Report.

He is expected shortly to deliver a toast at a luncheon for the assembled heads of State and government along the same lines, urging them to roll up their sleeves and get to work on dealing with these issues.

At 2:30 today, he will take part, along with the Deputy Secretary-General, in the taking of an official photo of the leaders present for the Summit that Thérèse mentioned to you. Then at 3 p.m., the Secretary-General will attend the first of four round-table sessions gathering the leaders assembled here for the Summit; that, of course, will be chaired by President S.R. Nathan of Singapore.

The rest of his day will be taken up in bilateral meetings. We have a list of his appointments in my office.

Last night, at a dinner to mark the eve of the Millennium Summit, the Secretary-General met with heads of State and government to focus on issues of procedure and substance, in preparation for this week's meetings. The leaders discussed the importance of abiding by time limits, and of sharing constructive ideas that are brought up at this week's Summit with the press.

Also yesterday, the Secretary-General stressed the importance of the Dialogue among Civilizations, which he attended in the morning, and congratulated Tuvalu on its inclusion as the United Nations 189th Member State.

We have text of his comments available upstairs.

**Notes from Sierra Leone

On Sierra Leone: the Under-Secretary-General-designate for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, is beginning a three-day familiarization trip to Sierra Leone today, by arriving in Freetown this evening. Guéhenno, who is to replace Bernard Miyet as the head of the Peacekeeping Department next month, will meet with officials of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), among other officials, before departing the country on 9 September.

Discussions concerning the release of six British and one Sierra Leonean soldier held by the so-called "West Side Boys" rebel faction are continuing today, but, so far, there are no results to report.

Yesterday, the Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate of the UNAMSIL, which was to have expired this Friday, until 20 September.

Council members also are considering a draft resolution on a further extension and expansion of the Mission, which the Secretary-General, in his last report, proposed to increase to 20,500 troops. The Council is expected to take up that draft resolution next week.

**Security Council

I’ve just been informed that Security Council consultations have been called for this afternoon at 4 p.m., following the incident today in West Timor.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, will brief Council members on this incident.

**United Nations Will Not Participate in Upcoming Yugoslav Elections in Kosovo

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, announced in a press release issued in Pristina today that the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) will not participate in, support, organize or in any other way condone or legitimize the Yugoslav elections planned for 24 September.

There is only one legitimate electoral process in Kosovo, he said, and that will be the municipal elections for Kosovo scheduled to take place on 28 October.

**Notes from Afghanistan: Vendrell Holds First Meeting with Taliban Leader

Today in Kandahar, Afghanistan, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, met for the first time with the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar.

Also on Afghanistan, we have available upstairs the weekly humanitarian update for that country compiled by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The update highlights the continuing influx into the town of Herat of families fleeing drought conditions in the countryside. The World Food Programme (WFP) is conducting food distribution in the outlying regions in an effort to reach drought-afflicted communities.

The update also recaps activities in the health, mine action and agricultural sectors.

**Update from Iraq Programme

We also have an update from the Office of the Iraq Programme available in my office. Two points of interest:

The first is that the Sanctions Committee of the Security Council has expanded massively the list of items in the health sector which can benefit from the new “fast-track” approval procedures.

The second is that Iraq last week exported 17.7 million barrels of oil -- a high figure, which also benefited from the current high price of oil -- earning $499 million. The current Phase VIII began on 9 June and has now produced $4.27 billion in revenue.

**UNEP Press Release

We also have available upstairs a press release from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) containing a message from the its Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer, saying that the Millennium Summit is an “opportunity that must be grasped, particularly if we are to begin to tackle the root causes of environmental degradation."

**List of Scheduled Appointments on Treaty Signings Available

By about an hour ago, six countries had deposited signatures or ratifications to a range of core treaties. They are: China, Ecuador, Jordan, Portugal, Bangladesh and Colombia. And there are 24 countries in all who plan to have deposited signatures or ratifications by the end of today.

We have a list of scheduled appointments on treaty signings available in my office.

**Secretary-General to Receive Petition Urging Debt Cancellation

Tomorrow at 12:15 p.m., the Secretary-General will receive a petition, signed by some 21 million people around the world, urging the leaders of the Group of Eight nations to cancel the global debt.

The petition will be presented to the Secretary-General by Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo and Bono –- better known to you than to me -- the lead singer of the rock group U2 [laughter], as well as leaders of the "Jubilee 2000" campaign that has been pushing for a cancellation of the debt. The handover of the petition will be a five-minute ceremony occurring at the end of the Secretary- General’s scheduled meeting with President Obasanjo.

**Budget News

Finally in budget news: Yesterday, we got a $164 million cheque from Japan, which is now paid in full for its 2000 dues.

I was asked on Friday how we’re doing this year compared to last. On 6 September last year, there were 96 countries paid in full. This year, there are 124. So that’s a substantial improvement.

Today, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire paid their dues in full with contributions of $10,000 and $90,000 respectively, and that’s what brought the total for today to 124.

**Questions and Answers

Question: You spoke about the rescue of United Nations personnel in Atambua. Do you have any idea about the total number of personnel you have there? When will the others be rescued?

Spokesman: There are over 100 national and international workers that UNHCR has in West Timor. All of them will be evacuated to East Timor by tomorrow. In her press conference, Mrs. Ogata gave the precise number and the transcript of that press conference should be out as a press release shortly.

Question: President Wahid of Indonesia is in town for the Summit. Can you tell me if there are any plans for him to meet with the Secretary-General? Have you heard about the proposal that Indonesia plans to send two battalions to West Timor?

Spokesman: Just as we’ve been in this room, the Secretary-General apparently did have a meeting with President Wahid and I was just passed a read- out of that meeting which I’ll give you now.

In the meeting the Secretary-General strongly condemned today’s incident and declared the situation unacceptable. The President said that he shared the Secretary-General’s view and that he feared that the incident had been timed to coincide with his visit to New York. The President has ordered, he said, two more battalions of Indonesian military to Atambua; one of which is apparently already on its way. The Secretary-General welcomed the news of this reinforcement and urged that these troops be given robust rules of engagement. The President assured the Secretary-General that this would be the case. So that’s the read-out I have on that meeting.

I think, originally, the Secretary-General was to meet President Wahid later in the Summit schedule, but that was moved up to today because of the events in West Timor today.

Question: In his comments to the Summit this morning the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, suggested a United Nations-sponsored conference on the demilitarization of outer space. Can you comment on the prospects for such a conference being held?

Spokesman: I cannot -- a least not off the top of my head. If you come back to my office after the briefing, I’ll get a line from the disarmament department and give it to you then.

[Shortly after the briefing, the Spokesman’s Office announced that the United Nations would like to see multilateral norms established for preventing an arms race in outer space.]

Question: Yesterday the Korean Ambassador held a press conference saying that United States agents at the Frankfurt airport had stopped his country’s President from attending the Summit. Does the Secretary-General have any position on this issue?

Spokesman: I think we did issue a statement yesterday saying that the Secretary-General regretted that the President of the National Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea had changed his plan and decided to return to North Korea. He has the rank of “head of State”. The circumstances, I believe, are still a bit unclear. I think the American airline involved in the search procedure made a statement. I think the United States Government made a statement regretting the incident. I think everyone is sorry that it happened, and sorry that the meetings that had been anticipated here between representatives of North and South Korea as well as the Secretary-General would not take place.

If you look at the Secretary-General’s statement, he also says he hopes nonetheless that they will continue to build on the progress already made towards normalization of relations between the North and the South.

Question: Is there any evidence that the Indonesian military was involved in the attack on the UNHCR personnel in West Timor this morning?

Spokesman: I think the problem was that they weren’t involved. There didn’t seem to be any law and order forces present. We still don’t have all the details, but it was a very large group of people who just ran amuck. I think it would have been difficult even for a normal security presence to cope with, but we were not aware that there was any security presence.

Question: Do you think that the reinforcements being sent will make a difference?

Spokesman: The President of Indonesia said that he had full confidence in these units that he was sending in, so we’ll just have to see. Mrs. Ogata has said that words are not enough anymore, she wants to see action. I think that we all share that view.

Question: I’d like to put a housekeeping matter on the record, if I may. I tried to get into my office this morning in the Trusteeship Council and discovered

that the locks had been changed. Is there any way I can get in my office to do some work today?

Spokesman: See me after the briefing and we’ll call security and have this straightened out.

If there are no more questions, thank you very much.

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For information media. Not an official record.