DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000907The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Good afternoon.
**UN Staff Evacuated from West Timor Following Attack that Left Four Dead
We'll start with East Timor. Sixty-nine people as well as the bodies of the three staff members of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) killed in yesterdays militia attack were transported to Dili, East Timor, from Atambua, West Timor, today. Another 70 personnel from the United Nations and other international organizations were flown out of West Timors main town of Kupang to Denpasar, Indonesia.
The group from Atambua left at around 2 p.m. today and was driven in an Indonesian Army-escorted convoy to the East Timor border town Batugade. They were later picked up by a United Nations helicopter and flown to Dili. The group consists of 67 Indonesians, one Fijian, the head of security for UNHCR in Atambua, and one Japanese human rights officer.
A separate helicopter brought the bodies of the three murdered UNHCR staff to Dili airport, where an emotional ceremony was held to honour the dead.
Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General, said, This is not the first time I put flowers on coffins or body bags of United Nations staff, but it is particularly difficult when the murder is so brutally senseless. He went on: We are talking about sheer murder of humanitarian staff who were there to help and protect the victims of similarly senseless violence carried out by the same people in East Timor last year." He added that he hoped that what has happened will lead to decisive action against the militia in West Timor.
The three coffins, draped in United Nations flags, were driven in a procession to the morgue at the United Nations Missions Human Rights centre. One Brazilian tourist, severely injured in yesterdays attack, is currently receiving treatment at Dili Military Hospital, and her condition is described as stable, not life-threatening.
**In Address to Millennium Security Council Summit, Secretary-General Emphasizes Strengthening United Nations Peacekeeping
Back to the Summit and the Secretary-General's activities:
At 1:30 this afternoon, the Secretary-General will speak at the meeting of the Security Council's Heads of State and Government, which will discuss the role of the Council in peace and security, particularly in Africa.
The Secretary-General's address to the Security Council meeting will highlight the need to ensure that peacekeeping operations have clear and achievable mandates and the strength and authority to defend them. The Secretary-General is also expected to emphasize the importance of having both
Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 7 September 2000
the will and the ability to act in the face of crisis and to urge the Council to follow up on the recommendations of the United Nations Panel on Peace Operations.
In other events, at 10:00 a.m. this morning, the Secretary-General attended the second of four scheduled Roundtables bringing together the leaders gathered for the Millennium Summit; the panel was chaired by the President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski.
The Secretary-General spent a busy morning on bilateral meetings; these will continue throughout the day.
As we speak, he is receiving a petition delivered by Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and Bono, the lead singer of the band "U2" and a noted activist on development and human rights. The two of them, along with officials from the "Jubilee 2000" campaign on the global debt, are handing over to the Secretary-General a petition signed by some 21 million people, urging the Group of Eight nations to cancel the global debt.
In accepting the petition, the Secretary-General is expected to congratulate the campaign on collecting the largest number of signatures on one petition ever recorded, and to reiterate his call for a new approach to the problem of global debt.
By the way, the Jubilee 2000 campaign tells us that Bono will be available to take questions from the press outside the building after this brief handover. If you're interested in an interview, please contact Jamie Drummond of Jubilee 2000. His cell phone is 202-491-4538.
[From the floor, a correspondent asked what time Bono would be available to the press. The Spokesman responded that the handover of the petition was at 12:20 and Bono would be available anytime after that for the next half-hour or so.]
Now I don't know anything about Bono's music but I did hear him on television this morning and I must say that he is one of the one of the most articulate spokesmen for the debt issue that I've ever heard.
We have a full schedule of the Secretary-General's appointments available in my office. Also available are the readouts of the bilateral meetings the Secretary-General held yesterday, and, of course, we will provide more readouts following today's meetings.
**UN Volunteers Information Technology Programme 'Hits the Ground Running'
Very quickly here on United Nations Volunteers: Five months after the Secretary-General announced his vision for a high-tech volunteer corps in the United Nations Millennium Report, according to United Nations Volunteers, the initiative has hit the ground running. Twenty-three professionals have now taken up assignments as United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS) Volunteers, and that's for service in developing countries.
The project, carried out through the work of volunteers, aims to bridge the digital divide by helping people in developing countries make practical use of information and communications technology. We have a press release on that if you're interested.
**Secretary-General Appoints Coordinator for Multilingualism
For those of you from the outside, this won't be of particular interest, but the insiders might be interested in knowing that the Secretary-General has appointed Assistant Secretary-General Federico Riesco as Coordinator for Multilingualism. We have had some problems with our two working languages and four additional languages in documentation. The General Assembly asked the Secretary-General last year to appoint a senior Secretariat official as coordinator of questions relating to the problems of multilingualism through the Secretariat.
Mr. Riesco is a native of Chile and he is a career civil servant and we have his bio in my office if you're interested. His new functions are in addition to his current responsibilities in Conference Services.
**Compensation Commission Report
Also for your information, available on the racks upstairs is the report of the 36th session of the United Nations Compensation Commission on Iraq that was held in Geneva earlier this summer.
The Commission considers claims for compensation by governments, corporations and individuals for losses occurred during Iraqs invasion of Kuwait. It is funded by 30 per cent of the revenues collected under the Oil for Food Programme.
The Commission has so far received over 2.5 million compensation demands, with a total approximate worth of about $320 billion. It has paid out $8.1 billion so far in compensation claims.
**Report on UN Measures to Reduce, Prevent Traffic in Small Arms Out Today
Also on the racks today is a report by the Secretary-General on the assistance provided to States for curbing illicit traffic in small arms. The report notes United Nations measures at prevention and reduction of small-arms traffic over the past year in Albania, the Republic of Congo (Congo- Brazzaville), Guinea-Bissau, Niger and Sierra Leone.
And finally, the Gambia today became the 125th Member State to pay its regular budget dues for the year 2000. That was with a cheque for just over $10,000.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Apparently, [United States] President Bill Clinton shook hands with [Cuban President] Fidel Castro yesterday during the Summit. I wanted to ask if the Secretary-General was aware of that and whether he has any comment on what would obviously be a significant diplomatic interlude or gesture?
Spokesman: The Secretary-General believes in shaking hands. He thinks it is a good practice. He encourages people to do it as often as possible. I don't know whether he personally witnessed it and otherwise I think I will just
refer you back to the United States and Cuba to confirm what their Heads of State did while they were here.
Question: Regarding the change in order [in the speaker's list] for the Iranian President yesterday, was there any initiation for this from the Secretary-General's Office? Where did that come from -- the Iranians themselves, or were there any discussions with the Secretariat on that before it happened?
Spokesman: I am not aware that it involved the Secretary-General's Office.
Question: Were the Iranians invited [to request the change] by the Secretary-General's Office or was it totally initiated by them?
Spokesman: I have no information on that.
Question: With the departure tonight of 139 United Nations workers and employees from West Timor, what kind of United Nations presence remains, particularly in regard to any kind of relief or refugee work?
Spokesman: We have shut down our operation there. I don't know whether as of today every single United Nations worker, local and international, has been evacuated but that was our intention. We are not going back until Indonesia demonstrates that they can get these militia under control, and that the threat that this militia pose to our humanitarian work has been eliminated.
Question: The Staff Committee President said yesterday that there were four United Nations staff and that only three are coming back. She also very much regretted that apart from the Co-Chairs and the Secretary-General, not many of the heads of State took any note of that. Is the Secretary-General making a strong statement in the Council in connection with the peacekeeping meeting today about the need to provide protection for the civilian workers of the United Nations?
Spokesman: I think the strong statement he made was yesterday to the Assembly and I can't imagine that everyone didn't take note of it. As for the four bodies versus three, the Indonesian police reported a fourth body. We haven't yet identified that person. We think it might be a non-governmental (NGO) representative. But four bodies were reported to us, but we have only retrieved three, which we have identified as our own.
Question: Do you know anything about the reports that all of the members of the delegation from Belarus, or at least the head of it, left yesterday upset at not being invited to certain events?
Spokesman: I don't know anything about that. Well have to look into it for you and let you know whatever we can find out. [The Spokesman later said he could not confirm that report.]
Thank you.
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