DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000914The following is a near-verbatim transcript of todays noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Good afternoon. Our guest at todays briefing will be Pino Arlacchi, the Executive Director of the United Nations Drug Control Programme and Director General of the United Nations Office in Vienna. He will be here to announce the results of the annual Opium Poppy Survey in Afghanistan, and to discuss the Regional Action Plan which was taken up at yesterdays Six plus Two meeting. We have copies of the Opium Poppy Survey available in the room here.
**Secretary-General Calls on Myanmar Government to Meet with Opposition Leaders
I have the following statement on Myanmar attributable to the Spokesman:
The Secretary-General welcomes the fact that access to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD leaders has been restored and that the restrictions on their movement within Yangon have been lifted.
He is pleased to note that the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Yangon has met with Aung San Suu Kyi.
The Secretary-General reiterates his call for the Government of Myanmar to engage in a substantive political dialogue with opposition leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, to initiate the process of national reconciliation as soon as possible.
**Security Council Discusses Mission to Indonesia and East Timor
The Security Council held consultations this morning to continue discussions on a mission of the Council to Indonesia and East Timor. At the end of the session, President Moctar Ouane of Mali said that the Council agreed to meet with the Special Envoy of the Indonesian Government, Coordinating Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. They will hold a private meeting following the Special Envoys arrival in New York, which is currently scheduled for Sunday.
This afternoon, the Council will hold a private meeting on Somalia. Council members will be briefed by the President of the Republic of Djibouti, Ismail Omar Guelleh. As you know, President Guelleh has been leading the Djibouti peace initiative on Somalia, which he announced during the general debate of last years General Assembly.
During consultations held yesterday afternoon, a resolution was introduced on the deployment of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia-Eritrea (UNMEE). That resolution went into blue today.
Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 14 September 2000
**Vieira de Mello, Gusmão in Denpasar to Meet Indonesian Officials on Situation in West Timor
Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General in East Timor, and Timorese leader Xanana Gusmão are in Denpasar, Indonesia, today to meet the aforementioned General Yudhoyono. The meeting, on the situation in West Timor and other issues, was scheduled to start at 8 p.m., local time. Mr. Gusmão, Mr. Vieira de Mello and his delegation are expected back in Dili tomorrow.
Also, The bodies of the three UNHCR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) staff who were murdered in Atambua last week were flown from Dili today to Darwin, Australia. From there, they will be flown to their countries of origin.
A memorial service is being planned in New York for some time next week.
**Secretary-Generals Report on Sierra Leone
On the racks today is an addendum to the Secretary-Generals most recent report on the financial aspects of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), which says that the cost of the expanded Mission would amount to $782 million.
**Secretary-General to Attend Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony, Tree Planting
At 12:30 p.m. today, in the North Delegates Lounge, the Permanent Mission of Japan and the Japan Foundation will honour the just-concluded Millennium Summit by hosting a Japanese tea ceremony, called "Tea for Peace". The Secretary-General will attend that event.
As part of the event, a fifteenth generation Grand Tea Master of the 400-year-old Urasenke tradition of tea, Soshitsu Sen, will make a bowl of tea and dedicate it to the United Nations flag, deliver a statement, and then prepare tea and serve the guests. The ceremony is to last until about 1:15 p.m.
Once that is done, there will be a memorial planting ceremony in the Peace Bell Garden outside, at which the Secretary-General and the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yohei Kono, will pick up shovels and together plant a cherry tree to commemorate the official opening of the Peace Bell Garden.
The Secretary-General will also receive a plaque from Sam Ikeda, the Executive Secretary of the Committee for the Peace Bell Garden, in honour of the offer of the garden as a gift from Japan.
Have any of you seen the garden? Its a pretty thing - a nice addition to the property.
**On the Racks Today: Military Expenditures Report; Agenda for General Assembly
Among the documents on the racks is a report from the Secretary-General containing replies received from 32 governments on their military expenditures for the latest fiscal year. Those replies came in response to a request by the General Assembly last year for Member States to report annually on their military expenditures, in the interest of transparency.
Also on the racks today is the agenda of the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly, containing the final list of 179 items adopted by the ninth plenary meeting.
**Press Releases: WHO Warns 1 Billion at Risk from Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution
The World Health Organization (WHO), in a press release issued today, warns that as many as 1 billion people are regularly exposed to levels of indoor air pollution that are up to 100 times in excess of WHO guidelines. Children are particularly vulnerable, WHO says, with the level of deaths by children under 15 from acute respiratory diseases being twice as high as that from diseases as a whole.
We also have two releases available from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), including one that emphasizes the uses of coconut water as a natural energy drink for joggers and athletes -- this is really a slow news day [laughter] -- and its efforts to obtain a patent on a new technology that would allow manufacturers to bottle coconut water.
The other release from the FAO notes the opening in Prague today of the second European School Milk Conference, which is designed to promote school milk programmes in Europe.
**Budget News
There were two full payments of assessments for the 2000 Regular Budget today from Guinea, with a payment of over $31,000, and Turkey, with over $4.6 million. And were now up to 129 States paid in full for the regular budget.
**New UN Postage Stamps To Be Launched at Opening of Olympic Games
And we have some United Nations postage stamps to announce. A new United Nations postage stamp will be launched on Friday, on the theme International Flag of Peace. The launching will take place at an Olympic Stamp, Numismatic and Memorabilia Exhibition in Sydney, Australia, in conjunction with the Olympic Games.
Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Committee, will unveil the stamp, which was designed by Mateja Prunk, a 12-year old artist from Slovenia. Prunk won a competition on the design of the stamp sponsored by the United Nations and the Olympic Committee. Mr. Samaranch will be joined at the ceremony by Iqbal Riza, the Secretary-Generals Chief of Staff, and Johann Koss, Chairperson of Olympic Aid and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Special Representative for Sport.
Friday will also see the launch of a new series of stamps on the theme The United Nations in the twenty-first century. Copies of the United Nations Philatelic Bulletin with more details are available in my office.
**Press Conferences
Lastly, press conferences:
Today at 3:15 p.m., in this room, Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State for the United States.
Then at 4:45 p.m., also in this room, Don McKinnon, the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, will discuss the Commonwealth Ministerial Meeting on Belize, which is on the Belize-Guatemala dispute, as well as the Commonwealth Ministerial Group on Guyana, which is on the controversy between Venezuela and Guyana.
And then tomorrow, at 12:30 p.m., also here in room 226, Antoine Kolawole Idji, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Benin, and he will be speaking to you about the Fourth Conference on New and Restored Democracies, which will be held in Benin from 4 to 6 December of this year.
Thats all I have for you. Are there any questions?
**Questions and Answers
Question: Did the Russian Federation formally inform the United Nations about the resumption of commercial flights from Moscow to Baghdad? Does the United Nations consider that a violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions?
Spokesman: First of all, to my knowledge, we dont have anything official on that. We only saw wire service stories on that this morning, so its too early for me to respond officially to those questions.
Question: Has the Secretary-General replied to Mr. Clerides letter? Can you confirm that Mr. de Soto is going to meet with Mr. Clerides later this afternoon?
Spokesman: The Secretary-General did have a phone conversation with Mr. Clerides yesterday evening. And I cant confirm at this time any meeting between Mr. de Soto and Mr. Clerides. Just before I came down, we did issue the transcript of Mr. de Sotos comments to a few journalists when he came into the building this morning. He said that he was confident that both parties would continue with this round of talks. You can get his exact words if you take a look at that statement. [He later confirmed that Mr. de Soto had met with Mr. Clerides.]
Question: Madeleine Albright here to meet with the Secretary-General?
Spokesman: Weve published the Secretary-Generals programme for today, and Im not sure that she is on it. [There was no meeting between Mrs. Albright and the Secretary-General today.]
Question: Can you confirm that the Indonesian Government has invited members of the Security Council to visit West Timor?
Spokesman: I dont know that the Council has had an official response from the Government apart from their intention to send the Special Envoy wholl be arriving over the weekend. But I think that, after consultations with the
Special Envoy, the intention is to fix a date for the mission to go. So there seems to be an implicit agreement. Id have to check for you to see if they have made their acceptance of the mission explicit at this time. You can check with me after the briefing.
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