DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

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

Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon.

**Staff March

We are going to start with the march today. As part of a large worldwide effort by United Nations staff to show solidarity and support of improved staff safety following several recent killings of United Nations personnel, United Nations staff will conduct a silent march by the fountain in front of United Nations Headquarters just after this briefing at 12:30 p.m. The Secretary- General is then expected to talk to the marchers inside the building, at about 1 p.m.

The march honors the four staff members of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) who died in recent weeks -- three of them in West Timor and one in Guinea.

In all, marches, assemblies or other commemorative efforts are being held at least 28 different cities around the world, involving thousands of United Nations personnel. Also, United Nations staff have been signing a petition, which is being distributed electronically, which calls for a Security Council meeting to address the issue of staff safety.

Earlier today in Geneva, about 1,000 people marched from the Palais des Nations to a plaza outside the UNHCR Headquarters, where they paid tribute to Mensah Kpognon, the UNCHR staffer killed in an attack in Guinea. They also called for the release of Safeu Laurence Djeya, a UNHCR staff member who was abducted on Sunday in Macenta, Guinea, in the same attack. She is still missing.

The Secretary-General, in a message read by the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Petrovsky, said, "Words fail us at a time like this." But he added, "Words must not fail us in the message we send today to the world and to Member States of the United Nations. This message must be clear and unequivocal: failure to protect the lives of innocent and unarmed humanitarian workers is unacceptable."

The High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, made a plea for concrete measures to protect staff. She said her agency was urgently reassessing its security benchmarks to determine when it should suspend operations or evacuate staff.

She told the marchers in Geneva, "We all recognize that our work will never be without risk, but every measure must be taken to reduce those risks to the minimum."

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 21 September 2000

**de Mello Reacts to Arrest of Suspects in Attack on UNHCR Office

Today in East Timor, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello, reacted to the reported arrest and interrogation of six suspects of involvement in the attack of the UNHCR office in Atambua on 6 September. Vieira de Mello said this action was a positive first step and further strengthened his confidence in Indonesian Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman.

Also today, the National Consultative Council approved a Regulation on Transitional Rules of Criminal Procedure for East Timor. The draft of the new regulation was under consultation for months and included two public hearings, one in August and one in September.

For any issues not covered in the new code, the Indonesian Code of Criminal Procedure remains in force, as long as those laws are not in conflict with internationally recognized principles.

As in several duty stations around the world, some 200 United Nations and NGO staff marched in Dili today to raise awareness about the violence against humanitarian aid workers. The slaying of three UNHCR staff in Atambua forced the suspension of humanitarian operations in West Timor.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said today that it regrets this suspension and that it makes it impossible for the agency to monitor its food distribution in the province of West Timor, as well as to supply the necessary aid. However, WFP says that there are 15,000 metric tonnes of rice in West Timor in government warehouses that could be used to feed the refugee population for more than three months. WFP is confident that local government officials are fully capable of carrying out the food deliveries to the camps.

**Statement on Iranian Jews

I have the following statement attributable to the Spokesman concerning the trial of Iranian Jews.

“The Secretary-General has been following closely the case of the Iranian citizens who were convicted last July by a court in the city of Shiraz.

“He is encouraged by the announcement today that an appeals court has now reduced the jail sentences for the 10 Iranian Jews and that the process continues. He hopes that further steps to alleviate the plight of these citizens will be considered in accordance with Islamic traditions of compassion and mercy.”

**India to Withdraw Troops from Siearra Leone Mission

The Indian Government has indicated to the Secretary-General its intention to withdraw its troops from the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL). India continues to be prepared to participate in United Nations peacekeeping operations, and the Government has assured the Secretary-General that its commitment to United Nations peacekeeping is undiminished.

**Cyprus

The menu for the Cyprus proximity talks is the same today as it was yesterday. At 11:30 a.m., the Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, met with His Excellency Glafcos Clerides and then at 3 p.m., he is scheduled to meet with His Excellency Rauf Denktash.

**Afghanistan Report Released

The Secretary-General’s Report on Afghanistan to the Security Council and General Assembly is out as a document today. That is a three-monthly report.

Saying that it is hard not to be repetitive when commenting on the continuing Afghan tragedy, the Secretary-General expressed his disappointment that there has been no significant shift as yet in the positions of those countries that have interests in and influence on Afghanistan.

He said, “It is of the utmost importance for the settlement of the Afghan conflict that they should find a common approach” and added that he would endeavour to seek ways to achieve such a consensus. As you'll recall, the Secretary-General chaired, just last Friday, a ministerial-level meeting of the so-called “Six-plus-two” group which agreed that his Personal Representative, Francesc Vendrell, should report back to the group by 1 November.

We also have available today the humanitarian weekly update on Afghanistan containing initial findings on an assessment of displaced persons in northeastern Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, at 2:30 p.m. today, the Taliban Deputy Foreign Minister, Abdur Rahman Zahid, will hold a press conference in the UNCA Club.

**Security Council Holds Consultations on Iraq

Iraq is on the Security Council’s closed consultations agenda for this morning. Benon Sevan –- the executive director of the Office of the Iraq Programme – presented the 90-day report on implementing phase Eight and reported on his recent mission to Iraq.

In his comments, Mr. Sevan said that at current prices the revenue in Phase Eight could reach as high as $10 billion, providing $6.6 billion for the humanitarian programme.

Mr. Sevan went through a range of concerns in implementing the programme -- in particular the serious impact of contracts put on hold –- the value of which is currently just under two billion dollars. He said his office will shortly launch a new campaign to bring down the level of contracts on hold.

**Disarmament Conference Ends

Today in Geneva, the Conference on Disarmament concluded its session for the year by adopting its annual report to the General Assembly. However, the Conference was unable to reach a compromise on its programme of work, with two issues -- nuclear disarmament and the prevention of an arms race in outer space -- still needing further attention.

This is the second year during which the Conference's work has been stalemated because of the inability of its members to agree on a programme of work.

We have a press release from Geneva with more information.

**Bertini Visits Drought-Affected Region in Ethiopia

Ms. Catherine Bertini, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General on the Drought in the Horn of Africa, today visited Gode in the Somali region of Ethiopia, in the heart of the drought-affected region. She visited a number of projects and met with local officials, women's groups, elders, and aid representatives.

She noted a distinct improvement in the conditions of the population since her last visit to Gode in April, as reflected in the drop in the number of children in the therapeutic feeding sites -- from 600 in April to 65 now, and in the drop in the mortality rate from four to five per week to one per week last month.

Ms. Bertini also met with the victims, who gave a compelling account of how thousands of lives had been saved and disaster averted, owing to a massive relief effort.

**Reports and Press Releases

We have available a press release from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on the situation in drought-stricken Georgia.

And on the racks is the Report of the Commission on Human Rights acting as the preparatory committee for the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

**Budget Matters

The "Status of Contributions to the Regular, International Tribunals and Peacekeeping Operations" budgets as of 31 August is now available.

This table shows that by the end of August, Member States owed just over 3.24 billion dollars to the United Nations.

You can pick up copies in the my office.

**Staff Day

Staff Day will be observed next on Thursday, 25 September. The programme, organized by the Staff Union, will begin at 9:00 a.m. with a memorial service at which the Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Frechette, will make a statement. Following that service, the Secretary-General will deliver his annual statement to the staff at the opening ceremony in the General Assembly Hall.

Other activities include the showing of two films.

**Press Conference

Finally a press conference tomorrow at 11 a.m. in this room. David Cheney, the chief of the editorial section of the External Relations Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will talk about the IMF's Annual report and for those of you interested in getting a copy, please log on to the IMF Web site, www.imf.org.

**Questions and Answers

That is all I have for you. Before we go to Sue, any questions? Robert.

Question: Fred, you said the other day that the Secretary-General did not have firm commitments for an increase of the force in Sierra Leone and the withdrawal of 3,000-plus Indian troops is going to make that even more difficult. Have you any commitments in the past couple of days that will suggest that it will be possible to make the increase to 20,000 by the end of the year?

Spokesman: What is different, what is happening now on troop recruitment is that the Secretary-General has the active support of a number of Member States, so it’s a group effort. Quite a number of potential troop contributors have been contacted. A significant number has indicated willingness to contribute. They haven’t yet signed the dotted line to make it legal and final but there was good momentum toward reaching the 20,500 figure before the Indians announced their withdrawal. That gives us 3,000 more to recruit and makes the job a little harder but we still think it is doable. Yes?

Question: What information have got about Austria’s intention to withdraw its men from United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)?

Spokesman: Only that they have informed us that they will be pulling out of the peacekeeping mission on Cyprus, I think about 238 soldiers, and a few of their military observers from United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) in Jerusalem. But they still have a significant presence in other peacekeeping missions so I think, from their point of view, it is just a reassessment of their priorities. They have –- I think they will still have -– over 500 troops in other peacekeeping missions, so they are strong participants in United Nations peacekeeping.

Question: Have they told you when they intend to withdraw their men from UNFICYP?

Spokesman: I don’t know that they have given us specific dates. They did tell us that the decision was made as a result of a restructuring of the Austrian Armed Forces within the context of the new European security arrangements. I don’t see a specific timetable here.

Question: If I may ask one more question, how would the United Nations go about replacing these men who will eventually leave UNFICYP?

Spokesman: The routine way is that the Peacekeeping Department here makes contact with the military advisers in the various missions in New York. They would feel out a number of potential troop contributors to see if any one had an interest and then, according to the results, they would then proceed further and try to firm up a commitment from one or more contributors.

Question: Could they actually exclude any country that might be interested?

Spokesman: Yes. The United Nations always tries to put together the ideal profile of troop contributors both in terms of nationality and in terms of their capacity –- their specialization. It is often that we have more contributors -– more offers -- than we can accept and we select. That is why we never say during the recruitment phase which Member States we are speaking to. We wait until we’ve finalized the composition and then we announce all the troop contributors. Yes, Steve.

Question: In Sierra Leone, could you give us an indication of the timetable of the Indian withdrawal –- when its starts and when it is likely to finish? And also with the talks to get replacements in, is there likely to be another force as big as the Indian force or would the Nigerians be left as by far the biggest force and therefore would the Nigerians end up commanding it? In other words, what is the future of the command situation?

Spokesman: Well, I can’t say who the Secretary-General will name as the new force commander. We do expect, as I have already told you, a decision to be announced by the end of this month. I don’t know whether there would be a single troop contributor that would come forward with the 3,000 troops to replace the Indians. I don’t think we quite recruit in that way. We are asking a large number of potential contributors and we will take the best combination of offers. What was the other question?

Question: The timetable.

Spokesman: The timetable. The Indian Government indicated to us that it would be a phased withdrawal to permit us time to find replacement and the Secretary-General hopes that India would be flexible as we attempt to find those replacements.

Question: And when is the estimated time that the Security Council will be able to vote on the actual increase therefore, which will be after you have lined up the troops?

Spokesman: The latest resolution says that they will review the situation by 31 October so I think that is the next time you will see the Council take any action. Sue.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for Assembly President

Thank you. As you know, the General Debate will conclude tomorrow morning and by then we would have heard about 179 speakers. The President will sum up the debate at the end of the morning and he will touch on some of the main themes that have been addressed by the speakers.

On Monday, three Committees will start their work –- Third Committee on social development issues; Sixth Committee on terrorism; and the Fourth Committee on decolonization.

The First and Second Committees have another week’s reprieve and will start their substantive work on 2 October. The First Committee will start its

Daily Press Briefing - 7 - 21 September 2000

general debate on disarmament and the Second Committee also starts its general debate on the 2 October.

On Wednesday 27 September, the plenary will begin again with the agenda item on the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization. Today, the plenary’s organization of work was released in a document (A/INF/55/3). We can make that available.

The promised calendar which I know you can’t wait to get your hands on, we will have for you tomorrow.

Thanks.

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