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

**Secretary-General Awaits Yugoslav Election Results

Good Afternoon. We have a reaction attributable to the Spokesman concerning the elections in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

“The Secretary-General awaits the outcome of the election in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia with keen interest. He hopes that in spite of the widely reported irregularities in the electoral process, the outcome will reflect the will of the people and that it will be respected.

“As he has stressed on many occasions, the political and humanitarian issues of south-eastern Europe cannot be fully addressed without a dialogue with the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He hopes the election result will produce a government with a clear democratic mandate with which an open and honest dialogue is possible. This would provide an invaluable opportunity for the country to come back to the international community and to address all the problems of the region in cooperation, rather than confrontation.”

We have available upstairs the transcript of a press briefing delivered yesterday by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, in which he notes the efforts by the United Nations Mission and KFOR (the Kosovo Force) to witness the Yugoslav election activities that were held in Kosovo on Sunday.

Starting at four in the morning, the United Nations Mission deployed more than 230 two-person teams to all the polling sites to witness how many people actually visited the various places, where polling was scheduled to take place. Based on the Mission's activities, Kouchner said afterward that the maximum number of voters in Kosovo could be no more than 45,000, and might be less. He added that the amount of voting in non-Serb areas of Kosovo was "very negligible."

**Weapons Collection in West Timor Described as 'Pathetic'

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said today that the process of disarming the militia in West Timor was “pathetic”. But it was no surprise, he added, before leaving Dili for New York, where he is due to brief the Security Council on Friday. “What I am interested in as from this morning”, he said, “is whether the repressive phase, which is the one I believe can work, will be more effective”. You’ll recall that the Indonesian Government said they would first invite the militia to disarm and then they would move into a “repressive” phase to take any remaining weapons by force.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 25 September 2000

At the invitation of the Indonesian authorities, a small United Nations delegation visited Atambua, West Timor, yesterday to attend a disarmament ceremony at which Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs, and other senior Indonesian officials were present.

About a thousand weapons -– most of them home-made -– had been put on display in the police headquarters in Atambua. Following the departure of Vice- President Megawati and her delegation, militia leader Eurico Guterres, highly agitated, entered the building accompanied by some followers. Outside, a crowd of some 200 to 300 men chanted in support of Guterres and against the “malai” (foreigners). The four-person United Nations delegation remained at the Police Headquarters for about an hour, until the crowd dispersed. The United Nations team, under heavy military escort, then left the building and proceeded by road to the border and onwards to Dili.

The situation illustrates, according to de Mello, the inability of the Indonesian authorities to bring the militia under control. "Hence", he said, “my repeated calls to the Indonesian Government to have Eurico Guterres and other militia commanders arrested as a matter of urgency. That, definitely, will lend credibility to the disarming and dismantling process”. Indonesian authorities launched the disarmament effort on Friday following the killings in West Timor of three UNHCR aid workers.

**Staff Day Commemoration

This morning, the Secretary-General laid a wreath at the Visitors Lobby at United Nations Headquarters to commemorate the thirty-ninth anniversary of the death of Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and the 15 United Nations Staff who accompanied him on his last mission of peace.

Following that ceremony, which is part of the traditional opening of United Nations Staff Day, the Secretary-General, in an address to United Nations staff, drew attention to the United Nations personnel who have lost their lives in service to the Organization, and said he will submit a report to the General Assembly that seeks significant changes in staff security. “Security for staff”, he said, "is not a luxury or an option. Member States must live up to their primary responsibility, not only to provide security, but also to bring to justice those who violate it."

Staff Day began at nine this morning, when the Emerald Society bagpipers of the New York City Police Department performed in honour of staff who have died in the line of duty over the past year. In a speech, Deputy Secretary- General Louise Fréchette said that 65 peacekeepers and civilian staff have died since Staff Day last year, and added, "Pain mingles with outrage as we contemplate the wrong that has been done to them."

She urged that further measures be taken to improve staff safety, and noted that, so far, less than one quarter of all Member States has joined as a party to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 25 September 2000

The opening ceremony for Staff Day also included a piano recital by Richard Nanes in the General Assembly Hall. Among the other events in today's Staff Day program, there is a film screening going on now in the Dag Hammarskjold auditorium and there will be another film screening at 3 p.m. today in the General Assembly Hall. Then at 6 p.m., there will be a two-hour musical program, again in the General Assembly Hall.

**Security Council

This morning, the Security Council began its work with a briefing in closed consultations by the Secretary-General's Personal Representative for Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell. Vendrell described the recent developments in Afghanistan, including the continuing fighting between the Taliban and the United Front. We expect that he will talk to you in a few minutes, either in this room or outside the Security Council stakeout, once the consultations on Afghanistan conclude.

After that, the Security Council is expected to discuss the Secretary- General's latest progress report on the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE), which came out on the racks last week. The Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hédi Annabi, will brief the Council.

**Ethiopia/Eritrea

United Nations military observers of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea have completed their initial deployment. Eight military observer teams reported arriving at their forward operational sites in the two countries by nightfall yesterday. Their arrival completes a deployment and logistical exercise begun on 22 September. The teams, totaling 40 observers, deployed four from Asmara and four from Addis Ababa, to cover four sites on each side of the border. The total military strength in the Mission area is now 59.

**Sierra Leone

On the racks today is a letter from the President of the Security Council to the Secretary-General, informing him of the Council's decision to dispatch a mission to Sierra Leone from 7 to 14 October. The terms of reference of the mission is attached to the letter. The composition and itinerary of the mission are still being discussed.

**Cyprus Talks

The Cyprus proximity talks continue today. The Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, met this morning at 11 a.m. with His Excellency Glafcos Clerides, and will meet at 3:30 this afternoon with His Excellency Rauf Denktash.

The proximity talks will adjourn tomorrow after the Secretary-General meets with both delegations separately. The next round will take place in Geneva at a date not yet determined.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 25 September 2000

We expect Mr. de Soto to be our guest at our briefing tomorrow.

**Western Sahara

Among the documents out on the racks today is the Secretary-General's latest report to the General Assembly on Western Sahara, detailing events there between September 1999 and the end of this past August.

The report details the efforts of the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, James Baker, to get the parties to the dispute to offer specific proposals, agreeable both to Morocco and the POLISARIO Front, to resolve the multiple problems of the Settlement Plan. The report notes that, at the parties' last meeting in London on 28 July, Baker urged them to think about meeting again in order to consider a political solution to the dispute.

As we told you last week, the Personal Envoy will be convening another meeting of the parties in Berlin on Thursday and Friday of this week, and Mauritania and Algeria are also invited to attend as observers.

**Miscellaneous

The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted by the General Assembly on 6 October, 1999, has been ratified by 10 countries and will enter into force on 22 December of this year. Italy was the latest country to ratify the Optional Protocol and that happened last Friday.

On budget news, with a payment of over $94,000, Mauritius today became the 131st Member State to be paid in full for their regular budget dues for the year 2000.

The United Nations Correspondents Association informs us that today is the last day that you can buy tickets to the annual Dag Hammarskjold luncheon. For further details, contact Sanaa Youssef at extension 7110.

And now, we have a bit of an unusual press conference for you tomorrow. We’ve asked Ralph Zacklin, the Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, to speak to you, on an embargoed basis, concerning the special court proposed for Sierra Leone. The briefing will be embargoed until the release of the Secretary-General’s report on that subject, which will happen sometime Friday and maybe even late Friday. Mr. Zacklin will not be in New York on Thursday and Friday, and we have another guest tomorrow. It’s a long time for an embargo but he will speak to you on the record tomorrow, on the condition that you not use anything he said until the report comes out, probably late Friday.

Any questions before we go to Sue?

**Questions and Answers

Question: What time will he [Zacklin] be speaking, because you have de Soto at the noon briefing?

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 25 September 2000

Spokesman: De Soto will be our guest at the noon briefing tomorrow. Zacklin will be here at 12:30, right after the noon briefing.

Question: On Yugoslavia, what is the United Nations involvement in the election monitoring?

Spokesman: There’s none except for what I described was done in Kosovo, where Bernard Kouchner dispatched those teams to monitor all the places in Kosovo where the voting was taking place. But otherwise there’s no involvement.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for the Assembly President

The President of the General Assembly also participated this morning in the Staff Day events, including the wreath-laying in honour of the former Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold. He also made a special appeal to Member States, the Security Council and the Secretary-General to take urgent action to improve the safety and security of United Nations and associated personnel. This was in his speech at the opening of the Staff Day event in the General Assembly Hall.

He noted that the report on the security and safety of United Nations personnel, which the Secretary-General will submit shortly to the Assembly, would be a concrete opportunity for Member States to show that they are willing to put words into action. By the way, we don’t expect that report for another two to three weeks. The full text of his speech is available in the Spokesman’s Office and also on the President’s web site -– www.un.org/ga/president.

Mr. Holkeri will be the keynote speaker at a luncheon today of UNA/USA, which is hosted by the Chairman of the Board, Bill Luers. In his speech, Mr. Holkeri will emphasize the importance of multilateralism, the role of the General Assembly and some of the issues he feels will be important in the coming weeks in the General Assembly. Again, the speech is available upstairs.

Today, as you probably saw in the Journal, the Third Committee began its work on the world social situation, including the issues of youth, ageing, disabled persons and family. The Fourth Committee had its elections for some of its bureau and began its general debate on decolonization issues. The Sixth Committee, after some election issues, went into the working group on international terrorism.

Just a heads-up for tomorrow. In Conference Room 4 there will be a high- level panel on information technology and public administration. This is part of the discussion on globalization and interdependence, which will be discussed by the Second Committee on 24 October. The panel discussion tomorrow will be chaired by the President of the Economic and Social Council.

* *** *