DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon. The guest at today’s briefing will be Alvaro de Soto, the Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Cyprus. And he’ll brief you on the latest round of Cyprus proximity talks, which, as you know, concluded this morning.

**Secretary-General to visit Switzerland, France and Belgium

On the Secretary-General’s next visit, he’ll be going to Switzerland, France and Belgium next week. He’ll arrive in Geneva this Sunday, where on Monday he’ll attend the meeting of the Executive Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at which the outgoing High Commissioner, Sadako Ogata, will give her farewell address. He’ll then meet with the UNHCR staff at large on the occasion of UNHCR’s 50th anniversary.

While in Geneva, he’ll also meet with the leadership of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

On Tuesday, he’ll travel to Strasbourg, France, to meet with officials of the European Union. And then on Wednesday, he’ll go to Paris to meet with the Foreign Minister, Hubert Vedrine. France currently holds the rotating presidency of the European Union. And the purpose of these talks will be to follow up on a request during the Millennium Summit by Mr. Vedrine to the Secretary-General to explore ways to strengthen the European Union’s relationship with the United Nations, including the possible creation of a formal coordination mechanism.

Then on Thursday, he’ll go to Brussels for meetings with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO. The United Nations and NATO of course operate side-by-side in Kosovo.

And finally, he will also pay a visit to Belgium’s Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt before returning to New York on Friday. We have a press release in my office.

**East Timor

From East Timor, as a result of an exchange of fire between militia, which had infiltrated into East Timor from West Timor, and members of the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor, one militia member was killed today. That incident took place in the Suai district, eight kilometers from the border with West Timor.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 26 September 2000

The incident, which occurred at noon, followed a sighting of a group of approximately 15 militia members at sunrise today. The peacekeepers were tracking the group and had set up a post of 10 soldiers at the location where the incident later occurred. Three militia men, believed to be part of the group sighted earlier, approached the post from behind and a brief firefight ensued. The militia were wearing Indonesian army fatigues and were armed with automatic rifles. For more details on this and other news from East Timor, pick up in my office today’s briefing note from Dili.

Meanwhile here in New York, the Indonesian Permanent Representative Ambassador, Makarim Wibisono, wrote to the President of the Security Council to inform him of developments in the militia weapons collection in West Timor. In the letter dated yesterday and available on the racks today, Wibisono says that the Government has decided to extend the period for the voluntary surrendering of weapons from 25 September to 27 September. “Beyond that date”, he continued, “strict enforcement measures will be taken against those who are found to be illegally in possession of weapons”.

**Floods in East Asia

I don’t know if you’ve been reading about the severe flooding that’s been taking place in East Asia. In India alone, some 12.8 million people have been affected and more than a thousand lives lost.

We have the following statement on this situation attributable to the Spokesman:

“The Secretary-General is distressed by the devastation, especially the high level of deaths and displacement, being caused by the most severe floods in decades in India, Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. He extends his condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones."

“The Secretary-General reiterates the readiness of the United Nations to assist national authorities in dealing with the consequences of the floods and calls on the international donor community to contribute generously to the efforts of the governments of these countries to assist the victims of these destructive floods.”

**Security Council

The Security Council started consultations this morning on a number of topics. The first item is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Council members were briefed by the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet. As you’ll recall, in the Secretary-General’s latest report, he said that there has been little progress, if any, in the implementation of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement, and recommended that the Council consider extending the mandate of the United Nations mission for a period of two months.

And since I’m on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, let me flag that the UNHCR announced today that it is sending a mission to the region to assess the impact of a fresh influx of refugees driven out by fighting in Equateur province. See the UNHCR briefing notes for more information.

Going back to the Security Council programme for today, following the Democratic Republic of the Congo discussions, Council members were briefed by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Hedi Annabi, on the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia/Eritrea. Annabi is also briefing the Council on the militia weapons collection in West Timor.

This afternoon, the Informal Working Group of the Security Council on the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda are meeting at three o’clock.

**United Nations Compensation Commission

The Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission opened its thirty-seventh session in Geneva today. They will be meeting through Thursday, 28 September, at which point a press statement will be issued on the results of this session.

During this session, the Governing Council will, as always, review the recommendations made to it by the panel of commissioners.

To date, over $6.8 billion has been made available to governments and international organizations for pay-out to successful claimants.

**Guatemala

On Guatemala, following a scheduled meeting yesterday at the Guatemala City Regional office of the United Nations Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), five representatives of the Squatters Front of Guatemala announced that they would remain in the Office’s premises in a hunger strike until they could meet with Guatemala authorities.

The United Nations Mission organized a meeting with the Peace Accords Follow-up Commission. The strikers said that more than 3 thousand families remain homeless after Hurricane Mitch. The Commission undertook to facilitate meetings of the strikers with government senior officials and to give maximum priority to housing.

The Squatters Front is one of the many non-governmental regular interlocutors of the United Nations Mission. Housing, as indicated by the United Nations Mission Verification work, is an acute and severe problem in Guatemala.

As of this morning, the strikers remained on the premises of the United Nations Mission.

**Iraq Programme

We have some new numbers from the Office of the Iraq Programme. First in the week to last Friday, Iraq exported 18.1 million barrels of oil for revenue of about $481 million. That brings the total revenue for the current Phase Eight to over $5.5 billion. Secondly, the total value of contracts placed on “hold” by the Security Council’s Sanctions Committee on Iraq is currently just over $2 billion. In Phases Four to Eight, the Committee has approved about $9.2 billion worth of humanitarian and oil sector contracts. A full update is available in my office.

**Press Releases

Press Releases today –- the World Food Programme (WFP) has one on the drought situation in Tajikistan and also on the extension of the assistance programme to Mozambique flood victims and food assistance to Nicaragua and Honduras. And the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has one on depleted uranium in Kosovo.

The United Nations World Economic and Social Survey 2000 is being distributed by the Department of Public Information today. It’s subject to an embargo of 12 noon on 28 September.

The Survey offers some new insights into the trends and policies in the world economy, and their implementation for poverty eradication. There’s a press release on the launch of the Survey.

**World Chronicle Screening

The producers of the Department of Public Information Television programme, “World Chronicle”, have asked me to tell you that programme number 790 featuring Shashi Tharoor, the Director of Communications and Special Projects, will be shown today on in-house television channels 26 or 30 at 3:30 p.m.

**Secretary-General to Speak at Polio Summit

Tomorrow, the Secretary-General will deliver the keynote address at the Global Polio Partners Summit and that will be to launch the Strategic Plan for the final phase of the Global Polio Eradication Campaign.

An 11 foot high Polio Countdown Clock will be stationed outside Conference Room One during the Summit and will record the number of cases of polio worldwide. The number of cases recorded in 1988 at the launch of the eradication initiative was 350,000. That has been reduced to 7,000 last year, and it is hoped that by 2005 the clock will read zero cases of polio.

The Summit will be addressed by Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), and Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), will also address the gathering. And among the guests will be American actress and UNICEF spokesperson, Mia Farrow.

There will be a polio clock photo opportunity with the Secretary- General at 9:45 a.m. and the Summit begins at 10 a.m. in Conference Room One.

**Press Conference

As I mentioned to you yesterday, at 12:30 p.m. today, we have Ralph Zacklin, Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, who will be discussing the Secretary-General’s recommendations for a special court for Sierra Leone. And as I mentioned, this will be an embargoed briefing. He’ll speak on the record, but you can’t use anything he says, or any of the information he reveals to you, until the report itself comes out, which we don’t expect to be before Friday and maybe even late on Friday. So we’re counting on you to keep mum for three days on what you’ll hear at 12:30 p.m. today.

And then tomorrow, this is my last item, two press conferences. 12:30 p.m., Bernard Kouchner, the Special Representative for Kosovo will come here to talk to you about the mission he heads. However, his press briefing also has to be embargoed until the Security Council meeting scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. So we expect that to be about 3:30 p.m. It will be an open meeting, once he starts talking, then you can use whatever he said at 12:30 p.m.

And at 4 p.m. tomorrow, the Permanent Mission of the United Kingdom is sponsoring a press conference by the Stanley Foundation, which is releasing the report of its most recent “United Nations of the Next Decade” conferences. Richard Stanley, the President of the Stanley Foundation, will be among those who will be here to present the report which is titled “Problems and Prospects for Humanitarian Intervention”.

Questions before we go to Sue and then to Alvaro?

**Questions and Answers

Question: Regarding the United Nations Representative to Burma, do you know if he has definite plans to visit Rangoon, and if so is his visit contingent on his permission to meet with the opposition?

Spokesman: I don’t know. I’ll have to check for you. [He later announced that the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Ismail Razali, is in the region now, but as yet has no specific date for a visit to Myanmar. On his previous visit, he met with opposition leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi.]

Sue?

Briefing by Spokeswoman for the Assembly President

Thank you. I’ll be brief, with an eye on the time.

The Third Committee continues this morning and this afternoon discussing social development issues and follow-up to the International Year of Older Persons of last year.

The Fourth Committee continues its general debate on decolonization issues, and the Sixth Committee has its working group on international terrorism, but that’s closed as you know.

Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 26 September 2000

Mrs. Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, this morning briefed delegations on the preparations for the World Conference against Racism. And if you’re interested in the preparatory process, we have information in our office about it. And of course the Third Committee will take up this item later in October. Tomorrow morning the General Committee will consider the inclusion of two additional agenda items on the agenda of the General Assembly, one relating to cooperation with an organization in Africa and another relating to the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime. In that regard, there will be a conference in Italy in December, a high-level meeting to sign this treaty once it is adopted by the General Assembly.

The Fifth Committee will also start its substantive work tomorrow and will hear a briefing from Mr. Connor, the Under-Secretary-General for Management.

The plenary will meet all day tomorrow to look at the report of the Secretary-General on the Work of the Organization. There are already quite a number of speakers and we expect therefore the debate to continue on Thursday morning.

Also on Thursday morning the President and the Chairs of the main committees will hold a briefing for non-governmental organizations in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium at 10:30 a.m. for one hour. And this is open to journalists if you are interested in attending.

Thank you.

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