DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman the Secretary-General, and Susan Markham, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by Deputy Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon. Sorry for being slightly late, I was trying to get the latest information out of the Middle East which I will get to in a moment. But before that I have a statement attributable to the Spokesman:

“The Secretary-General warmly welcomes the decision by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2000 to President Kim Dae-jung for his work for democracy and human rights in the Republic of Korea and in East Asia in general, and for peace and reconciliation with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in particular.”

“President Kim Dae-jung has made a unique and historic contribution to the cause of peace in the Korean Peninsula. The historic summit between him and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, that took place last June in Pyongyang, as well as the ensuing commitment by both leaders to faithfully implement the Joint Declaration they signed, is the best testament to an encouraging prospect of bright future in the Peninsula. The Secretary-General will continue doing everything possible to assist the peace efforts and reconciliation in the Korean Peninsula.”

**Middle East

As we speak, the Secretary-General is on his way from Jerusalem to Gaza to make a final appeal to the President of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, to accept the invitation to attend a summit this weekend in Egypt. The Secretary-General feels that Mr. Arafat is as determined as all others to end the chaos, stop the killing and save the people from further suffering.

Before heading to Gaza, the Secretary-General spent the day in Jerusalem on the phone with officials from both the Israeli and Palestinian sides, including President Arafat and Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as well as regional leaders and other interested parties.

In comments made to journalists today in Jerusalem, the Secretary-General said that there is a general readiness to meet this weekend in Egypt. Normally in these circumstances, both sides would be expected to impose a cessation of hostilities in the period leading up to and during the summit.

We have available upstairs the transcript of comments made to the press today in Jerusalem by the Secretary-General.

**Sierra Leone

I now have a statement attributable to the Spokesman: “The Secretary- General welcomes the decision by the British Government to provide further military assistance to the Government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).”

“In particular, the readiness of a permanent member of the Security Council to deploy, if required, a rapid reaction capability is likely to provide additional confidence to the people of Sierra Leone and demonstrate the resolve of the international community. In this new context, the Secretariat will continue to seek additional troop contributions for UNAMSIL so that it can effectively discharge its mandate in support of peace in Sierra Leone.”

**Sierra Leone/Council Mission

Still on Sierra Leone, the 11-member Security Council mission to West Africa is in Nigeria today, where they are to meet with President Olusegun Obasanjo on the next-to-last stop of their visit to the region.

Yesterday, the Council mission met three different Presidents in three different capitals to discuss the crisis in Sierra Leone. They first met with Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in Freetown before flying to Conakry, where they talked to Guinean President Lansana Conté, and then Bamako, where they saw President Alpha Oumar Konaré of Mali.

Tomorrow, the Council mission is scheduled to meet Liberian President Charles Taylor in Monrovia. They will then fly back to New York, where they expect to arrive on Sunday night, and they are also expected to brief the Security Council on their trip next Monday.

**Security Council

Still on Security Council matters. The Council, this morning, unanimously agreed to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This extension is by two months, until December 15; the current mandate had been set to expire on Sunday.

Following that meeting, the Council went into consultations on Angola, in which it heard a briefing by Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser dealing with Africa, on the Secretary- General's latest report on developments in that country, which was put out on the racks yesterday.

In that report, the Secretary-General warned of potentially worsening humanitarian and security problems in Angola and the areas bordering Zambia and Namibia, and asked the Council to extend by six months the mandate of the United Nations Office in Angola, which expires on Sunday.

**East Timor

Still on the Security Council. Yesterday members of the Security Council met in a private meeting on the situation in East Timor during which the Foreign Minister of Indonesia, Alwi Shihab, briefed the Council. Following the meeting, a communiqué was issued announcing the invitation of the Government of Indonesia, to the Security Council mission to visit Indonesia, following its visit to East Timor during the week of 13 November. The communiqué has been issued as a document and is available on the racks.

**Bosnia

The United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina reports that, yesterday in Foca, an eastern town in the Republika Srpska, a Bosnian Serb indicted for war crimes killed himself by detonating a hand grenade, while trying to resist arrest by officers of the NATO Stabilization Force (SFOR). Four SFOR officers and one of the suspect's family members were injured in the blast.

The suspect, Janko Janjic, had been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for crimes committed in 1992 and 1993, when he was sub-commander of the military police and a paramilitary leader. He had been accused of torturing and raping Bosnian women.

In a statement issued today, which is available upstairs, Tribunal Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte commended the SFOR soldiers for their courage. She added, “It is regrettable that Janko Janjic, who had previously threatened to kill himself and others should an arrest attempt be made, chose to exercise this option, thus endangering the lives of SFOR soldiers as well.”

**Press Releases and Reports

**OCHA

We have a press release available upstairs from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, informing that United Nations Special Coordinator for Internal Displacement, Dennis McNamara, will lead an inter- agency mission to visit Ethiopia and Eritrea. The one-week visit, which begins tomorrow, will look into the problems of the hundreds of thousands of people displaced due to recent conflict.

**WHO

The Director-General of the World Health Organization, Gro Harlem Brundtland, issued a statement on the tobacco hearings currently taking place in Geneva. Brundtland said that, despite clear differences, the Organization was committed to hearing proposals from tobacco companies to reduce the harm caused by tobacco products.

The hearings have elicited more than 500 written submissions and 160 oral testimonies, which are available on the World Health Organization web site.

**Afghanistan Polio Campaign

We also have a follow-up report from the Office of the United Nations Coordinator in Afghanistan, on the current round of immunizations against polio in Afghanistan.

**UNEP

Available on the racks is the report of the governing council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to the General Assembly. This report is on the sixth special session of the governing council held in Malmo, Sweden, from 29 to 31 May 2000.

I have here an announcement that today, at 12:45 p.m., in room 226, there will be a press conference by Ambassador Nasser Al-Kidwa, the Permanent Observer of Palestine.

I am also asked to announce that on Monday, 16 October, United Nations Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown will brief correspondents at the UNCA club from 1 - 2 p.m., and that will be on the Race Against Poverty awards. There is a media advisory which gives you more details on that.

And finally, as it is Friday, we have the week ahead which lists activities for the week, and I will just highlight a couple.

On Monday, the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), will hold a press conference at 11 a.m. to discuss economic and social issues in the region. On Tuesday, the Special Session of the Commission on Human Rights, dealing with the situation in the Middle East, will begin at 10 a.m. at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. On Wednesday, the Security Council intends to hold consultations on the United Nations Observer Mission in Prevlaka. The Secretary-General's report to the Council on the Prevlaka peninsula is expected out in the early part of the week.

On Thursday, the Security Council will hold an open briefing with Judge Claude Jorda, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Are there any questions to me before we go on to Sue?

**Questions and Answers

Question: You have just said that the Secretary-General finds there is a general readiness for the dialogue between the Palestinians and Israelis in Egypt. What are his views about the Israeli preconditions for that meeting, which had been talked about by the Israeli Prime Minister today on television, asserting that Yasser Arafat has to renounce violence, etc. There are three conditions. What are the Secretary-General's views on that?

Answer: I don't have any comments on the preconditions of any of the sides. What I can confirm is the Secretary-General's view that he thinks there is a general readiness for people to be in this meeting.

Question: When is the Secretary-General coming back? Because he said that he would not like the General Assembly to take up the issue of the Middle East crisis when he is away, and the same has been said by the United States Mission and the French Mission. So, since there is a rumour circulating that the General Assembly may take up the issue next week, will that depend on the timing of the Secretary-General's return?

Answer: Of course, the General Assembly -- like the Security Council -- are masters of their actions and decisions. They can hold a meeting whenever they think they should do that. I don't have a date as to when the Secretary- General will be back at Headquarters, the programme is very much dependent on developments on the ground over there.

Question: Is there any statement by the Secretary-General on the bomb blast in Aden -- not on the ship -- but the British diplomatic mission?

Answer: No, we don't have any statements on that.

Question: Before coming here, on CNN, the Egyptian Foreign Minister was saying that the situation and the conditions were not good enough for the summit. Was the Secretary-General aware of this statement?

Answer: I have not seen this comment by the Foreign Minister. What I have is from the Secretary-General's party -- that he has been in contact with the two specific leaders and other leaders in the region and other parts of the world, who are concerned with this issue. His view is that there is a general readiness for this meeting to go ahead.

Thank you. Sue?

Briefing by Spokeswoman for President of General Assembly

Thank you. There is no plenary meeting today, but just to recap yesterday's elections of the Economic and Social Council. As you know, the final rounds were done after the noon briefing. I can confirm that Iran and Nepal were finally chosen as the last two seats of the 18 seats elected.

On Monday, the plenary will hold some more elections, for the Committee on Programme Coordination and the International Trade Law Commission. There will also be a discussion on the Bethlehem 2000 issue, and we have twelve speakers listed for that on Monday morning. There will be no discussions on AIDS on Monday and Tuesday; we had pencilled in the agenda that there might be a discussion on AIDS, but that has been postponed now for two weeks.

The General Committee will meet on Monday morning to discuss, as I think I mentioned the other day, the request for the inclusion of three new agenda items. The General Committee will meet first thing, Monday morning, to decide whether or not they should be recommended to be included in the agenda. This would bring the number of agenda items to 183.

The First Committee has a number of draft resolutions relating to disarmament issues that they will take up this afternoon. The Third Committee is continuing its general discussion on children, and the Sixth Committee has a draft resolution that is out, which you can look at, concerning the effects of sanctions.

That's all. Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question: Have the Arab countries officially asked for a special session on the Middle East?

Answer: I can confirm that the President of the General Assembly has received a letter this morning from the League of Arab States.

Question: How many votes were won by Iran in the final round of the Economic and Social Council elections?

Answer: We have posted them on the board, but I do think I have it here. Okay, in the third round, the required majority was 112: Iran got 129; Nepal, 136; and, the United Arab Emirates got 61. The Philippines had withdrawn at the end of round two.

Question: Do you know if there is a report from the oversight office and if it is due to the General Assembly?

Answer: Yes, there is. It is an issue being discussed in the General Assembly, not in the plenary, but in one of the other committees. I don't know off the top of my head; I will have to check. But it is in our calendar. I will give you the information afterwards.

Thank you very much. Have a nice afternoon and a pleasant weekend. Thank you.

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