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 everyone. Our guest at the briefing today is Benon Sevan, the United Nations Security Coordinator. He will be talking to you about the Secretary-General's report to the General Assembly on the Safety and Security of Personnel. That report is out as a document today. In it, the Secretary-General said that 198 civilian staff have lost their lives in the line of duty since 1 January 1992. In what he described as "a clearly untenable situation", the Secretary-General reported that there are only nine professional staff responsible for managing a security system covering 70,000 staff and dependents at over 150 duty stations. So, Benon will be giving you more on that report in just a minute.

**Messengers of Peace and Goodwill Ambassadors

Today, 50 Messengers of Peace and Goodwill Ambassadors are gathering for the first time at the United Nations. The Secretary-General invited these prominent personalities from the worlds of art, music, film , sport, literature and public affairs to discuss the "United Nations and celebrity advocacy in an age of cynicism". This public forum is taking place in the Economic and Social Council Chamber.

The Secretary-General told the gathering that they "have the personality to capture the imagination of people and policy-makers" and "the passion to inspire their faith in the principles on which the United Nations was founded". The Messengers of Peace and the Goodwill Ambassadors will be guests at a luncheon hosted by the Secretary-General and then will be available for interviews in the course of the afternoon.

**Brahimi Report

The report of the Secretary-General on the implementation of the report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations is out on the racks as a General Assembly document today. The report provides Member States with a detailed action plan. The Secretary-General said that he will be submitting to the General Assembly a separate and detailed report on the resource requirements for the report's implementation. That report is expected later this week.

In introducing the plan, the Secretary-General makes nine observations. He stresses that peacekeeping is the responsibility of Member States, and that the performance of the United Nations in this area will not improve unless Member States, and particularly those possessing the greatest capacity and means to do so, are ready to participate. He also echoes the concern expressed by many developing countries to the effect that the increase in resources for peace

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 23 October 2000

operations must not come at the expense of the resources needed for development. And, finally, he urged Member States not to hold the implementation of the Panel's recommendations hostage to the resolution of other issues before the Assembly, notably the reform of the Security Council and the scale of assessments of Member States.

**Cyprus

Alvaro de Soto, the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus, is on the island this week. He is following up on the meetings held in New York a few weeks ago and preparing the next round of talks, which will start in Geneva on 1 November.

This morning he held meetings with Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash. He later met with the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the Security Council. This afternoon, he started a series of meetings with political leaders on both sides. This will go on until Friday, when he will meet again with Mr. Clerides and Mr. Denktash. Mr. de Soto will leave Cyprus for Geneva on Saturday.

**East Timor

Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao was elected today Speaker of the East Timor National Council. The session was attended by 30 of the 36 Council members. Mr. Gusmao was elected with 27 votes in favour and 3 against.

As we told you last Friday, the National Council replaces the 15-member National Consultative Council and it consists of Timorese members from all 13 districts in East Timor.

**Ethiopia and Eritrea

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea is sending its second batch of military observers into forward positions between the two countries in the Horn of Africa.

According to an announcement by the United Nations' newest peacekeeping operation, the deployment today will complete the second phase of the three-phase operation. The United Nations Mission will have up to 100 military observers from 22 countries who have a role in building confidence between the two sides. Phase three envisages the deployment of 4,200 peacekeepers. Meanwhile today, negotiations on the June 18 Agreement on the Cessation of Hostilities resume in Algiers.

**Security Council

The Security Council has not scheduled any meetings for today. Tomorrow, however, they will hold an open debate on "Women and Peace and Security". The delegation of Jamaica is organizing tomorrow's session. In preparation for it, Ambassador Patricia Durrant is sponsoring an Arria Formula meeting this morning to hear a number of women representatives from different organizations from around the world.

**United Nations Day

In observance of United Nations Day, a concert of classical music will be held tomorrow in the General Assembly Hall, starting at 7 p.m. The concert, performed by the Vienna Symphony, with Vladimir Fedoseyev conducting, is being presented as a tribute to the Millennium Assembly on the centennial of the Vienna Symphony. The concert programme consists of works by Mozart and Shostakovich.

The concert is organized by the Department of Public Information and is sponsored by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the City of Vienna, with the special support of the Osterreichische National Bank and the Austrian Lotteries. Attendance is by invitation only.

**Press Releases and Reports

Among the many reports on the racks today is one by the High Commissioner for Refugees and another by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and there is also the report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

**Press Conferences

Press conferences -- at 12:45 p.m., shortly after we finish here today, there will be a press conference about the United Nations Correspondents Association Ranan Lurie Political Cartoon Award. Ranan Lurie will be joined by Shashi Tharoor, the Director of Communications of the Secretary-General, for that event. Then, at 2:45 p.m., Youssou N'Dour, United Nations Children’s Fund Special Representative for the Performing Arts and a member of the United Nations Development Programme’s Working Group on HIV/AIDS in Africa, will be here to launch his non-profit initiative to build Internet access centres, cultural content Web sites and online communities in Africa.

And then, at 3 p.m., the members of the Independent International Commission on Kosovo will be presenting their report to the Secretary-General. You'll see it's on his programme for today. Members of the Commission which was headed by Justice Richard Goldstone, will be here at 3:30 p.m. then to talk to you about their findings. [In the end, the report was presented to Chief of Staff Iqbal Riza, because of scheduling problems.]

And that's all I have for you, any questions before we go to Sue and then to Benon?

Question: There is a report out of Pristina of a news conference at which several United Nations officials have said that it would be premature to pull the United States troops out of Kosovo. This is in reply to a question related to a proposal or the position of the Republican candidate. Are you familiar with this at all?

Spokesman: I didn't hear about that Chris, I'm sorry. I'll have to look into it.

Question: Regarding the head of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, we have heard there is a new candidate in Beirut, what is the position of the Secretary-General on this matter?

Spokesman: I'm sorry. You are getting me flatfooted. I don't even know about the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and any change of leadership. I'm sorry; you'll have to get me after the briefing. I'll try and find out for you. [He later confirmed that the current term of the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) expires at the end of this year, but would comment no further.]

Question: Did the Secretary-General over the weekend have or was he planning to have any contact with people in the Middle East?

Spokesman: He made a number of telephone calls over the weekend. You will see on his programme for today, he is meeting with two regional groups and that's the beginning of a series of briefings of regional groups on his visit to the Middle East. So, he continues to follow up on the phone and through these briefings for regional groups.

Question: Did he speak to Arafat and Barak?

Spokesman: Yes, he spoke to both of them over the weekend.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for President of General Assembly

Thank you. The President of the General Assembly will attend the lunch and discussion this afternoon with the Messengers of Peace and Goodwill Ambassadors to the United Nations. He will also attend the UNDP Awards presentation "Breaking the Silence on HIV/AIDS". In his message for the event, he emphasizes the need for education. He says that by educating people, we also provide them with the best weapon in the fight against HIV/AIDS. "Knowledge is the best vaccine against it". Copies of his statement are available from the Spokesman's Office.

This afternoon, the President is expected to circulate a paper to Member States on the follow-up to the Millennium Summit. This is to facilitate a dialogue on how to move forward. As I have mentioned to you before, consultations will be held on Friday and this paper will form the basis for the discussion. On the basis of what happens at the consultations, the President will prepare a draft resolution and that will be discussed under the new agenda item on the follow-up to the Millennium Assembly to be held in the plenary in November. We will give you copies of the paper during the day when it is available to us. There is no plenary meeting today. In fact, we don't expect one until Wednesday.

In the Committees this morning, the Fifth Committee adopted a draft resolution requiring review of the current methodology underlying the calculations of the standard rates of reimbursement to troop-contributing States. It's also continuing informal consultations on the draft resolution on the scale of assessments. The First continued its thematic discussion; we expect it to start taking action on the draft resolutions starting on Wednesday and we have a schedule of which resolutions those will be. That will be action on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and you can get the schedule from the Spokesman's Office.

In the Second Committee, there was an introduction of the discussion on industrial development and on business and development, and introduction of a draft resolution concerning reducing the impact of El Niño. The Sixth Committee met this morning on the report of the International Law Commission and the Third Committee will meet this afternoon on human rights issues.

And just to anticipate your questions, the Brahimi report that was mentioned by Fred will come up in the Fourth Committee on 8 and 9 November and before that we expect to be in the special peacekeeping committee, but we are not sure of the schedule of that yet. Thank you

Spokesman: Ok, Chris I have the transcript of that Pristina press conference, but I don’t think the Secretary-General himself has reacted to remarks made by the spokeswoman [in Pristina].

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