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 Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Susan Markham, Spokeswoman of the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon. I would like to start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman and that is on Kosovo.

**Kosovo Elections

"Tomorrow the people of Kosovo will be taking part in municipal elections. These elections represent one of the most significant steps in promoting the mandate entrusted to the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo and the Security Council resolution 1244 of 1989. The international community will be watching these elections with great interest. Should the voting be free and fair, the people of Kosovo will have shown the world that they are politically mature and that they can express their will in a democratic manner.

"Once the results are certified by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, he and his staff will begin the gradual transfer of several administrative responsibilities from UNMIK to the newly elected municipal leaders of Kosovo.

"The Secretary-General urges the people of Kosovo as well as their political leaders to conduct themselves in a spirit of peace and tolerance tomorrow and then to accept and respect the result of the vote. This is the true spirit of democracy.

"On the eve of this historic event, the Secretary-General extends his best wishes to the people of Kosovo and looks forward to hearing of a successful election day."

As you will know, there are 901,000 registered voters who are expected to go to 1,464 polling stations to cast their ballots for some 5,500 candidates for 920 seats in 30 municipal assemblies.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), a partner in the UN Interim Administrative Mission in Kosovo, will oversee the polling, counting and certification of ballots. There will be some 4,000 observers. Security is being provided by United Nations mission police and KFOR.

**Sri Lanka

I now have another statement which is attributable to the Spokesman. It's on Sri Lanka.

"The Secretary-General was profoundly distressed by the reported killing on 25 October of more than 20 ethnic Tamil inmates of the rehabilitation centre in Bandarawela, Sri Lanka. He trusts that the authorities will make every effort to bring to justice those responsible by conducting an impartial inquiry. He also appeals to all parties in Sri Lanka to refrain from any further escalation of violence, especially terrorist acts, which he condemns in the strongest possible terms."

**Administrative Committee on Coordination

This morning, the Secretary-General addressed the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) at the opening of its annual session and briefed the meeting on recent developments around the world.

The ACC comprises the Secretary-General and the executive heads of United Nations agencies, and its main function is to ensure the coordination of working programmes of the UN system and to promote cooperation within the system in pursuit of common goals.

During the session this weekend, the ACC will discuss the demands placed on national and international systems by the new global environment, including the implications of globalization, financing for development and least developed countries. This afternoon, the Committee will discuss staff security and safety, the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction and HIV/AIDS.

As part of the session, the Secretary-General and the heads of the agencies will participate in a weekend retreat beginning this evening and will discuss ways for the United Nations system to advance the objectives set at the Millennium Summit. The participants will focus on poverty and development, the rule of law, human rights and peace and security, and the environment.

A list of participants is available in the Spokesman's Office.

**Security Council

Yesterday afternoon, the Security Council met in closed consultations to discuss the request by the Palestinian Observer, as endorsed by the Arab Group, for the Security Council to send in a protection force to the Palestinian territory. The Council did not conclude its discussion on the matter and decided to resume them early next week.

This morning, Council Members are also meeting in closed consultations to hear a briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Gu,henno on the latest report on the UN Mission in Western Sahara. The report, which you may recall we flagged to you yesterday, is now available on the racks. Under- Secretary-General Gu,henno is also expected to brief on reports concerning fighting in the northern Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, most recently around the towns of Pepa and Moba.

**Cyprus

The Secretary-General's Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, held a press conference in Nicosia this morning at the end of a five-day visit to the island in preparation for the next session of proximity talks which is set to begin in Geneva on 1 November. He told journalists that during his time in Cyprus, he held two rounds of meetings with Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash. He also met with the leaders of the major political parties from both sides. Mr. De Soto described the various meetings with all concerned as "useful".

**Afghanistan

The World Food Programme today warns that hundreds of thousands of poor Afghans face starvation in a few months if the agency does not get the resources it needs to continue an emergency operation during Afghanistan's worst drought. Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that a number of Afghans fleeing fighting in north-eastern Afghanistan rose sharply this week, with some 5,000 refugees arriving in Pakistan. Renewed fighting since last month in north-eastern Afghanistan has so far driven 28,000 Afghans into Pakistan.

**Guinea

And still with news from UNHCR, the organization says it will look into a proposal by the Government of Guinea, which has proposed six new camp sites which could be used for the relocation of some 125,000 refugees currently in the most insecure areas of the border zones. UNHCR's briefing notes contains more details on findings from visits to the camps in the volatile area. Guinea hosts a total of 460,000 refugees, including 330,000 Sierra Leoneans and 130,000 Liberians.

**Press Conference

This afternoon, there will be a press conference here in this room at 1 p.m. with Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Mr. Toepfer will also be joined by Godwin Obasi, the Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization. The two of them and others will be here to talk about a new study entitled "Lessons from the 1997-98 El Ni¤o: Once Burned, Twice Shy?".

**The Week Ahead

And in closing my portion of the briefing, just to flag to you our weekly feature the Week Ahead and I'll just highlight a few events happening on Monday. The Security Council has scheduled a formal meeting on Western Sahara. There will be consultations in the afternoon on the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone.

The Economic and Social Council will be meeting with Jacques Diouf, head of the Food and Agricultural Organization, and Fawzi Al-Sultan, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the head of the World Food Programme, Catherine Bertini. This will be a follow-up to a pledge made by leaders during the Millennium Summit to halve by the year 2015 the proportion of the world's people suffering from hunger.

Also on that same Monday in Geneva, the Bureau of the Commission for Human Rights will discuss the setting up of the commission of inquiry which was called for in the resolution of the Fifth Special Session of the Commission for Human Rights.

Our guests at the noon briefing will be Caroline McAskie and Olara Otunnu who will be here to launch a children's book, Marie, in the Shadow of the Lion, a story about the experiences of a young girl in a conflict situation.

And Ambassador Sun Joun-yung, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea, will hold a press conference at 1:15 p.m. to discuss the General Assembly's resolution in support for the inter-Korean summit meeting held last June.

And at 3 p.m. on Monday, Pino Arlacchi, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, will be here to talk to you about the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

If you have any questions I'll take them and then we move on to Sue.

Question: You mentioned a Palestinian request for a protection force. Has the Secretary-General been consulted and what's his role in this?

Deputy Spokesman: No I don't think so, but he is in contact with the Security Council.

Question: Is the Secretary-General playing any role?

Deputy Spokesman: The Secretary-General has played a role in the Sharm el-Sheikh summit, as you know, and he is following the situation very closely and continues to be in contact with all those concerned.

Question: What is the Secretary-General's real reason for not receiving the petition from the Staff Council requesting a Security Council special session on safety and security of staff members?

Deputy Spokesman: It depends on scheduling only. As you know, there is this thing with the ACC, which has taken up a lot of his time, the preparation for this. It's a very important meeting, which will also be discussing staff security, as I just mentioned. As you said, and I think the Staff Council President also said, it's a matter of scheduling. The Deputy Secretary-General is also a possibility. It was just a matter of scheduling. I'm pretty sure about that.

Question: Manoel, where is this retreat going to be?

Deputy Spokesman: It's in the New York area. It's not in the city. It's outside the city. I don't have the exact location. I can look into that for you.

Question: Are we creating a precedent here by having staff petition the Security Council? Where does it say in the Charter that staff have the right to petition the Security Council?

Deputy Spokesman: Well, we do have to do it through some mechanism. I would not be familiar with the details of the proper procedures on that one. I'll have to look into that for you. Any other questions?

Question: As a point of information, the Secretary-General would be the proper mechanism to present the petition, but the problem is they can't get to him on time, for whatever needs to happen.

Deputy Spokesman: Thank you. If there are no other questions, Sue.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for President of General Assembly

Thank you. This morning the General Assembly held the first part of its open-ended informal consultations on the follow-up to the Millennium Summit. In his opening remarks, the President of the General Assembly drew delegates' attention to a non- paper that was circulated on 23 October. We have copies of that, if you are interested, in the Spokesman's Office and it will also be on the President's Web site. He did highlight the main elements of the paper. These include the need for the follow-up to be integrated and coordinated; the fact that governments bear the main responsibility for action in the follow-up to the Summit; and that the UN system as a whole should also help implement the outcome.

Within the UN system, the President is recommending that existing structures and mechanisms be used and that the process be mainstreamed and included in all upcoming events wherever possible. He also pointed to the need for enhanced partnership and cooperation between the United Nations, governments and relevant actors of civil society. This process of consultation is leading up to a draft resolution that will be drafted on the basis of these discussions.

I was only able to attend the first hour, but those delegates who spoke in that first hour were very positive about the process and the way that the President has continued to try and push for the momentum of the Summit to continue throughout the work of the General Assembly. Many of the speakers emphasized their agreement with the President of the General Assembly's ideas, particularly the need to use existing mechanisms and structures and not to create some new mechanism for the follow-up. I can give you more details, if you are interested, as we go along.

This morning the President was presented with a copy of the petition that you were asking about that has been signed by over 12,000 staff requesting that the Security Council convene a special meeting to address safety and security problems faced by UN staff and associated personnel, especially when on mission. The President, in accepting this copy (which was about this high I have to say), expressed his full support for the staff's concerns, noting that he had taken up the issue of the safety of UN personnel in his acceptance speech on 5 September, as well as in his Staff Day address on 25 September. He had also expressed his solidarity by joining the staff march around the fountain that was held earlier.

He also noted that the report on the safety and security of UN personnel has now been submitted for consideration to the General Assembly and this will give a concrete opportunity to show that the membership is willing to put words into action. As you are probably aware, that report will be discussed in the Fifth Committee on Monday.

The President is holding the second of his monthly luncheons with the Security Council President today. There will be an exchange of information on the consideration of the Brahimi report that, as you know, is going to be considered both in the Security Council and the General Assembly. The Security Council working group already began its work on its consideration of the Brahimi report and at the luncheon the President has invited the Chairperson of the working group to brief him on its progress. He has also invited the Chairman of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping. The working group of that Special Committee will start on Monday to consider the report. And on 6 and 7 of November, the Special Committee will consider it and then it will go to the Fourth Committee on 8 and 9 November.

This afternoon, the plenary continues its discussion on oceans and law of the sea and we expect action on the two resolutions that I talked to you about at some length yesterday, so I won't repeat myself.

In the Committees: the First Committee continues to take action on its draft resolutions. It adopted a number of them yesterday and we have a schedule of the ones that it's adopting, as we speak. I'm not sure that it will continue this afternoon; it may have taken all the action it can today in this morning's session, but then it will continue on Monday.

The Second Committee continues its discussion on trade and development, commodities and the external debt crisis. This afternoon, it will hear an introduction about the Third UN Conference on Least Developed Countries, which will be held in May next year in Brussels.

The Third Committee continues to hear from various special rapporteurs on human rights issues. The Fifth Committee is holding informal closed consultations on the scale of assessments. And the Sixth Committee continues its discussion on the Report of the International Law Commission.

On Monday, the plenary will meet in the morning. On its agenda are two new items: one on the reunification of the Korean Peninsula; and the other on towards global partnerships. That's all I have. Thank you.

Deputy Spokesman: Any other questions?

Question: Could you be specific as to which existing structures and mechanisms would be used for the implementation of the decision of the Millennium Summit? For example, cutting poverty in half by the 2015, which mechanism would be used for that?

Spokeswoman: There were a couple of comments made on that. One would be that the UN system as a whole look at the areas that they could work in terms of follow-up and integrate the ideas and the pledges from the Declaration into their everyday work. In that regard, they mentioned particularly the Bretton Woods institutions that could be involved and should be involved more. But, not only the whole UN system, but all the conferences and special events that are coming up. I just mentioned for instance the LDC conference; that would be another area that could look at the issue of poverty. And there are others, like financing for development -- this meeting we assume is going to be held next year, although the dates are not settled for that yet. Those are the sorts of mechanism that are being discussed at the moment.

Question: Would either of you be able to give us some information on the letter that was received from Yugoslavia regarding its status in the General Assembly?

Deputy Spokesman: I can confirm that the Secretary-General did receive a letter this morning from President Kostunica, where he requests the admission of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the United Nations.

Question: Is he going to take action on this letter and, if so, when?

Deputy Spokesman: It has to be looked at by the Legal Office and then the normal procedure, which perhaps Sue can outline in more detail than I could. It would eventually reach the Security Council and the General Assembly. Sue would you like to elaborate on that?

Spokeswoman: Well, I just had a briefing from the Legal Office about the procedure. There is a rule, rule 134, that governs how a new Member must apply for membership. First, they submit an application to the Secretary-General and in that application they declare that they accept their obligations under the Charter. A copy of that is then sent to the General Assembly President and, unfortunately, at the time I came to the briefing I couldn't confirm that that had been done yet. And also to the Security Council.

You will remember the process we just went through with Tuvalu? Well, exactly the same. The Security Council will discuss it and decide and then make a recommendation to the General Assembly, which will then make the final decision. Now, in this case you probably also know that there was a resolution from 1992 of the General Assembly. We can make copies available to you. I did refer to this in a previous briefing when this issue was raised and it states in the resolution that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia should apply for membership to the United Nations, so that is what I assume the process is now.

Question: Can we get a copy of this letter?

Deputy Spokesman: I doubt it. Of course, when it becomes a document. Okay. If nothing else, thank you very much. Have a nice weekend.

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