DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20001106The 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
Okay. Good afternoon, don't have much of a voice today but let's see if it holds out.
**Sierra Leone
The Secretary-General has decided to appoint Major-General Martin Luther Agwai of Nigeria as Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone. Agwai will replace the outgoing Deputy Force Commander Mohammad Garba also of Nigeria.
Over the weekend, a violent demonstration erupted in the early hours of Sunday triggered by an armed robbery attempt in Freetown. An estimated 800 to 1,000 residents threw stones at police who arrived some two and a half hours after the robbery attempt was reported.
Nigerian troops of the United Nations Mission, along with members of the Sierra Leone army, were called onto the scene to quell the violence. The United Nations Mission reports that at least 16 people were wounded. The United Nations Mission said that its troops did not fire their weapons.
On the political front, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General for Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, is travelling to Abuja, Nigeria, today to attend a meeting of the Coordination Mechanism for the Economic Community of West African States, known as ECOWAS. And the Sierra Leonean Government as well will attend that meeting, as will members of the United Nations. It's scheduled for tomorrow.
On Thursday, the Nigerian Government is hosting a meeting among ECOWAS, the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leonean Government as well as the United Nations. That will take place in Abuja as well.
**Mary Robinson in Middle East
From Geneva, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, announced that she will go to the Middle East on Wednesday of this week, to review the human rights situation in light of the recent events there on the ground.
She will begin with a visit to Israel and then the High Commissioner will go to the occupied Palestinian territories. She will also visit Egypt and Jordan.
Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 6 November 2000
During this trip she will convey to the parties the importance of developing a culture of human rights and tolerance, which she believes are the key to a peaceful and stable future in the region. The High Commissioner is expected to report back to the General Assembly as well as to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
**Ethiopia and Eritrea
As I mentioned last Friday, we are expecting the Secretary-General here at noon tomorrow to introduce Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, his Special Representative and head of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.
In the meantime, the new Force Commander of that Mission, Major-General Patrick Cammaert of the Netherlands has arrived in Asmara to take up his new functions. A press release on his arrival is available in my office.
**Security Council
This morning the Security Council is holding a closed meeting of its Working Group on the Brahimi Report on United Nations peace operations and then, tomorrow morning, the Council is expected to meet with Member States contributing troops to the United Nations Mission in East Timor.
**Afghanistan
For the record, the high-level meeting of the Six-Plus-Two Group on Afghanistan early Friday evening issued a statement welcoming the agreement by the warring sides, the Taliban and the United Front, committing themselves to a process of dialogue under United Nations auspices.
The Group requested the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Francesc Vendrell, to report to it by February on progress achieved.
**Kosovo Elections
At 4 p.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, will sign a letter certifying the results of the 28 October municipal elections.
**Sudan
The fourth meeting of the Technical Committee on Humanitarian Assistance for the Sudan met on Thursday and Friday in Geneva to address the problem of humanitarian access to southern Sudan.
The Government of the Sudan, the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement and the United Nations agreed to renew efforts to establish a cross-line road corridor from Lokichoggio in Kenya to Kapoeta in southern Sudan. The Chairman of the meeting reminded all parties of their commitment to the Security Protocol, which is vital to the safety of humanitarian workers. We have their communique available upstairs.
**Friendship Run and Marathon
We told you on Friday that on Saturday there would be the annual international Friendship run. It happened and involved more than 12,000 runners. And on Sunday of course the New York Marathon was run. And as we told you, four United Nations staff members were running in the Marathon. We are told that Antana Locs of the United Nations Development Programme ran the marathon in three hours 42 minutes. Is that good? I think so. And then Brian Gleeson, who we said was one of the most experienced runners, also of UNDP, and Shalil Bose of the Information Technology Services Division crossed the finishing line with arms locked at a time of 3 hours 56 minutes. Congratulations to all the participants.
**Press Conferences
A press conference tomorrow in this room at 11 a.m. Ambassador Asda Jayanama of Thailand and Ambassador Jorgen Bojer of Denmark will be joined by non-governmental organizations leaders at a press conference on "Non-Governmental Organization Hearings on Financing for Development", taking place today and tomorrow in Conference Room 4. More information on the hearings can be found in a media advisory available, which is on the racks.
That's all I have for you. Any questions?
Question: Just to clarify, you said that in Sierra Leone the United Nations troops did not open fire on the demonstrators?
Spokesman: That's what they tell us.
Question: Now 13 injured, some with bullet wounds. Do we know how they were injured or who shot them?
Spokesman: Well, I said that the Sierra Leonean army also went in. I think that it's still very sketchy but the impression we have is that the United Nations troops were basically trying to restore order. They say they did not fire their weapons. Its unclear how many injured there were but we are told that a number were merely bruised and not necessarily all of the 12 or 16 or however many there may be who were hospitalized suffered from bullet wounds. So, we don't have a complete report. We have asked the mission to give us a full report. We hope to have that sometime later today.
Question The Secretary-General has replaced the Force Commander and the Deputy Commander, and the Brits have said that there is going to be a Briton as Chief of Staff. Are there any more appointments which the Secretary- General has to make in this shake-up?
Spokesman: No, I think the Secretary-General's intention all along was to replace three of the top military. The Chief of Staff would not be named directly by the Secretary-General, but I think by the Force Commander, and I don't think, although there's been talk of a British candidate, I dont think we've yet officially named the new Chief of Staff. So when the new Chief of Staff is named, then the overhaul of the military leadership would be complete from the Secretary-General's point of view.
Question: Other lower level shake-ups would come when the Indians move out and are replaced presumably?
Spokesman: What do you mean shake-up? In the composition? Well, the composition is shifting radically because of the departure of the Indians and the Jordanians and we still haven't come up with the necessary troops to replace them, let alone to increase the strength of the force overall. So it remains to be seen what the final composition of the Force will be. Any more questions? Sue.
Briefing by Spokeswoman for President of General Assembly
Thank you. The President of the General Assembly is on his way back from Vienna where he gave the keynote address at the General Assembly of non- governmental organizations in consultative status with the United Nations. A copy of his statement is available if anyone would like it. In it he stressed the important role of civil society in the work of the United Nations.
At one o'clock Vienna time, which was 7 a.m. New York time, he held a press conference, where he spoke about the work of the General Assembly, the implementation of the Millennium Summit Declaration and the importance of NGOs. We have an informal transcript of that available in the Spokesman's Office and it will be on the Web site shortly.
This morning the plenary met and approved the report of the Credentials Committee. In that report you will see the credentials of 134 Member States have been approved. Concerning the situation of the credentials of Afghanistan, there were two sets of credentials received by the Secretariat for two different delegations and the General Assembly, through the Credentials Committee, decided to defer taking a decision on this.
Following that, the plenary took up discussion on the International Atomic Energy Agency hearing a statement from the Director-General Mohamed Elbaradei. Copies of his speech are available in the Spokesman's Office. Then there was a draft resolution introduced by Nigeria and an amendment introduced by Egypt. I expect that they will act on these later this morning but they were still hearing statements when I left for the briefing.
**Third Committee
In the Committees today, the Third Committee this morning heard from Sadako Ogata, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as they took up the item on refugees which will continue tomorrow. Later this morning they are expected to take up the remaining resolutions from Friday which they did not have time to adopt. On Friday, they adopted by recorded vote the resolution on honour crimes and that was following an amendment to the resolution that was defeated.
Following the honour crimes resolution, the Third Committee then adopted by consensus a resolution on violence against women. Those were the only two of the scheduled resolutions that the Third Committee adopted on Friday.
So this morning, they will take action on the other resolutions that were listed for Friday; in fact, they may have started as we speak. There was one on the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW) which is suffering a critical financial
situation. The INSTRAW is funded by voluntary contributions and, apparently, there have not been enough funds received for it to operate beyond the end of this year. So if this resolution is adopted it would request financial assistance in order for it to continue next year, from the regular budget of the United Nations.
Three other draft resolutions which the Third Committee would act on this morning are the Right of the Palestinian People to Self-Determination, a draft on the Convention on Migrant Workers and their families and a draft on torture.
On the racks this morning are a number of human rights resolutions and we expect the Third Committee to take action on these drafts on Wednesday.
**Fourth Committee
In other Committees, the Fourth Committee took up the report of the Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices.
**Fifth Committee
The Fifth Committee had the introduction of Financial Reports and audited Financial Statements and is continuing the discussion on human resources and related issues, and programme planning.
**Second Committee
The Second Committee is not meeting but instead they are holding the hearings with civil society, that Fred mentioned, which are going on today and tomorrow in relation to the financing for development process.
**Sixth Committee
And the Sixth Committee has a working group on immunities of States.
Tomorrow, in the plenary, the item that was originally scheduled about Y2K Compliant Computers has been rescheduled for a later date. So the three items that would come up tomorrow morning are Cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity, Cooperation between the United Nations and the Caribbean Community and Bethlehem 2000.
Looking ahead, we expect the item relating to the United States embargo against Cuba to be discussed on Thursday. That's all I have.
Spokesman: Any questions for Sue? OK, thank you very much.
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