DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20001110The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Marie Okabe, Associate Spokeswoman for the Secretary-General, and Susan Markham, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.
Briefing by Associate Spokeswoman for Secretary-General
Good afternoon. The Spokesman is with the Secretary-General, who is on his way to Bahrain, and the Deputy Spokesman is travelling with the Security Council Mission, which is on its way to East Timor, and that's why I'm here.
**Security Council
Here at the United Nations Headquarters, the Security Council is holding two private meetings this morning on the situation in the Middle East.
During the first meeting, which began shortly after 10:30 a.m., Council members heard from the President of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, who spoke for about 40 minutes. He is expected to speak to you at the stakeout once that meeting concludes. As of about five minutes ago, there were six more speakers to go, and following that, Mr. Arafat was going to respond to their comments.
During the second meeting, which is scheduled to start soon, Security Council members will hear from the Permanent Representative of Israel, Ambassador Yehuda Lancry.
And this afternoon at 3:30 p.m., they will meet in an open briefing with the outgoing High Commissioner for Refugees, Mrs. Sadako Ogata.
In her final briefing to the Security Council, Mrs. Ogata will reflect on the last turbulent decade and on the future of refugee work. She will focus on bridging the gap between the legitimate interests of States and the most vulnerable and deprived people in the world.
**Secretary-General in Geneva
The Secretary-General had a few appointments in Geneva this morning before leaving for Bahrain at midday.
He met with one of his Special Envoys for the Balkans, Carl Bildt of Sweden. They reviewed the full range of Balkan issues -- elections in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's relations with Montenegro and the situation in Kosovo, as well as in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They discussed the need for a long-term United Nations strategy for the Balkans.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 10 November 2000
He then met with George E. Moose, United States Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva.
He left Geneva at about 1 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive in Bahrain about 9 p.m. local time.
Tomorrow, that's Saturday, he is scheduled to attend an inauguration ceremony for the new United Nations house in Manama, which is to be donated by the Government of Bahrain as a common work premises for all parts of the United Nations system working in that country. He is then to meet first with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister and then with the Amir of Bahrain, who afterwards will host a luncheon in his honour.
After lunch, he will fly to Doha, Qatar, where he will address the opening of the Summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference on Sunday.
**Cyprus
In Geneva, the latest round of the Cyprus proximity talks were suspended as scheduled this morning.
Following the suspension, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, spoke to journalists.
He described these 10 days of meetings as very intensive work.
De Soto added that the Secretary-General had met with both parties during the round and presented them with some thoughts about procedure and substance on how best to move forward.
The talks are set to resume in January with an exact date and location not yet decided upon.
The full text of De Soto's remarks are available in the Spokesman's Office.
**Sierra Leone
In Abuja, Nigeria, today, talks bringing together the Economic Community of West African States, the Government of Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the United Nations are under way.
A seven-member delegation was led by a Col. Jonathan Kposowa, who is the RUF chief of administration.
**Mary Robinson in Middle East
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, continues her visit to the Middle East.
This morning in Jerusalem, she met with Israeli Government officials responsible for economic and trade relations with the Palestinian territories.
In the afternoon, she was to travel to Gaza to meet with the representative of President Arafat, who is also the Palestinian Minister for Social Affairs. His name is Intassar Al Wazir.
Later in the day she was to visit the Shiffa Hospital in Gaza.
**Kosovo/UNHCR
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today said it was appalled by the brutal murder on Wednesday of four Ashkalia -- or Gypsies -- who had just returned to the village of Dosevac in Kosovo. Their bullet-ridden bodies were discovered outside their tent yesterday, and the Office of the UNHCR has urged an investigation of their murders by international prosecutors.
The Office of the UNHCR had helped the men return earlier this week, and along with the Scottish charity Kosovo Appeal, was helping to reconstruct their homes, which had been destroyed earlier.
Yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, said in a statement that "whoever murdered these men, less that 48 hours after their return home, intended to destroy all the progress Kosovo has made in the past year, and particularly in the last few weeks". He called the killings "beyond comprehension" and said, "We will do all we can to find the perpetrators".
**UNHCR Notes
In other news from the Office of the UNHCR, the agency calls Pakistan's reported closure of its borders with Afghanistan a "matter of regret" and says it is discussing the matter with Pakistani officials. The Office of the UNHCR reports that, since last month, more than 30,000 Afghans have crossed the border into Pakistan following recent fighting in north-eastern Afghanistan.
In its briefing notes today which are available upstairs, the Office of the UNHCR also reports the relocation of virtually all its 62 local and international staff from the Sudanese town of Kassala, which came under artillery fire on Wednesday morning. The town is near the border with Eritrea, and staff there were in the process of registering Eritrean refugees. Further details are in the UNHCR briefing notes upstairs.
**Reports
Among the documents out on the racks today is the Report of the Secretary- General on the New International Humanitarian Order, in which he calls on the General Assembly to focus on ways "to effectively promote a culture of compliance with international humanitarian law."
Also out today is a Report on the Financing of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon containing the revised budget for the period 1 July 2000 to 30 June 2001.
We have news today that the United Nations Population Fund will receive substantial contributions from the Netherlands and United Kingdom. The contributions, totaling $76 million, will be used to avert a crisis in contraceptive and reproductive health supplies in developing countries. You can read more about that in a press release upstairs.
**The Week Ahead
And for our weekly feature The Week Ahead at the United Nations, I would like to highlight a few items. On Saturday, the Security Council Mission to East Timor and Indonesia will arrive in Dili where it is scheduled to meet with the Representative of the Secretary-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and other senior officials.
In Kosovo, the representatives elected to municipal assemblies will be sworn in, at a ceremony attended by Bernard Kouchner, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo.
On Monday at 10 a.m. in Washington, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Mrs. Ogata, will launch the biennial State of the World's Refugees report, which will be made available on the Office of the UNHCR Web site.
And at 11 a.m. on Monday, there will be a press briefing via video conference with former Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres, whose appointment will be announced by the Secretary-General as his envoy to deal with information technology development issues, including the "digital divide". Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai will attend the briefing.
Also on Tuesday, the Security Council will hold consultations on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and on Bosnia and Herzegovina, following elections there over the weekend.
And on Wednesday, the Council has scheduled an open debate to discuss the Council's decision-making on mission closure and mission transition and other issues relating to exit strategies. There was a document yesterday in the form of a letter from the Security Council President to the Secretary-General that contained a paper on this subject.
The Secretary-General will address the Freedom Award dinner of the International Rescue Committee on Wednesday evening.
And on Thursday, the Security Council expects to hear a briefing and its an open briefing by Kouchner, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, and after the briefing Kouchner is expected to talk to you. All media interested in interviewing Kouchner should contact the Spokesman's Office.
And finally, the Secretary-General will address the first day of the two- day United Nations World Television Forum which this year will focus on the challenges facing the television industry in the digital age, including its role in bridging the digital divide. More information on the forum can be found on the Web site www.un.org/tvforum. And that's on Wednesday and Thursday of next week. And that's what I have for you. And before I turn to Sue, any questions? Sue.
Briefing by Spokeswoman for President of General Assembly
Thank you. This morning, the President opened the pledging conference for the programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and from there he went to the plenary, where they are currently discussing the new agenda for Africa.
After that discussion ends, they will discuss the global implications of the Year 2000 date conversion problem of computers. And yesterday I had a question relating to that, which I have some information about. I was asked how much the conversion cost the United Nations, and I can say that work was undertaken as part of the normal innovation programme to replace obsolete software and hardware and this was done from within existing resources as part of the regular programme.
There was a study undertaken to make an inventory of telecommunications and computing systems and business applications at Headquarters. To do the study, a consultant was hired, for $70,000 I think the cost was, but I'm not sure. It says here $870,000, but that was financed within existing resources.
There will be a resolution on this item in the General Assembly this morning. The third item this morning is Cooperation with the Economic Commission of Central African States. The resolution on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which I had mentioned before, will be taken up at a later date.
On Monday, the plenary will discuss Dialogue Among Civilizations.
**Third Committee
Today, the Third Committee is expected to complete its work with the adoption of some 15 resolutions. These include items relating to refugees, to racism and to human rights issues, including human rights issues in South Eastern Europe, the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and on Haiti, which was differed from yesterday.
**Fourth Committee
The Fourth Committee this afternoon will take up 12 resolutions, which we expect them to adopt. These relate to assistance to Palestinian refugees, the operation of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices.
**Sixth Committee
The Sixth Committee this afternoon is expected to take up a couple of resolutions, one relating to observer status for the Inter-American Development Bank and the second relating to the Enhancement of the Safety of Diplomats.
Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 10 November 2000
**Fifth Committee
In the Fifth Committee this morning, they heard the introduction of two items relating to the United Nations Common System and the item on the United Nations Pension System.
We have, as I'm sure you already know, the schedule for the coming weeks on the General Assembly. The President of the General Assembly will be travelling to Washington, DC on Monday night for meetings on Tuesday with the World Bank and the IMF. He will also be meeting with some members of the news media. We will make his programme available this afternoon. That's all I have. Any questions?
Question: This question is for both of you. What is the move now in the General Assembly, and why has the Secretary-General not made a statement on intervention relating to democracy.
Spokeswoman: I believe that there is a resolution that I can give you after the briefing that relates to this. I'm not sure of the actual title, but there is something and I can give that afterwards.
Question: Why is the Secretary-General silent on this issue, when he is prepared to intervene in other parts of the world like Haiti and the Ivory Coast?
Associate Spokeswoman: What elections are we talking about?
Response: We are talking about the American elections.
Associate Spokeswoman: I think the Secretary-General is waiting to see how the political process here unfolds before he comments. He is traveling today, so he is obviously not in a position to comment, but he will not be issuing anything official until the outcome of the election results are known. Have a good weekend.
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