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

The razzamatazz you see here on my left is for our guest at the briefing today who will be Giandomenico Picco, the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, and he will be here to launch the new Web site for the Dialogue among Civilizations. That would be at about 12:15.

**Secretary-General at World TV Forum

The Secretary-General this morning underscored the importance of radio and television as the advance guard of the knowledge revolution in an address to the opening plenary of the fifth annual World Television Forum, which took place in Conference Room 4.

The Secretary-General warned of the paradox that "in our own age of globalization, it sometimes seems as if only knowledge is not being globalized". He said the knowledge gap between north and south is wider and noted that only 5 per cent of all people have access to the Internet.

To rectify some of the problems of the digital divide, he said, he has asked his newly-appointed Special Representative on Information and Communication Technologies, former Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres, to work to establish a United NationsN Digital Task Force, which would develop a strategy for developing information technology.

Copies of the Secretary-General's speech are available upstairs. The World Television Forum will continue this afternoon with round tables on new and educational programming and social advocacy, and it will last through tomorrow.

**Security Council

This morning, the Security Council first met in closed consultations to discuss a draft presidential statement on the Solomon Islands relating to the Townsville Peace Agreement signed by the warring factions on 15 October in Australia.

The consultations were followed by two formal meetings. During the first meeting, which is already concluded, the Council unanimously approved the Presidential Statement, which "strongly supports" the peace agreement and encourages nations in the region to participate and to support the agreement.

Copies of the statement are available on the racks.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 16 November 2000

During the second open meeting, which is currently under way, the Council is being briefed on the recent elections in Kosovo by the Secretary-General's Special Representative in the province, Dr. Bernard Kouchner.

Dr. Kouchner told the Council that he is convinced that United Nations Security Council resolution 1244 is the only basis for future work. He talked about the need to accelerate the process of defining substantial autonomy and develop institutions of self-government with the Kosovars sharing more and more responsibility in the administration of Kosovo. This is even more pressing following the municipal elections, which have yielded democratically elected officials at the local level, he said. We have copies of his talking points available for you.

As a reminder, Dr. Kouchner is scheduled to hold a press conference in this room after his presentation to the Council.

Tomorrow, the Secretary-General will brief the Council in an open meeting on the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea, and he will also brief Council members on his recent trip to the Gulf.

**Council Mission in East Timor

The Security Council mission that has been visiting East Timor and Indonesia this week paid a courtesy call in Jakarta today to Indonesian Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri. The team also met with senior Indonesian officials led by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs.

Following the meeting with the Government officials, the head of the Council team, Ambassador Martin Andjaba of Namibia, emphasized that all parties, including the Government of Indonesia, must facilitate the reconciliation process.

Later in the day, the Council mission met with the Speaker of the Lower House of Parliament, Akbar Tanjung, with whom it discussed legislation recently put through Parliament to set up a human rights court. That legislation is expected to go into effect on 6 December. The mission also held a meeting on that court with the head of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission, Asmara Nababa.

Tomorrow, the Council members are expected to meet the President of the Indonesian People's Consultative Assembly before leaving for New York.

We have further details of the Council mission's visit in today's briefing notes.

**Ethiopia and Eritrea

The first elements of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea Peacekeeping Force have arrived in the mission area. An aviation unit comprising 48 Italian specialists arrived last night in Asmara and on Monday, 60 Canadian troops are expected to arrive.

At the core of this operation is the establishment and monitoring of a 25-kilometre security zone agreed to by the parties in 18 June Cessation of Hostilities agreement.

There's a press release in my office with more information.

**Press Releases

Other press releases today. A second round of "synchronized" National Immunization Days is set to take place in 19 West and Central African countries. According to a World Health Organization advisory, the effort aims at immunizing over 70 million children in countries from Senegal to the Central African Republic. A special house-to-house strategy will ensure that children living in refugee camps and nomadic settlements, will be included in the effort to vaccinate 10 per cent more children this year than in previous years.

And a joint Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Programme mission to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea reports a "sizeable" reduction in the production of rice and maize for the year 2000, due mostly to drought. The mission estimates the country will have to import 1.18 million tons of cereals in the period November 2000 to October 2001 to meet the needs of the population.

You can get both those press releases upstairs. And we also have an update from the Climate Change Conference at which negotiations are continuing in informal working groups.

**Press Conferences

Press conferences, this afternoon at 2:30, Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the United Nations Drug Control Programme, will be here to talk about the High- level Political Signing Conference for the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, to be held in Palermo, Italy, from 12 to 15 December.

Press conference tomorrow, 11 a.m., Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Kader Asmal, the Chair of the World Commission on Dams, and others will be here to present the report of the World Commission on Dams entitled "Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision- Making".

Following his briefing to the Security Council tomorrow on Ethiopia and Eritrea, the Foreign Minister for the Netherlands, Jozias Van Aartsen, together with Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, will be holding a press conference in this room on the Reference Manual for Weapons Destruction. We'll squawk that just before it's about to happen.

And then the real news for today, the French Mission has asked me to announce that this afternoon from 5:30 to 7:30 in the UNCA Club today, they are hosting a party in honour of this year's Beaujolais Nouveau. And you'll all be invited. Free samples available.

That's all I have for you. Any questions before we go to Sue?

Question: The Middle East Economic Survey says that Iraq has told its customers that they would have to a pay 50 cents per barrel premium on oil and that this would have to be paid into an account not administered by the United Nations. Has this been notified to the United Nations and what is the United Nations' position?

Spokesman: To my knowledge we've only seen this in the source that you cite. I am not aware that Iraq has formally notified the United Nations or specifically the Sanctions Committee. And of course any such effort, whether they were officially notified or not, would be subject to the judgement of the Committee as to whether it's in compliance with the sanctions regime.

Question: On Sierra Leone, Fred, I understand that General Garba gave an interview to the BBC today, and he basically criticized Britain for being overly aggressive in launching this publicized amphibious landing near Freetown. Was General Garba speaking on behalf of the United Nations, and does the United Nations agree with the basic message of what he had to say?

Spokesman: Well, as you probably know, General Garba is scheduled to be replaced on the 23rd of this month. He was not speaking for the Secretary- General, who has made it clear that he finds Britain's presence in the area a stabilizing factor, although the Secretary-General himself was hoping that countries with advanced military systems would join the United Nations Force or, at the very least, provide a rapid reaction force when it was most needed. Failing that, Britain's presence in the area under its own flag has been a stabilizing factor, in the Secretary-General's view. I think though that General Garba did, in his comments to the BBC, welcome the British presence as such in the context of its training efforts with the Sierra Leonean Army. He was expressing concern about the timing of the exercise and its impact on the just-concluded accord in Sierra Leone. As for that accord, you might have heard the Secretary- General when he came in this morning -- we just put out a transcript a few minutes ago -- saying that he hoped that the RUF would honour that accord, even though there have been a number of them in the past that have not been honoured. But, he said, "we are not letting our guard down. We are going to remain vigilant and carry on with our work".

Question: On the exercise, does the United Nations believe it was badly timed?

Spokesman: I don't have a comment on that from the Headquarters’ perspective and so I really can't say anything more than I have said.

Question: Regarding the immunization project that you announced, is this a special project by the World Health Organization?

Spokesman: I think it has elements of a world-wide effort at immunization. This one is being carried out by the World Health Organization and the World Food Programme and you can get more details in the press releases as I mentioned to you. I see Gianni Picco has arrived. Gianni, do you want to come up and take your seat, and we will ask Sue to give her presentation in the meantime?

Briefing by Spokeswoman for President of General Assembly

Thank you. This morning the President opened the World Television Forum. In his remarks about bridging the digital divide, he said: "Coming from Finland, one of the world's most wired nations, I know the impact that education has on the technological prospects of a country. Education is crucial if people are to be able to take advantage of technological opportunities. That is why I have been emphasizing the importance of education, especially for girls." The full text, of

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 16 November 2000

course, is available in the Spokesman's Office and probably in a press release by now.

This afternoon, the President will be speaking at a luncheon in observance of the International Day of Tolerance, which is today. In his statement he will refer to the Millennium Summit, where the world's leaders affirmed the essential nature of tolerance to international relations, and also to next year's World Conference against Racism, as milestones on the path towards the day when we can live together in peace and harmony. Again the text of his statement is available upstairs.

This morning, in the General Assembly, the discussion began on the question of equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and related matters. This is a debate that is going to go on for some time because there are 94 speakers listed at the moment. So we expect it to continue tomorrow as well.

In connection with this item, you are probably aware, and if not, I will tell you that the President chairs an open-ended working group on Security Council reform and that will be having a number of meetings next year. So this is an important element in the debate that will continue.

This morning also, the plenary agreed to an additional agenda item being included for this session of the General Assembly on the observer status for the Economic Community of Central African States. This item was allocated to the Sixth Committee and will be taken up there this afternoon.

Just so you get a "heads up" on Monday, the report of the First Committee will be taken up in the General Assembly and on Friday, 1 December, the General Assembly will take up the report of the Third Committee. I know a number of you are interested in seeing the progress of some of those decisions through the plenary. The Third Committee report will be in the afternoon of 1 December.

The Fourth Committee finished its work on Tuesday except for the agenda item relating to peacekeeping which is awaiting the report from the Special Committee on Peacekeeping. That Committee will meet Monday and Tuesday of next week, so we are not sure when that report will be available.

Yesterday, the President spoke at a Forum of Small States about his ideas on how to revitalize the work of the General Assembly. As you know, this is one of his priorities which he has been addressing on various occasions. The full text of the statement that he made there is available upstairs. You might find it of interest since it has some of the ongoing plans that the President is working on. One of the things he said yesterday was how striking it was that many decisions had already been taken by the General Assembly to improve its work and that of the Main Committees, and he challenged Member States to implement those decisions.

He pointed out that the total number of agenda items has increased in the last six years from 164 at the forty-ninth session to 184 for this session. And the number of resolutions has increased from 328 six years ago to 341 last year and growing. So we hope there will be some decisions made and implemented to maybe tri-annualize some of these agenda items or find other ways of streamlining the work of the General Assembly. That's all I have , thank you.

Spokesman: Any questions for Sue? If not we will go to Giandomenico Picco for the launching of your Web site. Do you want to tell us something about it?

* *** *