DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
20001214The 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 the Spokesman of the Secretary-General
Good afternoon. Our guest at the briefing today will be Khadija Haq, President of the Mahbub ul Haq Human Development Centre. She'll be talking about the findings of the report on "Human Development in South Asia 2000". We've just learned that the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Nafis Sadik, who was also scheduled participate in that discussion, is unable to be with us today.
**Secretary-General to Congratulate United States President-elect Bush in Letter
A little later today, the Secretary-General will probably be sending a letter of congratulations to United States President-elect George W. Bush, saying he is looking forward to working with the new President. Once we have that letter safely off -- presumably during the course of the afternoon -- we will release it to you.
**Security Council Adopts Resolution to Extend MONUC's Mandate through June 2001
For those of you who were not here on the late side last night, the Security Council held consultations on the resolution on the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC).
After that, they heard a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General Hedi Annabi, on the situation around the Presevo Valley in Southern Serbia, after the Council President informed members of a letter received from President Vojislav Kostunica of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on that subject. The Council decided it would pay special attention to this issue at a formal meeting next Tuesday.
This morning, the Council met in closed consultations to conclude its discussion of the resolution on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which calls for an extension of the United Nations mission there as recommended by the Secretary-General in his recent report. And that would be until 12 June 2001.
Council members then moved into a formal meeting and unanimously adopted resolution 1332. Prior to the vote, the Council heard from the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Leonard She Okitundu.
Tomorrow at 3 p.m., the Secretary-General will brief the Council, in closed consultations, on his recent visits to Sierra Leone, Benin, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Italy and Algeria.
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Today, the Secretary-General is working at home and he will be back at Headquarters tomorrow morning.
**UNHCR Turns Fifty: Agency Marks Anniversary with "Respect Refugees" Exhibition at Headquarters
The fiftieth anniversary of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is being marked today in New York by the opening of an exhibition called "Respect Refugees". At 1 p.m., the Chief of Staff, Iqbal Riza, will deliver a statement on behalf of the Secretary-General, paying tribute both to the work of UNHCR and to the people it has helped over the years. The exhibition will include artwork by refugee children on the theme "Far from Homeland".
At her final press briefing from Geneva, High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata said that the anniversary itself was no cause for celebration as "the ultimate goal of a refugee-free world still remains as elusive as ever." She added that this anniversary year would "highlight the courage and the contribution of the worlds millions of refugees." She also announced the launch of the Refugee Education Trust, which would provide post-primary education to young refugees in developing countries.
More information on that Fund is available on the Web site. And we have the text of the Secretary-General's remarks, which will be available shortly.
**WFP Temporarily Halts Operation in Southern Guinea
We have a press release from the World Food Programme (WFP) out of Rome, saying it is temporarily suspending operations in southern Guinea due to an upsurge of fighting in the Gueckedou area of that West African country.
For more details, see that press release.
**Effective January 1, Income Tax for East Timorese
The Secretary-General's Special Representative in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, today signed an amendment to a regulation on the taxation system, which introduces a wages and income tax for East Timor.
Under the system, 10 percent of what East Timorese earn, above an initial amount of $100 a month, will be taxed; those who earn less that $100 a month would not have their wages taxed at all. Any Timorese earning more than $650 per month would pay a 30 percent tax on any earnings above that amount. The revenue collected from the new tax is to go into East Timor's budget, and that will take effect on 1 January.
We have some more information in today's briefing notes from Dili.
**Secretary-General to Make Special Announcement Tomorrow
If you're around tomorrow, you'll see the Secretary-General in this room at 11:30 a.m. He'll be here to make a special announcement and former Mexican
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President, Ernesto Zedillo, will accompany him. Both the Secretary-General and Mr. Zedillo will speak and take your questions.
As for what they are going to announce, I can't tell you that yet, but we hope to have some embargoed press releases with some additional information available later this afternoon.
**Press Conference
Tomorrow at 1:15 p.m., the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Leonard She Okitundu will hold a press conference in Room 226.
Briefing by Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly
Good afternoon. This morning, the plenary adopted 12 resolutions, one of them on the follow-up to the Millennium Summit. As you know, this was a resolution put together by the office of the President of the General Assembly, Harri Holkeri. In his view, the Summit Declaration is the most important document of the United Nations after the Charter, so he took great interest in the passing of this resolution this morning.
According to the resolution, the Assembly decides to use existing structures and mechanisms, as well as upcoming conferences and special events, to implement the Declaration. So no new structure will be established within the Secretariat. The resolution also recognizes that resources will be required, especially for Africa and the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and small island developing States. It also asks that urgent consideration of how this should relate to the budgetary process should be undertaken. The resolution also requests the Secretary-General to find innovative ways of enhancing cooperation and coherence of the United Nations system in the implementation of the Declaration. The Secretary-General is further requested to prepare a long-term "road map" on implementation and also to provide periodic comprehensive reports every five years supplemented by annual reports. It also invites the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) to be involved in the implementation. You can find the details in the resolution.
The other resolutions adopted by the General Assembly this morning were related to humanitarian assistance, including those on natural disasters and strengthening coordination of United Nations emergency humanitarian assistance. There were also drafts on help for specific countries, particularly Belize, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, eastern European States affected by developments in the Balkans, East Timor and the Palestinian people.
A resolution was also passed on the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant which, as you know, will be closed by the Government of Ukraine tomorrow. In his remarks on the resolution, General Assembly President Harri Holkeri noted that the explosion of the nuclear power planet, which occurred nearly fifteen years ago, was a major global technological catastrophe, as well as an eye- opener in many respects. He added that the "human suffering caused by the
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accident can not be measured and its environmental impact was partly irreversible." The resolution invites the international community to continue to provide support to the Government and people of Ukraine and other affected States.
There were three other resolutions introduced this morning in the plenary, which will be acted on next week. Two of those concern humanitarian assistance for specific countries, in particular, Comoros and Liberia. The other concerns the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and the protection of United Nations personnel, an issue that is currently before the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary). Therefore, the plenary will take no action on this issue until it takes up the reports of the Fifth Committee next week.
The five remaining items on the plenary's agenda this morning were deferred until the next session of the General Assembly.
The Fifth Committee is scheduled to conclude its discussion of the Brahimi report this morning. No action is expected on that until next week. The Fifth is also expected to take up a number of other items relating to the Programme Budget for this biennium as well as the next, and the capitol master plan.
There will be no plenary meeting tomorrow; however, informal consultations are expected on the preparations for the Assembly's special session on HIV/AIDS, scheduled to be held from the 25 to 27 June 2001. There is a conference room paper on that which is available if you are interested.
Finally, for your information, I have some work programme updates for next week, which as you know, is our last. Tuesday morning, we have the remaining item on humanitarian assistance, which relates to Afghanistan. The plenary will also take up the situation in East Timor during its transition to independence. The remaining members of the Committee on Conferences will also be appointed.
On Wednesday morning, the plenary will take up the reports of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).
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