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
20001218The 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 for the Secretary-General
**Secretary-General Accepts Petition for Worldwide Moratorium on Death Penalty
Good afternoon. Just a few minutes ago, the Secretary-General received a petition, with close to 3 million signatures, calling for a worldwide moratorium on the death penalty.
The petition was presented to the Secretary-General by Sister Helen Prejean, of the Moratorium 2000 campaign, as well as Paul Hoffman of Amnesty International and Mr. Marazatti of the Sant'Egidio community.
The Secretary-General accepted the petition on behalf of the United Nations and thanked those whose efforts had made it possible to collect so many signatures.
In a statement issued immediately afterward, the Secretary-General said "The forfeiture of life is too absolute, too irreversible, for one human being to inflict it on another, even when backed by legal process. And I believe that future generations, throughout the world, will come to agree."
The Secretary-General concluded that statement saying, "Only sovereign States have the power to grant your petition. I pray they will do so."
**Security Council
The Security Council began its work today with closed consultations in which members discussed a draft resolution proposing new sanctions measures, including an arms embargo, against the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. The draft resolution is expected to be introduced in final form by this evening.
Following those consultations, the Council heard a briefing by Under- Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, on the situation in Guinea following the recent violence along its borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Mr. Prendergast informed the Council of the work of the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Oluyemi Adeniji -- who is also the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sierra Leone. Mr. Adeniji last week travelled to Guinea and also attended a meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Bamako, Mali, on the recent attacks in Guinea.
At 3:30 this afternoon, the Council is expected to go back into consultations to discuss a draft resolution concerning a monitoring presence in
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 18 December 2000
the Palestinian territories. There is a possibility that the Council might go into a formal meeting following those consultations.
**Secretary-General's Latest Report Notes Progress, Remaining Challenges, in Sierra Leone
The Secretary-Generals report to the Security Council on the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) is out on the racks today.
The Secretary-General says he is pleased to note that the United Nations mission has made progress in recovering from the May crisis. Yet, he said, the challenges that confront Sierra Leone are still daunting. The United Nations mission needs to keep a balance between its limited presence and the need to be pro-active, he said.
Urging the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) not to lose what he described as a unique opportunity to return to the peace process, the Secretary- General urged the group to demonstrate its good faith by immediately opening roads in RUF-controlled areas, returning all United Nations weapons and proceeding with the disarmament and demobilization of its combatants.
Saying that forward deployment of the United Nations mission would depend on the availability of well-trained, well-equipped and rapidly deployable contingents, he recalled his earlier recommendation to increase the missions strength to a level of 20,500 personnel.
On regional efforts, the Secretary-General welcomed the efforts by ECOWAS to stabilize the border situation and urged international support to help create a regional observation mechanism along Guineas borders.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, the UNAMSIL Force Commander, Lt. General Daniel Opande, contacted RUF interim leader, Issa Sesay, regarding a recent press release saying United Nations troops would not be allowed into RUF-controlled areas. Sesay said that the statement, which appeared on the RUF Web site, was neither authorized nor issued by the RUF leadership. We had a question on this at the end of last week.
**UNMIK Condemns Violent Rampage by Protestors in Leposavic
Over the weekend in Kosovo, in an incident which has been condemned by the United Nations Mission there (UNMIK), a violent demonstration by a group of Kosovo Serbs resulted in the death of two Serbs and the burning of a municipal police station in the northern town of Leposavic.
The violence began Saturday, when a crowd of some 200 people surrounded the Leposavic police station to demand the release of a Kosovo Serb who had been arrested by United Nations police after driving his car recklessly. The crowd threw stones at the Kosovo police's vehicles and briefly took hostage seven Belgian soldiers from the Kosovo Force (KFOR), whose release was then negotiated by the Belgian KFOR commander.
By midnight Saturday, the crowd became more violent and broke into the police compound, and KFOR troops responded by firing tear gas and warning shots into the air. In the ensuing violence, one Serb was shot dead and another died of a heart attack. The situation in Leposavic has since calmed down, and is described today as quiet.
United Nations police are conducting an investigation into the incident, and they intend to conduct joint patrols in Leposavic with French gendarmes from KFOR when the situation allows.
We have a press release from the United Nations mission, which includes the condemnation by Special Representative Bernard Kouchner of the incident, as well as of the murder of a Kosovo Albanian man in North Mitrovica over the weekend. Speaking on the violence in Leposavic, Dr. Kouchner said, "Such action will not be tolerated."
**Confident that Viet-Nam is Now Self-sufficient, WFP Moves On
The World Food Programme (WFP) announced some good news today, saying that it would end its operations in Viet-Nam at the end of this month because the country is able to feed its people. Viet-Nam, which is now the world's second- largest exporter of rice, received about half a billion dollars in food and non- food assistance from WFP since 1974; now, the agency says, it is confident enough about Viet-Nam that it can redirect its efforts to more needy countries.
**Secretary-General's Year-end Press Conference
Don't forget: tomorrow, at 11 a.m., the Secretary-General will be giving his end-of-the-year press conference in this room, looking at the events of the past year as well as to the work ahead in the year 2001.
**Update on Iraqi Request for Oil Price Change
We received a few questions this morning about Iraq's request for a change in the oil price. The Iraqi Oil Authority (SOMO) did request on Friday that the December pricing mechanism for the second half of the month be revised, in light of recent market changes.
The Oil Overseers from the Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP) have reviewed the request and have made their recommendations to the Chairman of the 661 Committee, overseeing the Iraq sanctions programme.
The Committee is expected to rule on this issue by 6 p.m. tomorrow night under the no-objection procedure.
Are there any questions before we go to Sue?
**Questions and Answers
Question: Following on your note about the Iraqi request for an oil price change, was that for an increase or decrease in the price?
Spokesman: Unfortunately, we can't give any details on oil pricing until the 661 Committee has announced their decision. I can't give you any more than I've already given you, sorry.
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Question: What's going to happen with the three million signatures the Secretary- General received against the death penalty? Will there be consultations? Will they be delivered to one of the Committees?
Spokesman: I think the main event happened today with the Secretary-General receiving those signatures on behalf of the United Nations and following that with the very strong statement that he made.
Question: Ambassador Chowdhury's press conference on the Sierra Leone report and the sanctions regime there was postponed today. When is that briefing going to be rescheduled?
Spokesman: We understand that the Sanctions Committee on Sierra Leone is meeting on that report tomorrow afternoon and that the Council briefing on the report is now scheduled for 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
Question: On Sierra Leone, do you have any comment on the letter by President Charles Taylor [of Liberia] denouncing the group of experts and the pressure exercised on them by the Security Council?
Spokesman: No. In fact, I haven't seen that letter. Let me look into it and see if we have any reaction.
Briefing by the Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly
Good afternoon. There is no plenary today. Tomorrow at 10 a.m., the plenary is scheduled to take action on eight items, including: assistance to Afghanistan; the situation in Central America; the report of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on financing for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL); cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); appointment of members of the Committee on Conferences; the situation in East Timor, and the report of the Fifth Committee on the report of the Economic and Social Council.
Today, the Fifth Committee is taking action on a number of draft resolutions, on results-based budgeting, outsourcing practices, the United Nations pension system and the pattern of conferences. It will also discuss the financing of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE). And it will continue consultations on various aspects of the Programme Budget.
As you probably know, over the weekend, the Fifth Committee met for informal consultations on both Saturday and Sunday to discuss the scale of assessments and the Brahimi report. So, we are still hopeful that they will conclude their work on Wednesday.
And finally, I'd like to remind you that the President of the General Assembly, Harri Holkeri, will hold his press conference on Thursday, at 11:15 a.m. in room 226.
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