In progress at UNHQ

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

22 December 2000



Press Briefing


DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

20001222

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Fifth Committee

Very early this morning, 3 or 4 o'clock by what we hear, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) of the General Assembly appeared to reach an informal agreement on revising the existing scale of assessments for both the regular budget and peacekeeping operations. The details, however, still have to be worked out, and the Fifth Committee plans to take up the matter again today in informal consultations at about 12:30 p.m., following the conclusion of a formal meeting it is holding right now in Conference Room 3.

If agreement is finalized in those consultations, the Committee will then go into a formal meeting to adopt the resolution, which would then go to the General Assembly plenary for adoption. That could possibly happen later this evening -- again, pending agreement on the understandings that have been reached.

The understanding being discussed would result in several changes in the calculation of the scale of assessments for the United Nations regular budget. For example, the statistical base period for which country economies are studied to assess how much they should pay would be reduced from the current level of six years to 4.5 years. The ceiling for how much any one nation should pay would be reduced from 25 per cent to 22 per cent.

When the Fifth Committee reconvenes in informal session at 12:30 p.m., it is expected also to address proposed changes in the peacekeeping scale of assessments, which have also yet to be finalized.

The Fifth Committee is currently meeting in Conference Room 3 to handle other outstanding business. Although that meeting does not include discussion of the scale of assessments, the Committee is set to approve in the next few minutes the recommendations of the Brahimi report on United Nations peacekeeping operations.

The Committee is considering a draft resolution that would approve some $8.7 million in additional funding for United Nations post and non-post requirements which would be paid out of the support account for peacekeeping, as well as some $430,000 in political affairs and other expenses to be appropriated from the regular budget. Funding requirements resulting from other recommendations of the Brahimi Panel are expected to be dealt with later.

**Security Council

The Security Council held a formal meeting this morning to adopt a resolution, which extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) until 31 March 2001. Resolution 1334 (2000) was adopted unanimously.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 22 December 2000

Following that, Council members went into informal consultations. First, they had a briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean Marie Guéhenno, with an update at the request of the Council on HIV/AIDS and peacekeeping in the context of the Security Council resolution on HIV/AIDS.

Mr. Guéhenno outlined measures taken in response to the July resolution, which asks the Secretary-General to take further steps towards the provision of training for peacekeeping personnel on issues relating to prevention of the spread of HIV/AIDS, and to continue the development of pre-deployment orientation and ongoing training for all peacekeeping personnel.

He said efforts to increase awareness are now part of overall mission planning. He mentioned recent training courses aimed at reaching senior personnel from national armed forces in such places as Harare, Zimbabwe; Pretoria, South Africa; and Accra, Ghana. All budgets for new peacekeeping missions include provisions for HIV/AIDS training and education programmes designed to inform personnel, which is key to prevention.

The second item on this morning’s Council consultation agenda is Ethiopia/Eritrea. Council members were to continue their discussions on a draft resolution on the peace agreement between those two countries.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Secretariat is also expected to brief the Security Council on the flare- up of fighting in the north and south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

We have a statement issued just a short while ago in Kinshasa today by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Congo, in which he calls on all sides to stop the fighting and proposes a truce at least for the holiday period. He also said that the spillover of the fighting into neighbouring countries, such as Zambia, is a concern of his. Zambia, until now, has maintained neutrality in the conflict.

According to the United Nations mission in the Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and their allies have mounted what appear to be two separate offensive actions in Katanga and Equateur Provinces. Meanwhile, the inter-Congolese talks scheduled by the Government to be held in Libreville, Gabon, have been postponed, owing to the non-participation of the two rebel movements -- the RCD and the MLC. The principal non-armed opposition leaders also refused to participate in the meeting on the grounds that it was intended to substitute for the inter-Congolese dialogue called for by the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement.

**Somalia

The Secretary-General's report to the Security Council on Somalia, updating developments there since mid-August, will be available today. In it, the Secretary-General welcomes the commitment by the new Transitional Government, led by President Abdikassim Salad Hassan, to achieve progress by peaceful means, and he calls on Somalis on all sides to solve their remaining issues “in a peaceful and constructive way”.

The Secretary-General says in the report that he is ready to prepare a proposal for a peace-building mission for Somalia that would assist in the completion of the peace process that has been supported by Djibouti. The Office of the United Nations Security Coordinator would be closely involved in elaborating options to relocate a United Nations presence in Somalia.

However, the Secretary-General emphasizes, "given the current security situation, locating United Nations staff in the capital would be possible only after a single -- and effective -- authority for security in the city has been established". In that regard, it would be positive if free and safe access to all districts of the city were guaranteed.

**East Timor

A number of East Timorese refugees currently in West Timor arrived today in East Timor for Christmas visits. Some 244 refugees, of an estimated 450, arrived by boat in Dili this morning. After screening and registration, the refugees, from camps in the vicinity of Kupang, West Timor, were transported to their home districts. In addition, also today, 100 refugee Christmas visitors arrived in the East Timor enclave of Oecussi.

Meanwhile, eight refugee leaders from the camps in West Timor, who arrived in Baucau yesterday for a one-day “come and see” visit, received a warm welcome in their communities. Large groups of people gathered to talk to the visitors and presented them with letters to bring back to relatives in West Timor. The visitors said that they would pass on the message to refugees that East Timor is peaceful and safe.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), nearly 50,000 East Timorese refugees have returned home this year. Some 3,200 of them went home in the last four months, despite the withdrawal of aid workers from West Timor following the September murder of three UNHCR aid workers. Total refugee returns to East Timor since October 1999 now stand at some 174,000 people.

More details are available in my Office in the briefing notes produced by the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).

**World Bank/IMF

In case you want an update on what our colleagues in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been doing this week, the two agencies earlier this week announced that, over the course of the week, they would approve billions of dollars in debt relief to 22 heavily indebted poor countries.

As of the end of the week, the two agencies have approved the disbursal of some $20 billion of debt relief, which are to go to four Latin American and 18 African countries under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative. Previously, two countries -- Uganda and Mozambique -- had received debt relief under this Initiative.

Both agencies have been putting out information over the course of the week on specific debt-relief initiatives in the countries they are dealing with. If you want detailed information on these activities, you can check the World Bank site -- www.worldbank.org -- which has a wealth of press releases for you.

**FAO

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today announced the release of a special report on the joint FAO and World Food Programme (WFP) Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to the Sudan. The report indicates that more than 3 million people in southern Sudan are facing serious food shortages due to civil strife and drought. Six hundred thousand are in urgent need of food aid and another 2.4 million will need aid in the year 2001.

You can get more information in the press release in my Office.

**Afghanistan

The UNHCR said UNHCR staff in Iran repatriated some 134,000 Afghan refugees this year –- the largest single return movement of the year 2000. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, Afghan new arrivals continue to be registered, with nearly 60,000 new refugees recorded, most arriving mainly since September.

And inside Afghanistan, displaced persons continue to arrive in camps outside the western city of Herat. Families started leaving their homes in western Afghanistan as early as June this year due to severe drought.

**DPI Publication on UN Peacekeeping

The Department of Public Information's latest publication, "UN Peacekeeping from 1991 to 2000: Statistical data and charts", is available in the Spokesman's Office. It presents factual data with charts on United Nations peacekeeping over the last decade and for the latest period in terms of numbers of operations, military, civilian police, international civilian personnel, fatalities, budget and arrears. You can pick up copies of that in my Office.

**Signature

At noon today, Peru became the sixty-third country to sign the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. As I mentioned yesterday, the Optional Protocol comes into force today, and we have background information available on the racks.

**DESA Report

"World Economic Situation and Prospects 2001" presents an appraisal of the world's economic performance in the last year, and a preview of the year ahead. It is produced by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and will be released in advance unedited text on Thursday, 28 December, for those of you who will be here. If you're interested, contact Tim Wall on extension 5851.

**World Chronicle

Another World Chronicle TV programme is out. This one features David Morrison, the President of Netaid Foundation, and that can be seen today on in- house channel 3 or 31 at 2:30 p.m.

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**The Week Ahead

And we have for you the Week Ahead for next week. I think it's the shortest one we've produced yet, but you can pick that up in my Office.

**Question and Answer

Question: Are the new refugees from Afghanistan, who went into Pakistan, the same ones that left Iran?

Spokesman: I don't know. We can check that for you, but off the top of my head, I don't know. [He later announced they were not.]

Question: Can you discuss Ted Turner's role in the budget talks, and can you explain the practice of the UN accepting private money to make up for a shortfall?

Spokesman: We have no information about Ted Turner's relations with the United States Government concerning the contribution that was written up in the papers today. Our financial regulations say that when it comes to budget assessments, we can accept contributions from the government alone. So if the United States wants to give us a check, that might include some private donations to the government, as long as it comes to us from the United States Government, we have no problem with that.

Question: Could you give an off the top of your head judgement on how the financial situation is this year?

Spokesman: With the payment of $217 million by the United States earlier this week -- I think it was on Monday -- we will finish this year in the black. Had that money not come in, we would have gone into a negative cash position.

Follow-up question: Is that the first time in years?

Spokesman: I'd have to check on precedents to see how that compares with previous years. If the agreement on the scale of assessments is reached by the end of the year -- and I assume it would be judged to fulfil the requirements of the United States legislation that would trigger the release of some $600 million in the next year -- then, of course, our cash position would improve considerably. If agreement is reached and if the money flows to us, all of it would go to the payment of troop contributors and equipment contributors to peacekeeping.

Question: Is the United Nations involved in the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians and, if so, in what capacity?

Spokesman: No, the United States, as you know from reading the papers, is trying to get the parties together for another summit. The parties themselves are indicating cautious optimism that something might be worked out. The Secretary- General is very pleased with that, but at this time there is no direct role for the United Nations in what is going on in this latest peace effort. The Secretary-General is always ready to help if he can.

Thank you very much.

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For information media. Not an official record.