DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE 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, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good Afternoon.

**Security Council

The Security Council began meeting in closed consultations this morning at 10 a.m.

The first item on their agenda was Afghanistan, on which they were briefed on the military and political developments, the humanitarian situation and the narcotics issue by Francesc Vendrell, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for Afghanistan.  He summed up by saying the situation remains “dismal”.  Mr. Vendrell is expected to come to the briefing here, we hope, in the next few minutes to brief you.

The second item on the agenda for this morning is Haiti.  Former Representative of the Secretary-General, Alfredo Lopes Cabral, is the briefer.

The Secretary-General has his monthly luncheon today with members of the Security Council.

This afternoon the Council will hold a private meeting, on the situation along the Sierra Leone-Guinea-Liberia border, with the delegation of foreign ministers of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

We have what we think is the final list of the attendees of that meeting.  We understand that the foreign ministers of Mali, Nigeria, Togo, Liberia and Sierra Leone will attend, as well as the ambassadors of Guinea and Gambia.  And, of course, the Executive-Secretary of ECOWAS, Lansana Kouyate, will also attend.

The Secretary-General will address that closed meeting.

Meanwhile, the High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, has called on Guinea to establish safe corridors to move tens of thousands of refugees away from the volatile border area.  Today, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that 72 trucks are expected to have picked up some 1,000 refugees stranded after the rest of the 34,000-refugee camp emptied over the weekend because of insecurity in the area.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

The new report to the Security Council on the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which contains a revised plan of operation which the Secretary-General mentioned last week, is expected to be out shortly.

Jean-Marie Guehenno, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, will be here this afternoon at 3 p.m. to brief you on that report in advance of its being issued.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kamel Morjane, and his peacekeeping force commander are in Lusaka, Zambia, to attend a series of meetings on the Congo conflict.  The Joint Military Commission met over this weekend to discuss disengagement plans.

**Secretary-General's Speech

This morning the Secretary-General delivered the opening address at the Preparatory Committee for the High-Level Intergovernmental event on Financing for Development.

The Secretary-General reminded the delegates that broad goals on this issue had been agreed unanimously during last year’s Millennium Summit.  These include, among other things, halving the proportion of the world’s population living in abject poverty, ensuring basic education for boys and girls alike and reducing the maternal mortality rate by three quarters.

“What is lacking”, the Secretary-General said, “is agreement on the means by which we are going to do it”.

He outlined two essential tasks for this process.

First, agreement must be reached on what main policies are to be applied since donors, from either the public or private sectors, he said, “do not put up money unless you tell them clearly how you are going to spend it”.

In determining these policies, the Secretary-General called for greater representation from developing countries.  “They are the countries", he said, "where development has to happen.  It is their people who have to be rescued from poverty.”

The second task, according to the Secretary-General, is to get the attention of political leaders and financial authorities throughout the world. “Development is far too important”, he added, "to be left to specialized ministries or agencies.  It must mobilize the energies of governments and societies as a whole.”

We have copies of that speech available in my Office.

**Gaza

The Secretary-General’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed Larsen, will hold a press conference in Gaza tomorrow to release the key findings of an updated report on the social and economic impact on the Palestinian economy of the ongoing conflict and border closures.  We had originally said we expected that report to be released today.

**Secretary-General's Speech at Habitat

The Secretary-General's greeting to the meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements, which opened today in Nairobi, was delivered by HABITAT Executive Director, Anna Tibaijuka.  And we have that text available for you.

**Ethiopia/Eritrea Statement

The United Nations mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea began today to deploy forces to create the Temporary Security Zone that was agreed to last week, and which is called for in the peace agreement between those two countries.

The head of that mission, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, gave a press conference in Addis Ababa on Friday.  We received a transcript just this morning, and you can pick up copies in my Office.

**Climate Change

The Bureau of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC) is holding consultations here in New York today regarding the resumption of the negotiations that were suspended in The Hague last November.

It is expected that a press release will be issued later today on the outcome of those consultations.

We will announce it as soon as it is released.

**Lessons Learned:  Peace Process

We have upstairs a joint press release from the United Nations University, and the University of Ulster in the United Kingdom, on the results of a two-year study examining lessons learned from the peace process in five conflict areas.

The study found that providing work for former paramilitary and security force members and easing their integration into society is one of several essential elements in a successful peace process.

It also examined the effects of economic factors, the influence of foreign powers and the importance of symbols.

The study, conducted by the Initiative on Conflict Resolution and Ethnicity (INCORE) based its findings on interviews with policy-makers involved in five conflicts:  South Africa, the Basque region of Spain, Sri Lanka, Nothern Ireland and Israel/Palestine.

The authors of the study, John Darby and Roger MacGinty, are here in New York and they are available for interviews.  If you are interested, they will present their findings tomorrow, here at the United Nations, in Conference room E at 9:30 a.m.

**East Timor

Today’s briefing notes from the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNTAET) report on a symposium on human rights, reconciliation and elections that was held today in Dili.

Speakers included the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Sergio Vieira di Mello, the United Nations Development Programme’s Administrator, Mark Malloch-Brown, and independence leader, Xanana Gusmão.  Also visiting, and part of this discussion, was Carina Perelli, Director of the Electoral Assistance Division here at United Nations Headquarters.

For more information on that, pick up the briefing notes upstairs.

**UNICEF

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced today that, since 1998, almost a million children have been saved from death through the distribution of vitamin A capsules.  Carol Bellamy, Executive Director, said that it was unacceptable that a child should die of vitamin A deficiency when “a high dose capsule costing about 2 cents, given twice a year, can provide adequate protection...”  She added that just five years ago, only six of the

72 countries with vitamin A deficiency had adequate supplemental programmes and today the number has risen to over 40.

You can pick up a press release on that.

**Budget

Nicaragua became the 45th Member State to pay in full its contribution to the regular budget for this year.  That is with a payment of just over $9,000.

**Visit by School Superintendents

The Department of Public Information (DPI) tells us that tomorrow, superintendents from 60 New York City schools will attend a meeting that they are hosting.  The meeting, which is the regular monthly meeting of the superintendents, is being held here at the United Nations to give them the opportunity to establish closer ties and learn about the work of the Organization.

**World Chronicle Announcement

DPI has also asked me to announce that there will be a screening of another World Chronicle TV program, this one featuring Dr. David Nabarro, the Executive Director of the Director General’s Office of the World Health Organization, and you can see that on in-house television channels 3 or 31 at 2:30 today.

**UNCA Announcement

The Correspondents Association asked me to tell you about an event tomorrow morning between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. at the UNCA Club at which UNICEF will present the winners of the 2001 Lewis Hine Awards.

Lewis Wicks Hine was a professional photographer who made a photographic record early in the last century of the conditions of America's working children.  The awards in his name are given to those who have made an exceptional contribution to the lives of America's youth.

The winners this year include two people from New York and one from New Jersey, and you can meet them tomorrow at 10 a.m.

That's all I have for you.  Before we go to Sue, I'll take any questions that you have.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, are there arrangements for us to meet any of the ECOWAS participants this afternoon? 

Spokesman:  We just got confirmation of the names of those attending.  I think many of them just flew in this morning.  So we will try to see if they will speak to you at the stakeout or wherever.  We'll try to arrange that and we'll let you know.

Question:  Do you have any information on the press availability of the Secretary of State and the Secretary-General after their meeting on Wednesday?

Spokesman:  I understand that the Secretary of State has agreed to come down to the stakeout outside the Security Council after his meeting with the Secretary-General, so we'll squawk it when he leaves the thirty-eighth floor so that you can get in position.

Question:  What time is that meeting scheduled for?

Spokesman:  Three-ish, I don't think I can be more precise than that right now.  It's about 3 p.m. in the afternoon.

Question:  Are the ECOWAS ministers going in at 3 p.m. as scheduled this afternoon?

Spokesman:  I don't know if it's 3 p.m. or 3:30.  You can just check the Security Council programme.  That will give you the precise time.  [The questioner was later informed that the Security Council was meeting at 3 p.m.]

Question:  On the latest Taliban sanctions, do you have any information on what is being done to set up a monitoring mechanism in nearby countries?  Some reports, out of Pakistan, state that nothing is being done yet.

Spokesman:  Why don't you hold your question for Francesc Vendrell when he gets here.  I hope you won't have to come back. 

The Security Council is meeting at 3 p.m.  Are there any more questions?  If not, we'll go to Sue.

Briefing by the Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly

Thank you.  I'd just like to give you some highlights of what the President of the General Assembly will be doing this week.  Every Monday, I'll come to the briefing to give you highlights.  If anything warrants it, I'll come more frequently -- but if that suits you, that will suit me.

This morning, the President of the General Assembly spoke at the opening session of the Preparatory Committee for the Financing for Development event.  He stressed that this event is part of the follow-up to the Millennium Summit. And he said it is seeking fresh ways of thinking and acting and looking for fresh angles and inter-linkages, rather than merely preparing for an isolated event.  You can find the full text of his remarks upstairs in the Spokesman's office and also on his Web site.

He'll have a luncheon today, a working luncheon with the Deputy Secretary-General and ambassadors of key Member States to discuss the follow-up to the Millennium Summit.  You know, the General Assembly passed a resolution last year on the follow-up, and they will be discussing what needs to be done now. 

Tomorrow, in the morning, there will a brainstorming session of the General Committee.  It will be broader than just the General Committee, which as you know is made up of the 21 vice-presidents of the General Assembly plus the chairmen of each of the six committees.  It will be an open-ended meeting and others can participate if they wish.  The purpose of this brainstorming session, if you like, is to look at the working methods of the General Assembly and to come up with some specific ways they could be improved.

There are a number of decisions that the General Assembly has already taken on this, but many of them have yet to be implemented.  So the President is discussing with the General Committee how they could proceed.  There is a lot of background information on this which we can provide to you on request, or you can find it on the President's Web site.

Also tomorrow, the President is meeting with General John de Chastelain of Canada.  The General and Mr. Holkeri were two of the members of the international body which was set up by the governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland, on the issue of decommissioning of illegal weapons in Northern Ireland.  Mr. Holkeri served on that body from 1995 to 1998.  There were three independent chairmen.  The General, I believe, is still working in Northern Ireland.

On Wednesday, we expect a meeting of the plenary of the General Assembly in the morning.  There will be a resolution concerning the recent floods in Bolivia.  There have been floods, cave-ins, landslides, and general havoc, caused by torrential rains in Bolivia in the last few months.  This has caused

severe economic damage and loss of human life.  The resolution is to request Member States to continue to respond generously to the emergency in Bolivia.

Also on the agenda for Wednesday's plenary meeting will be a follow-up to the Prep Com that was held recently on the General Assembly Special Session on Children.  I don't have the details yet, but presumably a document on that will be available tomorrow or maybe later today.

Mr. Holkeri will be leaving New York on Thursday for a brief few days away.  As you know, Monday is a holiday, so he'll be leaving on Thursday and back on Tuesday.  Thank you, that's all I have.

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