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

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 Jan Fischer, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.

**Briefing by the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

**Terrorism

Good afternoon.

In an opinion piece in today's New York Times, the Secretary-General says that the United Nations is uniquely positioned to advance the international effort against terrorism.  He says it provides the forum necessary for building a universal coalition and can ensure global legitimacy for the long-term response to terrorism.

"Essential to the global response to terrorism," he says, "is that it not fracture the unity of September 11.  While the world must recognize that there are enemies common to all societies,” he adds, “it must equally understand that they are not, are never, defined by religion or national descent."

This morning, the Security Council began its work with closed consultations to discuss international terrorism, on which it received a briefing by the United Nations Legal Counsel, Hans Corell.  Corell noted the important progress that has been made this year on elaborating a draft comprehensive convention on terrorism.  Member States will debate that matter in the General Assembly on 1 and 2 October, as Jan mentioned to you yesterday.

He added that some serious difficulties continue to exist on key elements of the draft convention, including on the definition of terrorism, the relationship between the convention and other legal instruments that deal with terrorism, and the difference between terrorism and the right of peoples to self-determination.  A document on the status of participation in the United Nations legal instruments on terrorism is available in my Office.

Meanwhile, Pino Arlacchi, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, added today in a press conference in Vienna that there are 12 existing United Nations conventions and protocols dealing with terrorism, and he appealed for quick ratification and full implementation of all those conventions.

He also noted the United Nations role in developing a coordinated, multi-faceted strategy against terrorism, including legal conventions, cooperation between States, information sharing, and mechanisms to suppress financial support to terrorist groups.  We have copies of his remarks in my Office.

Also today, Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said that in tackling international terrorism, the world must combat poverty, environmental degradation, and hatred that spawns intolerance and can lead to fundamentalism and terrorist acts.  We have a UNEP press release with more information.

Finally, I'd like to call your attention to the fact that Michael McCann, the Chief of the United Nations Safety and Security Services, will brief staff today at 1:00 p.m. in Conference Room 4 on last week's events and on evacuation and general security procedures, including those which apply to other United Nations buildings in New York.  McCann met with delegations in the General Assembly Hall yesterday for a similar briefing.

**Security Council

Following consultations on international terrorism, which I just mentioned to you, the Council will hold a public debate on Bosnia and Herzegovina, which I think is just getting under way now.  Council members will hear briefings by the High Representative, Wolfgang Petritsch, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jacques Klein.

This afternoon, at 3:00 p.m., the Council will hold a public debate on the Central African Republic.  The Representative of the Secretary-General in that country, Lamine Cissé, will brief Council members.

For the record: Yesterday afternoon, the Council issued a Presidential Statement on Angola, condemning terrorist attacks by forces of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) on the civilian population of Angola.

**Afghanistan

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced today that it is airlifting urgently needed relief supplies into the Afghanistan region this weekend, in the first of six planned relief flights aimed at easing the region’s ongoing humanitarian crisis.

The first flight, carrying more than $130,000 worth of critical medical supplies, tarps, water purification tablets and other relief items, departs from UNICEF’s supply hub in Copenhagen this weekend, headed for Turkmenistan.  The shipment includes enough basic medical supplies to serve 100,000 people for three months.

More details on the humanitarian effort by the United Nations in Afghanistan are available in the press briefing notes from Islamabad, Pakistan, as well as in updates from UNICEF and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Meanwhile, Francesc Vendrell, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for Afghanistan, was in Geneva today, where he attended a private meeting of the so-called Geneva Initiative that brings together experts from Iran, Germany, Italy and the United States.  The meeting is part of a reconciliation process initiated by the United Nations for Afghanistan.

The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East, Terje Roed Larsen, is still awaiting word on when new meetings between the Israelis and the Palestinians –- including those planned between the Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, and the Palestinian Authority President, Yasser Arafat, as well as those on security cooperation –- can be held.  We do not have any dates, as of just a few minutes ago.

The situation on the ground, however, is relatively calm, Larsen’s office reports.

Larsen met Arafat last night and said he was quite focused and determined on ensuring that the ceasefire holds.

**Rwanda Tribunal

The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda reports that yesterday, Emmanuel Rukundo, former Military Chaplain in Ruhengeri Prefecture, was transferred from Geneva, Switzerland, to the United Nations Detention Facility in Arusha, Tanzania.  Rukundo was arrested in Geneva on 12 July at the request of the Tribunal.

Rukundo was indicted by the Tribunal on four counts of genocide or complicity in genocide, as well as crimes against humanity for murder and extermination.

He is alleged to have ordered and assisted killings against Tutsis in Gitarama Prefecture.  In particular, he’s alleged to have organized and participated in hunts for Tutsi priests and nuns in various seminaries and convents in the Prefecture, and to have identified them to soldiers and Interahamwe militia so that they would be killed.

We have details in a press release from the Rwanda Tribunal.

**Budget

One more contribution today, from Micronesia this time, which  became the 118th Member State to be paid in full for this year, at least for the regular budget dues.  That was with a cheque for $10,000.

**Other Announcements

From our mission in Sierra Leone, we have a press release on a sensitization campaign in the northern towns of Kabala and Alikalia to urge the combatants there to stop ceasefire violations and to hand in their weapons.

From Kosovo, we have a transcript of a press conference given by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Hans Haekerrup, on his meeting with the Security Council earlier this week.  He noted that Council members raised the question of Mitrovica, underlining that there had to be a solution on doing away with the parallel institutions in that divided city.

**Press Releases and Reports

On press releases, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today says that fishery resources are declining at the same time as  demands on civil society to preserve the environment are growing.  The FAO urges the introduction of new management regimes that take into account marine ecosystems to prevent overfishing.  About 50 per cent of all fishery resources are fully utilized and only 25 per cent have the potential to increase.  The remaining 25 per cent is overfished and needs urgent intervention.  You can see that press release for more information.

**International Court of Justice

Also in a note out on the racks today, the Secretary-General submitted to the General Assembly and the Security Council the names of three candidates nominated by national groups to replace Judge Mohammed Bedjaoui of Algeria, who is resigning his position on the International Court of Justice.

The two bodies must decide on a successor for Bedjaoui by 30 September, when his resignation becomes effective.

And then we have the Week in Review.  You can pick it up in my Office. I’ll just mention that on Monday the Security Council has scheduled consultations on the Oil-for-Food Programme for Iraq.

That’s all I have.

**Questions and Answers

Question: Fred, I’ve asked this question several times already today so I apologize for doing it again.  It comes from a report in the Guardian about cable traffic indicating that the United States is thinking of toppling the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and replacing it with a United Nations-imposed administration.  Has there been any such talk that has reached the officials of the United Nations?  Has there been anything in the background?  Are you aware of anything of that nature?

Spokesman: Now, first we have to specify this wasn’t our cable.  And I’m not aware of any such discussions.

Question: Formal or informal?

Spokesman: Formal or informal.

Question: Sergio Vieira de Mello is not travelling anywhere towards Afghanistan yet, all right.

Was the Prime Minister of Japan or someone from Japan coming here today?

Spokesman: I had heard that that was the case. I may have been the source of that misinformation, but he’s not on the programme today, so I apologize for that.

(The Spokesman’s Office later announced that the Prime Minister of Japan would meet with the Secretary-General on Monday afternoon.)

Question: How would it be received within the system, this idea of the United Nations administering sort of East Timor like, but on a much larger scale, Afghanistan?

Spokesman: This is purely speculative and in any case it would be a matter for the Security Council to take up, not for me to comment on.

Question: Also in the Guardian, a little simpler proposal.  Yesterday there was the suggestion that, as an honest broker, the United Nations could be the recipient, specifically Mr. Vendrell, if Bin Laden wanted to turn himself over to some authority.  Do you have any take on that?

Spokesman: I haven’t heard any discussion on that.  I think anyway if we could help to facilitate the implementation of the Security Council demand for the extradition of Osama bin Laden, we would be happy to do it.

Question: Fred, you mentioned there must be a difference between terrorism and self-determination.  The Palestinians, who are fighting for almost 50 years, they are considered to be terrorists.  So how can we distinguish between terrorism and self-determination.

Spokesman: Well if the 189 Member States are still locked in legal debate on this issue, I’m not going to wade in with a solution.  So please accept my “no comment” on your question.

Question: There is another question I want to ask.  You said the United Nations is going to mediate between some countries for peace.  You mean Iran and the United States and so on?  Could you tell us more about this?

Spokesman: That is a long-standing mechanism that runs parallel to the six-plus-two political discussions on Afghanistan.  This Geneva Initiative relates exclusively to the convening of a traditional meeting of Afghan leaders. So it’s separate from but parallel to six-plus-two, and it has to do with the traditional decision-making process in Afghanistan involving local leaders.  That traditional consultation is known as a "Loya Jirga".

Question: The President of the Security Council just mentioned that they have a public meeting or something like that.  What do they have now, because he didn’t answer the question of my colleagues?

Spokesman: I didn’t hear everything he said, but I thought I heard him refer to the 1 October meeting of the General Assembly, which will be on terrorism.  But again I would have to check what he said.  I didn’t hear his entire comments.

Question: Going back to the Geneva meeting, I’ve heard that right, that it involves Iran and the United States both?

Spokesman: Yes.

Question: Is this the only place other than the General Assembly that you’ve got Iranian and United States Government officials sitting down together. I’m just wondering if this could be a venue for a broader reconciliation.

Spokesman: They sit down at meetings here, such as Dialogue Among Civilizations.  I think there are a number of venues where they can meet.  No further comment.

Question: Is it possible for us to have a briefing by Mr. Corell to discuss some of these issues of the Security Council resolutions, conventions?

Spokesman: I can ask.  He’s, you know, a little reluctant as legal adviser to come before the press.  But I will ask him for you.

Question: I was talking to a fairly senior United Nations person yesterday, who told me he had heard of a report of associates of Bin Laden being arrested with blueprints of the United Nations.  He said he’d seen the report coming out of Austria.  I haven’t been able to locate any such thing.  Are you aware of anything of that nature?  He wasn’t clear if this was something that had happened recently or maybe sometime in the course of the 1990s.

Spokesman: I’m not.  I’ll see if I can find out a bit more about it.  I heard some casual conversation about something like that this morning, but I did not myself see the press report, so I don’t know if it’s current or from years ago.  I’ll see if we can get our hands on it for you after the briefing.

Question: Following on from that, you mentioned Chief McCann’s meetings.  I wonder if it might be possible to ask Chief McCann to come and talk to the press.  As you know, there are an infinite number of rumours going on at the moment.  People speculating on the possibility of Bin Laden’s sleeper agents working at the United Nations, that sort of thing.  It might be useful for him to talk to us about that sort of thing and what measures have been taken.  Do you think he might be prepared to do it?

Spokesman: We could ask him to do that.  But you know the cardinal principle of security is that you don’t discuss what you’re doing to preserve security.  And I’m not sure how much detail he would want to go into with you, but we’ll ask him for you.

Question: I apologize if you mentioned it earlier.  There was a lengthy article by the Secretary-General, I think, in the Times.  It was also in another New York paper, the Post.  There was a very vicious column about the United Nations…

Spokesman: And she used very bad language.

Question: …and I was wondering if the United Nations Spokesman’s Office had a response to that?

Spokesman: No, I think when a person expresses themselves in such extreme terms, you assume that nothing that you could say could ever convince them otherwise of their firmly held views that the United Nations ought to get out of the United States and the United States ought to get out of the United Nations. I think this kind of opinion happily is restricted to a very small percentage of the population, and frankly I’m surprised that even the New York Post published it.

Question: Is there a problem getting the message out about the remarks made by the Secretary-General, even though he’s appeared on some networks, about showing that he has spoken out against terrorism?

Spokesman: As you know he’s been a bit more active as far as talking through the media to the world public in the last week or 10 days.  We’ve also been particularly active through our information centres around the world, providing them with specific guidance on the message to get out through to local media.  So I think we’re doing everything we can to get the Secretary-General’s message out worldwide.

Okay, Jan.

**Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly

Good afternoon.

**Schedule of President

Let me start with the schedule of the President.  In the afternoon, he will meet with Ambassador Asadi of Iran, who is also Chairman of the Group of 77.  He will then go on toa meeting with the leadership of the Arab League. Following that, he is scheduled to meet with the Ambassador of the United Kingdom.

At 5:30 p.m., he will visit a Family Assistance Centre located on Fifty-fourth Street and Twelfth Avenue on Pier 94.  This centre was established by federal and city authorities to render assistance to families affected by the terrorist attack.  It coordinates a number of functions spread over several different agencies.

**High-level Dialogue

The high-level dialogue on economic cooperation began its meeting at 10 this morning and will hear 15 speakers.  There will also be a summary of the two panels, whereupon the President will wrap up the meeting.  This may be taking place right now.

The President is expected to say that the plenary debate provided a unique opportunity to discuss the international economic environment from different perspectives.  He is likely to emphasize that the dialogue was particularly timely in the context of the current global economic slowdown, and that progress has been made in defining a new development strategy.

The dialogue will also give useful input into major upcoming conferences, such as the ones that will take place in Doha, in Monterrey and in Johannesburg. In consultation with delegations, the President will prepare a detailed summary at a later stage.  I have the preliminary text of his remarks upstairs.

**General Assembly

As you know, the General Assembly will meet again on Monday to review the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization.  We expect around 60 speakers and that the meeting will go into Tuesday as well.

**Main Committees

Several of you have asked me to provide information on the work of the Main Committees.  Since there has been particular interest in the work of the Sixth Committee, I will start with that one.

From Monday and until 5 October, we will have the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court.  This will be followed by the UNCITRAL report, safety of United Nations staff, and the report on the Committee on the Charter

On 15 October, it will deal with the item “Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism”.  That session is expected to go on until 26 October. Fred mentioned this at the beginning, but I’ll just repeat that there are three main issues: the elaboration of a draft international convention for the suppression of nuclear terrorism; the elaboration of a draft comprehensive convention on international terrorism; and the question of convening a high-level UN conference to formulate a joint organized response to all forms of terrorism.

I should emphasize that the work on those issues started quite some time ago.  It’s not something new.

For people who are particularly interested in the Sixth Committee, there is actually a very good site on the United Nations Web site.  If you go to the page after the welcome screen and click on International Law, you will get the agenda of the Sixth Committee and the documentation and so on.

During the next couple of noon briefings, I hope to update you on the work of the other Committees.  I don’t think any of them are expected to start until Wednesday next week.

Are there any questions?

Question: What was the date of the Sixth Committee?

Spokesman: From 15 October to 26 October.

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