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.

Good afternoon.

**Afghanistan

The Secretary-General will be here at 1 p.m. this afternoon, to issue an emergency humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan.  As we mentioned earlier, he will take questions only on the appeal.  Carolyn McAskie, the UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, will also be at the press conference.

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme announced today that it will start airlifting high-protein biscuits to the region in preparation for an expected influx of Afghan refugees.

The UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador and actress Angelina Jolie said she would give one million dollars for the refugee agency’s assistance efforts in and around Afghanistan.

**Security Council

The Security Council is meeting in closed consultations today to discuss Afghanistan.

The Secretary-General spoke briefly to Council members, underlining the work the UN has been doing in both the political and humanitarian front relating to Afghanistan.

Assistant Secretary-General Danilo Turk then briefed on the recent developments on the military, humanitarian and human rights aspects of the country, as well as the activities of the United Nations political mission led by the Secretary-General’s personal representative Frances Vendrell.

Also attending the consultations is Carolyn McAskie.

The Council President, Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France, is expected to speak to you after.

**Background Briefing

We have arranged for a senior UN official to come here tomorrow at

12:30 p.m., to brief you on background on the UN’s response to terrorism.  So that will be 12:30 p.m. tomorrow, in this room, background briefing.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

The UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is reporting intensified fighting in the eastern part of the country, particularly around

Fizi, involving armed groups and Rwandan, Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) and Burundese troops.

As you recall, the Secretary-General made a strong request to President Kabila during his visit to Kinshasa on 2 September to exert all his influence to stop the fighting in the east.  During his visit, the Secretary-General shared with the Government and the RCD rebel group his proposals for further UN deployments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the context of the next phase of the peacekeeping process.  Those proposals have yet to be placed before the Security Council.  The UN mission says continued fighting would place the acceptance and implementation of those proposals at risk.

The next Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council on the DRC is expected in the middle of next month.

**Poverty Report

In a report out on the racks today, the Secretary-General says that it will not be easy to attain the target, reiterated at last year's Millennium Assembly, of cutting by half by the year 2015 the number of people who live on less than one dollar a day.

According to projections by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), if the pace and pattern of the future of economic growth follow the trends observed in the 1990s, only 11 countries –- although these would include India and China, where more than 40 percent of the world's population live -- would meet the poverty reduction goal by 2015.  On the other hand, some 70 countries are either behind or slipping backwards in meeting their poverty-reduction targets by that date.

The prospect for meeting other goals set by the Millennium Assembly for 2015 also appears extremely bleak, the Secretary-General says, adding that, if sub-Saharan Africa is to make a serious dent in rising poverty levels, it must improve its growth performance over that recorded during the past decade.

The report includes several recommendations on meeting the poverty-reduction targets that the General Assembly may wish to make, including urging Governments to implement policies for pro-poor economic growth and social development and to support a global campaign for poverty eradication.

**Human Rights Report

There are a number of Human Rights related reports issued today.

First is the report of the Secretary-General on the role and achievements of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in assisting the Government and People of Cambodia in the promotion and protection of Human Rights.

Second is the report of the Special Representative of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran, that is Maurice Copithorne.  In the document, the Special Representative reports on the “strong and growing” demand for reform by the Iranian people and the progress made to date despite “the continuing efforts of some elites to frustrate that demand.”

And then also out are the Secretary-General’s report on globalization and its impact on the full enjoyment of all human rights and the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the UN Decade for Human Rights Education. 

**East Timor

An indictment against 11 persons containing charges of Crimes Against Humanity for crimes allegedly committed in the Oecussi enclave in East Timor in 1999 was filed today by the Prosecutor-General of the UN Transitional Administration.

Nine of the accused were members of the Sakunar (Scorpion) militia, a pro-autonomy militia group “set up, trained, equipped and directed by the Indonesian Armed Forces,” according to the indictment.  The two other accused were non-commissioned officers in the Indonesian armed forces.

The suspects are accused of crimes occurring in different places in the Oecussi district between April and October 1999.

According to the indictment, the suspects are accused of extermination, murders, inhumane acts, persecution, imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty, and the deportation or forcible transfer of population between April and October 1999.  The indictment also states that all the alleged criminal acts took place as part of an "orchestrated campaign of violence and crimes committed in East Timor in 1999".

All suspects, except one who is being detained in Dili, remain at large.

**Sierra Leone

More than 800 Nepalese Gurkhas are joining the UN Mission in Sierra Leone to complete the approved strength of 17,500, according to an announcement made by the mission today.  The deployment is to start next month.

**Compensation Commission

In Geneva earlier today, the Governing Council of the UN Compensation Commission, under the Presidency of Ambassador Sverre Bergh Johansen, concluded its forty-first session.

The Council approved more than $365 million in compensation for losses resulting from Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Representatives of three member States, Kuwait, Iraq and Sri Lanka, addressed the Commission, as did, for the first time, a representative of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine who spoke regarding the cases of approximately 1,200 Palestinians, mostly from the Gaza strip, who have been unable to file claims with the UNCC.

The next meeting of the Commission is scheduled for 11 December 2001, and for more details on the claims presented to the Commission at this meeting, you can pick up a press release in my office.

**Signings

Nigeria today deposited its instruments of ratification for several important treaties.  This morning, Nigeria ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants, and the London, Copenhagen and Montreal Amendments to the Montreal Protocol, which concerns substances that deplete the ozone layer.  It also acceded to the Mine Ban Convention.

For your information, Nigeria's ratification of the Rome Statute means that the International Criminal Court now has 39 ratifications, out of the 60 it needs before the Statute comes into force.

And also, Belgium just signed the Convention on the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.

**World Chronicle Programmes

Two more World Chronicle Programmes to announce to you today.  The first will be aired at 3:30 p.m. this afternoon on in-house channels 3 or 31 and will feature Ambassador Bagher Asadi, the Chairman of the Group of 77.  And the second one to be aired at 4 p.m. on the same channels will feature Andy Bearpark, CBE and Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General and EU representative in Kosovo.    

**Evacuation

And now I have some more information on tomorrow's practice evacuation.  It will take place at 4:00 p.m.

And all journalists as well as all delegates and all Secretariat members will have to evacuate the building at 4 p.m.

So you should make alternate arrangements to do any filing or broadcasting between 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.  We think it should take an hour and a half, but to be safe, I think you better plan on two hours.

Sonia Lecca and I will meet with Mike McCann, the head of Security here, later this afternoon to firm up the arrangements for the third and fourth floors, where you have your offices, and we will answer any questions you might have about the evacuation tomorrow.

You should also look at a document that is out now on the racks that gives the evacuation plan for the whole building.  That is document ST/IC/2001/71.

That is all I have for you, yes David?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  On that, are there any arrangements being made for those of us who might want to do some sort of newspackage on television?

Spokesman:  I spoke to Sonia about that just a few minutes ago.  We’ll try to arrange it if any of you might want to film the evacuation for you to do so.

Question:  So it has been approved?

Spokesman:  It has not been approved yet, but we are working on it.

Question:  I have two questions, first the US diplomats are circulating a draft resolution in the Security Council, I wonder when the Security Council will take action on this draft?  Second question is Afghanistan.  It is reported that the United Nations Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Mr. Vendrell, said in Islamabad that he thought the Taliban movement can play a role in a future government of Afghanistan.  Any comment on that?

Spokesman:  On your first question, I am not aware that a draft is yet circulating.  I know that some members of the Council have been discussing a text, but I don’t think a draft is yet circulating.  And I can’t predict when the Council might take action.  It looks like it might take place early next week rather than tomorrow, but I really can’t predict.

On Mr. Vendrell’s comments, we saw them reported variously in the wire services, variously meaning differently.  We called him to say, What is it you said?  He told us that what he said was that “maybe there is a role for Taliban elements in the future who have broken away or show dissatisfaction with the extremist elements in the Taliban.” So that is what he told us that he meant to say and frankly we have not seen the transcript of what he actually did say.  Immediately after the briefing, the United States circulated a draft resolution on the financing of terrorism.

Question:  I am afraid that I missed the cause for the evacuation, is it to check the security system?

Spokesman:  It is a practice evacuation that is part of enhanced security preparedness.

Question:  Did it start at 1:00 p.m. you said and is it the whole day?

Spokesman:  It is at 4:00 p.m, and I think you should prepare to be out of the building from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.  Although they think it can be done more quickly than that. 

Question:  And may I ask the reason?

Spokesman:  Practice.  Every once in a while we should practice evacuation of the building.  And in light of the September 11 events we think that practice is particularly appropriate now.

OK, Jan?

Briefing by the Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly

Good afternoon.

On Monday, as you are well aware, there will be a General Assembly plenary on measures to eliminate international terrorism.  As of this morning,

136 speakers were inscribed on the speakers’ list, mainly at the level of Permanent Representative.  This number is expected to grow so at the moment I can’t say how long it will take to go through the list.  But, if we estimate that each speech will take 12 minutes and if we have for instance 150 speakers, we will need 30 hours or five full days.

This means that we will either have to have longer sessions and perhaps evening sessions, or we will have to move the discussion of the report on the Security Council which was scheduled for Thursday 4 October.  We are of course discouraging evening sessions because of the added cost.

On Tuesday, I said that elections of non-permanent members of the Security Council were expected to take place on Monday 8 October but this may also be affected by the debate.

I should also draw your attention to this document, it is the Report of the Ad Hoc Committee established by GA resolution 51/210 of 17 December 1996.  It outlines the discussions that have taken place in the Working Group of the Sixth Committee, in particular on the efforts to elaborate a draft convention on nuclear terrorism and a draft comprehensive convention on terrorism.  It is document A/56/37.

And that’s all I have, any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  The Security Council is or may be considering a resolution on terrorism that could be heavy on language on the financing of terrorism and freezing of assets.  How will that relate to existing United Nations conventions on financing of terrorism, what would one do that the other does not do?

Answer:  I think that the conventions are more related to international law, to the conventions becoming part of national legislation and so on, whereas the Security Council’s mandate is peace and international security, that’s a different issue.  I think that the General Assembly action is more long-term and the Security Council is working on something that will have an effect over the shorter term.

Thank you very much.

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