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
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.
The evacuation is at 4 ‘o’clock not at twelve, where is the press corps?
Good afternoon.
**Security Council
The Security Council has just adopted resolution 1372 lifting sanctions on the Sudan, by a vote of 14 in favour and one abstention by the United States.
The sanctions, as stated in resolution 1054, related to a ban on travel by Sudanese Government officials.
The Secretary-General was present at the meeting and, afterwards in remarks to the press, he said “I think it is […] important that the Council lift sanctions, sending the message that it can impose sanctions but it can also suspend and lift [them], if the conditions they sought to correct have been amended.”
He added: “It is a very important day for Sudan, and also for the way the Council works.”
Council members have now returned to closed consultations to discuss a draft resolution on threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.
If needed, Council members will continue their work this afternoon during the planned evacuation drill.
**Secretary-General on Terror
The Secretary-General will be opening the General Assembly's discussion on terrorism on Monday. In his speech he will emphasize that terrorism is a universal challenge that the United Nations is uniquely positioned to help address. This was an attack on all humanity, and humanity must respond as one, he'll say. He will stress that in this struggle, there is simply no alternative to international cooperation. He will urge Member States to sign and ratify the existing conventions on terrorism as a matter of urgent priority. He will warn against the even more dangerous threat of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction and will suggest actions that must be taken to help prevent such acts. Finally, he will emphasize the importance of caring for all the victims of terrorism, both those directly affected and those vulnerable populations that may be affected by the struggle to eliminate terrorism.
**Afghanistan
The UN’s top humanitarian official, Kenzo Oshima, will be flying tomorrow to Pakistan and then Iran at the request of the Secretary-General to make sure that the United Nations has sufficient preparedness in place in those countries and to meet with government officials on issues related to the growing crisis in and around Afghanistan.
Oshima today gave a press conference in Geneva on the Afghan humanitarian crisis. He was joined by Michael Sackett, the newly appointed Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that while the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan remains officially shut, thousands of Afghans are trickling into Pakistan through the mountains. Anywhere between 10,000 and 20,000 people are believed to have arrived in Pakistan's Quetta region over the past week. Most people are staying with relatives and friends or trying to blend into existing Afghan refugee settlements in an effort not to attract attention.
UNICEF said that while its portion of the appeal launched by the Secretary-General yesterday was relatively small, the agency noted that over two-thirds of the 7.5 million people targeted in the appeal are women and children. Of that number, 1.5 million are children under the age of five. Even before the September 11 attack on the United States, UNICEF said it had estimated that one in four children born today in Afghanistan would die before their fifth birthday.
Tomorrow, a UNICEF convoy is scheduled to take 200 metric tons of emergency aid to Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan, including clothes and shoes, family kits and pediatric medicines. For a portion of the journey, a team of 500 porters will be transferring the supplies by 4,000 donkeys for a two-day trek down a mountainside. You should see the briefing notes from Islamabad if you want more details.
The World Food Programme (WFP), meanwhile, says that it has now established from reliable sources that its national staff are still in control of the warehouse in Kandahar with 1,640 tons of food. However, the Taliban are still occupying the WFP office there and staff cannot use the communication equipment. WFP says it has no information indicating that there has been any looting of its food stocks thus far throughout Afghanistan.
**Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General
The following statement is attributable to the Spokesman on the Democratic Republic of the Congo:
“The Secretary-General is encouraged by the recent meeting of Presidents Kagame and Kabila in Malawi. He hopes that the meeting will be followed up by further contacts between the two leaders, as well as a more detailed dialogue between the two Governments on key aspects of the peace process in the DRC and the Great Lakes Region. At the same time, the two leaders should do their utmost to stop the ongoing fighting in the east of the DRC, which threatens to undermine the peace process.”
**Democratic Republic of the Congo - Humanitarian
On the humanitarian front, the World Food Programme today said it was urgently appealing for $378,000 to restart a food airlift operation in early October in eastern DRC.
WFP says that hundreds of thousands of people fled their homes to seek refuge in the bush since the start of the 1998 war. Now, the arrival of the UN peacekeeping mission has encouraged thousands to leave their rural hiding places and seek aid in the urban centres.
**Secretary-General on Zug
The Secretary-General yesterday sent a letter to the President of the Swiss Confederation, Moritz Leuenberger, to express his profound condolences at the attack on the regional legislature of Zug yesterday, in which 14 people were killed.
He wished the Swiss people courage and fortitude in dealing with the incident, saying he has faith that the men and women of Zug "will draw strength from one another as they come together to work through this difficult time.”
**International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced today that Prosecutor Carla del Ponte has filed a new indictment against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, charging him for responsibility in crimes allegedly committed in Croatia.
The charges filed by Del Ponte are to be reviewed by the Tribunal's judges, and will be made public only if they are confirmed by the judges. This indictment is separate from the indictment filed against Milosevic for crimes allegedly committed in Kosovo; as you know, he is currently at the Tribunal's Detention Unit while trial proceedings for that case continue.
**Report on Debt
The Secretary-General’s report to the General Assembly on external debt is out on the racks today, and notes that the year 2000 saw some improvements in the external debt indicators of developing countries and transition economies. The total stock of debt last year was virtually unchanged in nominal terms, while growth rates in many countries exceeded five per cent, reducing the rate of overall debt relative to gross national products.
However, the Secretary-General says, debt service continues to represent a heavy burden for many developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, and arrears on interest payments actually rose in Latin America and East Asia in 2000.
While progress has been made in accelerating the Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (or HIPC), he says that the Initiative needs fundamental changes to make tangible progress in resolving the debt problems of poor countries, including measures to speed up the actual provision of debt relief.
He also notes the need for official development assistance (or ODA) to be raised in accordance with the needs of recipient countries.
**UNHCR
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers today, at the end of a visit to Skopje, urged the international community to maintain its commitment to build peace in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. We have a press release on that.
**World Habitat Day
Monday 4 October is World Habitat Day and to mark the occasion the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) will hold a panel discussion on this year’s theme “cities without slums”. The venue for the discussion has been changed to the Church Center across the street and will begin at 9:30 a.m.
We have the Director of the Habitat New York Office, Pietro Garau, here with us in the first row, if you would like to acknowledge him for a minute, and he will be available after the briefing if you should have any questions, and Monday’s programme is available in my office.
**Press Releases
In a press release today, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says millions are affected by heavy monsoon rains and floods in Asia, while Central Asia and the Near East are gripped by drought. The September issue of the FAO's Foodcrops and Shortages lists 34 countries facing food emergencies, including 12 in Asia, 17 in Africa, three in Latin America and two in Europe. The report is available on the FAO website.
We also have a press release from the World Health Organization on the World Health Report 2001, which is embargoed until 1300 hrs GMT on Thursday 4 October.
**Press Conference
As I mentioned to you yesterday, we will have a senior United Nations official here to brief you on the United Nations' response to terrorism. That's been changed to 1:15 p.m.; I originally said it would be at 12:00 p.m. There will be no TV or audio coverage of this meeting because it is a background briefing, and as usual delegations will be invited to view the briefing in Studio 4 located in the First Basement.
**Week ahead at the United Nations
We have the week ahead for you that notes that on Monday, 1 October, Ambassador Robert Ryan of Ireland will take over as President of the Security Council for the month of October, replacing Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France. You can pick up that in my office.
**Evacuation
Now on evacuation, let me give you a few more details. You know it is going to happen at 4:00 p.m. today. What has changed between yesterday and today is that the Security Council has indicated that if it has not completed its work by 4 p.m., it will continue to work. So the Information Department has arranged to continue its coverage; the stake-out will be in place. We still require all journalists to evacuate the building at 4:00 p.m. However, we have arranged for you to be kept closer to the building than the rest of the employees, who will be taken to one of two locations, either on 38th Street to the south or the Dag Hammarsköld Plaza to the north. You may go directly across the street to the Ralph Bunche Park, where there will be an emergency medical unit in place. Please do not congregate around the medical emergency unit. There are benches there. We will see to it that you are among the first to be brought back into the building when the exercise is over. Someone from my office, Stephane Dujarric, will be with you; he will have a cell phone. Marie Okabe of my office will be inside the Security Council Chamber monitoring the deliberations going on there and I will stay in my office and we will keep you informed of any developments in the Council. I am sure there will be no coming to the stake-out by the President when there are no journalists in the building. But so that you feel assured that you are kept informed of what is going on inside the Council Chamber, we will bring you back as quickly as we possibly can should you want to get back into the building at 5.30 p.m.
We did distribute to you yesterday a simplified version of the instructions on where to go. If you are a correspondent with an office on the third floor of the building, you are to take the north stairway, near the escalators, down to the first floor of the building. From there, you will be directed to the first basement, and through the Library tunnel, coming out at 42nd Street and First Avenue.
If you are on the fourth floor, or working on the second floor, you'll exit using the fire tower. On the third floor that's the door right next to the men's room entrance. You will take that tower until you are at the bottom, where you will go through an evacuation tunnel which brings you out on 42nd Street.
I hope you will all go through the exercise in good faith. I hope we never have to use it in a real emergency, but if we do, you should know how to get out of the building quickly and safely.
OK, any questions before we go to Jan?
**Questions and Answers
Question: As far as I can see the draft resolution on terrorism does not define terrorism, does not identify the terrorists and it does not even say that convicted terrorists should be punished. It just says that governments should take measures against people who commit terrorist acts. The German Foreign Minister and several human rights lawyers have said that this is a blank check for repressive regimes to crack down on civilians. Does the Secretary-General share the German Foreign Minister’s opinion?
Spokesman: It is very difficult for me to discuss a draft resolution that has not yet circulated publicly. I have not spoken to the Secretary-General to see if he has any reaction to the statements by the German Foreign Minister and others. I think that governments here are trying to come to grips with a very serious threat and to strengthen the procedures already in place to deal with terror. Our hope is that it can be done in a fair and effective way, not affecting civil liberties and not leading to excesses by any government.
Question: Yesterday I asked the President of the Security Council almost the same question and he said that the whole thing is being debated at the moment and until the end of the debate he could not respond. Do you think this matter will take a long time?
Spokesman: I don't have a crystal ball, I can't tell you. As you know, Member States have not yet agreed on a definition of terrorism. I think, if I am not mistaken, that it is one of the things being dealt with by the Sixth Committee, the Legal Committee of the General Assembly, as they continue their work on a comprehensive resolution on terrorism. I think governments are trying to come to grips with the complexity of this issue, but how long it will take is anyone's guess.
Question: On the Larry King Show last night, former Ambassador Holbrook criticized the United Nations Secretariat for its weakness in dealing with international affairs. He even accused Kofi Annan. Do you have any comment about that? Richard Butler was there talking about the Richard Butler mission in Iraq.
Spokesman: I am sorry, I did not see that and before I saw what the Ambassador said I would not want to comment.
Question: The evacuation of today, are we going to have more evacuations in the months to come?
Spokesman: I think the last practice evacuation was in 1979, we don't do them very frequently.
[Laughter]
Jan, I think you have some interesting news about Monday.
Briefing by the Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.
Yes. Good afternoon.
Regarding the General Assembly plenary on Monday to discuss measures to eliminate international terrorism, I can say that we are now up to 145 speakers. I will make a provisional list available after the briefing.
Although evening sessions have not been ruled out, it looks as if we'll carry on with regular sessions, which means that we will probably go into Friday as well. It may be five days of debate on terrorism.
Yesterday I was speculating whether this would have an impact on the elections of the non-permanent members of the Security Council, which are scheduled for next Monday, 8 October. This does not seem to be the case; things should go ahead as planned.
But the discussion on the report of the Security Council will be postponed to a later date.
On Monday, the plenary will begin at 10:00 a.m. with a statement by the General Assembly President, Mr. Han Seung-soo, and it will be followed by a statement by the Secretary-General. Prior to the opening of the plenary, at 9:45 a.m., New York Mayor Rudolph Guiliani will address Member States in the General Assembly Hall. That is all I have. Any questions?
No questions, thank you very much, see you on Monday.
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