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

Good afternoon.

**Secretary-General Interview

The Secretary-General, in an ABC Television interview broadcast this morning, said he hoped that the emergency appeal for $584 million for Afghans in crisis would avert a disaster, but he warned that the snows were just weeks away.

He described the terror attack on the US as "a wake-up call" for all governments to work against terrorists who, in the future, could resort to weapons of mass destruction that could kill many more people.

Asked if he was afraid that the future holds many more such attacks, he responded, "I am not afraid.  I have work to do and I'm going to keep at it."

**Afghanistan

Planes, trucks, donkeys, and trains are just some of the ways that much-needed needed Afghan relief is being brought into the country as well as to neighbouring States.

The effort is part of a twin strategy of delivering as much aid as possible inside the county while also building up supplies in neighbouring countries in case large numbers of Afghans head toward the borders.

Today, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) began the first of its "Children’s Winter Convoys" into Taliban-controlled territory.  Trucks, pack mules and even some 800 donkeys are being used to make the journey through the rugged terrain.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was continuing to transport relief food into Afghanistan by all possible means.  A train carrying 1,000 tonnes of aid was on its way to Kabul as part of its efforts moving food from Pakistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

The second United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) airlift into Pakistan arrived in Peshawar today.

The UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, in the region to ensure coordination of the humanitarian effort, traveled to Quetta, in Pakistan, and then on to Mashad, Iran, where there is a large concentration of Afghan refugees.  He will then travel to Tehran, the capital.

As you know, inside Afghanistan, agencies such as UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the WFP, as well as many non-governmental organizations, have continued to function through the determined efforts of Afghan national staff.

**Statement on Kashmir

We have the following statement, attributable to the Spokesman, on the subject of Kashmir:

“The Secretary-General utterly condemns the terrorist suicide bombing that occurred yesterday in Srinagar in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.  He expresses his condolences to the bereaved families.

"This act of senseless violence underscores the need to eradicate terrorism from whatever quarter.  The Secretary-General recalls the unanimous adoption of Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) which decided, among other things, that all States shall refrain from providing any form of support, active or passive, to terrorist groups.  This tragic incident once again underlines the need for a political solution to the long-standing dispute over Kashmir.”

**Security Council

Ambassador Richard Ryan of Ireland, President of the Security Council for the month of October, is chairing the Council’s informal consultations this morning.  Council members are expected to adopt their programme of work for this month.  Once consultations are over, and we estimate that to be around

12:30 today, Ambassador Ryan will be here in this room to brief you on the October work plan.

This afternoon, at 3:30, the Security Council will hold a private meeting with the troop-contributing countries to the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM).  That meeting will take place at the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber and, of course, it is closed.

**DRC

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Amos Namanga Ngongi, has drawn attention to the fighting in the eastern part of the country, particularly in Kindu, Fizi and Baraka.

In a press release issued in Kinshasa, in French, Ngongi calls on all parties to cease hostilities and allow freedom of movement of personnel from the UN mission in the country.  He refers to a UN aircraft that had been prevented from landing at the airport in Kindu on a routine mission.

**ICTY

Today at The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) unsealed the indictment of four officials of the Yugoslav People's Army for war crimes allegedly committed during the Army's attack on the Dubrovnik, in Croatia, between October and December 1991.  The four officials are accused of responsibility for murder, attacks on civilians and other crimes related to the shelling and looting of Dubrovnik.

The indictment was unsealed only after Tribunal Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte had given the Yugoslav authorities at least seven months to carry out the transfer and arrest of the four accused, which was not accomplished.  Del Ponte said she deplores the refusal of the Yugoslav authorities to cooperate with the Tribunal.  We have a press release from The Hague.

**Iraq Programme

According to the weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme (OIP), the volume of Iraqi oil exports under the United Nations "oil-for-food programme" dropped sharply from the previous week’s high of 16.4 million barrels, to a mere

9 million barrels in the week ending 28 September.  The Security Council’s

661 Sanctions Committee has retroactively approved the pricing mechanisms for Iraqi crude oil deliveries to the United States market during September.

There was a further slight decrease in the value of contracts placed on hold by the 661 Committee, which at the end of the week stood at $3.9 billion.   

The Chairman of the 661 Committee also informs us that yesterday at 6 p.m. was the deadline for prices for the European and United States markets.  Although the Committee has approved the European prices for the first 15 days of this month, the US prices have been put on hold.  The full text of the OIP weekly update is available in my office.

**East Timor

Some 240,000 primary and secondary East Timorese students yesterday started a new academic year.  They will be taught by nearly 6,000 teachers who will work with more than 1 million textbooks already distributed to schools throughout the country.  Close to 2,400 classrooms have been rehabilitated, which represents roughly 86 per cent of the total number of classrooms that have been in need of rehabilitation following the violence in 1999.  More details on this and other news from East Timor is available in a Briefing Note.

**Human Rights

The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Abid Hussain, has expressed his deep concern over the murder, in Northern Ireland on 28 September, of Martin O'Hagan, a journalist for The Sunday World. 

Mr. O'Hagan was killed near his home, in front of his wife, in Lurgan County, Armagh.  O’Hagan, who was buried yesterday, was the first journalist to be killed in the past 30 years of conflict in Northern Ireland.

The Special Rapporteur noted with great concern that this assassination raised to 14 the number of journalists killed worldwide, since the beginning of 2001, while carrying out their professional duties.  This murder, the Special Rapporteur said, is "an attack on one of the fundamental principles of any democratic society -- the freedom of the press."  We have a press release on that upstairs.

**World Space Week

Starting on Thursday, World Space Week -- which marks the launching of the Sputnik-1 satellite in 1957 and the entry into force of the Outer Space Treaty -- will be celebrated in at least 20 countries.

In his message to mark World Space Week, the Secretary-General says that space exploration can help to bring cultures together, with multi-national crews often conducting manned space missions together.  He adds, "Space technology has produced tools that are transforming weather forecasting, environmental protection, humanitarian assistance, education, medicine, agriculture and a wide range of activities."  His message is available as a press release, and we also have a list of the activities.

**Budget

Guyana today became the 123rd Member State to pay its 2001 regular budget dues in full with a check for $10,000.

**Signings

This morning the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism was signed by the Bahamas and by Liechtenstein.  Liechtenstein also ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, bringing the number of ratifications for the Rome Statute to 40, two thirds of  the way to the required 60 for it to come into force.

**Press Releases

One press release to highlight for you today.  The Food and Agriculture Organization announced that a global initiative, “Feeding minds, fighting hunger”, will take place during the week beginning 14 October, in schools all over the world.  The initiative provides schools with model lesson plans and resource materials which can be adapted by teachers to meet local needs.  The material, in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian and Spanish is designed to get children actively involved in creating a world free from hunger and malnutrition.  The material is available on a special Web site.  We have more information in a press release.

That's all I have for you.  Any questions before we go to Jan Fischer?

**Questions and Answers

Yes, Steve?

Question:  Is President Bush, who is coming to New York tomorrow, going to have any contact with the United Nations at all?  I think we would know about a visit, but . . .

Spokesman:  I haven’t heard any mention of his coming here.  I’ll double check for you, but I think, as you say, I would have known by now if that was in the plan. 

Okay, Jan. Thank you.

Jan Fischer, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly

Good afternoon.

Yesterday, the General Assembly heard 29 speakers on agenda item

166 “Measures to eliminate international terrorism”.  The plenary resumed this morning at 10 and the afternoon session will begin at 3, as usual.  It could go on until 6:30.  You know, we are supposed to end about 6:00, but sometimes we go a little bit longer, so be warned about that -– we may go a bit longer.

As far as I am aware, there will not be any evening sessions.  That was something I speculated about a little bit earlier, but it does not look as if we will have evening sessions this week.  As of this morning, there were 135 speakers left on the list.  As many of you will already have noted,  the speakers do not necessarily appear in the order they are listed.  That’s due to the fact that the Member States have a right to swap slots with one another.  It gets very confusing for you, and for us, but there’s nothing we can do about that.  You really have to follow it carefully if you’re interested in particular speakers.  There’s a lot more about yesterday’s meetings in two press releases:  GA/9919 and GA/9921.

The Second Committee has begun its substantive work, and the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court, which has largely the same membership as the Sixth Committee, is continuing its work.  Press release L/2986 has more about the Commission.  The other Committees are expected to start their substantive work on Monday.

General Assembly President Han Seung-soo will be in the GA Hall most of the day, but will also meet with the Foreign Minister of Ireland, Brian Cowen, at 11:30 and with the Chairmen of the Regional Groups at 4:30.

That’s all I have.  Are there any questions?

Question:  There’s tons of swapping going on.  Is there any general reason, or is it all individual reasons?

Spokesman:  I think it’s all individual reasons.  Sometimes you have a situation where a person who is supposed to speak is called away with rather short notice and then they have to go to somebody else.  Remember, they signed up for this sometime last week, not knowing how many days it would go, how long the speeches would go, and all of a sudden a speaker finds him or herself in conflict with another appointment and then they try to swap.

Spokesman:  Okay, thank you very much.

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