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 Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Jan Fischer, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by the Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon, and sorry for this delay.  And in fact, I want to ask you to bear with us, because starting today, as some of you may have seen, the Spokesman's Office is under renovation, and some of us are displaced and without equipment, and that is expected to last for three weeks.  We hope it will not affect our services to you.  The one thing, though, that is happening is the materials, the copies of the written documents we have for you, usually available in our sort of reception area in the Spokesman's Office, that is now available in the documents counter, the new documents counter on the third floor, because that area of ours is totally being redone.

[Asked if he was referring to the counter with the roll-down top, he said, "Yes, the one by the elevator bank.  That's where it is now.  Okay?"]

Our guest at the briefing today will be Ms. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, a member of a team of independent experts put together by UNIFEM to conduct an assessment of the impact of war on women and women's role in peace-building.  She's already sitting here with us, and she'll join us as soon as both Jan and I are finished.

**Security Council

The Secretary-General was present at the Security Council’s open debate on Kosovo this morning.  On his way out of the Security Council Chamber, he was asked a question on terrorism and the way ahead, and he said that what is important is that the whole international community has come together to fight the scourge of terrorism.  He added, “I hope the Members will focus and work hard on the convention, the comprehensive convention banning terrorism, and add it to the

12 conventions and protocols which have already been passed.  I would also hope”, the Secretary-General continued, "that when the heads of States and ministers come here for the general debate in November, most of them will be ready to sign and work for ratification of these conventions and, above all, work hard to implement them.”

We have the transcript of what he said available in the Spokesman's Office.

**Afghanistan

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, travelled to Geneva to attend two meetings on Afghanistan –- one humanitarian, the other political -- taking place over the next few days.

More than 120 participants from donor countries, non-governmental organizations, aid agencies and the United Nations are attending the two-day Afghan Forum on refugees and displaced persons hosted by High Commissioner for

Refugees Ruud Lubbers and Kenzo Oshima, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator. A press conference is scheduled by Lubbers and Oshima at 1 p.m. in Geneva tomorrow, Saturday.

The second meeting, to take place on Sunday and Monday, is under the framework of the so-called Geneva Initiative, and that will be chaired by Francesc Vendrell, the Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy for Afghanistan.  The Sunday meeting will bring together representatives from Germany, Italy, Iran and the United States.  They will look at new approaches to a political settlement in Afghanistan.  As you know, this group has met in the past.

On the relief effort, the World Food Programme (WFP) said that it was considering airlifts to Afghanistan.  Although airlifts were difficult and costly and were only chosen as a last resort, the WFP said it had not stocked enough food in the mountainous areas in advance of the upcoming winter.  By mid-November, heavy snow often blocks mountain passes into northern and central Afghanistan, breaking vital overland routes.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that local people had blocked a bulldozer that had been heading out to start clearing a road for a campsite identified in Pakistan’s north-west frontier province.

And still on Afghanistan, I'd like to add that on Monday, this coming Monday, at the noon briefing here in this room, we will have as our guest Nigel Fisher, the UNICEF Special Representative for Afghanistan and the region, to brief on his first-hand account of humanitarian relief efforts under way.

**Haemorrhagic Fever

Still on that part of the world, the World Health Organization said that the total number of suspected cases of haemorrhagic fever in Pakistan this year was

41 cases between March and October.  An additional six cases, with two deaths, between May and August, were persons infected in Afghanistan who were treated in Pakistan.

The UNHCR said that no Afghan refugees had been affected to date.

More on this on the briefing notes from Islamabad and Geneva.

**Kosovo

Moving now here to New York, after brief consultations on Kosovo this morning, the Security Council went into a public meeting on Kosovo to receive a briefing by the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Hans Haekkerup.

Haekkerup informed the Council of the UN Mission in Kosovo's preparations for the Assembly elections to take place there on November 17; you'll recall that the Secretary-General mentioned those arrangements in a report that went out on the racks yesterday.  He said that more than 1.2 million people will be eligible to vote, both inside and outside Kosovo.

Meanwhile the UN Mission is on the verge of moving into a determining phase of interim administration in Kosovo, with the Mission's role moving from one of direct administrative responsibility to one of oversight of self-government.  The groundwork for the transition has already been laid, he noted, adding that during all stages of the transition, the UN Mission's mandate will remain the same.

Haekkerup concluded that only by taking the political process forward can the hatred and distrust created by past atrocities be overcome.  Those who do not support participation or put up unrealistic conditions for participation, Haekkerup said, will harm that process.  We have his speech available in the Spokesman's Office.

The Council's discussion on Kosovo is going on now, with all 15 Council members among the speakers inscribed.  The Council expects to adopt a presidential statement on Kosovo following the conclusion of the debate.  And once the meeting is over, Hans Haekkerup intends to come here to this room to brief you.

**Statement Attributable to Spokesman for Secretary-General

I have a statement attributable to the Spokesman, and that is on the Mano River Union in Africa.

"The Secretary-General has been following with interest the recent developments within the Mano River Union (MRU) and the progress made so far by the Governments of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in their efforts to restore confidence and promote stability in the subregion.  In this regard, he looks forward to the convening of the proposed Summit of Heads of States of the three countries as another milestone towards restoring good neighbourliness among them.

“The Secretary-General hopes that the spirit of frank and constructive dialogue that characterized the meetings of the Joint Security Committee and of Foreign Ministers will eventually be applied to addressing some of the root causes of the problems affecting the Mano River Union countries.

“The Secretary-General wishes to reiterate the commitment of the United Nations to support, in whatever ways it can, the Mano River Union member States in their common efforts to create the necessary conditions for enhancing security and disseminating a culture of peace in the subregion.”

**Refugees

In Geneva today, in his closing remarks to UNHCR’s annual Executive Committee meeting, High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers stressed the importance of continued international refugee protection and urged governments to avoid making unwarranted links between asylum seekers and terrorism.

“We must ensure that the fight against terrorism does not weaken the refugee protection regime”, Lubbers said.  He added that, when properly applied, the 1951 Refugee Convention does not provide safe haven to criminals.

And from the field, the UNHCR reports that a team of peacekeepers from the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) successfully registered former soldiers from Central Africa who had taken refuge in the northern town of Zongo, following a failed coup attempt in May of this year in the Central African Republic.

The UNHCR received the support of MONUC in an effort to keep the former soldiers separate from a group of about 24,000 refugees who had also crossed the Ubangui River into the Democratic Republic of the Congo following the coup attempt.

More details in the briefing notes from the UNHCR we have in our Office.

**Palestinian Report

And the UN Conference on Trade and Development, known as UNCTAD, has issued its second annual report on its assistance to the Palestinian people.

The report shows that the severe economic downturn in the Palestinian economy in 2000-2001 highlighted and aggravated long-standing weaknesses that existed in the 1994-1999 period.

While the current crisis has eroded the benefits reaped from development efforts since 1994, less apparent is how the economy will recover and how long that will take.  The crisis has diverted the donor community's attention away from development projects that were designed to improve the economy's supply capacity for emergency job creation and budgetary support.  The Palestinian Authority's budget deficit is expected to reach $524 million in 2001, or around 25 per cent of the year's emergency budget, and its debt obligations have also risen notably.

The UNCTAD issued a press release, which we have available in our Office, that gives you more details on that.

**ESCAP-Terror

Kim Hak-Su, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), told reporters in Bangkok yesterday that the 11 September attacks on the United States will have greater consequences for poverty reduction in the Asia-Pacific region.  He added that vulnerable groups trying to recover from the 1997 crisis may take longer to remove themselves from the ranks of the poor following the attack.

However, not everything is negative.  Governments worldwide have recognized the dangers to the world economy, with coordinated action being taken to avert a major recession, Kim said.  He added that some of the worst-affected industries, such as airlines, are receiving special help.

**Myanmar

Still on that part of the world, Sergio Pinheiro, the UN Human Rights Commission’s Special Rapporteur in Myanmar, will visit that country from 9 to

20 October.  This will be his second visit to Myanmar this year.

We are expecting a press release on that visit later today, and it will be available in the Spokesman's Office.

**Animal Planet

We now have an announcement by the Department of Public Information.  The UN is joining forces with the AnimalPlanet Television Channel of Discovery Networks International to generate awareness for conservation and biodiversity around the world.  The Animal Channel will broadcast a special programme on 7 October to promote World Animal Day.  Through its UN Works programme, the United Nations has created a new Web site for this special day promoting species conservation, habitat protection, and biodiversity.  And that Web site address is www.un.org/works.  According to some estimates, more than 100 species are lost every day, and about 40,000 species will be extinct every year.  For further information, later today, again, there will be a press release issued by DPI, and I believe that will be at the documents counter.

**AIDS

For the record, I’d like to mention that, talking about press releases, late yesterday a press release was issued on the meeting the Secretary-General had with the chief executive officers of the seven leading research-based pharmaceutical companies.  Their meeting, as you will recall, was held yesterday afternoon, and it was on HIV/AIDS.  A press release with a joint communique by the Secretary-General and the seven chief executive officers said that they will continue to work together on the practical realities of scaling up responses to HIV/AIDS at community level.  As one of the participants said:  “We will be working together to put our fingers on the triggers for efficacy.”

**Plane Crash

Still for the record, late yesterday in our Office we put out a statement on the news of the Russian plane crash.  That statement was by the Spokesman, and it read that:  “The Secretary-General has learned with profound sorrow the tragic news of the crash of a Russian passenger plane earlier today en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk in Siberia, carrying mainly Israeli citizens.”  The Secretary-General extends his sincere condolences to the Government and peoples of Israel and the Russian Federation, as well as the families of the victims of this tragedy.

**Bellamy

I’m approaching the end of my part of the briefing to tell you that Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), departs New York for an extended field visit to the Russian Federation.  Beginning Saturday and continuing through Thursday, Ms. Bellamy will review the situation of children in Russia.

**Signings and Budget

Today, Panama signed on to a protocol of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, dealing with the illicit manufacture and trafficking of firearms.

Today, Ecuador made a payment of nearly $40,000 to become the 124th Member State to pay its regular budget dues in full for 2001.

I will not go over it now, but you have available, not in our Office but at the documents counter, the week ahead for next week.  And just to flag press conferences, immediately following the briefing here, we estimate that around

1 p.m. Hans Haekkerup, as I mentioned to you, the Special Representative in Kosovo, will be here.  And on Monday, in addition to Nigel Fisher, the UNICEF Representative in Afghanistan who will be our guest, at 1:15, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs is sponsoring a press conference on the launch of the report on the World Social Situation.  The speakers will be John Langmore, Director of the Division of Social Policy and Development, and Sergei Zelenev, Chief of the Social Analysis and Policy Unit, as well as Professor Andrea Cornia from the University of Florence in Italy.

Are there any questions for me before we move on?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  In the Secretary-General's meeting with the pharmaceutical executives, were there any fresh commitments to reduce the cost of drugs, and was this something that the Secretary-General was seeking?

Answer:  They did talk about access and prices, of course, reduction of prices, particularly for the least developed countries, sub-Saharan Africa.  I don't have details to give you on any particular commitments, other than the fact that they all agreed that all actors, stakeholders involved in this fight against HIV/AIDS, including the UN and the pharmaceutical companies, need to do much more for the effective implementation of their commitments.  They agreed that reducing prices is important for access, but that alone will not increase all the access necessary, and additional resources are required, they acknowledged, of course, along with political will and skills to expand those resources effectively.  They focused on the fast implementation of the commitments made back in April.

Question:  On the airdrops of food into Afghanistan, I thought I recalled there was a Taliban ban on flights over Afghanistan.  How does the UN work that out?  There was an announcement out of Washington yesterday that the United States was going to do airdrops.  Is this in conjunction with the UN or is this a totally separate operation?

Answer:  I don't know how far if at all this is going together.  From the UN side, WFP, the agency in charge of food delivery, has been attempting to get this authorization from the Taliban for air corridors for airdrops.  But I don't believe we have an answer.  Catherine Bertini, the head of WFP, said today that we are already on the market to procure aircraft.  However, before we can go ahead, we need to identify safe air corridors and obtain approval to use them from the Afghan authorities.

Question:  The meeting in Geneva on Monday with the four governments, are there going to be any Afghan representatives, someone representing the King or the Northern Alliance or anyone from Afghanistan at this meeting?

Answer:  I’d have to look into that for you.  I don’t have that information.

Briefing by the Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly

Good afternoon.  Yesterday, we had three meetings of the General Assembly and heard 53 speakers.  On today’s speakers’ list, there are 21 Member States and three observers -- Switzerland, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta -- and unless there are additions, we will have heard 166 Member States and four observers during this week.  (Note:  one additional Member State actually spoke.)

As is customary, the President of the General Assembly had informal consultations with Member States, including a meeting yesterday with the chairmen of the regional groups, regarding a possible outcome of the current General Assembly debate on international terrorism.  After an exchange of views and given the fact that the General Assembly and the Security Council have already adopted strong and effective resolutions on the issue, they came to an understanding that it would be preferable to consider the adoption of a resolution after further discussions in the Sixth Committee.

Let me recall, that while the Member States decided to debate the issue of terrorism in plenary, it was also their intention to continue to deal with the technical aspects in the Sixth Committee where this item is normally discussed.

On Monday, the General Assembly will meet to elect five non-permanent members of the Security Council for a two-year term.  I understand that there will be three vacant seats at the end of the year for African and Asian States and that the candidates are Cameroon, Guinea and the Syrian Arab Republic.  In the Eastern European Group, Belarus and Bulgaria will be vying for one seat, while the Dominican Republic and Mexico are candidates for the seat being vacated by Jamaica.  No seats in the Western European and Other States Group will expire this year.  As you know, non-permanent members of the Security Council are elected by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting.  It is by secret ballot.

General Assembly President Han Seung-soo will spend most of the day in the General Assembly Hall, but will also have a luncheon with the President of Mexico.

That's what I have.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  What were the numbers again?  Africa has three openings?

Answer:  Africa has two.  Africa and Asia combined have three.

Question:  And one seat for Eastern Europe?

Answer:  Yes

Question:  I'm not entirely clear on this resolution.  You say it will be considered after deliberations in the Sixth Committee.  What's the timing of that, and what's the significance of that?

Answer:  I don't think there's any particular significance.  The timing is that the Sixth Committee will start its deliberations, dealing with the agenda item on terrorism on 15 October.  So that's not this Monday; it's the Monday after that.  And they're expected to go on until 26 October.

Question:  There'll be a vote on a resolution after that?

Answer:  That is a possibility.  That is something they can decide upon or not decide upon.  That's up to them.  But if you're wondering about the implications of this, I think Member States may have been concerned that passing a resolution now would in a way duplicate resolution that have already been passed, and that it could detract somehow from any kind of resolutions they might wish to adopt after the important technical work that will take place in the Sixth Committee.

Question:  How will it end this afternoon, just quietly with the finish of the speeches and that's it?

Answer:  We will have the 21 speakers.  We'll have the three observers.  If anyone wishes to exercise a right of reply, we'll have that as well, and then closing remarks by the President of the General Assembly.

Question:  I just don't think I follow what you said, that the regional leaders and the President of the General Assembly had discussions on what, and concluded what?

Answer:  Well, I think they were all looking for a way to end this debate, and after these discussions it was decided that it was possibly and probably not wise at the moment to have a resolution.  I mean, there is one very, very strong resolution passed by the General Assembly on 12 September, and the two Security Council resolutions, and there may be a further resolution following the work of the Sixth Committee.  I think some were just concerned that having another resolution now would either duplicate previous resolutions or pre-empt things that they want to put in a resolution at a later stage.

Question:  Can I just put to you a question that we're being asked about this week?  How would you characterize the significance and meaning of these 166 speeches by the end of this week?  What does it achieve?

Answer:  I think just the fact that we had, or will have, 166 speeches, and speeches by four observers, this being the single highest number of speakers ever on a single agenda item.  I think that in itself signifies something.  You must remember we were not planning on having a plenary on this item.  It's normally sort of passed to the Sixth Committee for deliberations there.  But in view of the events of 11 September, Member States simply felt that they wanted to have a chance to speak out on this issue, and that's why we've had these five days, including an evening session, on terrorism.

Question:  Is there a chance now that there might yet be a separate foreign ministers level meeting to talk about terrorism here at the United Nations?

Answer:  If that happens, it would not be something new.  As far as I'm aware, the Sixth Committee has three major things on their agenda, and that's something that was discussed even last year, and that's the nuclear terrorism, the draft convention on nuclear terrorism, and the draft comprehensive convention on terrorism, and then also the possibility of convening a high-level meeting on terrorism.  So that's not something that has been caused by the events of the

11 September.  That was something that was discussed earlier.

Question:  But there could yet be a foreign ministers’ meeting to talk about this?

Answer:  I cannot exclude that.  If the Member States wish to have a meeting like that, they can, of course, go ahead and have it.

Question:  Presumably, the general debate will also have a lot of people speaking about terrorism.

Answer:  I would think so, and we heard during the debate on the Secretary-General's report, we heard a lot about terrorism, and during these five days, we heard a lot about terrorism, and the Sixth Committee's going to spend several days discussing the issue as well.  And if the general debate then discusses terrorism as well, I don't know if there'll also be a foreign minister-level meeting.  Personally, I would not think so.

Question:  Do you have an idea what the count is for the number of heads of State that are planning to come in November?

Answer:  When did we announce the dates?  Yesterday or the day before?  I think it's much too early.  We will try to work on the current speakers’ list, but, of course, it will have to be compressed somewhat, because instead of going six hours per day, we'll be going eight per day, and instead of starting on Monday, we'll be starting on a Saturday.  So although we take the Monday speakers and put them on Saturday, we'll have to take into Tuesday's speakers, as well, to fill up the additional two hours.  Furthermore, certain Member States that were going to be represented at the level of heads of State and government at the previously scheduled general debate, and as a consequence perhaps got a prime spot early in the session, may not be represented at that level any more, and they would then possibly move down the list.  There will be a lot of reorganization of that list, but we will try to base it very much on the list that came up, I think, at the end of August, called Rev.3, as far as I remember.

Question:  Jan, you've said this was the single highest number of speakers ever on a list ...

Answer:  A single item, because you will have the general debate having more speakers.

Question:  I realize you can't give us a complete list yet, but we need to know as soon as possible who is coming because people are very busy, and this will fall by the wayside with all the other news going on in the world if we don't know who's coming, because our editors are not willing to send 20 people.

Answer:  I will certainly do what I can.

Question:  Thank you.

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