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

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

**Organization of the Islamic Conference

Good afternoon.  In a message to the extraordinary meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Secretary-General said that the Organization had “a central role in devising an effective strategy to combat terrorism, not least because your member States have themselves suffered from terrorism.”

The global response to terrorism must be truly universal and not divisive, he added.  “To defeat terrorism, we need a sustained effort and a broad strategy that unite all nations, and address all aspects of the scourge we face.”

The message was delivered on the Secretary-General's behalf by Under-Secretary-General Ibrahim Gambari, and in it, the Secretary-General also added that the “United Nations will continue to address the ills of hatred, ignorance, conflict and poverty wherever they are found.”

We have the full text, if you are interested.

**Afghanistan

The security situation in Pakistan, particularly in the areas bordering Afghanistan, is hampering the humanitarian effort under way in the region.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said work on prospective refugee campsites in the Quetta and Peshawar areas was on hold for the third straight day.  Freedom of movement of staff in those two cities has been drastically limited, as well.

Meanwhile, efforts to get emergency humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan continued with the World Food Programme (WFP) announcing plans for a major acceleration of its overland deliveries with food convoys from Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.  The convoys will be carrying enough to feed almost 700,000 hungry Afghans for one week.  Some 40 trucks departed Peshawar earlier today.

The WFP said the food would raise the total food stocks inside of Afghanistan to over 12,000 tons, sufficient for the needs of over 3.4 million people for one week.  However, the WFP cautioned that the distribution networks have been disrupted and first must be rebuilt.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan reported that people were on the move from Kabul, and that on Monday the Taliban occupied the United Nations compound, housing offices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Mine-Action, and UNOPS in the northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif.

Mine-action non-governmental organizations, working with the United Nations Mine-Action Programme, are increasingly under attack by the Taliban, according to the Coordinator's spokesperson, Stephanie Bunker.  She said that staff had been beaten in Kabul, Jalalabad, and Kandahar.

**Security Council

Just a short while ago, the Security Council began closed consultations on Burundi.

Kieran Prendergast, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, briefed on the latest developments in the peace process there.

Ambassador Richard Ryan of Ireland, the President of the Council, is expected to have a statement to the press at the end of this morning's consultations.

Following that, the Council members will have their monthly working luncheon with the Secretary-General.

**Finances

The Under-Secretary-General for Management, Joseph Connor, today made a presentation on the United Nations financial situation to the General Assembly's Fifth Committee, and he said that, unlike some recent years, he had some good news to relate.

The United Nations, he said, expects Member States to contribute more assessed payments than in any previous year -- an aggregate of $4,716,000,000 is projected to be paid over the course of 2001, compared to $2,893,000,000 paid last year.

Of that amount, the United Nations expects that the United States will pay an aggregate of $1,666,000,000 this year, with most of that money to be received between this month and the end of December.

Payments from other Member States are expected to total more than

$3 billion this year, with most of that money already received by the end of September.

Connor told the Fifth Committee that the level of payments this year means that, for the first time in many years, the United Nations has a secure and solid basis to deal with many key issues, including reimbursements for equipment and troops, cash deficits and cross-borrowing.  Although unpaid peacekeeping assessments are currently high ($3,281 billion by 30 September), they are expected to be cut in half by the end of December to $1,538 billion.

Accordingly, he said, the United Nations intends to pay all certified claims for contingent-owned equipment, now totalling $505 million, as soon as it receives the arrearage payment from the United States.

Summing up, he said, "Financial stability and security is close at hand. We may need it now more than ever."

**Georgia

The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Georgia, Dieter Boden, today left Sukhumi after holding talks there with Abkhaz leaders.

Following his return to the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, Boden said he had urged both the Abkhaz and Georgian sides to safeguard the security of United Nations personnel and to take responsibility for dealing with the climate of violence in the country, which contributed to the deaths of nine passengers on board a United Nations helicopter on Monday.

The United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia confirmed that the helicopter had been hit at the entrance of the Kodori Valley by a rocket on Monday, shortly after taking off from Sukhumi.  All nine passengers –- including four United Nations military observers, a technician and interpreter working with the Mission, and a three-member Ukrainian flight crew -- were killed.

In a statement, the Mission said that "the barbaric act of shooting down a United Nations helicopter with unarmed military observers marks a new phase in the degradation of the conflict".  It added that the United Nations considers it imperative that those responsible for this attack be brought to justice.

**Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced today that, following consultations with the Italian Government, it would now seek the agreement of FAO Council members to move its Conference, scheduled for November, back to Rome, instead of Rimini.

The Italian Government had earlier suggested Rimini as a possible alternative site for the Conference, which is to include a five-year review of the World Food Summit, but the Government and the FAO agreed to ask the FAO Council to decide instead on Rome, which had been the initial site proposed for the Conference.

The FAO added that, in light of recent global events and a worsening economic picture, the plight of the hungry may grow even worse, requiring a major recommitment by all States to reduce the number of hungry people in the world.

**World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations issued a statement following recent press reports that indicated that the WHO had declared mobile phone emissions as safe.

Such statements, the WHO insists, are a distortion of its position on the possible effects of mobile phone use.

In a fact sheet issued last year, the organization had said while recent reviews have concluded that exposure to mobile phone radio frequencies caused no adverse health effects, it also said that there are gaps in knowledge that have been identified for further research to better assess health risks.  It will take about three to four years for the required research to be completed and evaluated, and to publish the final results of any health risks.

We have a press release with more details.

**East Timor

The East Timor Constituent Assembly today announced that it will organize its work around four thematic working groups:  human rights and civil liberties; organization of the State; economy and finances; and the fourth will, among other tasks, design mechanisms by which the Constitution can be amended, if necessary, in the future.

The Transitional Government also launched today its official Web site, and you can find it at www.gov.east-timor.org.

For more details, pick up the briefing notes from Dili in my Office.

**Economic Report on Effects of 11 September Attacks

A report prepared by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which is embargoed until 5 p.m. today and was presented to you at a press conference this morning at 10:30, discusses the effects of the 11 September attacks in the United States on the already-slow growth of the world economy.

We have embargoed copies of the report and a press release in my office.

**Press Conferences

This is a second call on a press conference I mentioned yesterday on behalf of the Correspondents Association.  They have arranged for a press briefing, today at 2 p.m., in the UNCA Club, on the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and possible roles for the United Nations in that country.  The briefing will be given by Anna Cataldi -- the journalist and human rights activist, also a Messenger of Peace -– and a Professor Barnett Rubin of the Council on Foreign Relations here in New York.  So you are all invited to attend that.

**Security

I have now an announcement on some changes in security arrangements.

This Building will now be open to NGO representatives from Thursday,

11 October, under the following conditions:

-- On access, NGO representatives carrying ground passes will be admitted from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.  Special arrangements will be required for NGOs to attend late evening or weekend meetings on a case-by-case basis.

-- NGOs will have to enter through the 46^th Street gate.  Special arrangements can be made for physically disabled NGO representatives to enter through the 42^nd Street gate, if necessary.

-- NGOs not in consultative status or affiliated with the Department of Public Information (DPI) who wish to have representatives enter the Building for certain meetings will be provided with special passes on the recommendation of the substantive department concerned.  Requests for such special passes will have to be submitted by the substantive department to the office of the Chief of Security five working days before the date required.

And finally, the guided tours are expected to resume on Thursday, as well, with some modifications –- they don't say what they are.  It will be good to start getting back to normal here.

**Noon Briefing Tomorrow

Finally, we announced yesterday that the Secretary-General will be addressing United States citizens in 10 cities via teleconference tomorrow at noon.  As a result of that, we will give the noon briefing at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow.

You would be able to see the first half hour of the segment, in which the Secretary-General is participating by teleconference, on in-house television. We'll give you the channels tomorrow.  It will also be webcast, and we'll give you that information either later today or tomorrow.

That's all I have.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Do you have that financial report that you mentioned in your Office?

Spokesman:  We have it embargoed until 5 p.m. today in my Office.

Question:  Is Joe Connor's presentation available to us?

Spokesman:  I don't know. Let me check to see if we can make it available.

Question:  Is the Secretary-General concerned about the attacks today on Afghan/United Nations staff in Afghanistan in various cities?  Is it something the United Nations is trying to do anything about?

Spokesman:  We may be issuing a statement on his behalf later today. It is not unprecedented for these staff to be subjected to beatings.  I think Caroline McAskie might have mentioned that to you on one of her previous briefings here. It is not a new problem.  In fact, I think she had commented that what was unusual in the most recent days was that the staff had not been subjected to abuse, intimidation and beatings.  So it looks like some old habits have returned.  But, as I said, we may be issuing a statement on behalf of the Secretary-General later today.

Question:  Will the United States owe any additional funding?

Spokesman:  At the end of the year, I don't think we can predict.  There is the structural problem that I have already mentioned to you of about

$500 million, plus or minus, that they call in Washington "contested arrears" –- arrears that they did not acknowledge as such –- and that, under the understanding reached with other Member States last December, was not covered.  I think we are not forgiving that debt.  By our calculations, there is no contest.  It is a debt owed to the United Nations, but that was not acknowledged by the United States Congress and, therefore, it is not being paid.  We will keep it on the books as arrears.

Question:  All peacekeeping dues have been paid then as well?

Spokesman:  I can't predict how much of their peacekeeping arrears they will pay.  They have expressed their intention of catching up as much as they can by the end of this year.  We'll just have to see how much money is released.

Question:  On the Abkhaz situation, there is now major tension between Georgia and Russia.  Is Dieter Boden planning talks with either Russian peacekeeping officials in the area or other Russian officials?

Spokesman:  I don't know.  I'll have to check for you. [He later announced that Mr Boden would hold previously scheduled talks with Russian authorities tomorrow.]

Briefing by the Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly

Good afternoon.  The next plenary meeting of the General Assembly is scheduled for Friday when there will be elections for one member of the International Court of Justice.  There are two candidates, namely, Mr. Nabil Elaraby of Egypt and Mr. Francis Romain Wodie of Côte d’Ivoire.  f you are interested in the election procedure, there is more information in a memorandum by the Secretary-General (document A/56/372).  I have some copies here as well.

On Monday, the Assembly is expected to take up the report of the Security Council.

I promised you earlier that I would try to keep you up to date on the work that is being done in the Main Committees.  Unfortunately, with all that has been happening, I have not really been able to keep that promise, but I hope to do so from Monday on.

Last Monday, one of you asked if it might be possible to arrange a background briefing before the Sixth Committee starts debating the issue of terrorism on 15 October.  We may be able to organize something just before or just after the noon briefing on Friday.  I know that UNCA has scheduled a meeting at 12.45 p.m. that day, but we may be able to squeeze a briefing in just before that.  I will let you know tomorrow.

Today is the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction, and in his message, the General Assembly President said, among other things, that, “while natural disasters will continue to occur, human intervention can either reduce or increase the vulnerability of societies to these hazards.  In that sense, human action is a double-edged sword.  For example, measures to reduce poverty can have a synergistic effect in reducing the vulnerability of the poor to natural disasters.  Conversely, policies that exacerbate poverty can have the opposite effect”.  The text of his statement is available upstairs and it is also available on his Web site.

That is what I have for you today.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Thank you.  Any questions for Jan? Thank you very much.  By the way, Idi, we are trying to get Joe Connor to the briefing whether or not we can get the text of his remarks for you.  We are trying to do that by the end of this week.  Thank you.