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

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

Welcome to the visiting Arab journalists.  Nice to have you here.  Good afternoon.

**Noon Briefing

The noon briefing today is being held at 11:30 so that we will not clash with the Secretary-General's teleconferenced meeting with citizens in 10 United States cities, which begins at noon and will go on for about a half-hour.

You will be able to view that event on in-house television channels 56 or 17.

It will also be webcast -- this is a long webcast address, so if you are interested, take it down –- on www.un.org/webcast/sg/townhall.htm

**Afghanistan

As efforts to inject urgently needed assistance into Afghanistan continued, in Pakistan, for the fourth straight day, United Nations agencies were unable to attend to their tasks in the border areas.

The United Nations refugee agency today expressed growing concern and frustration over numerous obstacles preventing it from making urgent preparations for a possible influx of refugees in countries bordering Afghanistan.  In Pakistan, red tape and security concerns prevent field teams from getting access to the border areas to monitor possible population movements or from offering assistance to new arrivals, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

The Humanitarian Coordinator’s Office for Afghanistan, meanwhile, gave more details on the attacks on non-governmental organization (NGO) mine-action staff and their premises and vehicles, which we reported to you yesterday.  The attacks included one in Jalalabad on Tuesday night in which armed Taliban elements entered a mine-action NGO, tied up and beat the office security guards.

**Secretary-General’s Report on Security

I would also like to draw your attention to the Secretary-General’s report to the General Assembly on the Safety and Security of Humanitarian Personnel and Protection of United Nations Personnel.  It is out on the racks today.

Praising humanitarian personnel as the vanguard of the Organization’s quest for peace and stability, the Secretary-General noted that it was unlikely

that the environment in which they are required to operate will change in the near future.

He said that security training and security awareness is the single most effective means of minimizing risk.

The report notes a rigorous training campaign conducted in most high-risk duty stations and the impact it has had on reducing serious incidents.  “There is a greater awareness than ever before of security management,” he says.

The report, which is dated 20 September, says that since 1 January 1992, 201 civilian staff members have lost their lives in the service of the United Nations as a result of malicious acts.

**Security Council

The Security Council is about to start consultations on the Iraq Oil-for-Food Programme.  Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the Iraq Programme, introduced the recently issued 90-day report for Phase X of that programme. Sevan also briefed Council members on the letter he received from the Permanent Representative of Iraq to the United Nations, Ambassador Mohammed al-Douri, relating to his country's decision to declare five United Nations international staff personae non gratae.  We expect Mr. Sevan to come to the stakeout following his presentation to the Council.

Following that, Taye Brook Zerihoun, Director of the Africa I Division of the Department of Political Affairs, will brief Council members on the status of preparations for the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, which is scheduled to open Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

As you know, the Dialogue brings together representatives of different groups from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Sir Ketumile Masire, the former President of Botswana, is the Facilitator of this process.  The Council President, Ambassador Richard Ryan of Ireland, is expected to have a statement to the press on the Inter-Congolese Dialogue at the end of this morning's consultations.

**Liberia

The Secretary-General's report on the potential impact of possible future sanctions on Liberia is out on the racks today, and it evaluates the ways in which future sanctions in such fields as timber, rubber production and shipping might affect the population.

The report estimates that, if a ban were imposed on Liberian timber exports, it would probably cause the loss of up to 10,000 relatively well-paid jobs, and hurt an industry that accounts for about nine per cent of the national budget.  Any international sanctions on Liberian rubber would affect more people, potentially leaving many of the more than 20,000 people employed by major rubber producers unemployed.

Any possible future restrictions on Liberia's ship register, the Secretary-General adds, is expected to have little direct effect on the Liberian population.

He concludes that any restrictions on Liberia's already weakened economy would probably have negative effects on employment, social services and government revenues.  If the Security Council does decide to establish additional sanctions, he said, it may also wish to consider establishing a mechanism to review their humanitarian and economic impact regularly.

**Sierra Leone

The United Nations mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) reported that a senior official of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Omrie Golley, said that the Government of Sierra Leone handed over keys to an office that would house the RUF political party.

The transformation of the RUF into a political party is expected to be discussed at the sixth meeting of the Government of Sierra Leone, the RUF and the United Nations mission in a Joint Committee on Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) which is taking place today in Freetown.

The Sierra Leone Government will be led by Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Solomon Berewa, and the RUF by Mr. Omrie Golley, Chairman of the Political and Peace Council.  The meeting will be chaired by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji.

**Lebanon

In a statement issued today following recent air violations by Israeli aircraft across the Blue Line, the Secretary-General’s Personal Representative for southern Lebanon, Staffan Di Mistura, issued a statement saying that such violations can potentially aggravate an already tense situation.

Di Mistura reiterated his call to the Israeli authorities to cease these violations and respect the Blue Line.

We have the full statement available in my office.

**Kosovo

The World Bank today will present the results of its poverty assessment in Kosovo, conducted at the end of last year, which found that by late 2000, 38 per cent of the population of Kosovo lived in poverty.  The United Nations Mission in Kosovo mentions the World Bank study, among other items, in today's briefing notes from Pristina.

**Budget

In budget news, the Dominican Republic became the 125th Member State to pay its regular budget dues in full.  That was with a “cheque” for $237,000.

**Press Releases

Two press releases to highlight for you today.  First, the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that screening for cervical cancer is failing to control that disease in many developing countries.  WHO says that many countries need to strengthen their ability to diagnose and treat early forms of cervical cancer.  The worldwide total is 231,000 deaths per year from this disease, with developing countries accounting for eight out of every 10 deaths.

Then a second press release is issued jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  They say that progress is being made towards reducing the risks associated with the use of pesticides and industrial chemicals in developing countries.  The two organizations are hosting a meeting in Rome this week to prepare for the entry into force of the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for certain hazardous chemicals and pesticides.  We have a press release on that.

**Announcements

No press conferences today, none scheduled yet for tomorrow.  The guided tours here at Headquarters did get under-way today, as we said they would yesterday.  For more information you can go to the website www.un.org/tours, or information is also available by calling 963-TOUR, which is 963-8687.

That is all I have for you.  Any questions before we go to Jan?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  What special security arrangements are being made in connection with the resumption of the tours?

Spokesman:  I can't go into detail on that, Michael, you know that.  Since 11 September, security has been tightened throughout the building.  I have mentioned before to you, if you are coming in the front door, you notice the restrictions.  If you are driving into the garage, you notice the restrictions there.  So, we are basically tightening things up throughout the building.  We feel that the risk assessment is such now that we can resume the tours once again, and that is about all I can say on it.

Question:  Are you going to have a text of the Secretary-General's remarks with Walter Cronkite?

Spokesman:  He isn't scripted for that event.  He's got some talking points in his pocket, but basically, he'll be speaking off the cuff, so we won't have anything to give you.

Question:  Last year there were more civilian casualties than of peacekeepers.  How are things working this year?

Spokesman:  We have those numbers, but I don't have them with me.  If you check with me after the briefing, I'll give them to you.  [He later explained that so far this year military casualties outnumbered the civilian.]

Question:  There is no mention in this security sheet of when the press island might be opened up for those that like to do live broadcasts.  Is there any consideration of that?

Spokesman:  I am supposed to meet with the Chief of Security today.  I'll raise that with him when I see him.

Question:  Are there any letters to the Security Council concerning the Israeli air violations?

Spokesman:  I don't know.  I haven't seen any.  All I am aware of is this comment by Mr. Di Mistura.  You can check the racks, and we can check for you.  [There were none.]

Question:  Will we be able to see the Secretary-General on TV in this room?

Spokesman:  In this room?  Yes, okay, yes, we will turn on the TV here in Room 226 for any journalist who wants to come down to the broadcast.

All right.  Jan, how are you?

Briefing by the Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly

Okay, fine.  I really don't have anything for you today, but I'll just refer to something I said yesterday.  I said that I was trying to arrange some kind of a background briefing before the Sixth Committee (Legal) starts its work on international terrorism on Monday.

The Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on International Terrorism, Mr. Rohan Perera, and a legal officer have actually agreed to come and talk to you, but we have a scheduling problem.  I was predicting yesterday that we might be able to squeeze it in after the briefing tomorrow, but that does not seem possible.  So we will have to go to Monday or Tuesday.

I really think it would be important to arrange something like this, because most of the meetings of this Ad Hoc Committee will be in the form of a working group and, as such, it will be closed.  So your best bet to get some information about the work that is going to be carried out there would be if we could arrange this background briefing.  I'll continue working on it, but we have a scheduling problem at the moment.  Hopefully, I'll have more on that on Monday.

That's all I have.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  How many members are there on the Ad Hoc Committee?

Spokesman:  The Ad Hoc Committee has 35 members, but the Working Group, as far as I know, is open-ended, so basically anybody can participate.

Question:  Who is the Chairman, you said?

Spokesman:  His name is Rohan Perera.  He has been a member of the Bureau of the Ad Hoc Committee since 1996 and he's been Chairman of the Committee since February last year.

Question:  What is his nationality?

Spokesman:  He is from Sri Lanka.

Question:  Fred, I know that the teleconference today is organized by the Better World Fund, but can you tell us the when and why, what is the focal point?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  The Better World Fund organized this on the first monthly anniversary of the attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.  I think it is to help Americans, principally, understand the United Nations role in the anti-terrorism campaign and to take questions from the American public -- whatever is on their mind, to respond to the Secretary-General or to put questions to him.  Then, after each city has one question put to the Secretary-General, they'll close down that part of the meeting, the teleconference part, and they'll continue to meet as individual communities to further these discussions.

Thank you very much.

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