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
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 journalists from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Nice to have you here.
Our guest at today’s briefing is Jan Egeland, here on my right. He’s Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on International Assistance to Colombia. He will have a few words for you after we finish our briefings here.
**Afghanistan
On Afghanistan, the Secretary-General and his Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, should be meeting now with Richard Haas, the U.S. Secretary of State’s Personal Representative for Afghanistan. Haas and U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte are expected to speak to you at the Security Council stakeout following that meeting. We will let you know when they are on their way down.
Meanwhile, Mr. Brahimi is scheduled to be in Washington, D.C., tomorrow for a day of meetings with U.S. officials. He is expected to brief the Security Council at their weekly meeting on Afghanistan next Tuesday.
As you recall, yesterday Mr. Brahimi talked about the dedication and efficiency of the Afghan staff working under impossible conditions.
Today in Islamabad, Pakistan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told a story that illustrated just what Mr. Brahimi meant. UNHCR said that one of its Afghan staff members based in Jalalabad crossed the frontier and arrived in Peshawar earlier this week after an arduous journey. He not only walked some 60 kilometres over several days across mountains with his family of eight, including six children (the youngest being one year old), but brought his office work with him!!
Meanwhile, reports from Kandahar City say most families appear to have left for nearby villages and the border with Pakistan. People are also leaving Jalalabad, its current population now reduced by about 40 per cent.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said it has regained control of the warehouse in Kabul that had been seized by the Taliban yesterday. WFP urged the Taliban to return the control of the other warehouse that was seized in Kandahar.
Despite efforts to get aid through to the people in need, the operating environment in Afghanistan is getting worse by the day, according to the
spokesman for the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for that country.
The High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, in remarks to the Permanent Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, said that refugees and asylum seekers were already the object of considerable mistrust in many countries, and that the war on terrorism must not become a war on Afghans, nor a war on Islam. We have those remarks upstairs. Lubbers will be here, by the way, at 12:30 p.m. tomorrow to talk with you on the subject of Afghanistan.
**Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Secretary-General’s latest report on the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUC, is out on the racks today. In it, the Secretary-General writes the overall situation in the DRC continues to develop in a largely positive way. “The ceasefire has held,” he says, “and the disengagement of forces and their redeployment to new defensive positions is effectively complete. Some foreign forces have been withdrawn from the territory.”
MONUC, according to the report, has nearly completed the second phase of its deployment and is now faced with the challenges of the third phase. The main tasks to be accomplished by the parties, and requiring the assistance of MONUC during that phase, include the total withdrawal of all foreign forces from the DRC and the disarmament and demobilization of the armed groups.
In his conclusion, the Secretary-General recommends that the Security Council authorize the United Nations mission to enter into Phase III of its deployment. The initial deployment, he says, would remain within the authorized limit of 5,337 military personnel.
**Security Council
The Security Council will be holding a closed meeting this afternoon at 3:30 p.m.with troop-contributing countries to MONUC.
Out on the racks today is a letter from the President of the Security Council, Ambassador Richard Ryan of Ireland, to the Secretary-General informing him that the Council agrees to extend the mandate of the United Nations Office in Angola until 15 April 2002. In his recent report on Angola, the Secretary-General had recommended such an extension.
**Myanmar
The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, had to cut short his field visit for health reasons. The Special Rapporteur left the capital Yangoon last night, three days ahead of schedule. Despite the shortening of his visit, Pinheiro was able to meet the leadership of the National League for Democracy, including its Secretary-General, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
Before leaving for his home in Brazil, the Special Rapporteur said he had received full and unhindered cooperation on the part of the Myanmar Government during his mission. He hopes to be able to return to Myanmar as soon as his health permits, to pursue his fact-finding mission and efforts to develop partnership with all interested parties towards improving the human rights situation in the country. We have a press release on that upstairs with more details.
**Gambia
The Secretary-General's Special Envoy to the Gambia, James Victor Gbeho, is in that country's capital, Banjul, today, as its Presidential elections are underway. The latest reports we have received from the Gambia are that the elections are proceeding peacefully, with only minor problems reported.
Yesterday, this office announced that the Secretary-General had dispatched Gbeho, a former Foreign Minister of Ghana and current member of the Ghanaian Parliament, as his Special Envoy in order to reaffirm the United Nations commitment to support the democratization process in that country. He is also to call on the Government and all political actors to ensure that the polls take place in a free, fair, transparent and peaceful manner.
His visit follows a multi-disciplinary mission that the Secretary-General sent to the Gambia last month. We have details in the full text of the statement, which is available in my office.
**Kosovo
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Kosovo, Hans Haekkerup, today signed a regulation on Labour. It lays down the basic law governing the relationship between employee and employer, and their respective rights and obligations. The new regulation stipulates that the minimum age of employment shall be 18 years and prohibits any kind of discrimination. Among other rights, it also entitles female employees to at least 12 weeks of paid maternity leave, to be paid by the employer at a rate no less than two-thirds of the woman’s earnings. More details on the regulation are available in a press release.
**Administrative Committee on Coordination Meeting
Tomorrow will mark the start of a two-day meeting of the Administrative Committee on Coordination, which brings together the heads of 25 organizations in the United Nations system, including United Nations funds, programmes and specialized agencies.
The Secretary-General will hold a private meeting with the executive heads of the Committee at 10 a.m. tomorrow, before hosting a luncheon for them. Starting in the afternoon, the Administrative Committee will hold a session on system-wide support for Africa, including coordination among United Nations bodies at the country level on Africa programmes and support for the New African Initiative. It will also discuss administrative matters, including staff safety and security.
Starting Friday evening and continuing through Saturday, the Administrative Committee will hold a retreat at the Millennium Hotel in New York, to discuss the follow-up to the Millennium Summit Declaration. (Aside) There’s no link between the Millenium Summit and the Millenium Hotel.
The Secretary-General has suggested that the discussion might focus on the monitoring and review of the implementation of that Declaration, agreed to by world leaders at last year's Millennium Assembly, and on resource mobilization to support its goals.
**Global Compact
Today over 500 representatives from business, government and civil society will meet at Belo Horizonte, Brazil, to explore how the Secretary-General's Global Compact can stimulate partnership projects in support of development and good practices in human rights, labor and sustainable development. This event is part of a comprehensive outreach effort underway to involve developing and transitional economies in the Global Compact. Similar events have already taken place in Thailand, the Philippines, Tunisia, South Africa, Singapore, Poland and Chile, and others are scheduled for later this year. If you’re interested, there’s more information on their Web site: (www.unglobalcompact.org)
**Anniversary of United Nations Postal Administration
The United Nations Postal Administration today launched a new set of stamps commemorating their fiftieth anniversary. The stamps, two in each of the Postal Administration’s three denominations, and three souvenir sheets, went on sale this morning, along with three “maximum cards”, commemorative postcards on the same theme. We have some samples here for you (holding up cards). Very colourful.
Corespondent: Who designed those?
Spokesman: I don’t know. We’d have to find out for you. But I’m sure the press release mentions the designer. [He later said that the designer was Rorie Katz of the Postal Administration’s Graphics Unit.]
**Press Releases
Press releases. Just, I think, one to mention today from the World Health Organization (WHO), saying that it has had a number of inquiries about the deliberate use of biological agents and has received reports of unexpected cases of anthrax.
The Director-General, Gro Harlem Brundtland, said that local and national health systems were preparing themselves for outbreaks of infectious diseases, whether deliberate or naturally occurring. In response to the recent reports on anthrax, WHO has issued revised guidance on the infection. We have a press release and an information sheet.
**Press Conferences
Press conferences. This afternoon at 2:30, Dr. Rohan Perera, Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, will brief you on the work of the Sixth Committee. That’s what you’ve been trying to set up for some time, Jan.
Tomorrow at 10 a.m. in this room Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, Chairman of the Counter-terrorism Committee, will report and then, as I’ve already mentioned, Ruud Lubbers, High Commissioner for Refugees, at 12:30.
That’s all I have for you. Any questions before we go first to Jan Fischer and then to Jan Egeland.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Unless I missed it, could you explain what the United Nations Office in Nairobi received and what the status of people who might have contracted anthrax or any tests that were positive?
Spokesman: We have not received any information so far about the results of the test. I understand that three letters were received in Kenya. One to a family which tested positive, and one of the two others went to the offices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi. That letter was sent out for testing yesterday.
As of this morning, they still have not received the results of the test. Klaus Topfer, the head of the Environment Programme, had been scheduled to leave the country yesterday, but he decided to cancel that trip and stayed over today awaiting the results of the test. As of now, we still don’t have those results. We’ll stay in touch with Nairobi and we’ll squawk as soon as we hear from them.
Question: He was set to leave Kenya?
Spokesman: He was set to leave Kenya. I don’t know where he was going to go, but I was told he cancelled his trip in order to stay around.
[The Spokesman’s Office later reported that the test results for the suspicious letter received at UNEP in Nairobi would be announced tomorrow morning in Nairobi. UNEP Executive Director Klaus Topfer would be coming to New York to attend meetings of the Administrative Committee on Coordination.]
Question: What kind of letter was it? Do you know about the markings, or where it was from?
Spokesman: I don’t have those details. I’ll have to ask Nairobi for you. [He later said it was postmarked “pakistan.”]
Jan, can we pass, because Jan Egeland has to go to another meeting. We’d like to go to him directly.
Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly: Not a problem.
Briefing by the Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly
Good afternoon.
**World Food Day
The World Food Day ceremony is going on right now, and in a message General Assembly President Han Seung-soo said among other things that, “It is shocking to realize that today almost half of the world’s population is still living in poverty and one in five people live on less than a dollar a day. Of these, more than 800 million are chronically undernourished or suffering from hunger. In this sense, the theme of this year’s World Food Day - “Fight Hunger to Reduce Poverty” – is both timely and appropriate, underscoring the fact that the problems of hunger and poverty are inter-linked and indivisible.”
The President’s message was delivered by the Acting President, Ambassador Sharma of the Kingdom of Nepal. The full text is available upstairs.
**Main Committees
As you will have seen from the daily Journal and the press releases, the main committees are in full swing and, despite the difficult start we had to this session, they are more or less on track to finish their work as scheduled. The next plenary meeting of the General Assembly will take place on Monday.
**Documentation for Ad Hoc Committee on International Terrorism
In connection with what Fred said, announcing the press briefing at 2:30 in this room by the Chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on International Terrorism, I just want to say a couple of things about the documentation from the Working Group. I got that question yesterday, so I just want to draw your attention to two reports.
One is the report of the Ad Hoc Committee, following its session in February of this year. It’s document A/56/37, and the other is document A/C.6/55/L.2, which contains last year’s report of the Working Group. The first document is about 20 pages and the other one is 45 pages. Both are available on the United Nations Web site under International Law. I hope to see you back here at 2:30.
Do you have any questions for me?
* *** *