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

Briefing by the Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon.  Thank you very much for coming.  We have a special guest today, Hans Corell, the Legal Counsel, who will be joining us up here as soon as the Q&A portion of this briefing is over.  He’ll be briefing you on the international convention on terrorism.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding a formal meeting this morning on Liberia sanctions, on which it was briefed by Martin Chungong Ayafor, the chair of the independent panel on Liberia sanctions.  That panel, in its report issued last week, said Liberia continues to purchase arms in contravention of Security Council resolutions, and suggested possible further steps, including United Nations sanctions on Liberian timber and on Liberia’s shipping registry.  The Council also heard from Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore, who heads the Council’s sanctions committee on Liberia.  Both Ambassador Mahbubani and Mr. Ayafor briefed the press this morning on Liberia sanctions, just before the start of today’s open debate in the Council.  The open debate is proceeding right now with members of the Council providing their views.

**CTBT

Among the many events taking place this weekend, I would like to draw your attention to the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, or the CTBT, for short.  The Secretary-General is expected to open that conference this coming Sunday at 10 o’clock in the morning, and to preside over the election of a president of that conference.  We expect that Jorge Castañeda, Foreign Minister of Mexico, will be elected as Conference President.

On Sunday morning, following the election of the President and other officers and adoption of the agenda, the Executive Secretary of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization, Wolfgang Hoffmann, will also brief the delegates on the work of that Preparatory

Commission.  The Conference will last for three days and is expected to conclude with the adoption of the final report.  We have, upstairs, copies of a draft provisional agenda for the Conference.

**Afghanistan

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, has been in Tehran since Saturday.  Over the weekend he held two days

of meetings with Foreign Ministry officials, including Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi.  The Iranian authorities emphasized the “pivotal” role they expect the United Nations to play to help the Afghans solve the crisis and install a regime acceptable to all Afghans.  Mr. Brahimi also discussed with his hosts the importance of reinforcing the cooperation between all their neighbours of Afghanistan and to provide all necessary support to the Afghans without interfering in any way in their internal affairs.  Both parties underlined how vital is the respect of the Afghans’ free will.

It was also agreed that the forthcoming debate of the United Nations General Assembly in New York would be a good occasion to continue the discussions with all the neighbours of Afghanistan, between themselves and with the United Nations.  And in this connection, the meeting of the so-called “6+2” group on Afghanistan, planned in New York at the level of foreign ministers, was discussed.  Mr. Brahimi has also been holding intensive consultations with a wide range of Afghans representing various groups, including non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and women’s associations, as he did in Islamabad.  He is scheduled to have a press conference at one o’clock Teheran time tomorrow, following a meeting with Iranian president, Mohamad Khatami.

**Afghanistan Humanitarian

On the humanitarian side, I have a few developments to report to you regarding Afghanistan.  The World Food Programme (WFP) said today that for the first time in the history of its emergency efforts in Afghanistan, it has hired a so-called “harsh environment” expert from Canada to help establish a logistics base camp near the tip of the Anjuman Pass that leads to the Panjshir Valley.  The aim is to keep the Anjuman Pass, the only link in the Pansheer Valley from the north, open as long as possible.

More asylum seekers are heading toward the Iranian borders in southern Afghanistan.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says it has received unconfirmed reports from the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS), and an NGO, that a group of some 3,000 Afghans are living out in the open near the Makaka camp on the Afghan side of the border in Nimroz province.  When they arrived at Makaki, they were given some food and other assistance, but were not admitted to the camp since it is already full with between 4,500 and 6,000 persons.  They are reportedly now camping out in the open.  On the Pakistani side, UNHCR report that assistance to new arrivals has stalled on the southern border.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) announced that an assessment by its national staff members has started in the Eastern Region of Afghanistan, following reports that an estimated 40,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have recently arrived in the region from Kabul, Jalalabad City and villages of Nangarhar Province.  The assessment will verify the reports and ascertain areas of concentration.

**Statement on Western Sahara

I now have a statement attributable to the Spokesman, and that is the following:  “The Secretary-General has decided to appoint William Lacy Swing as his Special Representative for Western Sahara.  Until recently, Mr. Swing served in the diplomatic service of his country, the United States of America, where he has had a distinguished career.  He will succeed William Eagleton as Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and will assume his office as of

1 December.  The Secretary-General expresses his deep appreciation for

Mr. Eagleton’s contribution to the efforts to reach a comprehensive settlement in Western Sahara and wishes him well in his future endeavours.”

We have copies of Mr. Swing’s curriculum vitae bio note upstairs in our office.

**Middle East

Today in Gaza, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed-Larsen, co-chaired, along with Norway and the World Bank, a meeting of donors and United Nations Agencies to consider the initial findings of a joint report by the World Bank and the Special Coordinator’s office on the impact of the first year of the intifadah on the Palestinian economy and to outline the priorities for the future.  The report, which will offer a comprehensive look at the situation, is expected out in a few weeks time.

**Mine Action

The Secretary-General, in his latest report to the General Assembly on mine action, says that significant progress over the past year has been made in terms of strategic planning, operational support, coordination and information management for mine action.  Still, he says, new landmines continued to be laid in several countries, with Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sri Lanka and the Sudan being cases of particular concern.  He adds that the Mine Action Programme spent much of the last year reinforcing its efforts in Afghanistan, which he says remains “one of the countries most affected by landmines and unexploded ordnance in the world.”  The report is out on the racks today.

**Tribunal Budgets

Also on the racks, there are two other reports by the Secretary-General which present to the General Assembly the two-year budgets of the two international tribunals, dealing respectively with the former Yugoslavia and with Rwanda.  The Secretary-General says that over the 2002-2003 biennium, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia will require more than $248 million, reflecting a net increase of more than $25 million from the previous biennium.  The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda will require some $204 million gross over the next two years, an increase of more than $24 million from the previous biennium.

**Bosnia and Herzegovina

Also out on the racks is the first report by José Cutileiro, the Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights for Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

      **FAO

In his address to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Conference on Saturday, Director-General Jacques Diouf said, “The tragedy of hunger in a world of abundance and waste continues to be a troubling reality.”  He went on to say that the only lasting solution was to help the rural poor to do without food aid by increasing their ability to produce, first to feed themselves and then to produce for market.  He called the annual decline in the number of hungry people, currently at 6 million per year, “totally inadequate”.  Also on Saturday, the Conference adopted a new Convention on genetic material.  Press releases are available upstairs in the Spokesman’s office.

**Environment

I also have a couple of other notes here to tell you that a team of 14 experts from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which had been visiting the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to investigate sites in Serbia and Montenegro that were targeted by ordnance containing depleted uranium (DU) during the 1999 Kosovo conflict, just completed its mission yesterday.  The team was able to visit a number of sites in Montenegro and Serbia.  The samples collected during this mission will be analyzed in two laboratories, one in Switzerland and the other in Italy.  The mission’s final report will be published in February 2002.

      **East Timor

We have available upstairs the briefing note from Dili, which tells you about a “come and see” visit of East Timorese refugees.  About 200 of them who were in East Timor came to visit, and that is part of the reconciliation process.  More details in the briefing note upstairs.

**UNESCO

As well, available upstairs is a press release with the results of the 31st General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which closed on Saturday after three weeks of work.

**Press Conferences

Tomorrow, at 11 o’clock, Jean Ziegler, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, will be here in Room 226 to brief on his report, which he’ll present to the General Assembly on 9 November.  At five o’clock, President Jacques Chirac of France will be here to brief on Afghanistan.

**Questions and Answers

Any questions before we go on to Jan?

Question:  The Taliban Ambassador in Islamabad today called on the United Nations to help the people of Afghanistan inside the country, to try and get food and other humanitarian relief to them.  Is there any United Nations response?

Deputy Spokesman: I haven’t seen the statement.  But we’re on the record, actually acting in Afghanistan for many years now, helping the victims of war and drought.  We have our national staff in Afghanistan, and as we have been reporting, there have been some food deliveries, not as much as should be.  You saw Under-Secretary-General Kenzo Oshima, who was briefing you last week, who just returned from central Asia from visits to three neighboring countries to look into the possibility of alternative routes into Afghanistan.  Of course our intention is to move as much as we can under conditions of security, not only for personnel doing it but also for those who will benefit from it, and we hope it can be done as soon as possible.

Question:  On the same subject, is there some reaction to Bin Laden’s statement about the United Nations this weekend?

Answer:  Yes, we read the statement, the Secretary-General read what was in the media.  Naturally he disagrees with it and hopes the Muslims and other people around the world will not be misled by it.  The Secretary-General hopes they will understand that the United Nations is an expression of the will of all its members.  The membership of the Organization is universal, as are the principles enshrined in its Charter.  The United Nations does not represent any particular culture, or the views of any single Member State.

Question:  Is that the response of the Secretary-General?

Deputy Spokesman: No, that’s the answer I’m giving you in response to a question just asked.  If you allow me to continue, I’ll continue with this reaction.  Its decisions, the actions of the United Nations, are those of Member States working together to pursue common goals based on shared values of equality, tolerance, mutual respect and human dignity.  I perhaps should also mention that a French newspaper today carries an interview with the Secretary-General that was conducted last week.  It is published today, Le Figaro, and the Secretary-General said in that interview that “it is an insult to the peoples of the world, the third world, to suggest that democracy and human rights are purely western products.  On the contrary, people in developing countries understand more and more that these rights, which are economic, social and cultural, as well as civil and political, are truly universal and must be realized for all people as an essential part of the development process."  This is one of the primary purposes of the United Nations, and the Secretary-General hopes that all peoples will cooperate in bringing it about.

Question:  What was the question?

Deputy Spokesman: The question was whether we had any reaction to a statement made by Mr. Bin Laden this weekend.

Question:  Anything to say about Bin Laden mentioning the United Nations a week before the leaders and foreign ministers come?  Is it fair to assume he’s calling for an attack on the United Nations now?  Any thoughts?  The Administration’s already talked about messages and orders going out through videos.  Is this in any way viewed as a message going out for Al-Qaeda to attack the United Nations?

Deputy Spokesman: No idea, you have to ask him.  He issued the message, not us.

Question:  Will the Secretary-General have a press conference this week?  Doesn’t he usually before the general debate?

Deputy Spokesman: It’s not particularly related to the General Assembly.  He tries to have three or four a year.  He just had one in Geneva.  He may have one but there’s a scheduling issue to be looked into.

Question: Can you elaborate on the Makaki camp?  What’s the location, exactly, and what is the United Nations trying to do about these people camping out in the open?

Deputy Spokesman: It’s on the Afghan side of the border in Nimroz province.  They were given food and assistance as they arrived at Makaki, but were not admitted into the camp as it’s already full with between 4,500 and 6,000 people.  These were reports that reached the UNHCR but they are at this point unconfirmed reports.  These reports reached them from the Iranian Red Crescent Society and another NGO.  They are still to be verified.

Question: Is it something the United Nations is taking up?

Deputy Spokesman: They (the reports) have to be confirmed.  We’ve just been informed about it, and we’ll let you know about it as well.

If there are no more questions, we’ll invite Jan to do his briefing and then we’ll have our guest.

Briefing by the Spokesman for the General Assembly President

This morning, the General Assembly took up the issue, “toward global partnerships”.  There were 14 speakers on the list but I know that at least two were added since then.  The Assembly’s not expected to adopt a resolution on this issue now but probably later in November.  It will then turn to the item on “observance of the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict."  That item will be introduced by Kuwait.  There’s also a draft resolution.  If that resolution is passed, then we’ll have an observance day on the issue which will fall on 6 November every year.

In the afternoon, the Assembly will deal with item 22, “final review and appraisal of the implementation of the United Nations new agenda for the development of Africa in the 1990s.  As of this morning, there were 18 speakers on the list.  I should also call your attention to a note for correspondents, number 5691, outlining the special arrangements for treaty signings during the general debate.  I was also going to say something about the report of the working group on international terrorism, which is out now as well, but I will certainly leave that to Mr. Corell.

Any questions?

Question: There was a request by the President of the Economic and Social Council to have more time to discuss the report.

Answer: Certain chapters are assigned to certain committees, I think they’re the Second (Economic and Financial), Third (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) and Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary).

Question: They protest that.  They say it isn’t normal, that the Assembly is not giving the Economic and Social Council the same consideration it gives to the Security Council, and they request that they have more time.

Answer: I think the request is to have the Economic and Social Council report discussed directly in plenary and I don’t think a decision has been reached on that.  It is not normal for the Economic and Social Council report to be discussed in plenary.  Parts, chapters of the report are assigned to certain Committees, but the request of the Economic and Social Council President is that the report, as such, should be discussed directly in plenary.  That’s what we’re discussing at the moment, whether we should accommodate that request or not.

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