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

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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Jan Fischer, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General

**Afghanistan -- Political

For the record, the Security Council early yesterday evening endorsed the approach for a political solution outlined by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi for a comprehensive and representative government in Afghanistan.  The resolution, which was adopted unanimously, affirmed that the United Nations should play a "central role" in supporting the attempts of the Afghan people to establish a new and transitional administration and government.

The Secretary-General, who attended the formal meeting, told you afterwards that his Special Representative is doing his best to bring the Afghan parties together as quickly as possible.  In response to a question about security arrangements, the Secretary-General said that the coalition, given their contacts with the Northern Alliance, can make some interim, short-term arrangements to permit the United Nations to continue with our work.  He said, “Since we do not have any military presence on the ground, we will have to rely on those who are on the ground”.

At a press conference in Islamabad, the Deputy Special Representative, Francesc Vendrell, who is expected to lead a team of United Nations political and humanitarian staff back to Kabul as early as tomorrow or Saturday, said that during his visit he will invite the United Front to participate at the meeting of various Afghan groups.  Today, Mr. Brahimi is at Headquarters continuing his consultations.  At 10 a.m., he opened the Annual Coordination Meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Member States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).  The OIC has also been invited to tomorrow’s meeting of the Group of 21 on Afghanistan.  Mr. Brahimi is also scheduled to meet today with Ruud Lubbers, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who is in New York for the annual Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) discussions on his organization.

**Afghanistan -- Humanitarian

Today, five United Nations international staff returned to Afghanistan.  They returned to Faizabad, the capital of the north-eastern province of Badakhshan.  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today announced that it had reopened its office in Kabul, which it reported as returning to normalcy, and local staff have returned to work.  UNHCR also reported that more than 1,300 Afghans returned home through Dogharoun, Iran’s main border crossing with Afghanistan, in the largest single-day return since the end of August. 

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it was continuing to move food from Uzbekistan using barges on the Amu Darya river to a warehouse inside Afghanistan,

80 kilometres north of Mazar-i-Sharif.  WFP also reported that from Quetta and Peshawar in Pakistan, no trucks used by WFP moved into Afghanistan.  This is the third day that there has been no movement from these hubs.  The main fear from the Peshawar drivers is that the road into Kabul is an exit road for the Taliban, and this route is flanked by other factions who wish to seize control, making it dangerous and unsafe to travel.  Food continues to be delivered by trucks from Tajikistan, Turkemenistan and Uzbekistan.

**WTO Meeting

We have the following statement on the outcome of the World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting yesterday:

“The Secretary-General welcomes the successful conclusion of the WTO’s conference in Qatar, and salutes the spirit of cooperation and compromise that made this outcome possible.  The Doha agreements are also an important achievement for multilateralism.  The decision to launch a new round of talks on global commerce holds great promise to all countries, especially in the developing world.  The Secretary-General hopes that these negotiations will lead to a true development round that removes trade barriers to developing country goods, opens additional market opportunities and helps developing countries build up the capacity to take advantage of these opportunities.

“The Secretary-General was especially pleased by the WTO’s affirmation that nothing in the agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights, known as TRIPS, should prevent developing countries from taking measures to protect public health.  This will lead to increased availability of drugs to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics.

“The United Nations system will continue to work with all countries to make the new round of negotiations a success while ensuring full and timely implementation of agreements reached during the Uruguay Round.  Helping countries to trade their way out of poverty is in everyone’s interest, especially at a time of considerable uncertainty for the global economy.  The WTO’s member governments must now follow through and realize the potential embodied in the Doha agreements.”

**Statement on Algiers Disaster

A second statement also attributable to the Spokesman is on the subject of the Algerian floods:

“The Secretary-General is deeply saddened by the high number of deaths and destruction caused by the heavy rains and floods that have affected over 4,000 families in the Algiers area.  He extends his condolences to the affected families.  The Secretary-General welcomes the quick and generous response by several Member States to the appeal for emergency assistance issued by the Government of Algeria.”

**Security Council

A short while ago the Security Council began a private meeting on Burundi, in the presence of Nelson Mandela, the former Facilitator of the Burundi Peace Process.  The Secretary-General will also be in attendance and will speak at the private meeting.  The private meeting will be followed by an open meeting during which the members are expected to adopt a presidential statement.  We expect that Mr. Mandela will speak at the Security Council stakeout once the private meeting concludes, which should be in just a few minutes from now.  And I’ll take no offence if you want to run out of the room.

This afternoon, starting at 4:30, the Council will hold a public meeting to debate recent developments in Angola.  So far, five speakers are inscribed.

**UNICEF on Middle East

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office in the West Bank and Gaza expressed concern for the children who have been killed and injured in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past year.  The agency says that 194 children under the age of 18 have been killed, including 166 Palestinians and 27 Israelis, since the most recent intifada started more than a year ago.  Pierre Poupard, UNICEF Special Representative in the West Bank and Gaza, reiterated UNICEF’s call on Israel to ensure that children under 18 are not targeted in the conflict, as well as its call for the Palestinian Authority to expand measures to discourage those under 18 from participating in any violent action.

He added that surveys carried out in the West Bank and Gaza indicate that children there are experiencing greater emotional problems than they faced a year ago, including nightmares, bed-wetting, insomnia and irregular sleep.  The bulk of UNICEF’s emergency programme in the West Bank and Gaza focuses on helping the children and their families to deal with the stress generated by the conflict.  We have a press release on that.

**Sierra Leone Appointment

The United Nations Force Commander in Sierra Leone, Lieutenant General Daniel Opande, yesterday visited the eastern district of Kailahun, where he commissioned a field hospital, run by the Pakistani battalion of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), and assessed progress in disarmament in the area.  More than 2,000 Sierra Leonean patients received free treatment from the Pakistani doctors, who will serve not only the United Nations peacekeepers but the entire Kailahun district.

**UNIKOM Appointment

The Secretary-General today announces the appointment of Miguel Angel Moreno of Argentina as Force Commander of the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), with effect from 1 December.  We have a press release with details on the officer.

**Compensation Commission on Iraq

The United Nations Compensation Commission on Iraq today made payments in Geneva totaling almost $893,000,000.  The money went to 17 governments for distribution among 357 successful claimants.  We have a press release with a list of the 17 countries.

**UNHCR

From UNHCR, there’s a press release saying that the High Commissioner for Refugees today warned of further population displacement in The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia unless significant progress was urgently made in implementing the 13 August peace agreement.  The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is heading dangerously close to a turning point, Ruud Lubbers said in New York.  There must be no further delays in the political peace process, particularly on the amnesty issue, if the country is to avert further displacement of its people.  He added:  “It is high time for the Government to make significant progress before people finally lose hope, and extremists on both sides take up arms again, undermining all the peace efforts achieved so far”.

**Press Releases

On press releases today, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says its Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer, is optimistic that the new round of trade talks offer real hope for more environmentally friendly trade.  In another press release, the World Health Organization (WHO) announces the publication of a new set of guidelines to measure health.  The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health has been accepted by 191 countries as the standard to describe and measure health and disability.

**Signings

A number of signings today.  A short while ago, Cuba ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and acceded to the International Convention against the Taking of Hostages and the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings.  Eight more countries are due to sign various treaties today, and there’s a complete list in my office and we will have statistics on all the signings available tomorrow.

**Press Conferences

Today, 12:45 in this room, Koffi Panou, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of the Republic of Togo.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  What can you tell us about the location, timing, attendees or agenda of the meeting of Afghan groups to be led by Mr. Brahimi next week?

Spokesman: If I had anything to say on that I would have said it.  So the situation is unchanged from yesterday.  We don’t know where it will be held and we don’t know when.  Mr. Brahimi is consulting widely, trying to get as many of the parties lined up as possible.  And we have also been talking to a number of different nations, primarily in the Middle East and the Gulf, but we have as a back-up, as I’ve already mentioned to you, our European headquarters locations.  So it has not yet been decided where.  

Question:  Can you tell us who, besides the Northern Alliance, has been invited?

Spokesman:  No, I can’t give you a list except to say Mr. Brahimi has said, no one who is a responsible leader in Afghanistan would be excluded.

Question:  Would it be possible for Mr. Oshima or Ms. McAskie to come brief us, now that northern Afghanistan seems to be more secure, as to how the United Nations plans to proceed, or give us some pointers as to how the story’s going to unfold in terms of getting humanitarian aid back into Afghanistan?

Spokesman:  Carolyn McAskie’s been away, I believe she’s in Geneva, which is why she hasn’t come down here sooner.  And Mr. Oshima has been all wrapped up in the plans for this reconstruction meeting on 20 November.  We’ll ask them.  If not Mr. Oshima, then maybe Kevin Kennedy from Humanitarian Affairs would come down and talk to you.

Question:  A couple of questions.  Tomorrow’s meeting between the Group of 21 and the Organization of the Islamic Conference.  Is that open or closed?  And will we have any access if it’s closed?

Spokesman:  I’ll have to check.  I don’t honestly know.  So we’ll have to get back to you on that.  Also, you’re worried about press arrangements, how you get access?  We’ll have to look into where the meeting is being held.  [See response below.]

Question:  And is the Putin “no chance of getting anything from him” final?

Spokesman:  We checked with the Russian mission and they said “no press availability” would happen.  You’ll have to check with them if you want them to change their minds.

Question:  On the flow of refugees from Iran that you mentioned, the 1,300, the largest since August.  Is this something that might be the tip of a flood back into the country that the United Nations is trying to prepare for?

Spokesman:  Rudd Lubbers, as I mentioned earlier, who is here today, is very concerned that the international community shift its focus from emergency arrangements for a possible huge outflow of refugees, to emergency preparations for a possibly huge influx.  In other words, return of refugees.  So UNHCR always tries to slow people up so that they can go home in a sensible and safe way and avoid a stampede.  But they require a lot of infrastructure for that to happen.

Going back to the other question, the Group of 21 meeting is in Conference Room 8 at 10 o’clock tomorrow, and we’re setting up a microphone.  That’s an open area for you, so you’ll be able to hang out there and shout out questions as people come out of the room.  The photo op will be at the beginning of the meeting.

Question:  Will there be coverage?

Spokesman:  Yes, United Nations TV will be there.  We say we’re setting up a microphone, but that assumes there’ll be a TV camera there, too.

Question:  There are reports that Mr. Brahimi, Mr. Vendrell and the United States continually have to apply pressure on President [Burhanuddin] Rabbani to discourage him from going into Kabul.  Wouldn’t it be a problem from the United Nations point of view if he were to go into Kabul, given the fact that he’s still the legally recognized head of government of Afghanistan?

Spokesman:  In terms of the recognition, he’s recognized in effect by default, as far as how governments acknowledge credentials here in the United Nations.  The Credentials Committee for years now has deferred consideration of the credentials question for Afghanistan, where you had two claimants.  And when they defer, the government holding the seat continues on an provisional basis to hold the seat.  I don’t believe Mr. Brahimi has answered this question directly, and I think he would probably not like to see any action, and I’m not sure he would define the return of Mr. Rabbani to Kabul as one, but he would not like to see any action that nudges the process in a political direction before he gets everyone together to discuss it.  So the presence of the Tajik segment of the Northern Alliance in Kabul should not be seen, and is not seen by Mr. Brahimi, as any claim by that faction to a dominant position as the discussions on a broad-based government get under way.

Question:  Referring to the Afghan group meeting, you said you are talking to countries in the Middle East and the Gulf.  Bearing in mind that Afghan leaders have been meeting in Cyprus on and off under the title of the Cyprus initiative, is it possible Cyprus is a possible venue for this meeting?

Spokesman:  I honestly don’t know all the countries that might be under consideration.  I’ve not heard Cyprus mentioned, but that doesn’t mean it’s not on someone’s list.

Question:  There has been an exchange of letters between President Clerides and Mr. Denktash, and some comments from a United Nations spokesman.  I would like to know what, if anything, you have on that, and whether you consider this meeting should take place as falling within the good offices mission of the Secretary-General.

Spokesman:  We are aware of the ongoing exchange of letters between Mr. Clerides and Mr. Denktash regarding the possibility of the two meeting face to face.  We understand that a United Nations representative would be present when this meeting takes place, if it does.  The rapid exchange of letters seems to indicate that the pace is picking up.  And let’s wait and see the outcome.  Certainly we would hope that a), this meeting would happen in the presence of the United Nations representative, and b), if it does happen, it would move the peace process forward, would move us closer to a political agreement.

Question:  So it would be within the good offices mission?

Spokesman:  That is our hope.  You see, this is an exchange of letters between these two principals.  We now understand that they’re saying a United Nations representative would be present, and what we would hope is that what they mean by that is that they’re staying within the framework of the good offices mission.

Question:  Regarding the Secretary-General’s comment that there would be security on the ground in Afghanistan, I’m aware of American and British troops on the ground.  Are there any other countries represented in that statement?

Spokesman:  We’re not in Afghanistan, so I can’t tell you who might be there.  The Secretary-General has been talking to high-level representatives of various governments, including the United States and United Kingdom.  Remember what he said, that we need to be flexible and nimble.  The United Nations, he said yesterday, does not have troops on the ground and yet there’s a need for security.  So he says, on a short-term interim basis, let’s rely on the international presence that we have in the country until we can get another arrangement, either some kind of multinational force or an all-Afghan security arrangement.  So this is part of the nimbleness, let’s be practical, let’s use the assets we have.

Question:  Regarding the staff going into Kabul with Mr. Vendrell, what are their jobs?

Spokesman:  There’ll be political officers, humanitarian officers, United Nations agency representatives, deminers and a spokesman.

Question:  What day?

Spokesman:  There isn’t a day.  Either tomorrow or Saturday, that’s what we’re shooting for.

Question:  With the Kosovo elections on Saturday, will there be someone from the Secretariat who can comment on the results, either for radio or television interviews?

Spokesman:  I recommend you get those directly from Kosovo rather than rely on someone here at Headquarters to get information from Kosovo to pass on to you.  But we will have our office staffed for the first half of the day as usual and there’ll be a Professional from my office on duty, who would get the information second-hand, and if you can’t for some reason get through to Kosovo, we might be able to give you a second-hand reaction from New York.

Question:  In the new realities of Afghanistan and Mr. Brahimi’s activities, is anybody in the legal department worried about the position of the United Nations Charter?

Spokesman:  What specifically is your concern about how the Charter applies to Afghanistan?

Question:  State sovereignty and the United Nations is now making State government, which is not in the Charter.

Spokesman:  The Secretary-General has made it very clear that the United Nations does not want to be an administration for Afghanistan but wants to help the Afghans form a government.

Question:  But the reality is, that’s what the United Nations is doing.

Spokesman:  The reality is that there’s no functioning government in Afghanistan.  The Afghan leaders have indicated they want to form one and we want to work with them to help them do that.

Question:  Who’s the responsible organ to form a military force, if I may say, peacekeeping force, in Afghanistan, since the United Nations isn’t there?  Mr. Brahimi is taking care of the political side at the same time that the military coalition is taking care of the war.  When it comes to sending a force there, who’s responsibility will it be in terms of the format and who’s commanding?

Spokesman:  You know that in Mr. Brahimi’s briefing to the Council, his preference would be for an all-Afghan solution to the security problem.  The second best preference would be a multinational force.  Our position would be that the Security Council would have to authorize a multinational force and that, of course, is not a force that the United Nations takes the lead in either recruiting the troops, supplying the troops or paying the troops.  So some nation or group of nations would have to emerge to lead such a force, to put it together, to recruit contributions to it, and the various countries contributing troops would pay their troops.  So the only formal action you would expect from here would be a Security Council endorsement.  After that, it’s farmed out.

Question:  The meeting Mr. Brahimi wants to bring about with all the factions.  Is there a chance that could take place in Kabul or is Kabul ruled out for other political reasons because it looks like the Northern Alliance have the advantage there?

Spokesman:  Our preference would be that it be held in a somewhat more neutral location and that’s why we’ve been looking at Geneva/Vienna in Europe or someplace in the Middle East that might be more convenient for the Afghans to reach.  So that’s all I would say on that.

Question:  Terje Larsen returned back to the Middle East.  Is it one of his missions to mollify Chairman Arafat?

Spokesman:  We saw that article this morning and yes, Terje Roed Larsen has gone back to the Middle East.  No, we would not describe his mission as anything resembling handholding.  He has a political mission there, to stay in touch with both the Palestinians and Israelis and to do everything he can to move them towards the respect for the Tenet Understandings and the Mitchell Commission recommendations as a way of getting back to negotiations.

Question:  On the business of remaining nimble and flexible and the forces required to maintain security on the ground, again there are conflicting reports about how this should be achieved in the short term.  On the one hand, we hear of efforts to draft forces from places like Indonesia and Jordan and Turkey.  On the other hand, we hear that the leaders of the coalition, namely the United States and Britain, are not particularly anxious to see forces from other countries going into Afghanistan just yet, that they would like to carry out that function for the time being.  Is there a concept of this being a phased thing, is this what nimble and flexible means?  In other words, do we just go along with just having United States and British forces on the ground doing what they can for the time being and looking further down the road for this multinational force?

Spokesman:  This military planning is not being done here at the United Nations, so first of all we’re not informed as to what governments are saying to each other about who’s going to supply what troops and who’s going to take the lead.  We just don’t know.

Question:  Is Mr. Brahimi involved in that negotiation?

Spokesman:  To my knowledge, he is not.  I think we in the United Nations would like to have as much information as governments are willing to give us about military planning, but frankly until now governments have kept that information largely to themselves.

Question:  The figure of 195 Palestinian children killed.  Is that in the whole intifada or its second phase?

Spokesman:  The most recent phase, which is about 13 months.

Question:  Can you tell us anything about the background of the Putin meeting, like who wanted it and what the agenda is?

Spokesman:  I can’t give you anything now.  I can see if I can find out after the meeting who asked for the meeting, which we usually give out.  Otherwise I think it’s best to wait until it’s over and see if we can get a read-out.  [The Russian Government requested the meeting.]

Question:  Is it a dinner meeting?

Spokesman:  It is a dinnertime meeting, but as far as I know, there’ll be no food served.  Jan --

**Briefing by Spokesman for Assembly President

Thanks, Fred.  Since we don’t have much time left, I just want to flag the Sixth Committee (Legal) for you.  It will hold an open meeting on Monday morning, during which the coordinator of the working group on international terrorism will introduce the working group’s report.  The Committee will then discuss a resolution that will send the report to the General Assembly.  The text of the draft resolution should be out some time Monday, and the Committee is expected to act upon it Tuesday or Wednesday.  The Sixth Committee will also discuss other items during this meeting.  I’m not sure at what stage the terrorism report will be coming up.

In a brief meeting at 8:30 this morning, the General Committee recommended that the Sixth Committee consider the question of granting observer status to the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the IPU.  The General Assembly is expected to approve this recommendation tomorrow morning.  The General Committee meeting was held at the request of India, which currently holds the presidency of IPU.  There’s more information in document A/56/614.

At 9:02, General Assembly President Han Seung-soo started off the last full day of the general debate.  Later in the day, he will meet with the Foreign Ministers of Belarus, Morocco, Slovakia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Myanmar, Cuba, Moldova and Uruguay, and with the High Commissioner for Refugees.

A couple of changes to the speakers list in addition to the ones I mentioned yesterday.  Cameroon, which is scheduled as the tenth speaker in the morning, will probably be the last speaker instead.  In the afternoon, St. Lucia will move from ninth to last speaker.  Tomorrow, Friday, Eritrea will move from sixth in the morning to fourth in the afternoon, and Rwanda will move from fourth in the afternoon to eighth in the morning.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Where are they on this definition of terrorism?  Is this what we’ll find out Monday?

Spokesman:  No, you won’t find out that on Monday.  The report is out, I think it was out 29 October and it’s been on the racks since.  In the informal summary at the end of the report, you’ll find out where they are at the moment.  Mr. Corell, in his briefing on 5 November, also mentioned the outstanding items.  It’s those three articles that are considered a package, articles 2, 2bis and 18.  If you’ve gone through the report, you’ll find there’s informal text for articles 2 and 2bis, but no informal text for 18.  But if you go back to the previous report, I think it’s the original text drafted by India for an article 18, but no text for an article 18 was made public this year.  I think there were suggestions but they never made it out of the conference rooms.

Question:  There was some talk about a Non-Aligned conference on terrorism.  The Prime Minister of Cuba mentioned it in his speech.  Do you know anything about that?

Spokesman:  I haven’t heard anything about that, but one of the issues the working group has been discussing is the convening of a high-level conference to discuss terrorism.  It’s not something that was prompted by the 11 September events but something that we’ve had on the agenda for a while and we have not reached a decision on that.  Some Member States feel that since we had five days

of debate here at United Nations Headquarters focusing on international terrorism, it might not be necessary to have a high-level debate.

Question:  How many topics were discussed during the General Assembly this year, besides the highlight, which is terrorism?

Spokesman:  I don’t think anybody keeps a tally on that.  It’s fair to say it’s fallen into three big groups, with terrorism, Afghanistan and the Middle East being the three big ones, and then I think it’s safe to say we’ve had a fourth one, with Member States saying that despite all the attention that’s being given to these first three issues, we should not forget AIDS, poverty eradication, globalization, and many other issues on the United Nations agenda.

Question:  Terrorism is one topic, but what has been decided financially, socially, politically or otherwise?

Spokesman:  Many of those issues have been discussed not just in the general debate but in the plenary, early on, for instance, during the discussion of the Secretary-General’s annual report, and much of that work also takes place in the various Committees.  And the Committees are sort of winding up their work at the moment, and are getting ready to present their reports to the General Assembly.

Question:  Is there any talk of the Sixth Committee going back to re-address the outstanding issues on the comprehensive convention?

Spokesman:  Not to my knowledge.  I’m guessing a bit here because if they feel that all of a sudden there might be a breakthrough, and I think some work will go on in the wings, but it’s more likely that the next substantive discussion of the draft comprehensive convention will take place probably in late January in the form of the ad hoc committee on international terrorism.  You’ll recall that it also met in early February this year.  So that would probably be the next step, but if the Member States wanted, if they feel there's a move, they can go back to the Committee.  But the Committee is scheduled to finish its work on Wednesday.

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