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
Good afternoon. Its always nice to welcome back Kevin Kennedy, the Chief of the Humanitarian Emergency Branch of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to update us on our humanitarian efforts in Afghanistan in just a few minutes.
**Afghanistan
We'll start with Afghanistan. The United Nations-sponsored talks among Afghan representatives entered the third day in Petersberg, Germany, today, with the United Nations reporting that the sides are getting closer but have not reached an agreement yet on future power-sharing arrangements.
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, today met with the four Afghan groups together, following a late night series of meetings with the four groups separately.
“We are hoping that we can have a final agreement here on the composition of both entities", Brahimi’s spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi, said today; "both the supreme council and the interim administration. That is everybody’s hope, the United Nations and the four groups. They see the urgency of a handover of power in Kabul, and they think that these groups should be formed in Bonn.”
In addition to the talks among and between the Afghan groups, scheduled today was a meeting between a three-woman delegation of European women leaders and the Afghan representatives. They encouraged the delegates to bring women into the process of rebuilding Afghanistan.
**Afghanistan -- other
Also on Afghanistan, the three-day reconstruction conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, ended today with a number of guiding principles on how to move forward in a post-conflict Afghanistan. One of the overarching messages was that security is essential for any future developments.
Mark Malloch-Brown, the United Nations Development Programme Administrator, in remarks to reporters after the conference, said: “Without political bridges being built and without a peace being made no amount of economic, social and social development activity will substitute.”
We won’t go into details on the humanitarian side today, as Kevin Kennedy is here, but I'd like to flag two developments.
The World Health Organization is concerned about the declining situation for the detection and control of tuberculosis in Afghanistan, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that 5,000
people went to the UNHCR office in Kabul to apply for the 22 local posts advertised earlier. UNHCR says it normally receives about 50 applications for each vacancy.
Regarding the prisoner uprising in Mazar-i-Sharif, in Helsinki today, United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson said it would be important to know the exact circumstances of the events surrounding the prisoner uprising and assault on the fortress in that northern city.
And I have one clarification to make on a list of names issued by the Afghan Sanctions Committee in a press release dated November 26, which seems to have caused some confusion. We checked with the Security Council Sanctions Committee Secretariat, which confirmed that the latest list is actually a consolidation of the previous five addendum lists issued since the last consolidated list was put out on the 8 March. The last list with new names was dated 9 November.
**Secretary-General travels
The Secretary-General came back from Washington this morning. His last event was an address last night to the National Democratic Institute, where he was introduced by Madeleine Albright.
He said in part in that speech, "the solution to the Afghan crisis ultimately must come from the women and men of Afghanistan itself. And let me make clear our commitment to ensuring that an end is put to the long nightmare of women's repression in Afghanistan. We're urging the parties to bring women into every stage of the political process, and we are recruiting Afghan women as quickly as we can to help us provide humanitarian assistance."
The theme of the empowering of Afghan women came up repeatedly in his meetings with administration and congressional leaders yesterday.
**Security Council
At 3:00 this afternoon, the Security Council will resume its closed consultation deliberations on the Oil for Food Programme for Iraq.
The current phase of the programme, as you know, ends on the 30 November at midnight, that’s tomorrow.
**Palestinians
Today is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, as mandated by a General Assembly resolution of 1977.
This year’s observance takes place at a critical time for the world and the Middle East, the Secretary-General said in a speech delivered this morning to the Committee on the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
“Escalating violence and significant loss of life, mostly among Palestinians, but also Israelis," he said, "have increased mutual mistrust and animosity between the two communities, and have undermined efforts to build bridges of reconciliation”.
He told committee members and their guests that it is essential for both Israelis and Palestinians to preserve what has already been achieved of the peace process and to do all they can to regain the path of peace and reconciliation. “Both sides,” he said, “must realize that violence, and the excessive use of force, are the enemies of progress.”
He also spoke of the need for the international community to continue to offer financial support to the Palestinian economy which has suffered catastrophically in the 14 months since the beginning of this crisis.
We have the full text available in my office.
**UNRWA
On a related matter, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the near East, better known as UNRWA, has issued the 11th progress report of its Emergency Appeal, which benefits refugees in the West Bank and Gaza affected by the current conflict.
The progress report shows that pledges to UNRWA’s Third Emergency Appeal, which was issued in June of this year, rose to $55.4 million, 72% of the $76.9 million requested.
However the amount actually received still stands at $23.9 million with another $31 million outstanding at the time the report was completed.
We have a press release on that.
**AIDS Editorial
The Secretary-General, in an opinion piece which appears in today’s Washington Post, says that prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks, tremendous momentum had built in the fight against AIDS, and to lose that momentum now “would be to compound one tragedy with another.”
He says that, seven months after he created a fund to support the fight against AIDS and other infectious diseases, pledges to the fund stand at 1.5 billion dollars, and he urged that the political will to deal with AIDS be sustained. He writes, “Life after September 11th has made us all think more deeply about the kind of world we want for our children. It is the same world we wanted on September 10th -– a world in which a child does not die of AIDS every minute.”
**AIDS
On Saturday the 1st of December we'll celebrate World AIDS Day and it will be observed here at Headquarters by a Town Hall meeting that will be held tomorrow. Other events, organized by United Nations offices, will take place around the world.
In his message on the Day, the Secretary-General says of this year’s campaign slogan, “I care… Do you?”, “For all of us who care about the world we want our children to live in, the answer is clearly yes.” He goes on to say, “But we must do more than say it. We must all join forces to do something about it.”
The Secretary-General’s message has been issued as a press release and is also available on the United Nations web site.
Tomorrow’s programme will be moderated by Daljit Dhaliwal, the anchor of ITN’s “World News”. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette and the President of the General Assembly Han Seung-soo will deliver opening statements. The programme will include a performance by a group of South African actors currently performing in the Lion King, and a reading by a South African poet. The programme will be carried live on the United Nations web site and will be linked from the Kaiser Family Foundation web site.
There is a press kit available on the web site and we have a limited number at the documents counter.
**DR-Congo
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Amos Nagama Ngongi, was in Goma today to meet with the leadership of the Congolese Rally for Democracy or RCD. The meeting was to discuss the implementation of Security Council resolution 1376, which authorizes the United Nations mission to move into the third phase of its deployment.
Part of that phase calls for the deployment of United Nations military and civilian staff in Kindu, which is currently under the control of the RDC.
Both sides agreed to the creation of joint technical committees to work out the details of the United Nations’ deployment in Kindu.
Mr. Ngongi also said that an exchange of views with the RCD on the demilitarization of Kisangani had taken place.
The press release from the mission is available only in French.
**ICAO
The Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) decided yesterday in Montreal to convene a high-level ministerial conference on aviation security, which will take place next year, also in Montreal, on the 19th and 20th of February.
The Conference is intended to find ways to prevent and combat acts of terrorism involving civil aviation, including a review of the adequacy of existing security conventions. The Organization has already passed a resolution urging States to take steps to prevent the misuse of their aircraft by terrorists, following the September 11 attacks in the United States.
We have a press release on that.
**Signings
We have a number of signings today.
This morning, Hungary became the 47th country to ratify the Rome Statute. That’s for the International Criminal Court. You'll remember, this Statute needs 60 ratifications to enter into force, so we have just 13 to go.
Also this morning, the Slovak republic signed both Protocols to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
And this afternoon, Saudi Arabia will become the 121st country to sign the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism.
**Press Releases
Two press releases to flag.
UNAIDS announces that Roger Milla, the soccer star from Cameroon, has been appointed as Ambassador. Milla will help to spread the prevention message to young people, especially young men, at sporting events.
And then the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released a report, “A Decade of Transition”, on the standard of living of people in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Central and Eastern Europe region generally. It says almost 18 million young people are living in poverty and the number of children living in institutions or put up for adoption is rising. We have a press release with more information as well as the report. You can find it on the UNICEF web site.
**World Chronicle
The World Chronicle TV programme will be aired today. It will feature Steven Miller of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, and you can see it at 3:30 on in house television channels 3 or 31.
**Tomorrow's guest
Our guest at tomorrow's noon briefing will be Tun Myat, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Office of the Iraq Programme.
**Press Conferences
And then there'll be a press conference tomorrow afternoon at 3:30, in this room, with Jose Maria Aznar, the President of the Government of Spain.
That's all I have for you
**Questions and Answers
Question: According to the official United Nations reports, what's the cause of the uprising in Afghanistan of the prisoners?
Answer: We have no report on that. We had no personnel present. We're in no position to judge.
Question: Do you know what's happening exactly and how it was reported in general?
Answer: Because we had no one there, there's nothing we can say, sorry.
Question: It was in the Wall Street Journal that money that was given into Pele's company never made it into any benefit and its not been accounted for. What is the United Nations' response to this possible profiteering using a United Nations agency name?
Answer: I think you have to ask what Pele's response is. And I understand that he did take some questions, but I'm not going to quote it.
Question: But the point is that, I think there's a larger issue of UNICEF and by extension the United Nations being compromised by this.
Answer: No, there's no UNICEF connection. I did check with UNICEF this morning. They say they're unaware of any bank loan having been secured to fund the proposed fundraising football match and concert. And they did not assist in securing any such loan. I think Pele himself has said that he would look into it. If he found that there was any irregularity, he would correct it. And UNICEF remains grateful to Pele for generously giving his time to advocate the cause of children worldwide. And they also said that the allegations made, and it wasn't just the Wall Street Journal, it ran in some other papers earlier, remained both vague and unsubstantiated. Those are UNICEF's words.
Question: In the negotiations in Washington yesterday, did the question of Iraq come up and any role that the Secretary-General might undertake to persuade the Iraqis to let the inspectors back in?
Answer: I can't say no for sure. To my knowledge it did not come up. However the Secretary-General had about five private minutes with President Bush and about a ten minute private meeting in the afternoon with Colin Powell. So I don't know what might have been discussed in those two private meetings, but in the meetings at which other members of the delegation were present, there was no discussion of Iraq.
Question: On a lighter note, the issue of the BMW. Have you got any feedback from the Secretary-General on how he feels about riding in this state of the art vehicle?
Answer: He has had and his predecessors have had armored vehicles so this is not the first armored vehicle. It may be the first BMW. We're grateful that BMW offered us this new vehicle. In the past, vehicles have been offered by the Volvo Corporation and Mercedes. So he has not yet had a ride in it. It has to be equipped with special lights and that’s being done. But I don't think it'll go into service for another couple of weeks.
Question: Has he had one before, or is this the first time?
Answer: It’s the first BMW to my knowledge that has ever been contributed. I understand it's a sweet car, but as I say, no one has yet had a ride in it. We're looking forward to the first one.
Question: Can you tell us anything about the atmosphere that the Secretary-General found when he met with Helms and the other congressional members?
Answer: Over the past five years, relations with Congress and the Administration have gotten stronger and more confident, that is the United Nations’ relations, and in particular the Secretary-General's relations. In the meeting yesterday afternoon with the Senate leadership, the discussions were substantive mainly, almost exclusively on Afghanistan. But with Senator Helms there was also discussion of the land reform issue in Zimbabwe. The Secretary-General thanked him, Senator Helms, for getting behind the fight against AIDS, saying that in the United States it had made a considerable difference. Helms had also had a lunch with the rock singer Bono, who of course has been, in the last year or so, a keen advocate of debt relief, among other issues, and a remarkably effective spokesman. And he made a terribly positive impression on the Senator, who said that he hadn't known anything about him before this meeting and that his grandchildren thought he was square for being so out of it that he didn't know who Bono was. But he said that Bono made a huge impression on him. So that just indicates that while the discussions were substantive, they were also very comfortable, very relaxed. In the morning meeting with the President and the three humanitarian United Nations leaders, Bertini, Lubbers and Oshima, the President referred to the Secretary-General's wonderful team and the work they were doing in Afghanistan. So the mood I think is very positive on both the Administration and the Congress side.
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