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 Manoel de Almeida e Silva, 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

Our guest today at the briefing will be Tun Myat, the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Office of the Iraq Programme.  He'll be here to discuss the humanitarian programme in Iraq.

**Afghanistan

The UN-sponsored talks on power-sharing among Afghan factions are in their fourth day in Petersberg, Germany, outside Bonn.

The four groups represented are meeting with each other in small groups.  Earlier today, the leaders and principal aides of each of the four factions met with the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, to assess progress so far.

Mr. Brahimi expects to meet with the leaders and principal aides of the four groups again, later this evening, to formalize the points of agreement so far.

Currently, there is unanimous agreement by the parties on basic principles for power-sharing, but many details -- including the names of those who will participate in that arrangement -- still need to be worked out.

Ahmad Fawzi, Mr. Brahimi’s spokesman, told reporters a short while ago, “We are inching forward here, inch by inch, towards an acceptable agreement.  Towards an agreement that is acceptable to all four".

The talks will continue tomorrow, and no announcement is expected this evening.

Also on their agenda is a meeting with a delegation from the conference of Afghan civil society, which opened in Bonn today.

Here in New York, the Security Council was briefed in closed consultations this morning by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast on Afghanistan.  The Secretary-General was present during the first hour of those consultations.

**Afghanistan -- Humanitarian

Still in Afghanistan, but from the field, Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of UNICEF, hours after arriving in Islamabad, Pakistan, for a visit to the region told reporters that her basic message was simple.

“For Afghanistan to really recover and thrive as a society, children must be an immediate priority.  Children and women."

“Children are, of course, the future of Afghanistan.  Providing them with a quality basic education, good health care and a chance to grow to adulthood in peace and dignity is essential to ensuring Afghanistan’s stability and health as a nation.”

During a visit to Kabul today, UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown warned that without a long-term rebuilding commitment by the international community, Afghanistan would remain a potential haven for terrorists.

On reconstruction costs, Malloch Brown said it was too early to provide accurate figures, but he hopes to have a “global number” of the cost estimate to present to a meeting of donor countries in Japan at the end of January.

He said that it is “important to lock the donors into a multi-year plan now while the political will is at its highest point”.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the situation around the southern city of Kandahar remains unclear, but that over the past few days the refugee agency says it has seen the number of Afghans fleeing the border town of Spin Boldak nearly triple, with more than 1,100 Afghans arriving in one UNHCR-run site inside Pakistan.  The new arrivals say that the situation across the border is increasingly uncertain, and that they fear attacks and a breakdown in law and order in the region between Kandahar and Spin Boldak.

**Security Council

As I mentioned, the Security Council a short while ago concluded its consultations on Afghanistan.

Council members just began a public wrap-up session of its work in the month of November.

As you know, this is the last day of Jamaica’s presidency of the Council.

Ambassador Durrant will be succeeded on 1 December by Ambassador Moctar Ouane of Mali.

**AIDS/Secretary-General Luncheon

Just a few minutes from now, the Secretary-General will be heading to the Waldorf Astoria to participate in a luncheon organized by the Conrad Hilton Foundation, which is awarding this year’s Hilton Humanitarian Prize to Dame Cecily Saunders, the founder and President of St. Christopher’s Hospice.

The Secretary-General will deliver the keynote address at the award ceremony, in which he will draw attention to the need to redouble efforts to combat AIDS, at a time when new statistics show that more than 40 million people are now living with HIV.  He will repeat his call for more funding and sustained political will in the battle against AIDS.

Embargoed copies of his speech are available upstairs.

**World AIDS Day

Still on AIDS, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette this morning delivered opening remarks at the programme to mark World AIDS Day here at Headquarters.  World AIDS Day, as you know, will be officially observed tomorrow.

She said that although the world has changed much since we last observed World AIDS Day, this should not lessen our resolve to fight the disease.  She said that the number of people living with HIV/AIDS has grown by 4 million in the last year and that every hour, 600 more are infected.  She added that at no time in the 20 years of dealing with AIDS has there been such a sense of common purpose and collective responsibility and that we should, as the Secretary-General said in his message, resolve to build a world where a child does not die of AIDS every minute.

We have the full text of the Deputy Secretary-General’s address upstairs in the Spokesman's office.

The programme is continuing with a town hall-style meeting, moderated by Daljit Dhaliwal, anchor of ITN’s World News.  The panel includes representatives of various United Nations funds and programmes, as well as Goodwill Ambassadors and AIDS activists from around the world.

**Staff Day

Today is United Nations Staff Day, which is being observed later than usual due to the events of 11 September.  Usually it happens right before the opening of the General Assembly.  Addressing the staff, the Secretary-General said that although this was the first time the Nobel Peace Prize had been awarded to the Organization as a whole, other parts of the UN system had been recognized in the past, and with each Nobel Prize the stakes were raised. 

He said, “One test by which we will surely be judged is our performance in Afghanistan.  It seems likely that the United Nations will play a major role in helping the people of Afghanistan pull together their lives and put together a credible government”.  He encouraged staff to participate in what would be a mission of “very difficult circumstances”.

The Secretary-General went on to say that staff security was a constant concern and that in the last year, 74 military and civilian staff had lost their lives in the line of duty and others kidnapped, injured and harassed.

The list of names of those killed in the line of duty since last year's Staff Day was read by two members of staff.  And that list is available in our office upstairs.

**Middle East Statement

I now have a statement on the Middle East: 

“The Secretary-General is disturbed by the recent upsurge of violence in the Middle East, including yesterday’s suicide bomb attack on a bus in the city of Hadera in northern Israel which killed three Israelis and the earlier killings of a Palestinian leader and five Palestinian boys in Gaza.  He reiterates in the strongest possible terms his condemnation of indiscriminate attacks on civilians and extrajudicial killings, which make progress towards a ceasefire more difficult to achieve.

“The Secretary-General once again urges all parties to make every effort to stop the escalating violence.  The growing loss of life on both sides highlights the urgency of the ongoing efforts to secure a durable ceasefire and to start a meaningful dialogue aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict.”

**Secretary-General

The Secretary-General is leaving New York late Sunday afternoon to attend the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony in Washington, D.C., Sunday evening.  He will speak about one of the honorees, Messenger of Peace Luciano Pavarotti.

On Monday morning the Secretary-General will be at the Library of Congress, where he will receive the 2001 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding for his work in conflict resolution and his promotion of international cooperation and peace.

The prize carries a $50,000 award.

The Secretary-General will be back in New York on Monday.

The organizers have a media alert which will be available in our office later today.

**Cyprus

The Secretary-General’s report on the UN operations in Cyprus is out on the racks.

In the report, he comments that the situation along the ceasefire line remains calm and also notes that there were fewer incidents in the area of Nicosia, where opposing forces are in close proximity to one another.

Under the present circumstances, the Secretary-General says, the presence of a peacekeeping operation on the island is essential to maintaining the ceasefire, and he therefore recommends that the mission’s mandate be extended by another six months, until 15 June next year.

**Fiji

There is another report also out on the racks today.  It is the Secretary-General’s report on the UN Electoral Observer Mission in Fiji, which monitored the late August-early September elections in that country.  It says that overall, the Mission found the elections were credible and reflected the will of the people of Fiji.

The Mission, he said, found no evidence of systematic attempts to manipulate the electoral process for political gain.

However, he said, post-election observation has shown that some issues remain outstanding in returning Fiji to constitutionally democratic governance, including the establishment of a multi-party Cabinet, as required by the Constitution.

**ILO-Cambodia

The International Labour Organization today said in its initial probe of working conditions in garment factories in Cambodia that it found no evidence of child labour, forced labour or sexual harassment, but did discover problems in some plants with overtime payments, working hours and anti-union discrimination.

There's a press release upstairs with more details.

**UNEP

We also have a press release from the UN Environment Programme on the International Conference on Freshwater, hosted by the German Government.  It begins in Bonn on Monday, 3 December. 

The Conference aims to find solutions to the world's freshwater problems and to support preparations for the World Summit on Sustainable Development.  That summit, as you know, will take place in Johannesburg in September next year.

Klaus Töpfer, the Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, will address the opening of the conference on Monday.

The Environment Programe also reports that the number of countries contributing to the core funding of the programme is set to increase significantly during 2001.

We also have upstairs, though I won't go into it right now, the usual Friday feature "the week ahead".  And I wish to confirm that at 3:30 today we have a press conference here in room 226 with Jose Maria Aznar, the President of the Government of Spain.

That's all I have.  Are there any questions before we go to Jan and to our guest?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Does the Secretary-General plan on meeting with any United States officials while in Washington, and do we know what he plans to do with the Fulbright money?

Spokesman:  No, the programme as of now does not include any meetings of that type, and no, I don't have details on the money yet.

Question:  Does the Secretary-General have any plans to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is currently in New York?

Spokesman: I don't think its on the programme.  I can look into that for you afterwards.  [It was later announced that the Prime Minister and the Secretary-General would not meet].

Question:  Do you know the reason why the position of Under-Secretary-General for Public Information has been vacated for so long?

Spokesman:  There is an interim head, so its not as if it were headless.  There is someone heading the department, doing the work, leading the many people who work in public information heading the department at Headquarters and around the world.  Of course it is the decision of the Secretary-General and we are waiting to see what he decides on this matter.

Thank you. Jan?

Briefing by Spokesman for President of General Assembly

Good afternoon.

**General Assembly

In the morning, the General Assembly continued its discussion on the question of Palestine, hearing 11 speakers.  It then took up the item on the situation in the Middle East.  There are two draft resolutions on that item:

A/56/L.23 on Jerusalem.

A/56/L.24 on the Syrian Golan.

As of this morning, the speakers’ list was up to 28, so the discussion of this item is likely to continue on Monday, when we will also see action on the draft resolutions, including the four resolutions on Palestine.  Also on Monday, the plenary will take up item 48, causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa.  There is a bit of uncertainty about the sequence of events on Monday, so please check with me or keep an eye on the daily Journal.

The following will come as no great surprise to you.  The President has just informed the Member States that the Second and Fifth Committees will not be able to finish their work before the scheduled recess date, that’s 11 December, and as a consequence the new recess date will be 21 December.  That’s a repeat of last year.  This also means that a revised programme of work will come out as A/INF/56/3/Add.2.  It’s not out yet, but keep an eye on it, it should come out on the racks today.

**World AIDS Day

General Assembly President Han Seung-soo this morning participated in the town hall meeting in observance of World AIDS Day.  In his opening remarks, he highlighted the importance of partnership and volunteerism in fighting the disease and stressed that the UN must work with a wide range of actors.  “Together”, he said "we can make real progress toward eliminating the fear, stigma and discrimination so often associated with HIV/AIDS.  Together, we can mobilize new and enhanced financial resources to roll back the epidemic”.

In the afternoon, he will meet with the Executive Director of Habitat.

Questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  The draft resolutions that you mentioned, are they out yet?

Spokesman:  They should be out.  If you do not find them on the racks, I have them here and I can give you copies.

Question:  When do you expect these to be ratified?

Spokesman:  Voted upon by the General Assembly?  The vote on the two draft resolutions regarding the Middle East situation, and the four draft resolutions regarding Palestine, sometime Monday.  I'm not quite sure if it’s going to be in the morning or the afternoon.  At the moment, it looks like it’s going to be in

the morning, possibly as the second item.  But that’s a little bit up in the air as it depends how far they get with the speakers’ list today.  Monday they might either start out with the Africa issue, or they might finish with the speakers’ list, and then vote.  But keep an eye out on that one.

Question:  When will action be taken on the draft resolution on human rights in Iran, and will that just be in the Commission or in the plenary?

Spokesman:  Its not scheduled as of this moment, but it might be in this new information note, number 2, that’s going to come out.

Question:  Does that mean it won't happen today then?

Spokesman:  In the General Assembly?  No.  Because the issue they're discussing today is the situation in the Middle East and there are only those two draft resolutions on Jerusalem and the Syrian Golan.

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