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

Briefing by the Deputy Spokesman

It’s a rather wordy briefing today.  Too many good things to tell you.

**Secretary-General in Oslo

Today in Oslo, the Secretary-General and Nane Annan attended the opening of the fifth Donors’ Conference for East Timor, called for by Norwegian Development Minister Hilda Frafjord Johnsen.  He told participants that “helping the East Timorese people has been one of the most formidable responsibilities ever given to the United Nations”.  He urged donors to continue to support sustainable development in East Timor for the long haul beyond its independence scheduled for May 20.

Earlier this morning, the Secretary-General and Nane Annan met with representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Oslo, who presented the two of them jointly with the Torstein Dale Norwegian Red Cross prize for humanitarian work.  The Secretary-General also took questions from the participants.  He was then joined by representatives of some of the other principal United Nations organs for separate meetings with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Norway in connection with the award yesterday of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Secretary-General and the United Nations.

First, in the meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, the discussion focused on Afghanistan, the Middle East and the United Nations Millennium agenda.  At a brief conference after the meeting, the Secretary-General stressed the importance of the International Conference on Financing for Development, to be held next March in Monterrey, Mexico, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, which will happen next September.

The Secretary-General then met with the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Jan Petersen, and the discussions again focused on Afghanistan and the Middle East, and also touched on Iraq.  Afghanistan and the Middle East were also the topics later in the day, when the Secretary-General went to the Norwegian Parliament, where he met with members of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan attended a performance by Oslo school children on war and peace.  He thanked the children and told them, “the work for peace begins with every one of us.  I hope that every day, you will keep picturing the world as you would wish it to be, and work to make that dream a reality.”  Tonight, they will attend a Nobel Peace Prize concert with performances by Paul McCartney and other popular singers.  Tomorrow, he’ll depart for Stockholm, Sweden, where he is to meet with the Prime Minister and members of Parliament.

**Afghanistan-Political

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, reached Kabul around nine o’clock this morning.  He is spending the day in the Afghan capital to discuss the transfer of power scheduled to take place on 22 December.  Among the Afghan leaders with whom he met were Abdullah Abdullah, the Foreign Minister designate, General Mohammad Qasim Fahim, one of the five Vice Chairs and Defense Minister designate.  He also met with Burhanuddin Rabbani, who pledged to hand over power to Hamid Karzai, the designated head of the new interim authority.

During a stopover in Islamabad Monday night, Mr. Brahimi received a message from Rashid Dostum, a Northern Alliance leader in northern Afghanistan, saying that he would not support any efforts to derail the power-sharing deal reached in Bonn.  In Kabul today, Mr. Brahimi was to share with the United Nations staff in Kabul, the sundown meal of Iftar that breaks the daylong fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and then he was to hold a press conference.  That press conference did take place, and we hope to have the transcript.  As soon as we do, we’ll share that with you.

Tomorrow, Mr. Brahimi is expected to be back in Islamabad, where he is to meet with Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf.  We are expecting him back late Thursday in New York, where he will stay until the middle of next week, before returning to Kabul for the formal transfer of power.

In Oslo earlier today, the Secretary-General said he was hopeful that the Afghans will cooperate with the international community to help create a secure environment allowing aid workers to operate and the new administration to establish itself so a stable environment could lead to elections and the reconstruction phase.  Those words from the Secretary-General are from his press encounter, which I mentioned earlier, and that transcript is upstairs for you.

**UNIFEM Meeting for Afghan Women

A two-day meeting of Afghan women closed in Brussels today.  During the meeting, which was co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Government of Belgium, the participants adopted the Brussels Action Plan.  That calls for the establishment of a Commission of Afghan Women to work directly with the interim authority to provide names of Afghan women who could be considered for leadership positions in the new government.

**Afghanistan-Humanitarian

Still on Afghanistan, we have the following developments from the humanitarian front:  The first United Nations flight is expected to leave for Mazar-i-Sharif on Wednesday.  The World Health Organization (WHO) says over

100 health workers are in the midst of completing a major measles vaccination campaign in the Panjsher Valley, just in time to ensure that there will be no measles outbreaks during the critical winter months.  The World Food Programme (WFP) has been stepping up food deliveries into Afghanistan to provide some one million poor people, who live in mountainous areas in central and northeast Afghanistan, with enough food to sustain them through the winter months.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says that the prospects of a massive influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan are receding with the ongoing peace settlement in Afghanistan.  Nearly 200,000 new Afghan refugees are estimated to have entered Pakistan, mainly through illegal crossing points since 11 September.  The briefing notes from Islamabad have more details on these humanitarian developments.

**Security Council

Now, coming back here to New York, as you know, there are no Council meetings scheduled today.  Tomorrow afternoon, Council members are expected to meet in closed consultations to take up the Secretary-General’s latest report on United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), which was released on

30 November.  As part of that discussion, Council members will hear from the Secretary-General's Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto.  Council members are also expected to discuss the recent report of the panel of experts on the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

**Hague Indictment

Today in The Hague, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic heard the indictment against him charging him with genocide and other crimes committed against ethnic Muslims and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1992 to 1995.  Although the former President refused to enter a plea at today’s hearing, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf.  We have a press release from the Tribunal, noting the transfer of a Bosnian Serb convicted of crimes against humanity, Stevan Todorovic, to Spain, where he will serve out the remainder of his ten-year prison sentence.

**East Timor

In Dili today, the Special Panel for Serious Crimes delivered verdicts in East Timor’s first Crimes Against Humanity trial.  All 10 of the accused, who were former pro-Indonesia militia members, were convicted of committing crimes ranging from torture and murder to forced deportation and persecution of villagers in the Lautem district in 1999.  The sentences ranged from four to

19 years for single acts and the four who were convicted of participation in multiple acts will serve sentences of up to 33 years and four months.  That’s the maximum allowed under the Indonesian law, which is the law being applied.  The Briefing Notes from the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) have more details.

In other news from East Timor, a very interesting piece of news, a local UNTAET staff member is about to become the first East Timorese to join the United Nations Volunteers (UNV).  His name is Claudio Magno, and he will join the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) as a vehicle inventory assistant.  There’s a press release from UNV with details on that.

**Office of Iraq Programme

According to the weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme, Iraqi oil exports under the programme were off to a slow start in the new phase eleven, which started on 1 December.  During the week ending 7 December, some   6 million barrels of oil were lifted for a value of $98 million.  According to the United Nations oil overseers, Iraqi oil exports in phase ten of the programme reached just over 300 million barrels.  Of that, 27.5 per cent was destined for the European market, 69.4 per cent went to the United States market and 3.1 per cent went to the Far East.  The full text of the report of the Office of the Iraq Programme is available upstairs.

**Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone’s eastern district of Kailahun, yesterday thousands of people gathered in the town of Tongo Fields to welcome United Nations Force Commander Lieutenant General Daniel Opande and the interim leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), Issa Sesay.  They were in the area to urge RUF fighters to disarm.  The disarmament of RUF fighters is scheduled to resume tomorrow following a request from a local RUF commander for time to inform his combatants to turn in their weapons.  So far, more than 380 RUF combatants have disarmed in Kailahun, but concerns over political issues had slowed the pace of disarmament there and in the nearby district of Kenema.  There’s a press release from the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) with more details on that.

**Conventional Weapons Meeting

Today in Geneva, Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala attended the second review conference of States that are party to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons.  He delivered a message from the Secretary-General conveying his wishes for the meeting’s success.  The Secretary-General says that the Convention has saved lives and reduced suffering without imposing any large burdens, financial or otherwise, on its members.  It is unfortunate, he adds, that there are not more than 88 States that are party to the Convention, and he urges more States to accede to it.  The full text of the message is also upstairs in our office.

**Angola Peace Process

I have here information that that Secretary-General’s Special Advisor for Africa, Ibrahim Gambari, is currently in Angola, having been sent there by the Secretary-General at the invitation of the Angolan Government.  Throughout this week, Mr. Gambari is holding consultations with Government leaders, politicians and representatives of civil society to see how the United Nations can best assist the Angolans to reenergize the peace process.  Mr. Gambari is expected to brief the Security Council on his trip on 21 December.

**Angolan Refugees

Still on Angola, the raging conflict in that country continues to drive new flows of refugees into Zambia, according to the UNHCR.  That agency also reports that refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo are arriving in Zambia.  The arrivals report isolated skirmishes and mobilization of troops from both the Government and rebel forces in the area of Fizi, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.  The persisting instability in that part of the country has caused many civilians to flee to Zambia.  The UNHCR has a briefing note with details on that.

**International Year of Mountains

As I told you yesterday, following this briefing there’ll be a press conference by Jacques Diouf, the Director-General of the FAO.  And he’ll be speaking to you about the Year of Mountains which is observed next year.  The Secretary-General issued a message on that Year, and he said that the mountain environments, which provide home to many different cultures and hold vast reserves of biodiversity, are facing increasing risks.  Deforestation and climate change are threatening the flora and fauna of mountain habitats, and river systems and watersheds are being degraded.  The full text is available in our office upstairs.

**Press Releases

We have a few press releases to flag for you.  One we already squawked to you yesterday afternoon is by WHO and by the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS, on efforts to broaden the use of antiretrovirals in Africa that are beginning to have some positive results on that continent.  That full press release is available upstairs.

Also, in a press conference in Nairobi, Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said that 2002 will be a year of great challenges and important environmental events.  “We have achieved many successes in 2001”, he said “and I’m sure we can add to this in the coming year”.  The press release is upstairs.

Also available in the Spokesman’s Office, you can find an update on the number of peacekeepers who served with the 15 United Nations peacekeeping operations at the end of November 2001.  At that time, the number had a total of 47,777 military and police personnel coming from 87 countries.

**Signings

Three treaties were signed here in New York this morning.  San Marino became the eighty third country to sign the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.  Lebanon became the one hundred fortieth country to sign the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.  And the United Kingdom became the one hundred eleventh State to sign the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.

**Remembrance

As some of you many have noticed, at 8:46 this morning, the United Nations flag was lowered to half-mast as part of an international day of remembrance for the victims of the terror attacks of 11 September.  As you know, this was a request of the United States Government to a number of countries and the United Nations.  The flag was raised at the normal time early in the morning, then lowered to half-mast, and it remained lowered for a symbolic period of remembrance and is now back at full mast.  As you know and as is customary, when the United Nations flag is at half-mast, no national flags are flown.

**Press Conferences

As I already mentioned to you, today there’s the press conference by Jacques Diouf here in this room.  And at 1:15 p.m., Joseph Cook, the Executive Director of the International Trachoma Initiative, and Hank McKinnel, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pfizer, among others, will be here to announce the success of Morocco’s Trachoma Control Programme.  This press conference is being sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Morocco to the United Nations.

Tomorrow’s press conference, Carol Bellamy, the Executive-Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and Kul Gautam, the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, will discuss sexual exploitation of children and will launch the UNICEF publication, “Profiting from Abuse”.

Any questions before we move on to Jan?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Interfax quotes Dieter Bodin, the Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), as saying that if Russia pulls its troops out of Georgia, the United Nations will withdraw its observers and humanitarian agents from Georgia.  Is he correctly quoted?

Deputy Spokesman: I will have to check on that for you.  I don’t have anything on it.  I will look into it for you.

Briefing by the Spokesman for the General Assembly President

The General Assembly is discussing four very different agenda items today.  The first is “Building a peaceful and better world through sports and the Olympic ideal”.  The United States, which will host the Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City in February, introduced a draft resolution, which requests Member States to observe the Olympic Truce by ensuring the safe passage and participation of athletes at the games.  It was adopted without a vote.  About a week before the start of the Games, the General Assembly President is expected to appeal to Member States to observe the Olympic Truce.

The Assembly was then scheduled to take up the item on multilingualism but as consultations were still going on, the discussion was postponed.  I don’t have a time for that at the moment.

The second item is “support by the United Nations system of the efforts of governments to promote and consolidate new or restored democracies”.  A draft resolution, introduced by Benin, will take note of the Secretary-General’s report.  There’s also a report by the Secretary-General on the Electoral Observer Mission for the elections in Fiji under this item, and we have

13 speakers on the list.

The Assembly will then turn to “the situation in Central America”.  There’s a general Secretary-General’s report on that issue,  and also a note and a report on the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala.  Mexico will introduce a draft resolution on Guatemala and Costa Rica will introduce a resolution on the general report, but action will only be taken once the programme budget implications have been reviewed, and there are seven speakers on this item.

The last item is “towards global partnerships”.  There’s a Secretary-General’s report on cooperation between the United Nations and all relevant partners, in particular the private sector, and this report gives examples of cooperation with the private sector and contains guidelines on cooperation with the business community.  That draft resolution will be introduced by Belgium.  And let me just remind you that tomorrow the Assembly will take up the reports of the Sixth Committee (Legal).

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