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

The following is a near-verbatim record 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.

Deputy Spokesman’s Briefing

**Guest

The guest today is Julia Taft, Administrator and Director for the Bureau of Crisis Prevention and Recovery at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).  She is here to brief you on the Afghan Interim Authority and support from the international community through the UNDP.

**Afghanistan

Let me start with a note on Afghanistan.  Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, is scheduled to leave New York tonight to make his way to Kabul in time for the scheduled handover of power

to a new Afghan interim government on Saturday, 22 December.  As you recall,

Mr. Brahimi, after briefing the Security Council late Friday afternoon, said at the stakeout microphone that preparations for the handover were going ahead very nicely, and that he and his small team intended to stay in Kabul for a few weeks to accompany the process.

From Kabul, we hear today that the end of Ramadan this weekend saw several days of heavy rain, the first in many months, fall across most of drought-stricken Afghanistan.  Snow now blankets the mountain ridges around Kabul, where the security situation is improving.  According to the United Nations spokesman in the Afghan capital, the security situation is also gradually improving in Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif.  For the first time in many years, residents of Kabul, Kandahar, Mazar and Herat marked the Eid holidays with music concerts.  The United Nations briefing notes from Kabul have an update on refugee movements and assistance efforts under way in Afghanistan.

Catherine Bertini, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), will be our guest at the noon briefing on Thursday.  And she’ll be talking to you about food aid operations to Afghanistan.

**Security Council

Here in New York this morning, the Security Council began an open debate on West Africa at which Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahima Fall addressed Council members.  In his briefing, he updated the Council on the latest developments in the region including, among others, the Mano River Union, the political situation in Guinea-Bissau and the plight of refugees in the area.  Through this West Africa initiative, Mr. Fall said, the United Nations is embarking on a new approach to its actions in Africa, in line with the general trend towards regional political security, and social and economic integration. 

In addition to the 15 Council members, six Member States are also on the speakers list.

For those of you who may have missed it, early Saturday morning, at 2 o’clock to be precise, the Council failed to adopt a draft resolution on the Middle East.  Twelve members voted in favour.  Two, Norway and the United Kingdom, abstained.  And one permanent member, the United States, used its veto.

**Report on Sierra Leone

We have out on the racks today a few reports by the Secretary-General.  The first one I will bring to your attention is on the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).  In it, the Secretary-General says that the full deployment of that Mission has led to a secure environment, with increased freedom of movement, gradual return of refugees and a resurgence of economic activity in the provinces.  Disarmament totals from mid-May until 9 December amounted to more than 36,000 combatants on all sides.  They exceeded initial estimates, with the final figure expected to reach some 40,000.

However, the Secretary-General notes slower progress in the extension of the Government’s authority throughout Sierra Leone, the reintegration of disarmed combatants and refugee returns and resettlement.  Regrettably, he says, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) has slowed down the disarmament of its fighters in the districts of Kailahun and Kenema, although disarmament in those districts is now expected to be completed by the end of this month.  The report details United Nations plans to support Sierra Leone’s elections, which are to culminate in a vote on the President and Parliament next 14 May.  The UNAMSIL intends to establish one electoral office in each of the country’s five electoral regions, and United Nations troops will be tasked to patrol more widely to promote confidence during the polling period.  As I said, that report is available on the racks.

**Ethiopia-Eritrea Report

Also available is the Secretary-General’s latest progress report on the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE).  He says that the situation in the Temporary Security Zone has remained generally calm, but that both parties have accused the other of building up militarily.  The Secretary-General says that Eritrea continues to deny freedom of movement to United Nations peacekeepers in the adjacent areas north of the Temporary Security Zone.  He stressed the need for Eritrea to allow such freedom of movement and to disclose the number, strength and disposition of its militia and police inside the Zone.

However, UNMEE emphasizes that, according to its best information, there is no evidence of any significant Eritrean military build-up, as Ethiopia has alleged.  The Mission estimates that there are some 6,400 Eritrean militia and 3,000 police currently deployed inside the Zone.  The Secretary-General urges both parties to exercise restraint, as the recent public allegations of major military preparations and the escalation of rhetoric do not help the cause of peace.

**Guinea-Bissau Report

Among the reports available today, there’s one by the Secretary-General on the United Nations Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau.  In it, he says that the political situation in that country has remained difficult and volatile.  The Secretary-General, in the report, appeals to all political actors to work to resolve their differences through dialogue and within the framework of the Constitution.

**Iraq Report

And reaching the end of the reports, the last one out on the racks today by the Secretary-General is on the issue of missing Kuwaitis and third-country nationals, as well as the return, by Iraq, of all missing Kuwaiti property.  In the document, the Secretary-General reports on the high-level Coordinator for this issue, Yuli Vorontsov.  In his conclusion, the Secretary-General urges the Iraqi leadership to cooperate with the work of Ambassador Vorontsov.  He goes on to say that Ambassador Vorontsov remains ready, at short notice, to meet with Iraqi officials at any time, any place.

**Further on Iraq

Still on Iraq, due to the holiday yesterday, the regular Tuesday update from the Office of the Iraq Programme will be issued tomorrow.  Also tomorrow, at 3:30 in the afternoon in Conference Room 7, the Ambassador of Norway, Ole Peter Kolby, will chair a meeting of the 661 Iraq Sanctions Committee.  As usual, Ambassador Kolby will brief journalists immediately following the end of that meeting.

**UNMOVIC

I now have a note from Hans Blix, the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspections Commission (UNMOVIC).  I’ll read it to you, but his note is also available in the Spokesman’s Office.  In it, he says that in a New York Times Op Ed editorial of yesterday, 17 December, Kirir Hansa states that the new protocols of UNMOVIC, which succeeded the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), “do not allow Inspectors to demand immediate access after finding a site”.  This is erroneous.  The Security Council resolution establishing UNMOVIC, like many resolutions before it, stresses the demand that Iraq must grant “immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access” for the inspection of sites.  Far from suggesting that immediate access to a site would not be demanded, “I”, says Dr. Blix, “as Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, have repeatedly and explicitly stressed that we will not give any discounts on the Security Council’s requirements.  The right of immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access is central to our function.

“Moreover, the granting of such immediate access is required if Iraq is to provide the cooperation in all aspects, which is a condition for suspension of sanctions by the Security Council under the terms of its resolution SC/1284 (1999).”  As I said, this statement by Dr. Blix is available in the Spokesman’s Office.

**International Migrants Day

Today is the second commemoration of International Migrants Day, and the Secretary-General, in a message, called an occasion to “recognize the huge, but often unseen, contribution that millions of migrants make to the economies, societies and cultural advancement of countries throughout the world”.  He noted that 2 per cent of the world’s population live and work as migrants in countries other than that of their birth or citizenship.  Many of them, he said, are the unsung heroes of their home countries and families.

**Global Fund to Fight AIDS

We also have a press release available upstairs, released in Brussels by the Transitional Working Group responsible for establishing the foundations of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.  The Working Group announced yesterday that it was ready to hand over its recommendations to the newly formed Board [of the Global Fund].  The Board will be composed of 18 voting members, and will meet in January 2002 to consider the recommendations of the Transitional Working Group and adopt a framework document.  You can find more details in the press release, which we have upstairs.

**Budget

Today, the United Arab Emirates became the one hundred and thirty-fourth Member State to pay in full its 2001 contribution to the regular budget, with a payment of more than $2 million.  And late on Friday afternoon, we received payment of more than $39 million from the Russian Federation for full payment of peacekeeping arrears.  In 1995, the Russian Federation had pledged to pay off all its debts to the regular and peacekeeping budgets within seven years.  Last week’s payments mean that the pledge was fulfilled one year early.

**Aid to Africa

In a statement issued yesterday, K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, said that, overall, aid to Africa has declined from $19 billion a year at the beginning of the 1990s to $12 billion today, a per capita drop of 40 per cent.  We have the full text of his remarks, which were made at a lecture, upstairs in our Office. 

**Signings

We have a number of treaties being signed today.  The International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism got four more signatures, from Albania, Latvia, Thailand and Bangladesh.  This Convention now has 129 signatures.  Thailand also signed the Protocol against Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and the Protocol against Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Air and Sea, both supplementing the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime.  That Convention itself was signed by Lebanon and now has 140 signatures.

Finally, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women was signed by Nepal, and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography was signed by Antigua and Barbuda.

**Commission on State Sovereignty

At 3 p.m. today, the Secretary-General will be presented with a copy of a report by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.  The Commission was set up last year by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in response to the Secretary-General’s challenge to the international community, delivered during the Millennium Summit, to address the dilemmas posed by the issue of humanitarian intervention.  The result of the Commission’s work, a final report entitled The Responsibility to Protect, will be given to the Secretary-General today.

Then, at 3:30 this afternoon in this room, Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations Paul Heinbecker and the two co-chairs of the Commission, former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, Mohamed Sahnoun, will talk to you about the report.

**Briefing

That’s about all I have, except to remind you that tomorrow at 11 o’clock there’ll be a press conference in this room by Ambassador John Negroponte, the United States representative to the United Nations, and Ambassador Ted MacNamara, United States Special Coordinator for United Nations Anti-Terrorism Measures.  They’ll brief you on the United States report on implementation of Security Council resolution SD/1373 (2001).  That, as you’ll recall, is the resolution on counter-terrorism measures.

[The Spokesman also reminded correspondents of the Secretary-General’s end-of-year press conference tomorrow at noon.]

Are there any questions before we move on to Jan? 

Questions and Answers

Question:  Should we read into the diminished assistance to Africa and see a message that the Africa recovery programme of the Secretary-General is a failure?

Deputy Spokesman:  I don’t think so.  I think we should read that we need more resources.  We’ve been saying that for a long while.  The Millennium Declaration talks about reduction of poverty, about education, health, the fight against AIDS.  Those are the things we need to do, in particular in Africa, and we need resources.  We need money from donors.

Question:  Is there any reaction from the Secretary-General on the attempted coup yesterday in Haiti and the declining situation there, in human rights and the political chaos?

Deputy Spokesman:  No, I don’t have any reaction now.  We’re trying to understand better what’s happening.

Question:  I understand no police force has been established yet in Afghanistan.  What input will the United Nations have into the police presence there?

Deputy Spokesman:  The United Nations will be supporting the Interim Administration, which will be taking office on Saturday, 22 December.  Of course, security is one of the major concerns.  You know about the discussion of the multinational force to provide a secure environment.  And needless to say, yes, there will be a need for Afghan police and for Afghan institutions as a whole to be re-established.  Not only political support but also resources will be needed.  Ambassador Brahimi, as I reported, is flying back to Kabul from New York this afternoon.  Along with his team, he’ll be supporting and providing guidance when required by the Afghans to re-establish these institutions.

As you know, we’ve been saying all along that the solution to Afghanistan is with the Afghans.  It has to be home-grown solutions.  It has to be comprehensive, involving everyone.  We are in an interim phase of six months.  Then as you know, there are plans, as agreed upon at the Bonn meeting, for a Loya Jirga that would establish a Transitional Authority.  So we are going step by step.  And some of these steps you’ll hear about in a little while from Julia.

 Question:  On that multinational force, there was a possibility of a resolution on Friday and Tuesday.  What is the status of the resolution on the multinational force?

Deputy Spokesman:  I’m afraid I don’t have many details to give you on that.  It’s totally in the hands of Member States.  We see press reports on a number of issues, discussions.  We hear people talking about it, but indeed it’s a process in the hands of Member States.  And I’m sure they’ll be taking action on that as soon as they can.

Question:  What are the open issues for such a force?

Deputy Spokesman:  I would have to refer you to the Member States.

Question:  The United Nations has been assisting in liaising with the de facto power in Kabul, with the Northern Alliance folks, and with the Interim Government.  Given that United Nations involvement, what do you understand to be the open issues between now and getting this multinational force in and around Kabul?

Deputy Spokesman:  At this point, I really don’t have many details to give you.  I understand some issues have been raised, also among this coalition of the willing.  I understand the discussions have taken place in a very positive atmosphere.  But I would not be in a position to go beyond that at this point.

Question:  What’s the protocol that will be followed on 22 December relating to the Afghan seat at the United Nations?  Will there be a change in who’s representing Afghanistan now that they have a new government?

Deputy Spokesman:  I don’t think Jan has anything new on that.  Okay, the procedure is very straightforward.  The Government has to inform the United Nations of its representative.  Then the Committee on Credentials meets.  That’s how it should happen.  It’s a very straightforward process.

Question:  Until that happens, the gentleman holding the seat now will continue?

Deputy Spokesman:  I imagine so, because there is no formal change yet.  But we can try and see if there are any new developments.

Spokesman for the Assembly President:  As I understand it, if there’s no action requested by the Afghans, there will be no action by the United Nations.

Question:  How has the United Nations been involved in negotiation with the authorities in Kabul over operational details like size, mandate, duration, of a multinational force in and around Kabul?  

Deputy Spokesman:  That discussion is happening with the coalition of the willing.  So I have to repeat my mantra for today, talk to the Member States.

Question:  In Sierra Leone, it seems to me that the former rebel chief has been in jail for quite a while, maybe two years.  Will there be a trial?

Deputy Spokesman:  There’s a court to be established in Sierra Leone, a tribunal.  And I think that’s proceeding, but I don’t think we have a date yet for the establishment of that United Nations/Sierra Leone tribunal.  But I understand it’s moving fairly rapidly now.

And now, if there are no more questions, may I invite Jan to give his briefing on the Assembly?

Briefing by the Spokesman for the General Assembly President

Thank you.  As you may know, the General Assembly is not scheduled to meet in plenary today, but will meet tomorrow morning to take up the reports of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).  The reports and about

70 draft resolutions are grouped under 13 headings.  In the Committee itself, most of the draft resolutions were adopted without a vote and the same is expected to be the case tomorrow, but there will still be a lot of voting, particularly on the resolutions dealing with human rights.  Last year, most of the resolutions that were voted upon were adopted with a sizable majority.

During the briefing Friday, I said that the item on Bosnia and Herzegovina would be discussed this morning, but it was moved to Thursday afternoon when the Assembly will also discuss Multilingualism.  In the morning meeting on Thursday, two items on Afghanistan will be discussed.  One deals mainly with emergency assistance, and it’s an item that goes back to 1995.  The other item, entitled “the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security”, is more political in nature.  And it’s also an old one, going all the way back to 1980.

Friday morning, the Assembly will discuss the reports of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial), and it’s still too early to say when we can expect the Assembly to take up the reports of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).  As you know, that Committee has been holding evening meetings and also met on Saturday in an effort to finish its work before the holidays.  You’ll have to follow that closely.  That’s all I have.  Do you have any questions for me?

Question:  I still come back to the Economic and Social Council report.

Assembly President Spokesman:  It’s odd.  I carried around those papers last week, expecting the questions.  But you weren’t there and today I didn’t bring them.  But let me say again, the report was divided up between several Committees, the Second, Third, Fourth and the Fifth.  The Third will actually take up parts of the report tomorrow.  But I think you’re after the financing of the Office of the

President of the Economic and Social Council.  The last thing I heard on that was that there were two models on the financing.  That proposal then went to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), and to the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).  I think the ACABQ sent it back to the Assembly, saying we’d like to hear what your preference is between these two models.  We won’t start giving advice on the budgetary implications until you decide which model you prefer.  So it’s still up in the air.

Question:  Was there any answer from the Assembly?

Assembly President Spokesman:  If and when there is, I’ll certainly let you know.

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