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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Welcome to Kemal Kurspahic, the legendary editor of the Sarajevo Daily Dslobodjenje and I am happy to say he’s now working for the United Nations as the Spokesman in Vienna.

**SG Travels

The Secretary-General, on his last day in Johannesburg, South Africa, said at a press conference that the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which concludes this afternoon, “will put us on a path that reduces poverty while protecting the environment, a path that works for all peoples, rich and poor, today and tomorrow.”

He said that governments attending the Summit had agreed on an impressive range of concrete commitments, in particular in the five priority areas of water, energy, health, agriculture and biodiversity. He added that the Summit marked “a major leap forward” in the development of partnerships between governments, civil society, businesses and other key actors.

In response to a question, he acknowledged that there were people disappointed that not everything that was expected to take place in Johannesburg was achieved, but said he was satisfied with the results. He said, “I think we have to be careful not to expect conferences like this to produce miracles, but we do expect conferences like this to generate political commitment, momentum and energy for the attainment of goals.”

On Iraq, he said he had told Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz yesterday that UN inspectors should go in and that Iraq should comply with UN resolutions, adding that other leaders around the world are also asking Iraq to comply.

On Zimbabwe, he said he had been in touch with President Robert Mugabe, and had raised with him press reports that the distribution of food in that country was being politicized. President Mugabe, he added, had assured him that that was not the case.

The Secretary-General held several bilateral meetings on the margins of today’s proceedings, beginning with a meeting this morning with Finnish President Tarja Halonen, with whom he discussed the Summit.

After a brief one-on-one meeting with Food and Agriculture Organization Director Jacques Diouf, he met with the Greek Foreign Minister, George Papandreou, with whom he discussed Iraq and Cyprus. You’ll recall that he will meet with the Cypriot leaders this Friday in Paris, along with his Special Adviser, Alvaro de Soto, before returning to New York.

The Secretary-General then met with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, and briefed him on the meeting he had had yesterday with Tariq Aziz, and relayed to.

the Secretary of State Iraq’s concerns about the re-admission of UN weapons inspectors

They also discussed the Middle East, including the humanitarian plight of the Palestinian people and the meeting of the Quartet –- made up of the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia –- that is to take place in New York later this month.

The Secretary-General and Powell also discussed Sudan, Angola, the international peacekeeping presence in Afghanistan and the situation between Nigeria and Cameroon, among other topics.

Later in the afternoon, the Secretary-General met with King Mohammed VI of Morocco and then with the President of the European Union, Romano Prodi.

Before they leave Johannesburg, the Secretary-General and his wife Nane will participate in an episode of South Africa’s production of “Sesame Street,” in which an HIV-positive muppet will be introduced.

Then, in the evening, the Secretary-General will leave for Paris, where the talks with the Cypriot leaders will take place Friday.

In addition to participating in the taping of “Sesame Street”, Nane Annan this afternoon opened one of the events on the sidelines of Summit, on women and water, organized by the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council.

In her remarks, she related her recent experiences and discussions on water with women she met in rural Ghana and on the outskirts of Maputo in Mozambique. “The provision of safe water and sanitation,” she said, “reduces waterborne diseases and frees girls to go to school and women for income-generating activities”.

**WSSD

The World Summit on Sustainable Development, as we said, wraps up today. 

The final thirty-three speakers, including US Secretary of State Colin Powell, made their presentations this morning at the High Level Segment.

The main theme of the Summit was action. The Summit set many targets and timetables for combating poverty and protecting the environment, including a target to reduce the proportion of people who lack access to proper sanitation, an agreement to work to increase access to modern energy services, and a number of targets and timetables aimed at protecting or restoring ecosystems, such as the restoration of fisheries by 2015, or to reverse the loss of biodiversity by 2010.

In addition, the Summit has already generated announcements of additional resources and new partnership initiatives to accomplish tangible results.  More than 300 partnership projects, including more than 60 announced at the Summit itself, were submitted to the UN with more than $235 million in additional resources. 

Most countries expressed satisfaction at the result of the Summit, but some countries, such as the European Union and some Latin American countries, and a number of NGOs, expressed disappointment that no target had been set for increasing the use of renewable energy.  The Summit did, however, call on all countries to increase the use of renewable energy “with urgency.”

The afternoon session, which was due to end a short while ago, adopted the Plan of Implementation and the Political Declaration.

More than 21,000 people attended the Summit, including 9,101 delegates, 8,227 NGOs, and 4,012 of you, the media.

We have a press release outlining the major commitments and initiatives of the Summit and a wrap up press release will be issued later today.

**Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

The following statement is attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General: “The Secretary-General strongly deplores the acts of violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.  He is especially concerned at the recent killing of a number of Palestinian civilians, including several children, as a result of Israeli military attacks.  It is particularly distressing that these incidents have occurred during a period of relative calm and while efforts are made to implement a security agreement and to strengthen international assistance to a peaceful settlement.  The Secretary-General wishes to remind the Government of Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians.  He welcomes the investigation announced by the Israeli Defence Minister and hopes that those responsible for these acts will be held accountable.

“The Secretary-General is also gravely concerned about the Israeli Supreme Court’s decisions authorizing the transfer of two relatives of a Palestinian accused of organizing attacks against Israel.  Such transfers are strictly prohibited by international humanitarian law and could have very serious political and security implications.

“While the Secretary-General has consistently condemned suicide bombings and upheld Israel’s right to defend itself, he wishes to stress that self-defence cannot justify measures that amount to collective punishment.

“He once again calls on the Government of Israel to adhere to its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 and not to take actions that are inconsistent with international humanitarian law”.

**Bertini

The report submitted to the Secretary-General by his Personal Humanitarian Envoy, Catherine Bertini, on her recent trip to the Middle East is being transmitted to both the Permanent Mission of Israel and the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine.

The report will be shared with members of the Security Council later this afternoon.

**Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

We have the following Statement attributable to the Spokesman regarding the suspension of peace talks in the Sudan:  “The Secretary-General is concerned at the suspension of the second round of peace talks between the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) which had opened on 12 August in Machakos, Kenya, under the auspices of the Sudan Peace Committee of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

“The Secretary-General urges both sides to resume negotiations at the earliest opportunity and to build upon the progress made toward bringing an end to the devastating conflict in the Sudan which has caused untold suffering to their people.

“He reiterates his appreciation for the efforts of the Government of Kenya in leading the IGAD peace initiative as well as to the IGAD and other countries for their contribution to the peace process.  He encourages them to continue their efforts to help the parties reach a comprehensive agreement that will usher in a new and promising era for all the people of Sudan.

“The United Nations continues to support the IGAD peace process for Sudan and stands ready to contribute to the efforts of the international community to help implement a peace agreement concluded by the Sudanese parties”.

**Sudan-Humanitarian

The UN’s humanitarian “Operation Lifeline Sudan” has launched an emergency operation to assist up to 100,000 civilians displaced by recent fighting in the southern part of the country.

The displaced have moved into Bahr el Ghazal from the Western Upper Nile region due to fighting that started in June. They have been forced to walk for at least three days and it is estimated that up to 50% of the displaced are children.

Kenzo Oshima, the UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, says, “Once more we emphasize our serious concern for civilians who have been caught up in the fighting. We urge both sides to allow humanitarian access to those in need. Both sides should ensure that their armed forces make every effort to protect civilians.”

Mr. Oshima also expressed concern regarding the impact of the heavy fighting on civilians, which has taken place around Torit in southeastern Sudan.

Operation Lifeline Sudan (OLS) -- a consortium of UNICEF and the World Food Programme as well as more than 35 non-governmental organizations -– is targeting some 3 million people in need of humanitarian aid in southern Sudan.

**Security Council

The Security Council is meeting this morning on its programme of work for the month of September and on Ethiopia and Eritrea.

The Secretary-General’s latest progress report to the Council on Mission in Ethiopia-Eritrea is out on the racks today.

While saying that he is encouraged by the fact that the parties remain fundamentally committed to the peace process, the Secretary-General appealed to the governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia to sustain this course and extend to the UN mission and the Boundary Commission all necessary cooperation for the expeditious demarcation of the border. He also says that the United Nations will remain committed to playing its role through the demarcation phase and recommended that the mandate of the UN mission be extended for another six months until 15 March next year.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Ethiopia and Eritrea, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, is attending the consultations.

Council President Stefan Tafrov of Bulgaria is planning to brief you on this month’s programme here in Room 226 following the consultations. And we will announce the precise time as soon as we know.

**Sanctions

This afternoon at 3:00 p.m. in Conference Room 7, the Security Council sanctions committee on resolution 1267, which concerns Afghanistan, is scheduled to meet. And Michael Chandler, the head of the Monitoring Group dealing with the implementation of sanctions relating to Afghanistan, is scheduled to brief. According to the usual practice, the Chairman of that Committee, Ambassador Alfonso Valdivieso of Colombia will be available for your questions.

Then the guest at the noon briefing tomorrow will be Michael Chandler.

Also scheduled to meet this afternoon is the sanctions committee dealing with Liberia which will discuss a report submitted by the Liberian government as requested on the management of maritime and timber revenue. The chairman of that committee is Ambassador Kishore Mahbubani of Singapore.

**MONUC

During his weekly press briefing in Kinshasa, the Head of the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Amos Namanga Ngongi, said the withdrawal of foreign troops from the DRC was continuing with the departure in the past week of some 2,000 Ugandan troops from the northeast of the country.

He said this positive evolution was in accordance of the Lusaka Accords and Security Council resolutions.

He also welcomed the start today of the withdrawal of Zimbabwean troops from the town of Mbandaka.

Speaking of the first class of police trainers in Kisangani –- which we flagged for you yesterday –- Ngongi said the event was to allow the Congolese people to have a police force which they could trust and which could protect human rights.

The full text of the press briefing is available upstairs, if you read French.

**Special Envoy to visit Southern Africa

The Special Envoy Mission on the Southern African crisis has begun with a visit to the first of six affected countries, and that is Lesotho.  Carolyn McAskie, the Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, led the mission the first day because the Special Envoy James Morris, who is also the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, was unavoidably detained in Johannesburg with meetings requested by Heads of State attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development.

**Oil Prices

The weekly Oil-for-Food, or actually Iraq Programme report, is out today.  It shows that Iraq exported 4.9 million barrels during the week that ended 30 August.  And that’s down from the previous week’s total of 5.3 million barrels.

This week’s exports netted an estimated $123 million in revenue.

However, owing to a revenue shortfall, 1,135 humanitarian supply contracts, worth a total of about $2.1 billion, while approved by the UN, are currently lacking the funds to be processed.

Almost all the sectors of the programme continue to be affected by the shortfall in some degree.

We have the full text of the report available in my office.

**Somalia

The United Nations welcomed the release today of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) staff member who had been held hostage in Mogadishu. The staff member, Mohamed Farah Omar, and five other Somalis were freed after factional fighting broke out in north Mogadishu, where they had all been held, forcing their captors to flee.

Omar was checked by a UN medical officer and returned to his family.

We have a press release with more information on the release, as well as one on the conclusion of an 11-day visit to Somalia by the UN independent expert on human rights in that country, Ghanim Alnajjar. He called on the international community and local authorities to pay more attention to the appalling conditions of the roughly 320,000 internally displaced people in Somalia.

Also on Somalia, the Office of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator confirmed that the Gedo region in that country has been temporarily closed to all UN air operations and international staff because of insecurity.

Sorry, this is going so long, we still have a lot of stuff to go.

**Torture

Out on the racks is a report to the General Assembly from Theo Van Boven, the Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the Question of Torture.

In the report Van Boven examines this issue in the context of growing anti-terrorism measures worldwide.

He said, “Ensuring security for all human beings has become one of the major challenges faced by the international community.” However, he adds, fears have been expressed that some of these measures may not fully respect basic human rights.

The Special Rapporteur notes that while there is no internationally agreed definition of terrorism, new national legislation is often construed as being too vague or as encompassing peaceful political opposition activities. Some of this new anti-terror legislation may not provide legal safeguards as called for in international human rights law.

**General Assembly Hall repairs

The General Assembly Hall reopened to guided tours today after three and a half months of repairs to its roof.

In early July last year, ceiling tiles came crashing to the floor.  Happily, the Hall was unoccupied at the time.  A safety net had to be erected as an emergency measure as there was not enough time to repair the roof before the beginning of the Assembly’s fifty-sixth Session.  The renovations started in May of this year.  The old ceiling tiles in the Hall were removed and replaced by a sprayed-on acoustical type of ceiling.  And at the same time, the asbestos that was used as fireproofing in the blue dome of the roof was also removed.

The old power, lighting and dimming systems and the Heat, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems were replaced as well.

The old lighting system was obsolete, expensive to maintain and generated a lot of heat, affecting the environmental controls of the Hall.  It was cost effective to replace this with new theatrical lighting system, which produces less heat and four times as much light for one third of the energy consumed by the old system.  The old lamps needed replacing about every fifteen days.  The new lamps are estimated to last between one and three years.

The total cost of the renovations was about $5 million.

**Press Releases

The World Health Organization today launched the first ever publication giving information on 325 common medications.  The WHO List of Essential Drugs gives recommended use, dosage, adverse effects and warnings of these medicines and is intended for use by health care professionals.  We have a press release with more information.  And you can also hear an interview by United Nations Radio on the topic on the UN Radio website that will be available later today.

**Literacy Day

To commemorate International Literacy Day tomorrow, the Department of Public Information and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), will hold a premiere screening of an episode of the PBS children’s television programme, Reading Rainbow.  The episode called “Our Big Home: An Earth Poem” was filmed in part here at United Nations Headquarters.

The Screening will take place in Conference Room 4 at 5:00 p.m. and is intended for children, aged five to ten.  But you’re still invited.

**Signings

Signings: This afternoon, Malaysia will become the 92nd country to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Convention on Climate Change and the Czech Republic will sign the Convention on the Provision on Telecommunication Resources for Disaster Mitigation and Relief Operations.

(The spokesman’s office later announced the addition of South Africa to the list of signings today.  South Africa ratified the Rotterdan Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals Pesticides in International Trade as well as the Stockholm Convention Persistent Organic Pollutants.)

UNCA Briefing

Now, there is going to be an UNCA briefing for the DPI/NGO Conference today at 3:00 p.m. and that will be in the UNCG Club meeting room.  Speakers are: Gerald Martone, Cora Weiss, Shashi Tharoor, Sherrill Kazan Alvarez de Toledo and Paul Hoeffel.

So, you can see the posting on that for more details.

The Correspondents’ Association also asked me to tell you that the General Assembly President Han Seung-soo will meet with journalists in the UNCA Club at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow to share his thoughts on the work of the Assembly over the past year.

Refreshments will be served and you are all invited.

**Evacuation Drill

And finally, there is going to be another evacuation drill at the Headquarters building.  This will take place sometime between 4:00 p.m. today and 8:00 a.m. tomorrow.  So, if you’re going to be working late today or early tomorrow, there is some chance you will be caught in this evacuation drill.  This is a continuing process in improving emergency procedures for the building complex.  The last drill took place just 23 August during prime time.  I am sure you all remember it well, when Stephane Dujarric bought coffee for all of you who were out across the street at the Blue Café.  Yes?

Questions and Answers

Question:   Fred, do you know, is there a special event scheduled for the commemoration of September 11 at the United Nations?

Spokesman:  There are several things. I’ll give you just a sketchy outline. I think I have mentioned these things before.  In the morning there will be an event organized by the Secretariat.  It will take place out on the north lawn. I think either on the lawn or on the terrace outside the visitors’ entrance.  There will be at noon, I believe this is confirmed, some kind of event in the Security Council with a very few speeches and I believe their intention is to adopt a resolution.  And then the City is organizing an event in the evening down at Battery Park.  And the Heads of State and, perhaps other Heads of Delegation to the General Assembly, will be invited down to that event. The Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-General will also be attending that, which I think is 7:00 p.m.  So, that’s what I know of.  I don’t yet know whether the General Assembly plans to do anything.  And the Secretary-General will also be attending an inter-faith service at St. Bartholomew’s Church, which is an annual occurrence but which this year is also happening on 11 September.  We’ll give you more on that when we get a little closer to the date.

Okay.  Sorry to have exhausted you with such a long briefing.

Thank you very much.

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