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
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
Good afternoon. Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, will be our guest at the briefing today. He will be here in a few minutes.
**Iraq
Yesterday afternoon, Hans Blix, the Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commmission for Iraq (UNMOVIC), met with an Iraqi delegation for preliminary talks about practical arrangements related to the resumption of inspections. In a statement issued afterwards, UNMOVIC said the Iraqi delegation had informed them that it needed some time to study and consult in Baghdad about these practical arrangements.
It was agreed that further talks would take place and be concluded at a meeting in Vienna the week of the 30th of September, and the exact timing of the meeting being subject to the Executive Chairman’s need to be available to the Security Council. Both sides believe the meeting yesterday afternoon was useful, and the Iraqi delegation welcomed the return of inspectors, the statement said. We have the statement upstairs, although I think most of you saw it yesterday.
**Security Council
The Security Council is holding consultations on Sierra Leone today. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sierra Leone Oluyemi Adeniji is briefing Council members on the latest report. In it, which we reported to you last week, the Secretary-General recommended that the UN mission in that country be adjusted and eventually downsized as the first step towards a gradual handover of security and other responsibilities to the country's Government. The mandate of the mission expires at the end of the month, and the Secretary-General has recommended a six-month extension.
At 3:30 this afternoon, the Council is holding a meeting with troop contributing countries to the UN mission in Sierra Leone, the largest current peacekeeping operation with some 17,000 troops. That meeting will take place in the Economic and Social Council Chamber.
**UNRWA
Earlier today in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza strip, Israeli Defence Force soldiers fired warning shots in the direction of a delegation of officials from the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), led by Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Peter Hansen. The delegation, which also included representatives of several donor countries and Palestinian Authority officials, was visiting an area of the camp where refugee homes had previously been destroyed by the Israeli army, when Israeli soldiers fired warning shots from a nearby outpost. No one was injured, but members of the delegation were forced to take cover immediately and to end their visit. Earlier, the relief and works agency handed over 97 new shelters
to refugee families in the Rafah camp whose houses had been destroyed by the Israeli Defence Forces. UNRWA will be filing an official complaint with the Israeli authorities.
We have upstairs a press release on the new shelters provided at that camp.
**Belize and Guatemala
The following statement is attributable to the Spokesman concerning Belize and Guatemala.
"The Secretary-General wholeheartedly welcomes the announcement that Belize and Guatemala have reached agreement ending their longstanding territorial controversy.
"He wishes to congratulate both Governments for their leadership and vision in reaching this historic settlement. He also commends their designated facilitators and the Organization of American States, under whose auspices the process was conducted. This groundbreaking accord sets an example for the region and offers hope that other such disputes can be resolved promptly and peacefully.
"He notes that under the terms of the agreement, referenda are to be held in the coming weeks in both countries, leading to a treaty concluding a controversy which has delayed regional integration. In addition to their shared history on the Central American isthmus, Belize and Guatemala are both multiethnic, multicultural, and multilingual societies, striving to provide their citizens with just and equitable living conditions. In the firm belief that bringing this issue to closure is a key step in creating conditions for stability and sustainable development, the Secretary-General strongly encourages the people of both countries to endorse this settlement agreement."
**DRC
According to the UN mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a first batch of Rwandan troops withdrew from thee town of Kindu yesterday in the eastern DRC and returned to Rwanda. The UN’s Force Commander General Mountaga Diallo attended the ceremony marking the departure of about 460 soldiers.
**Press Releases
Our first press release today is from the Food and Agriculture Organization which said today that the amount of toxic waste from obsolete pesticides in Africa is higher than previously estimated. The amount of toxic waste, which includes obsolete pesticides, heavily contaminated soils and millions of containers, is now estimated to be around 120,000 metric tonnes. The previous estimate was 50,000 metric tonnes.
We have two press releases from the United Nations Environment Programme on the conference on the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals taking place this week in Bonn, Germany. The meeting is expected to give the highest degree of protection to the rare hairy-kneed camel of Mongolia and China. The population of this camel is estimated to be around one thousand, making it more rare than the giant panda.
**Signings
We have two treaty actions scheduled today. A short while ago, Barbados ratified the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism and acceded to the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings.
Later today, San Marino will sign the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
**International Disability Award
The President of Ecuador, Gustavo Noboa Bejarano, will be presented with the sixth annual Franklin D. Roosevelt International Disability Award at a ceremony tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. in Conference Room 4. Speakers include Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette and the actor Christopher Reeve, who is Vice Chairman of the National Organization on Disability.
The Award recognizes outstanding action in support of the United Nations World Programme of Action Concerning Disabled Persons. We should have press kits on that this afternoon.
**Upcoming Guest
Finally, tomorrow at the noon briefing, our guest will be the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Terje Roed-Larsen, and he will be releasing the latest UN report on the Palestinian economy which includes important new statistics for the first half of this year.
**Questions and Answers
Question: This morning only resident correspondents were allowed at the Security Council stakeout. Just wondering if there was a change of rule about…?
Spokesman: No, we’ve told security repeatedly that the guidelines we agreed on is that every accredited journalist, no matter what the color of your card, can go to that stakeout. So if I have to go down and see Chief McCann again to straighten this out, I’ll do so immediately after this briefing.
Question: The meeting that I think is scheduled between the Secretary-General and the Iraqi Foreign Minister -- could you tell us a little bit about who requested that meeting and what you expect the agenda to be?
Spokesman: I’ll have to check for you. I’m sorry. I don’t know.
(Before the briefing concluded, Mr. Eckhard added: “We’ve been told that the meeting between the Secretary-General and the Iraqis was requested by the Iraqi side. And we usually don’t say what it’s about. But you might ask them if you want to know what it was about beforehand. We often try to get readouts if we can, and we’ll see if we can later today”. That meeting would take place at 5:30 p.m. today.)
Question: You quoted the press release about the meeting between Hans Blix and the Iraqis. And that language includes the phrase: “to conclude the practical arrangements in the week beginning the 30th of September”. I take it
from that that the UN has established with Iraq that those arrangements have to be agreed by the end of the week beginning the 30th of September. Is that correct?
Spokesman: My reading of that statement, and I don’t speak for Mr. Blix -- he has his own press spokesman who issued that statement -- but my reading of that statement is that both sides agreed that these negotiations would be concluded in Vienna at that session.
Question: There were some indications that a massacre took place in Burundi on a night of September. And the figures ranged between 200 and 1,000 people killed. Is the UN looking into the matter?
Spokesman: I have to look into that for you. I don’t have any information or guidance on that subject. [The President of the Security Council later told the press that the Council deplored the continuing conflict and firmly condemned the massacres just carried out in the Gitega region.
(He informed correspondents that the UNCA directory was out today.)
**Briefing by the Spokesman for the General Assembly President
Good afternoon.
Today the General Assembly is scheduled to hear 24 speakers in general debate in plenary meetings this morning and afternoon. And tomorrow, another 24 speakers are scheduled, and the general debate is scheduled to end on Friday.
I would just like to quickly follow up on a question last week on difficulties some of you were having in accessing speeches on the web site. We all had difficulty on Thursday and Friday. The problem was due to unprecedented volume. We recorded a record 9.7 million hits on both Thursday and Friday of last week. The normal rate is about 6 million hits per day. So the huge interest in what was going on here last week caused the system to slow down. If you’re interested, further information is available from Mahbub Ahmad, at 963-6974.
Thank you.
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