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

Following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Richard Sydenham, Spokesman for the General Assembly President.

Briefing by the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

**Iraq

Hello.  Yesterday in Vienna, after the talks between United Nations weapons inspectors and the delegation from Iraq had wrapped up, Hans Blix, the Executive Chairman of the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), said at a press briefing that it had been clarified at those talks that “all sites are subject to immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access”.  He added that the 1998 Memorandum of Understanding concluded between the Secretary-General and the Iraqi Government established special procedures for access to eight presidential sites in Iraq.  In general, he said, the two sides agreed that many practical arrangements for inspections that were established between 1991 and 1998 remain viable and useful, and could be applied.

The Iraqi delegation also handed over four CD-ROMs containing the backlog of semi-annual monitoring declarations for the period from June 1998 through July 2002.  Mohammed ElBaradei, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which hosted the talks, said, “Obviously, we need to analyze the information, but more importantly, we need to go back and verify the information”.  Blix is scheduled to brief the Security Council on the talks tomorrow, and we've put out transcripts of the closing press conference, which took place in Vienna yesterday afternoon.

**Secretary-General on Iraq and Cyprus

Coming into the building this morning, the Secretary-General was asked about discussions under way at the Security Council on a new resolution on the Iraq inspections, and he said that is up to the Council to decide.  Until the Council comes up with new guidelines for inspections, he said, Blix “is guided by existing resolutions, and it is on that basis that he has been dealing with the Iraqis”.

He was also asked about the talks that he will hold with the Cypriot leaders tomorrow and Friday, and he said he hoped they would both discuss honestly with him what efforts have been made to secure progress in the talks, following his meeting with them last month in Paris.  He said, “When I met with them in May, there were indications that we should be able to make progress by the end of the year. The end of the year is around the corner", he said.  “So I want to review with them how we get there.”  We have copies of the transcript of that press encounter upstairs.

**Security Council

The Security Council is meeting this morning in consultations on the programme of work for the month of October.  The programme is posted on the Security Council Web site as well as on the Cameroon Mission’s web site.  At 1 p.m. here in Room 226, Council President Ambassador Martin Belinga-Eboutou of Cameroon is scheduled to speak to you about the programme.

**UNICEF and the Middle East

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Special Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Pierre Poupard, today voiced his serious concern that the Israeli military is preventing tens of thousands of Palestinian children from attending school.  One month into their school year, he said, “a generation of Palestinian children is being denied their right to an education”.  UNICEF estimates that almost 226,000 children and more than 9,300 teachers are unable to reach their regular classrooms, and at least 580 schools have been closed due to Israeli military curfews, closures and other security measures.

UNICEF is currently implementing a back-to-school campaign to help ensure that the poorest Palestinian children can afford to stay in schools by providing some 14,000 children with uniforms and school bags.  It estimates that some 317,000 Palestinian children are in desperate need of assistance because of financial hardship.

It should also be recalled that the Secretary-General's Personal Humanitarian Envoy, Catherine Bertini, called on Israel to allow the free movement of children and teachers within the West Bank and Gaza after her recent mission.  The Secretary-General and the Quartet members have urged Israel to implement her recommendations, including those related to access by the Palestinian population to essential services.

**Sudan -- Humanitarian

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, flew to Rumbek in southern Sudan today.  Oshima got a first-hand look at a World Food Programme food distribution facility and UNICEF’s only primary school for girls in that part of the country, as well as a teacher training facility and a hospital rehabilitation project.  He met with senior officials of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and underscored the importance of the UN’s humanitarian “Operation Lifeline Sudan” (OLS) and the granting of humanitarian access in line with OLS protocols.  He informed SPLM officials of the discussions with regard to the access issues he had yesterday raised with senior Sudanese Government officials in Khartoum.

Oshima also welcomed the release yesterday by the SPLM of a detained Oxfam staff member.  He reminded SPLM of the need to respect the safety of humanitarian workers and the principles of the OLS protocols.  He reiterated to SPLM officials the Secretary-General’s call for the cessation of hostilities, the need to return to negotiations and bring the war to an end for the sake of the people of Sudan.

**Kosovo

Michael Steiner, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Kosovo, yesterday traveled to the divided town of Mitrovica, where he presented a seven-point plan to return the city to normality, arguing, “If we just leave things as they are, they will slide even further”.  He promised the Serb community living in northern Mitrovica that UN police and the Kosovo Force would keep watch to ensure that there are no incursions from the southern part of the city, which he believes is unlikely to happen.  Serbs from northern Mitrovica, meanwhile, have begun to join the Kosovo Police Service.

Steiner said what is needed now is a new start for governing the whole of Mitrovica, so that important decisions in the municipality are taken jointly.  Common interests, he said, need to be decided at the level of the municipality, while specific interests can be dealt with at the community level.  He added that he is prepared to move an important part of the UN Mission’s administration to northern Mitrovica, with the Kosovo Trust Agency to be headquartered there. Steiner also he said he is prepared to organize a conference of donors and potential investors specifically for Mitrovica.

Last, he urged all Mitrovica residents to participate in elections, saying that without such participation, “the Serb community will have excluded itself from political life for the next four years”.  We put out Steiner’s speech, containing the seven-point plan for Mitrovica, yesterday afternoon, and copies remain available upstairs.

**Hague Tribunal

This morning in The Hague, former Republika Srpska President Biljana Plavsic changed her earlier “not guilty” plea at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, acknowledging guilt for crimes against humanity, including extermination.  The change of plea was contained in a written Plea Agreement made with the Tribunal Prosecutor, Carla del Ponte.

Plavsic acknowledged responsibility for killings during the Bosnian war, and expressed her remorse fully and unconditionally.  In a statement, which we have available upstairs, she said she “hopes to offer some consolation to the innocent victims -- Muslim, Croat and Serb -- of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina”, and also hopes that her acknowledgement would “enable her people to move past the carnage of the past decade, to reconcile with their neighbours, and, ultimately, to restore their dignity as a respected people”.

Plavsic’s lead counsel, Robert Pavich, said there is no agreement, nor have there been any discussions, between Plavsic and the Office of the Prosecutor regarding sentencing, and that she understands, as her plea agreement specifically provides, that she is subjecting herself to a possible sentence of life imprisonment.  He also noted that Plavsic has not agreed to testify in any case pending before the Tribunal.

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

We have the latest update concerning the withdrawal of forces of Uganda, Zimbabwe and Rwanda from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as compiled by the UN Observer Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC).

**Secretary-General on Globalization

We mentioned yesterday that the Secretary-General would be going to Yale University this afternoon to deliver a lecture on globalization.  This is just to inform you that we have available in our office the text of his lecture, embargoed until 4:30 this afternoon.

**WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said today in a press release that the decoding of the genetic codes of the malaria parasite, and its mosquito host, means that the most powerful tools of science can be used against one of the biggest killers in the developing world.  Using the genetic codes, scientists will be able to target vulnerabilities and build new genetically-based drugs and insecticides.  Malaria infects more than 300 million people a year, killing about one million, 90 per cent of whom are children.

**Book Launch

Finally, this afternoon at 1:15 in Conference Room 8, former Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and for Peacekeeping Operations, Marrack Goulding, will read excerpts from, and take questions on, his new book “Peacemonger”.  The discussion will be followed by a book-signing event at the United Nations Bookshop.

Question and Answer

Question:  We hope Dr. Blix will brief us after he briefs the Council?

Spokesman:  We'll ask if he'll stop at the stake-out on his way out of the Council chamber.

Briefing by the Spokesman for the Assembly President

Good afternoon.  Today the First Committee (Disarmament) continues its general debate on all disarmament and related international security items, and the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth) this afternoon hears representatives of Non-Self-Governing Territories and petitioners.  The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this morning heard a keynote address by Professor Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate, Economics and Finance, Columbia University, on “Sustainable Development:  Lessons Learned from the Past Year”.  This address prefaces the Committee's debate on macroeconomic policy questions, which starts this afternoon.  The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) concludes general discussion on “Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice” and “International Drug Control” and the Sixth Committee (Legal) discusses measures to eliminate international terrorism today.

Tomorrow the General Assembly plenary takes up the appointment of a member of the Joint Inspection Unit and the election of 18 members of the Economic and Social Committee.  And on Friday and the following Monday, the Assembly will hold a joint debate on the follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit and the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization.

A note to correspondents of the United Nations Correspondents Associations (UNCA).  Tomorrow, Thursday, 3 October, at 1:45 p.m., Assembly President Kavan will brief members in the UNCA Club, and all UNCA members are invited to attend.  That's 1:45, tomorrow, Thursday, 3 October.

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