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, and Richard Sydenham, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General

**UNRWA Casualties

Two UNRWA employees were killed in an attack today in Gaza, and I expect a statement on that shortly.

The first was Osama Hassan Tahrawi, a 31-year-old school attendant at the local UNRWA school.  Initial reports indicate that he was killed by a rocket fired from a helicopter while he was standing in his yard watching the military operation.  He was killed with another six friends and relatives.  UNRWA’s field staff report that he was not armed and had no connection either with any militant organization or with the families whose homes were being targeted during the incursion.

The second UNRWA staffer was Ahlam Riziq Kandil, a 32-year-old school teacher.  Reports received by UNRWA indicate that she was hit while in her home.  She died from her injuries after being taken to the hospital.

Their deaths come just two weeks after another UNRWA worker, Iain Hook, was killed by an Israeli soldier in the Jenin camp.

Peter Hansen, UNRWA’s Commissioner-General said:  “The tragic death toll for UNRWA staff has now risen to five people in the course of this year.  This loss of civilian lives, of people working for a humanitarian UN Agency, is completely unacceptable.  I must condemn what appears to be the indiscriminate use of heavy firepower in a densely populated civilian area.  UNRWA will carry out a detailed inquiry into the deaths.”

We have more from UNRWA available upstairs.

**Cyprus

By the end of the day yesterday, December 5th, the United Nations had received papers from both Cypriot parties in response to the Secretary-General’s initiative of 11 November 2002 to provide a basis for agreement of the Cyprus problem.

Earlier today in Nicosia, the Secretary-General Special Advisor on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, met with the Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides.

Afterwards, de Soto said to journalists:  “We are entering a new and intensive phase of talks and consultations”. He added that during this phase he would not be talking to the media and would ask both leaders to do the same.

And as we speak, de Soto is meeting with Ergun Olgen, the political advisor of Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.  This meeting is taking place at de Soto’s offices in the UN headquarters area in Nicosia.

**Security Council

The Security Council is meeting this morning in closed consultations.

The first item on the agenda is the quarterly report from Dr. Hans Blix, the Executive Director of UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), which we reported to you on Wednesday.  Blix is presenting that report.

Council members are also expected to discuss the weekend handover of the Iraqi declaration to the International Atomic Energy Agency, UNMOVIC and the Security Council in accordance with Council resolution 1441.

We will let you know when Blix is coming out to the stakeout microphone outside the Security Council chamber.

The second item on the consultation agenda is Afghanistan.  A statement by the Council, a year after the Bonn agreement, is being considered.

Just to recap, on Wednesday evening, the Security Council extended the humanitarian “oil-for-food” programme that allows Iraq to use part of its crude exports to purchase relief aid for an additional 180-day period. The resolution, adopted unanimously, also decided to consider necessary adjustments to the so-called Goods Review List and the procedures for its implementation, for adoption no later than 30 days from the adoption of the resolution.

**Iraq Handover

We expect that the Iraq declaration will be handed over tomorrow in Baghdad to representatives of the IAEA and UNMOVIC, with an extra set to be given to the Security Council, as required by resolution 1441.

UNMOVIC will ensure that the Security Council's copy gets transmitted to New York promptly, probably by Sunday night.

The exact modalities of the handover to the Security Council will be determined by the end of today.

**Iraq/Compensation

On Iraq, we have upstairs a press release from the UN Compensation Commission on the holding of its 46th session next week in Geneva.

During the session, which will run from December 10th to the 12th, the Commission’s governing council will consider a number of reports and recommendations of the panels of Commissioners concerning claims filed by individuals, corporations, and Governments.  It will also discuss issues relating to the processing and payment of claims.

This will be the last session under the Presidency of Ambassador Sverre Bergh Johansen of Norway.  As of 1 January 2003, the membership of Norway, Colombia, Ireland, Mauritius and Singapore will end.  Five new members of the Security Council will join the Governing Council and a new President will be elected by the Governing Council at that time.

**Asylum Statistics

Statistics on asylum applications in 29 industrialized countries for the first nine months of this year show that the top country of origin of asylum seekers from January to September this year was Iraq, with over 36,000 applications, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.  You can find a press release on that if you're interested.

**Bosnia

The Secretary-General’s final report to the Security Council on the work of the UN Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which ends on December 31, says that the Mission’s landmark project to minimize police interference in political work has been completed, and that it has helped to lay the foundation for post-war recovery and development.

The report includes the Mission’s accomplishments, among them the setting of secure conditions that have encouraged the return of more than 250,000 refugees to their pre-war homes.  “A high standard of security throughout the country has been established”, the report says.

However, the Secretary-General says key challenges lie ahead, most importantly the full establishment of the rule of law, with corruption, organized crime and political obstruction still hindering economic development and regional integration.

The report is out on the racks, and it will be discussed next Thursday when the Security Council holds an open meeting on Bosnia, which the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Bosnia, Jacques Klein, and the three members of the Bosnian Presidency and Prime Minister are all expected to attend.

**Gaza Statement

I now have this statement concerning the incident in Gaza, which is attributable to the Spokesman.

“The Secretary-General is gravely disturbed by the Israeli military attack in the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip early this morning.  The attack, during one of the most important Muslim holidays, Eid al-Fitr, left 10 Palestinians dead.  Most of those killed were civilians, including 2 staff members of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.  The Secretary-General extends his deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this attack.

“The Secretary-General deplores the loss of innocent civilian life.  He has repeatedly urged Israel to refrain from the excessive and disproportionate use of deadly force in civilian areas.  He wishes to remind the Government of Israel of its obligations as an Occupying Power to protect the civilian population and urges it to ensure that the IDF behave with greater restraint and discipline and in conformity with international humanitarian law.

“The Secretary-General once again stresses that only a political solution offers the two parties a viable way out of the current conflict and the possibility of real security for both sides.”

**Timor-Leste

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Timor-Leste, Kamalesh Sharma, stated that the violence that unfolded this past Tuesday appeared to be part of a planned attack against selected targets throughout Dili, and it would be thoroughly investigated by the UN Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMISET), in parallel with inquires of the Government and the Parliament.

The situation in Dili today remains calm.  Two Timorese had died in the violence, two were critically injured with some 20 others sustaining less serious injuries.

Mr. Sharma met again yesterday with Timor-Leste President Xanana Gusmão and with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri to assess the security situation and to review the necessary corrective measures that need to be applied in the medium- and longer-term.

Mr. Sharma said that the UN mission is committed to discharging its mandate of assisting in the development and strengthening of the Timor-Leste Police Service.  He added that appropriate deployment of security forces, including Peacekeeping Forces, will continue throughout Dili as required.

**Secretary-General Statements

In a few minutes, the Secretary-General will be presenting the Candlelight Award, on behalf of the New York-based non-governmental organization Carriage House, to two international luminaries who are also friends of the United Nations:  businessman Maurice Strong and Jim MacNeill, a main author of the report “Our Common Future”.

He is to say that, thanks to those two men, Governments and grass-roots organizations alike now understand, more than ever, that fighting poverty and protecting the environment are two sides of the same coin.  We have his embargoed remarks upstairs.

We also have upstairs copies of a message, delivered on the Secretary-General’s behalf, to the ministerial council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is meeting today in Porto, Portugal, in which he welcomes that Organization’s emphasis on counter-terrorism.

This Sunday, the Secretary-General will speak at the annual dinner of the American Committee for the Weizmann Institute for Science, and he will celebrate the legacy of Chaim Weizmann, as both a scientist who believed in the ability of science to unify mankind, and as a statesman whose Institute continues to spread the benefits of its research to Israel’s neighbors.

We will have embargoed copies of that speech available in my office, as well.

**UNHCR/Côte d'Ivoire

UNHCR reports that fighting in Côte d'Ivoire has driven more than 30,000 people from the country over the past week with most fleeing to Liberia and Guinea.

In another alarming development, UNHCR has lost contact with more than 45,000 mostly Liberian refugees in western Côte d'Ivoire.  Telephone lines have been cut and access to the fighting zone is barred.  Sketchy reports indicate that many Liberian refugees are now headed home fleeing the violence.

**UNICEF

In Addis Ababa today, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, warned that drought-related illnesses were severely affecting the population.  She said that UNICEF-supported feeding programmes in Ethiopia and Eritrea were already seeing hundreds of severely malnourished children and that, as people migrated from parched lands, the numbers would increase.

“These are the first signs of a creeping disaster”, she said.  “We can expect to see a lot more malnutrition if the situation doesn’t change, and if more assistance for food, health and water supplies doesn’t arrive.”

UNICEF says that air shipments to boost its existing humanitarian programmes have already started arriving and a campaign targeting 600,000 children to provide measles vaccinations and Vitamin A began last month.

We have more details in a press release.

In another press release, UNICEF today announced a partnership with a new organization, Cultural Olympiad, aimed at giving over one million children a better chance to grow up free from disability and disease.  Cultural Olympiad will donate $7 million to UNICEF’s global immunization campaigns and in exchange, UNICEF's 2003 holiday cards will have sports and cultural themes.  Go out and buy some.

**Southern African Food Crisis

According to an update of the Southern African humanitarian crisis, farmers and food security specialists in the region are concerned that the lack of rain in the current planting season could mean another bad harvest.

In South Africa, the biggest exporter in and to the region, there had not been enough rain to plant the important crops of maize, wheat, sunflower, sorghum and soya.

As you recall, James Morris, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme, told the Security Council this week that 38 million Africans are at risk from an unprecedented hunger crisis on the continent.

**Human Rights Day

Human Rights Day will be observed next Tuesday, and, in advance of that event, the Department of Public Information is hosting today, for the fifth consecutive year, a student conference on human rights.

The event brings together students from locations as diverse as the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Northern Ireland and the United States in a video-conference program connecting 12 sites in 6 countries, including Conference Room 8 downstairs.

The theme for this year’s student conference, “Human Rights and Sustainable Development:  A Better Future for All” is intended to link the issues discussed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Millennium Development Goals under the umbrella of human rights.

We also have available upstairs the message from High Commissioner for Human Rights Sergio Vieira de Mello for Human Rights Day, in which he says that it is appalling that impunity for gross human rights violations is so rampant and calls for all to work together to ensure the success of the International Criminal Court.

**Afghan Bathhouses

As the Muslim world celebrates Eid al-Fitr, 26 refurbished public bathhouses –- known as “hammamat” -– opened this week in Kabul, Afghanistan, as part of a UN Development Programme (UNDP) project to repairs damages to a total of 30 bathhouses, particularly to the women’s sections, dating from the period of Taliban rule.

Ercan Murat, UNDP’s Country Director in Afghanistan, said the timely renovation of the hammamat, which are an integral part of Afghan tradition, is important for the people of Kabul as they have their holiday season.  He will preside at the official opening of the baths in mid-December, once the other four bathhouses have been fully renovated.

We have more information from UNDP upstairs.

**Deputy Secretary-General

On Monday, 9 December, the Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette will be traveling to Washington where she will be the dinner speaker at the annual CEO retreat of InterAction, a conglomerate of US-based international development and humanitarian NGOs.

During the day, she will have a number of bilateral meetings with US Government officials.

**Press Release

The World Health Organization today launched a cartoon booklet called “The Right to Health”.  The book is designed to reach children and adolescents and is one of the tools WHO is using to raise awareness of the right to health.  The book features a teacher in a classroom interacting with children from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe.

And for your planning for next week, we have The Week Ahead, which you can pick up in my office.

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Do you have any information on how and when you're going to get the declaration of mass destruction from the Iraqi authorities?

Spokesman: I don't think you were in the room when I made an announcement on that.  But to recap quickly, the handover is to take place in Baghdad.  One set on nuclear issues to the IAEA.  One set on missiles, chemical and biological weapons to UNMOVIC.  And then a third composite set of the IAEA files and UNMOVIC files for transmittal to the Security Council.  UNMOVIC will see then that the Council's set gets delivered to New York most likely Sunday evening, and the Council is discussing now how the handover will take place here in New York.  And I think when Hans Blix comes out to the stakeout microphone, he can give you the latest details.

Question:  The Security Council will meet on that issue Monday, maybe?  Not Sunday?

Spokesman:  Well, that's one of the things I assume they'll be deciding now.  So wait for either Mr. Blix or the President of the Council to tell you what they’ve decided.

Question:  With Cyprus, how will the process move forward until the 12th? The modalities?

Spokesman:  I don't have anything to add to what I've already told you. Now that the comments from the two sides are in, Mr. de Soto will be the principal go-between encouraging the two sides to continue dialogue.  The effort will be to take the two sets of comments and incorporate them into the Secretary-General's original proposal and to try to come up with a single text that both sides can agree to by the 12th of December.

Question:  Any reactions from the Secretary-General?

Spokesman:  I think the Secretary-General for now has left this important task to his Special Envoy, Mr. de Soto.

Question:  A couple of days ago, the President of the Council said he left the date open for Cyprus in December.  That means the Secretary-General is thinking about engaging the Council?

Spokesman:  You'd have to ask the President what he meant by that comment. I honestly don't know.

Question:  With the Iraq report, will it be translated in house?  What's the procedure for that?

Spokesman:  I think you'd better ask either the President of the Council or Hans Blix those kinds of technical questions.  At this point, I don't know.

Question:  On East Timor, I'm wondering if there's any misunderstanding or conflict on who's responsible for security in Dili.  The reason I ask is that Portuguese who were caught in the violence there said they had called United Nations forces and asked for help.  They were told, "We can't leave our barracks.  We can only come out of our barracks in situations where national sovereignty is at risk".  That implied that the Timorese Government had ultimate responsibility.  But Timorese Prime Minister Alkatiri said yesterday that security was totally in the hands of the United Nations.

Spokesman:  I didn't see what Mr. Alkatiri said.  But Timor-Leste is now an independent country.  And although the United Nations has residual responsibilities in the area of police training, peacekeepers, in other words military troops from the United Nations, cannot swing into action anywhere in East Timor except at the request of the sovereign Government.

Briefing by Spokesman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon.

On the recommendation of the General Committee, the General Assembly plenary this morning decided to include the additional item “International Year of Rice, 2004” and to consider this item, which becomes agenda item number 168, directly in the plenary. 

The plenary then took up “Emergency international assistance for peace, normalcy and reconstruction of war-stricken Afghanistan”, and “The situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security”.  As previously agreed by the Assembly, the President gave a summary of the discussions in the Open-ended Panel that took place on 18 November. 

The President noted that among the Panel’s specific proposals are:  The need to address the link between security and the political process; the need for enhanced cooperation for the formation and training of the new Afghan army; the need for donors to recognize the importance of supporting the Afghan national census; and the suggestion that the UN should play a coordinating role in the international community’s support for the electoral process.

In the economic area, the Panel proposed:  the need for sustained levels of donor resources and international attention to Afghanistan; the need for coordinated strategies that cut across sectors to address drug cultivation, in particular capacity-building for the police; the need for more reconciliation efforts to create an environment conducive for minorities to return to their place of origin; and capacity-building in the private sector.

The Acting President, the Representative of Swaziland, read the President’s statement.  Germany then introduced draft resolution A/57/L.56 and some 21 speakers were inscribed.

During the course of this morning’s meeting, the plenary decided to an adjournment date of 18 December for this session.  And the plenary also decided to take up the report of the Credentials Committee next Wednesday, 11 December.

In his message on the International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development, which was celebrated yesterday, 5 December, President Kavan notes that “Volunteerism has an important place in our society and the potential for its role in attaining the United Nations Millennium Goals is untapped and unlimited.  Local voluntary involvement is a valuable and indispensable contribution to the betterment of social conditions, promotion of economic development, and empowering people to take charge”.

“Volunteerism is inclusive of all ages and reinforces a sense of collective responsibility and makes a tangible difference to the lives of people in a community.  In the process the individual volunteer experiences self-fulfillment, thereby creating a win-win situation.” 

The President's message continues, “In this respect, governments, international organizations, civil society, and private sector should continue to support and develop the volunteerism infrastructure and technical cooperation.  The unique relationship between volunteerism and the United Nations will continue to be reinforced and developed.”

The statement is available at the documents counter on the third floor and on the President’s website.

This afternoon the Second Committee is in informal consultations and the Fifth Committee is discussing financing the UN mission in Sierra Leone and programme budget for 2002-2003.

On Monday the General Assembly plenary discusses:  Oceans and the law of the sea, commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the opening for signature of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

In the afternoon there will be two informal panels to commemorate the Convention with the overall theme:  “The Dynamism of the Convention:  challenges for the present and solutions for the future”.

Any questions? 

Thank you.

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