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

AND THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

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 the Secretary-General’s Spokesman

Hello.  I think we have guests from Macalester College.  Why does that name sound familiar to me?

**Democratic Republic of Congo

We’ll start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman on the subject of the Democratic Republic of the Congo:

“The Secretary-General welcomes the smooth transfer of security responsibilities from the Interim Emergency Multinational Force, or IEMF, to MONUC’s Ituri Brigade in Bunia on 1 September.  The Secretary-General expresses his appreciation to the European Union and to all the States that have contributed troops to the IEMF, in particular the Framework Nation, France.  The Secretary-General is confident that the MONUC force on the ground, already totalling over 2,500, is prepared to implement its mandate, and his intention is that MONUC will maintain the momentum of its further deployment to the region and of the peace process facilitated by the presence of the EU-led IEMF.  The Secretary-General reminds all the key players in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in the neighbouring States, of their responsibility to stay the course of peace and reconciliation, and to cooperate fully with the United Nations.”

**Myanmar

In a press release today, the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation in Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, says that he’s deeply disturbed by reports that Daw Aung San Suu Kyi is on a hunger strike.  Although restrictions on information make it impossible to confirm this news, the Special Rapporteur remains gravely concerned by the continued detention of Aung San Suu Kyi at an undisclosed location, and he reiterates his earlier appeals to the Government of Myanmar to release her immediately and unconditionally.  We have copies of that press release in my office.

**Security Council

The Security Council President for the month of September, Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry of the United Kingdom, is holding bilateral consultations with other members of the Council on the programme of work for the month.  The Council President is scheduled to brief you on that programme here in this room tomorrow following consultations.  The Presidency is aiming for that briefing to take place around 12:30 p.m.

**Refugees

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that applications for asylum in industrialized countries continued to fall in the last quarter and noted the most dramatic decrease was in the numbers of Iraqi asylum seekers.  The most significant quarterly decreases were recorded in the United Kingdom, which was down 34 per cent; Spain and Ireland, both down 31 per cent; Germany down 24 per cent; and Sweden down 22 per cent.  Elsewhere, Canada dropped by 21 per cent and the US by 7 per cent.  Central Europe was the only region to show an increase, and that was of 27 per cent.  The biggest increases in this region were in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Among the countries of origin, the most dramatic decrease was in the numbers of Iraqis seeking asylum, down 43 per cent compared to the first quarter.  And the sharpest increase in asylum applications was among Russians, who rose 54 per cent to become the largest group overall during the second quarter.  You can read more about the latest statistics on the UNHCR Web site.

**Kosovo

In a statement issued yesterday, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, strongly condemned the attack in a village in the Gjilane region in which one Kosovo Serb was killed and four others injured on Sunday evening.  “This is a deplorable act and stains Kosovo’s image in the world”, he said.  Meanwhile from Geneva today, the acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, also strongly condemned the recent series of attacks throughout Kosovo and appealed for an immediate end to the violence.  Sunday’s attack underlines the urgency of ridding Kosovo of criminal and destructive influences and of establishing a democratic society fully based on the rule of law and respect for human rights.  The full texts of those statements are available upstairs.

**Sudan

The number of Sudanese refugees fleeing to eastern Chad since April of this year has now reached some 65,000, according to UNHCR.  The refugees, many of them in poor health, are fleeing fighting in the Darfur region of western Sudan.  A truce between the Khartoum Government and southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) has largely held while peace talks continue in Kenya.  UNHCR says this leaves the war in Darfur as Sudan’s main battlefront.

**Western Sahara

The Secretary-General, in a statement released Monday, welcomed the release of 243 prisoners of war repatriated by the Frente Polisario to Morocco by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).  The Secretary-General also expressed the hope that the Frente Polisario will release all remaining prisoners, in accordance with the relevant Security Council resolutions and in compliance with international humanitarian law.  He also urged the parties to continue to cooperate with the ICRC to resolve the fate of all those unaccounted for since the beginning of the conflict.

**Côte d’Ivoire

The UN mission in Côte d’Ivoire says that the transitional Government of that country has formally asked the United Nations for assistance during general elections due in 2005.  The mission says that Prime Minister Seydou Diarra made the request in a letter addressed to the Secretary-General.  You can read more about this in a press release issued by the mission, if you can read French.

**Headquarters Smoking Ban

In a bulletin to staff issued last Friday, the Secretary-General announced that from 1 September, no smoking shall be permitted in any of the UN premises at Headquarters.  He says that the ban is for the purpose of eliminating the risks associated with second-hand smoke and is consistent with the principles developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) on tobacco control, as well as applicable local laws.

**HIV/AIDS

The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on HIV/AIDS in Asia, Dr. Nafis Sadik, during the annual meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) in Bangkok, today called on ministers and senior officials from 47 Asian nations not to ignore the threat of HIV/AIDS and its devastating impact.  According to Dr. Sadik, AIDS is no ordinary crisis and it must call forth an extraordinary response.  “We cannot continue to live in a make believe world”, she said.  In other news, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Jong-Wook Lee, yesterday at the annual meeting of the WHO African Regional Committee called for urgent treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa, and stressed the need to ensure that women can give birth safely.  We have press releases on those two items upstairs.

That’s all I have for you.  Any questions?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Do you have any updates on consultations the Secretary-General may be holding with Americans or others in the Security Council about the next step in Iraq.  That’s one.  Second, in light of reports that some UN staff in Iraq had actually expressed the desire to leave Iraq even prior to the bombing, how does that tally with the UN position that it’s not going anywhere, that it will stay in Iraq?

Spokesman:  On the first question, I have no information to give you concerning any conversations he’s had.  And frankly, I’m not aware of any today.  It’s primarily internal consultations with his own staff.  You probably saw that we announced an addition to his programme this afternoon at four o’clock to discuss Iraq.

On your second question, we are committed to continuing our work in Iraq.  What we’re trying to do is reconcile that commitment with our obligation to provide maximum security for our staff.  So it’s for this reason that we announced on Friday, I believe it was, that we were moving a substantial number of our international staff to neighbouring countries while we sorted out the best and most secure way to provide living and work space for them in Iraq.  We’re continuing our core humanitarian activities, relying very heavily on our local Iraqi staff.  We’ve also been taking measures to improve their security in Iraq.  So, I’m not aware that some members asked to be repatriated before the bombing attack.  I did report to you that after the attack, there were only two staff who asked to leave voluntarily, but we have now required a large number of staff to relocate until we can sort out the security arrangements for them.

Question:  What are the numbers on the international staff being moved out?

Spokesman:  I don’t have them with me.  I’ll see if I can get them for you later.

Question:  The UN Staff Union asked the Secretary-General to hold an independent investigation of the bombing of the UN headquarters.  Has there been any response to that?

Spokesman:  Not that I’m aware, but, of course, we would carry out an investigation in any case, where our staff had been harmed.  We would carry out our own investigation as a matter of course.

Question:  Obviously.  But they specifically requested a non-UN investigation.

Spokesman:  By independent they mean non-UN?  I’m not aware there’s been any reply to that letter.  I’ll have to check for you.

(At the end of the briefing the Spokesman added the following)

Catherine Bertini, the Under-Secretary-General for Management, sent an e-mail to all staff today on the subject of security in Iraq.  And she does say that in addition to the immediate security assessment undertaken by the UN Security Coordinator, an independent inquiry will be conducted to investigate our security arrangements in the run-up to the bombing.

Question:  Can we have a copy of that?

Spokesman:  I’m not sure it’s a public document, but every staff member got it as an e-mail this morning so you probably won’t have much difficulty getting it.

Question:  What’s the status of the UN investigation into what happened and also, can you update us on what Mr. Tun Myat, the Security Coordinator, is doing in Iraq?  Has he left already?

Spokesman:  I don’t know the status of the current investigation.  Yes, he is back in New York.  He briefed the Deputy Secretary-General’s steering group on Iraq this morning and he will be attending the Secretary-General’s meeting at four o’clock this afternoon.  As far as his report on security, I think he expects to complete it in the next couple of days.

Question:  Will that report be made public?

Spokesman:  I doubt it, but I’ll check for you.

Question:  What’s the UN doing on the ground in terms of publicity for the Organization itself to separate itself from the concept that it is perhaps part of the Coalition, to try and protect it, and sort of have its own identity, because the messages that were passing on the ground were that the UN and the Coalition were one and the same and that perhaps there was a need for the United Nations to stand on its own and not be identified and perhaps targeted as one and the same?

Spokesman:  I think Sergio Vieira de Mello made that clear on every occasion and before the explosion we had a nascent information programme getting under way, and at least one of the persons working on that programme was among the victims, so I think at the moment we’re probably rethinking the information campaign.  I don’t know what might exist from the original information effort.  You’d probably have to ask Baghdad that.  But normally, in every mission we have, we have an information component that explains the mandate so that the local people clearly understand why it is we’re there.  Because it’s very easy to get a distorted sense of what the UN’s responsibilities are.

Question:  Moving the staff to neighbouring countries, how much does that affect the mission?

Spokesman:  We’re trying to minimize the amount of the disruption by allowing the people who can as easily do their work outside the country as in Iraq, to continue their work.  Administrators, for example.  And I’ve already mentioned we’re counting on our local staff to carry a lot of the burden as far as the humanitarian work is concerned.  So we cannot as efficiently do our work with more than half our international staff out of the country.  But we’re doing our best.

Question:  After the bombing in Najaf, there are an increasing number of people speculating about religious civil war in Iraq.  Do you think that might jolt the United Nations in any specific direction?

Spokesman:  I don’t want to speculate on how things could go wrong in Iraq.  We’re hoping things will go right in Iraq.

Question:  What are the chances of our getting to talk to Tun Myat?

Spokesman:  We did raise that question.  We didn’t get a definitive answer.  But we did ask and we’ll let you know as soon as we get an answer.

Question:  In terms of security in Iraq, what do we expect from the Coalition?  I read in the New York Post this morning that the UN had refused security before the bombing.  Can you try to explain to us?

Spokesman:  We’ve already addressed that, starting the week before last.  We were never able to confirm that on any occasion the UN refused an offer of security.  We did say that we did not want to live in an armed camp and we are currently reassessing security since we became vulnerable to this violent attack.  But the responsibility for peace and security in Iraq is, of course, under international law, with the Coalition forces.

Question:  How do you address this story, where they’re talking about the UN’s arrogance?

Spokesman:  I haven’t seen anything about arrogance.  And we are working with the Coalition.  At the time of the explosion, the Coalition forces were erecting a 12-foot concrete wall in response to the increased security threat that they perceived and we acknowledged and we agreed to do something about.  It was not enough to prevent the damage from this bomb attack, however.

Question:  On another topic, to clarify the smoking ban, does that pertain to staff only?  Or are diplomats and other miscreants running around the building covered?

Spokesman:  We would hope that all would comply with the Secretary-General’s announced new policy.  If it comes to staff and they break the rules, they are subject to disciplinary action.  I’m not sure we have the right to discipline diplomats but we count on their cooperation.

Question:  Has security been involved, have they been told to enforce the ban or verbally admonish people who are smoking?  Are they part of this?  Because they are reluctant at times to step in, and I know they have a lot of other things to think about.

Spokesman:  I assume that now that this is a formally articulated policy, that security would do everything they could to enforce it.  Again, with staff rather than diplomats.

Question:  And why did this come now, after so many years?  Is it because of what New York is doing?  WHO’s been on board for years saying smoking should be outlawed.

Spokesman:  It was pressure from you that mainly brought this about.  [Laughter.]

Question:  Concerning Iraq, there’s an appeal by Member States to join the United States on security.  Is that under the flag of the United Nations or in cooperation with it, or otherwise?

Spokesman:  We’ve been saying for some time that that’s an idea that’s being discussed now among Member States, primarily in capitals.

Question:  Chalabi, who’s the new Chair of the Group of 25 in Iraq, has been charged in absentia to 22 years of hard labour by a Jordanian court.  Were they using the announcement of Chalabi as head of the 25 at the time because the UN was at that point inoperative?  I’m sure that having a criminal as Chair is not very welcome to the United Nations.

Spokesman:  I don’t think that’s a question you should put to me.

Briefing by the Spokesperson for the General Assembly President

Good afternoon.  Today there is a Meeting of States Parties of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the Committee on Host Country Relations will meet, tomorrow afternoon in ECOSOC.

On Thursday, 4 September, President Kavan will co-chair an interactive discussion on the role of civil society in conflict prevention.  This discussion will be co-chaired by the President and Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr. Danilo Türk.  It will take place in Trusteeship from 10 to one on Thursday.  UN accredited media are invited to attend.

As I mentioned on Friday, the goals of this meeting are to explore how best to link the work of civil society in preventing armed conflict with the work of governments and the UN in this area, and to update Member States about the ongoing preparatory work towards a major international conference devoted to the role of civil society in conflict prevention, which is planned to take place at UN Headquarters in 2005.

And on Monday, 8 September, President Kavan will address the opening session of the fifty-sixth annual DPI/NGO Conference, on the theme “Human Security and Dignity:  Fulfilling the Promise of the United Nations”.  And from Monday through Wednesday of next week, the Committee on Conferences will hold its substantive session.

I’d like to draw your attention to two documents that may help you with future planning.  One is a press release on tentative schedule of meetings of UN bodies in September, this Press Release ORG/1393, which I’ll make available upstairs at the documents counter.  And also a GA document that gives the opening dates of forthcoming regular sessions of the GA and the dates of the general debates from now until the sixty-third session in 2008.  So I’ll put this at the documents counter on the 3^rd floor.  Any questions?

Question:  Do you know who’s representing Iraq in the General Assembly?

Spokesperson:  I have no information on that.

* *** *