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

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 General Assembly President.

Secretary-General’s Spokesman

Good Afternoon.

**SG to Geneva

The Secretary-General will travel to Geneva, Switzerland, this afternoon to attend two meetings.

The first, on Friday, is an extraordinary meeting of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee.  And what’s extra-ordinary about that is that it will be attended by the heads of all the organizations that participate.  That, by the way, is the umbrella group that coordinates the humanitarian work of the United Nations with that of non-governmental organizations and the Red Cross movement.

The Secretary-General convened this meeting, which will take place Friday morning at the Palais des Nations, to discuss the future role and presence of humanitarian actors in Iraq, as well as the issues revolving around the need to ensure a humanitarian presence in insecure environments, more generally.

**P-5 Meeting on Iraq

Then on Saturday, the Foreign Ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council and the Secretary-General will hold a meeting on the subject of Iraq.  The meeting is to review the current situation, consider options for the future, including on the security situation, the political transition and economic recovery in Iraq and examine the implications for the role of the United Nations.  The Secretary-General hopes that the meeting will enable the permanent members to identify important points of convergence with the aim of ultimately allowing the full Council to arrive at a consensus that will accelerate the return to stability and the early restoration of Iraqi national sovereignty.

**Security Council

The Security Council has scheduled consultations on Libya at 12:15 p.m. today.

Then, at 12:30 p.m., the Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting with a view to vote on whether to lift UN sanctions on Libya.  We will let you know as soon as the speakers’ list is available.

Then, at 3:30 p.m., the Security Council has scheduled a meeting with troop-contributing countries to the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea.  The Secretary-General’s latest report on Ethiopia and Eritrea was issued last Friday.

**Middle East

Yesterday, we put out two statements regarding the Middle East, saying that the Secretary-General is greatly troubled by the intensifying cycle of violence, retaliation and revenge between Israelis and Palestinians.  He deplores the tendency of both sides to disregard their obligation to protect civilians under international humanitarian law.

In the other statement, the Secretary-General voiced the hope that the resignation of Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen will not derail efforts, embodied in the Quartet’s Road Map, to forge peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Secretary-General is distressed by the latest news of a bombing in Tel Aviv just a short time a go. We are trying to gather more information on that attack before responding further.

**Liberia

An eight-member advance team of the Government of Liberia -– the Transition Committee of the Government of Liberia -- visited the UN offices in Monrovia today. 

The team had been dispatched to confer on preparations for the installation of the transitional government on 14 October.  The discussion centred around ways the transitional government and the United Nations could work in partnership once the Security Council has approved a mandate for the new mission.

Both sides emphasized the need to establish conditions of security in the country.  The lack of security, law and order in many parts of Liberia are still hampering humanitarian operations in Liberia, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.  Despite these constraints, UNHCR said aid workers continued to work where they could.

UNHCR also says that it is growing increasingly concerned about the fate of thousands of Ivorian refugees scattered along Liberia’s eastern border with Côte d’Ivoire.  The refugee agency is exploring possible ways of accessing this part of Liberia with the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN coordination agency, OCHA.

You can read more details about the humanitarian efforts underway in Liberia in the Geneva briefing notes.

**Rwanda food

The World Food Programme said that the situation of food aid for Rwanda was now critical.

At the beginning of September, WFP had urged donors to send their contributions to ensure that malnutrition and other related problems would not affect the refugees and victims of the drought in Rwanda.  WFP asked for 6,200 tons of food costing $3.3 million

WFP said today it had not received any contributions and it was going to have to reduce by 30 per cent the food rations to the affected persons starting October.  If contributions remained unforthcoming, further cuts in rations were envisioned.

**UN Security

In the most recent of his continuing efforts to improve the safety of UN staff in the field, the Secretary-General yesterday urged all States to sign on to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel.

In a letter addressed to the heads of State or government and foreign ministers who are expected to attend the General Assembly later this month, he invited States that have not already ratified or acceded to the Convention to do so at a high-level treaty event that will take place at UN Headquarters from 23 to 26 September, concurrent with the Assembly’s general debate.

As of yesterday, the Convention, which was adopted in 1994, had 66 States parties, while efforts are continuing to ensure that all States that have significant numbers of UN or associated personnel will accede to it.  We have more details in a press release.

**Road safety

In a report to the General Assembly which is out on the racks today, the Secretary-General says that an estimated 1.26 million people worldwide died as a result of road traffic injuries in 2000, with road accidents responsible for 25 per cent of all deaths due to injury.  The World Health Organization estimates that by 2020, road traffic injuries could rank third among causes of death and disability, ahead of malaria, tuberculosis and AIDS.  The report includes recommendations for dealing with the issue and notes that road traffic injuries can be significantly reduced with a moderate investment.

**SARS

The World Health Organization today said that speculations concerning the discovery of a new case of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome in Singapore cannot yet be confirmed as SARS due to conflicting medical analyses.  WHO is waiting for the results of an independent laboratory on whether this has been a case of SARS and will continue to follow the situation.

The case involved a 27-year old medical student in Singapore who was working in a laboratory which was studying the SARS virus.  After hospitalisation, the patient’s fever was down to normal.  No, you can’t have a “normal fever”.  The patient’s “temperature” was down to normal.

**Press Conferences Today

Today at 12:30 p.m., right after this briefing, Danny Glover the actor and UN Development Programme Goodwill Ambassador, will be joined by Kingsley Moghalu, who is Director of Resource Mobilization and Global Partnerships for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, to brief you on the fifty-sixth annual DPI/NGO conference that we announced to you yesterday.

At 3:45 p.m., the Permanent Mission of Jordan will be sponsoring a press conference by the NGO Coalition for the International Criminal Court.

**Press Conferences tomorrow

And a press conference tomorrow, also at 12:30 p.m., Sadako Ogata, who is now Chair of the Advisory Board on Human Security will be joined by Roland Widerkehr, Member of the Swiss Parliament and Founder of the Green Cross, and they will be here also to brief on the DPI/NGO conference.

That’s all I have for you. 

Questions and Answers

Question:  Fred, you may have said this before I came in.  Does the Council have formal or informal talks scheduled on the US draft on Iraq?

Spokesman:  Nothing to announce yet on Iraq.  Today’s activity is Libya and a troop contributors’ meeting on Ethiopia/Eritrea; that’s all we had to announce for today.

Okay, Richard over to you.

Spokesman for General Assembly President

Okay, thank you and good afternoon.

In his address yesterday to the fifty-sixth annual DPI/NGO Conference on Human Security and Dignity, President Kavan told participants that he was particularly pleased to offer his support both as the current President of the General Assembly, but also as a long-time supporter of civil society organizations.  He told the Conference that he had been involved for many years in the work of NGOs in his own country, the Czech Republic, as well as internationally.  “I know through personal experience that human security can only be achieved by building on people’s strengths to create strong civil societies and institutions.  The discussion on how we work together towards a more effective and mutually supportive relationship to enhance our membership, is more relevant than ever”, he said.  Copies of his address are available at the documents counter and on the General Assembly President’s Web site.

On the General Assembly front, the Committee on Conferences met yesterday and is today holding informal meetings.

And I would like to announce that President Kavan on Thursday will be giving his final wrap-up briefing for the 57^th General Assembly session.  That will be on Thursday, 11 September, at 4 p.m. in UNCA. 

Any questions? 

Thank you.

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