DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICES OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
AND THE SPOKESWOMAN 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 Michele Montas, Spokeswoman for the General Assembly President.

**Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon.

**Guest at Noon

William Lacy Swing, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, will be joining us today to brief you on several issues relating to the DRC, including the electoral process and the implementation of Security Council resolution 1493.

**Liberia

From Liberia, the so-called “Day One” Ceremony should be taking place just about now following the arrivals in Monrovia of Secretary-General’s Special Representative Jacques Klein and the newly appointed Force Commander of the UN Mission there, Lieutenant General Daniel Opande.

We have the Jacques Klein’s statement available in my Office.  He is also scheduled to hold a press conference after the ceremony.

**Statement Attributable to Spokesman for Secretary-General on UNMIL

“The Secretary-General salutes the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for its role in establishing the security climate that paved the way for the deployment of the UN Mission in Liberia.

“He is confident that the Mission will be able to contribute in a major way towards the resolution of conflict in Liberia, provided all parties concerned cooperate fully with the force and the international community provides the necessary resources.”  That is part of a fuller statement that we have available in my Office.

**Iraq

In a press briefing this morning in Baghdad, Kevin Kennedy, the officer in charge of UN operations in Iraq, said that the UN remained extremely concerned about the security situation in the country.

He said, “As everybody today knows, this is a war zone and the conflict affects everybody, principally the Iraqi people who have to live in these conditions.”

Nevertheless, Kennedy told journalists that the UN remains in Iraq to provide essential humanitarian assistance in a collective effort by the Organization’s international and national staffs, Iraqi ministries and international and national NGOs.

Asked about the recent reduction in international staff, Kennedy said that the UN has sufficient international and national personnel in country to carry out everything that is an essential humanitarian task.  The numbers of international staff countrywide, he added, changes literally on a daily basis depending on the circumstances and the operations that we are carrying out.

In detailing the UN’s main activities in Iraq, Kennedy said that, through the food distribution system, the World Food Programme (WFP) coordinates the distribution of 500,000 metric tonnes of food per month.  As a point of reference, in Afghanistan, at the peak of the food crisis, WFP was distributing 120 metric tonnes per month.  Among the other activities is the Food and Agricultural Organization’s involvement in the importation of 600,000 tonnes of fertilizer for the coming planting season.

We have the full text of Kennedy’s comments to the press available upstairs.

**IAEA – Iran

A team of senior International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors will arrive in Tehran, Iran, tomorrow to launch an active and intense period of talks and inspections concerning Iran’s nuclear programme.

Speaking to reporters in Vienna today, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said the coming weeks would be “decisive”, with the most important issue being the verification of the nature and extent of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme.  He also noted the question of the testing of centrifuges, saying, “Our experts tell us that testing with nuclear material must have taken place for Iran to reach the stage it has.”  We have a press release with more details.

**Security Council

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte assumed the presidency of the Security Council for October today and is holding bilateral consultations with other Council members on the programme of work for this month.  There are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council scheduled for today.  The Council’s monthly lunch with the Secretary-General will take place tomorrow, and the first consultations are expected on Friday.

**Colombia

The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Professor Katarina Tomasevski, will be visiting Colombia from 1 to 10 October.  The Rapporteur will report on the status of the right to education in Colombia and the difficulties encountered in the implementation of this right.

While Colombia has a 92 per cent literacy rate and primary school enrolment is at 90 per cent, the Colombian Government reports that there are still 1.5 million children without access to basic education.  In addition, UNICEF reports that more than 1 million children have been displaced in Colombia within the last 15 years and that 7 out of every 10 displaced children never return to school.

The Special Rapporteur, who is an independent expert of the Commission on Human Rights, will meet with a number of government authorities and NGOs and will conduct investigations in Bogota and Choco.

**Myanmar

In response to questions from journalists today, we can confirm that Secretary-General’s Special Envoy Razali Ismail met with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi today.  We are expecting a full report of his current trip to Myanmar, which is scheduled to end tomorrow.  And we’re expecting that report tomorrow, as well.

**Corruption Convention

This afternoon in Vienna, in a meeting which should be wrapping up just now, the Ad Hoc Committee on the Negotiation of the Convention against Corruption has adopted the text of that Convention.

In a message to the Vienna talks, delivered by the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, the Secretary-General extends his best wishes and congratulations to the Ad Hoc Committee on its work.  He says, “This Convention can make a real difference to the quality of life of millions of people around the world.”  We have copies of the message upstairs.

**Secretary-General Messages

In Geneva today, parliamentarians from around the world gathered for the Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly, and the Secretary-General, in a message to that meeting, said that the past year’s events have called into question some parts of the consensus underlying the Millennium Declaration.

He says that threats ranging from terrorism and weapons of mass destruction to so-called “soft threats” like extreme poverty and environmental degradation are real and must be addressed, and the United Nations needs to consider how it can deal with them.  He argues, “The time has long since arrived to look hard at the institutions of the United Nations -– and, if necessary, to make radical reforms.”  We have copies of his message upstairs.

Also, today is the International Day of Older Persons, and the Secretary-General, in a message, marks the occasion by drawing attention to the skills that order persons can bring to help economic development.

**Habitat

News from Habitat:  Using a newly formulated operational definition of slums, the UN Habitat suggests that the numbers of urban slum dwellers could double to 2 billion by 2030. 

This Friday, the Executive Director of the UNHABITAT, accompanied by the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Millennium Development Goals, Jeffrey Sachs, will be here for the press launch of the “Global Report on Human Settlements:  The Slum Challenge”.

This book is the first global assessment of slums and emphasizes their problems and prospects.  It was written specifically to support the Millennium Development Goal of improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.  The book examines the factors leading to slum formation at all levels and evaluates the main policy responses to the slum challenge of the last few decades.

**UNEP

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) today said that over 20 million tropical fish, 9 to 10 million animals and up to 12 million stony corals are being harvested annually to supply the booming marine aquarium trade in Europe and the United States.

According to UNEP’s report that was released today, the value of aquarium creatures in trade is worth between $200 million and $330 million annually, with South-East Asia as the main source of trade.  We have a press release with more details.

**UNHCR

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has raised serious concerns about refugee protection, if agreement is reached on a crucial piece of EU asylum legislation.  You can read more on that subject in a press release that we have upstairs.

**Press Conference Tomorrow

Finally, a press conference tomorrow at 11 a.m.:  Jan Kregel, the Senior Interregional Advisor of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, will be here to launch this year’s Trade and Development Report.

That’s all I have for you.  Any questions before we go to Michele? 

**Questions and Answers

Question:   The BBC was reporting an outbreak of fighting near Monrovia.  Do you have anything on that?

Spokesman:  We have some preliminary details of what our mission there describes as two incidents.  One apparently involved two vehicles belonging to UNHCR and the World Health Organization, which were taken away by armed elements.  There were no casualties among the UN workers involved.  The second incident involved the leader of the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, Sekou Conneh.  Making his entry into the capital, some stones were thrown, apparently there was also gunfire reported.  Conneh reportedly returned to Tubmanberg.  And that’s all we have on those two incidents.  Yes?

Question:   Fred, there are prominent newspapers today reporting the plan of the Secretary-General’s alleged resolution on Iraq, what the SG would like to see happen.  In this context, I wonder, what does the SG envision as far as the timeline for transition to sovereignty in Iraq?

Spokesman:  Any thoughts he’s had on this subject he shared privately with government leaders or delegates here.  So, this matter of negotiating a second resolution is clearly in the hands of delegations.  And, as you know, it’s being discussed at very high levels.  I don’t think he wants to publicly say anything about what his views are.  Privately, he has made his views clear to the various people involved in these talks.

Question:   Of what benefit does he see in a shorter transition to sovereignty?

Spokesman:  I think I just answered the question.  He doesn’t want to talk about it publicly.

Question:   Another element of that, if I could, and you’ll probably give me the same answer, and that’s on the inclusion of former Ba’athist or Ba’ath Party members in a future government in Iraq.  Is that something that’s on the table for the Secretary-General?

Spokesman:  I think you’ve seen his views on that subject reported, but again it’s not something that he personally put out to you.  Yes?

Question:   Can you tell us something about the SG’s meeting with North Korea yesterday?

Spokesman:  That’s a tough one.  We have a very sketchy read-out.  If you ask at my Office, they’ll give you the three topics that were discussed, but the read-out doesn’t go beyond that.  Sorry, we can’t be more helpful.

Question:   Fred, has the SG at any time linked the return of the UN in full force in Iraq to the quick transition to sovereignty?  Has that been a condition that he’s laid out at all these?

Spokesman:  No, he’s linked it to the security situation in the country.  Yes?

Question:   Is there a number of UN personnel in Iraq now?

Spokesman:  There are personnel there.  We’ve been drawing down gradually since the Secretary-General announced he’d be doing that.  I don’t have a precise figure for today; it’s probably in the area of 30.  That’s international staff; there are over 4,000 local staff.  Mr. Abbadi?

Question:   Fred, has the new panel on the reforms been established and, if not, when will it be?

Spokesman:  It has not.  The Secretary-General is still looking at possible candidates and I don’t have a time-frame for when it might be announced.  It won’t be long, but he’s not ready to announce it this week.  Yes?

Question:   Fred, do you see any exodus of the local staff in Iraq?  Are those numbers still at what they were before?

Spokesman:  I have to check with Baghdad, but I have not heard that there was any exodus of local staff.  We are as concerned for their safety as we are with our international staff.  They continue to work in very difficult circumstances and are to be commended for that.

Question:   Have you heard any bit of reports of any that have just left the Organization; they’re not working with the UN?

Spokesman:  I don’t have that information here.  We’d have to check with Baghdad; that’s kind of an operational detail.  So, if you’d like come back to my Office we’ll see if we can reach Baghdad by telephone.

Okay, Michele?

Spokesman for General Assembly President

Thank you Fred, Good afternoon,

The General Assembly continues its general debate today.  So far, several issues have been brought forward by delegations of Member States.  Many have stressed that security is no longer limited to political and military concerns -- transnational crime, economic stagnation, and the spread of pandemics also impacted peace and security and, therefore, demanded collective action from rich and poor countries alike.  A majority has stressed the growing importance of multilateralism among nations as the most effective means to seek peace and security, as well as human, social, and economic development.

Amid fresh calls for radical United Nations reform, delegations have been urging the General Assembly not to ignore crippling debt, protectionist trade barriers, and the insidious spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases -- all core concerns of developing nations.  The President of the Assembly will summarize the major trends of the general debate, the trends that have emerged in these last two weeks, at a press conference here next Tuesday, 11 a.m.  He will also discuss at the pres conference his own priorities for the 58^th session.

Today is, as Fred said earlier, the International Day of Older Persons, and the President of the Assembly, Julian Hunte, has also issued a statement where he notes that “the number of persons aged 60 years or older was estimated to be 629 million, representing one in every 10 persons”.  It is difficult to imagine how countries may progress if such a significant proportion of the population is not taken into account in the development process, he said.  “Let us now”, he said “reaffirm our commitment to embrace older persons as a most cherished resource, with an essential contribution to make to social, economic and cultural development.  Let us undertake to work with them to tap their wisdom, experience and skills in the building of our communities and societies.”  This will be available later as a press release.

This is all I have for you, thank you.

Questions and Answers

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  No questions?  Yes, Mr. Abbadi?

Question:   What’s the President’s reaction on the Secretary-General’s proposal on the establishment of a panel on UN reforms?  Does he expect to play a role in that panel?

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President:  Well, he certainly is waiting for the panel to be formed.  But, he is also, at the same time, consulting with the different members of the General Assembly about their own feelings about that reform, and he will definitely talk about that also at his press conference on Tuesday.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Okay, thank you very much.  I am told that Mr. Swing is on his way; so if you just want to sit back and relax for another couple of minutes, I think he will be here.  Thank you.

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