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 Hua Jiang, Deputy-Spokeswoman for the Secretary-General, and Michele Montas, Spokeswoman for the General Assembly President.

Deputy Spokeswoman for the Secretary-General

Good Afternoon.

**Nobel Peace Prize

The following is a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Secretary-General warmly welcomes the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to Ms. Shirin Ebadi, the first Muslim woman to receive the prize and a courageous champion of human rights.

He extends his sincere congratulations to Ms. Ebadi, noting that she previously served as Iran’s first woman judge and is recognized particularly for her tireless work to promote the human rights of women, children and refugees.

Equally, she is known for her conviction that human rights are fully compatible with Islam, and her interpretation of Islamic law in a way that recognizes the harmony between human rights, democracy and equality before the law.

Her work is a fine example of the very principles the United Nations stands for, and this award should serve as an inspiration to women and men, Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as human rights defenders, around the world.

In addition, speaking to reporters this morning, the Secretary-General General called Ms. Ebadi a “courageous woman”.  He added that he hoped the award would underscore the importance of expanding human rights throughout the world and empower women to speak out and insist on their rights.

The full text of his comments is available upstairs.  (See Press Release SG/SM/8934).

In a statement issued in Geneva, the Acting United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bertrand Ramcharan, warmly congratulates Ms. Ebadi on being awarded the prize for championing human rights and democracy.

Peace and development depend on the faithful observance of international human rights norms globally, he said, in the statement which is available upstairs.

**Secretary-General on Iraq

Asked by reporters, on his way into the building this morning, if he thought a new Iraq resolution was needed prior to the Madrid donors’ conference, the Secretary-General said that many saw the two as linked and “ideally one would want to see the resolution before the conference”.

Asked if the conference should still go ahead without a resolution, the Secretary-General answered that the Member States were discussing the resolution on this very complex issue seriously.  “What is important”, he added, “is that we come up with a good resolution and not a quick resolution”.

The full text is available upstairs.

**Missile Attack in Rafah

The following is a Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General on the IDF missile attack in Rafah.

The Secretary-General deplores the killing of Palestinian civilians during the Israeli incursion into Rafah in the Gaza Strip.  Two children were among those killed when the IDF fired a missile into a crowded area.

Not for the first time, the Secretary-General reminds Israel that the disproportionate use of force in densely populated areas is not compatible with international humanitarian law.

The Secretary-General calls again on both sides to take every measure to avoid harming innocent civilians.

      **Brazil

This morning in Geneva, the Spokesman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that they had learned with great consternation of the reported killing of a second person in Brazil, who had spoken to the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, during her recent visit to that country.

He said the killing seemed to be, unfortunately, indicative of the situation that the Special Rapporteur had described during her mission to the country from 16 September to 8 October.

At that time, the Special Rapporteur had spoken at some length of death-squad activity by rogue police elements.

      **Security Council

The Security Council held consultations on the Middle East and “other matters”.

Members discussed the Syrian letter asking for an open meeting on a Palestinian draft resolution on Israel's construction of a wall in the occupied territories.

That letter, together with the draft resolution, is out as a Security Council document on the racks today.

Members agreed to hold an open meeting on the Middle East on Tuesday.

Following consultations, the Security Council went into a formal meeting on a presidential statement on the Sudanese peace process.

      **Security Council Sanctions Committees

The Chairman of the Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Heraldo Munoz of Chile, will today begin a visit to selected countries in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.

He will be undertaking his mission in accordance with Security Council resolution 1455, which requests the Chairman to consider such visits with a view to encouraging States to implement all relevant Council resolutions.

A press release is out on this mission.  (See Press Release SC/7892).

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Security Council Committee on Somalia, Ambassador Stefan Tafrov of Bulgaria has informed the Secretariat of his decision to postpone the mission of that Committee, which we had announced earlier.

The new dates of the mission will be communicated to you in due course.

      **Staff Security

The report of the Secretary-General to the General Assembly on the Safety and Security of Humanitarian Personnel and protection of United Nations personnel is out as a document today.

In this report, the Secretary-General says, “although staff are certainly better prepared to operate amid the risks that often accompany human sufferings, the number of security incidents taking place and their associated costs remain far too high”.

He also says that of the 196 deaths of United Nations civilian staff due to malicious acts prior to 30 June 2003, only 24 perpetrators have been apprehended.

The Secretary-General is dismayed that there has often been unwillingness to provide timely information in the event of the arrest or detention of locally recruited United Nations personnel and that very few countries have investigated fully, attacks or threats against international and locally recruited United Nations and associated staff members, or held perpetrators accountable under international and national law.

      **Liberia

In Monrovia, forces of the United Nations Mission in Liberia continued intensified military patrols and searches for arms around the capital.

The UN Force Commander in Liberia, Daniel Opande, has completed visits to Tubmanburg, Gbarnga, Ganta and Buchanan where he met with representatives of Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), and another group, Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), as well as the Government of Liberia armed forces.

He urged the parties to observe the ceasefire and to reinforce the decisions reached at Monday's Joint Monitoring Committee.

As you will recall, the Committee agreed to make Monrovia and its environs “weapons-free” within 72 hours and allow free and unhindered access to the United Nations Mission, humanitarian agencies and their partners in areas under their control.

Humanitarian agencies continued to voice concern about the security conditions in Liberia as the 14 October date for the inauguration of the interim government looms closer.

The World Food Programme said it had decided to temporarily suspend its distribution of food during the inauguration period, and would resume the distribution of food around 20 October.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees said that the situation in Liberia remained tense, and incidents of looting and robbery had been reported despite efforts by UN peacekeepers to collect weapons.

      **East Timor

The Report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council on the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor is out on the racks today.

The report notes that despite remarkable progress that has been made there since independence in May 2002, it is clear that crucial work remains to be done, and international assistance will continue to be indispensable.

In this context, the report says, it is timely that the international community begin considering the best means through which the country’s needs can be met after the withdrawal of the UN Mission.

      **Afghanistan

      The Secretary-General has transmitted to the Security Council, letters from Lord Robertson, the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), with regard to NATO’s long-term strategy for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF).  NATO assumed the command of ISAF on 11 August this year.

In his letters, Lord Robertson informed the Secretary-General of NATO’s intension to expand the ISAF’s mission and to undertake temporary deployments outside Kabul.

He notes that an expanded ISAF mandate will require a specific Security Council resolution and additional resources.

These letters are available upstairs.

      **Mental Health Day

You’ll be glad to know that today is Mental Health Day, which this year focuses on the special needs of children and adolescents with mental, emotional and behavioural disorders.

The Secretary-General, in a message to mark the occasion, says that young people who have these disorders could be subjected to stigma and discrimination, and may never get the chance to build the future that they deserve.

That message has been issued as a press release.

**World Chronicle Programme

World Chronicle Programme number 907 with Kingsley Moghalu of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, will be shown today at

3:30 p.m. on in-house television channel 3 or 31.

**Press Conference on Monday

The Press Conference by Gerald Gahima, Prosecutor General in the Rwandan Supreme Court, originally scheduled for this morning, has been rescheduled for Monday at 11 a.m.

He will be here to talk to you about the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

And we have the week ahead for you to pick up upstairs.  I just want to highlight two items.

Monday, as already mentioned, Rwanda Prosecutor-General will hold a press briefing and on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m., United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Assistant Administrator, Julia Taft, will hold a press conference on the joint UNDP/World Bank Needs Assessment for Iraq, in advance of the Madrid Donors’ Conference.

And that’s all I have for you.

Questions and Answers

Spokeswoman for the Secretary-General:  Yes please?

Question:  I have a couple of questions.  When the United States bombed, what they thought was a chemical weapons factory in Sudan, I believe the United Nations went later to investigate the site and discovered, it was most likely an aspirin factory.  I want to know if Syria has approached the UN to perhaps undertake a similar role to investigate the site the Israelis bombed last Sunday to see if in fact it was a terrorist camp or what they claimed it was?

Spokeswoman:  I haven’t heard anything on that.  But I will check for you after the briefing.

Question:  The UN is willing and capable of doing it?

Spokeswoman:  I will check.

Question:  Second question.  Manuel was quoted this morning somewhere about fierce battles going on in Afghanistan, tanks being used, do you have anything else on that?

Spokeswoman:  Well, in fact, yesterday I briefed you on the fighting near the Mazar City and tanks were used by both sides and also they used mortars.  So it was quite intensive fighting, and we haven’t heard anything from the mission today but from what I gathered the fighting has stopped since the signing by both sides of an agreement, yesterday.

Question:  The UN played a role in that?

Spokeswoman:  UN was one of the witnesses of the signing of that agreement.

Spokeswoman:  Yes please?

Question:  Was there any reason why (inaudible)?

Spokeswoman:  I don’t have the details here, but if you check with my office afterwards, I will give you that detail.

Thank you.  Michele?

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Thank you Hua and good afternoon.

Matters concerning corruption are being taken up in several venues today within the General Assembly.

The General Committee, meeting this morning, recommended that the General Assembly take action on a draft United Nations convention against Corruption.

Mexico had requested that the final report of the Ad Hoc Committee for the negotiation of the Convention be examined by the General Assembly, so that a high level political conference would be convened in Mexico in December to sign that Convention.

The Third Committee (Social and Humanitarian) has been focusing on corruption and organized crime, as the debate began yesterday on illicit drugs, and criminal justice issues.

The Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, stressed yesterday that modern technology enabled criminals to launder money, commit large-scale fraud, attack computer systems and disseminate paedophile material.

His Office had recently developed a composite index of organized crime, combining data on more than 10 factors -- perceptions of organized crime and high-level corruption by business leaders, the extent of the “grey economy”, the degree of arms and tobacco smuggling, levels of human trafficking, car theft and money laundering.

Results showed that sub-Saharan Africa appeared to be the region most affected by organized crime, followed by Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Several participants to the debate stressed that in October 2003, the international community had seen a landmark achievement in the fight against crime.  After two years of negotiations involving some 130 countries, Member States have successfully concluded the draft convention against corruption.

In addition, on 29 September, the Transnational Organized Crime Convention has entered into force and has been ratified by over 50 countries.

The application of these new legal instruments would provide governments with additional tools to cooperate against these transnational threats.

On the other hand, there will be this afternoon, a panel discussion on “Corporate Responsibility”, as part of the work of the Second Committee.

The Moderator will be Ambassador Iftekhar Chowdhury (Bangladesh), Chairman of the Second Committee.  Among the panellists are representatives of the Anti-Corruption Division, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and of Transparency International-USA.

It is this afternoon in Conference room 2 from 3 to 6.  I will add that the chairman of the Second Committee, Ambassador Chowdhury, will meet the press at 11 on Tuesday.

That is all I have.  Thank you.

Spokeswoman for Secretary-General:  Any questions?  All right have a very good afternoon.  Thank you.

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