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

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 Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Michèle Montas, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.

Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good Afternoon.

**Guest at Noon

Olara Otunnu, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, will be joining us today to talk about his report to the General Assembly.

**SG to Madrid

Following his speaking engagement in Pittsburgh this afternoon, the Secretary-General will travel directly to Madrid.

On the morning of Thursday, 23 October, he will deliver a speech at the opening session of the International Donor’s Conference for the Reconstruction of Iraq, hosted by the Government of Spain.

The Secretary-General will be back in New York Thursday evening.

**SG in Pittsburgh

The Secretary-General arrived in Pittsburgh about an hour ago, where he received a check for $10,000, presented by a group of children on behalf of Heinz employees, for the UN Children’s Fund to support its work to provide children with safe and balanced nutrition.

After that, he is to attend a luncheon with the city’s political, academic, business and community leaders.  Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy is expected to present him with the keys to the city.

Then, this afternoon, the Secretary-General will deliver the Ninth Heinz Distinguished Lecture at the University of Pittsburgh and will receive an honorary degree from the University.

In his speech, embargoed copies of which we have upstairs, the Secretary-General will note the United States’ unique role at the United Nations, from the efforts by Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish the world body up to the current UN efforts to help the Afghan people rebuild their State and, if circumstances permit, to bring similar help to the Iraqi people.

He will also emphasize his belief that we can find collective answers to the problems the world confronts today, even if it requires a hard look at international rules, starting from first principles.

Once he has finished his stay in Pittsburgh, as I have said just now, the Secretary-General will travel onward to the donors’ conference on Iraq in Madrid.

**Statement attributable to Spokesman for Secretary-General

The following is a statement attributable to the Spokesman of the Secretary-General:

“The Secretary-General welcomes the declaration agreed in Tehran today by the Iranian Government and visiting EU Foreign Ministers regarding the nuclear program of the Islamic Republic of Iran.  He encourages the Iranian authorities to further cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to resolve all outstanding issues with the Agency.

“The Secretary-General appreciates the efforts of the Government of Iran and the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom in working towards resolving outstanding issues regarding Iran’s nuclear programme.”

**Iran

Last week, during a visit to Tehran, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Mohamed ElBaradei received assurances that Iran would provide the IAEA with a full disclosure of all its past nuclear activities, and the Iranian Government also expressed its readiness to conclude an Additional Protocol.

The Agency said that today's news from Tehran is an encouraging sign toward clarifying all aspects of Iran's past nuclear programme and regulating its future activities through verification.

ElBaradei hopes and expects that, in the next few days, Iran will deliver to the IAEA a complete declaration of all its past nuclear activities and an official notification of its readiness to conclude an Additional Protocol.

**Security Council

The Security Council is discussing the Middle East, including the question of Palestine, today, in talks that began with an open meeting, in which Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast briefed Council members, saying that today’s meeting takes place at “a low point” for peace efforts.

“Instead of moving forward,” he said, “we are seeing backward movement, away from a peaceful settlement, away from the negotiating table.”

Prendergast cited the impact of suicide bombings, rejectionist language, extrajudicial killings, walls that extend deep into the occupied Palestinian territory, the destruction of homes, expropriation and continued settlement activity, which lead both Israelis and Palestinians to feelings of hopelessness, despair, hatred, rage and revenge.

Since the last briefing to the Council, he said, 80 people have lost their lives, including 27 Israelis, 47 Palestinians, and three American diplomatic security officers.  Just yesterday, he noted, at least 11 Palestinians were killed in a series of Israeli air strikes on Gaza, and he said the United Nations once more calls on Israel to cease the use of disproportionate and indiscriminate force in civilian areas.

He noted the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to appoint a new prime minister, saying that, as called for in the Road Map, that prime minister should be empowered and credible, and should be the person, along with the Interior Minister, to whom the consolidated Palestinian security forces would report.

Meanwhile, recent incidents along the Blue Line and in the region have highlighted the fragility of the situation.  The region, Prendergast said, is faced with a potential broadening and deepening of interlinked conflicts, adding, “There has to be a better way.  We cannot continue to lurch from crisis to crisis”.

We have copies of the statement upstairs.

The Security Council is currently holding closed consultations on the Middle East.

**SG’s Message to Seville Seminar

In a message to the opening session of the Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East, the Secretary-General said the international community must continue to pressure the parties to exercise self-restraint and avoid further escalation.

“We must work urgently”, he said, “to contain the spread of conflict and violations of international humanitarian law”.

In his message, which was delivered by the Under Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Shashi Tharoor, the Secretary-General went on to say that the net result of the recent increase in violence is that Israelis and Palestinians are pushed farther and farther from the negotiating table, each doubts whether it has a partner for peace.

In conclusion, he told the participants of the two-day seminar organized by the UN, that it is essential that people of good will everywhere, in both official and unofficial positions, devote their political energies and creative efforts to realizing the vision of peaceful co-existence between Israel and the future state of Palestine.

The full text is available upstairs.

**Sierra Leone

The UN Mission in Sierra Leone has started the first phase of a military exercise named “Operation Blue Vigilance.”

In collaboration with the Sierra Leone Police and the Sierra Leone Armed Forces, the operation will increase UNAMSIL forces and the national security agencies’ presence along the border with Liberia, thereby preventing potential infiltrations of Liberian combatants into Sierra Leone.

There is a press release with more details upstairs.

*Liberia

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and other organizations are drawing up plans to provide emergency aid to thousands of displaced people who have returned to their homes in north-western Liberia.

Meanwhile, a UN humanitarian mission that assessed conditions in camps for internally displaced persons said that displaced persons continue to stream into the camps 80 kilometers north-east of Monrovia.

The camps need to be expanded to meet growing numbers of persons seeking shelter.  They lack clean water and adequate sanitation.

**Somalia - Humanitarian

Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, expressed his profound sorrow over the killing by unknown gunmen of two aid workers in the town of Sheikh, in northern Somalia.

Egeland also extended his sincere condolences to the bereaved families of the deceased.

The workers, who where British nationals, were engaged in programmes benefiting children on behalf of the non-governmental organization “SOS Children's Villages” in a northern region of Somalia, known as “Somaliland”.

These murders follow closely on the killing of an Italian aid worker in the same region on 5 October 2003.  A total of four international aid workers have been killed in Somalia since mid-September.

As a result of these incidents, no additional workers will be allowed to travel to the region until the situation has stabilized.

Egeland called on the local authorities to take immediate action to find and prosecute those responsible for the killings.

**ICTY

Yesterday in The Hague, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia unsealed an indictment against four former senior Serbian officials for crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly committed in Kosovo in 1999.  The charges against the four include counts of deportation, forced transfer, murder and persecution.

The accused include the former Chief of General Staff of the Yugoslav Army and the current Chief of the Public Security Department in Serbia and Montenegro.  None of the four has so far been transferred to the custody of the Tribunal.

**UN Children’s Fund

A new UNICEF sponsored report has found that over one billion children suffer the severe effects of poverty.  The researchers analyzed data on nearly 1.2 million children from 46 countries.

Using a pioneering methodology, the survey measured the extent of child poverty, in terms not only of income, but also of deprivation of basic human rights such as shelter, food, water, sanitation, health, education and information.

The full text of a press release is available upstairs.

**Budget

Micronesia paid more than $13,000 to become the 114th Member State to pay its UN regular budget dues in full for this year.

Meanwhile, the United States paid nearly $252 million to the UN peacekeeping budget and more than $4 million to the International Tribunals today.

**Memorial

This Friday is United Nations Day, and at 12:30 p.m. that day, at the North Garden, a memorial funded by the money for the 1988 Nobel Peace Prize given to UN peacekeeping forces will be unveiled.  That Memorial is dedicated to honor all UN staff, whether civilian, military or police, who gave their lives in the service of peace in the line of duty.

The memorial was designed by the architectural firm, Arquitectonica.  In selecting the design, the Secretary-General was assisted by an ad hoc group of advisers.

All UN staff and media are invited to attend the unveiling.

Also that day, the UN Postal Administration will issue a new stamp, dedicated to the memory of the 22 people killed in the explosion at UN Headquarters in Baghdad on 19 August.  The stamp shows the UN flag at half mast, and the words “In Memoriam,” in several UN languages.  We have contact sheets displaying the stamp, available upstairs.

**World Chronicle Television Programme

World Chronicle programme No. 906 with Sakiko Fukuda-Parr, Director and author of the Human Development Report, UNDP, will be shown today at 3:30 p.m. on in-house television channel 3 or 31.

That’s all I have for you.  Yes, please?

Questions and Answers

Question:  Let’s go back to your last statement, please.  The Human Development Report, is that going to be out on the 24^th?  It’s generally out in the spring.

Deputy Spokesman:  No.  It was already out in the spring, but the author and the director of this report will be speaking on the World Chronicle programme which will be shown today.  Yes, please?

Question:  Regarding the travels of the Secretary-General to Madrid, I have two questions.  My first question would be, what are the expectations of the Secretary-General in Madrid and the outcome of the donors’ conference.  And my second question, does he share the concerns that the lack of Iraqi sovereignty will probably not bring the financing that is required?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, following the unanimous adoption of resolution 1511, the Secretary-General felt that it was important to show his support for the international efforts aimed at restoring peace and stability to a sovereign, democratic and independent Iraq.  So, this is one way of him, by attending this conference, to show his support to the resolution which he did say that he would try his utmost to implement.  And with regard to your second question, we just have to wait and see.  We don’t know how many countries will come up with how much money.  So, we will just have to wait and see.  The meeting will start on Thursday and I don’t want to pre-judge the outcome of that meeting now.

Okay, Michele?

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Thank you.  Good Afternoon.

While the Security Council meets on the situation in the Middle East, as Hua mentioned, the General Assembly is expected to vote this afternoon on the two resolutions submitted late yesterday, regarding the security barrier being built by Israel in the West Bank -- the first resolution declaring the barrier illegal, the second one asking for an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on whether Israel is legally obligated as an occupying Power to dismantle the barrier.

The Hague-based Court -- created under the United Nations Charter in 1945 -- adjudicates disputes between countries but may also be requested by the General Assembly or the Security Council for an advisory opinion.  The Security Council has in the past only asked for one such advisory opinion.  The General Assembly has requested such an opinion in 14 cases. After hearing yesterday from 18 speakers, the sponsors of the two texts requested more time, and a vote is expected, as I said, this afternoon.  So far, only four speakers are listed after the vote.

The General Assembly has also been reviewing the work of the Economic and Social Council.  At the center of the Council’s report, one new avenue of intense cooperation that has opened up in the past year between the Assembly and the Council on the follow-up of the Financing for Development Conference.

In this respect, I would like to attract your attention to the Assembly’s upcoming High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development scheduled for next week, 29-30 October.

The “Group of 77” developing countries and China, as well as the Presidency of the Assembly are giving priority attention to that Dialogue asking that innovative mechanisms be put in place to ensure that the agreements set at the Financing Conference are achieved, which includes the need for more and better dialogue with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The President of the Assembly, Julian R. Hunte, also put the panel discussion he chaired this morning on tax matters in the same context.  Introducing the panel this morning, he said, “International cooperation in tax matters has commanded the attention of the international community for decades now, but requires further focus in the context of financing for development.  This panel discussion, he said, is, therefore, both important and timely, coming as it does on the eve of the High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development.

At the International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Monterrey, Mexico, in March 2002, heads of State and Government underscored that mobilization of domestic resources is a crucial step, he said, if we are to fulfil internationally agreed development goals, eliminate poverty, improve social conditions and raise the living standards of all our peoples.  “Taxation is one of the major instruments of domestic resource mobilization, and its regulation is of interest to all states.”

The Assembly is also reviewing humanitarian and disaster relief assistance.  Twenty-one speakers on this subject, this morning.  Twenty-six are listed for this afternoon’s session on the follow-up to the special session on children.  You will hear more about this in a few minutes.

This is all I have for you now.

Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Yes, please?

Questions and Answers

Question:  You referred to 44 -- 49 developing countries and China.

Spokesman for General Assembly President:  Yes.

Question:  Is China now out of the developing countries?

Spokesman for General Assembly President:  No.  The non-aligned movement is always listed as developing countries and China.

Question:  I thank you very much.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Okay, if you don’t have any more questions, Mr. Otunnu, would you like to join us up here?

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