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 Stephane Dujarric, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Michéle Montas, Spokeswoman for the General Assembly President.

Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon.

**Secretary-Generalin Chile

Starting off with the Secretary-General’s programme in South America.  On the first day of his trip to Chile, the Secretary-General laid a wreath at the Monument of General Bernardo O’Higgins, national hero of the Chilean independence, and spoke also with the Acting Defence Minister and eight Chilean Army officers who had served in United Nations peacekeeping operations around the world.

The Secretary-General then had a tête-à-tête with President Ricardo Lagos, during which they reviewed regional developments and discussed poverty and social policies.  They also talked about the recently held meetings in Cancun and the APEC meetings in Bangkok.  At a press encounter which followed, the Secretary-General said that the Latin American region had done well on many fronts.  However, some countries were going through difficulties, and the United Nations, the international community and the region should work together to help overcome those problems.

Following a meeting with the Presidents of the Chilean Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, the Secretary-General delivered an address to parliamentarians and the diplomatic community.  He noted that Chile makes important contributions to the United Nations and that it “has actively supported multilateralism, and has sought to place human security at the forefront of its agenda”.  He noted that Chile went through a peaceful process of transition from dictatorship to democracy and that, notwithstanding financial difficulties in the region, had achieved “notable social and economic success”.  The Secretary-General also noted that, while Chile already met the Millennium Development Goal of halving extreme poverty, he was sure that the country would not “rest until poverty is eradicated”.

Early this afternoon, the Secretary-General will attend a luncheon hosted by the Presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, and later he will meet with the Directors of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and, following that, he will meet with staff of the United Nations family in Chile.  This evening, the Secretary-General will be the guest of honour at a dinner hosted by President Lagos.

And we have more details on the Secretary-General’s programme available upstairs, and we expect to have transcripts of his press encounters.

**Statement on Côte d’Ivoire

I have a statement concerning the situation in Côte d’Ivoire:

“The Secretary-General welcomes the proposal by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to convene a meeting of the Ivorian parties in Accra, Ghana, on 10 November to discuss ways of resolving the current impasse in the peace process in Côte d’Ivoire.  This is to be followed by an ECOWAS summit, on  11 November.

“The Secretary-General encourages all Ivorian parties and their leaders to cooperate with ECOWAS on this important initiative and to ensure a successful outcome of the meetings in Accra.  The Secretary-General hopes that the meetings will focus on reaching agreement on a calendar for the implementation of the key provisions of the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement, in particular on the early disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of the armed groups and the restoration of State authority throughout the country.”

**Iraq

We’ve had quite a number of questions from you this morning and yesterday concerning our staffing levels in Baghdad, and I can now confirm that, as of today, all United Nations international staff have now left the Iraqi capital.

As we announced last week, the international staff that had been in Baghdad have been temporarily relocated, and will hold discussions in Cyprus with a team coming from Headquarters, so that the United Nations can thoroughly reconsider its operations in Iraq and the security arrangements that it will need to work there.

**Security Council

Turning to the Security Council:  the Security Council this morning began its work with a briefing from Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean Marie Guéhenno on the international benchmarks for Kosovo.

After that, the Council will take up Liberia, on which it expects to receive a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi on the work of the United Nations Mission in Liberia.

The Mission is still not in a position to deploy troops throughout the country, with the current UN troop strength at 4,500, including “re-hatted” West African troops and a Bangladeshi battalion.

In addition to a briefing on the United Nations Mission in Liberia, the Council expects to discuss the sanctions on Liberia, with a briefing by the Chairman of the Committee dealing with sanctions in that country, Ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan.

**Liberia

Also on Liberia, the head of the United NationsMission in Liberia, Jacques Klein, today said he noted with great concern and dismay the reports of skirmishes between various warring factions, and of serious atrocities against civilians, in Nimba Country.  He said such actions must be condemned in the strongest terms.

Following several UN patrols in the area, it is clear that the fighting is between former Liberian government militias and fighters from the Movement for Democracy in Liberia, known as MODEL.

Mr. Klein said that atrocities being committed against civilians constituted war crimes, for which all perpetrators would be held accountable, and added that continuing violations of the ceasefire would not be tolerated.

We have full copies of his statement available upstairs.

**Afghanistan

Going back to the Council but this time to their activities in Afghanistan:  the Council’s mission completed its travel to Afghanistan today and the 15-member delegation is now headed back to New York, where German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger, who led the mission, is scheduled next Tuesday to report in an open briefing on the results of the trip.

Before leaving the country, the members of the Council held a joint press conference accompanied by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi.

Speaking on behalf of the group, the German Ambassador said the Council had completed a very interesting and successful visit.  “The main conclusion”, he said, “is that a lot of success has been achieved, a lot of progress has been made in the country in all aspects -- in the political, in the economic and in the social fields.”

On the other hand, Mr. Pleuger added, a difficult way lies ahead for the country, with security as the key question.

We have the transcript of that press conference upstairs.

And the Council earlier today visited a centre in Kabul that trains dogs to detect mines.  There, Council members learned that about 1,000 square kilometres of Afghanistan is contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance, which leave between 100 and 200 people killed or injured each month.

The delegation then held back-to-back meetings, including one with Sima Samar, chairwoman of Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission, and took part in a round-table discussion with civil society representatives.

**Democratic Republic of Congo

We have reports from the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) that there was heavy firing in Bunia around the UN headquarters last night.  Intense small arms firing started around 8 p.m. local time and continued uninterrupted for 30 minutes.  There is as yet no determination of the number of casualties among the perpetrators.  MONUC is reporting one casualty, an officer of the Bangladeshi battalion, who was injured and has been evacuated to Kinshasa.  We expect a press release to be issued shortly.

Also on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we have upstairs a statement from the Special Rapporteur on human rights in that country, Iulia Motoc, in which she underscores her concern at the fate of civilian population in the South Kivu province following renewed fighting there between the Mai Mai and FDLR militias.

She is especially worried by the fact that women and children are increasingly becoming the target of violence by both militias, and her statement is available upstairs.

**Palestinian Territories

Another human rights statement.  This one from the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Miloon Kothari, in which he condemns the continuing practice by the Israeli forces of housing demolitions in the occupied Palestinian territory.  The Special Rapporteur is concerned that these acts have left thousands of residents homeless and harmed the livelihood of thousands more, particularly in and around Gaza.

**Environment

In a message today, the Secretary-General said that with the increasingly devastating potential of modern warfare, it has become apparent that existing environmental laws do not fully address the danger that conflict poses to the environment.

In the statement, which was issued to mark the International Day for Preventing the Exploitation of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict, he urged the international community to look for ways to encourage environmental protection in wartime.

Also marking the day is a statement from Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, in which he says that after war, people will struggle even harder to recover their dignity and health if their very life support systems have been damaged.

**AIDS

In Beijing yesterday, Harvard University, the World Economic Forum and the UNAIDS Programme hosted the first meeting of government, business and civil society representatives in China to discuss potential partnerships to fight AIDS in China.

At that meeting, Harvard Professor John Ruggie warned that “unless China acts decisively, it will find itself on an African trajectory, just 15 years behind”, adding that there is still time in China “to avert the worst-case scenario” on AIDS.

And we have more details in a joint press release upstairs.

**World Economic Conference

Also another message from the Secretary-General:  this one delivered to the world economic conference in China towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

He said those goals are different from the broken promises of 50 years, because they have political support and they are achievable.

And we have the full text of the message upstairs.

**UNESCO

From the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), despite progress achieved in the 1990s, girls continue to face “sharp discrimination in access to schooling” in a majority of developing countries, according to a report released today.

Koïchiro Matsuura, the Director-General of UNESCO, says these results are a cause for deep concern.

UNESCO says education inequality is a major infringement of fundamental human rights; and it represents an important obstacle to social and economic development.  Copies of the press release are available upstairs.

**Budget

On the budget, Tuvalu today paid more than $13,500 towards the UN regular budget, becoming the 121st Member State to pay its dues in full.

**World Chronicle Television Programme

World Chronicle programme no. 913 with Major-General Patrick Cammaert, the UN Military Adviser in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, will be shown today at 3:30 p.m. on in-house television channel 3 or 31.

**Condolences

And finally, we have upstairs letters the Secretary-General has written expressing his condolences to the families of two distinguished former UN staff members who recently passed away.

The first is Mr. C.V. Narasimhan, who served as Chef de Cabinet to three Secretaries-General and held a variety of other posts during a distinguished    20-career in the Organization.

And the other is General Prem Chand, a true legend among UN peacekeepers.  His service, the Secretary-General wrote, in Congo, Cyprus, Namibia and Zimbabwe set a standard for several generations of colleagues in peacekeeping, whether military or civilian.  We have copies of both those letters upstairs.

That’s it for me; do you have any questions?  Yes?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  In light of the Security Council visit to Afghanistan, it’s reported now that despite the security situation, there has been progress in the political and social field.  Does the Secretary-General expect the same to happen in Iraq despite the insecurity there, or lack of security -- political and economic and social progress would be achieved?

Associate Spokesman:  I think the progress we hope to see in Iraq is closely tied to the security situation, and I don’t think I would want to venture and risk a comparison between those two situations at this point.  Yes?

Question:  Have there been any comments on the cloning vote of the Sixth Committee?

Associate Spokesman:  No, but I’ll turn to Michéle to tell you all about the cloning vote.  Michéle, go ahead.

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Thank you, Stephane.  Good afternoon.  I know attention is largely focused today on the cloning issue.  We got 32 phone calls in the last four days from journalists on that one issue.

This morning, in the Legal, the Sixth, Committee, the “no action” procedural motion by Iran of deferral for two years of the draft convention on cloning was carried by only one vote, effectively stopping all votes on the two resolutions.

The vote:  80 in favour of the “no action” motion, 79 against, and

15 abstentions.  The item will be referred to the sixtieth session of the General Assembly in two years.  The Committee decided not to take action on L.2, the resolution led by the United States and Costa Rica, nor on L.8, the resolution led by Belgium, United Kingdom, China and Japan.

The “no action motion” was voted on first.  It was presented by Iran, as I mentioned yesterday, on behalf of the Islamic Conference.

The arguments for:  This will give Member States more time to study this complex and delicate issue.  The convention aims at universality, and an adjournment might give Member States more time to reach consensus.  Those were the arguments.

The arguments against:  It is an important issue, with ethical, religious and human rights ramifications.  The necessity to prohibit human cloning is an urgent one that cannot be shelved for two years.  The issue had already been postponed from last year.  As I said yesterday, under rule 116 of the rules of procedure, two Members can speak for and two against the motion.  This was the case this morning.  Belgium and India spoke for the no-action motion.  Uganda and Spain spoke against.  It was a very heated meeting this morning and the vote was really a tight one, as you heard -– 80 in favour, 79 against.  I have the counting of the vote if anyone is interested in getting the different views on that.

The General Assembly continues today to examine the assistance in mine action.  Stephane mentioned the situation in the field in Afghanistan.  Seven more speakers are addressing the issue, with appeals for the universalization of the anti-landmine convention and increased support expressed for demining activities.  We should note that the First Review Conference of the Ottawa Convention is set for 29 November to 3 December 2004 in Nairobi, Kenya.

Next week is an important one in the Third Committee with human rights issues.  The Committee will hear introductory statements by the Special Rapporteurs and Special Representatives presenting reports to the Committee.  On Monday afternoon, Ms. Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, will present her report to the Committee.  The press will have the opportunity also to speak to Ms. Jilani during a dialogue with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, that will be under the auspices of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and it will be on Monday, 10 November 2003, from 1 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. in Conference Room 8, before her presentation to the Third Committee.

And that same day, Monday, Mr. Peter Leuprecht, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for human rights in Cambodia; and Ms. Gabriela Rodríguez Pizarro, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, will also address the Third Committee.

This is all I have for you today, thank you.  Yes?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Does the President of the General Assembly, as the President, have a position on cloning?

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President:  He has not expressed any.  He was waiting to hear the position of Member States.

Associate Spokesman:  Thank you very much.

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