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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Michele Montas, Spokeswoman for the General Assembly President.

Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon.

**Riyadh Statement

Over the weekend, following the attack in Riyadh, we issued a statement attributable to the Spokesman, which said that the Secretary-General was horrified by this attack.  He condemned this terrorist act in the strongest possible terms.

The Secretary-General conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the families of the victims.

He is confident that the authorities of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will bring to justice the perpetrators of this cowardly attack.

And we have the full text available upstairs.

**Iran –- IAEA

On Saturday, Mohamed ElBaradei, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had what he described as “a very fruitful meeting” with Hassan Rohani, the Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

The two reviewed progress so far in the implementation of safeguards in Iran.

ElBaradei added that Dr. Rohani told him that, over the next week, the IAEA will get the letter by Iran for the conclusion of the Additional Protocol, which, ElBaradei said, “is a positive step”, and would also receive a letter indicating Iran’s agreement to suspend all enrichment related activities and reprocessing activities.

ElBaradei added, “I think we are moving together to try to resolve all remaining issues through cooperation, through verification”, and that he hoped with the IAEA’s Board of Governors meeting this month, the implementation of safeguards in Iran can move forward.

**Secretary-General in Ecuador

On the Secretary-General’s activities over the weekend, he arrived in Guayaquil, the largest city and main port of Ecuador, on Friday evening.

He was greeted there by Vice-President Alfredo Palacio and then went on to the City Hall of Guayaquil where he delivered a speech noting that the city was respected “all over the world for its visionary planning and its vibrant economy”.

Early on Saturday morning, the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan left for the Galapagos Islands, a World Natural Heritage Site since 1978.

On Sunday morning, they visited the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park.

While visiting a turtle breeding project, the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan were asked to become the “god parents” of baby turtle number 42.  Depending on the gender of that turtle, it will be named Kofi or Nane –- (the sex of a turtle can only be identified after 25 to 30 years).  After that, they were introduced to “Lonesome George”, the last of its species of giant turtles.

While in the Galapagos, the Secretary-General recorded a video message on environmental protection and sustainable development.  This message was issued as a statement last night.  We have copies of the text available upstairs.

He said that the UN is trying to help the world move “from an era of exploitation to an ethic of stewardship”.  He concluded his message stating that the one lesson he hoped we learn from the Galapagos is that “it is high time we gave the survival and security of future generations the priority they deserve”.

Then on Sunday evening, he and Mrs. Annan flew to Quito, the Ecuadorian capital, where they were met by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Patricio Zuquilanda.  That same evening, the Annans visited “old Quito”, which was declared a Cultural Patrimony of Mankind by UNESCO in 1978.

Today is the Secretary-General’s last day in Ecuador.  As we speak, he is meeting with President Lucio Gutiérrez Borbúa.  Following this meeting, he and the President will hold a press conference at the Presidential Palace.

Separately, Mrs. Annan met Ecuadorian women leaders from diverse ethnic backgrounds.  The meeting, organized by UNIFEM, covered critical issues affecting women such as sexual and domestic violence, poverty, political participation, exclusion and discrimination.  In the afternoon, Mrs. Annan will visit a water and sanitation project in a poor neighbourhood of Quito.

Later in the afternoon, the Secretary-General is expected to address the National Congress, to inaugurate the UN House and to meet with representatives of Ecuadorian civil society.

This evening, he flies to Lima, Peru.

**Security Council

There are no Security Council meetings or consultations scheduled for today.

Ambassador Gunter Pleuger of Germany is scheduled to brief the Council in an open meeting on the Afghan mission he led last week.

Also scheduled tomorrow are consultations on Côte d’Ivoire.  The report of the Secretary-General on the UN Mission in that country is out as a document today.

**Security Council -- Côte d’Ivoire

The Secretary-General, in that report, says the Ivorian peace process has encountered serious difficulties.  He goes on to say that “In order to keep the Ivorian peace process on track, the fundamental issues behind the current stalemate must be identified and urgently addressed.  The differences among the Ivorian political actors over the interpretation of the power-sharing concept envisaged in the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement are one of the key issues.

Another key issue, he says, is the failure of the Government of National Reconciliation to begin restructuring the defence and security forces immediately upon taking office.

The Secretary-General urges the Ivorian leaders to cooperate with the ongoing efforts of President John Kufuor of Ghana and other leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to convene a meeting between President Laurent Gbagbo and the signatories of the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement to address outstanding fundamental issues.

The Security Council, he concludes, “could contribute to the effort to resolve the political stalemate by supporting the proposals outlined in the report and by taking further measures to strengthen the mission”.

Consultations are underway on the possible reinforcement of the mission.  In the meantime, he recommends a six-month mandate extension.

**Liberia

The UN Mission in Liberia will address the recent ceasefire violations reported in Nimba County bordering Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire in the next Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) meeting scheduled for tomorrow.

The Force Commander of the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), Lieutenant General Daniel Opande, has urged fighters of the former Government of Liberia militia and the Movement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL) to immediately cease all hostilities during an extensive tour last week of three towns in Nimba County.  General Opande said the leaders would be reminded that “they have to have control over their own fighters” and that they should halt all hostilities.

The Monitoring Committee is chaired by the UNMIL Force Commander and includes representatives of the Government of Liberia, MODEL and the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, known as LURD.

**DR Congo

Over the weekend, UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were involved in several armed confrontations with members of a number of militias in the town of Bunia.

On Saturday morning, a UN patrol discovered 11 armed men in a house near the home of the UPC leader, Thomas Lubanga.  Since these men were in violation of the weapons ban in Bunia, they were detained overnight by the UN.  Before being released, their weapons were seized and destroyed.

Later that day, after shots were fired at a UN base, peacekeepers detained another group of UPC militia members including the group’s intelligence chief, Saba Rafiki.  He remains in detention with the UN in Bunia.

Also Saturday afternoon, militia members from the PUSIC faction opened fire on a UN patrol in the village of Shari, just south-west of Bunia.  The peacekeepers returned fire, wounding two of the assailants and arresting nine.  One of the wounded, Colonel Claude Aboli later died of his wounds.  We have more information upstairs.

**UNRWA

Earlier today in Geneva, Peter Hansen, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, briefed the Humanitarian Liaison Working Group on the desperate conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Hansen has also reminded the international community that even as conditions worsen every day, UNRWA’s latest Emergency Appeal for funds has barely raised 45 per cent of the refugees’ needs -– forcing the Agency to cut back its emergency programmes.

The Agency estimates that it will cost over $46 million to re-house all the Palestinian refugees who have lost their homes to date -- and every day, more become homeless.  The Agency is currently unable to meet those housing needs.

With the Palestinian economy decimated, more than 60 per cent of the population is living on $2 a day or less and acute and chronic malnutrition among children reaches 25 per cent in some areas.  UNRWA is now feeding more than 1 million people in the West Bank and Gaza.

Sadly, the financial donations required to respond to the crisis during 2003 have not kept pace with the mounting need, resulting in a reduction in UNRWA’s emergency activities.  Food distribution has been halved in the Gaza Strip.  We have more information in a press release upstairs.

**Afghanistan

Yesterday in Kabul, the UN Mission in Afghanistan said that the publication of the draft constitution takes Afghanistan one step closer to achieving a new constitution that will strengthen national unity and the rule of law.

The Mission said the document reflects a serious attempt to reflect the views of Afghans on many important and complex issues, including individual freedoms, the powers of the central and local governments, equality among all Afghans and the role of Islam.

It is a valuable effort, which will be put to the test at the Constitutional Loya Jirga, to be held five weeks from now in Kabul.

We have the Mission’s statement included in yesterday’s briefing notes from Kabul.

**Egeland

Over the weekend, the Under-Secretary General for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, visited the Kitgum and Gulu districts in northern Uganda.

In Kitgum, Egeland went to camps for internally displaced persons and also visited some of the thousands of so-called “night commuters,” children who leave their homes at night to seek safety in the town.  In and around the general district hospital in Kitgum, 4,000 to 5,000 children camp each night.  In the past year, an estimated 10,000 children in northern Uganda have been abducted.  Those who have not been abducted face serious disruption to their lives, including their education, due to the need to “commute” every night.

Northern Uganda is home to almost 1.2 million people displaced by fighting between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

The numbers of displaced have risen in the last year from 800,000 to the current 1.2 million.  Almost all aid workers gain access to the displaced only by using military escorts.  The lack of sustained presence has made it impossible to establish sustainable assistance for health, education and other basic services.

Now in Nairobi to meet with UN officials there, Egeland will then travel on to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday.

We have more details on his visit upstairs.

**Myanmar

The Secretary-General, in an addendum to his report to the General Assembly on human rights in Myanmar, notes that the Myanmar Government has announced a new seven-step road map to democracy, but has not yet taken into account the views expressed by a large number of parties in the country.

He says that, for the road map process to be productive and credible, it must involve all Myanmar’s political parties, national leaders and ethnic groups from the beginning.

The Secretary-General adds that, after more than five months, his calls for the restoration of freedom of movement and political activity for Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the National League for Democracy have yet to be answered positively.  He once again appeals to the Government to lift all the remaining restrictions against Aung San Suu Kyi and the other League leaders immediately.

**Guinea

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Guinea, working in close cooperation with the World Health Organization and Guinea’s Ministry of Health, is launching a nationwide measles vaccination campaign targeting all children in the countryside between the ages of 6 months and 15 years.  The aim of the campaign is to eliminate measles deaths in the country, currently estimated at 5,900 a year.  Every year, measles kills around 745,000 children in the world, more than half of these in Africa.

**Press Conference Tomorrow

Finally, press conference tomorrow, 12:45 in this room, the Mission of Morocco will be sponsoring a press conference on the International Trachoma Initiative and speakers will include Dr. Jacob Kumaresan, President of the Initiative, and Dr. Hank McKinnell, the CEO of Pfizer and I think there will be other guests at that briefing as well.

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

Questions and Answers

Question:  Regarding the Congo situation with the commander, do you have any booklet explaining to us the rules of engagement?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I don’t know whether we go public with rules of engagement in any peacekeeping mission as a basic security issue, but I’ll double check with the peacekeeping department.

Question:  Can you explain, returning the fire?

Spokesman:  Well, I think that’s a basic right of any peacekeeper or solider to defend themselves when attacked.  So, I think that perfectly within the standard accepted rules of engagement.

Question:  You are saying (inaudible) by the UN, how do you define this situation, who engaged who?

Spokesman:  Well, why don’t you take a look at the detailed report we have upstairs and if we need to we can get someone from the peacekeeping department to answer your questions.  Yes?

Question:  My understanding is that the Chief Administrator from Kosovo, Hari Holkeri, is in New York today.  Do you know anything about the purpose of his visit?

Spokesman:  No, I did not know that he was in New York, we will have to check with you, and if you come up to my office right after the briefing we will find out and tell you whatever we can learn.  Yes?  [It was later announced that Mr. Holkeri was in New York to attend the meeting this evening of former Presidents of the General Assembly.]

Question:  Fred, has there been any reaction from the Secretary-General regarding the (inaudible) [agreement between IAEA and Iran]?

Spokesman:  No.  We limited ourselves to the report that ElBaradei himself gave following his meeting with the senior Iranian official.  I am not aware that anything else is being prepared at this end.  That’s not to say that we don’t think it’s important.  We think it is very important.

Okay, Michele?

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Thank you Fred and welcome back.  Good afternoon all.

President Julian Hunte is back from an international business conference this past weekend in the Bahamas that, included prime ministers and ministers of the governments of Caribbean countries, members of the United States Congress and a wide cross-section of business leaders from the US and the Caribbean.

The Conference provided an opportunity for the President to appraise this diverse audience about some aspects of United Nations work in the area of development, in particular the recently concluded financing for development dialogue.

Tomorrow, the President of the Assembly will present his report of that ministerial dialogue of 29-30 October to the Second Committee.  An advanced copy of the President’s report (36 pages) is on two different Web sites, on the President’s statements page and on the FFD Web site.

The General Assembly is examining today several agenda items, in particular:  support by the United Nations system of the efforts of governments to promote and consolidate new or restored democracies, and the item, culture of peace, with 13 speakers listed to speak.

The Assembly proceeded a few minutes ago with the election of 29 members of the United Nations Environment Programme.  There were no surprises as the regional groups had previously selected their candidates.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, the General Assembly will elect 18 members of the 54-member Economic and Social Council.  While there is agreement on the 5 seats to go to the African States, the 3 to go to the Latin American and Caribbean States and the 4 reserved for Western Europe, there is no agreement for the Asian States, where 6 candidates are competing for 4 seats, and Eastern Europe, where there are 4 candidates for 2 seats.

Other information today.

On the margins of the work of the Third Committee, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCRH), in cooperation with the International Service for Human Rights, holds a dialogue with Ms. Hina Jilani, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Human Rights Defenders, focusing on how terrorism and counter-terrorism measures affect the work of Human Rights Defenders.

That’s in Conference Room 8 from 1:00 to 2:15.  There will also be a press conference at 4:45 this afternoon I think, in room 226 byHina Jilani, Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders.  [It was later learned that this press conference had been postponed].

From 3:00 to 5:30 this afternoon in the Dag Hammarksjöld Auditorium, a symposium will focus on the Empowerment of Women; it is organized by the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, and the Office of the Permanent Observer of Partners in Population and Development in the UN.

Tonight, General Assembly Presidents will have a chance to compare notes, as they are participating in a dinner in honour of the President and former Presidents of the General Assembly hosted by the Chairman of the Council of Presidents of the General Assembly, Samir S. Shihabi.

This is all I have for you.  Thank you.

Questions and Answers

Question:  Michele, do you know if the dialogue in the Third Committee is going to be televised?

Spokeswoman for General Assembly President:  I don’t know.  I can enquire for you if UN TV is -– they did for cloning, I hope they do it -– they don’t usually do it for committees, but maybe they will.

Question:  Do you know what’s the nationality of Samir Shihabi?

Spokeswoman:  I don’t know. Saudi Arabian, I think?

Question:  What is the agenda before the past Presidents?  Are they concentrating on one particular item or is it the (inaudible)?

Spokeswoman:  Well they are just going to exchange views.  It is an informal meeting.  I assume they are going to be comparing notes about different conditions in which General Assembly -– you know, as they performed their duties as Presidents of the General Assemblies.

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