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.

Good afternoon.  Welcome to the visitors from BBC.  Nice to have you here.

**Guests at Noon

Our guest at the noon briefing today will be Jean-Marie Guéhenno, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Affairs.  He’s a surprise guest.  We didn’t tell you yesterday he would be here.  He’ll be accompanied by Martin Barber, the Director of the Mine Action Service of the Peacekeeping Department.  They’ll be here to launch the report, “Portfolio of Mine Action Projects in 2004”.

**SG Speech

Yesterday evening, in his speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, the Secretary-General recalled the great achievements of multilateralism under US leadership in the twentieth century and urged Americans to help preserve and build on them for the twenty-first century.

He said that leadership will be more admired than resented, and more effective, if it is exercised through a multilateral framework and when it is based on strengthening the rule of law in international affairs.  Amid the acrimonious debate going on in the world today, the Secretary-General said, between the coalition that acted in Iraq and those who opposed it, “the relevance and importance of the United Nations has, in some quarters, been called into question”.

But he contended that recent events have only underlined the need for the United Nations.  “Collective action”, he said, “is needed to stem the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and to rebuild shattered societies.”

**SG in Los Angeles

In just a few moments, the Secretary-General is scheduled to attend a public session of the Los Angles City Council.  He will welcome the Council’s adoption yesterday of a resolution in support of the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations.  He will tell the members of the Council that, as representatives of city dwellers, they have an important role to play, as more than half of humankind now lives in cities.  Cities, like Los Angeles, he will say, can be vehicles for peace in the broadest sense of the word.

Later in the afternoon, he’ll address a luncheon honouring the Roots of Peace organization, which is dedicated to fighting landmines.  Since the anti-personnel landmine Ottawa Convention was opened for signature exactly six years ago today, the Secretary-General will say, millions of landmines have been destroyed.

Following the luncheon, the Secretary-General and Nane Annan will visit an AIDS clinic jointly run by the University of Southern California and Los Angeles County.  The centre is a family-centred treatment facility, which also focuses on the prevention of mother-to-child HIV/AIDS transmission.  In that regard, it has a 100 per cent success rate for women who delivered under their care.

This evening, the Secretary-General will deliver remarks at the fiftieth Anniversary Gala of the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors.  The evening will benefit UNICEF with proceeds going to a fund dedicated to the rehabilitation of schools by the late Audrey Hepburn.  The Secretary-General will honour 50 years of advocacy work by celebrities on behalf of children worldwide.

Later today, Nane Annan is scheduled to visit a multicultural public school in Los Angeles, where she will visit a kindergarten class and give a slide show on the United Nations and its work to about 100 elementary students aged eight to 10.  The visit to Menlo Avenue School is organized by the American Forum for Global Education, publisher of Mrs. Annan’s two books for children, and the United Nations Foundation.

**International Advisory Board of Development Fund for Iraq

The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations and the World Bank are pleased to announce that the first organizational meeting of the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) of the Development Fund for Iraq is to take place on the 5^th of December.

To this effect, the following representatives of the heads of the member institutions of the IAMB have been named.  For the International Monetary Fund, it will be Bert Keuppens, Senior Adviser of the Finance Department.  For the United Nations, it will be Jean-Pierre Halbwachs, Assistant Secretary-General and Controller.  For the World Bank, it will be Fayezul Choudhury, Vice-President and Controller.  And the representative of the head of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development is to be named shortly.  Each representative will have a designated alternate representative.

The IAMB’s Terms of Reference were agreed upon on 21 October by the four institutions.  And the purpose of the IAMB is to promote the objectives set forth in Security Council resolution 1483 of ensuring that the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) is used in a transparent manner for the purposes set out in operative paragraph 14 of that resolution, and that export sales of petroleum, petroleum products and natural gas from Iraq are made consistent with prevailing international market best practices.

**UNMOVIC

Since its withdrawal from Iraq last month, the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, or UNMOVIC, has continued with its work, including analysing biological samples and doing technical evaluation of Iraq’s Al-Samoud 2 missiles.

The Commission informs the Security Council, in its latest quarterly report on its work, that up through the end of November, it was not provided with the results of investigations by the US-led Iraq Survey Group, other than a statement made to the public on its interim progress report.  The Survey Group has not given the Commission that report.

The Commission continues to store equipment for its activities in Cyprus, as well as some in Baghdad, but its core professional staff by the end of this year will have been reduced to 51, a 10 per cent reduction since the last quarter.

The Security Council will discuss the UNMOVIC report in consultations scheduled for next Monday.

**Security Council

The Council is holding consultations today on Somalia and other matters.  The Council President, Bulgarian Ambassador Stefan Tafrov, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Security Council Committee on Somalia, briefed on the mission to the region, which he led last month, as well as on the report issued by the panel of experts on Somalia.

**Democratic Republic of Congo

From the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we have reports from the United Nations mission there of an operation conducted yesterday to free a number of people held by local militias north-west of Bunia.  According to the United Nations mission, the operation near the town of Djugu, led to the liberation of three civilian prisoners, who were languishing in an underground jail, and of 34 women, who were being held as sexual slaves in the camp of the militia group known as the Nationalist Integrationist Front/Ituri Popular Resistance Forces.  The mission arrested four militia leaders and seized a number of weapons and anti-personnel mines.

**Rwanda

Three prominent media figures were convicted today for genocide and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which deemed that they had used the media to incite Hutus to murder the Tutsi population.  The Court, in its judgement today, affirmed, “The power of the media to create and destroy fundamental human values comes with great responsibility.  Those who control such media are accountable for its consequences.”

The convictions were the first to address the role of the media in international criminal justice since World War II.

We have a press release with more details upstairs.

**AIDS and Corporate Responsibility

Seven global companies with operations in developing countries announced today that they will use their facilities, employees and other infrastructure to expand workplace HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment programmes into communities where they operate.  The companies are AngloAmerican, Chevron Texaco, DaimlerChrysler, Eskom, Heineken, Lafarge and Tata Steel.  By using infrastructure that was created to serve their employees, this corporate contribution will reduce the start-up and running costs of public programmes.

The Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria applaud the initiative and encourage concrete proposals with country partners by early next year.

**FAO:  Action Against Illegal Fishing

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization is calling for greater efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing.  According to an FAO report released yesterday in Rome, illegal fishing is on the rise in many places as people seek to avoid stricter rules established in response to declining fish stocks.  The situation is particularly grave given that 75 per cent of the world’s fisheries are already being fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted, says the report.

There’s more information upstairs.

**Kosovo

Harri Holkeri, the head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, has decided to suspend 12 Kosovo police officers with pay for six months, while an investigation looks into their actions during an attack that took place on the Loziste Bridge this past April.  The suspensions are without prejudice to the results of the investigations and do not assume the officers’ guilt.  The mission made clear that it is important to ensure that the findings of the inquiry are followed up to protect the good name of the Kosovo Protection Corps.

**ICTY

Yesterday in The Hague, a Bosnian Serb was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in the murder, inhuman treatment and forcible transfer of Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica and Potocari.  The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia ruled that Momir Nikolic, who had pleaded guilty to persecution, had been in a position of authority, and that the sentence given would be appropriate to the gravity of the crimes committed.  It also took account of his guilty plea as a mitigating factor.

We have a press release on that.

Today, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is meeting with health and welfare professionals from Bosnia and Herzegovina, to discuss the physical, emotional and psychological needs of the Tribunal’s witnesses.  The talks will help to provide preparation and follow-up services to meet the witnesses’ needs.

**International Day of Disabled Persons

Today is the International Day of Disabled Persons.  This year, the theme of the International Day is that persons with disabilities should have voices of their own and not be stereotyped in the mainstream media as inspirational figures.  The Day also calls attention to the commitments made by governments to provide full participation and equal opportunities for the disabled.

In his message, the Secretary-General calls the media and NGOs key partners in the process of empowering the disabled and adds that we should listen to disabled persons not just on this day but every day.  In another message, the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights focuses on last week’s decision by the General Assembly to work towards an International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.

Both messages and a programme of related activities being held today at Headquarters are available upstairs.

**Budget

Trinidad and Tobago today paid more than $36,000 to become the 124^th Member to pay its regular budget dues to the United Nations in full for this year.

**Press Conference Tomorrow

Last announcement for today, the press conference tomorrow will be at 11:15 with Hans Corell, the UN Legal Counsel, to talk about the Anti-Corruption Convention signing conference, which will take place in Mexico from the 9^th to the 11^th of December.

That’s all I have for you. Any questions?

Questions and Answers

Question:  The Secretary-General in his speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council said the biggest enemy is fear.  Does he think that fear predominates in the world and was he echoing President Roosevelt?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  I don’t know if he was echoing President Roosevelt.  But on philosophical items, why don’t we discuss that after the briefing.  Yes?

Question:  Can you tell us where this meeting is happening over the weekend, the high-panel meeting?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  We haven’t announced it yet.  When I’m given that information, I’ll share it with you.

Anything else?  Michele.

Spokeswoman for the General Assembly President

Thank you, Fred.

Good afternoon.  I’m sorry for being late today.  I was getting the vote records for you from the General Assembly.  The GA met this morning on the question of Palestine.  Six draft resolutions were voted on; one sponsored by 24 Member States and the Observer Mission of Palestine concerned the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine.  The General Assembly, by a vote of 160 in favour, 6 against and 5 abstentions, reaffirms its full support for the Middle East peace process, which began in Madrid, and existing agreements between Israeli and Palestinian sides.  It stresses the necessity for the establishment of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East and welcomes in this regard the efforts of the Quartet.

The General Assembly calls upon both parties to fulfil their obligations in the implementation of the Road Map by taking parallel and reciprocal steps in this regard and stresses the importance and urgency of establishing a credible and effective third-party monitoring mechanism, including all members of the Quartet.  It stresses the necessity for commitment to the vision of the two-State solution and the principle of land for peace, as well as the implementation of Security Council resolutions 242, 338, 1397 of 2002 and 1515 of 2003.  This resolution stresses the continued economic, humanitarian and technical assistance to the Palestinian people.  As I mentioned earlier, the recorded vote was 160 in favour.

On the subject of Jerusalem, the General Assembly, by a majority of 155 votes, also reiterates its determination that any action taken by Israel to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the holy city of Jerusalem are illegal and, therefore, null and void.

One resolution of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People was adopted by 97 votes.  In this case, we have 60 abstentions and 7 against.  As you probably know, there had been talks this year from some Member States of eliminating the Committee.

Another resolution requesting the Secretary-General to provide the Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat with the necessary resources was also adopted with 98 votes in favour.

One hundred fifty-nine Member States voted in favour of the Secretariat’s special information programme on the question of Palestine with 6 votes against and 6 abstentions.

The question of the construction of the wall will, as you know, be the subject of the tenth emergency session, which will be resumed on Monday morning, 8 December, after a request, as you know, from the Arab Group.

I will keep this short today because I know we have some guests.  If you have any questions?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  If not, I’ll ask Jean-Marie Guéhenno and Martin Barber to come up.

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