DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICES OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL AND THE SPOKESWOMAN FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT
| Press Briefing |
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 Michéle Montas, Spokeswoman for the General Assembly President.
Spokesman for Secretary-General
Good afternoon.
**Statement attributable to Spokesman
The following statement is attributable to the Spokesman concerning events in Russia today:
“The Secretary-General was dismayed to learn of this morning’s explosion in a commuter train near the Yessentuki station in the Russian Federation. This appears to be yet another act of terrorism. Terrorism can never be justified.
“The Secretary-General sends his deepest condolences to the Government of the Russian Federation and to the families and friends of all those who were killed and the many more who were injured in this vicious attack.”
**SG Meetings
I don’t usually list the Secretary-General’s appointments at this briefing, but today there are three major meetings I want to flag.
First, a short while ago, the Secretary-General opened the first meeting of the International Advisory and Monitoring Board, which is tasked by the Security Council to ensure that the Development Fund for Iraq is used in a transparent manner. We will let you know if the Board members decide to brief you after the meeting has ended.
At 3 p.m. today, the Secretary-General will host the members of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, which is chaired by Anand Panyarachun of Thailand. And again, we don’t know whether the members or the chairman would issue a statement or come to the stakeout or just go off to their weekend meeting without saying anything. We’ll have to see.
And then finally, at 5:30 p.m., the Secretary-General will meet with the co-authors of the Geneva Accords, Yasser Abed Rabbo and Yossi Beilin. And we expect both of them to be available to you at the Security Council stakeout afterwards if they can get up from Washington in the snow storm.
**Security Council
There are no meetings or consultations of the Security Council scheduled today.
**Sudan
From Sudan, we have information that the situation in Darfur region of Sudan continues to deteriorate, with insecurity now reaching unprecedented levels.
Jan Egeland, the UN Emergency Relief Coordinator warns that “the humanitarian situation in Darfur has quickly become one of the worst in the world”. He also says, “Access to people in need is blocked by the parties in conflict and now, as the need for aid grows, stocks of relief materials are dwindling”.
Fighting between forces loyal to the Government of Sudan and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM), which escalated in March 2003, has driven more than 670,000 people from their homes. Some 70,000 of these have fled across the border into Chad, where they lack basic supplies.
We have a press release on that matter.
** Côte d’Ivoire
Carolyn McAskie, the Secretary-General’s Humanitarian Envoy for the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire, is scheduled to arrive in Abidjan on Sunday for a fourth follow-up and evaluation mission.
During her stay, she will meet with governmental authorities, UN agencies, and a broad range of national and international humanitarian actors to review the humanitarian situation and assess needs countrywide.
The mission will also evaluate humanitarian response to ensure that assistance is adequate for all the vulnerable populations in Côte d’Ivoire including displaced people, refugees and host families. During her mission, McAskie hopes to mobilize financial support for the 2004 UN Consolidated Appeal for Côte d’Ivoire, which is asking for $59 million.
**ICTY
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia today sentenced a Bosnian Serb general who was deemed to have conducted a campaign of sniping and shelling attacks on the people of Sarajevo to 20 years in prison.
The Tribunal found General Stanislav Galic, the former commander of the Republika Srpska Army, guilty of one count of war crimes and four counts of crimes against humanity. We have copies of the majority’s ruling, with a dissenting opinion attached, in my office.
**Cambodia
A team left from UN Headquarters today for Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to look at technical assistance and practical needs to bring into force the agreement on the creation of Extraordinary Chambers to try Khmer Rouge leaders. You’ll recall that the General Assembly authorized the United Nations to assist Cambodia in creating such Chambers for future Khmer Rouge trials.
The team, which is led by Karsten Harrel, will arrive in Phnom Penh over the weekend and will speak to the press on Sunday. It will be dealing with Cambodian officials through next week before returning the following Saturday.
**Sierra Leone
The prosecutor for the Special Court for Sierra Leone today announced the formal withdrawal of indictments against two accused persons, Foday Sankoh and Sam Bockarie, saying that there is no doubt that both men have died since charges were brought against them.
David Crane asserted that the body of Bockarie, who was reported to have died last May by multiple gunshot wounds, has been positively identified by several witnesses. Sankoh died after a long illness.
**Refugee agency
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees is seeking over $1 billion to fund its refugee assistance and protection work during next year. The programmes funded under the appeal will benefit some 20 million people worldwide. They include refugees, internally displaced people, returning refugees, asylum seekers as well as communities affected by refugee crises.
In 2004, Afghanistan will remain the agency's single largest operation worldwide. More than a third of the refugee agency's 2004 budget will go for repatriation and refugee assistance in Africa. A detailed news release on the appeal is available on the UNHCR Web site and the appeal will be formally presented to donors at a pledging conference this coming Monday.
**WSIS
In Geneva this morning, the resumed session of the third Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society started.
The remaining stumbling points concerned the freedom of the press, governance of the Internet, and a fund to end the digital divide, as parts of the Declaration of Principles and the Plan of Action remained between brackets, according to the Geneva briefing notes which you can get upstairs.
**SG Message to Commonwealth
In a message to the meeting of the Commonwealth Heads of State and Governments in Abuja, Nigeria, the Secretary-General commends the active role the Commonwealth is playing in helping members fight extreme poverty, hunger, death, disease, and illiteracy towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals, he said.
Regarding the question of Zimbabwe and its future participation in the proceedings of the Commonwealth, the Secretary-General says: “It is vital for dialogue to resume without delay in Zimbabwe, and for tangible progress to be made”. “Zimbabwe”, he adds, “after all, was the place that the Commonwealth’s blueprint for promoting good governance and human rights –- the Harare Declaration -– was adopted”.
**Vieira de Mello Symposium
This coming Monday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Fordham University Institute of International Humanitarian Affairs are co-sponsoring a symposium on the life and accomplishment of Sergio Vieira de Mello. The theme of the gathering is “Human Security for All”.
We have available upstairs more information on this meeting, which is open to the press, as well as a message from the Secretary-General addressed to the participants.
**Volunteers
Today is International Volunteers Day, and the Secretary-General, in a message today, pays tribute to one of the greatest champions of volunteers, Sharon Capeling-Alakija, who passed away last month while serving as Executive Coordinator of the UN Volunteers. The Secretary-General says, “Let us remember that each contribution –- no matter how small -– can make a difference”.
Also today, the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and UN Volunteers agreed to expand the role of UN Volunteers in UN peace operations worldwide. A memorandum of understanding on global collaboration between the two was signed in New York by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean Marie Guéhenno and UN Development Programme Administrator Mark Malloch Brown. We have a press release on that upstairs.
**IMO
The International Maritime Organization confirmed today that after discussions held late Thursday, it has agreed to bring forward the deadline for the phasing-out of single hull tankers to 2010 instead of 2015.
An IMO spokesman said the accelerated deadline shows the ability of the organization to react quickly and expeditiously to situations like the one caused by the Prestige tanker oil spill off Spain's north-western coastline in 2002. An IMO press release containing further details is expected out later today.
**Press conferences on Monday
Two press conferences to flag for you: On Monday at 11:15, Jose Antonio Ocampo, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, will be here to launch the final part of the World Economic and Social Survey 2003. A few advance copies of the report, which is embargoed until noon on Monday, are available in my office.
And then at 12:45, a senior UN official will be here to brief you on background on the Secretary-General’s address to the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva on Wednesday, the 10th, and on his Lecture on Global Ethics in Tubingen, Germany on Friday, the 12th. Since this is a background briefing, UNTV will not be airing it but delegations are invited to follow the briefing in Studio 4; that is, viewing room 4 downstairs.
**Week Ahead at United Nations
And we have the Week Ahead for you to help you in your coverage of next week. Yes, Greg?
**Questions and Answers
Question: Fred, I just wondered if I could ask you about two of those meetings you mentioned. The International Advisory Monitoring Board, do you have any assessment of when it’s going to end, when we might expect some comments? And then, on the other, the Eminent Panel, do we know if all of the Eminent Panel is present this weekend and when there might be a readout of their meeting over the weekend?
Spokesman for Secretary-General: On the first question, that group is scheduled to finish at 1 p.m. So, they have scheduled a two-hour meeting from 11:00 to 1:00. That’s the IAMB. However, we understand that they have allowed for the possibility that they might have to go into the afternoon; in which case they might resume in the afternoon after lunch. And if that’s the case we’ll squawk it and we will also try to tell you where that second meeting will be. And, as I already mentioned to you, they’ll either put out a statement -– go to the stakeout position or do neither of those two. They have to agree among themselves.
On the High-Level Panel, we really thought that, seeing as this is an organization meeting, the best time for them to talk to you would be after their meeting with the Secretary-General. We advised them to do that. We haven’t heard if they plan to do that, so we’ll squawk if they say ‘yes’. They are then going outside of New York City to a conference facility for two days and there is no plan now for them to speak to the press or even for us to tell you where they are going to be over the weekend. So, I don’t expect any readout following their weekend meeting. So, the only chance, if there is one, will be after their meeting with the Secretary-General.
Question: And are they all here, all of the names…?
Spokesman: I was told that they were all here. They were all expected. We’ll have to confirm for you just before the meeting whether the weather might have impeded some of them, I think. The last member was scheduled to fly in this morning at 11:00. But most of them came in yesterday or even the day before. So we are expecting full participation. Yes?
Question: For that discussion, there is a document that was drafted in the Secretariat. Can we have a copy of that, please?
Spokesman: A confidential internal document?
Question: On a very public matter.
Spokesman: I doubt it very much. But I am happy to relay your request. All right that’s it. To Michéle, what do you have for us? Yes, David?
Question: You did mention the Security Council, the potential statement, I think it was, to the press? And if I could also, the telephone call, I think yesterday between the Foreign Minister of Japan and the Secretary-General. What details can you share on that?
Spokesman: The Council hasn’t authorized us to say anything about possible action today; so, you’ll forgive me if I just duck that question. Yes, the Foreign Minister of Japan called the Secretary-General yesterday. I am not really at liberty to go into details what they discussed. You really should ask the Foreign Minister that, but the Secretary-General did take the occasion of the phone call to express his condolences for the killing of the two Japanese diplomats in Iraq. And I can confirm that they did talk about Iraq among other things in that phone call. All right? Michéle?
Spokeswoman for General Assembly President
Thank you Fred. Good afternoon.
President Julian Hunte met this morning, in Geneva, with Mr. Rudd Lubbers, the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees, and later on with Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Director-General of the World Trade Organization. He also met with Mr. Bertrand Ramcharan, the United Nations acting High Commissioner for refugees, and with the Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Mr. Rubens Ricupero. The President of the General Assembly will be back in New York this weekend and will chair the 10th Emergency Session on Palestine on Monday morning.
Two draft resolutions are circulating on that resumed 10th Emergency Session. Twenty-six Member States and Palestine are sponsoring the resolution requesting the International Court of Justice to urgently render an advisory opinion on the following question:
“What are the legal consequences arising from the construction of the wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the occupied Palestinian territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, as described in the report of the Secretary General?” And this is the essential question being submitted to the Court.
A second draft resolution L.17 is to come out shortly. We have not yet seen it and it is not out yet. Even though it is listed in the Journal, but it is the wrong listing.
Questions and Answers
Question: What’s the timing of that in terms of…?
Spokeswoman: The sentence they used was “to urgently render an advisory opinion…”
Question: I am sorry, the process here at the UN, is there a sense of how long discussions (will be) and when that will go to vote?
Spokeswoman: Oh, that will go to vote pretty fast.
Question: This week?
Spokeswoman: Yes. Well, Monday.
Question: Monday? Okay, thank you.
Spokeswoman: Monday. I think, from what I gather, they have planned to vote on both resolutions before 12 noon. Yes?
Question: Michéle, any update on cloning?
Spokeswoman: Yes, in the afternoon the General Assembly will examine legal issues. The issue of cloning is listed as the seventh item in the afternoon. However, this is accepting the fact that the First Committee, which is listed in the morning after the emergency session will be finished with its presentation. The report that is being submitted by the Sixth Committee, the recommendation of the Sixth Committee on the cloning item is that in the item on the “International convention against the reproductive cloning of human beings be included in the provisional agenda of the sixtieth session of the General Assembly”. So, this was the resolution we had heard of; it is still the same; this is still the recommendation of the Sixth Committee. However, the report of the Sixth Committee, which you can find in documents, gives the two draft resolutions on a convention, which means that we don’t know yet if someone will insist for those resolutions to be voted on and if they will reject the recommendation of the Sixth Committee that it be postponed until two years from now.
Question: On the question of, I mean history, do you know if there have been many cases in the past in the General Assembly where a committee, essentially an entire membership of the GA has come up with a course of action which has then been overturned?
Spokeswoman: That has happened. I don’t know how often. I can look for the statistics for you, but it has happened before whereby a committee recommendation to the General Assembly is, you know, changed.
Question: Michéle, you said you expected a vote before 12:00 on those two resolutions. Does that mean that there is not going to be speeches as one would normally expect on these occasions or what’s the format of that meeting on Monday morning going to be?
Spokeswoman: I asked General Assembly Affairs whether they had a long list, they told me ‘No’, so far. A lot of things might change by Monday morning.
Spokesman: Okay, enjoy your weekend.
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