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 Michèle Montas, Spokeswoman for the General Assembly President.
Spokesman for Secretary-General
Good afternoon.
**Myanmar
We’re going to start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman on the subject of Myanmar.
“The Secretary-General welcomes the strong support expressed for the efforts of his Special Envoy, Razali Ismail, during the one-day meeting hosted by Thailand on the 15th of December to help facilitate democratic transition in Myanmar. The Secretary-General is also encouraged by the commitment made by the Foreign Minister of Myanmar, Win Aung, that the Myanmar authorities would implement their seven-step road map for the country’s democratic transition in an ‘all-inclusive’ manner. He welcomes the Government’s intention to reconvene the National Convention and draft a new Constitution in 2004.
“The Secretary-General stresses the need for his Special Envoy to be allowed to visit Myanmar as soon as possible to help facilitate the participation of all the parties concerned, including representatives of the National League for Democracy and national ethnic groups in Myanmar’s road map process.”
**Security Council
The Security Council is focusing its work on Africa today. Guinea-Bissau, Burundi and Liberia are on the agenda.
The Secretary-General’s Representative for Guinea-Bissau, David Stephen, briefed on the latest report issued this week and which noted that the transitional Government has taken some important steps in the right direction. The Council President, Ambassador Stefan Tafrov of Bulgaria, is expected to read a press statement on Guinea-Bissau following the consultations.
Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tuliameni Kalomoh, is to brief on the most recent report on Burundi, which noted that events this year have created new hope for democracy and peace there.
The Council has scheduled a formal meeting on a draft resolution maintaining sanctions on Liberia. The latest report on the UN Mission in Liberia, which came out yesterday, is scheduled to be taken up by the Security Council on Monday when Special Representative Jacques Klein will brief. We’ve asked him to brief you afterwards.
**Economic Community of West African States Summit
The Secretary-General, in a message to the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Accra, Ghana, welcomed the initiatives taken by ECOWAS leaders to settle crises in Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau. He said the regional approach was particularly important because the crises are increasingly interconnected.
He encouraged ECOWAS to formulate preventive measures to deal with conflicts created by governments, which, although duly elected, violate constitutional norms and flout basic principles of good governance. He also encouraged ECOWAS not to be silent when faced with poor standards of governance, which he says are sometimes the principal cause of coups d’états.
Continuing on the ECOWAS Summit, Carol Bellamy, the head of the UN Children’s Fund, told the leaders in Accra that the alarming spread of polio in West Africa is now the biggest threat to global eradication of the disease. Two West African countries -- Nigeria and Niger -- now account for almost half the world’s total polio caseload, according to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.
Meanwhile, Olara Otunnu, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, is also attending the Summit. He discussed the issue of children in armed conflict, with a special focus on the situation in Côte d’Ivoire.
**Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the UN Mission in that country have paid tribute to Force Commander General Mountaga Diallo of Senegal, who will be wrapping up almost four years of duty at the end of December.
Under his command, the UN Mission in the Congo evolved from a small military observer mission to a major multidimensional peacekeeping operation with over 10 thousand troops. He oversaw the disengagement of foreign and Congolese fighters and the withdrawal of foreign troops and he participated in negotiations leading to a Transitional Government in the DRC.
General Diallo will be succeeded on the 1st of January by Major-General Samaila Iliya of Nigeria. And we have a press release on that upstairs.
**Tuberculosis
Half a million of the world’s poorest tuberculosis patients are to benefit from free life-saving drugs under an agreement signed today by the World Health Organization and the pharmaceutical company, Novartis.
Novartis will donate the drugs to the Global Drug Facility. The drugs will be provided over a five-year period to countries scaling up TB control with support from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. We have a press release on that.
**Nauru
The UN refugee agency says it’s concerned about the situation of hundreds of people –- mostly Afghans and Iraqis and including more than 90 children –- who continue to be detained on the isolated Pacific island of Nauru, some of them for more than two years. The agency adds that the current hunger strike staged by a number of these people is symptomatic of a general degree of despair that must be addressed with a view to responding humanely to what is becoming a human tragedy.
**Western Sahara
Western Saharan refugees are suffering from acute and chronic malnutrition due to continued delays in relief aid, says the World Food Programme. It adds that urgent crises elsewhere in the world have frequently overshadowed the needs of the refugees who’ve lived in five camps around Tindouf in the Algerian desert for the last 28 years.
WFP is urging donors to come forward with contributions and commitments for the speedy delivery of food to the camps, as well as aid to combat nutrient deficiencies among the refugees.
**Kosovo
The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Kosovo, Harri Holkeri, has signed four laws forwarded to him for promulgation by the Assembly of Kosovo. The laws cover areas such as postal services, disability pensions, and public financial management. Holkeri sent back a census law for the Assembly’s further consideration, as it had rejected a special panel’s recommendations.
We have a press release with more details and we have the week ahead for those of you who will be here next week.
**Questions and Answers
Spokesman: Yes. Colum?
Questions: Yeah, Fred, a couple of questions. On the report of the independent panel on security and looking at the issue of personal responsibility in the 19 August attacks, is there any idea when that is likely to come out? And also, if you could give us a sense if there had been any indications, since the Secretary-General’s announcement about a possible meeting in mid-January on Iraq, whether the Bush Administration is willing to attend that meeting? And one other thing; there was quite a bit of confusion among some of us about what was the nature of this discussion going on between the Coalition and the Secretary-General. As you probably know, Ambassador Negroponte didn’t know anything about these discussions. Is there some new channel of communication that the Secretary-General has with the Americans, either through Bremer, through the White House, through the State Department? Can you shed any light on that?
Spokesman: The accountability panel said, at the outset, that they hoped to submit their report by mid-January. But they indicated to me that they hoped they might even get it done sooner. I haven’t checked with them for some time, so I don’t know whether there’s a chance of them beating their self-imposed deadline.
I don’t know who told you that Ambassador Negroponte was surprised by the announcement. The Secretary-General discussed this idea with the Ambassador when he met with him a few days ago. We still have nothing more specific than what the Secretary-General said yesterday about the commitment of the Coalition Provisional Authority to attend such a meeting. The Secretary-General’s had high-level conversations with members of the Bush Administration, indicating general agreement that this is a good idea. But I don’t think we’re yet ready to announce who would be coming and when.
Question: I don’t have Negroponte’s transcript in front of me, but my recollection was that he said he was not aware of the...
Spokesman: The Secretary-General told me this morning he had discussed this idea with the Ambassador when they met a few days ago.
Question: I think what Negroponte said was he had never heard the 15 January date.
Spokesman: That’s very possible that the discussion they had did not involve those particulars. Yes, Pat?
Question: Any new information on Sudan from the UN side?
Spokesman: Nothing specific today. In general, it’s going very well. In one of the Secretary-General’s recent contacts with senior Administration officials, he was able to thank the United States for its support. He said without that support, he doubts they would have gotten as far as they have in reaching a peace agreement. Yes?
Question: For next week, is there going to be a noon briefing every day but Christmas, or what?
Spokesman: We thought we’d do them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Friday, we thought we would not do them through the next week, and then resume them the day after New Year’s. So, resume on Friday, 2 January. So we will suspend from Christmas through New Year’s, doing briefings Christmas Eve and the day after New Year’s.
If that’s okay with you? If you want us to brief every day, we’ll do it. But on those days when we don’t do formal briefings, we would still do the daily report on the Internet, so you would have the highlights in any case with the day’s events. Lee?
Question: Will the Secretary-General have any comments on the Wall Street Journal’s major article today on the future of the UN and his role?
Spokesman: No. We worked pretty closely with the Journal’s staff on the six-part series and my personal view is that it was a fair and balanced and very professional job. But I can’t speak for the Secretary-General on that, as he has not told me what he’s thought of the articles. We’ve given all six of them to him, though. Bill?
Question: Looking at the transcript of Ambassador Negroponte’s press encounter yesterday, he said, concerning this issue, “I was not aware at this stage of any invitation to the Coalition”, indicating that he was not aware that the Coalition had been asked to participate.
Spokesman: That’s also possible. The idea of a meeting is what the Secretary-General told me he had discussed with the Ambassador. I believe that the Secretary-General subsequently spoke by telephone to Mr. Pachachi, who will be the head of the Iraqi Governing Council for the month of January. So I don’t think the discussions with the Governing Council had taken place. I think the first discussion of this idea was with Ambassador Negroponte, most likely not with these details that you’re raising now.
Question: Have there been discussion with more details with the United States or with the Coalition that did have the details about the date that you were trying to arrange for the meeting? That talked in more detail about the invitation that he was unaware of?
Spokesman: This idea moved very quickly yesterday morning, just before the briefing. So the Secretary-General decided to send a letter to the Security Council asking them to schedule their monthly luncheon for January closer to mid-month, when he hoped representatives of the Governing Council and the CPA would be here. And then he had a discussion yesterday morning, just before the press conference, with a senior administration official and that official indicated that it sounded like a good idea. There were no commitments to attend, but just that it sounded like a good idea. So it was building some momentum, and then when he, in response to a question from one of you, went public with the idea, I think that’s when it started to gain momentum.
Question: Can you tell us what part of the Government this senior official was? Was it from Bremer?
Spokesman: The White House. Yes?
Question: Was it Condi Rice?
Spokesman: I don’t want to get into that level of detail, if you don’t mind.
Question: Has he spoken to Bremer about this or communicated with Bremer about this idea?
Spokesman: No. All done? Michèle?
Spokeswoman for the General Assembly President
Thank you Fred. Good afternoon.
The General Assembly will meet this afternoon on an important issue: the revitalization of its own work. There have been intensive consultations in the last few days and a revised text will be voted on this afternoon.
It is not the first time that the Assembly considers a resolution on the issue. But, I can safely say that it is the first time that a resolution goes this far.
This text answers one of the concerns expressed from the start by Member States, that increasingly the Security Council was taking on responsibilities traditionally assigned to the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. The resolution to be voted on today would ensure a closer working relationship between the Presidents of the three bodies.
The Security Council is invited to submit, periodically, special subject-oriented reports to the General Assembly for its consideration on issues of current international concern. In carrying out the assessment of the debate on the annual report of the Security Council, the President of the General Assembly would decide on the need for further consideration of the report, for informal consultations, or any action by the Assembly based on the debate, as well as on any matters to be brought to the attention of the Security Council.
The Presidents of the General Assembly, the Security Council and the Economic and Social Council should meet together periodically with a view to ensuring increased cooperation, coordination and complementarities of the work programmes of the three organs, in accordance with their respective responsibilities.
In this connection, according to that draft resolution, the President of the Security Council may wish to discuss the Security Council’s plans for thematic debates with the President of the General Assembly and the President of the Economic and Social Council. The President of the General Assembly will inform Member States about the outcome of these meetings.
In June of each year, the President-elect of the General Assembly would, after consultations, suggest an issue, or issues, of global concern upon which Member States will be invited to comment during the general debate at the forthcoming session of the General Assembly.
The resolution also stresses the fact that people are not fully aware of what the General Assembly does. According to the revised resolution, the work and decisions of the Assembly should be better publicized by the Department of Public Information and receive better support from the Secretariat.
According to this draft resolution, the General Assembly would drastically improve its working methods, which should be further rationalized in order to improve its efficiency and effectiveness and to make its outcomes more productive. The General Assembly recognizes unequivocally that its agenda is too long, that it is burdened with too much documentation, that its resolutions should be better focused. It is interesting to note that the wording of the revised resolution has none of the traditional preambular paragraphs of most drafts.
The General Assembly would consider convening more interactive debates. The Assembly would envisage, starting with the sixtieth session, to have meetings of the different committees in the fall and in the spring.
The revised version of the resolution is available on the Web. As I said, it will be voted on this afternoon.
The General Assembly will continue meeting on Monday and Tuesday to vote on the work of the Third (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), Second (Economic and Financial) and Fifth (Administrative and Budgetary) Committees. We do not know at this point if the Assembly will also have to meet next Wednesday.
This is all I have for you. Thank you.
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