DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL AND THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT
| Press Briefing |
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
AND THE SPOKESMAN 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 Djibril Diallo, Spokesman for the General Assembly President.
Good afternoon.
**Guests at Noon
Joining us today at the noon briefing will be Safiye Cagar, the new Director of Information at the UN Population Fund, and she’ll be joined by Jill Sheffield, the President of Family Care International. They’ll be discussing the new State of the World Population Report, which reviews progress in the 10 years since the International Conference on Population and Development took place in Cairo. They’ll be coming up here after our briefings are completed.
**Sudan
On Sudan, at its weekly press briefing in Khartoum, the UN mission in the Sudan reported on continued clashes and violence, as well as insecurity in the Darfur region.
The mission reported the security situation in North Darfur was relatively quiet today, but noted displacements triggered by the insecurity of the last few weeks. Last night and this morning, approximately 2,000 to 4,000 internally displaced persons arrived on the outskirts of El Fasher.
In South Darfur, some 40,000 new IDPs have been registered in one location, where about 5,000 people arrived during last week alone.
Meanwhile, on the political front, the parties to the Abuja talks met yesterday with President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, the current chair of the African Union, who called on them to commit to a negotiated, peaceful political solution to the Darfur crisis and to act with good faith. He requested the parties to abide by the ceasefire agreement and urged them to sign the humanitarian protocol, which they had agreed upon recently.
**Security Council
The Security Council started its programme today with a troop contributors' meeting on Liberia.
Then in closed consultations, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia Jacques Klein briefed the Security Council on their latest report on Liberia, which was issued as a document today.
In that report, the Secretary-General notes that the UN mission in Liberia is now moving into a new phase of its operations, during which there will be particular focus on the rehabilitation and reintegration of ex-combatants. He urgently calls for further generous pledges to ensure that the reintegration process, which is absolutely critical for the success of the peace process, is adequate, effective and completed in a timely manner. A draft on Liberia was introduced.
Jacques Klein will speak to you at the Council stakeout once the consultations end. Also scheduled today is the monthly luncheon of the Security Council with the Secretary-General. Then in the afternoon, the Council will meet with troop contributors for the UN Mission in Sierra Leone.
**Hurricane Ivan
A brief update on the aftermath of the passage of hurricane Ivan through the Caribbean. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has released emergency cash grants of $80,000 to Cuba and $100,000 to Jamaica and Grenada. That’s $100,000 each to those two countries.
Preliminary assessments show that over 90 per cent of the population in Grenada was adversely affected by the storm. Much work will be required to restore power, more temporary shelters are urgently needed, fuel shortages are creating a tense situation, and phone lines are down. We have more details available upstairs.
**Gender Justice
This morning, the Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, delivered the keynote address at the Conference on Gender Justice in Post-Conflict Situations held here in New York. She noted that, while women are often the first victims of armed conflict, they must also and always be recognized as key to the solution. The UN, she said, is now developing a more systematic approach to consult with women from the earliest stages of a peace process, including discussions on constitutional development, judicial reform and reconciliation. The full text of her remarks are available upstairs.
Co-organized with the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the International Legal Assistance Consortium, the unprecedented three-day conference has brought together women in key legal and judicial positions from over 12 conflict-affected countries. The main aim of the conference is to listen to priority needs on gender justice as articulated by the speakers from the conflict-affected zones, and to identify specific ways for the international community to provide coordinated assistance to address these needs.
**Burundi
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, along with UN agencies and non-governmental organizations, is constructing temporary shelters for some 25,000 internally displaced persons in Burundi’s Kabezi Commune, just south of the capital. The new shelter site is intended to put some distance between the displaced persons and the Government’s military positions, which have been attacked regularly by the rebel National Liberation Front (FNL).
**Guatemala
The Secretary-General yesterday opened the photo exhibit at the UN Visitors’ Lobby, called “Guatemala: Images of Peace”, by saying that, 10 years after the deployment of the UN Verification Mission in that country, we can now look with pride at images of peace, not of conflict.
The Secretary-General said that “Guatemala has now consolidated its democratic framework”, allowing for the UN Verification Mission to depart. But while the Mission may leave, he promised, the United Nations will not, and will continue to, work with the people of Guatemala as they struggle to deal with the legacy of a violent past.
**Human Rights
The Secretary-General has tasked Diane Orentlicher, a professor at AmericanUniversity's Washington College of Law, with updating the United Nations Set of Principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity. Ms. Orentlicher will serve as an independent expert for a period of one year. And we have more information on that in a press release.
**WFP
From the World Food Programme, with the greatest number of hungry people in the world living in Asia, the region must take decisive steps to reduce malnutrition or risk losing much of its tremendous economic potential, the World Food Programme’s deputy head said today.
WFP Deputy Executive Director Sheila Sisulu told the opening session of a regional conference on maternal and child malnutrition in New Delhi that “malnutrition will be a millstone around the neck of the countries in their progress toward economic prosperity.” More than 500 million Asians do not get enough food to meet daily needs for nutritional well-being. WFP has a press release with more details.
**Press Conferences Tomorrow
On press conferences tomorrow, at 11 a.m., the General Assembly President Jean Ping will be here to brief you on the work of the Assembly’s 59th session.
Then at 1:15 p.m., Bruno Henn, the Officer-in-Charge of the UN Security and Safety Service, and Abdellatif Kabbaj, the Chief of Media Accreditation and Liaison, will brief you on security arrangements for the General Assembly, in particular, during the general debate which begins next week. So you’ve all been asking for that one, and now it’s scheduled.
**Guest at Noon Tomorrow
And then at the noon briefing, my guest will be Stephen Lewis, the Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, and he’ll be talking to you about his recent missions to Uganda and Lesotho.
**Press Conference this Afternoon
And they’ll be a press conference this afternoon, that we mentioned to you yesterday, 2:15, Palitha Kohona of the Office of Legal Affairs will be joined by Cate Steainsand Mark Bowden of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to give a press conference on Focus 2004, the treaty event on the protection of civilians.
That’s all I have for you. Any questions before we go to Djibril on the General Assembly?
**Questions and Answers
Question: What is the UN’s official position on the press conference that wasn’t held in the General, in the UN Foreign Correspondent’s Association on Taiwan? The Taiwanese President in this video feed said to reporters that the UN threatened to shut down the power “to the building”, whether he meant just to that room, should the press conference take place.
Spokesman: That’s not true. The Secretary-General’s position is that, while he does not want in any way to curtail freedom of the press within the Building, that you have to understand that this Building belongs to governments, and it’s an organization of governments, with certain constraints. And in this case, on the advice of his legal counsel, he felt that there was a contradiction between the presence of an official representative of Taiwan and the General Assembly resolution recognizing a single China for the China seat. So, the first case involved a person claiming to be an ambassador from Taiwan. The most recent case involves someone calling himself the president of Taiwan and Taiwan is not a recognized nation here in the United Nations. So, for that reason, the Secretary-General did not approve this press conference taking place on UN premises.
Question: But I believe from Chechnya to Kashmir, there have been various events held in that room that run counter to, they’re not the government. What happened here? Did China protest, or in the other cases the other countries don’t complain?
Spokesman: No, I believe that it’s a legal basis. That this is a unique case, at least in the view of the legal counsel, where there’s a direct contradiction to a General Assembly resolution.
Question: Does the idea of a video feed change things, where the person is physically not here?
Spokesman: I don’t think that changes anything. No. You have the person speaking via teleconference to UN correspondents in the UN Building, and so that does not change anything.
Question: I don’t know if I mentioned earlier, but they are saying that they tried to shut the power down. But, there was a threat. Would they have stopped the conference from happening?
Spokesman: There was no threat. We have had ongoing discussions with the Correspondent’s Association. We made clear in writing the basis of the Secretary-General’s opposition. We were waiting to hear back from the Correspondent’s Association and then the Association made the decision to cancel the event.
Thank you. Okay, Djibril, come on up.
Spokesman for General Assembly President
Good afternoon. The 59th session of the General Assembly opened yesterday afternoon with a minute of silent prayer or meditation.
The General Assembly, as you know, brings together delegations from all Member States, to review a wide range of international issues. During the two-week general debate, at the beginning of the session, many of the delegations are led by heads of State, or heads of government, or foreign ministers.
Before turning to the items on the agenda, President Jean Ping drew the attention of the General Assembly to a letter from the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in which the Secretary-General informed the Assembly that 13 Member States are in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions to the United Nations, within the terms of Article 19 of the Charter, and that Article stipulates, among other things, that a member of the United Nations which is in arrears in the payment of its financial contributions to the organization shall have no vote in the General Assembly if the amount of its arrears equals or exceeds the amount of the contribution due from it for the preceding two full years. The Assembly took note of that information, which is contained in document A/59/350.
The Assembly also heard the keynote speech of the incoming president of the 59th session of the General Assembly, his excellency Mr. Jean Ping, in which the President articulated the main challenges facing the General Assembly this year. President Jean Ping started with a mention of solidarity and compassion with the victims of hurricane Ivan and their governments. He also said that it is important to continue the work of his predecessors, that is past Presidents of the General Assembly, each of whom have contributed to making this world a better place to live in.
He added that today’s world is faced with global challenges, such as terrorism, poverty, HIV/AIDS, armed conflicts, environmental degradation, international crime, and so on, and he said that these issues can only be addressed with the participation of all nations, and that there is no organization better-suited than the United Nations to address and resolve these problems.
In my briefing to you yesterday, I highlighted the priority concerns from this session, and such concerns, as you may remember, included the work to revitalize the Assembly, the leadership in peace and security, while balancing that leadership with issues to do with sustainable human development, the important work of preparing the 60th anniversary of the United Nations, and to these items the agenda of the Assembly also adds the burning issues confronting the international community.
The General Committee started officially its work today. You will remember that the General Committee is the body that makes recommendations to the Assembly about such issues as the adoption of the agenda, the allocation of items and the organization of work. It is composed of the President, 21 vice-presidents of the Assembly, and chairs of the six Main Committees. And what is interesting, also, is that the President, the Vice-President and the chairs of the six main committees, were elected at least three months prior to the opening session; namely, they were elected on the 10th of June.
And as Fred mentioned, President Ping will have his first press conference tomorrow, at 11 a.m., in this room, 226. So we look forward to interacting with you.
Thank you.
Questions and Answers
Spokesman for General Assembly President:Yes, Richard.
Question: Which General Assembly committee and when discusses the annual Taiwanese case for representation?
Spokesman for General Assembly President:I am not allowed to discuss that at this stage.
Question: Allowed?
Spokesman for General Assembly President:Not allowed.
Question: What do you mean?
Spokesman for General Assembly President:Well, I don’t have the information on it right now.
Question: But as a question right now, and the question that I have is (inaudible), there are over 100 statements, at least there are 97 listed, and I understand that it’s going to go to 100 and change. What is the procedure at the end? Will they go through an entire speaker’s list before they make a decision? A, is this a procedural question and, b, if they do, what is the procedure? Is there a show of hands for a vote, is it a tally vote, is it affirmation?
Spokesman for General Assembly President: I’ll check and get back to you.
Question: Okay.
Spokesman for General Assembly President:I just don’t have the information. I’ll check and get back to you.
Question: Well, will we get it in fairly short order?
Spokesman for General Assembly President:As soon as I get it, I’ll get it to you. Thank you.
Question: How many presidents and prime ministers are scheduled to speak?
Spokesman for General Assembly President:I gave out the information as of yesterday. I’m sorry, I’ll get back to you and give it to you.
Thank you.
* *** *