Daily Press Briefing by the Office of the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

And 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,

**Statement Attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General

We’ll start with a statement attributable to the Spokesman on the Middle East:

“The Secretary-General continues to be deeply concerned at the upsurge in violence in the occupied Palestinian territory and in Israel.  He was saddened to learn of the death of 10-year-old Raghda Adnan al-Assar, who died on 22 September after being hit in the head by an Israel Defence Forces bullet whilst sitting at her desk at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Elementary School in Khan Younis on 7 September.  Then, on 27 September, 55-year old Said al-Madhoun was shot and killed on the grounds of UNRWA’s Preparatory School in Khan Younis.  In addition, an UNRWA contractor was shot and seriously wounded on 27 September while working in a UN warehouse in Rafah.

“The Secretary-General and his representatives in the region have repeatedly called on the Government of Israel to respect the inviolability of UN institutions and installations, and, in particular, to refrain from any activities that endanger the lives and safety of those who are lawfully on the premises, especially children.  The Secretary-General reiterates the obligation for the Government of Israel to ensure the safety of civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory.”

**Sudan - Arbour

At a press conference in Geneva before departing for New York, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, said she believed the core crisis in Darfur is one of safety and security.  That crisis is the one that we must now address with great urgency and seriousness, she added.

She was asked what the thrust of her recommendations to the Secretary-General would be.  And she said that "in general terms, I will be advocating as forcefully as I can the need for a considerable expansion of the international presence on the ground in all its manifestations." 

The Secretary-General is expected to participate in a Security Council briefing on Darfur this Thursday.  He will be accompanied by Louise Arbour and Juan Mendez, the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the prevention of genocide.

**Sudan - Other

Meanwhile, the High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, is in Khartoum today on the last leg of a five-day mission to Chad and Sudan.  He was to meet senior government officials there and press home the urgent need to end the continuing violence in Darfur and reduce the enormous gap of mistrust between the displaced and the authorities.

**Afghanistan - Security Council

A successful election in Afghanistan on 9 October will represent a significant step on the path to democracy there.  That was the message that Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno gave to the Security Council this morning.

In an open briefing to the Council, Guéhenno said that, in the 11 days remaining before the elections, it is incumbent on all parties to work together to ensure that the process is a success.  So far, the technical arrangements are on track, but are made vulnerable by the prevailing level of insecurity.

He told the Council that last week a security exercise was conducted to simulate a series of multiple incidents throughout the country on election day.  Guéhenno stressed that all efforts must be undertaken to be fully prepared to react to attacks, especially on polling sites, the transportation of ballots and counting centres.

He added that more than 2,000 men have been disarmed in the past 10 days.  And we have his briefing notes available to you upstairs.

The open briefing was followed by Security Council consultations, also on Afghanistan.  And, once consultations end, Guéhenno will talk to reporters at the stakeout.  Or if that happens in the next few minutes, he will come here to room 226.

**Security Council – Annual Report

The Security Council began its work today by adopting its annual report to the General Assembly.

Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tuliameni Kalomoh, said that of particular interest was the introduction to that report, which contained an analytical summary of the Council’s work.

**Haiti – Humanitarian Update

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in Gonaives, Haiti, relief workers continue to struggle in distributing food and water to people affected by flooding there.  An estimated 40,000 people are in urgent need of both food and water.

At least 44 metric tonnes of food are being distributed at two distribution sites each day.  The UN humanitarian team is looking into opening four more distribution centres in Gonaives and four centres outside that city once the UN peacekeeping mission has secured the sites.

To try and meet the need for clean water, the UN Children’s Fund will donate 120,000 litres of bottled water.  Meanwhile, the International Federation of the Red Cross, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations is installing a water-purification unit that can produce up to 600,000 litres a day.

Among the priority actions are surveillance programmes and vaccination campaigns to prevent disease.  Also needed are funds for trucks and tools to expedite the removal of debris from flood ravaged streets.

We have more information in a press release.

**DRC-Burundi:  UNHCR Concerns

The UN refugee agency has urged the Congolese authorities to ensure the safety of a group of 366 Congolese refugees who chose to leave Burundi and cross back into the Democratic Republic of the Congo last Friday despite hostilities there.  The refugees are Banyamulenge, that is, Congolese of Tutsi origin.

UNHCR notes that riots broke out in the Congolese town of Uvira to protest the group's return and that the refugee convoy was later stoned.  Congolese soldiers are now protecting the transit centre near Uvira, and UN peacekeeping troops are on the ground.

UNHCR’s efforts to move some of the 20,000 Congolese people living along the insecure border area of Burundi to safer camps inland are meeting great resistance.  This is despite the fact that more than 150 refugees were killed in an August attack on Gatumba border transit centre.

The agency is concerned that the refugees may be under peer pressure to repatriate to the DRC, especially after the recent visit by the vice-governor of south Kivu to ensure them that it was safe to return.

And we have more on that in a press release.

**Myanmar

The Special Rapporteur dealing with human rights in Myanmar expressed his concern at the large numbers of security detainees that remain in that country, around some 1,300 people in all.  He regrets that only a small number of detainees have been released in recent months, and is concerned that there have been no indications when [opposition leader] Aung San Suu Kyi will be released.

The Rapporteur, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, also says in a report, which is out on the racks today, that the resumption of peace talks between Myanmar’s Government and the opposition Karen National Union is “a significant development”.  He hopes all remaining issues will be resolved by the two sides very soon.

**ASEAN Luncheon

The Secretary-General and the General Assembly President will be the guests of honour at a luncheon today bringing together the foreign ministers of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, or ASEAN for short.

The Secretary-General is expected to encourage the ASEAN States to redouble their efforts to promote cooperation and pursue strategies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  He will also talk to them about the work of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, which is to report on UN reform by December.

We have his embargoed remarks upstairs.

**WHO - Bird Flu

The World Health Organization is helping Thai authorities determine if two recent cases of avian influenza -- or “bird flu” -- are evidence that the virus has spread between humans.  The investigation comes as two new cases of bird flu in humans are confirmed in Thailand.  WHO says that if proven, this kind of transmission could signal the start of an influenza pandemic.

We have more have more in a WHO press release upstairs.

**WFP - Southern Africa Appeal

The World Food Programme (WFP) is appealing for $78 million to provide emergency aid to almost 2 million people in Lesotho, Malawi and Swaziland.  The Programme says it needs the money to boost its operations there in the first half of next year -- during the peak “hunger months” ahead of the April harvest. The three countries suffered an extremely poor harvest this year because of drought and the effects of poverty and HIV/AIDS. 

We have more in a WFP press release on that.

**IAEA

The Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency has decided on its membership for 2004-2005, and has elected Ambassador Ingrid Hall of Canada as the Chair of the Board for those two years.  She succeeds Antonio Núñez García-Saúco of Spain.

**ICTY

In a letter that’s out on the racks today, the Secretary-General transmitted to the Security Council 19 nominations for permanent judges on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.  He notes that, under the Tribunal’s statute, the Council is to submit no fewer than 28 names to the General Assembly.  The Assembly would then select 14 of those candidates to occupy seats on the Tribunal.

**UNICEF - Tajikistan

The first ever measles vaccination campaign in Tajikistan began today.

UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, says almost 3 million people -- or half of the country’s total population -- will be immunized over the next fortnight.

UNICEF says the challenge will literally be to “climb every mountain” as mountains make up 93 per cent of Tajikistan’s land area -- but having said that, the Fund is optimistic about achieving the goal.

We have more in a UNICE press release.

**UN Reports Launched Tomorrow

A heads-up now on two reports being released tomorrow:

The UN Conference on Trade and Development will release its report titled “Debt Sustainability:  Oasis or Mirage”.

It argues that debt servicing at any level is incompatible with attaining the UN Millennium Development Goals -- and calls for a total debt cancellation for Africa’s.

UNCTAD’s acting Secretary-General, Carlos Fortin, will be available for interviews on the report, so please contact UNCTAD’sNew York office if you’re interested in speaking with him.

And also, the UN Economic Commission for Africa will release its flagship publication, the “Economic Report on Africa 2004.”

**UN Trade Report - Reminder

And just a reminder that the presentation of the United Nations University’s study of the impact of the World Trade Organization regime on developing countries will be taking place tomorrow, at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library auditorium at 10:00 a.m.  And it’ll be presented by the study’s director and one of its contributors.

**Sergio Vieira de Mello

Yesterday in Geneva, Sergio Vieira de Mello was posthumously granted honorary citizenship in the canton of Geneva by Robert Cramer, President of the State Council of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.  The ceremony took place in the presence of Vieira de Mello’s widow, Annie, and of his successor as High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour.

**Press Conferences – Tomorrow

Finally, press conferences tomorrow:  At 4:00, the Permanent Mission of the CzechRepublic will be sponsoring a press conference by representatives of the Burma UN Service Office and the Quaker UN Office on the situation of human rights on Myanmar.

And then at 5:00, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta of Timor Leste will be holding a press conference in this room following his address to the General Assembly.

That’s all I have for you.

Yes, Lee?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  How many UN security forces have been sent to Haiti to prevent looting of UN and NGO supplies?

Spokesman:  I don’t know that it’s new forces going in, but rather existing peacekeeping soldiers being redeployed towards Gonaives from other places.  It’s in the hundreds.  But if you check with my office afterwards, we’ll give you an exact number. [He later said that 150 UN troops were sent to Gonaives to reinforce the more than 500 UN troops and police already there.]

Okay, Djibril, do you want to come up and tell us about the General Assembly?

Spokesman for General Assembly President

Thank you Fred.

The general debate continued today, and the Assembly heard an address by one president, the President of the KyrgyzRepublic; nine foreign ministers and the chairman of the observer delegation of Palestine.  The foreign ministers were those from Tonga, Tunisia, Bhutan, Togo, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Mali, Ethiopia, Niger, and the ComorosIslands.

Among the appointments of the President of the General Assembly, Jean Ping, I’d like to highlight his meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Tunisia, Habib Ben Yahia; a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, Prakash Saran Mahat; and a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, Morshed Khan.  In all these meetings, the delegations informed the President of concerns that the individual delegations may have vis-à-vis the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly.

The President of the General Assembly will also attend a reception in his honour and in honour of the UN Secretary-General that is being offered by the foreign ministers from South-East Asia; that is the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).  Another reception is being held by the Chinese Ambassador on the occasion of the fifty-fifth anniversary of the independence of the People’s Republic of China.

And again, I have the updated list of speakers which I will be happy to share with you.

In view of the questions that were asked yesterday regarding the report of the Security Council, I have two items to share with you.  First of all, the Security Council submits annual reports to the General Assembly under Article 24, paragraph 3 of the UN charter.  And the Assembly considers such a report in accordance with Article 15, paragraph one.  Generally speaking, the Assembly takes note of the reports of the Security Council without discussion.  However, at its twenty-sixth and twenty-seventh sessions -- that is as far back as 1971 and 1972 -- the General Assembly in connection with its consideration of the Council’s report, decided to seek the view of the Member States on ways and means of enhancing the effectiveness of the Security Council.  And that is in accordance with the principles and provisions of the Charter.

So, that was one item I wanted to provide you with by way of a backgrounder.  The second item -- I think to help you again with your work -- has to do with the open-ended working group on the question equitable representation on and increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Security Council.  Again, you will remember that this working group started its deliberations in January 1994, and since then it has continued to submit reports and recommendations to the General Assembly.

Last year, the working group held its first meeting on 19 February under the chairmanship of the then president of the General Assembly.  And again, for your own work purposes, the proposals and positions of delegations are divided into two clusters.  Cluster one deals with increase in membership and related matters.  Cluster two concerns the working methods of the Security Council and transparency of the work of the Council.  The working group has over the years reached agreement on a large number of issues, mainly related to cluster two.  However, substantial divergences, or rather a substantial divergence of views remains on other issues, including issues on the cluster one.  So, the group will continue its work taking into account the progress achieved during the forty-eighth through the fifty-eighth sessions.  And this working group, in the fifty-eighth session, is supposed to submit a report including agreed recommendations.

So, that was the second item I just wanted to give you by way of background because I did get a few follow-up phone calls after the briefing in terms of just helping some of you journalists to get some background information on the items under consideration.

Two other items for your consideration, very quickly.  One is a meeting between the Presidents of the General Assembly, of the Security Council and of the Economic and Social Council.  And that meeting will take place on Thursday, 30 September, in the morning.  I’ll provide you with more information.  This is in the framework of revitalization, in particular pursuant to General Assembly resolution 58/126, which stipulates that the three presidents of ECOSOC, General Assembly and the Security Council are expected to meet periodically in order to strengthen cooperation and complementarity of the work programmes of the three organs.

So, we will provide you with more information on that meeting.

A final item from my briefing today is that the President of the UN Correspondents Association, Tony Jenkins, has invited the President of the General Assembly to address the membership of UNCA.  And this will take place on Thursday, 30 September, at 3:30 p.m.

Thank you.  Any questions?

Spokesman for the Secretary-General:  Okay, if not, thank you Djibril, and I would ask Jean Marie Guéhenno to come up to take the podium.  He has just come out of the Security Council where he briefed them on the subject of Afghanistan.

[Issued separately]

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