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.

**Middle East Attack

In a statement issued earlier today, the UN Middle East envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, expressed his abhorrence at the suicide attack that hit the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv.  He condemned the attack in the strongest terms.

Roed-Larsen reiterated his firm belief that nothing can justify terror.  He said he expected the Palestinian Authority to act without delay against those organizing and perpetrating terror and to bring them to justice.

We have the full text of his statement available upstairs.

**Iraq

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, today met in Baghdad with Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

The two had a general discussion of the situation in Iraq and the role of the UN in helping Iraq through the transitional process.

Qazi has been meeting with a number of Iraqi officials and representatives of various civil society organizations and political entities.  The meetings are intended to explore means through which the UN can work with these groups in advancing the political process through the broadening of an inclusive political dialogue.

**Afghanistan

The UN Mission in Afghanistan is concerned about the three abducted UN staff members -- Shqipe Hebibi, Annetta Flanigan and Angelito Nayan -- and called on those holding them not to harm them.

Manoel de Almeida e Silva, the Mission’s spokesman, said the three have come from different backgrounds, but had at least one thing in common:  their commitment to serve people who can benefit from their knowledge and expertise.  That is why, he said, they volunteered to work in Afghanistan.

“We miss them”, he said.  “The best response to such a situation is their immediate release.”

We have yesterday’s briefing notes from Kabul upstairs.

**Sudan

The UN Mission in Sudan reports security incidents in west, north and south Darfur today.  In some cases, agencies have been forced to scale back aid operations and relocate staff due to insecurity.

Meanwhile, in southern Sudan, the Mission reports that crops are being harvested in many areas, due to improved rains since August.  This will lead to improved food security over the next three months, the mission says.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sudan, Jan Pronk, is in New York to submit his 30-day report to the Secretary-General.

Jan Pronk is expected to brief the Security Council on Thursday.

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

I have the following statement attributable to the Spokesman.  This is returning now to the Middle East.

“The Secretary-General was distressed to learn of the deaths of two Palestinian children over the last few days during the continuation of Israeli Defence Force operations in the occupied Palestinian territory.  He is even more disturbed as they follow the killing of two Palestinian children earlier in October.

“On Thursday, nine-year-old Rania Iyad Aram was killed by gunfire on her way to school in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip.  On Saturday morning, a 12-year-old, Ibrahim Mohammed Kmileh, was killed in a refugee camp in the West Bank town of Jenin, while two other boys were wounded.  The Secretary-General expects that the Government of Israel will launch a rigorous investigation into these incidents and that the results will be made public.

“The Secretary-General renews his calls on the Government of Israel to take effective measures to avoid any harm to Palestinian civilians, and to have special care for the protection of the children.  He calls on both parties to exercise maximum restraint and responsibility during this critical period.”

**Liberia

The UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) today said relative calm has been restored to Monrovia, where violence erupted last Thursday.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Liberia, Jacques Paul Klein, said close coordination and communication with the Government, the Liberian National Police, and religious leaders ensured that wanton looting and arson was brought to a stop.

He also said that robust UN military and police patrols have responded to incidents throughout the day and have enforced the curfew -- effective each day from 4.00 p.m. to 7.00 a.m. until further notice.

The UN mission says the violence has claimed 16 lives and hospitals have reported 208 injuries.

A total of 250 arrests have been made for offences ranging from murder, arson, to the breaking of the curfew.

In a statement issued Friday evening, the Secretary-General had appealed to all traditional and political leaders in the country, as well as the leaders of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to urgently intervene and support the UN effort to restore calm.

**DRC – Child Sexual Abuse Case

A French civilian employed by the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in the town of Goma, has been accused of paedophilia and is now in the hands of the French justice system.  This development was made public yesterday in a press release issued jointly by the UN Mission in the DRC and the French Embassy in Kinshasa.

**Security Council

Today is the first day of the US Presidency of the Security Council for the month of November.

There are no meetings or consultations scheduled for today.

The Security Council President, US Ambassador John Danforth, is holding bilateral meetings to discuss the programme of work for the month.

The programme of work is expected to be approved in consultations tomorrow morning.

**IAEA

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency today called on Iran to do its utmost to build confidence by resuming its voluntary suspension of enrichment-related and reprocessing activities.

In his annual report to the General Assembly, Mohamed ElBaradei said that he has asked Iran to pursue a policy of maximum transparency, so that the outstanding issues can be resolved.

He told the Assembly that the most disturbing lesson from the Agency’s recent work in Iran and Libya may be the existence of an extensive illicit market for the supply of nuclear items, which clearly thrived on demand.  The relative ease with which an illicit network could operate, he said, demonstrates clearly the inadequacy of the present export control system.

He also discussed the IAEA’s work concerning North Korea, Libya and Iraq.

And we have copies of his statement upstairs.

**ICTY

The Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia today ruled that Slobodan Miloševic can take the lead in presenting his case, when he is physically capable of doing so.

However, the Appeals Chamber added, it is left to the Trial Chamber’s discretion to steer a clear course between allowing Miloševic to exercise his fundamental right of self-representation and safeguarding the Tribunal’s basic interest in a reasonably expeditious resolution of the case.

In practice, the Appeals Chamber said, if all goes well, the trial should continue much as it did when Miloševic was healthy, with the defendant playing the principal courtroom role at his hearings.

We have copies of that decision available upstairs.

**Uganda – Humanitarian

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has been reporting over the past week on efforts to rebuild the oldest camp housing internally displaced persons in northern Uganda, where thousands were left homeless after a severe rain storm.

Now, aid workers are tackling a cholera outbreak that has killed three people in the camp.

You can read more about this in an update from OCHA, which draws attention to the fact that at least 1.6 million people in northern Uganda have been displaced by the 18-year-long conflict in the north.

**SG - European Constitution

On Friday, the Secretary-General welcomed the signature in Rome, by heads of State and government of the European Union, of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

The Secretary-General described the move as a major milestone in the European Union’s construction, and we have copies of the full statement upstairs.

**UNICEF - Iodine Turkmenistan

Turkmenistan has become the fourth country in the world -- and the first in central Asia -- to achieve universal salt iodisation.  Salt iodisation is the most effective way to protect children from iodine deficiency -- the world’s leading cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage.

And we have more in a UNICEF press release on that.

**UNEP - Corporate Sustainability

A new international study, co-authored by the UN Environment Programme, finds that company boards are failing to disclose to investors how environmental and social issues pose strategic risks and opportunities for their businesses.

And there’s more on this study in a press release upstairs.

**Guest at Noon Tomorrow

Finally, Catherine Bertini, the Under-Secretary-General for Management, will be joining us at tomorrow’s noon to brief you on the financial situation of the Organization.

That’s all I have for you.  Liz?

**Questions and Answers

Question:   Fred, on the subject of Ruud Lubbers, can you tell me:  did Kofi Annan interfere with an OIOS recommendation; did he alter a recommendation in any way to protect Mr. Lubbers?

Spokesman:  No.  No, OIOS is independent of the Secretary-General, as you know, and reports directly to the General Assembly.  Where -- I think I already said this last week -- where OIOS may make a recommendation to management, management may choose not to follow the advice, but does need to respond to OIOS, or at least OIOS needs to report to the General Assembly that they made a certain recommendation and management chose not to follow that recommendation.

Question:   Can you expand just on that last point?  Why did he choose in this case not to?  Is he protecting Mr. Lubbers?

Spokesman: I have nothing new to add to what I said last week.  I said that he made the decision after studying the OIOS report, studying Mr. Lubbers’ response to that report, and seeking legal guidance.  Yes, Jonathan?

Question:   Fred, some time has passed since he made that decision.  What is his position now and, as a follow-up, I understand that the whole case is now being reviewed by the Joint Appeals Board, when might we expect a recommendation from them to Kofi?

Spokesman:  There’s been no change in the Secretary-General’s position, so I have nothing to update you on, on how he feels today as opposed to mid-July, when he took this decision.  It’s every staff member’s right to bring a case to the Joint Appeals Board, but I can’t predict for you how long they might take to hear this case.

Question:   Have we seen cases that go on for months or years such as this?  That it could be a long time before till we hear back?

Spokesman: I’m the wrong one to ask that question.  I think you should ask someone who speaks for the Joint Appeals Board.

Question:   A lawyer for the woman says that, according to the way UN practice goes, that it would be up to, I guess, something called a Joint Disciplinary Committee to determine what should have or might not have been done with Mr. Lubbers, but, in this case, that Annan took that decision power away from them.  Is that true?

Spokesman:  I don’t know what he’s talking about.

Question:   Well, he’s suggesting that a Joint Disciplinary Committee should have been [inaudible], and that that’s something that’s required by the UN in order to determine what steps to take.

Spokesman:  I’m not aware of any such requirement.  I’ll have to check, but I’m not aware that anything that departed from standard procedure took place in this case.

Question:   If further legal action were to be taken by this woman and her lawyer, would the Secretary-General lift the diplomatic immunity?  Is it up to the Secretary-General to do that, if there’s a question of whether or not Mr. Lubbers’ diplomatic immunity would be stripped?

Spokesman:  You’re getting way ahead of the case here.  If the staff member has brought a case to the Joint Appeals Board, then let’s wait and see what the judgment of that board will be.

Question:   But, whose decision, is it up to Annan to determine, to make the call on the diplomatic immunity or not?  In whose hands would that lie?

Spokesman:  I don’t want to speculate about what’s going to happen three months, six months, or a year from now.  I mean, let’s just let this case run its course.  It’s now with the Joint Appeals Board.

Question:   Fred, Rosemary Waters is meeting the Secretary-General today.  Is part of their discussion going to touch on this case, the Lubbers case?

Spokesman:  You’ll have to ask them.  I’m not aware.  I think from the Secretary-General’s point of view, he wanted to discuss with them staff security issues.

Question:   On the kidnapped staff -- the UN staff in Afghanistan -- the kidnappers have set the day after tomorrow as the deadline, before they kill them.  What urgency is the Secretary-General giving to this question?  Is he in touch with an intermediary, for example, to ensure their release?

Spokesman:  Over the weekend, he spoke to President Karzai.  The Afghan Government is taking the lead in this case.  You know, everywhere the UN works, we depend on the host government for the security of our staff and, in this case, the Afghan Government has said they will take the lead in dealing with this matter.  So, the Secretary-General, like the rest of you, is very concerned about the welfare of these staff members, and he is in close touch with the Afghan Government, who is the primary agent dealing with the case.  Liz?

Question:   I’m following up on that question.  Are there any specific demands being made by the hostage takers that the UN is aware of?  Is there anything specific that you could say?

Spokesman:  Only those that appeared in a videotape that aired on Al Jazeera.

Question:   [inaudible]

Spokesman:  I’m not going to elaborate.  I’m not going to do the job of these hostage takers.  Yes?

Question:   The discussion between Mr. Qazi and [inaudible], did anything come out on that, the rumours that the election might be delayed?

Spokesman:  I have no indications that that issue came up, the possibility of a delay in the elections.  I have no report that that was even discussed.

Thank you very much.  Djibril for the General Assembly, please.

Spokesman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon.

As Fred mentioned, the General Assembly is focusing today on the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency.  The General Assembly will review the Secretary-General’s report on the subject.  The document number, as you know, is A/59/295.  The idea of submitting the report of the IAEA on an annual basis dates back to 1957, and is part of the framework of an agreement between the United Nations and IAEA.  At the fifty-eighth session, the General Assembly took note of the IAEA’s report of 2002, and requested the Secretary-General to transmit to the Director-General of the IAEA the records of that session relating to the activities of the Agency.  And that was under resolution 58/8.  In his address to the General Assembly today, the Director-General, Mohammed El Baradei, gave an account of major developments during 2003.

The second item for the General Assembly has to do with Central America:  progress in fashioning a region of peace, freedom, democracy and development.  Here, too, the General Assembly will review the Secretary-General’s report.  The 1983 item entitled “The situation in Central America:  threats to international peace and security and peace initiatives” was tabled then by Nicaragua, and that item evolved into the above-mentioned item at the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly, and was included in the forty-eighth session’s provisional agenda.

Acting on the recommendation of the Fifth Committee -- the Fifth Committee being the administrative and budgetary committee -- the General Assembly approved financing to cover the budgetary requirements of UN peacekeeping missions in Timore-Leste, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire and Haiti during the period 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2005.  The General Assembly also adopted a resolution requesting the Secretary-General to submit, during the second part of the fifty-ninth session, a report reviewing the effectiveness and efficiencies of all peacekeeping operations’ management structure, bearing in mind the complexities and specificities of each operation.

Another item has to do with the completion of the 2005 roster for the ECOSOC.  Two countries were elected:  Costa Rica and Albania, for a three-year period starting on the 1 January 2005.  And they join 16 other countries elected to the Council.

The Second Committee is discussing the 2004 Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review of Operational Activities for Development of the United Nations system.  The Committee is focusing on the theme “United Nations development cooperation:  reforms, resources and results”, and is organized by the Office for Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination, Department of Economic and Social Affairs.  The meeting is chaired by Mr. Marco Balarezo of Peru, and panellists include senior officials from MemberStates and the United Nations.  This afternoon’s discussion of the Second Committee will be around the topics of globalization and interdependence, international migration and development, preventing corrupt practices and transfer of illicit funds, the relationship between culture and development, etc.

Finally, as I mentioned last week, the Third Committee is discussing issues pertaining to human rights, such as alternative approaches for improving and promoting human rights.  The General Assembly will look into a report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and various human rights situations and reports from special rapporteurs and representatives.

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