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

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Secretary-General’s Travel

The Secretary-General arrived in Cartagena this morning where, later today, he will attend the signing ceremony of the Colombia peace accords.

The Secretary-General will speak at the ceremony.  He is expected to commend the negotiating teams and the courage they showed.

The United Nations Mission has been tasked with the verification of the ceasefire and the laying down of arms.  The UN country team will also be there to help implement the agreement, building on many years of engagement on peacebuilding and our work with victims and communities.  In addition, the UN will continue to offer support to address the human rights and humanitarian challenges that persist.

The Secretary-General will also have bilateral meetings with President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia and with Timoleon Jimenez, the commander of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  The Secretary-General will fly back later today and be back in the office tomorrow morning.

**Syria

Speaking to the press yesterday, the Secretary-General said that he was appalled by the military escalation in the city of Aleppo, which is facing the most sustained and intense bombardment since the start of the Syrian conflict.  He said that the use of bunker busting bombs brings the violence to new depths of barbarity, adding that, according to international law, the systematic use of indiscriminate weapons in densely populated areas is a war crime.

The Secretary-General spoke at a time when his Special Envoy, Staffan de Mistura, was briefing the Security Council in an open meeting, telling Council members that the past week has been one of the worst ones in Syria during the nearly six years of this devastating conflict.  He said that UN human rights workers received information in recent days of dozens of airstrikes hitting residential buildings across eastern Aleppo, causing scores of reported civilian deaths and injuries, including those of many children.

In a statement we issued over the weekend, the Secretary-General said that the international community has to unite to send a clear message that it will not tolerate the use of indiscriminate and ever more deadly and powerful weapons against civilians.

The World Food Programme (WFP) yesterday delivered life-saving food assistance to besieged families in the Four Towns of Madaya and Zabadani in Rural Damascus and Foah and Kefraya in Rural Idlib as part of a joint interagency convoy with UN agencies and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

This is the first time that food and humanitarian supplies have reached these areas since April.

WFP sent 45 trucks carrying food rations and wheat flour to the four towns as part of a joint convoy.  The food rations are sufficient for 60,000 people for one month.  WFP also delivered to Madaya and Zabadani a three-month supply of specialized nutritious products for the prevention of malnutrition for 250 children.

**Gabon

On Gabon, you will have seen that in a statement we issued over the weekend, the Secretary-General took note of the ruling of the Constitutional Court and its confirmation of Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba as the President-elect.

At this critical and sensitive juncture in the country’s history, the Secretary-General said it was of utmost importance that all actors demonstrate maximum restraint and fully respect human rights and fundamental freedoms.  

He called for the release of any persons detained arbitrarily during the electoral process.

**Cyprus

Yesterday, the Secretary-General spoke to reporters following his meeting here with the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders.

He called their meeting productive and said that he welcomed their leaders’ joint commitment to intensify efforts in line with their stated desire to achieve a comprehensive settlement this year.

The Secretary-General noted that the leaders had asked him to step up his personal engagement, and that he stands ready to support them in whatever they may require.

He stressed that the period ahead will be crucial for Cyprus, and that both he and the United Nations will do their utmost to promote a successful outcome.

**Nuclear Weapons

This morning, the Deputy Secretary-General, Jan Eliasson, spoke at a high-level meeting to commemorate the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

He noted that we face growing nuclear dangers, with progress in multilateral nuclear disarmament having come to a standstill and tens of billions of dollars being put aside to maintain and upgrade already huge nuclear weapon systems.

The Deputy Secretary-General said that, sadly, several countries continue to include nuclear deterrence in their security doctrines.

But he pointed to recent developments, which have shown that nuclear weapons do not ensure peace and security and that there are many possible paths to a nuclear-weapon-free world with a sufficient degree of political will.

**Questions and Answers

That’s it for me. Are there any questions?  Yes?

Question:  Yeah, Farhan.  Thank you.  Yesterday, Mr. Walid al-Moualem accused Mr. de Mistura of procrastinating since May, for calling resumption of the talks in Geneva.  Have you got anything… reply to that?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, Staffan de Mistura has made clear many times, including yesterday, what the requirements are for a meeting.  He wants to make sure not that parties meet simply for the sake of meeting each other but that there is a productive environment.  He has tried to make sure that there's an environment conducive to successful talks.  And yet, so far, as you've seen, particularly from the continuing violence, including around Aleppo, that environment is not yet there.  What we need is for there to be a lasting cessation of hostilities.  We need for aid to be able to get to people who are in need, all of those who are in need, and there is also, very clearly, a need for the parties to be willing to meet each other in good faith so that we can finally get to talks about a transition in the country.  Once he has the conditions in place on the ground, he is fully ready to start… to call the next round of talks for Syria.

Question:  But maybe because of all this delay, these clashes are happening and escalation in the… on the military side.  Isn't that another view?  I mean…

Deputy Spokesman:  I don't think that that's the way the logic of the situation works.  We have tried for quite some time to get a good, solid atmosphere among the parties and among the regional players, and that's resulted sometimes in a cessation of hostilities.  That's resulted in some improvements over the course of this year in humanitarian access.  Now, the recent days, we see none of those things, however.  What's happened instead is that you've seen parties trying very desperately for a military solution and, as Staffan de Mistura said yesterday, once again, there's no way to win this militarily.  All sides, particularly the Syrian people, will be the loser from this.

Before we continue, I have another thing to mention to you, which is that the Secretary‑General's Special Representative for Somalia, Michael Keating, will speak to reporters at the stakeout tomorrow following his briefing to the Security Council in the morning.

Question:  On Jordan…

Deputy Spokesman:  Hold on.  Let's see whether there's anyone else who has questions first.  Yes, and then Oleg.

Question:  I wanted to ask you about South Sudan.  I'd tried to ask Mr. [Hervé] Ladsous on Friday for an update on the… the report into the Terrain Hotel and other failures to protect civilians in Juba.  He didn't answer, but I went back and looked.  It seems like, on 23 August, Mr. [Patrick] Cammaert was in charge and said we'd be finished in a month.  Is it finished?  Has it been turned over, and when will it be made public?

Deputy Spokesman:  On that, what I can say is that the special investigation team led by Major General Patrick Cammaert departed Juba on 18 September after arriving in the capital on 9 September.  The team has completed its investigation on the ground and is now in the process of drafting its report, which will be submitted to the Secretary‑General.  As we announced earlier, the findings of this report will be made public.

Question:  So when you say… is there a distinction between the findings and the report itself?  What's going to be made public and how… on what kind of a gap… just given that the month is now expired, when… when… when do you anticipate releasing these findings?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, the… as I just mentioned, they're finalizing the report, so hopefully it's not much longer before we can have the report go to the Secretary‑General.  And, as we have made clear, we'll put out the findings… it will be clear to you what has been issued once we give it to you.

Question:  Okay.  And I guess what I wanted to… also, on South Sudan, Riek Machar, it's reported, along with his people in his party, have announced an armed… the beginning of an armed struggle against what they call the… the racist regime in Juba.  This was announced in Khartoum on Sunday.  And I wanted to know, given the UN's involvement in trying to broker that initial deal that's fallen apart, what's the response to… to what seems to be a return to war?

Deputy Spokesman:  We obviously want the parties to abide by the peace agreement.  We made it very clear that the peace agreement remains the only viable option for the resolution of the conflict in South Sudan.  And so we would encourage all of them to avoid any rhetoric of any return to conflict and to go back to the enforcement of all of the various terms of the agreement.

Question:  But does that term involve Riek Machar being first Vice President and being back in Juba or not or being out… chased out of the country and in another country?

Deputy Spokesman:  We've made our concerns clear.  We want to make sure that all of the stakeholders, including the Government of South Sudan and the opposition, are able to fully implement the agreement.  It has to be an implementation of the agreement that is in line with what is acceptable to the parties.  Yes, Oleg?

Question:  Thank you, Farhan.  What happened with the meeting of Ban Ki‑moon and the Foreign Minister of Syria?  Was there one planned?  And if there was one, where's the readout?  And also the same question on the DPRK.  

Deputy Spokesman:  There were no meetings with officials from Syria or the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and, therefore, we have no readouts to share.  Yeah?

Question:  Why wasn't there one, with the Syrian Foreign Minister?

Deputy Spokesman:  Sometimes schedules change.  It's a… as you know, the Secretary‑General had well over 100 meetings.  There were… there were many other official engagements that he had, in addition to bilateral meetings over the past week.  It's a very busy time.  Not everything winds up on the schedule.  Of course, if he can't meet with officials at a given point in time during the General Assembly week, he tries to meet with them at other times.

Question:  Yes.  But even at the opening statement when the debate opened, he himself pointed out that Syria's the main crisis right now, and he does not meet the Foreign Minister of Syria when he comes to New York, when everybody's pushing for talks.  Why so?

Deputy Spokesman:  I believe we tried to see what could be arranged on the schedule.  You'd have to talk to the Permanent Mission of Syria about how that worked out on their side.  But that… the fact that he did not meet with the Foreign Minister doesn't mean that he did not take up the issue of Syria.  He took it up very fully and at length with a huge number of interlocutors, and you're well aware, from what he said yesterday at the stakeout, his continuing concerns about the situation.

Correspondent:  One more…?

Deputy Spokesman:  Hold on.  Moshfiqul Fazal?

Question:  Thank you, Mr. Farhan.  On Bangladesh, the present authoritarian Government of Bangladesh is trying to set up a coal‑based power plant near the Sundarbans, which is the largest mangrove forest in the world.  And UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) warned the Bangladeshi Government it will affect very badly.  Local and international expert told Bangladesh not to do it, because millions of people will suffer, and it will affect ecological effect badly.   And I draw your attention, very recent report of the Washington Post, a new power plant… titled “A New Power Plant Could Devastate the World's Largest Mangrove Forest”.  But the… after the UNESCO report, the Government said they will not back from this project.  So what is the present position of UN on this very bad project ecologically?  

Deputy Spokesman:  I don't have any comment beyond what UNESCO itself has said.  Yes?

Question:  On Jordan, first, this assassination or killing of our colleague Mr. Hafta… Nahed Haftar… Hattar, sorry, he was killed while he was going to court, and his crime was that he shared a cartoon on social media.  Do you have any statement on that?

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, what I can say is that there is a statement today by the Director‑General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, condemning the killing of Mr. Hattar.  And, of course, the Secretary‑General has made very clear that all people have the right to freedom of expression, and that includes through such modes of expression as satire.  Yes?

Question:  Another question.

Deputy Spokesman:  Hold on.  Oleg and then you. 

Question:  If I would go back to the meeting of Ban Ki‑moon that never happened, when you say there may be changes to the schedule, does this mean that there was one planned with Moualem?  And also, when you direct me to the Syrian Mission, does that mean that there is a problem on their side?  

Deputy Spokesman:  No, I mean, it's up to them to comment on the schedule of their Foreign Minister, just like I do with the Secretary‑General.  That's all I mean by that.  Regarding this, there was nothing on the schedule that we put out.  It's not that there was a meeting that was first put on the schedule and then dropped.  Yes?

Question:  Thank you, Farhan.  Follow‑up on Nizar's question on the Jordanian colleague who have been assassinated:  Earlier in the year, the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), in conjunction with other international NGOs, have issued a request to the Secretary‑General to appoint a Special Representative on the freedom of the press.  We haven't heard anything from the Secretary‑General other than the common pleasantries exchanged at such events.  Is he planning to take any actions with this regard, or he's planning to postpone it to the next Secretary‑General?  Thank you.

Deputy Spokesman:  I know that the Secretary‑General has been looking into the issue, so he is giving it his consideration.  There's nothing to announce about the creation of a new post at this stage, however.  Yes?

Question:  I was going to ask something else, but just on freedom of the press, I've seen some statements about the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the violence that's taken place recently but there's a… a separate issue.  Obviously, some people have been killed, but at least nine journalists were detained.  Some were abused.  And so various press freedom organizations have put stuff out.  And I wondered, is MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) or the Secretariat, given that there's a big peacekeeping mission there, is there any particular concern for the crack… the clear targeting and crackdown of… on journalists during this time in DRC?

Deputy Spokesman:  Yes, we're concerned about any moves against journalists in any country, and we have made clear our worries about recent developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  We hope that, as we proceed further, that all of those who are exercising their right to freedom of expression as well as to freedom of assembly have those rights respected.

Question:  Can I ask, I want… this was a readout that was issued from the meeting of the Foreign Minister of Burundi on Saturday and I read it as closely as I could.  I didn't see any reference to the deployment of the police.  There's a reference to the UN and the humanitarian partners continuing to scale up their operations to support the populations.  Was this… does this mean that the deployment of the police was discussed?  And, if so, where does it stand, given that it's been mandated by the Council and DPKO (Department of Peacekeeping Operations) is supposed to be implementing that?

Deputy Spokesman:  We do have a Security Council mandate, and we're in the process of trying to carry out that mandate.  The readout says what it says, and I don't have anything to add to that.

Question:  Was… was Mr. Ladsous in on the meeting?  I was up on the 27th floor, but it was… the way it's done there, you can't see who's in the meeting, but I think, since it's… since you can see on 38, it's not a secret.  Was DPKO in on the meeting with Burundi?

Deputy Spokesman:  I don't have anything to say about the attendance at the meeting.  We've provided the readout.  Yes?

Question:  As you were on freedom of the press, very recently, Bangladesh Government blocked 35 news portals in Bangladesh.  In early 2015, they blocked my news portal.  So the freedom of the press is very much controlled by the ruling authority of Bangladesh.  So what is your stand on these issues?

 

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, we want the rights of media to be respected in every country, including in Bangladesh.  Yes?

Question:  I guess still on this high‑level week, I'd asked Stéphane [Dujarric] and you may… think… about the book, Highlights of the Tenure of Ban Ki‑moon, that was given to the Heads of State.  He said don't… wait for it to show up; it's not ready yet.  It will be in the bookstore.  Then I looked in the catalogue of DPI (Department of Public Information), and it said it was… publication date:  August 2016; price:  $45.  So is it… is it… it's finished.  I don't understand.  Was it not put in the bookstore so it could be given first to Heads of State?  What's the distinction of… where does it stand?

Deputy Spokesman:  No, the book has not yet been put out as a sale edition, but that will happen fairly shortly.

Question:  Okay.  Because I mean, I guess I want to reiterate the request to… I don't want to… I'll give you the copy back, but it does seem like if it's… if it's… if the publication date has passed and you've already passed it out, what's the problem with seeing it?

Deputy Spokesman:  It simply hasn't been distributed as a sale item.  That is going to happen, however.  Yes?

Question:  Farhan, yeah, hi.  The Indian Foreign Minister spoke at the GA today, called for a global unification against the war on terror.  And she said the Pakistani Prime Minister spoke lies at the UN, and she said the terrorist countries should be isolated to provide a better world for peace.  So what is the UN's take on the call of the Indian Foreign Minister that the countries that propagate violence should be isolated?  

Deputy Spokesman:  Well, I don't have any response to those particular comments.  Obviously, in the context of the larger fight against terrorism, the Secretary‑General has pushed all countries to unite together against a concern that all Member States face, which is to say the threat of international terrorism.  And we have been able to receive quite a bit of international support, as you can see, for the work of bodies such as our counter‑terrorism centre.  Yes?

Question:  Just… and… and maybe you'll have something on this.  The… the… the strike and… against the aid convoy in Syria, it was a big topic yesterday in the… in the speeches back and forth.  I tried to ask Mr. de Mistura, what's the status of any UN investigation?  And when he did his stakeout, what's the status of any UN investigation into the strike on the aid convoy?  And he said he had no comment.  But I just wanted to ask you, as a factual matter: Is the UN looking at it?  Is it the UN's position it was an airstrike as opposed to any other kind of strike?  What is the UN doing to get to the bottom of it?  

Deputy Spokesman:  At this stage, as you're aware, we have no on‑the‑ground presence that could conduct an investigation.  We would like to receive any relevant information.  This deserves to be fully investigated.  As we've pointed out, any deliberate targeting of humanitarian convoy would constitute a war crime.  So it's the responsibility of the parties on the ground to be able to provide any relevant information on this.

Question:  But it… does the UN believe it's an airstrike or not?  Does it not even… can you not even make that distinction between air and…

Deputy Spokesman:  At this stage, as you're aware, there are many contradictory accounts of what's happened, so we want a definitive account.  Yes?

Question:  Is there any new assessment about the humanitarian situation in Aleppo?  Are you planning any new convoys other than what was sent yesterday?

Deputy Spokesman:  You will have heard what we said about this yesterday.  We continue to be ready to provide aid.  As you know, there's 275,000 people trapped in the eastern part of Aleppo, and those people desperately need aid.  What we do not have is an ability to have safe and secure access to those people.

Question:  Are you considering airdrops, for example, to that area since this is a desperate situation?

Deputy Spokesman:  Airdrops are used in some areas as a last resort when the terrain allows for it.  In a city zone like Aleppo, it may be difficult to actually execute airdrops in the way that we were able to do in Deir Ezzor, for example.  Yes?

Question:  Yeah, and this is a… try to do this delicately.  I wanted to know, is it your understanding that, for a General Service staff of the UN to become a, quote, Professional staff, the only way through is this G… is G to P test for a successor?  And the reason I ask is that received a number of complaints that a member of the team of Ban Ki‑moon upstairs that's a G level staff is being attempted to be put into a P level position in protocol.  And I just wanted… maybe I'm missing something.  Is there some… is there… does there remain this kind of firewall between the two?  Not that it's a right wall, but if it applies to others…

Deputy Spokesman:  No, I don't think there's a firewall.  I've seen other G staff become Professional staff, including in our very own office.  So there are different ways…

Question:  Sure.  You take a test.  Right?

Deputy Spokesman:  There's a G to P test.  That's one avenue.  I believe there are other avenues besides that.  There's… it's a complicated system, but I'm well aware even from my own office, I've seen several different Gs… G staff become Professional staff over the years.

Correspondent:  I may have something more on this, but I'm just wanting to… but I just wanted… thanks.  That's helpful.

Deputy Spokesman:  Yes?

Question:  On Yemen, on Yemen, is there any progress regarding humanitarian deliveries?  Because the situation is getting much, much worse than it used to be.  Also, the Yemeni currency is losing its value almost totally.

Deputy Spokesman:  Yes, we're very concerned about the humanitarian situation.  We are continuing to work with the parties to try to get aid.  But, again, as with Syria, there are problems with access, so we have been encouraging the parties on ground to allow for us to have access to all those in need.

Question:  You're talking about parties, but those who are bombarding, those who are, for example, blocking seas and blocking… that mechanism which was talked about for long time, is it working anymore?

Deputy Spokesman:  We continue to use that mechanism.  Like I said, we've had problems with access, which we're trying to work out.  Have a good afternoon, everyone.

For information media. Not an official record.