Secretary-General's press encounter following lunch with members of the Security Council [unofficial transcript]

Before I leave for my trip to South America, I just wanted to meet with you briefly, and share with you on matters of common interest, including the purpose of my visit to South America and Europe –Tunisia and Valencia, Spain.

As you know, the three countries I am going to visit –Argentina, Brazil, Chile –they are political and economically very important members of the United Nations, and at the same time they play also a key role in our common efforts to address climate change issues. I am going to visit Antarctica, Punta Arenas, and in Brazil, I am going to visit the Amazon River. First of all, in Antarctica and Punta Arenas I would like to see the consequences of global warming, the effect of how the impact this global warming is causing to the melting of glaciers. And in Brazil I would like to see myself how the Brazilian Government has been taking the initiative and strategies in preserving the forest, and [see] the consequences on deforestation issues.

I am also going to participate, as you know very well, in the Ibero-American summit meeting, where 22 members will participate and discuss the way of strengthening social cohesion of the region. From there I will travel to Tunisia, where I will attend the international conference on counter-terrorism. This is going to be organized by the Tunisian Government, as well as by the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

From there I will move to Valencia, Spain, where I will participate in launching the latest report of the IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]. This will be a synthesis report on climate change. With the Nobel Prize winning, I need to encourage and congratulate the members of the IPCC. This is going to be a very hectic, twelve-day long trip, but it will be, I am sure very rewarding in terms of seeing for myself the climate change phenomenon and how the international community will generate again this political will through my visit.

For your information, after this press briefing, I am going to have a meeting with Mr. Salva Kiir, the first Vice President of Sudan. I am going to focus my meeting with him on implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement - the CPA - which is one of the very important pillars of the situation in Sudan. I was encouraged by the recent agreement between the two leaders - President [Omar al-]Bashir and first Vice President Salva Kiir on the implementation of the CPA.

I will stop here and I will be happy to receive your questions.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, yesterday your Spokeswoman put out a statement saying that you were very strongly concerned about the imposition of emergency rule in Pakistan, and calling for the release of all of those who have been detained, and the Pakistani Ambassador apparently came to see you, and objected, saying you were interfering in the internal affairs of Pakistan. Do you believe that you are interfering in the internal affairs of Pakistan, or do you believe that this is an issue for the United Nations to perhaps deal with, and that you should be commenting on?

SG: I stand by my statement, which I issued yesterday. I had a meeting with Ambassador Munir Akram, at his request, and I again expressed my deep concern and regret at what had happened in Pakistan. I also urged, strongly, that the Pakistani Government should return to democratic rules and procedures as soon as possible, and also urged the Pakistani leadership to release immediately all the detained political leaders, lawyers, and also the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Faith [Asma Jehangir].

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, on the same subject, have you had any communications with General [Pervez] Musharraf, and would you plan at all to personally contact any of the Pakistani authorities to use your one-on-one with them to personally appeal to them to do exactly what you just said?

SG: I have not directly engaged in talks with President Musharraf, but I have been talking with leaders in the region to exchange views, and to monitor the situation.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, can you tell us about Mr. [Ibrahim] Gambari's mission to Myanmar - When he is leaving? Whether he has had a successful visit? Whether you have spoken to him directly about what he was able to do, and what he was not able to do?

SG: We are in constant contact with Mr. Gambari, who is still in Myanmar. As you know, I had a strategy meeting in Istanbul before he entered Myanmar. I am concerned at this time about the lack of progress; he has not been able to meet with Senior General Than Shwe. I understand that he is meeting Madam Aung San Suu Kyi tomorrow. I have given him instructions, to carry out his mandate, as well as what I have instructed him –first of all to initiate, launch this dialogue between Aung San Suu Kyi and political leadership, including Than Shwe, and also release all the detained monks, students and demonstrators, and take necessary democratic measures. This is my basic instructions to him.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, you have a meeting on the situation with the first Vice President of Sudan, and you are going to discuss in detail the CPA. Are there any new ideas, any new mechanism that you can speed up the implementation of the CPA and the withdrawal of the Sudanese forces from [inaudible]. And secondly, the different factions in Darfur, is there any way that unless you can re-learn from unifying the different factions in the south and implement the same experiment that was successful in the south in Western Sudan?

SG: First of all, it is very important that we ensure a smooth and speedy implementation of the CPA. For that purpose, the United Nations is going to devise some concrete plans, to facilitate and assist the implementation of the CPA. I am going to instruct Special Representative [Ashraf] Qazi to report to me some concrete plan of action on this matter. Now, it is important, again, that I am going to urge and request Mr. Salva Kiir to exercise his political influence to talk to all the leaders of the rebel groups so that they can get on board this political negotiation. We are going to give some time to them so that they will be able to engage among themselves to make some common platform, so that negotiations will be able to take place when we meet again in Sirte.

Q: What do you hope your trip to South America will achieve? And what impact do you hope it will have on the Bali conference next month?

SG: This is the road to Bali. I take it as very important, my trip to South America, particularly Antarctica and the Amazon River. We have made some good momentum during the high-level meeting on 24 September. We must carry this momentum, sustained, to Bali. I would like to make some more political impact through my visit to South America.

Q: Do you have any particular message for the Lebanese, ahead of the Presidential elections? Do you think that they will be held on time? Are you in touch with them to solve their internal problems, Sir?

SG: This is again a source of great concern for me and for other leaders. I have been continuously engaging and talking to leaders of Lebanon, as well as other leaders in the region, particularly during my participation in the meeting in Istanbul. I have actively engaged, and from Istanbul, in fact, I have telephoned Speaker [Nabih] Berri and Patriarch [Nasrallah] Sfeir, so that they should do all that they can. They assured me that they would do their best to bring forth some consensus candidate before 24 November. I sincerely hope that, with all the international community's support and encouragement, they will be able to overcome this difficulty.

Q: Since you issued a statement last week on Bosnia and Herzegovina, how concerned are you on the developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina?

SG: Again, I am concerned, as I said. I sincerely hope that all these conflict issues should be resolved through dialogue among the parties concerned. I am continuing my own diplomatic efforts to encourage them to do so.

Q: Since the General Assembly is deliberating it, can you tell us if you are satisfied with the way the Human Rights Council has been operating in the last year?

SG: This is quite a fundamental question. I think the Human Rights Council, after it has been transformed from the Human Rights Commission, has made its own progress. First of all, even though the level of expectation may be different, or may not be fully satisfied at this time, considering this initial stage of the Human Rights Council, I think that they have made good progress, particularly adopting and introducing the Universal Periodic Review. This is going to require all the members, including the Council members, to go through a periodic review of their human rights situations. Through active and the smooth implementation of this UPR, I hope that there will be no place where we are not paying any attention to the human rights situation.

Q: You're visiting an ethanol facility, I believe in Brazil. One of your Special Rapporteurs on food had said that this use of land for biofuel instead of for food was hurting the poor and that there should be a moratorium on it. So he encouraged us to ask you, what's your view of the balance between food for the poor, under the MDGs [Millennium Development Goals] and cleaner fuels?

SG: As a means of addressing these climate change issues, having alternate resources, or renewable resources of energy, this is a very important aspect. I know that research and development has taken place in many countries, particularly Brazil has been in the lead of the group in the research and development of biofuels. In fact, the UN research report published this year underscored that biofuels [have] greater promise in addressing these global warming issues through low-carbon emissions. At the same time, as you suggested, it is true that there are some concerns expressed, by specialists or experts, on the possible impact on food security. This is also an area which needs attention. Therefore, I would encourage that both research and development and debate should be made. As Secretary-General what I would like to say is that again, the elimination of extreme poverty should be also a top priority. Therefore, how to reconcile or have some balanced development addressing these issues will be very important. I am going to discuss this matter when I visit Brazil, with Brazilian leaders, and look for myself.

Thank you very much. I hope to see you when I return.

Q: On Pakistan and Myanmar. What's the difference in terms of the international community's role? It sounds like you don't think Pakistan is entirely an internal matter. So should the UN be doing more, perhaps through the UN Security Council, if there is a similar situation?

SG: Each situation has a different background and a different way of addressing this issue. I am not in a position to say anything about Security Council measures on this issue. Thank you very much, again.