HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SPOKESMAN'S NOON BRIEFING
BY STEPHANE
DUJARRIC
SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL
UN HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK
Tuesday, October 4, 2005
KOFI ANNAN TO
RECEIVE COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF KOSOVO REPORT
The
Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Comprehensive Review of Kosovo,
Kai Eide, will be submitting his report to the Secretary-General this
afternoon.
Eide has had extensive consultations in Belgrade and
Pristina, as well as with key Member States, regional organizations and, of
course, the
UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK); he has also spent
considerable time in Kosovo, meeting with people from all walks of life.
The Secretary-General will study the report and then
forward it, together with his recommendations for the next steps, to the
Security Council.
The Security Council is expected to take up Kosovo in the
second half of this month.
ANNAN TO VISIT SWITZERLAND, PORTUGAL,
SPAIN
The Secretary-General will be
traveling to Switzerland, Portugal and Spain over the next 10 days.
The first stop is Geneva, where
his program begins with an address on Thursday to the Executive Committee of
the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Also that day, the
Secretary-General plans to visit the
World Health Organization (WHO) Strategic Operations Center that responds
to public health emergencies.
While in Switzerland, he is
also expected to make an official visit to the capital, Bern, to meet with Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey and with President and Minister of Defense, Samuel Schmid. On return to Geneva, he will inaugurate the Micro and Small Business Finance Symposium. He is also expected to hold a press conference there.
Then, beginning next Tuesday,
the Secretary-General will make an official visit to Portugal, where, in
addition to meetings with the Government, he is expected to receive an
honorary degree from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
From Portugal, he travels to
Salamanca, Spain, to attend and address the Ibero-American Summit on Friday,
October 14.
Asked whether the Secretary-General would be at work at
UN Headquarters on Wednesday prior to his travels, the Spokesman said he
would.
SECURITY COUNCIL DISCUSSES DR CONGO,
SOMALIA
The
Security Council today met for its first time this month, under Romania’s
Presidency. In consultations, Council members are discussing the program of
work for October, and they are also to discuss Somalia.
The Council has scheduled two formal meetings after their
consultations, to consider Presidential Statements on the Democratic Republic
of the Congo and on the weekend bombings in Bali, Indonesia.
Referring to the
Democratic
Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, the Presidential Statement called upon
the Forces Democratiques pour la liberation du Rwanda (FDLR) to disarm and
repatriate its combatants from the DR Congo. It also welcomed the intention of
the Congolese Armed Forces to disarm the Lord’s Resistance Army which has
entered the DR Congo.
On Bali,
the Presidential Statement condemned “in the strongest terms the terrorist
bombing” of 1 October.
The statement
added that the Council “reaffirms the need to combat by all means, in
accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, threats to international
peace and security caused by terrorist acts."
UNITED NATIONS CONVEYS CONCERNS ON
IRAQ'S REFERENDUM LAW RESOLUTION
The UN Mission in
Iraq today described the preparations that have been put in place for the
October 15 referendum on the Constitution. Iraq’s Independent Electoral
Commission has hired more than 100,000 polling staff across the country, and
has carried out a large public outreach campaign before the vote.
Carina Perelli, Director of the
UN Electoral Assistance Division, says that, if there are any technical
problems during the referendum, they would be addressed individually by the
competent Iraqi authorities.
Asked whether the United
Nations would try to reverse recent changes made in the electoral law
governing the referendum, the Spokesman said that, consistent with its mandate
to advise the Iraqi authorities on relevant international standards on
electoral processes, the United Nations has conveyed its views and concerns to
the Transitional National Assembly (TNA) on the resolution it adopted on 2
October regarding Iraq’s referendum law.
The Spokesman said that the
United Nations understands that the interpretation of the referendum law is
presently under close consideration by the Iraqi leadership. He said the
United Nations hopes that the TNA will be able to come to a resolution on this
issue. Ultimately, he said, this is a sovereign Iraqi process and it will be
up to the Iraqi National Assembly to decide on an appropriate electoral
framework for the referendum, which would meet international standards.
However, Dujarric emphasized, it is our duty as the United Nations to point
out when the process does not meet international standards.
Asked what the UN’s concerns
were, the Spokesman said that they focused on what constitutes a majority of
voters – whether that is drawn from all registered voters, or all those who
actually vote. He said that there were two different interpretations in the
electoral framework, and that inconsistency prompted concerns.
Asked about the
Secretary-General’s involvement in this issue, the Spokesman said he did not
believe the Secretary-General has had any phone conversations on this issue
with anyone outside the UN system. He added the Special Representative Ashraf
Qazi and his team are in contact with relevant Iraqi authorities in Baghdad.
Asked whether the United
Nations has dealt with the United States on this issue, the Spokesman said he
was unaware of any contacts with the Americans.
Asked about the UN team that
had drafted an internal analysis of the Iraqi Constitution last month, the
Spokesman said that was produced by the Office for Constitutional Support
working at the UN Mission in Baghdad. He noted, in response to another
question, that the head of that office, Nicholas Haysom, was currently outside
Iraq. The issue of the electoral framework, he added, was one being dealt with
by UN electoral experts, not specifically the Office for Constitutional
Support.
HIJACKED FOOD SHIP FREED; ARRIVES IN
SOMALIA
The
UN World Food Programme (WFP) today reports that the Somali ship that had
been held by pirates for some three months has been released and has arrived
at the Somali port of El-Maan. The agency has sent staff to the port to check
on the cargo.
The WFP trusts that all 850 tons of aid will be delivered
to the agency intact for distribution in Somalia.
MEMBER STATES CONTROL DUES ASSESSMENTS
Asked how assessments for dues to the UN regular budget
can be changed, the Spokesman said they could only be changed through
negotiations among the Member States themselves.
*** Guests at the Noon Briefing were Johan Scholvinck,
Director for Social Policy and Development in the
Department of Economic and Social Affairs, and Nguyen Hong Nhung, a student
leader from Vietnam. They spoke about the “world Youth Report 2005”
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