DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

27 January 1997

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

19970127 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

Fred Eckhard, Acting Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by informing correspondents that the Secretary-General had met yesterday with Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun, who had been nominated United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes region of Africa. Ambassador Sahnoun was in New York for a week of intensive briefings and consultations before leaving for the region. He would meet with the Security Council tomorrow, about noon, and arrangements would be made for him to brief correspondents immediately afterwards. Also concerning the region, he added that the Secretary-General was meeting the Foreign Minister of Zaire, Kamanda Wa Kamanda, at 12:30 p.m. today.

Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General would leave on Wednesday, 29 January, for Geneva where he would have his first meeting with senior United Nations officials there, including the heads of specialized agencies. He would see them individually and collectively. The Secretary-General would address the Conference on Disarmament, which was under way there now, on Thursday, 30 January.

In that connection, Mr. Eckhard said the Director of the Centre for Disarmament Affairs, Prvoslav Davinic, would be at the noon briefing on Wednesday, 29 January, to provide background information on the Conference. He hoped to make the Secretary-General's speech available in advance on an embargoed basis.

Mr. Eckhard then said that on Friday, 31 January, the Secretary-General would travel to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, which would give him the opportunity to meet with a cross-section of world leaders -- politicians, economic experts, business leaders and the media. The Secretary- General would return to New York on Monday, 3 February.

Before leaving for Geneva, the Secretary-General would announce a series of staff appointments, "something, I think, you've all been waiting for", he added.

Mr. Eckhard said a team of inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission charged with disposing of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had ended its three-week mission to Iraq yesterday. During the mission, the remains of four missile engines had been excavated. The excavation had been suggested last December by Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz when he met with the Executive Chairman of the Special Commission, Rolf Ekeus.

On Liberia, Mr. Eckhard said that as of yesterday, 12,893 soldiers had been demobilized. Of that number, 3,011 were child soldiers. The latest estimated total number of soldiers was 33,000, and that figure had been fluctuating between 20,000 and 60,000. The momentum of the demobilization effort was growing, and between 500 and 1,000 combatants a day were turning in their weapons. A United Nations progress report on Liberia, including support for elections, was being finalized, and was likely to go to the Secretary- General today for his review.

On Guatemala, he said correspondents might have been following, or followed last week, the donor conference that was held in Brussels, at which $1.9 billion was pledged for the period 1997 to 2000 in support of the implementation of the peace agreement in Guatemala. The Secretary-General had today met with Foreign Minister Eduardo Stein Barillas of Guatemala to discuss the implementation of the peace plan.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Cyprus, Han Sung-Joo, was at Headquarters for consultations, and was scheduled to meet the Secretary-General at 3:30 p.m. today, Mr. Eckhard said.

Mr. Eckhard said Vice-President Ejup Ganic of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina had seen the Secretary-General at 11:30 a.m. today. He also said that troop contributors for the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) would meet at 3 p.m. in Conference Room 6.

On other matters, he said that the Foreign Minister of Guinea, Lamine Camara, was also at Headquarters today. He was consulting with Assistant Secretary-General Lansana Kouyate of the Department of Political Affairs, and would meet the Secretary-General tomorrow. Guinea, as correspondents probably knew, had offered to mediate in the dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria over the Bakassi Peninsula. The two parties had accepted Guinea's offer.

On humanitarian assistance, Mr. Eckhard said his office had three inter- agency consolidated appeals coming up for Chechnya, the Great Lakes region and the Sudan. For Chechnya, there was a call for $12 million to provide humanitarian assistance to approximately 75,000 people; and for the Great Lakes region, an appeal to cover all of the relief requirements for 1997 to Burundi, eastern Zaire, Rwanda and the United Republic of Tanzania. The consolidated appeal for the Sudan, also covering the calendar year, was expected to call for more than $120 million to meet emergency humanitarian requirements for 4.25 million war-affected and displaced persons.

In Nairobi today, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had issued the first of a new series of state-of-the-environment reports, entitled Global Environment Outlook, Mr. Eckhard said. Copies were available on the third floor. The series was launched by the UNEP Executive Director, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, in conjunction with the opening of the nineteenth

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 27 January 1997

session of UNEP's Governing Council. Progress towards a global sustainable future was just too slow, said the report, and the necessary sense of urgency was lacking, even though the technology and knowledge were available to halt further global environment degradation.

On the Organization's budgetary situation, Mr. Eckhard said Australia had become the nineteenth Member State to pay its 1997 dues in full with a cheque for roughly $15.8 million. There was a document available today (document A/51/780) listing 43 Member States which were unable to vote in the General Assembly because they had not made the necessary minimum payment to sustain their right to do so.

Mr. Eckhard drew attention to a press release made available last Friday announcing that the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) had officially certified Pakistan and Iran, as well as 19 other countries, as being free of dracunculiasis transmission, also known as guinea-worm disease.

Following a question on what was the difference between guinea-worm and screw-worm diseases, a correspondent volunteered a response, stating that guinea-worm disease was caused by a parasite found in contaminated water. The parasite migrated through the body breaking out periodically around the heel. (According to the WHO press release, as the worm emerged, patients developed intolerable pain accompanied by fever, nausea and vomiting).

Asked whether he had figures for the Great Lakes region appeal, Mr. Eckhard said he did not and would try to obtain them. The figures were not among the materials provided to his office by the Department of Humanitarian Affairs.

Why was Vice-President Ganic of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina at Headquarters? a correspondent queried. Mr. Eckhard said he was visiting the United States, and there were substantive matters concerning Bosnia and the International Police Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia that he was expected to raise with the Secretary-General.

A correspondent asked what was the Secretary-General's overall impression about his Washington, D.C., visit last week. Mr. Eckhard added that the Secretary-General had been looking first to meet the leaders, assess their position, express his views on reform and appeal to them to have the United States meet its financial obligations. "His reception was exceptionally warm, as you probably detected from the press coverage of it, and he received from the Administration a kind of urging to open a dialogue with key members of Congress, which he did", he said.

Mr. Eckhard said Senator Jesse Helms, the Republican Chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had talked about introducing funding legislation with benchmarks. The Secretary-General had replied that benchmarks made him uncomfortable. In a sense, his response was "Let's

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 27 January 1997

discuss this before you lay down your benchmarks. It had to be realistic and achievable, and benchmarks that I would accept would be my programme for reform and my timetable which you're then welcome to monitor." So, it was a good opening round, Mr. Eckhard said. The United States budget process lasts about three quarters of the year until the end of September. It was that budget process that the Secretary-General was targeting.

Did he have any clear idea what benchmarks Senator Helms was talking about, and could he provide specifics? another correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said nothing specific was mentioned, and it was hoped the dialogue would evolve around the Secretary-General's plans for reform. Mr. Eckhard said the Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, got the Secretary-General's message that there were 184 other Governments that needed to be consulted in the process, and the United States needed to be sensitive to that. "I think the Secretary-General succeeded in getting across his position, that he had 185 masters", Mr. Eckhard said. "Only one of them owed over a billion dollars and that explains why he focused on the United States first. But it had to be a consultative process involving all Governments."

Asked whether the issue of 50 per cent staff cuts had come up, Mr. Eckhard again said no specifics were mentioned.

What was the Secretary-General's position on the disputed town of Brcko in Bosnia? a correspondent asked. He also wanted to know whether the Secretary-General and the Vice-President of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina had touched on the subject at their meeting earlier today. Mr. Eckhard said Brcko was a matter that, under the Dayton Accords, was subject to arbitration. The issue was being watched closely at Headquarters.

A correspondent asked for the number involved in the staff changes to be announced tomorrow and whether there would be continuity, with some remaining in their current positions. "I don't know because I haven't seen the names", Mr. Eckhard replied. "It has been a very closely guarded secret. We'll announce them at this briefing and I think there'll be 15 or more names."

On the situation in Zaire, a correspondent commented that the new Humanitarian Coordinator for the Great Lakes region, Martin Griffiths, had suggested that, on the basis of the principle of sovereignty, the United Nations supported Zaire's counter-offensive against rebels in eastern Zaire. Did that characterize the Secretary-General's view of the situation? he asked. Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General hoped that there would not be a counter-offensive and that the dispute could be resolved peacefully. He added that the Secretary-General "does support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Zaire as I think do all Member States".

A correspondent asked whether the Secretary-General had a sense of what the United States wanted the United Nations to do in the future, to which Mr. Eckhard replied: "I'm not sure whether there's a unified view on that.

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 27 January 1997

There's certainly a variety of views among the various members of Congress that the Secretary-General spoke to, and the Administration seemed to place the emphasis on their desire to get the Congress to agree to pay. So, I think the Secretary-General would like to start with the Administration's position and see if he can be helpful to the Administration by trying to get Congress to see it their way."

A correspondent asked about the humanitarian role of the United Nations in eastern Zaire and whether humanitarian officials were still able to get supplies to the camps. He also requested information on the situation in the area around Kisangani. Mr. Eckhard suggested that he contact the Department of Humanitarian Affairs for an update. The situation was difficult, as he had mentioned last week. Aid agencies were having to deliver supplies by air in some places, rather than take them overland. It was getting very expensive, very difficult and very dangerous, he said.

Asked about the possible obstructions to removing the missile engines from Iraq, and their current location, Mr. Eckhard said he would have to obtain specific information from the United Nations Special Commission.

* *** *