DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

12 February 1997

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

19970212 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by welcoming Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services Karl Theodore Paschke, who would brief correspondents on the report produced by his office on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. (Mr. Paschke's briefing is being issued separately.)

Mr. Eckhard announced that the Secretary-General had appointed, with immediate effect, Jamsheed K.A. Marker of Pakistan as his Personal Representative for East Timor. Ambassador Marker was an experienced diplomat who had represented his country in various capacities, including as Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York and Geneva. He had also served as Ambassador to the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and the Soviet Union. The appointment was part of the Secretary-General's efforts to give impetus to his good offices aimed at a just, comprehensive and internationally-acceptable solution to the question of East Timor.

He added that while it was the intention of the Secretary-General to be personally engaged in those efforts, he had asked Ambassador Marker to represent him in all aspects of his good offices function on the issue. His responsibilities would include the talks conducted between the Governments of Indonesia and Portugal under the auspices of the Secretary-General, and the consultations that the Secretary-General holds in the framework of those talks with a cross-section of East Timorese figures. The Ambassador would be assisted in the new assignment by the Department of Political Affairs, and the Secretary-General had received the assurances of the two Governments of their continued support and their desire to cooperate and work closely with Ambassador Marker, who was currently in New York for consultations.

Mr. Eckhard recalled that yesterday he had spoken of the need for swift action in Liberia by the Committee of Nine of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the parties there to agree on the electoral package. He then announced that the Committee was scheduled to meet at the ministerial level in Monrovia tomorrow and Friday to assess the status of the peace process and the upcoming elections in the country. The meeting would also be attended by Liberian leaders.

The Security Council would not meet today, Mr. Eckhard said. Tomorrow, it would take up Sierra Leone and also hear a Secretariat briefing on the Great Lakes region of Africa.

He then announced that as of today two new Member States had paid their dues to the United Nations in full. Colombia had paid $1.4 million, which included partial future payment to the United Nations regular budget, and Cyprus had paid about $320,000. Thirty-four Member States were now paid in full for 1997.

Mr. Eckhard informed correspondents that tomorrow in room 226 there would be a press conference by the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Korea on the subject of transborder movement of radioactive waste at 2:30 p.m. In addition, at 3:45 p.m., the Permanent Mission of Japan would hold another press conference, to be addressed by Seigi Hinata, Deputy Director-General of the Middle-Eastern and African Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Foreign Ministry, on the second Tokyo International Conference on African Development. He further reminded correspondents of the Secretary-General's press conference, also tomorrow at 11 a.m. in room 226.

A correspondent asked if the Spokesman could find out from the Security Council if there had been a change in what they called a press statement, which she said used to be a short item to the press. Correspondents were beginning to receive enormously long statements having the same kind of format as those emanating from a formal meeting. Mr. Eckhard replied that there was no real spokesman for the Security Council, and although his office each month offered the new President its services, the situation varied from month to month depending on who was presiding. He would, however, convey the correspondents' concern to the Council.

Mr. Eckhard then turned the meeting over to Mr. Paschke on the subject of the Rwanda Tribunal.

Following Mr. Paschke's introductory remarks, Mr. Eckhard told correspondents that the Secretary-General was struck by the breadth of the criticism of the administration of the Rwanda Tribunal, and that the failures seemed to be at both ends, namely, shortcomings in Rwanda, compounded by inadequate support from New York. The Secretary-General noted that efforts had been made in recent months to correct the many problems, including the replacement of the chiefs of personnel, finance and administration within the registry and yesterday's selection of a Deputy Registrar. He still felt, however, that the United Nations was a long way from a properly-functioning Tribunal. "We owe it to the more than half million victims of genocide in Rwanda to do better than we have done", the Spokesman stressed.

Mr. Eckhard further stated that the Secretary-General had invited to New York the Prosecutor, Justice Louise Arbour; the Deputy Prosecutor, Judge Honore Rakotomanana; and the Registrar, Andronico Adede, to discuss Mr. Paschke's report. That meeting was expected to take place on 21 February, and after that, the Secretary-General would take whatever actions he thought were called for.

To a correspondent who wanted to know how the Secretary-General would address the charges of racism made by Europeans against some of their African counterparts at the Tribunal, Mr. Eckhard pointed out that Mr. Paschke had said that the report did not confirm nepotism or racism. He said that the issue for the Secretary-General would be to move the Tribunal to a position where it could do its work efficiently. He stressed that there were staffing difficulties from the beginning, which the report had referred to, noting that there clearly seemed to have been a number of appointments that turned out not to be good ones. The challenge now was to find people who could do the job that needed to be done. In addition, there was a shortage of staff at the Tribunal, which meant that those who were there, no matter how good they were, had to carry an exceptional load. All those were fundamental problems, including the fact that the United Nations was still developing the capacity to service overseas operations, Mr. Eckhard added.

Another correspondent pointed out that at a time when the United States was not paying its dues, that matter could play into the hands of Republicans as another example of United Nations bureaucracy getting out of control. Would there be disciplinary actions against staff and would such action be publicized? The Spokesman replied that replacement of a number of personnel had already been announced, pointing out that he had stated earlier that as of today, the Secretary-General was calling in the principal figures to discuss the problem with them. Whatever he decided to do after that would be made public. The shortcomings at the New York end were partly a problem of jurisdiction, he said, noting that the Tribunal was an independent entity created by the Security Council. A number of things had already been done by the administration since the problem was brought to light and he did not expect any additional action from the Secretary-General concerning New York staff apart from pushing them to do a better, more rigorous job of servicing overseas missions.

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