DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970429
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that the Secretary-General was in the midst of a one-hour question and answer session on the Cable News Network (CNN), broadcast live from Atlanta, Georgia. At 11 a.m. he had made a speech at this year's CNN World Report Contributors Conference, also broadcast at Headquarters, and was now taking questions. The Secretary-General had attended the "Americas for the 21st Century" at the Carter Center earlier this morning and was due to return to New York City late this afternoon.
The Security Council, Mr. Eckhard continued, was being briefed on the situation in Liberia by the United Nations Department of Peace-keeping Operations (DPKO). Then, the Council was due to take up Italy's second report on the multinational operation in Albania. The Council might also be briefed by the Department of Humanitarian Affairs on the humanitarian situation in Albania.
The Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and of Their Destruction had entered into force at midnight last night, New York time, Mr. Eckhard said, 180 days after the deposit of the sixty-fifth instrument of ratification by Hungary, on 31 October 1996. A total of 165 countries had signed the Convention and 87 had ratified it. The first conference of the ratifying States parties, he reminded correspondents, would be opened on 6 May at The Hague by the Secretary-General.
Mr. Eckhard pointed out that only the countries that had signed the Convention by midnight last night would be able to take part in the decision- making process at the conference. Signatory countries could participate in that meeting only as observers. Also, only nationals from ratifying States could be employed by the Technical Secretariat. Nationals from countries that ratified the Convention after the entry into force would have to wait for vacancies. Only States parties could be members of the Executive Council, which would make the day-to-day decisions on the functioning of the operation.
During yesterday's inter-agency mission to Biaro -- a Zairian camp located south of Kisangani -- United Nations staff found small groups of refugees emerging from the forest, the Spokesman said. "They had horrific accounts of their dispersal from the encampments, refugees dying from wounds sustained in attacks against them, or of starvation, prolonged exhaustion and disease", he said. "Several dozen refugees were found dead in the encampment, some apparently killed by machetes."
By the time the mission left Biaro, before nightfall, the staff had counted approximately 5,000 refugees "and more were coming out", Mr. Eckhard said. By this morning, it was estimated that perhaps as many as 10,000 or more refugees had arrived at the Biaro camp. Most of them, he noted, had come from the Kasese camp, located further north, close to Kisangani, on the rail line. "They appeared to be terrified and traumatized", he added. Kasese had held some 50,000 refugees before their violent dispersal last week, whereas Biaro held around 30,000 refugees.
The advance party of the Commission on Human Rights to investigate allegations of massacres and other human rights violations had arrived in Kigali, the Spokesman said. The Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, welcomed the commitment made by Zairian rebel leader Laurent Kabila that he was, in principle, accepting the mission, which would be "amicably agreed upon by both parties".
In Geneva today, the acting Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ralph Zacklin, said that the membership and mandate of the group were not a matter for discussion or debate, as they had been decided by the Commission, Mr. Eckhard said. The team also required, like all human rights missions, cooperation from the authorities in control of the area concerned. The members of the mission would meet in Geneva Thursday and Friday to adopt a strategy, programme of action and methods of work. The group would be accompanied by a five-person forensic team from Argentina.
The Secretary-General announced today the appointment of Bernard Acho Muna of Cameroon as Deputy Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Spokesman said. Mr. Muna would be one of two deputy prosecutors (the other was in charge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia) and both were overseen by the Chief Prosecutor, Justice Louise Arbour.
The three principal United Nations actors on Cyprus were at Headquarters today, Mr. Eckhard said. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Han Sung-Joo, the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, Diego Cordovez, and the Deputy Special Representative, Gustave Feissel, were meeting in the morning with the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast. The group would meet the permanent members of the Security Council today at 3 p.m., after which there might be a statement to the press, "or not -- that is their prerogative", Mr. Eckhard added.
Zlatko Aleksovski, a Croat who had been charged with war crimes and who had been turned over by the Croatian authorities to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia yesterday, pleaded not guilty at his initial appearance at the Tribunal today, the Spokesman told correspondents. Yesterday's press release on the case was available in room 378.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 29 April 1997
The United Nations International Telecommunications Union (ITU) was hosting a three-day meeting in Geneva, from today until 1 May, to restructure the way "domain names" were registered on the Internet, Mr. Eckhard said. Domain names, he explained, referred to the three-letter extensions attached to electronic addresses, "such as .org, .com and .net". The meeting also planned to introduce competition in the market for registration of generic Internet top-level domain names (gTLD).
The meeting, he continued, would end with the signing of a Generic Top-Level Domain Memorandum of Understanding by many of the world's most influential organizations in the growth and operation of the Net, along with other stakeholders in the Internet domain name system. The Memorandum, part of a plan developed by the International Ad Hoc Committee, would set up a structure and establish policies and procedures for responsible administration of the Internet domain name space. Mr. Eckhard then noted that he was "completely computer illiterate" and would be unable to answer questions on the subject. Answering a query from a correspondent, he assured her that copies of the ITU press release, "which will make more sense than I have", were available in room 378. Correspondents were also referred to Myriam Dessables, from the Spokesman's office, for further information.
The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, warned today that it was premature to suggest that HIV/AIDS would soon be a chronic, non-fatal disease, despite the "impressive results" shown by so-called triple therapies, which used combinations of three anti- retroviral (ARV) drugs, including a protease inhibitor, Mr. Eckhard said. Details were available in the WHO press release in room 378.
The Tokelau Islands became, on 10 April, one of the last places in the world to receive an international communications link, when its satellite link was turned on, allowing international phone service, fax transmission and internet access, Mr. Eckhard said. The communications breakthrough was the result of a $2.8 million project supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the ITU and the Governments of New Zealand and Tokelau. Until now, he added, residents had used short-wave radio for communications and a mail ship arriving every five weeks.
The provisional list of speakers registered for the "Earth Summit + 5" General Assembly Special Session, to be held from 23 to 27 June, was available in room 378, the Spokesman said. "These are the slots that the delegates spent a whole weekend in line for, and bitterly complained about", he added. The ones on top, and who waited longest, were Brazil -- the first speaker -- followed by Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany, France, United States and the Netherlands.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 29 April 1997
Today's World Chronicle programme would feature the Under-Secretary- General for Administration and Management, Joseph Connor, on in-house channels 6 and 23 or 38, at 2:30 p.m., the Spokesman said.
Upcoming press conferences included today's 3:30 p.m. press conference in room 226 by the Permanent Representative of Italy, Paolo Fulci, and the Permanent Representative of Albania, Pellumb Kulla, as well as representatives of other countries participating in the multinational protection force for Albania. Also, tomorrow at 4 p.m., the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Carl Bildt, would speak to correspondents in room 226.
Regarding Cyprus, a correspondent asked whether at this afternoon's meeting a proposal, or package of proposals, by the Secretary-General would be put on the table? Mr. Eckhard said that there would not be a proposal from the United Nations. He noted that the meeting was not with the Council as a whole, but with the five permanent members of the Council. "I understand that there is at least one paper circulating at that meeting, but it's not a United Nations proposal", he said. "It's from one of the permanent five."
Could the Spokesman give details? "No, that would have to come from the permanent five; you might get a read-out from them", Mr. Eckhard said. He recalled that the Secretary-General was trying to breathe "fresh life" into long, stale conflict negotiations, such as those in Cyprus, Western Sahara and East Timor. In the case of Cyprus, he said, "it is his hope that the community leaders would have face-to-face talks, perhaps this summer. He feels that the situation in Cyprus has deteriorated and any effort that could help improve the atmospherics there would be a plus. That is his minimal objective for this year."
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