DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's press briefing by reading out the following statement by the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Yasushi Akashi:

"I have learned with dismay of the tragic deaths of two World Food Programme (WFP) staff members near Ruhengeri, Rwanda, one of whom was killed on 14 June together with his wife, their child and a relative, and the other whose body was just recently found. There is no excuse for such wanton acts to be perpetrated upon humanitarian workers, who devote their lives to helping the vulnerable. I wish to extend my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and to the staff of the World Food Programme, who are working diligently in areas of need."

The Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) was released today, Mr. Eckhard announced. According to the report, the United Nations International Police Task Force (IPTF) continued to contribute to the improvement of freedom of movement and to assist in the restructuring and training of the local police. The Secretary- General, however, expressed concern about the refusal of the Republika Srpska to cooperate fully with the IPTF in the implementation of its mandate. He also noted that "civilian work could only progress in the context of the continued presence of a credible international military force".

Mr. Eckhard said the Security Council was briefed this morning by the Secretary-General's Special Representative and Coordinator of United Nations Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kai Eide, who would inform correspondents on the situation in that country after Mr. Eckhard's briefing. [Mr. Eide's briefing is being issued separately.]

The East Timor talks got under way this morning, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary-General had met briefly this morning with the Foreign Ministers of Portugal and Indonesia before chairing the opening of the talks at 11:30 a.m. The Secretary-General would host a luncheon in honour of both Foreign Ministers, and then his Personal Representative for East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, would chair the talks, which would continue through tomorrow, Friday, 20 June.

In addition to Mr. Eide's briefing on Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Eckhard said the Security Council was briefed by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast on Western Sahara. The Council postponed discussion on Cyprus because the Secretary-General's report on the good offices mission in Cyprus would not be released until next week. The President of the Security Council suggested that the Council take up that report, as well as the Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Peace-keeping

Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) on Monday, 23 June. The Council might also conclude consultations on Albania and hold a formal meeting this afternoon. [The Council later met on the situation in Albania.]

Mr. Eckhard then announced that the Secretary-General's Special Adviser for Cyprus, Diego Cordovez, was at Headquarters. Mr. Cordovez held a series of meetings yesterday on the subject of Cyprus. He also briefed the President of the Security Council on the preparations for the forthcoming direct talks between the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot communities. Mr. Eckhard reminded correspondents that those talks would take place from 9 to 13 July in upstate New York at an as-of-yet undisclosed location.

The Steering Committee on Reform was meeting this morning under the leadership of the Executive Coordinator for United Nations Reform, Maurice Strong, Mr. Eckhard said. The Committee was looking at the architecture of the package that the Secretary-General would present to the General Assembly on 16 July. The Committee was also scheduled to meet with the Secretary- General later this afternoon to discuss the results of this morning's meeting.

Papua New Guinea today became the sixty-sixth Member State to have paid in full its United Nations contribution for the current year with a cheque of $106,508, Mr. Eckhard said.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) had issued a press release today on child soldiers in Sierra Leone, Mr. Eckhard announced. It reported that more than 60 per cent of the fighters recently screened by the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Resettlement Unit in Sierra Leone were women and children. The UNICEF's Executive Director Carol Bellamy called on all sides in the conflict to put an end to the use of children as combatants, according to the press release, which was available in the Spokesman's Office.

Mr. Eckhard said he had been asked to announce that on Friday, 20 June, there would be a press briefing sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on "Protecting and managing scarce energy, forest and freshwater resources". The briefing was being held in connection with the forthcoming special session of the General Assembly to review implementation of Agenda 21, and would be held from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in the 24th floor Conference Room of the DC-1 Building. The media advisory was available in English and French in the Spokesman's Office.

In response to correspondents' requests, other briefings on the special session were scheduled for today and tomorrow, Mr. Eckhard said. The President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia), had held a one-hour press conference earlier this morning. At 12:30 p.m., the co-Vice Chairmen of the Assembly's working group on the agenda for development, Michael John Powles (New Zealand) and Percy Metsing Mangoaela (Lesotho), would hold a press briefing. At 2:30 p.m., representatives of Greenpeace International and the Worldwatch Institute would hold a press briefing with

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 19 June 1997

the Director of the Division for Sustainable Development, Joke Waller-Hunter, acting as moderator. Tomorrow, Mostafa Tolba (Egypt), Chairman of the Commission on Sustainable Development, would brief correspondents. A list of press conferences scheduled during the special session, which would be held from 23 to 27 June, was currently available in the Spokesman's Office.

Concerning the East Timor talks, Mr. Eckhard said he had been asked by the Mission of Portugal to announce that Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama would speak with correspondents after the morning round of talks outside the Security Council Chamber at the stake-out position, between 12:45 p.m. and 1 p.m.

Mr. Eckhard then announced that the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) would introduce correspondents to Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast at 4:45 p.m. today in the UNCA Club. It would be a chance for correspondents to get to know him, if they did not already.

The Spokesman's Office had asked the funds, programmes and agencies to make it known when their staff members from the field would be at Headquarters, so they could be available to brief correspondents, Mr. Eckhard said. And the UNICEF Representative in Burundi, Michael Sidibe, would be at the noon briefing tomorrow. Mr. Sidibe was a national of Mali and had been working for more than two years in Burundi, which the Spokesman's Office considered to be an under-reported subject.

A correspondent said that reports of violations and atrocities committed by United Nations peace-keepers, specifically Belgian soldiers in Somalia, had recently resurfaced. What was the reaction of the United Nations to those reports? As he had noted at a briefing earlier in the week, Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General's view on the subject was that peace-keepers must uphold the highest standards of human rights, including respect for the Geneva Conventions in conflict situations. Those types of incidents were unusual, as peace-keepers were not supposed to be in conflict situations, but it appeared to have happened in Somalia, where some of the alleged incidents took place.

What actions was the United Nations taking to ensure that such incidents would never occur again? Mr. Eckhard said that the Organization had taken a fresh look at the role of peace-keepers in conflict situations. The basic formula for the legal agreement between the United Nations and the host country had been rewritten to build in the respect for the Geneva conventions. The United Nations had also rewritten the guidelines for commanders, who had the primary responsibility for the behaviour of their troops, which emphasized the need to respect all human rights, as well as sensitivity to gender issues and local customs. Every rank and file soldier received a pocket-size card, to be carried with him at all times, which listed what a peace-keeper was and was not allowed to do.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 19 June 1997

Ultimately, though, when something went wrong, the United Nations, under its arrangement with troop-contributing countries, did not have the authority to discipline troops, Mr. Eckhard continued. The Organization could investigate reports, and if it found that there was a basis to believe that violations did occur, then it would ask the troop contributors to send the soldiers home and to discipline them. In some of the cases that had recently come to light, the United Nations had not been aware, at the time, that the incidents had occurred, so it could not investigate them.

The same correspondent asked if the corrective actions taken by the United Nations were in response to the recent reports of violations by peace- keepers. Mr. Eckhard said the corrective actions had been in response to difficulties with peace-keepers in conflict situations starting in Somalia and then in Bosnia.

Did the United Nations track or monitor such incidents? the same correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said that, to his knowledge, there were no records of those incidents, except in the case of the Belgian soldiers, which had been discovered while the mission was in progress. In the cases of the Canadian and Italian soldiers, there were no records because the United Nations had not been informed of the incidents. If the governments conducting the investigations requested access to records on peace-keeping missions, the United Nations would cooperate, if it had not already done so.

Asked how the United Nations could not have records of such serious incidents, Mr. Eckhard said the peace-keeping missions were extremely large undertakings with thousands of soldiers deployed over vast territories. The allegations were against a handful of soldiers out of thousands, so it was not unlikely that such incidents could occur without anyone knowing about them, which seemed to be the case.

The same correspondent asked about the status of the code of conduct for United Nations staff. Mr. Eckhard said it was still in the review process, and he would check exactly where it was in that process.

Mr. Eckhard drew correspondents' attention to the Security Council presidential statement on the protection for humanitarian assistance to refugees and others in conflict situations, which was read this morning. It was an important document, he added.

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