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 outlining the latest developments regarding the letter received from the Cambodian Government over the weekend.

He said the Secretary-General had met last night with the Under- Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, Hans Corell and others. The Secretary-General had been assured that both the Security Council and the General Assembly had the competence to create a tribunal, to bring to justice those the letter described as "responsible for the genocide and crimes against humanity in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979". He then decided to send copies of the letter to the Presidents of the Assembly and the Council inviting them to take any action they might wish. The letters would be sent this afternoon, Mr. Eckhard added.

The joint United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun, who had attended a mini-summit of Francophone African States in Togo, had got four African nations interested in participating in a multinational force in Congo- Brazzaville, Mr. Eckhard said. However, the countries had certain problems with logistics and equipment and therefore Mr. Sahnoun would visit Paris next, to discuss ways of solving their problems.

It was hoped Mr. Sahnoun would arrive in New York soon to brief the Security Council, Mr. Eckhard continued. If he did not make it, the Council would probably be briefed by the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast. Although the Council's schedule was not yet available, it was expected to meet by the end of the week.

Turning to the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Eckhard said small groups of refugees had begun to come out of hiding in the Shabunda area in the eastern part of the country, west of Bukavu. Their movement was a result of relief operations in the area started last week by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The refugees were part of an estimated 20,000 Rwandan refugees reported in the Shabunda area, he added.

Local authorities had told UNHCR staff that the large military presence in the region had been withdrawn and refugees who had been living in local villages were also coming out of hiding to seek relief, Mr. Eckhard continued. Most the refugees in the area were in good health, but those coming out of neighbouring sites were malnourished and ill. The airlift of those refugees to Rwanda should begin by the end of the week. More than 60,000 refugees had been repatriated back to Rwanda since April. A UNHCR briefing note from Geneva on the subject was available in the Spokesman's Office, he said.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 24 June 1997

The trial of General Tihofil Blaskic by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia had begun today in The Hague, Mr. Eckhard said. Additional information on the proceedings had not yet been received from The Hague, he added.

A non-United Nations conference on the complete ban of anti-personal land-mines had begun today in Brussels, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary- General had been asked to send a message to be read at the opening of the conference. His statement described the meeting as "a vital step in the effort to maintain the momentum for disarmament that started earlier this year with the Chemical Weapons Convention". The Secretary-General also said, "We have a unique opportunity to eradicate this invisible enemy. Let us seize it." In concluding, the Secretary-General said, "The curse of land-mines is not only a curse of our time. We have made it a curse for our children, too. We owe it to them, and to their children, that ours be the last generation to endure that curse."

In Geneva today, Mr. Eckhard said the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission had closed its twenty-fourth session, after approving a fifth instalment of over 76,000 claims from 43 countries and three international organizations for individual losses of up to $100,000 as a result of the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

With the approval of this instalment by the Council, the total number of resolved category "C" claims -- those of the less than $100,000 each -- reached 277,730 and the total amount awarded was approximately $2.1 billion. A press release on the subject was available in the Spokesman's Office, he said.

The fiftieth edition of the World Economic and Social Survey, one of the most authoritative United Nations studies in the area of economics, would be launched in Geneva on Monday, 1 July, Mr. Eckhard said. A background briefing by several United Nations experts involved in producing the Survey would be given tomorrow, 25 June, at 4:15 p.m. in Room S-226. Resident correspondents would receive embargoed copies of the report and a press kit tomorrow. For further information, they should contact Tim Wall on (212) 963-5851.

A troop contributors meeting on the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) would be held this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in Conference Room 7.

The amount of outstanding contributions, as of 15 June, was now available, Mr. Eckhard said. The United Nations was owed a total of $2.437 billion of which $738 million was for the regular budget, $9 million for the International Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and $1.7 billion for peace-keeping operations.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 24 June 1997

On the reform front, he said the Staff-Management Coordination Committee (SMCC-XXI) was considering the Code of Conduct by United Nations staff. The Committee was the highest internal Secretariat body, involving the chairperson of the Staff Union, as well as the Directors of Administration of all nine duty stations of the Secretariat. United Nations Funds and Programmes were observers at the meeting. The Secretary-General had designated Ambassador Joseph Verner Reed as President of the Committee effective 1 June.

Mr. Eckhard then announced the following press conferences which would take place in Room S-226:

Today, at 2:30 p.m. the Permanent Representative of Samoa, Tuiloma Neroni Slade, and the Permanent Representative of Barbados, Carlston B. Boucher, in their capacities as Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively, of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS); at 3:15 p.m. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Drnovsek and the State Secretary for Environment and Physical Planning, Radovan Tavzes; and at 4 p.m. by the World Tourism Organization, sponsored by the Department for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development.

He said outside the context of the special session of the General Assembly for the implementation of Agenda 21, there would also be a press conference tomorrow in Room S-226 at 11 a.m. to launch the first World Drug Report. It would be held by Giorgio Giacomelli, the current Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme.

A correspondent asked if the decision to send the Cambodian letter to the Presidents of the General Assembly and the Security Council had been taken in conjunction with the office of Mr. Corell. Yes, Mr. Eckhard replied, because both legislative bodies had the competence and the possibility to act.

What about reports that the United States was making arrangements to have the Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, tried in Canada? the correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said Mr. Corell had spoken to both the Canadians and the Americans yesterday. But the Secretary-General's response was in relation to the letter from Cambodia specifically asking for United Nations help in administering justice. Now, a decision on the best option would have to be made by governments.

Did Mr. Corell spell out how a tribunal would work and was that information available? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said Mr. Corell was still studying the details of the options available and he had reported orally to the Secretary-General. If Mr. Corell did produce a written summary, it would be an internal document and not be available for circulation. Both the Assembly and the Council could establish subsidiary bodies, he added.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 24 June 1997

In reply to another question, he said the Assembly and the Council could support an action taken by an individual Member State.

Asked whether the Council could set up a tribunal only if there was a threat to international peace and security, Mr. Eckhard said the Council had set up the Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda under that formula. But, apart from action under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council, like the Assembly, had the capacity to create a subsidiary body. The Charter did not specify for what purpose or what kind of body.

Was Cambodia on the Council's agenda? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said there was no reason why not. The Cambodian letter would reach the Council this afternoon. "We will then see whether it is the Council or the Assembly which chooses to act", he added.

Referring to the Staff-Management Coordination Committee (SMCC), a correspondent said he had still not received an answer to questions asked at a previous briefing about the status of the new Performance Appraisal System (PAS) which, according to the Secretary-General, was under review. Was the PAS on the agenda of the SMCC? Mr. Eckhard said he would check to see if the Committee would consider the new system.

The correspondent said he had also not received an answer to questions about how the United Nations intended to spend payment of arrears it might receive from the United States. Mr. Eckhard said he had asked for that information to be given to the correspondent and would follow up this afternoon to see that he received it.

The PAS was reportedly in a state of collapse, the correspondent said. How much money had been spent on putting it in place? he asked. Mr. Eckhard said he would check on how much the new system cost. It was clear that the old evaluation system of personal evaluation was inadequate. Just about everyone who dealt with it believed it did not evaluate staff performance in any meaningful way. The new system had run into "a lot of grumbling" from a number of departments and the Secretary-General had decided to take another look at it.

A correspondent asked what type of international force was being considered for Congo-Brazzaville. Mr. Eckhard said no decision had been taken yet. The Security Council was waiting for the Secretary-General to make a proposal and he, in turn, was waiting for Mr. Sahnoun to complete his consultations with governments.

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