DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Fred Eckhard, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's press briefing by outlining the Security Council's schedule. The Council held consultations this morning on draft resolutions on Cyprus and Liberia, and had been briefed on Croatia by the United Nations Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, Jacques Klein. The Council had also been briefed on Angola, he added.

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, would brief the Council tomorrow, and the Spokesman's Office would try and arrange for him to speak to correspondents during the day, Mr. Eckhard continued. The newly appointed (effective in September) Director- General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, Pino Arlacchi, would be at the noon briefing tomorrow.

United States President William Clinton's address to the special session of the General Assembly for the implementation of Agenda 21 had been changed from this morning to later today, because of a death in his family, Mr. Eckhard said. The new security arrangements were as follows: between 4:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., the second floor of the Headquarters Building would be restricted to all correspondents, including resident ones, except for the television, radio and print pool. The approximate "freeze" times would be from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.; from 7:15 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.; and from 8:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m.

The Secretary-General's report to the General Assembly on the Middle East should be released by the end of today, he continued. The Spokesman's Office would make it available as soon as possible.

The General Agreement on the Establishment of Peace and National Accord in Tajikistan would be signed in Moscow tomorrow by President Emomali Rakhmonov of Tajikistan and the head of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), Sayed Abdullo Nuri, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Tajikistan, Gerd Dietrich Merrem, and Mr. Nuri were already in Moscow, and Mr. Rakhmonov was expected later today, he added. Regarding the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT), the Secretary- General had said he would report back to the Security Council with his recommendations on how to adjust the mandate and composition of the Mission in order to deal with the new peace accord.

On Angola, Mr. Eckhard said there had been some confusion about the intensity of fighting and who was fighting whom. Press reports had tended to describe the fighting as heavy, but, according to United Nations reports, there was evidence of "some fighting", although not as serious as reported in the media. Last night, the United Nations Angola Verification Mission

(UNAVEM III) had put out a press release describing the situation in detail, including restrictions placed on its movements. The release also rebutted some of the attacks on the Mission made by both the Government and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

Today at 3 p.m. at Headquarters, the Department of Peace-Keeping Operations would hold a special conference to support the peace process in Liberia, in a follow-up to an earlier one in Geneva on 12 June, he said. Today's conference was intended to examine security, preparations for elections and other issues. Representatives of Ghana, Guinea, Japan, Liberia, Netherlands, Nigeria, United States and of the European Commission, as well as of some United Nations agencies, would participate.

A World Health Organization (WHO) press release on the fight against polio was available in the Spokesman's Office, Mr. Eckhard said. The release quotes an Assistant Director-General of the WHO as saying that "social disintegration and conflict provided a fertile ground for polio outbreaks. Witness Afghanistan; Albania; Chechnya, Russian Federation; the former Yugoslavia; Liberia; Somalia; Sudan and central Africa. The moment national immunization campaigns drop a gear, the polio virus goes into overdrive. If we are to defeat polio, we have to accelerate our efforts".

As mentioned at yesterday's briefing, the talks on Cyprus, scheduled for 9 to 13 July, would take place at a private conference centre called Troutbeck in upstate New York, Mr. Eckhard said. The Spokesman's Office was arranging buses to transport correspondents there the first day, for a photo opportunity and to cover the Secretary-General's opening statement. "We will give you a sandwich and then drive you back to New York." Sign-up sheets would be on the bulletin board. The cost of the transport had not yet been determined. "The sandwich will be on us", he added.

The Conference on Disarmament in Geneva had today approved a proposal to appoint a "Special Coordinator" to explore the establishment of a possible mandate on the question of anti-personnel land-mines, he said. A press release on the matter was available in the Spokesman's Office.

He said the meeting of the Security Council Sanctions Committee which monitors the implementation of sanctions against Iraq, which was scheduled for this afternoon, would now take place at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow, 27 June, in Conference Room 7.

The Belgium Government was hosting a conference, from 24 to 27 June, on anti-personnel land-mines, Mr. Eckhard said. The text of the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, at the event was available in the Spokesman's Office.

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

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 26 June 1997

At 2 p.m. today, the Japanese Government would sponsor Ko Yamaguchi, the Head of Media, the Organizing Committee for the XVIII Olympic Winter Games, Nagano, 1998.

Tomorrow at 2 p.m., the Netherlands Minister for Development and Cooperation, Jan Pronk, and the Minister for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment; and at 3 p.m., the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia), on the status of negotiations of the outcome of the special session.

A United Nations Publication, titled Cities Fit for People, which had been edited by Uner Kirdar, would be launched today in the United Nations bookshop on the concourse level.

A correspondent asked if United Nations television had accompanied the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Yasushi Akashi, on his current trip to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and, if so, what was the status of any video material. Mr. Eckhard said a United Nations television crew was with Mr. Akashi, but they might have forgotten to take a cellular phone so there had been no communication with them. A member of the Spokesman's Office was also accompanying Mr. Akashi, but he had not been able to phone in and no one knew why. "We get bits of information from the Asian media saying they had arrived and were moving around in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. So, we assume that the mission is going forward. We are just in a news blackout", he added.

In reply to another question, Mr. Eckhard said that the Secretary- General would meet with President Clinton at approximately 6:15 p.m. following his address to the General Assembly.

A correspondent asked what had been in the suspicious package sent to the Secretary-General yesterday? "Mouthwash", Mr. Eckhard replied.

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