DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Juan Carlos Brandt, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's press briefing by announcing that two countries had today honoured their budgetary obligations to the United Nations. Germany's assessed contributions, which totalled $96,496,142 and Ethiopia's contribution of $106,508 had come into the United Nations. To date, 71 Member States had paid their contributions in full. Last year, on the same date, 75 Member States had paid in full. Outstanding contributions now amounted to over $2.4 billion, of which $700 million was for the Organization's regular budget and $1.7 billion was for peace-keeping. "Thank you, Germany and Ethiopia, for your generous and timely contribution", Mr. Brandt said.

The Security Council was not meeting today, Mr. Brandt said. Ambassador Peter Osvald of Sweden was the President for the month of July. Traditionally, on the first day of the month, the President held bilateral meetings, and reviewed the Council's agenda for the month.

To give correspondents a sense of what to expect from the Council during the month of July, Mr. Brandt listed the mandates which were up for renewal or review, as follows: the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) and the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP) on 15 July; and the United Nations Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH), United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) on 31 July.

Tomorrow, the Committee on Relations with the Host Country would meet at 10 a.m. in the Trusteeship Council Chamber, Mr. Brandt said. The provisional agenda included parking regulations, regulations with the host country and other procedural matters. He reminded correspondents that the Committee's last meeting had been held on 10 April. For those who so wished, the Spokesman's Office could provide document symbols for those texts relevant to the meeting, which could then be obtained by correspondents at the documents counter.

The 1997 substantive session of the Economic and Social Council had begun yesterday in Geneva by the Council's President, Vladimir Galuska, the Permanent Representative of the Czech Republic, Mr. Brandt said. Yesterday, the Council had held a discussion on United Nations operational activities for development cooperation. Today, the Council was scheduled to examine the funding of operational activities for development, and would hear statements from the Under-Secretary-General in charge of the new economic and social department, Nitin Desai, as well as from the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), James Gustave Speth.

The Economic and Social Council's high-level segment would begin tomorrow, Mr. Brandt continued. The theme of the segment this year is

"Fostering an enabling environment for development: financial flows, including capital flows; investment; trade". The meeting would be a dialogue of sorts, between heads of United Nations funds and agencies and Member States represented at the ministerial level. On Thursday, 3 July, the Secretary- General and the President of the General Assembly would address the Council. The Secretary-General's statement would probably be available by tomorrow, with an embargo for Thursday morning and a proviso to check against delivery. Other information on the Economic and Social Council substantive session, including extensive material provided by the United Nations Office at Geneva, was available in the Spokesman's Office.

The Secretary-General would be in Hong Kong until around 10 p.m. tonight, New York time (10 a.m. local time), at which time he would be leaving for Geneva, Mr. Brandt said. Today he had met with Switzerland's Foreign Minister, Flavio Cotti, and they had discussed Hong Kong's transition, United Nations reform and the question of the United States' financial arrears. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Cotti had extended an official invitation to the Secretary-General to visit Bern. The dates for that visit would be arranged.

Next, Mr. Brandt continued, the Secretary-General had met with the President of Colombia, Ernesto Samper, who was in Hong Kong in his capacity as President of the Non-Aligned Movement. Their discussion had touched upon a number of issues, including Security Council reform, the Organization's social agenda and the debt burden of developing countries. They also discussed peace-keeping and international drug trafficking. On that matter, the Secretary-General had briefed the President on the recent appointment of Senator Pino Arlacchi of Italy as Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna and Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, effective September. The Secretary-General and President Samper had also discussed human rights.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General had attended a reception, hosted by China, to further commemorate the transition, Mr. Brandt said. He then attended the first official diplomatic reception in Hong Kong since the transition, which marked the occasion of Canada Day. The Foreign Minister of Canada, Lloyd Axworthy, had been in attendance. In his remarks to the Foreign Minister, the Secretary-General had reiterated the importance of support from Member States for the United Nations.

The Spokesman's Office had received an "Update" from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which indicated that more than 7,200 Ugandan refugees had arrived in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Brandt said. Those refugees were fleeing the fighting between rebel forces and the Government in the Kasese District of western Uganda. The briefing notes issued today in Geneva provided more information on the matter. The notes also provided information about Afghan refugees in Turkmenistan, as well as Vietnamese refugees in Hong Kong. A little over 2,000 Vietnamese refugees

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 1 July 1997

remained in Hong Kong, of whom approximately 195 were awaiting their return to Viet Nam. Those briefing notes were available in the Spokesman's Office, Mr. Brandt added.

Also available in the Office was a "News Update" from the World Food Programme (WFP) concerning food aid to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mr. Brandt continued. According to the update, a ship chartered by the WFP had arrived in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with urgently needed food aid for the north-east of the country, where hunger was widespread.

The Office also had available two press releases issued today in Geneva, he said. One, embargoed until 5 p.m. on 4 July, concerned the Secretary- General's upcoming address to the International Disability Centre and the International Disability Foundation. The Secretary-General's remarks, which would mark the opening of the first international centre for disability organizations, would address disability as a human rights issue. That text would be available at a later date. The second press release pertained to the Secretary-General's upcoming address to the International Law Commission to commemorate its fiftieth anniversary on Friday, 4 July.

Mr. Brandt announced that on Wednesday, 2 July at 11 a.m., Ambassador James Jonah of Sierra Leone would meet with correspondents to discuss the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Foreign Ministers' meeting, held on 26 June in Conakry, Guinea.

A correspondent asked whether there had been any news about the advance team for the human rights investigation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Mr. Brandt said that the advance team and Government officials were scheduled to meet again today, at which time he expected that the objections raised by the Government would be resolved. Mr. Brandt expected to receive more details from Geneva, upon having heard from the advance team. [At around 4 p.m. an announcement from the Spokesman's Office indicated that another, and possibly final meeting, would take place tomorrow, Wednesday, 2 July, and that at the end of that meeting a joint communique was expected to be issued.]

When was "R-Day -- Restructuring Day"? a correspondent asked. Mr. Brandt replied that on 16 July the Secretary-General would introduce the "track two" of the reform package to the Organization's Member States and staff, as well as to the media in New York. Discussions of those reform proposals would begin immediately thereafter, but it was expected that the General Assembly would take up the proposals in full when it convened for its next session.

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