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, told correspondents at today's press briefing that the Secretary-General had been following developments in Cambodia very closely. He had had some reports from the office of his Representative in Phnom Penh, in spite of difficult communications. The situation in the country remained fluid; the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Alvaro de Soto, was expected to brief the Security Council around the time of the briefing.

On the human rights investigation in Congo-Kinshasa, Mr. Eckhard, referring to the press briefing by the Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ralph Zacklin, this morning in Geneva, said that the Commission was welcoming the Secretary-General's willingness to take on the issue, now that their own proposal for an investigation team had been blocked by the Kinshasa Government. He noted that there had been, however, an agreement on Friday on other terms and conditions for the investigation that would permit it to take place if the composition of the team were different. He said that he expected the Secretary-General to brief the Security Council tomorrow on his plans for putting together a new team and sending them in under the terms negotiated by the advance team.

The Spokesman reported new information on Rwandan refugees, who had now appeared in a fifth country, Gabon. Three hundred and sixty-five of them, and six Burundian refugees, had been reported in that country. The figures included 24 children. To put the matter in perspective, he told correspondents that the distance in question, from Rwanda, was more than a thousand miles, as the crow flies. A United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) team would leave Kinshasa later this week for Gabon to evaluate the situation.

On Tajikistan, Mr. Eckhard said that the first inaugural meeting of the National Reconciliation Commission would start today in Moscow, attended by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Gerd Merrem; it would conclude tomorrow. Two main topics were on the agenda: election of a chairman and deputy chairman; and the drafting of a general amnesty law. The Commission was composed of 26 members, 13 from each side. The United Nations had no formal role in it, but the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) was instrumental in the implementation of the peace agreement. The Security Council had yet to determine its new role under that peace agreement.

The Spokesman also told correspondents that the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women was meeting between 7 and 25 July, at Headquarters, the second of its two sessions for 1997. A background press release (WOM/973 of 3 July) from the Department of Public Information (DPI) was available.

The Secretary-General had issued a report to the General Assembly, Mr. Eckhard continued, on the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), available today. Also out today was the Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP), the mission in the southernmost part of Croatia. The Secretary-General was recommending a six-month extension of that mission, which comprised 28 miliary observers, to monitor demilitarization of that strategic peninsula.

He then announced troop-contributors meetings, as follows: for the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) would be held this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in Conference Room 5; for UNMOP, the meeting would be held tomorrow, also in Conference Room 5, at 3: 30 p.m. There would also be a meeting for potential troop-contributors for a mission to Congo-Brazzaville, this afternoon at 5 p.m. in room 3640; correspondents were not invited.

On assessed contributions, he announced that Nepal was now paid in full: $106,506. So far, 73 Member States had paid in full; last year at the same time, 76 Member States had done so.

Mr. Eckhard recalled that the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia), had received a request for the resumption of the tenth emergency special session of the Assembly to consider illegal Israeli actions in East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory. The letter was received from the Permanent Representative of Egypt in his capacity as Chairman of the Arab Group for this month, on behalf of the States members of the League of Arab States. The President of the Assembly was consulting with Member States on a date for the resumed session.

Turning to the Cyprus talks, the Spokesman announced that 30 correspondents had so far signed up for the bus trip on Wednesday to the Troutbeck conference centre, in Amenia, Dutchess County, New York; there was capacity for 12 more. The list would close at 3 p.m. today; anyone interested should sign up with Associate Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt by that time. The round trip was $20, he said, pointing out that only two of the 30 who had indicated interest had paid. If by noon tomorrow a name was not backed up by the $20 fee, his office would assume the person was not travelling. The departure time on Wednesday was 8 a.m., he explained, and the Secretary- General was scheduled to speak at noon. The idea was to get correspondents there in plenty of time to set up. Mr. Brandt would brief correspondents today at 4 p.m. in room 226 on the practical aspects of the trip.

The President of the Security Council would host members of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) at a reception tomorrow at 4:30 p.m., instead of today at 5 p.m.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 7 July 1997

On the human rights mission, Mr. Eckhard was asked if the Commission was now basically turning the issue over to the Secretary-General? Yes, the Spokesman answered, they faced the option of coming up with a new mandate or turning it over to the Secretary-General. "They took the latter option. The Secretary-General feels that it is not who does this report, but that an investigation be done, and so he is quite prepared to field a new team."

The Spokesman was asked if the Secretary-General would go ahead and do that himself, or seek the approval of the Security Council when he spoke to them. He replied that the Secretary-General would not do it against the wishes of the Council, but he did have -- under the United Nations Charter -- wide latitude to take an initiative such as that one. "I do not think that it has ever been done -- that an investigative human rights mission has been done by the Secretary-General, but there is no question in the mind of the Legal Adviser here that he can do that, and he will be informing the Council tomorrow of his intention, and of course listening to see if they have any reservations."

A correspondent, recalling that the Secretary-General had recently mentioned that it would be good for the peace process in Bosnia and Herzegovina if the International Police Task Force (IPTF) stayed beyond its deadline, drew attention to a report in The Los Angeles Times yesterday that the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and American troops would apprehend war criminals. Would the United Nations participate in such an operation? The Spokesman answered that the question was very hypothetical. However, it was not the mandate of United Nations police monitors in Bosnia to arrest anyone. Concluded Mr. Eckhard: "To investigate, yes; arrest, no. Our mandate is clear."

Replying to another inquiry, on the date on which the United Nations Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, Jacques Klein, would assume his new post in Bosnia, he said it was 1 August.

A correspondent asked for the Secretary-General's assessment of the situation in Cambodia. "Very confusing, and very dangerous", the Spokesman replied. The Secretary-General would be sharing his views with the Security Council through Assistant Secretary-General Alvaro de Soto today. The Permanent Representative of Cambodia had also asked to see him today on an urgent basis, and that had been scheduled for 12:30 p.m.

"That the weather is terrible", Mr. Eckhard responded to a question about what the United Nations learned from the trip of some of its officials to Hong Kong and Geneva last week. "It rained for seven days, following us everywhere we went."

Speaking seriously, he said that the interest in United Nations reform was acute; virtually everyone that the Secretary-General had met with had

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 7 July 1997

questions. In Geneva, he had addressed a number of delegations, spoken to the staff and met with non-governmental organizations. He was able to give them the broad outline of his thinking, and get some feedback as well. His impression was that there was broad support for his ideas and for reform generally. Mr. Eckhard said that there had been "a bit of unease" on the part of the staff in terms of the implications for them, but that the Secretary- General was able to comfort them, that although they might have to undergo some reassignments or some retraining, essentially he hoped that it would be a painless transition.

For governments, the Spokesman continued, the Secretary-General said that the debates they had on development and humanitarian reorganization where the funds and programmes had weighed in in defence of their particular concerns was a healthy one, and he felt that at this point they were all now on board with a formula they could endorse. He expected them to work as a team but he said, "not as a rowing team where everyone acts in unison, but as a soccer team, where there is room for individual brilliance".

Asked when the new head of the World Health Organization (WHO) would be appointed, Mr. Eckhard said that it would be later in the year. He had no details.

Further asked to elaborate on the issue of the Secretary-General's powers under the Charter to change a decision of the Human Rights Commission, the Spokesman explained that the Commission had done its work as far as it wanted to go. It had put together a mandate, and a team and tried to negotiate with the host country, which objected to the composition of the team; at that point, they could either revise that position or say they were stymied. What they had said was that they were unwilling to revise their position but did want to see an investigation carried out. The matter would now go to the Secretary-General to see that the investigation did get done.

Challenged that the Secretary-General did not have that authority under the Charter, Mr. Eckhard asked the correspondent why he had said so. The authority available was only to attract the attention of the Security Council to a matter, the correspondent said, and that was the only provision. "You have a different view from his Legal Advisers, who feel that it is clear under the Charter that he can take this action", Mr. Eckhard answered.

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