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 announcing that the Secretary-General had sat in on this morning's meeting of the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly on "Illegal Israeli actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory".

On the Secretary-General's appointments for today, Mr. Eckhard said that the Secretary-General was meeting with the Board of Auditors at 12:30 p.m. Following that, he would host a luncheon in honour of the Foreign Minister of Sweden, Lena Hjelm-Wallen. At 5:30 p.m., he would meet with the Head of Government of Andorra.

Mr. Eckhard then read the following statement, attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

"Following the first round of direct talks in Lisbon between the Government of Morocco and the Frente POLISARIO, under the auspices of the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, James A. Baker III, the two parties have been invited to meet in London on 19 and 20 July. As before, Algeria and Mauritania will attend as observers.

"The talks will again be convened under the auspices of the Personal Envoy, who will facilitate the work of the parties. The talks will still focus on implementation of the settlement plan or such adjustments to it as the parties may agree, and will continue for so long as they hold any promise of progress in Mr. Baker's opinion." (Press Release SG/SM/6283)

Mr. Eckhard then said he had received the twenty-first weekly report on the implementation of Security Council resolution 986 (1995) on the "oil-for- food" programme. It informed that eight applications of goods had been received last week; 13 applications had been submitted to the Security Council Committee monitoring the sanctions against Iraq; 14 had been approved; none had been blocked; and three had been put on hold.

He then announced that the Dominican Republic had become the seventy- sixth Member State to pay in full its contribution to the 1997 United Nations regular budget -- with a cheque for $106,508.

Mr. Eckhard said copies of a newsletter issued by the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), which was preparing for elections in that country, were available in the Spokesman's Office. His office would also make available a press release by the World Food Programme (WFP) which

informed about the positive response to its extended emergency appeal for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. As a result of the appeal the WFP was now preparing plans for overseeing the distribution of greater amounts of food there.

In other announcements, Mr. Eckhard drew attention to the press briefing notes from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which included an item on Tajikistan. Citing articles in today's newspapers on the decline of the number of deaths from HIV/AIDS, he said that UNAIDS -- the Joint United Nations Programme on Aids -- had issued a press release promoting the female condom, which offered increased protection from sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. Both releases were available in the Spokesman's Office.

Mr. Eckhard then told correspondents that the Secretary-General would present his proposals for United Nations reform to the General Assembly at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Immediately after that meeting he would brief corespondents in room S-226. Referring to the background briefing on the reform proposals for the media yesterday afternoon, Mr. Eckhard said that since it was "a fairly complicated report" he could arrange "smaller tutorials" for correspondents with the persons involved in drafting the report, if journalists were interested.

The spokeswoman for the President of General Assembly, Samsiah Abdul- Majid, told correspondents that the tenth emergency special session had resumed this morning. Thirty-eight speakers were listed. At the time of the briefing only seven speakers had made statements. The session was therefore expected to continue this afternoon and, perhaps, tomorrow. However, that would be decided later today.

Referring to the 15-Power draft resolution (document A/ES-10/L.2) before the emergency special session, she said there was some indication that it might be revised. The details of the revisions were not yet available; however, one preambular paragraph would be added and at least one operative paragraph, the thirteenth, was expected to be amended. The revised draft text should be available by this afternoon.

She then read some of the operative paragraphs in the draft resolution:

By operative paragraph four, the General Assembly reiterates the demands made in its resolution ES-10/2 -- adopted on 25 April during the first part of the emergency special session -- in particular the immediate and full cessation of the construction of a new settlement at Jebel Abu Ghneim, to the south of Occupied East Jerusalem, and of all other Israeli settlement activities, as well as of all illegal measures and actions on Jerusalem.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 15 July 1997

Operative paragraph five demands that Israel, the occupying Power, immediately cease and reverse all actions taken illegally under international law against Palestinian Jerusalemites and their natural rights. By another operative, the Assembly requests Member States to take the necessary measures, within their respective legal systems, to halt any support for Israeli settlements and their economic infrastructures by any companies and individuals in their respective countries.

In addition, the draft resolution also requests Member States not to allow any import of goods produced or manufactured in settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem. It also stresses that all Member States, in order to ensure that their rights and benefits resulting from membership, should fulfil in good faith the obligations assumed by them in accordance with the provisions of the United Nations Charter. By the final operative paragraph, the Assembly decides to adjourn the General Assembly's tenth emergency special session temporarily and to authorize the President to resume its meetings upon request from Member States.

Mr. Eckhard then announced that there would be no noon briefing tomorrow since the Secretary-General would himself brief the correspondents.

A correspondent asked about the time of the Secretary-General's press conference tomorrow. Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General would come to room S-226 directly from the General Assembly Hall -- at approximately 11 a.m. Regional groups would make statements after his presentation.

Ms. Abdul-Majid added that the following five speakers were listed for tomorrow's meeting: Ghana (on behalf of the African States), United States, Luxembourg (speaking for the European Union), the Prime Minister of Andorra, and Suriname (on behalf of the Latin American and Caribbean States).

Asked how long was the Secretary-General expected to speak to the Assembly tomorrow. Mr. Eckhard said it was not a long speech.

Ms. Abdul-Majid was asked if Member States knew how much was involved by their call for companies not to do business related to the settlements in the occupied territories. She said she could check on it. Such estimates were not included in the Secretary-General's report.

Referring to an announcement in a briefing in June that the United Nations Legal Counsel had assured the Secretary-General that either the Security Council or the General Assembly had the power to create a war crimes tribunal for Cambodia, a correspondent asked if that view still prevailed and if it was available in writing. Mr. Eckhard said that the Legal Counsel's view on the subject had been submitted to the Secretary-General in writing. That view was that the two bodies were empowered by the United Nations Charter to create subsidiary bodies which could include a tribunal.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 15 July 1997

Asked further if the written opinion was available, Mr. Eckhard said it was normally not, but he could ask for a background briefing for the correspondent by an officer in the Office of Legal Affairs.

A correspondent asked if the Spokesman had any comment on Japan's proposal to decrease its contributions to various United Nations bodies. Mr. Eckhard said that during his recent visit to Japan, the Secretary-General was informed that the Japanese Government was "looking in that direction". He made an appeal for them not to reduce their contributions. In the context of the United Nations development efforts, the Secretary-General's hope was that the enhanced efficiency of a more centralized and efficient country-team approach to development would be more attractive to donor governments and that they would continue and perhaps increase the amounts of official development assistance (ODA) that they channelled to the United Nations. However, Mr. Eckhard said since he had not seen an official announcement of such a proposal by the Japanese Government, he would not comment further.

When asked if the next round of Cyprus talks would be held in the city of Montreux in Switzerland rather than in Geneva, Mr. Eckhard said he had noted that Diego Cordovez, the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Cyprus, in his press briefing yesterday had said the next round of talks would be held in Switzerland. He did not say Geneva. He suspected that there was a reason for Mr. Cordovez's remarks.

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