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 welcoming Justice Louise Arbour, Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. Justice Arbour would address correspondents on developments in the Rwanda Tribunal, in light of the dramatic arrests that had taken place at the end of last week, he added. (Justice Arbour's briefing is being issued separately.)

The Secretary-General had been extremely pleased with the manner in which the elections in Liberia had been conducted, Mr. Eckhard said. Those elections had been peaceful, with only some complaints about irregularities. By and large, their outcome seemed clear. The Secretary-General had also been pleased with the work done by the United Nations electoral observers.

Mr. Eckhard then said that the Secretary-General was gratified that the African leaders who had met in Kinshasa over the weekend had supported his insistence that an investigation into allegations of the killing of Hutu refugees in the Democratic Republic of the Congo be undertaken. The Secretary-General had been determined all along that no excuse should stand in the way of establishing the truth of what had happened in the Congo.

As for the investigation's time-frame, the Secretary-General had no argument with the African leaders' request that it extend back to 1993, Mr. Eckhard continued. The Secretary-General had said that the evidence would speak for itself. He had relayed that position in a letter to President Laurent Kabila on the mission's terms of reference. Copies of that letter were available in the Spokesman's Office.

The Security Council had this morning heard from the President of Georgia, Eduard A. Shevardnadze, under the Arria formula* for private, unofficial briefings, Mr. Eckhard said. This afternoon, the Council would hear from the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, James Baker III. The Council would also continue its discussion of the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal, to be awarded to peace-keepers killed in the line of duty.

Mr. Shevardnadze would meet with correspondents on his way out of the building at approximately 1:30 p.m., at the Delegates' Entrance, Mr. Eckhard continued. Mr. Baker would address correspondents after he briefed the Council at its 3 p.m. session.

__________ * The Arria formula is a very informal consultation process initiated by Diego Arria of Venezuela, which affords members of the Security Council the opportunity to hear persons in a confidential, informal setting. These meetings are presided over by a member of the Council as service facilitator for the discussion and not by the President of the Council.

Next, Mr. Eckhard told correspondents that the Secretary-General's report on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia (document S/1997/558) was available.

Turning to Tajikistan, he said there had been an exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) and detainees over the weekend. That exchange had been conducted according to the Protocol on Mutual Understanding between the Government of Tajikistan and the United Tajik Opposition (UTO), signed in Moscow on 27 June. The exchange had been successfully completed from 18 to 20 July with the assistance of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT). The parties had exchanged 49 prisoners of war and 48 detainees.

On Friday, 18 July, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, had gone to Bailundo, the site of the headquarters of the leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Jonas Savimbi, Mr. Eckhard said. Mr. Beye had travelled with the "troika ambassadors" -- United States, Russian Federation and Portugal -- to meet with Mr. Savimbi and the UNITA leadership. The UNITA had guaranteed that information on the disposition of their troops would be forthcoming, and also that it would go along with normalization of the extension of the Government's administration to the whole of the Angolan territory. A face-to- face meeting between President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Mr. Savimbi was also being discussed.

The Spokesman then said that the report of the Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission (document S/1997/546) had been issued today. Also, available in his office was the twenty-second weekly report of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs on the implementation of resolution 986 (1995), on the "oil-for-food" programme for Iraq. The new annual report from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), The Progress of Nations 1997, was also available, but embargoed until tomorrow. Copies of that report had been placed in correspondents' mailboxes this morning. The World Health Organization (WHO) would hold its Fourth International Conference on Health Promotion in Jakarta from today through 25 July, he continued. A press packet on that conference was available in the Spokesman's Office.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, would meet with correspondents today in the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Club at 3:15 p.m., Mr. Eckhard said. Mr. Miyet had just returned from Haiti.

A correspondent asked whether the Secretary-General's representative to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Robin Kinloch, had been invited to the meeting of African leaders held in Kinshasa. Mr. Eckhard said that Mr. Kinloch might not even be in the region yet, but he would look into the matter.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 21 July 1997

Asked whether the account in today's newspapers on that meeting was correct, Mr. Eckhard said that according to the coverage in the wire services, the meeting's participants had supported the dispatch of an investigative mission, and had also supported President Kabila's request that the time-frame go back to 1993. The Secretary-General appreciated the support from those leaders and had told President Kabila that the time-frame was not a problem. In a sense, the version appearing in the newspapers this morning had been misleading, he added.

A correspondent noted that there had been allegations of mercenaries committing human rights abuses in Kisangani. Could the crimes of outsiders be considered in the investigation? he asked. Mr. Eckhard said the investigation's primary focus would be to look into allegations of large-scale killings of refugees. If, in the course of the investigation, evidence emerged from the period from 1993 to 1996, then such evidence would speak for itself.

A correspondent asked what could be expected from Mr. Miyet's trip to Haiti. The report on the United Nations Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH) would be out in the next few days, Mr. Eckhard replied. When the same correspondent asked about the forthcoming report's recommendations, Mr. Eckhard said he could not provide advance information about the report's contents.

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