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 noon briefing by informing correspondents that the Secretary-General had decided to appoint Lakhdar Brahimi as his Special Envoy to undertake a short-term mission to assess United Nations peacemaking activities in Afghanistan. Mr. Brahimi would consult with interested and relevant countries and parties and the Organization of the Islamic Conference on their positions regarding those activities. He would submit his findings to the Secretary-General in time for them to serve as a basis for the Secretary-General's report to the forthcoming session of the General Assembly.

Mr. Brahimi had arrived in New York for consultations before the trip, the Spokesman said, adding that his mandate was to be distinguished from that of the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan, as defined by General Assembly resolutions. The Special Envoy's consultations were to be time-limited and were intended to advise the Secretary-General on all aspects of United Nations activities relative to its peacemaking efforts.

The Secretary-General had telephoned Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, yesterday to say that he was encouraged by the initiative taken by the Prime Minister to suspend the latest effort to build housing in East Jerusalem, Mr. Eckhard said. He had told the Prime Minister that this was the kind of gesture needed to get the peace talks back on track, which was the goal of the international community.

Also this week, the Secretary-General was chairing a series of executive committee meetings, starting yesterday with the Committee on Peace and Security, he said. Correspondents would notice that there were two more of those meetings on his programme for today. The executive committees were the principal policy coordinating units reporting directly to the Secretary-General.

The Development Committee, which was now under the reform package announced in July, had met this morning, Mr. Eckhard said. It had held its first meeting as the Development Coordination Group, which had brought together all the entities, both within the Secretariat and among the funds and programmes, that were concerned with development. Catherine Bertini of the World Food Programme (WFP), Carol Bellamy of United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), James Gustave Speth of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Nafis Sadik of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) were among those present. Also present were the representatives of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and the Crime Prevention Unit from Vienna. It had been a very positive and upbeat meeting, Mr. Eckhard said.

He went on say that, this afternoon, the Humanitarian Affairs Executive Committee would meet. In that context, there was the proposal that the Humanitarian Affairs Department be transformed into the Office of the Emergency Coordinator. The Committee would be discussing how the bureaucracy would shift in connection with the Secretary-General's proposals of 16 July.

The Secretary-General's reform proposals could now be introduced into the budgetary planning for the 1998-1999 biennium, the Spokesman said. The next step in that process would be the Secretary-General's presentation of the revised budget estimates for the next biennium. Right now, his staff was crunching the numbers that were to be ready by the end of August for review by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and subsequently by the General Assembly at its forthcoming session.

As correspondents were aware, a technical survey team from the Department of Peace-keeping Operations was in west Africa in connection with the possible proposal by the Secretary-General for a peace-keeping mission in Congo-Brazzaville, the Spokesman said. The team had arrived in Libreville, Gabon, on Sunday, 27 July. It was looking at Libreville as the primary logistics base for supplying a possible mission in Brazzaville. The team members had met with the representatives of the two parties, who were in Libreville for the talks there over the weekend. They had also met with the joint United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative to the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun and with the mayor of Pointe Noire.

A press release from the Hague was available concerning the exhumations in Brcko in northern Bosnia, Mr. Eckhard said. A forensic team from the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had started its 1997 exhumation programme in Brcko.

The Conference on Disarmament had held its first plenary meeting this morning in Geneva, he said. The third part of its 1997 session had opened yesterday and was expected to last until 10 September. The Conference was still to find agreement on its programme of work. This morning, the representatives of the United Kingdom and Ukraine, among others, took the floor. Ukraine had been in favour of the establishment of an ad hoc committee on landmines. The United Kingdom representative had said that the Ottawa process was complimentary to the work of the Conference.

The annexes for the oil-for-food distribution plan had been submitted by the Iraqi mission to the Secretariat yesterday, Mr. Eckhard said, adding that "we are still optimistic that the Secretariat's review of the entire package can be completed by the end of this week and the Secretary-General can then give his approval to the plan". The annexes were over 600 pages long.

He added that the twenty-third weekly report on the implementation of the oil-for-food programme had become available today.

Also available were the briefing notes from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which had a report on Angola, the Spokesman said. Rwandan refugees, numbering 1,466, had arrived in Luau, a town at the eastern border of Angola controlled by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). More refugees were arriving from Congo-Kinshasa and they were in a particularly weak condition. They had travelled, in the past nine months or so, across the extent of Congo-Kinshasa from eastern Congo. Details could be found in the report of UNHCR.

The Security Council today had a full programme, he said. In informal consultations, it had been briefed on Afghanistan by the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast. Also, it had discussed the Secretary-General's report on Haiti. There was a draft resolution circulating on the matter which the Council was not expected to take up until tomorrow. Also before the Council was the Secretary-General's report on Georgia-Abkhazia and a draft resolution on it. Finally, the Council had before it a draft Presidential statement on Liberia.

Brunnei Darussalam had become the ninety-eighth State to ratify the Chemicals Weapons Convention, Mr. Eckhard said. The number of signatories was 165.

There was a press release available stating that Ahmad Fawzi had been appointed the Director of the United Nations Information Centre in London, he said. Mr. Fawzi had been the Deputy Spokesman in the Office of the Spokesman for four years.

Mr. Eckhard said a press conference on the launching of the new book "Governance and Democratic Development in Latin America and the Caribbean" had been held at 11:15 a.m. The book was available in different languages. At 1 p.m., four mayors participating in the Governance Conference would address a press conference. The mayors were from San Francisco; Mexico City; Allahabad, India; and Santiago.

The Permanent Representative of Cambodia, Prince Sisowath Sirirath, would address a press conference at 2:30 p.m., the Spokesman said. He would talk about the nomination of Ung Huot as First Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

At 3 p.m., a press conference would be held by the Permanent Representative of Nicaragua, Enrique Paguaga, he said. Mr. Paguaga had a special declaration on foreign policy.

Mr. Eckhard went on to say that, on behalf of the Secretary-General, he wanted to express condolences to Ricardo Alday, of the press corps, whose father passed away on Saturday, 26 July, in Mexico City.

Further, Mr. Eckhard informed correspondents that the President of the Security Council would talk to them at the stand-up microphone outside the Council chamber at the end of the morning session.

Asked for an update on the Congo-Kinshasa investigative team, he said the United Nations had zeroed in on a leader of the team who had all the requisite qualifications. However, "political developments in his country had him all tied up in knots and he has not been able to commit himself soon enough for us", Mr. Eckhard. "That's kind of sent us into a tail spin and we are looking again at the list of a dozen or so candidates to see what can be done next. We certainly want to name the team by the end of this week."

Asked to comment on a general strike in Haiti against the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH), Mr. Eckhard said it was a matter of some concern that there were popular demonstrations. However, it was the governments in the Security Council who would decide on the future of the international presence in Haiti and their decision would hold.

Had the Secretary-General discussed the other settlements under construction with Prime Minister Netanyahu? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said the issue that the Secretary-General had addressed was the most recent planned construction which the Prime Minister himself had decided should be postponed. The Secretary-General said he felt that was the right decision and he applauded the Prime Minister's courage in making it. Further, the Secretary-General hoped that it would help get the peace talks back on track. The Prime Minister seemed to appreciate the Secretary-General's call and his thoughts.

Was there any report on Angola regarding the implementation of Security Council decisions? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said there was nothing specific. There was the daily cable traffic. The Angola Mission continued to be precarious but Member States were applying maximum pressure on the parties to try to keep the peace process, in which the international community had invested a lot of time, effort and money, from falling apart.

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