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 noon briefing by announcing that a former military commander in the former Rwandan Army, based in Cyangugu, Samuel Manishimwe, 37, had been detained in Mombasa, Kenya, yesterday, on suspicion of committing genocide and crimes against humanity. He had been moved to the detention unit of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. Mr. Manishimwe is the ninth person arrested within the framework of "Operation NAKI" (Nairobi-Kigali) and his detention brought to 21 the number of people held by the Tribunal, with 14 of them indicted and seven others remaining as suspects. A press release with more detailed information was expected from Arusha shortly.

Turning to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Mr. Brandt said that on Saturday 9 August the Defence Counsel for Dusko Tadic filed a Notice of Appeal against the sentence handed down on his client by the Tribunal on 14 July. The grounds for the appeal include errors of law and of fact. A press release on this was available.

On Angola, the Associate Spokesman said that for the third time the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Alioune Blondin Beye, was studying information submitted by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) concerning its armed elements, the extension of State administration into UNITA-controlled areas and on radio "Vorgan". Mr. Beye had discussed the latest UNITA response this morning with representatives of the Troika countries (Portugal, Russian Federation and the United States) who were closely following Angola's peace process. He might issue a formal statement on the matter probably tomorrow, 14 August.

Continuing, Mr. Brandt said that the Security Council had this morning held informal consultations, followed by a formal meeting that issued a presidential statement on the Republic of Congo. The Council would meet at 10:30 a.m., tomorrow, 14 August, on the situation in Albania.

Briefing correspondents on the Secretary-General's activities in Finland today, the Associate Spokesman said Mr. Annan began the day with a formal meeting with President Marti Ahtisaari. The meeting focused on reform issues, the coordinating mechanisms for development and for humanitarian affairs, and the role of a Deputy Secretary-General. After the expanded, formal meeting which involved the two leaders' aides, the Secretary-General and the President had a tête-à-tête.

Later, Mr. Brandt continued, the Secretary-General met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Tarja Halonen, who asked him about the reform package and how Finland could help. The Secretary-General replied that, for a small country, Finland "punches above its weight". He thanked the country's

citizens for their support, adding that small countries instinctively understood the need for international cooperation. Ms. Halonen asked the Secretary-General how men were reacting to his efforts to achieve gender balance. In response, the Secretary-General said that, with the average age of the international civil servant being very high and with the prospect of a large number of people retiring in the next 10 years, real progress could be made in promoting gender balance without disrupting the careers and lives of others. Other topics the Secretary-General and the Foreign Minister discussed included peace-keeping and rapid deployment.

Following this meeting, and a working luncheon also hosted by Ms. Halonen, the Secretary-General met with the Defence Minister, Anneli Taina, who expressed her country's support for the Secretary-General's broader definition of security, to include economic well-being. The two of them talked about the Rapidly Deployable Mission Headquarters, which Finland was prepared to support further. She told the Secretary-General that since the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) was a big success, it should not be shrunk. After they discussed the Dag Hammarskjold Medal, the Secretary-General sought the Minister's views on land-mines. She replied that, while Finland supported ongoing negotiations on those weapons, it needed them for its national defence, since it was a large country with a small population; large portions of its territory were uninhabited.

Afterwards, the Secretary-General met with the Chief of Defence of Finnish Defence Forces, General Gustav Hagglund, a former Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the 1980s. The Associate Spokesman said they discussed rapid deployment and the Stabilization Force deployed in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mr. Annan then met with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the former Yugoslavia, Elisabeth Rehn, who expressed her concern over the latest developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They also had a private, one-on-one meeting.

Later on, Mr. Brandt continued, the Secretary-General gave a lecture that focused on Human Rights to the Paasikivi-Society; he also took questions from the audience. (For text of the Secretary-General's statement, see Press Release SG/SM/6301 of 13 August). The Secretary-General was expected to attend a State dinner hosted by President Ahtisaari.

Providing updated information on the implementation of the "oil-for- food" programme in Iraq, the Associate Spokesman said that United Nations Overseers had yesterday approved 12 of 18 oil sale contracts submitted, a development that would enable Iraq to sell a total of about 69.22 million barrels of oil. The contracts were awarded to companies from eight countries, so far.

A press release from the World Health Organization (WHO) states that a survey by its World Health Statistics Quarterly showed that food-borne diseases might be 300 to 350 times more frequent than reported cases

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 13 August 1997

indicated, Mr. Brandt said. It was believed that hundreds of millions of people worldwide suffered from diseases caused by contaminated food. The WHO press release was available in the Spokesman's office. It was a timely piece of information, since today, in the New York Times, there was a story on contaminated ground beef.

At 3 p.m. today, the Associate Spokesman said, South Africa would became the second signatory to the Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Use of International Watercourses, adopted by the General Assembly on 21 May.

Finally, he reminded correspondents of today's press conference in room 226 by the Preparatory Committee for the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. The media would be briefed by the Chairman of the Working Group on Complementarity and Trigger Mechanism, Adriann Bos (Netherlands), and the Chairperson of the Working Group on Procedural Matters, Silvia A. Fernandez de Gurmendi (Argentina).

Asked for a comment on a Washington Post report that a resumption of Angola's civil war was imminent, the Associate Spokesman said he would not add to what he had earlier attributed to the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Mr. Beye, and to the assessment given the Security Council yesterday by Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Peace-keeping Operations (DPKO), Hedi Annabi. The Assistant Secretary-General had described the situation in Angola as tense.

In response to a question as to whether there was any follow-up to the military mission the Organization planned to send to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Brandt said that the Under-Secretary-General for Peace- keeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, had made some comments after briefing the Council on the issue last Friday, 8 August. In a subsequent briefing to the media, the President of the Security Council, Sir John Weston (United Kingdom), had also spoken of the pre-conditions for sending a mission to that country. The conditions, as Mr. Miyet had stated, included the need to reach an agreement along the line of a draft accord being discussed; the need for an endorsement of the Secretary-General's conditions; and the need to take steps to fulfil them. If the parties made progress towards those goals, the Secretary-General would submit a report with proposals on the mandate of a mission to that country.

Asked whether President Laurent-Desire Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo had responded to the Secretary-General's letter on the investigative team on human rights, Mr. Brandt said that the Secretary-General was going ahead with the mission. The team members were being briefed in Geneva and were meeting with those concerned with the matter, such as the Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the High Commissioner/Centre for Human Rights, Ralph Zacklin, and representatives of non-governmental organizations. The team would hold a press conference next week before leaving for the Democratic Republic.

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