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 informing correspondents that the talks on Cyprus held in Glion, Switzerland, had ended, and afterwards the Secretary-General's Special Adviser, Diego Cordovez, had held a press conference at 4:30 p.m. Geneva time. The audio of this was transmitted "live" to the United Nations through the International Broadcasting Centre for relay at 12:30 p.m. (The press conference could be heard on telephone line 058 on the old MX system and channel 6 on the new one.)

Mr. Brandt said the Secretary-General's latest report on the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) had been released. In it, the Secretary-General indicated his intention to further postpone the withdrawal of MONUA's military units from Angola and to retain up to 2,650 military personnel until the end of October. He was taking that step to give the Angolan parties an additional chance to complete the peace process, which was experiencing some of the most serious difficulties since the signing of the Lusaka Protocol. The Secretary-General added that the complete demilitarization of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the restoration of State administration throughout the country and the transformation of UNITA into a political party were imperatives for the implementation of the peace process. Mr. Brandt cited the Secretary-General as stating in the report that, further, last minute, half-hearted concessions by UNITA, under pressure and on the eve of Security Council deliberations were no longer acceptable. Advanced copies of the report were available from the Spokesman's office.

Still on Angola, the Associate Spokesman said, the Secretary-General's Special Representative to Angola, Alioune Blondine Beye, and the Troika countries (Portugal, Russian Federation and the United States) had issued a communique yesterday on their reaction to the latest information and proposals provided by UNITA on the three key aspects of the peace process. Copies of the communique could be obtained from his office, he said.

Turning to the Security Council, Mr. Brandt said that it would not meet either today or Monday, 18 August. It was expected to meet on Tuesday to hear a briefing on Sierra Leone by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Berhanu Dinka, and to take up the Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP). Further, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, Mr. Cordovez, was expected to brief the Council possibly next Wednesday, on the latest round of talks.

Briefing notes from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), relaying the High Commissioner's deep concern that the situation for refugees in the Great Lakes was steadily worsening and that the principles of asylum were becoming increasingly difficult to uphold, were available from his

office, the Associate Spokesman announced. As a result, he added from the notes, the High Commissioner, Sadako Ogata, had been taking urgent steps to try to address what she had described as "a crisis of protection" in Africa. In the past few days, she had been talking to the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Salim Ahmed Salim, and to Secretary- General Kofi Annan with a view to arranging a meeting within the next month or so to discuss Africa's current refugee crisis. Both men shared her concern, Mr. Brandt cited the press release as stating, adding that the meeting would be convened by the OAU. Dates for the meeting were not yet available.

The Associate Spokesman then cited the UNHCR's notes on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It stated that, with summer in full swing, increasing numbers of Bosnians were returning home. Some 158,000 refugees and about 160,000 internally displaced people had done so since the signing of the Dayton accords. Of those, 27,000 people had returned to minority areas. The UNHCR was concerned about those who had been asked to leave their European host countries, but were unable to return to their home areas.

Mr. Brandt informed correspondents of the contents of a press release from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, in The Hague. According to the document, the Prosecutor, Louise Arbour, was informed yesterday afternoon by the United Nations Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) of a letter circulated in the UNTAES region which had purportedly been issued from the Prosecutor and the Registrar to the United Nations Civilian Police Commissioner in Vukovar. The letter included a request for information on 178 individuals described as being the subject of criminal proceedings within the Tribunal. The Prosecutor had emphasized that the letter was a fabrication that deserved absolutely no credence. She would immediately initiate an investigation to identify the letter's source and take appropriate steps regarding the perpetrators of the fraud.

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 two more oil contracts this morning, bringing the total number to 18. The seventeenth contract involved 5.5 million barrels of oil and the eighteenth, 1 million barrels. Both contracts were with Russian companies and the total volume of exports approved had reached 90.02 million barrels.

The World Food Programme (WFP) had today warned that tens of thousands of Burundians living in camps inside the country lacked access to sufficient food supplies to stave off malnutrition and life-threatening diseases, Mr. Brandt said. The WFP assessment teams had found that many of the camps' residents were consuming only 1,200 kilocalories a day, almost 40 per cent less than the recommended United Nations minimum food ration of 1,900 kilocalories. The WFP had doubled its food aid assistance for the next five months. Given the deteriorating situation, and since the next major harvest

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 15 August 1997

was not due until December, the WFP would also begin managing the food pipeline for all feeding programmes on behalf of the humanitarian community to ensure that adequate amounts of foods were reaching the most needy. More on this was contained in a press release issued today by WFP which was available on the third floor.

The next round of talks on East Timor, the Associate Spokesman said, would take place at Headquarters on 1 October. The talks, between Portugal and Indonesia, would be held for three or four days at the working level, involving senior officials, and would be chaired by the Secretary-General's Personal Representative, Jamsheed Marker.

Asked for any word on the assignment of the Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, the Associate Spokesman said the Envoy had started his mission to country to provide fresh impetus to the work done by the Head of the United Nations Special Mission there, Norbert Heinrich Holl. He would assess the situation in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries with a view to providing the Secretary-General with a full picture on the situation.

Pressed to say whether the Envoy was going also to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, Mr. Brandt said Mr. Brahimi would visit all parties and neighbouring countries in order to have the widest possible assessment of the situation.

In response to a question as to whether there had been a recent tête-à-tête between the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, and UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, the Associate Spokesman said he could not recall any being held recently, but since Mr. Beye had open access to both Dr. Savimbi and the Angolan President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, he could meet with any of them whenever he needed to.

Reminded that Mr. Beye had complained in the past of a lack of access to Dr. Savimbi, the Associate Spokesman said: "That was then, this is now".

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