DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

At the start of today's noon briefing, Juan Carlos Brandt, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, welcomed the Director of the Centre for Disarmament Affairs, Prvoslav Davinic, who had come to the briefing to talk about the issue of land-mines.

On the Security Council's agenda, Mr. Brandt said that the Assistant Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations, Hedi Annabi, had briefed the Council this morning on the Secretary-General's report on Liberia (S/1997/643). In that report, the Secretary-General had recommended the establishment of a peace-building support office to succeed the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) at the end of that Mission's mandate on 30 September.

The Secretary-General's Special Adviser for Cyprus, Diego Cordovez, was briefing the Council at the time of the noon briefing, on the recently concluded talks on Cyprus, Mr. Brandt said. He added that he had not been able to ascertain if Mr. Cordovez would talk to correspondents after his briefing to the Council. He invited correspondents to "tune-in" for any developments on this.

Tomorrow, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, would brief the Council on the most recent developments in Burundi, the Associate Spokesman said. In addition, Mr. Annabi would brief the Council on the latest developments in Angola.

As previously announced, the report by the Secretary-General stated that he intended to postpone the withdrawal of the United Nations military units from Angola and to retain up to 2,650 military personnel in the country until the end of October. Mr. Annabi would brief the Council on the verification of information provided by the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), on the transformation of the radio station -- Radio Vorgan -- into a non-partisan radio and on the normalization of the State administration.

Mr. Brandt then read out a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General (issued as Press Release SG/SM/6305):

"The Secretary-General views with deep concern the recent outbreak of fighting in the north-west of Cambodia. He strongly urges all parties involved to end their hostilities and desist from all actions that would cause a further deterioration of the situation. The Secretary-General again underscores the need for all Cambodian parties to begin to work towards creating a political climate conducive to the holding of genuinely free and fair elections in May 1998, in an atmosphere free from intimidation.

"The Secretary-General expresses his sympathy for the plight of some 20,000 Cambodians who have been driven from their homes by the fighting. He commends the Thai Government for granting sanctuary to the refugees and calls upon Thailand to extend hospitality to them for as long as required in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees."

The Associate Spokesman went on to say that information from United the Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the Cambodian refugees remained the same as yesterday. However, there was one change -- the rations of rice and fish that were to be provided to the refugees today would be provided tomorrow. Those rations would follow what was given to the refugees yesterday.

A press release of a statement by the head of the investigative team for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Atsu-Koffi Amega, which was issued in Geneva today, was available in the Spokesman's Office, in French and English. In that statement, Mr. Amega indicated that the preparatory and conceptual work that the members of the team were conducting in Geneva was concluding and the team was due to travel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 23 August.

According to the press release, Mr. Amega said that the Secretary- General had been able to identify an initial amount of $2.1 million from the United Nations regular budget to cover the mission's immediate needs. In order to collect additional funds, initial contacts had been made with donor countries. Moreover, this morning, the Officer-in-Charge, High Commissioner for Human Rights Commissioner/Centre for Human Rights, Ralph Zacklin, had sent a letter to Member States asking them to do everything possible to aid the team to fulfil its mandate successfully.

Mr. Brandt quoted the press release further:

"We owe it to the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to shed light on the tragic events that have occurred there. The prosperity of the Congolese nation and the future of the observance of human rights depend on it. We acknowledge with satisfaction the multiple expressions of cooperation from the authorities of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and count on a continuation of these positive arrangements. This will undoubtedly allow the team to advance the causes of justice, peace and stability, not only in that country but throughout the region and the world."

The full transcript of Mr. Amega's press conference would be sent from Geneva later today and would be available to correspondents, Mr. Brandt said.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 20 August 1997

Turning to the Republic of the Congo, the Associate Spokesman said that since the beginning of the fighting there, between 10,000 and 20,000 Congolese refugees had crossed the river from Brazzaville to Kinshasa. Most of them were in poor condition and were staying with families and friends. Some 3,500 had been registered at Kinkole, a refugee site outside Kinshasa where refugees were arriving daily.

Mr. Brandt then announced that Under-Secretary-General Yasushi Akashi, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, was leaving on a mission to the Great Lakes region and was expected to return to Headquarters on 30 August. He would first visit Kenya, where he would meet personnel in agencies dealing with Somalia and southern Sudan. He would then travel to Burundi and Rwanda. Mr. Akashi would meet with government representatives, humanitarian coordinators, United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations to review the humanitarian situation in the region as well as in the respective countries. He was particularly interested in the question of access to victims, coordination of humanitarian assistance and funding for humanitarian programmes.

In answer to questions received before the briefing, Mr. Brandt indicated that the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Somalia, Ismat Kittani, was in Nairobi, concluding his mission. Today, he had met with one of the Somalian leaders, Osman Ato, the Co-Chairman of the Sodere Group and with some representatives of the Somalia Women's Association. He was expected to meet with Hussein Mohammed Aidid. Mr. Kittani would leave the region tomorrow to start preparing his report for the Secretary-General on the situation in Somalia.

A press release from the United Nations Office in Sarajevo was available in the Spokesman's Office, Mr. Brandt said. It contained a statement made this morning by the United Nations Deputy Spokesman in Sarajevo, Liam McDowall, on developments concerning the main police station in Banja Luka and on the activities of the International Police Task Force (IPTF).

A correspondent asked if the investigative team going to the Democratic Republic of the Congo would go to the field when the team arrived in that country or would it only stay in Kinshasa. Mr. Brandt said he understood that the mission's terms of reference included access to all the necessary areas that the team had to visit. Although he had not seen the transcript of Mr. Amega's press conference, he was sure that such questions had been posed by correspondents in Geneva and the responses would be stated in the transcripts, which would be made available to correspondents later today.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 20 August 1997

The correspondent also asked if there had been any reaction by the United Nations to a radio broadcast of a speech made by the second Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, in which he asked the United Nations to replace its human rights monitors in that country. Mr. Brandt said that the Secretary-General's Special Representative on human rights in Cambodia, Thomas Hammarberg, was aware of the statement in which Prime Minister Hun Sen had referred to the United Nations human rights field office in that country. Mr. Hammarberg was in touch with the Cambodian Government and was expected to meet with Hun Sen today or tomorrow. His report on the overall situation of human rights in the country was currently being prepared and was due to be presented to the fifty-second session of the General Assembly. Mr. Brandt added that Mr. Hammarberg worked closely with the human rights field office in Cambodia.

Asked if Mr. Hammarberg was in Cambodia, Mr. Brandt said yes.

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