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 greeting correspondents on what he called the "slowest news day of the year" -- the Security Council was not meeting, and the Secretary-General was concluding a two-week vacation. The Spokesman said the Secretary-General would be travelling to Venice today to attend the Venice Film Festival. Tomorrow, he would attend a viewing of "Footnotes to a War", a United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) film on the subject of refugees, produced in 1980 by Simone di Bagno, who had since left DPI. A hand-out on the film was available in room 378.

Mr. Eckhard said that on Sunday, 31 August, the Secretary-General would begin an official visit to Denmark, Norway and Iceland, travelling first to Copenhagen. On Monday, he would meet with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in the morning, then visit the United Nations office and staff in the afternoon. He would meet the Norwegian Ambassador to Denmark, Thorvald Stoltenberg, who succeeded Cyrus Vance as the negotiator for the United Nations in the Geneva peace talks on former Yugoslavia. He would then visit Parliament and lecture at the Danish United Nations Association.

On Tuesday, the Secretary-General's programme in Denmark would be primarily military in focus, as meetings with the Minister of Defence and the Chief of Defence were scheduled, Mr. Eckhard went on to say. The Secretary- General would address a peace-keeping seminar and visit military barracks housing the new Planning Element of the Multinational United Nations Stand-By Force High Readiness Brigade. The Brigade was a regional rapid-reaction arrangement organized by Nordic countries in support of United Nations missions authorized by the Security Council. He would have lunch with Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II, and depart for Oslo on Tuesday afternoon, 2 September. Details of the Secretary-General's programme in Norway would be made available on Tuesday. Later in the week, details of his visit to Iceland would also be made available.

Turning to yesterday's events in Brcko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Eckhard read out the following statement, available in room 378, which was attributable to the Spokesman. "The Secretary-General strongly condemns the incitement of violence in Brcko yesterday, which resulted in attacks upon United Nations civilian and police personnel by hostile crowds of Serb civilians. The Secretary-General expresses his particular concern at the assault on four United Nations staff who sustained minor injuries in the melee. He also condemns the vandalization and looting of United Nations property. The Secretary-General expresses his appreciation to Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR) for assisting in the relocation of all United Nations civilian and police personnel to secure locations in the area."

The Spokesman said the number of vehicles damaged yesterday was 90 to 100. His Office had yesterday reported damage to 30 vehicles, which referred to those that had been turned over and completely trashed. Another 60 vehicles had been damaged and might or might not be serviceable.

The third round of direct talks on Western Sahara between Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) had begun in Lisbon today, Mr. Eckhard said. James Baker III, the Secretary-General's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, was facilitating those talks, which would continue through tomorrow. Algeria and Mauritania had been invited as observers, as before. The first two rounds of talks was held in late June and late July.

The Spokesman said he had nothing new to report on the investigative mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was "sitting in Kinshasa", unable to travel outside Kinshasa because of new conditions imposed by the Government of the Congo. The Joint United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun, was in Libreville working on the Congo/Brazzaville situation, which was intensifying. He was trying to connect with Congo-Kinshasa to set up an appointment to discuss the letter that the Congolese Government sent two days ago imposing those new conditions. Until that meeting took place, there would be nothing further to say on the subject.

Mr. Eckhard said that there had been something of a political breakthrough concerning minority returns of refugees to Bosnia, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Top officials from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina agreed this week to allow the cross- ethnic return of up to 40,000 Bosniaks and Croats by the onset of winter. In a meeting called by the Office of the High Representative of the Peace Implementation Council and attended by the UNHCR, both Bosniak and Croat officials said they had identified in Central Bosnia some 10,000 uninhabited damaged houses which, with some repair, could provide shelter to some 40,000 returning refugees. Additional funds would be needed, since the UNHCR shelter programme was already overstretched and could not cover the repair of those homes. So far this year, some 70,000 people had returned from abroad to Bosnia from countries, such as Germany, Switzerland and Croatia.

Mr. Eckhard drew attention to a press release from Geneva issued today in which the Chairperson of the Human Rights Committee, Christine Chanet, had spoken out on the intention of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to withdraw from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Speaking on behalf of the Committee, Ms. Chanet reportedly said that "the very regrettable attempts of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to breach its obligations under the Covenant constitutes a further step in a process aimed at denying its population the international protection of the rights guaranteed by the Covenant". She said that such action would be "unprecedented in international human rights law, in effect, this is the first

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 29 August 1997

time since the entry into force of the Covenant on 23 March 1976 that a State has tried to renounce commitments undertaken of its own full accord". The text was available in the Spokesman's Office.

Mr. Eckhard then announced that there was also an update from yesterday on humanitarian activity in Liberia from the Humanitarian Assistance Coordination Office in Liberia.

How was the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea affecting the United Nations? a correspondent asked. "I think we've been blowing the whistle on this for months, saying that this was a major human catastrope in the making, requiring substantial international assistance", the Spokesman said. The World Food Programme (WFP) had raised significant funds, but those would cover only a portion of the people in need, those whom the WFP could effectively monitor. Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nation Children's Fund (UNICEF), and Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the WFP, had attended the noon briefing to talk about efforts by their agencies. However, the situation "is snowballing, and we will just have to see if the international response can match the need".

Asked whether there was a statement from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea explaining its withdrawal from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Mr. Eckhard said he would check with the United Nations Office in Geneva. The text of a statement on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from Geneva was later made available to correspondents.

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