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 press briefing by noting that there was no Security Council meeting today. All the action was in the General Assembly, he said, and Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), would provide a report on that.

The Secretary-General had this morning taken the unusual step of addressing the General Assembly, Mr. Eckhard said. It was not that such an address had not been done before, but was only done on rare occasions. It had never, however, been prior to the beginning of the general debate. In his annual report, the Secretary-General had saved the bulk of his remarks for the subject of reform. He had spelled out the objectives of his reform package, saying, "We aspire to a United Nations that can act with greater unity of purpose, coherence of effort and responsive in pursuit of peace and progress".

To Member States, he had said: "Some of you, I ask to do what your legal obligations require: to liquidate your arrears, and pay your future assessments in full, on time and without conditions".

He had further said to all Member States, "I ask you to move expeditiously to consider the package of reforms that is before you, with the aim of reaching political consensus, and providing budgetary authority before this session ends. We live in a new day and it requires a new way. Therefore, let this be the 'reform Assembly'".

The general debate had then begun, starting with Brazil, the Spokesman said, and the Secretary-General had heard from the first four speakers the kinds of endorsements he was looking for to get the debate on reform off to a good start. The Foreign Minister of Brazil, Luiz Felipe Lampreia, had "welcomed the Secretary-General's proposals for reform". President William J. Clinton of the United States had also said his "blueprint" was the "right plan for the future", and that "we should pass the Secretary-General's reform agenda this session".

Next, Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen of Denmark had also said that his country gave its full support to the reform package, while Prime Minister Sitiveni Ligamamada Rabuka of Fiji had endorsed the proposals in principle.

Mr. Eckhard said that Secretary-General was meeting with the various national leaders who had come to address the Assembly. With President Clinton, he had discussed reforms, including Security Council reform. The Secretary-General had raised the issue of benchmarks that the United States Congress had sought to impose on the United Nations for payment of arrears. The Secretary-General and President Clinton had also discussed Western Sahara, Congo-Kinshasa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Haiti and Afghanistan. With the

Foreign Minister of Brazil, he had discussed reform, and, at considerable length, Angola.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, was at Headquarters today, and would spend two weeks in New York before returning to her headquarters in Geneva, Mr. Eckhard said. This morning, she had attended the General Assembly debate, and would be there again this afternoon. She would also attend the luncheon in honour of the Heads of State and Government to be hosted by the Secretary-General, as well as the dinner at the New York Public Library, to be hosted by France.

The Spokesman noted that the Secretary-General's appointments would continue throughout the day. He was meeting with Prime Minister Rabuka of Fiji after his statement to the Assembly, and would later host a luncheon. He was also scheduled to meet with the President of Ukraine, the Foreign Ministers of Iran, Chile, Japan, and Netherlands, the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Foreign Minister of Georgia.

On Iraq, Mr. Eckhard said the United Nations Overseers had on 19 September approved one more oil contract, worth 1.8 million barrels, for a United Kingdom company. That had brought the total oil contracts approved so far to 31; the total volume was now 121.63 million barrels. No further contracts were pending at this time.

Turning to Angola, he said that there had been some comments on the newswires attributed to the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, to the effect that he feared a return to war in the country. "We checked with his office", Mr. Eckhard noted, "and he did not mean to indicate that resumption of war was imminent, merely to say that in general terms, such a possibility could not be ruled out".

As for the status of the peace process, Mr. Eckhard continued, some progress had been noted in the extension of the State administration. Since August, 53 new locations had been placed under Angolan administration, bringing the total to 70 since the beginning of the process in April. The sensitive areas, such as Negage, Bailundo, Andulo, Cuango (where there were diamond mines) and Mazinga were still to be "normalized" under the Government of Unity and National Reconciliation. More than 3,000 soldiers of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) had been registered since August, but more soldiers needed to be registered and disarmed. The Spokesman noted that Radio Vorgan had stopped broadcasting hostile propaganda and the Government was in the process of allocating frequencies to the Radio, but a lot more needed to be done to complete the peace process.

Concerning Congo-Brazzaville, Mr. Eckhard stated that the situation had deteriorated over the weekend, with heavy rocket shelling and arms fire breaking out. Three helicopters were used in attacks on the area of

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 22 September 1997

Brazzaville in which Denis Sassou N'guesso, the former President, resides. There had been weapons reportedly going into the city, and there was a possibility that the conflict could spread across the river, and, in fact, more widely in the region. Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun, the United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative to the Great Lakes Region, who had been focusing his attention on Congo-Brazzaville, was in New York today, and would brief correspondents as soon as he had reported to the Secretary-General, and probably the Security Council.

There was a press release from the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), which said that in line with the agreement reached on 15 September, the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities would meet to discuss security matters this Friday, 26 September, at 1700 hours at the residence of the Chief of Mission, Gustave Feissel. They would meet without preconditions and without an agenda. The two leaders would meet alone in the presence of Mr. Feissel. In the meantime, they had both agreed to refrain from making any public statements about the scope and possible content of their discussions.

Mr. Eckhard noted that his office had put out a notice to correspondents late on Friday concerning Georgia, where there had been a hostage incident in which two military observers and a locally hired interpreter had been seized. One of the military observers was released to take a ransom demand back to United Nations headquarters. The mission had then negotiated with the hostage-takers, despite the Organization's very strict policy not to negotiate on ransom, and not to pay ransom. A ransom was, however, paid, and the hostages were released. The Chief Military Observer of the Mission was then asked to come to New York and provide a full report. He had arrived over the weekend, and was in the building today.

Announcing press conferences, the Spokesman said that Prince Sisowath Sirirath, Permanent Representative of Cambodia, would speak to correspondents at 3 p.m. on the decision of the Credentials Committee concerning Cambodia. At 5 p.m., Hiroshi Hashimoto, Spokesman for the Foreign Minister of Japan, would also address correspondents on the subject of bilateral meetings between Japan and Germany, and Japan and the European Union.

Tomorrow morning at 10 a.m., Italian Parliamentary observers to the fifty-second session would meet with the press, as would Robin Cook, Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom, at 12:30 p.m. At 2 p.m. Mr. Hashimoto would return, on the subject of bilateral meetings between the United States and Japan. At 3:30 p.m., Jose Maria Figueres-Olsen, President of Costa Rica, would also meet with the press.

Mr. Eckhard was asked to elaborate on the ransom situation in Georgia, to which he answered that the original ransom request was for $50,000, but $7,000, had been paid to obtain the release of the staff. "As far as we know, it was a criminal act, rather than a political one, and one of the reasons the

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 22 September 1997

Chief Military Observer is here is for us to determine who did what and who took the decisions."

Answering another question, he said that the Human Rights Verification Team in Congo-Kinshasa was "sitting tight", and continuing to negotiate with the Government to get the first field trip under way. Asked how long the waiting might be, he said that would be the Secretary-General's call; for now, he was content to allow them to attempt to carry out their mission. There had been no fresh meetings with representatives of the Government.

Back to the hostage incident in Georgia, a correspondent asked for a timeline. Everything seemed to have happened in the afternoon of 16 September, the Spokesman said, in the Zugdidi sector, and the hostage-takers had been described only as "unknown elements".

Asked what had happened to a plan last week for a press conference of the Latin American presidents, Mr. Eckhard said he would have to ask. "We are just the booking agents, if they say they want to talk to you and they change their minds, we don't ask them why."

The Spokesman was then asked if the Secretary-General was satisfied with what President Clinton had said, that the "bulk" of the arrears owed the Organization would be paid. In addition, what had been the nature of the discussion with the Secretary-General on benchmarks? Mr. Eckhard said he could give no more information on the subject of benchmarks. On arrears, the Secretary-General's position, as a matter of principle, was that every Member State needed to pay in full and on time. "We would hope that, starting next January, they would start paying on time."

Since January, when the Secretary-General had first visited Washington, the Spokesman added, it had been clear that the negotiations between the administration and Congress were not going to yield a billion and a half dollars. As for the "900-plus" million that was in the draft legislation, the Secretary-General had said that was a good first step, and that continued to be his position.

A correspondent asked Mr. Eckhard to comment on the decision of the League of Arab States to allow Libya's Colonel Muammar Al-Qadhafi to land planes in their countries. He said that the Secretary-General was waiting for the Security Council to respond to that decision.

Was the Security Council going to respond? Said Mr. Eckhard, "I don't know. Officially I don't speak for them".

On Mr. Sahnoun's proposed press briefing, he said it would depend on when the Special Representative got on the Secretary-General's programme, which would probably be Wednesday or Thursday.

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 22 September 1997

A correspondent, pointing out that the sanctions against UNITA would go into effect on 30 September if nothing had changed, asked when the Secretary- General would report to the Security Council to let them know that UNITA had not fulfilled their obligations. The Spokesman said he did not know, but that it was likely to be "close to the end of the month".

Asked if the deferral of the decision on Cambodia by the Credentials Committee was for the period of the General Assembly session, or a "one or two-day delay", Mr. Eckhard passed the question to Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the Assembly President. It was a deferral, answered Mr. Taukatch, pointing out that the Committee had suspended its first meeting, and deferred consideration of the matter, "period".

Further asked who would speak for Cambodia next week, Mr. Taukatch said that the seat would remain vacant. He explained that there had been a general agreement in the Committee that any decision on the issue at this stage would not facilitate the process of reconciliation in the country. "For all intents and purposes, the seat will remain empty".

Pressed further, he said that Cambodia was not expected to address the Assembly at this point. Asked if either Norodom Ranariddh or Hun Sen could speak, without having first taken Cambodia's seat, Mr. Taukatch reminded the correspondent that their exchange was in hypothetical terms. As long as the Credentials Committee had not reported to the General Assembly and the Assembly had not taken any action on the issue, the seat remained vacant.

Another correspondent wanted to know if the rule on credentials was not that whoever controlled the Government determined who represented it. The Spokesman for the Assembly President said that the rule in the General Assembly was that credentials had to be signed by the Head of State or Government, or the Foreign Minister. The current situation -- dating back to the fifty-first session of the General Assembly and arrangements made through negotiations conducted by the previous President of the General Assembly -- was for the seat to remain vacant until the Assembly had resolved the issue.

Mr. Eckhard was asked if the qualification for the use of room 226 was not by a delegation recognized by the United Nations. Since Prince Sirirath was addressing a press conference today, did that confer such recognition on him? When there was a seat in dispute, Mr. Eckhard explained, the United Nations could either say no to everyone, or yes to everyone. "For the purposes of conveying information to you, yes to everyone is the better decision, and that is our policy for the use of room 226."

Handing the briefing to Mr. Taukatch, spokesman for the Assembly President, Mr. Eckhard reminded correspondents of the launch, today in the Visitors Lobby, of the book Pilgrimage for Peace, by former Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, from 4:15 p.m. to 6 p.m.

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Mr. Taukatch told correspondents that the President of the General Assembly had begun his day today with a meeting that had special meaning for him as he greeted the President of Ukraine, his country, coming into the building. Later on, he had met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Brazil, and they discussed a range of issues regarding the work of the session. Responding to the question of why Brazil speaks first at the opening of the general debate, the spokesman explained that the host country used to speak first in the general debate until the tenth session of the General Assembly when it had requested to go second. When they tried to find someone who would be the first speaker, nobody volunteered, but eventually Brazil stepped forward, and since then, had traditionally opened the general debate.

Mr. Udovenko had also this morning met with President Clinton, Mr. Taukatch said, and they discussed, among other issues, United Nations reform. The President of the General Assembly had reiterated his view that reform of the United Nations was one of the crucial issues of the fifty-second session, and expressed his determination to move the process along as speedily as possible. They had also discussed the Security Council, the financial situation of the Organization, the work of the session and the Middle East.

Mr. Taukatch said the Assembly President would also meet today with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, attend the luncheon in honour of Heads of State and Government, as well as the book launching ceremony for former Secretary-General Perez de Cuellar at about 4:30 p.m. He would thereafter meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

Picking up a question asked last Friday about the number of agenda items for the fifty-second session, the Spokesman for the President of the Assembly said that there were 158, compared to 168 for the previous session. The item on the reform proposed by the Secretary-General had been the last item to be added to the list in the previous session, he added.

On the work of the Main Committees, he said that the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), Second Committee (Economic and Financial) and Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) would begin substantive work on 13 October. The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) was expected to start its work on 6 October, and the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on 30 September. The Sixth Committee (Legal) was expected to meet today to determine its programme of work.

Asked if there had been any indication that anyone would challenge for Afghanistan's seat, he said he knew of no new developments on that front.

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