PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's press briefing by telling correspondents that the Secretary-General's appointments schedule included five Presidents or Prime Ministers, and a dozen Ministers, mostly of Foreign Affairs.

The Security Council would not meet today, he said. Tomorrow, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., it would hold a ministerial-level meeting on "The situation in Africa". Madeleine Albright, the United States Secretary of State, would chair the meeting; President Robert Mugabe, current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), would be the first speaker. A presidential statement was expected to be issued at the end of the meeting.

In the coming days, into next week, the Spokesman continued, the Council was expected to hear from Mohamed Sahnoun, the United Nations/OAU Special Representative to the Great Lakes Region, on the subject of Congo-Brazzaville. It was also expected to hear from James Baker III, the Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General for Western Sahara; Enrique Ter Horst, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Haiti; and Lakhdar Brahimi, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan. Specific times for those meetings were not yet available because the schedule had yet to be firmed up, but they were all expected to happen between now and next Tuesday.

Recalling that he had mentioned yesterday that today was the first anniversary of the opening for signature at the United Nations of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), Mr. Eckhard informed correspondents that the Centre for Disarmament Affairs of the Department of Political Affairs had prepared a backgrounder for them on the Treaty. The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Moldova had just this morning signed the Treaty, he added, bringing the number of signatories to 147, with seven ratifications.

He drew correspondents' attention to the latest report of Amnesty International on Rwanda, which estimates that some 6,000 people had been killed this year. According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, the report was in line with reports that the Human Rights Field Office in Kigali had been issuing. In May and June, for example, the Kigali Office had reported that in Ruhengeri Prefecture 2,022 people had been killed. The Office of the High Commissioner fully shared Amnesty International's concern about the fate of refugees returned to prefectures in the east of the country.

Mr. Eckhard announced that the Chief Military Observer in the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), Major-General Harun Ar-Rashid, was today leaving New York, returning to his mission, having completed his consultations here. He had provided a full report on the hostage-taking

incident earlier reported to the media. There had also been discussions of ways to improve security for United Nations peacekeeping personnel in Georgia.

Turning to Angola, Mr. Eckhard said that there had been a "back-and- forth" between the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) and a Portuguese newspaper, over allegations that the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) had sentenced 56 missionaries to death on spying charges. He stressed that the United Nations continued to deny the report, noting that the newspaper report was based on an internal document which had been sent by a United Nations regional police chief to the Luanda headquarters, but had merely contained allegations. A subsequent United Nations mission to the area had not upheld the allegations.

Meanwhile, he continued, the Special Representative of the Secretary- General, Alioune Blondin Beye, had this morning met with Jonas Savimbi, the UNITA leader, and was scheduled to meet with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos this afternoon. A read-out on those meetings was expected later this afternoon.

The Spokesman said that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had today announced that the world fishery production in 1996 had increased slightly, to 115.9 million tons, up from 113 million tons in 1995. The increase was reflected in Chinese production, as China continued to be the world's major producer, with a catch of 27.3 million tons, more than 50 per cent of which comes from the expanding inland aquaculture industry. The FAO release was available in the Spokesman's Office.

The World Chronicle television programme would today air an interview with the Permanent Representative of Pakistan, Ambassador Ahmad Kamal, at 2:30 p.m. on in-house channel 6 or 38, Mr. Eckhard said.

On press conferences, the Spokesman announced that at 12:45 p.m., Hiroshi Hashimoto, spokesman for the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, would discuss the Minister's speech to the Assembly and bilateral meetings with the Russian Federation, Republic of Korea and the Association of South- East Asian Nations (ASEAN). In another press conference at 6:15 p.m., Mr. Hashimoto would speak on the Foreign Minister's bilateral meeting with China.

Tomorrow's press conferences would feature: Lamberto Dini, the Foreign Minister of Italy, at 10 a.m.; Jacques Poos, the Vice-President and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Luxembourg, in his capacity as President of the Council of Ministers of the European Union, at 10:30 a.m.; and Percival James Patterson, Prime Minister of Jamaica and Chairman of the Council of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), at 11:15 a.m.

Mr. Eckhard was asked about any disciplinary measures that may have been taken against the Chief Military Observer of UNOMIG for paying a ransom to the kidnappers. He said that the policy of not paying ransom or negotiating with kidnappers had been reaffirmed to him. In hearing his complete account of the

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 24 September 1997

incident, however, it was felt there were mitigating circumstances. The Spokesman explained that the purpose of the visit of the Chief Military Observer had really been to provide first-hand the exact circumstances under which the ransom had been paid.

Asked if a "bad precedent" had not therefore been created, the Spokesman said the Organization was very concerned about that, which was why the Chief Military Observer had been invited to Headquarters. "There may, or may not, always be mitigating circumstances", he said, adding that "in this case, they were considered substantial enough that no further action was taken against him".

A correspondent, on the subject of yesterday's violence in Algeria, in which 85 civilians were killed, stated that there were now "direct calls" emanating from various personalities in France to the United Nations, "and specifically to the Secretary-General", to take action on the situation in Algeria. Had the Secretary-General any reaction to those appeals, or had there been any contact with the people who were making them? Mr. Eckhard said he was not aware of any such developments, and that he had nothing fresh beyond what was said yesterday.

Concerning Cambodia, a correspondent asked if the Secretary-General would be meeting with Mr. Hun Sen, who was "understood" to have been asking for a meeting, but the Spokesman replied that Mr. Hun Sen had cancelled his plans to come to New York.

On whether the upcoming Security Council ministerial meeting on "The situation in Africa" would be closed to the press, Mr. Eckhard said it would be a formal meeting and would be open: "television, audio, visitors' gallery".

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said that the President had continued with his very busy schedule, which included numerous meetings with Member States attending the session. And in line with the general trend so far in the session, the issue of United Nations reform was one of the key items during his discussions.

That was certainly true this morning when the President had a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Italy, he said. Their discussion had centred on reform of the United Nations, reform proposals regarding enlargement of the Security Council, and the financial situation of the Organization. Those issues were expected to come up in the other meetings the President would be holding throughout today.

Mr. Udovenko was scheduled to meet with the Foreign Minister of Bahrain at 12:25 p.m., and the Foreign Minister of France, at about 12:40 p.m. At 1:15 p.m., he would host a working lunch with the Chairmen and Secretaries of the Main Committees, and they would discuss issues related to the programmes of work of those Committees.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 24 September 1997

In the afternoon, continued Mr. Taukatch, the President of the General Assembly would meet with the Foreign Minister of Slovak Republic; the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference; the Minister of State of Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom; and the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Coming back to the theme of reform, Mr. Taukatch read out the following statement, attributable to the spokesman for the President of the General Assembly: "The President of the General Assembly has asked the Ambassadors of Brazil and Norway to act as his 'Friends' in approaching different regional groups and delegations to discuss the best possible mechanism for the consideration, at the fifty-second session of the General Assembly, of the reform package proposed by Secretary-General Kofi Annan." The President of the Assembly would continue to be actively involved in that process, Mr. Taukatch said.

With regard to the question of various credentials, Mr. Taukatch said he expected to have some additional information shortly.

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