DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

(Incorporates briefing by Spokesman for General Assembly President)

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, informed correspondents at the beginning of today's press briefing that the Under- Secretary-General for Management, Joseph E. Connor, had this morning briefed the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on the financial situation of the Organization. He was being expected to join the briefing to relay the same information to correspondents. (Mr. Connor's briefing is being issued separately.)

He then read the following statement:

"Gert Rosenthal, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), will leave his post at the end of 1997. A distinguished economist from Guatemala, Mr. Rosenthal has served the Organization in this capacity for the last 10 years. To succeed Mr. Rosenthal, Secretary-General Kofi Annan has designated Jose Antonio Ocampo Gaviria, a national of Colombia. Currently serving as his country's Finance Minister, Mr. Ocampo will assume duties on 1 January 1998, in Santiago, Chile.

"On behalf of the United Nations system, Secretary-General Kofi Annan wishes to express his deepest gratitude to Mr. Rosenthal for his dedication at the helm of ECLAC and for his very substantial contribution to the economic structures in Latin America and the Caribbean. Mr. Rosenthal's commitment and professionalism is yet another example of how individuals can make a difference." The text of that statement was available in the Spokesman's Office, Mr. Eckhard said.

The Security Council was not meeting today, he continued. In consultations yesterday, it was understood that they had discussed sanctions against the illegal regime in Sierra Leone; the text of a draft resolution was now being circulated. It was also understood that at the monthly luncheon with the Secretary-General, which was scheduled for 7 October, the sole item on the agenda would be United Nations reform.

Concerning the subject of reform, the Spokesman noted that the general debate was expected to conclude on Tuesday, 7 October. The first item on the agenda for the following day, 8 October, would be the Secretary-General's reform package. A background briefing on that subject was being arranged for correspondents on Tuesday, tentatively at 3 p.m., to review progress on the three categories of the Secretary-General's recommendations. Those categories, he recalled, were: those the Secretary-General could implement on his own, those for which he needed the approval of the General Assembly, and those which Member States must do on their own.

Mr. Eckhard then drew the attention of correspondents to the humanitarian situation report for Sierra Leone from the Humanitarian Coordinator in Conakry, Guinea, available in the Spokesman's Office.

The Secretary-General had today addressed the ministerial meeting on Liberia, he said. Opening the meeting, he had urged the international community "to demonstrate the same spirit of cooperation, generosity and goodwill in addressing the challenges of post-election Liberia as they did in helping to ensure the success of the peace process itself". In the statement, the Secretary-General had also indicated his intention to have a United Nations peace-building support office established in that country and fully operational within the next few weeks. The head of that office would be the focal point for United Nations post-conflict peace-building activity in Liberia and would have overall responsibility for harmonizing the efforts of the United Nations system in that country. The text of the Secretary- General's statement was also available in the Spokesman's Office.

Returning to a subject he had addressed at yesterday's briefing, the helicopter crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Eckhard said that the United Nations had asked the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to conduct an independent investigation into the causes of the Mi8T helicopter crash. That request was being conveyed today, an additional investigation intended to supplement the one being conducted by Ukraine, the country of origin of the aircraft. It was standard procedure for the country of origin and the country of an incident both to cooperate in an investigation. In the current case, however, Bosnia and Herzegovina lacked the technical skills to conduct the investigation, and would therefore receive help from the Stabilization Force (SFOR) and the United Nations, and now ICAO as well.

The Conference of the States Parties to the Convention on Desertification was currently meeting in Rome, the Spokesman continued. An item on their agenda which had been of long-standing interest was where they would locate their secretariat. Montreal (Canada), Mursia (Spain), and Bonn (Germany) had been competing for it, but this afternoon the parties to the Convention adopted by consensus Bonn, where there was already the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A background press release on the subject was also available in the Spokesman's Office.

Also available was a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) press release, announcing a new website for school teachers, he said.

Mr. Eckhard also stated that Cameroon (over $200,000) and Lebanon ($100,000), had today become the ninetieth and ninety-first Member States to pay their regular budget assessments for the current year in full. The United Kingdom had also made partial payment of over $13 million to the peacekeeping budget. To date, the outstanding contributions to the United Nations were just over $2.4 billion. Of that figure, $600 million was for the regular budget, and approximately $1.8 billion for the peacekeeping budget. An updated honour roll was also available in the Spokesman's Office.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 3 October 1997

The Spokesman then announced that a note of the Secretary-General, with an annex of the Office of Internal Oversight Services into alleged conflict of interest within the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), was now available on the racks. He further reminded correspondents that Monday, 6 October, was World Habitat Day; there would be a series of panel discussions in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium focusing on the theme "Future Cities". Details were available from Bill Hass at extension 3-0353; a couple of press releases on Habitat were also available in the Spokesman's Office.

He said that also available in his office was today's press briefing of the United Nations Information Service at Geneva, which mentioned, among other things, that two members of the working group on arbitrary detentions would be visiting the People's Republic of China, at the invitation of the Chinese Government, from 6 to 16 October. They would meet with various authorities and would look into the implementation of the revised criminal procedure law.

Mr. Eckhard announced that the Secretary-General's investigative team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was leaving that country today. They were now expected to arrive in New York late Monday. Before their departure, they had issued a statement, which was now also available in the Spokesman's Office.

Concerning the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the United Republic of Tanzania, he said that a press release was also available. It states that the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals, Justice Louise Arbour, was conducting the Second Workshop on Crimes of Sexual Violence, in Arusha, from 4 to 6 October.

The Spokesman also announced that on 17 October, in the Economic and Social Council Chamber, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would be sponsoring an event to observe the International Day to Eradicate Poverty. The Secretary-General and the Executive Director of UNDP, James Gustave Speth, would be participating. Actor Danny Glover would host the event, and the keynote speech would be by Nobel Laureate for Literature, Nadine Gordimer. Also appearing would be comedian Dick Gregory, jazz musician Jonathan Butler and four individuals from different parts of the world who would be presented with an award by the Secretary-General for their efforts to fight poverty in their communities.

Mr. Eckhard then read the following UNHCR statement:

"The Interior Ministry of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has ordered all agencies dealing with refugees to leave the Goma area with immediate effect. We regret this decision, but our colleagues are preparing to leave. The same instruction from the Ministry of the Interior also ordered the local authorities to close the border between North Kivu and Rwanda. It instructed them to expel any Rwandan refugees who have entered the area. We are deeply concerned about the implications this announcement will have for

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 3 October 1997

Rwandan refugees who have begun crossing the border again in recent days to avoid renewed fighting in Western Rwanda."

Asked to comment on a statement by the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo yesterday, concerning "some sort of agreement" by which his country had sent troops to Brazzaville, Mr. Eckhard replied that word was being awaited from the Special Representative of the United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the Great Lakes region, Mohamed Sahnoun. He was monitoring the situation from Geneva and would be in New York on Monday. At this time, the Spokesman had no comments.

To a question on the UNHCR statement on Rwandan refugees which he had just read, he said he did not know how many people were being expelled from Goma.

Also asked if the Secretary-General had taken any action on the "fairly damning report" issued by the Oversight Office on Habitat earlier in the year, the Spokesman said he had no additional information to what he had stated before.

A correspondent sought additional details concerning the visit of two members of the working group on arbitrary detentions to the People's Republic of China. Mr. Eckhard said he had no comment, and referred him to the press briefing which had come from the United Nations Information Service in Geneva.

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said that the Assembly today would complete the second week of the general debate, having heard a total of 76 speakers, including three heads of State, three Prime Ministers and six Deputy Prime Ministers.

The President of the General Assembly had today announced the tentative programme of work and schedule of plenary meetings for the rest of October. For details of the programme of work for October, Mr. Taukatch referred correspondents to document A/INF/52/3. On 8 October, the day after the conclusion of the general debate, the Assembly would take up agenda item 157 proposed by the Secretary-General: "United Nations reform: measures and proposals".

Mr. Taukatch noted that over the past weeks the President had held "intensive and extensive" discussions regarding that item. The spokesman drew correspondents' attention to the fact that yesterday Mr. Udovenko had met with the Permanent Representatives of Brazil and Norway, who, Mr. Taukatch recalled, the President of the General Assembly had asked to act as his "Friends" in approaching regional groups and delegations about the reform package proposed by the Secretary-General. Mr. Udovenko requested the Permanent Representatives to continue with their efforts to facilitate the process and to hold informal soundings for this purpose.

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 3 October 1997

The Assembly spokesman drew the attention of correspondents to another meeting, that had also taken place yesterday, between the President of the General Assembly and his counterpart of the Security Council, Juan Somavia (Chile). They had discussed the programme of work of the two bodies, and the President of the Assembly received information about the work of the Council. The Assembly President felt that the meeting had been very productive and he was planning to hold similar consultations in the future.

At 9:30 a.m. today, Mr. Udovenko had also met with the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly to discuss the programme of work. The President had informed the Vice-Presidents about the planned consideration by the General Assembly of the agenda item on the reform of the United Nations.

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