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, today informed correspondents that the Security Council was in formal session on the subject of Sierra Leone. It was hearing statements before the vote, and was expected to adopt a resolution by which they would demand that the military junta in that country take immediate steps to relinquish power to make way for the restoration of the democratically elected government and the return to constitutional order. The Council resolution under consideration would decide that until that was done, oil and arms sanctions against the junta would be imposed. A committee to monitor the sanctions regime would be established, and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations and humanitarian agencies would be asked to establish appropriate arrangements to provide humanitarian assistance to the civilian population, which was not the target of the sanctions.

Mr. Eckhard added that in a letter to the Council yesterday, concerning Sierra Leone, the Secretary-General had said that "at stake is a great issue of principle, namely, that the efforts of the international community for democratic governance, grounded in the rule of law and respect for human rights, shall not be thwarted through illegal coups".

On the Secretary-General's programme today was a meeting with his Senior Management Group, sometimes described as his "cabinet", the Spokesman said. It was the second such meeting and had been linked to Vienna and Geneva by video-conferencing. They had discussed a position paper by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on eradicating poverty early in the twenty-first century, and how best to coordinate the United Nations approach to achieving that objective. They had also had preliminary discussions of the issues and priorities for 1998.

Continuing, the Spokesman said that some of the items that had come up at the meeting included a major report on Africa to be submitted to the Security Council in February; the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and a special session of the General Assembly on drugs and related objectives. The meeting had also looked at the problems of sanctions and humanitarian assistance, the issue that today's resolution on Sierra Leone had attempted to address; the need to extend common services to the whole of the United Nations system; and the implementation of reform, including extension of reform to the specialized agencies. "That will give you a little flavour of the discussion that took place this morning", Mr. Eckhard said.

He then told correspondents that today was the International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction. The theme this year was "Water: too much ... too little ... leading cause of natural disasters". Press kits, in English and in French, prepared by Department of Humanitarian Affairs, were available in the Spokesman's Office. In his message on the occasion, the Secretary-General had said that the case for international cooperation was clear in reducing the loss of life, property damage and economic and social disruptions caused by natural disasters and environmental emergencies. He had called on the international community to "pledge to intensify our work of promoting an ethos of disaster-prevention in order to build a safer world for the twenty-first century". That statement was also available in his Office.

Mr. Eckhard further told correspondents that the Security Council Committee which oversees the sanctions on Iraq would be meeting at 3:30 p.m. in Conference Room 7. The Chairman of the Committee, Ambassador António Monteiro (Portugal), would brief the press outside that conference room after the meeting. That was a "slight change" in briefing format, the Spokesman noted, for those who were interested in a read-out on the meeting.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, would attend a memorial service tomorrow for the American victims of the United Nations helicopter crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina, to be held at the Fort Meyer Memorial Chapel in Arlington, Virginia, at 2 p.m., Mr. Eckhard said. He would represent the Secretary-General and make a brief statement. Other senior United States officials were also expected to attend.

The Spokesman announced that the monthly list of troop contributors as of 30 September was available in the Spokesman's Office.

He also announced that tomorrow at 11:15 a.m., the President of Trinidad and Tobago, Arthur Napoleon Raymond Robinson, would address a press conference in room S-226. The subject would be the Defender of Democracy Award which was conferred on him by the Parliamentarians for Global Action on 4 October.

Also tomorrow, at 5:30 p.m., Mr. Eckhard said, the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) would host a discussion on the human rights situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia and Hong Kong. There would be one expert for each of those countries. Also present at the occasion would be the Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Michael Posner.

Mr. Eckhard pointed out that today at 3:30 p.m., the Secretary-General would have a meeting on Congo-Brazzaville. The Special Representative of the United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun, would be there, as would the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, and Mr. Miyet, to review the latest developments there and to discuss United Nations policy.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 8 October 1997

A correspondent asked if there was any information available on the question of the human rights investigative team to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the possibility of a United Nations envoy going there to prepare the way for the investigation to start. Mr. Eckhard said that the correspondent may have been looking at press reports of a possible United States special envoy travelling to the region. The investigative team was today meeting with the Office of Legal Affairs. They were also tentatively on the Secretary-General's programme for this afternoon, although that meeting might not happen until tomorrow. "They are debriefing us and then they will be discussing with the Secretary-General recommendations for where we go from here. Parallel to that, we understand there is a United States diplomatic effort."

Asked for his reaction to a statement in The Washington Post today by United States Senator Jesse Helms, Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, that the "death row probe" by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on summary or arbitrary executions, Bacre Waly Ndiaye, was an "absurd charade", Mr. Eckhard said that such special rapporteurs were sent out at the invitation of governments, in that case, the United States' Government. It was routine, he explained, for governments who were parties to United Nations human rights treaties to accept periodic investigations and those special rapporteurs then reported to the Commission on Human Rights, as that particular Special Rapporteur had done on the situation of the death penalty in the United States. The Rapporteur had raised with the United States authorities his concerns about possible violations, for example, in the execution of mentally retarded persons. He had also had some concerns about some racial bias, either on the part of the prosecutor or that of the judge, in a number of cases. "This is not in any way a condemnation of the United States legal system, it is merely an international monitoring process that the United States has agreed to, and that the United States has cooperated with for a number of years."

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said that the Assembly had yesterday concluded the general debate. At its conclusion, the Assembly President had shared his thoughts on the debate. Providing statistics on the participants in the debate, he stressed that the number and high level of participants was a vivid testimony to the universal character of the Organization. He had also emphasized the importance of the General Assembly as one of the main bodies of the United Nations.

The spokesman said that the Assembly President had also pointed out, on the question of reform, that it seemed that the United Nations was taking a step "from the quicksand of the doubtful to the firm grounds of the possible". He had noted that virtually every speaker had addressed the issue of reform and commented on the report of the Secretary-General, which had been one of the major themes in the debate. The President had also felt that it was fair

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 8 October 1997

to state that the efforts undertaken by the Secretary-General to reform the United Nations had obtained strong political support.

Mr. Taukatch said that to "get to the practical side", the Assembly was today beginning its consideration of agenda item 157: "United Nations reform: measures and proposals". He alerted correspondents that the event was taking place not in the General Assembly Hall, but in Conference Room 4. The Spokesman reminded correspondents that the main document related to the agenda item was A/51/950. Recalling that the press corps had had a Secretariat background briefing yesterday on the reform measures, the spokesman said it was now up to the Assembly to tackle the subject.

On a related matter, Mr. Taukatch said that the President of the Assembly had met this morning with the Ambassadors of Brazil and Norway, his "Friends" on the reform issue, whom he had asked to help him in approaching different regional groups concerning the reform package proposed by the Secretary-General. They had briefed him on their efforts to facilitate the process and to hold informal soundings on that matter.

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