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 Secretary-General was drafting a report to the Security Council on Congo-Brazzaville. It was expected to be completed today. The situation in that country continued to evolve rapidly, he said, and there had been reports that Brazzaville and the major port of Point Noire had fallen to the forces of the former President, General Denis Sassou Nguesso. He added that it was a confused situation, but "we are monitoring it as best as we can". Contingency planning for a peacekeeping force would continue, while waiting to see how the Security Council reacted to the latest news from the region.

The text of the Secretary-General's remarks outside the Security Council last night, following the Council's meeting on the situation in Congo- Brazzaville, were available in the Spokesman's Office, Mr. Eckhard said. Meanwhile, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was taking care of the refugees from Congo-Brazzaville who were coming across the river into Kinshasa. There had been 198 new arrivals yesterday, bringing to some 33,000 the numbers that had fled Congo-Brazzaville to Congo- Kinshasa since June.

Mr. Eckhard then read the following statement, attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

"The Secretary-General is appalled by the news of the bomb attack in Colombo, Sri Lanka, this morning and the resulting loss of life and destruction of property.

"The Secretary-General strongly condemns this terrorist attack, which targeted civilian facilities. He extends his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims." (See today's Press Release SG/SM/6358.)

The Spokesman said that the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Denis Halliday, was visiting northern Iraq today, his first visit to the three northern governorates. The main purpose was to obtain first-hand information on the status of the implementation of the "oil-for-food" programme in the north, as well as to urge the Kurdish factions in the area to facilitate the free flow of humanitarian assistance. He would also press the Kurdish factions for a ceasefire to allow the World Health Organization (WHO) to carry out a polio vaccination campaign from 18 to 20 October in the three governorates, and ask them to assist the United Nations in supporting

internally displaced persons. Mr. Halliday was expected to return to Baghdad on 21 October.

Concerning Sierra Leone, Mr. Eckhard said that the Security Council Committee that was established pursuant to resolution 1132 (Sierra Leone Sanctions Committee) would hold its first meeting this afternoon in Conference Room 7. It was expected to elect its bureau, with Sweden as Chairman, and Costa Rica and Kenya as Vice-Chairmen.

The Secretary-General had this morning at 10 a.m. met with his Senior Management Group, an exercise which would now take place weekly. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, had joined the meeting by teleconference facilities from Geneva.

The Spokesman announced that the demining responsibilities of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs had been transferred to the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, as part of the restructuring under the reform measures that the Secretary-General could undertake on his own authority. Similarly, the Iraq Programme, as of today, was no longer under the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, having become a special unit.

Concerning the General Assembly's consideration of the Secretary- General's proposals on reform, Mr. Eckhard told correspondents that the Secretariat had prepared a conference paper on disarmament, available to them in room S-378.

He also announced that the Government of Japan had informed the Department of Humanitarian Affairs of their decision to give $27 million for the aid activities of the World Food Programme (WFP), within the framework of the Consolidated Inter-Agency Appeal, for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. The WFP was now reporting that a substantial amount of food aid was getting into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea just as the fall harvest was beginning. The WFP was sounding a bit more optimistic that massive famine had been averted for this year.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) had issued a press release, also available in room S-378, in which it welcomed a grant of $5 million from the United States Agency for International Development to assist the children of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Mr. Eckhard also announced a situation report from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs on severe drought linked to the El Niño weather pattern and fires in Indonesia. The Department had sent a United Nations assessment and coordination team, and was prepared to serve as a channel for contributions during the immediate relief phase.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 15 October 1997

Concerning the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty on 17 October, the Spokesman told correspondents that the Secretary-General's message would be available on the racks this afternoon. He also pointed out that this month's edition of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) CHOICES magazine had focused on women and poverty. It was available at the documents counter.

A correspondent asked Mr. Eckhard if, given the fast pace of events on the ground in Congo-Brazzaville, the United Nations still thought that a peacekeeping force was a good idea. He replied that the United Nations clearly had no role if fighting either intensified, and there was no peace to keep, or if one side vanquished the other. In the latter case, it would not be a question of peacekeeping, but a political question of the legitimacy of the new authorities in power.

He was then asked if that would not be sending a message to combatants around the world to keep fighting, since the United Nations would do nothing until it was too late. "You are confusing 'peacekeeping' and 'intervention'", Mr. Eckhard said. "If you want a 911 international force to impose peace every time there is domestic dispute or even an international conflict, that facility does not exist yet. We don't have the capability to do that, and there is not, at this time, any support among Member States for that option." What was available was the tried and tested peacekeeping option, but for that the conflict needed to have stopped, he said.

Pressed as to whether there was anything that a peacekeeping force could do at this point in Congo-Brazzaville, he said there was none. In the last hours, the conflict had shifted in favour of one of the factions, which seemed to have seized the capital and the major economic centre of Pointe Noire. It was not a place for peacekeepers, he added.

To a correspondent who said that peacekeepers were now a "moot point", he said that the Secretary-General was last night asked to submit a report. "I think the Council anticipated there would possibly be a role for peacekeepers, so we are going to go through with that, but the situation on the ground today does not look promising, as far as peacekeeping goes."

"If one side clearly wins, there will be no consideration for peacekeepers?" a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said that would depend on the Council and he could not predict how they might react to the sudden turn in the fighting.

Asked to confirm whether President Pascal Lissouba and his Prime Minister, Major Kolelas, had fled the country, and whether Angolan forces and those of the Democratic Republic of the Congo had been involved in the latest military offensives, the Spokesman answered that he had no first-hand information of the whereabouts of President Lissouba and Mr. Kolelas. As for the movement of Angolan troops, he said that elements of the United Nations

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 15 October 1997

peacekeeping force in Angola based in Kabinda had reported the movement of troops in the direction of the border. Still, he said, "we cannot confirm their direct involvement in the fighting for either Brazzaville or Pointe Noire".

A correspondent remarked that there had been reports of some troops from Kinshasa going towards Brazzaville. Mr. Eckhard said there had been an agreement between President Kabila and President Lissouba to allow a number of troops of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to go into Brazzaville. He added, "We had nothing to say about that arrangement and I have nothing to say about it today."

Asked about the security of United Nations staff in Brazzaville, the Spokesman said he could not confirm that, as he did not know whether any staff were still there. The Spokesman's Office was checking that point.

He was then asked why the Secretary-General was asking the Security Council for an arms embargo "at such a late stage" in the conflict and who it would primarily be targeted against. He replied that it would have no specific target, apart from all the combatants. What had been alarming in recent days was the evidence of foreign involvement -- in terms of the allegations that Angola had sent troops in -- and reports of mercenaries operating in Congo-Brazzaville. "This was an indication that the situation was becoming internationalized and, therefore, more dangerous, so the Secretary-General moved in and said, 'let's consider relatively drastic actions'."

Mr. Eckhard was asked if the United Nations had not known that the airport was being used to ferry in massive amounts of arms. He said that there had been indications of money and arms entering Congo-Brazzaville, fuelling the fighting, a further sign of the internationalization of the conflict.

Asked who was supplying the arms, he answered: "Don't know. Won't say."

He was then asked how the United Nations expected to enforce an arms embargo "when the neighbours are all involved". He told the correspondent that the issue would have to be worked out by Member States. Yesterday, the Secretary-General had mentioned air cover as one approach to that, although there were indications that some members of the Council would not support that idea. If the issue involved arms being flown in, some kind of "No-Fly Zone" arrangement could be effective against that, Mr. Eckhard added.

A correspondent noted that United States officials in Washington, D.C., were saying that the fighting had basically stopped in most of Congo-Brazzaville. The Spokesman said he understood that in Pointe Noire, the army, in order to save the city, had capitulated rather than fight the invading troops.

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 15 October 1997

To a question as to what the Organization of African Unity (OAU) could do to help resolve the issue, Mr. Eckhard said he had no information on the deliberations of that body. The Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and the OAU to the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun, was still in Libreville, he said.

Would the Secretary-General still press for an arms embargo if the situation in the country calmed down? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said the challenge was how to respond to the fighting or to get a ceasefire, and to the internationalization of the conflict. "I think [the correspondent's question] is a bit too hypothetical for me to respond to further."

Asked for the reaction of the Secretary-General to escalating military activity in Cyprus, the Spokesman said he had no guidance on the issue.

A correspondent said he understood that United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was cutting her trip to Latin America with President Bill Clinton short, so as to travel to Haiti on Friday "to protect democracy". Were there any concerns about what was going on in Haiti? Mr. Eckhard recalled his announcement a few days ago that the Under-Secretary for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, had travelled to Haiti and was doing an assessment for the Secretary-General. "We will have to wait until he gets back", he said.

A correspondent, noting that "another United States envoy" was said to have backed out of going to the troubled area, asked Mr. Eckhard about the situation of the human rights investigative team to Congo-Kinshasa. What was the current scenario for getting the team back in? he asked. The Spokesman said the Organization was waiting for news from the United States as regards whom their envoy would be. "We are hoping that mission can get under way and be completed as soon as possible", he said, adding, "we would hope they would be able to send someone by the end of this week".

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said that in an open plenary meeting this morning, the Assembly had approved a report of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on the financing of peacekeeping operations. That report (document A/52/453), which included a draft resolution, dealt with the financing of the United Nations Logistics Base in Brindisi, Italy. The resolution, in part, had authorized financing of the Base through June 1998.

Following that, the Assembly had then converted into the open-ended informal consultations of the plenary on agenda item 157 (United Nations reform: measures and proposals) -- its second such meeting. Mr. Taukatch said that the President felt that the process of informal consultations was a step towards consensus in the consideration of that agenda item, and that such consultations created the most flexible format for the proceedings. Mr. Udovenko was satisfied the powerful momentum given the reform issue by the general debate

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had been maintained, as demonstrated by the fact that the Assembly wasted no time in taking up the reform item. Mr. Taukatch added that the list of speakers was growing, and the delegates were addressing the substance of the Secretary-General's report. The consultations would continue, he said, noting that another meeting of the Assembly had been scheduled for this afternoon.

The First and Second Committees were today continuing their general debate. Yesterday, the Sixth Committee (Legal) had concluded its examination of the report of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization. It had then begun, and would today continue, consideration of the United Nations Decade of International Law by focusing on two issues. The first concerned action to be taken in 1999 on the Centennial of the First International Peace Conference, while the other was a Mongolian proposal on the drafting of guiding principles for international negotiations.

Mr. Taukatch was asked if the Assembly was going to have a resolution saying "we love reform", since they had been "talking for one week", would 185 people speak, or would the President step in and say "let's do something"? He replied that it was not correct to say they had talked for a week, explaining that the Assembly had so far held only one meeting the day after the general debate concluded, at which there were about 30 speakers. They had expressed their views on how best to approach the consideration of that very important and wide-ranging document.

Today was only the second meeting of that format, Mr. Taukatch continued, and already they were getting into the specifics. There were various actions and recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General, and what the Assembly was doing was an innovative, effective and expeditious way of looking at them within the plenary format. As for the question about resolutions, probably at some point the Assembly would come up with an instrument to pronounce on the recommendations and actions in the Secretary-General's report. "We would have to wait and see", added the spokesman, pointing out that today the Assembly President had urged members to speak substantively on specific actions contained in the report.

A correspondent remarked that since there were no note-takers and no records, people would be free to change their positions as the consultations progressed. "If you say there are no records, then there is nothing to change", Mr. Taukatch replied. The point of informal consultations was to encourage discussions and exchange of views in an informal setting, not an unusual practice for other main bodies of the Organization, such as the Security Council.

Asked if the press was allowed to follow the consultations, he said, "no press coverage and no cameras".

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