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)

Juan-Carlos Brandt, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, opened today's noon briefing by stating that the Security Council had adopted a presidential statement on Croatia. By the statement, the Council, while noting several positive acts by the Government of Croatia in Eastern Slavonia, in such areas as education, the reintegration of the judiciary and others, as well as Croatia's increased cooperation with the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, continued to express concern that there were still many outstanding areas and issues of contention and non-compliance, which required further urgent action from the Government of Croatia. The Council shared the Secretary-General's assessment that there was sufficient time for Croatia to comply fully with its obligations and commitments before 15 January 1998, (when the current mandate of the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) would expire). (See also Press Release SC/6430.)

The Security Council also adopted a resolution on Western Sahara, extending the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara until April 1998, Mr. Brandt said. (See also Press Release SC/6431.) In anticipation of questions from correspondents, he added that the Council did not take up the question of Iraq during its consultations earlier this morning.

Mr. Brandt said that on his visit to northern Iraq the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Denis Halliday, had met with the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Massoud Barzani, at Salahuddin in the Erbil Governorate yesterday. Mr. Halliday had expressed concern about the well-being of internally displaced persons from the recent fighting and the effect that the fighting had on the United Nations humanitarian activities in the region. Earlier on that day, Mr. Halliday met with the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Jalal Talabani, and urged a halt to the violence and restoration of electricity to the KDP-held area of Erbil Governorate. By Friday evening the electricity was restored there. Today, Mr. Halliday travelled to Dohuk Governorate and tomorrow he was scheduled to visit Zakho, the entry point from Turkey for "oil for food" commodities and the nearby oil-metering station at Fishkabour before returning to Baghdad.

The United Nations humanitarian activities in Northern Iraq include the World Health Organization's polio vaccination campaign. Initially planned for the weekend, it had been delayed for a few days. Also, the Food and Agriculture Organization's sheep vaccination campaign was under way in Dohuk Governorate and many of the districts in Erbil Governorate since the weekend.

Mr. Brandt said a third meeting of the All-inclusive Intra-East Timorese Dialogue started today at Kramback Castle, Austria, with a statement by Ambassador Jamsheed Marker, Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for East Timor. The meeting was a follow-up to the two meetings which were held also in Austria in June 1995 and from 19 to 22 March 1996. Mr. Brandt said the meetings were closed, and the current one would continue until Thursday, 23 October. A background note on the dialogue, with details on the role of the United Nations and its expected outcome, would be issued to correspondents later.

Earlier today, in Istanbul, Turkey, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Elizabeth Dowdeswell, outlined in stark terms the serious consequences for the tourism sector if the United Nations Convention to Combat Climate Change was not implemented. Speaking at the general assembly of the World Tourism Organization, she asked delegates, according to Mr. Brandt, to "imagine your holiday brochures picturing beaches submerged, shorelines eroded and ocean views not only through windows but in your basements as well". She elaborated that "some of today's island destinations might not just disappear from the tourist map but from the geographic map altogether".

Mr. Brandt said her call was particularly timely as climate change negotiators were meeting today in Bonn, for the final set of negotiations before the December Kyoto Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. A press release on the World Tourism Organization Assembly and the full remarks of Ms. Dowdeswell was available. Also on the racks was a background press release on the Kyoto Conference to be held from 1 to 10 December. Mr. Brandt said the conference was being announced well in advance because the media accreditation forms were available at the press documents counter and interested correspondents should complete and send them out to the Convention's secretariat in Bonn before 15 November. The current Bonn negotiations would continue until 31 October. A press kit on the Kyoto Conference was expected at Headquarters in a week or two, Mr.Brandt said.

He announced that correspondents were being invited by the Secretary- General and the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Jacques Diouf, to the 1997 World Food Day Ceremony tomorrow, Tuesday, 21 October at noon in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. The speakers, in addition to the Secretary-General and the FAO Director-General, would be Manuel Tello, Mexico's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and a Vice-President of the current session of the General Assembly, who would represent the Assembly President, and Vladimir Galuska, President of the

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 20 October 1997

Economic and Social Council. The keynote speaker was originally going to be the President of Haiti, Rene Preval, but now, he would be represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Haiti, Fritz Longchamps. Mr. Longchamps was until recently, the Permanent Representative of Haiti to the United Nations, Mr. Brandt reminded correspondents.

The Secretary-General attended the Ninth Aspen Institute Communications Conference in Aspen, Colorado, over the weekend. As he did at the Venice Film Festival, the Secretary-General, in his private conversations with communications leaders, explored ways new audiences could be reached with a global message. Mr. Brandt quoted the Secretary-General as saying in his dinner speech: "We at the United Nations are convinced that information has a great liberating power waiting to be harnessed to our global struggle for peace, development and human rights. We believe this because we are convinced that it is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes enemies of men. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes fighters of children. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that leads some to advocate tyranny over democracy. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes some argue that human conflict is inevitable. It is ignorance, not knowledge, that makes others say that there are many worlds, when we know that there is one. Ours." The text was put out yesterday, Sunday, about noon.

Mr. Brandt said the Secretary-General was today in Chicago, after Aspen, for his first official visit to the central United States as Secretary- General. His day had begun with a meeting with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley. This was followed by a session with about 40 Consuls-General and a luncheon at which the Secretary-General addressed about 500 business, political and civic leaders. The luncheon was being hosted by the World Trade Center of Chicago and other organizations. The text of the Secretary-General's speech would be available at the racks. (See Press Release SG/SM/6365.) The Secretary- General was this afternoon scheduled to meet with representatives of the MacArthur Foundation, and then with the editorial board of the Chicago Tribune. In the evening, he would address the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations, as part of its seventy-fifth anniversary Fall Lecture Forum Series. The text of the address would be available later today on the racks about 4 or 4:30 p.m.

As announced last Friday, Mr. Brandt said that two new Secretary- General's bulletins were issued today. The first -- ST/SGB/1997/7 -- deals with the organizational structure of the Department of Political Affairs, and the second -- ST/SGB/1997/8 -- that of the Office of Legal Affairs. Previous bulletins covered the organizational structures of the Centre for Disarmament and the Centre for Human Rights. Also available were the latest updated fact sheets on the United Nations financial crisis -- "The UN Financial Crisis at a Glance" and "Setting the Record Straight: Some Facts about the United Nations". Mr. Brandt said both were useful materials about the United Nations, produced by the Department of Public Information (DPI) for the benefit of correspondents.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 20 October 1997

On forthcoming press briefings, he said that tomorrow at 11 a.m. in Room 226, the Permanent Mission of Norway would sponsor a briefing by Jody Williams, Coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and the recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. Also participating would be representatives from the Missions of Canada, Norway and possibly South Africa, as well as a representative of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The briefing was about a forum on the Future of Disarmament, sponsored jointly by the NGO Committee on Disarmament, the Centre for Disarmament and the Department of Public Information, being held at Headquarters from 20 to 23 October. Ms. Jody Williams would participate in the session on "Banning anti-personnel landmines: the Ottawa Process and Beyond" on Tuesday from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Mr. Brandt confirmed that Ms. Williams would meet with the Secretary-General on Wednesday, 22 October, in the afternoon. Correspondents would be informed of the time when it was confirmed.

Mr. Brandt drew attention to a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO) which said that the WHO, together with the Center for Disease Control and the International Union against Tuberculosis, had conducted a study, with financial support from the United States Agency for International Development, which detailed the alarming spread of drug- resistant tuberculosis. A press conference on the study would be held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, 22 October, in Washington, D.C.

Also available was a press release from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) on the occasion of the conclusion of the ninth session of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. A DHA Situation Report, No.6, on the Indonesian fires, was now available. It stated that a United Nations Disaster Assessment Team, dispatched by the Department, had been working in Indonesia since 28 September to assist the United Nations Resident Coordinator and the Government of Indonesia. Available in room 378, was a report which summarized United Nations activities, with a description of the disaster situation and the national and international response for the emergency operations.

There was a press release on the Sixty-first Session of the Committee on Human Rights with opening remarks by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson. In her statement, Ms. Robinson stressed that although human rights were receiving greater international recognition, this should not obscure the underlying reality of massive and widespread violations of human rights and the intense human suffering which marks our era". (Mr. Brandt expressed satisfaction at a New York Times editorial today on Ms. Robinson.)

As stated last Friday, Mr. Brandt noted the annual "Making Strides against Breast Cancer" walk had taken place yesterday, Sunday, in Central Park, New York. The five-mile walk, organized by the American Cancer Society, involved more than 10,000 participants, and more than $1 million was raised. Among the participants, as previously announced, was Nane Annan and her

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daughter, Nina. Mr. Brandt said the Secretary-General sponsored some 50 United Nations staff members who participated in the walk from Central Park and other staff members who took part from other nearby locations. The United Nations team was organized by the United Nations Medical Service and the Staff Union whose dedicated efforts helped highlight the importance of education and prevention in fighting breast cancer, he added. Alex Taukatch, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said that as he had mentioned last Friday, the President was away from Headquarters. Mr. Udovenko was in Kiev presiding, in his capacity as Foreign Minister of Ukraine, over a ministerial meeting of the Member States of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. (Ukraine was current Chairman of the group.) He would return for the observance of United Nations Day which falls on 24 October. In his absence, Vice-President Manuel Tello (Mexico) would serve as Acting President of the General Assembly. During the period, two other Vice-Chairmen of the Assembly, John H. F. Campbell (Ireland), and Ngo Quang Xuan (Viet Nam), had agreed to co-Chair the next open-ended informal consultations of the plenary on the agenda Item 157: "United Nations reform: Measures and proposals." He reminded correspondents that the next meeting would take place tomorrow afternoon. At that meeting, the Assembly would consider the recommendations contained in paragraphs 96, 101, 115 and 126 of the Secretary-General's report (document A/51/950). Turning to today's work of the Main Committees, he said that there was a lot of contentious issues on the agenda of the current Assembly session. Probably one of the most contentious, he said, was "who will pay how much" of the expenses of the United Nations. The General Assembly would have to resolve that issue, and its decision would have an immediate effect on the 1998-1999 budget. In addressing that issue, he said the General Assembly would have to consider such questions as: the reduction of the proportion to be borne by the largest contributor, the United States; the minimum amount paid by smaller countries; and the eligibility of the permanent members of the Security Council for relief under the low per capita income adjustment. Those were the challenges facing the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) which would begin this afternoon consideration of the scale of assessments. Mr. Taukatch said the Fifth Committee would deliberate on the item guided in its discussions by a report prepared by the Committee on Contributions. The Committee was an 18-member body that advised the General Assembly on contributions. During the Fifty-First session, it tried to agree on the methodology to assess contributions from Member States and in its report (document A/51/11 and Corr. 1), the Committee proposed eight possible scales of assessment. The Spokesman noted that during its work, the Committee on Contributions had tried to reach consensus on the major elements of the scale, which would have been reflected in a ninth scale. Although some agreements were reached, formulation of a ninth scale was not possible. Mr. Taukatch said the First Committee (Political and Security) was this afternoon continuing its discussion of disarmament and international security issues. The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) on Friday concluded consideration of the effects of atomic radiation and would resume its work next Monday taking up consideration of the situation in the Occupied Territories of Croatia. It would also take action on all draft proposals on decolonization issues. The Third Committee was this afternoon dealing with issues related to the advancement of women.

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Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 20 October 1997