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 start of today's briefing that the Secretary-General had accepted with regret the resignation of the head of the United Nations Special Mission for Afghanistan, Norbert Heinrich Holl (Germany). Mr. Holl would end his term effective 31 December 1997. Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi was continuing as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan until further notice.

The Security Council had taken up the subject of Iraq this morning, with one Council member indicating its wish to amend part of the draft resolution which was tabled yesterday. That proposed amendment had not been formally introduced in the consultations and was, at the time of the briefing, being discussed outside the Council. "We are awaiting the outcome of that discussion", Mr. Eckhard said.

He noted that there had been a meeting of troop contributors for the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola this morning. The Council had also began to discuss Angola this morning, following the submission of the Secretary-General's report. He reminded correspondents that the deadline for the imposition of additional sanctions on the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) was 30 October.

On the ground in Angola, there had been an increase of tension between the Government and UNITA, owing mainly to allegations and counter-allegations of troop movements and concentration of troops with the intention of attacking each other's positions in some parts of the country, Mr. Eckhard said. Cuango, one of the five strategically important UNITA areas now placed under the control of the Government of National Unity and to which Government troops moved on 10 October, was one such example. The Government's unilateral launch of a bandit clean-up operation in some provinces, without United Nations concurrence, and movement of troops and equipment into Kabinda for the war in Congo-Brazzaville had added to the tension. Efforts were now under way between the Government and UNITA to set up a summit meeting between President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and Jonas Savimbi inside Angola, but the date and venue were yet to be determined.

The Secretary-General had sent a letter to the Security Council and to the General Assembly conveying the outcome of the 3 October meeting of the special conference on Liberia, the Spokesman said. That meeting, which focused on post-conflict peace-building in the country, had expressed strong support for the establishment of the United Nations Peace Support Office in Liberia, as well as broad support for national reconciliation and

reconstruction efforts. A donors' conference was likely to take place early next year.

Mr. Eckhard said the Inter-Agency Rapid Humanitarian Assessment Mission in Brazzaville had reported an urgent need for the provision of shelter and housing for the population which had begun to return. Those requirements were particularly acute, since the rains had started. The mission reported that the two hospitals -- Talangai in the north and Makerele in the south of Brazzaville -- were in poor condition, with no administration and only a few personnel. There were critical shortages of medical equipment and medicines, and the patients had mainly war-related injuries. The mission had also visited two internally displaced persons' sites in the south of Brazzaville which house some 12,000 people. Although malnutrition was not reported, some cases of measles, chicken pox and malaria had been identified.

The presence of the United Nations mission in Brazzaville, which was reported by the local media, had prompted many people to return, Mr. Eckhard said. They could be seen along the roads moving towards the town, which was slowly resuming its activities as its markets reopened. The offices of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Information Centre, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) had all been looted and were heavily damaged. However, there had been no personnel-related security incidents so far.

Mr. Eckhard said that, following the ending last week of four months of fighting in Brazzaville, the UNHCR was sending a team to the area to look into the possible return of more than 37,000 refugees from the Republic of the Congo, who were now in Kinshasa. A note on that subject was available in the Spokesman's Office.

He said the Secretary-General had sent another letter, now on the racks, to the Security Council and to the General Assembly (document A/52/504). Attached to it was a letter from the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. In it, the President of the Tribunal said it would take at least 88 months to conclude the trials of the 20 persons currently detained in Arusha. He cited an overwhelming necessity to increase the number of judges in order to compose a third trial chamber, as provided in paragraph 7 of Council resolution 955 (1994), which established the Tribunal. The Registrar of the Tribunal had estimated the cost of establishing the third trial chamber at $5.5 million for next year.

Still on the subject of the Tribunal, the Spokesman corrected information he had reported yesterday. Instead of four accused people having failed to make an initial appearance, he had meant to say the four accused would make an initial appearance in the Tribunal tomorrow, 24 October.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 23 October 1997

Mr. Eckhard said the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahima Fall, would address a briefing on conflict resolution in Africa tomorrow, from 1:15 to 2:45 p.m. in Conference Room 4. Members of delegations, non-governmental organizations and the media were invited. The meeting would be co-hosted by the Division of Public Affairs of the UNDP and by African Amicale, of the United Nations Recreational Council.

He reminded correspondents that tomorrow was United Nations Day. As part of the celebrations, there would be a programme at 4 p.m. in the General Assembly Hall. This year, the Mission of Portugal to the United Nations, on behalf of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries and the Portuguese Radio and Television Network, had arranged for the participation of singers Dulce Pontes from Portugal, Tito Paris from Cape Verde, and Carlinhos Brown from Brazil -- itself the current president of the Community of Portuguese- Speaking Countries.

He also drew attention to the text of the Secretary-General's statement to be delivered tonight by Assistant Secretary-General Gillian Sorensen to the second worldwide vigil being organized to protest the financial crisis of the United Nations. It was now available in room S-378.

There was also a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO) concerning an international group of experts which had met in Vienna to discuss the consequences of the exposure to electro-magnetic fields emitted by high- voltage power lines, radars, mobile telephones and others sources, Mr. Eckhard said. On the press conference being held this afternoon on the financial crisis of the Organization by the organizers of the worldwide vigil, he said its starting time had been moved back, to 2 p.m.

Concerning press conferences for tomorrow, 24 October, he said that at 10:45 a.m., Christine Umutoni, adviser to the President of Rwanda, would meet with correspondents. At 11:30 a.m., the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) would feature the eight women permanent representatives -- "sometimes called the G-8" -- in addition to non-governmental organizations representatives and senior female officials of the Secretariat. That press conference would be in connection with the petition signed by 99,000 women in 100 countries calling for peace and for the assignment of 5 per cent of the defence budgets of each country to educational, social and economic projects.

Asked if the Secretary-General was concerned that yesterday's report of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) on his budget could delay action on his reform plan, Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General remained optimistic that the reform package would go through. Since the Assembly opened, there had been a gradual broadening of support from Member States. "The process of review is, at this point, taking longer than we expected, but we are still quite optimistic that we will have a package approved by the Assembly, and soon."

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 23 October 1997

To a question on statements by the United States in the Fifth Committee concerning the scale of assessment, the Spokesman said that the particular aspect of reform which concerned the scale of assessments was for Member States to work out among themselves. "We knew it was going to be a difficult discussion, and apparently it is."

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said that Mr. Udovenko was on his way back to New York from Kiev. He would arrive tonight and be ready for a busy day tomorrow, which was United Nations Day. He would take part in the Day's programme and make a statement in the General Assembly Hall at the concert.

The Assembly would this afternoon continue with the open-ended informal consultations of the plenary on the report of the Secretary-General on reform, Mr. Taukatch said. The Assembly was now discussing recommendations, and the process of consideration of that item was moving along at a steady pace and in a businesslike manner.

Concerning questions he had received about the Assembly's future plans, he alerted correspondents that the programme of work for the plenary about which he had spoken at yesterday's briefing (document A/INF/52/3/Add.1) was now available. Among the items that drew particular attention was one on "Equitable representation on, and increase in the membership of the Security Council" (item 59), which would be considered on 4 December in the morning. In that connection, Mr. Taukatch alerted correspondents to a draft resolution on the reform of the Security Council sponsored by a number of countries, including Italy, which would be available later today (document A/52/L.7).

Turning to the Committees, he said that the First Committee was continuing its general debate on disarmament and international security items. The Second Committee, "even as we speak", was linked by a live video hook-up to Geneva in a joint-session with the high-level segment of the Trade and Development Board. The Third Committee this morning continued consideration of issues concerning the advancement of women; this afternoon, it would take up crime prevention and criminal justice, and international drug control.

Recalling that the Secretary-General had presented his budget to the Fifth Committee yesterday, Mr. Taukatch said that Committee would today continue discussion of the item, a process which it would undertake in stages. In the first stage, the general contents of the budget would be debated. The Committee would subsequently engage in a second reading of the budget, which would involve a section-by-section review of its estimates. In that reading, revisions proposed during the Committee's formal and informal meetings, revised estimates, and the budgetary implications of resolutions on other legislative bodies, would be considered to help put together the final appropriations. At that stage, such factors as inflation and currency fluctuations would be taken into account before the budget was approved.

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 23 October 1997

Also this morning, the Sixth Committee was meeting to continue consideration of the establishment of the International Criminal Court.

Mr. Taukatch drew attention to the letter from the Secretary-General to the Presidents of the Security Council and the General Assembly concerning the proposal for a third trial chamber for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. He said the Assembly was involved because of the amendment of articles 10 and 11 of the statute by the Security Council. Following such an amendment, the Assembly would be requested to approve the related increase in the Tribunal's budget. Finally, both the Assembly and the Security Council would have to elect three additional judges, in accordance with the statute of the Tribunal. The relevant information was in document A/52/504.

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