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, began the briefing today by saying that the Security Council was this morning considering the subject of Angola, after which it would take up the Republic of the Congo. Members would be briefed on Congo-Brazzaville by the Department of Political Affairs. Under 'other matters', it would also discuss the issue of sanctions.

On Angola, the Council had a draft resolution before it, Mr. Eckhard said, recalling that a month ago it had postponed the imposition of additional sanctions on the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) until 30 October (one minute after midnight tomorrow). Action on that resolution was expected tomorrow.

Concerning Congo-Brazzaville, the Council has before it the report of the Secretary-General. Mr. Eckhard noted that the situation had evolved substantially and the emphasis today was more on humanitarian support for Congo-Brazzaville. He also recalled that the Department of Humanitarian Affairs had sent an Inter-agency Rapid Assessment Mission to Brazzaville, which returned to Kinshasa on 24 October. That Mission was preparing a Flash Appeal, which was now expected for the second week of November, not the first week, as had earlier been announced.

Mr. Eckhard said the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), was also expected to send a mission from Kinshasa to Brazzaville this week to assess the situation of refugees returning from Kinshasa, about 35,000 of whom have already been registered in Kinshasa. Refugees had already started crossing the Congo River by barge, despite a restriction on cross-river transportation by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he added.

Meanwhile, in the Central African Republic, the Spokesman said that a United Nations evaluation mission, led by the United Nations Military Adviser, Major-General Frank van Kappen, was looking at the multinational peacekeeping mission -- Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements (MISAB). That Mission, he recalled, had been endorsed by the Security Council in August. The team will be in the Central African Republic for about three days.

Mr. Eckhard drew the attention of correspondents to a security report from Zambia indicating that, following some firing and sounds of artillery this morning, the situation was calm. It appeared to have been an attempted coup that failed. The United Nations has 91 international staff in Zambia and they were all safe. Another report, from Suriname, indicated that there had also been an attempted coup over the weekend. The Organization had six international staff in that country, Mr. Eckhard said, and everyone was also reported to be safe.

Turning to the appointments of the Secretary-General for today, he noted that he had this morning met with the Personal Envoy for Western Sahara, James Baker, to discuss the implementation of the plan following the Envoy's successful negotiations with the parties. Also meeting with the Secretary-General this morning was the Director-General of the International Organization for Migration, James Purcell, who would be making a statement on migration before the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) on Thursday, and also participate in a panel discussion on the subject on Wednesday afternoon in the Trusteeship Council.

Mr. Eckhard said that Pino Arlacchi, Director-General, United Nations Office at Vienna, and Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, had announced an agreement with the ruling Taliban to phase out poppy production in Afghanistan. In addition, he had also finalized plans for the reorganization of the Vienna Office. In connection with those issues, Mr. Arlacchi had been invited to brief correspondents later in the week; the specific time of that conference would be announced.

He drew attention to a press release from Geneva, which stated that the Human Rights Committee had concluded its examination of the report on Iraq, urging the Iraqi Government to restore fundamental rights and to allow freedom of expression. It also said that, although no one could neglect the magnitude of the suffering inflicted by international sanctions, that could not be a pretext for the violation of human rights.

Mr. Eckhard drew attention to the status of contributions report as of 30 September, which was now out. It showed that the United Nations collected $972.3 million this year, he said, but only $729 million of that was payment against the current year's assessment. He also pointed out that the figure represented 65.6 per cent of the assessments sent out for the year, for the regular budget. Last year at the same time, 65 per cent of the year's assessments had been received.

The Spokesman also told correspondents of the Secretary-General's message to the United Nations Association of Japan, the text of which was available in room 378.

At the briefing tomorrow, Mr. Eckhard said that the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) Special Representative in Pyongyang, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Omawale Omawale, would be available to talk to correspondents about the food situation in that country.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 28 October 1997

Mr. Eckhard was asked about the item, "Meeting on Haiti", listed on the Secretary-General's appointments. Who would be participating in it? He said it was an internal meeting, primarily with the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping, Bernard Miyet, to look at the transitional phase of the mission in Haiti to answer the question -- on the understanding that the military component was shutting down -- "Where do we go next with our mission in Haiti?".

Concerning a statement the Spokesman had made yesterday in relation to certain moves by UNITA leader, Jonas Savimbi, to avert sanctions, a correspondent asked whether the United Nations was satisfied with those efforts. Mr. Eckhard said that was a judgement that the Security Council would have to make. Mr. Savimbi's response "were eleventh hour moves", he noted. "The Council would assess what Savimbi has done, and whether additional sanctions should go into effect, or be further postponed."

A correspondent asked about the decision of the Iraqi Parliament to freeze that country's cooperation with the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) to monitor disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Was the Secretary-General doing anything about it, such as contacting the Government to work things out? Mr. Eckhard replied that some Member States had made it clear to Iraq that they expected it to continue to cooperate with United Nations inspectors. The Supreme Revolutionary Council of Iraq was understood to be meeting on the subject today and might make an announcement later this afternoon.

Would Ted Turner's loss of money at the stock market yesterday affect his $1 billion donation to the United Nations? a correspondent asked. The Spokesman said negotiations with Mr. Turner's financial advisers had continued. Yesterday, some United Nations officials had been with them in Atlanta. "The per-share cost that we are discussing is in the ballpark of where the stock is today, so there doesn't seem to be any impact of the movement on the market on his gift", he added.

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said the General Assembly was meeting in plenary today to take up agenda item 29: "Cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union". There was a resolution on that subject (A/52/L.9) available on the racks, and a total of 13 speakers were addressing the Assembly on the item.

Looking ahead, Mr. Taukatch said the Assembly would tomorrow take up agenda item 11: "Report of the Security Council", for which a number of speakers had already been inscribed on the list.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 28 October 1997

This morning, the President of the General Assembly had met with the Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania, who is the Chairman of the "Group of 77" developing countries. Later this morning, he had also met with the Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement, the Permanent Representative of Colombia.

Mr. Taukatch said those two meetings were largely devoted to the subject of reform and its consideration at the current session. On the whole, the President felt that a very intensive negotiating process was going on through a variety of means; from open-ended informal consultations, to his own meetings with individual delegations and groups of countries, to discussions taking place within regional groups. In that connection, Mr. Taukatch recalled that yesterday, the Group of 77 had had two meetings, one at the level of experts and the other at ambassadorial level. The reform issue had certainly been the focus of attention of the membership. The President felt that it was a natural, democratic and important process and that it testified to the keen interest of Member States in the reform issue. Mr. Taukatch then reminded correspondents that this afternoon the General Assembly would hold its seventh meeting of informal, open-ended consultations and would continue consideration of the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General. Another meeting was planned for Wednesday.

Also today, Mr. Taukatch added, at 10 a.m., the President had made a statement at the United Nations Colloquium on the Progressive Development and Codification of International Law. The text of that statement would be available later in room 378.

On the subject of assessments, the spokesman announced that Togo had made the necessary payments to reduce its arrears below the amounts specified in Article 19, bringing the number of countries remaining on that list to seven.

To questions he had received regarding the meeting yesterday between the President and the Permanent Representative of Yemen, he said the President had received a letter requesting the resumption of the tenth emergency special session. That letter would be issued "probably tomorrow". The President was now transmitting it to regional groups.

* *** *