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, at the start of today's briefing, welcomed the Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, Karl Theodore Paschke. The annual report of that Office had just been published, and Mr. Paschke was present to talk to correspondents about it. (See separate summary of briefing by Mr. Paschke.)

Concerning Iraq, he said that at about 3 a.m. today, New York time, a United Nations aircraft carrying the personnel of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) -- set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction -- and of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from Bahrain to Baghdad had landed at Habbaniyah Airfield, north-west of Baghdad. When Iraqi officials became aware of the nationality of the United Nations staff aboard the aircraft, they advised UNSCOM officials present at the Airfield that the two UNSCOM officials who were of United States nationality would not be allowed to enter the country. A third American on the plane was with the IAEA. The Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, Ambassador Richard Butler, when informed of that situation, instructed the two Americans on his staff to return with the aircraft to Bahrain. The IAEA official had been instructed by the Agency that in an eventuality such as that one, he was also to leave.

Mr. Eckhard said Ambassador Butler had, this morning, informed the President of the Security Council of the incident in writing, and the President had distributed the letter to all Council members.

Also available in room S-378 was the summary of the briefing of the spokesman for the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, and a resolution 986 update on the chronology of implementation of that resolution.

He said that today the Security Council had followed up the discussion of Somalia that had begun yesterday, when they were briefed by the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahima Fall. They had then heard from the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Coordinator of United Nations of Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kai Eide. Mr. Eide had been asked to come and brief correspondents, but there was as yet no confirmation of a date.

Mr. Eckhard said that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had announced its intention to withdraw from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which it had acceded in 1981. In its response to that development yesterday afternoon, the Human Rights Committee in Geneva had

issued a comment saying that under the Covenant, a State which had ratified it could not withdraw from it. (A press release on the subject from Geneva was available in room S-378.)

Mr. Eckhard also said that the Secretary-General had submitted to the Security Council his report on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia. He noted that the document was a progress report, and recalled that the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) was extended for six months last July.

The International Conference on Child Labour in Oslo, Norway, had concluded today, adopting a plan to outlaw the worst kinds of child abuse, including slavery, prostitution, and bonded work in factories and fields. The Spokesman said that the four-day conference, which was attended by representatives of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), had concentrated on the preparation of the agenda for action aimed at strengthening the role of governments and agencies in the fight against child labour. That agenda also called for a new ILO convention on child labour abuses. The meeting was expected to be organized at the ILO's Geneva headquarters in June 1998.

Recalling that he had mentioned to correspondents earlier in the week that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) would be organizing a mission to Congo-Brazzaville to look at the situation of refugees there, he said the mission had taken place yesterday. It reported that the Democratic Republic of the Congo had yesterday officially re-opened the border crossing between Kinshasa and Brazzaville. The team visited a site at Kintele, 35 kilometres north of Brazzaville, where it found about 2,000 Rwandans, as well as 33 Burundians, noting that their health was good. Sections of Brazzaville had been found badly destroyed, and all the UNHCR stocks looted. Looting was reported to be continuing in Brazzaville. The mission's report would be included in the production of an inter-agency appeal for Congo-Brazzaville, which was expected to be launched in the second week of November.

Mr. Eckhard said the Joint Special Representative of the United Nations/ Organization of African Unity (OAU) to the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun, had yesterday spoken before the Foreign Affairs Commission of the French National Assembly on the situation in the Great Lakes region. Among the subjects covered were Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Congo- Brazzaville. Mr. Sahnoun was expected back in New York tomorrow afternoon.

It was the time for the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC), Mr. Eckhard declared, announcing the bi-annual meeting of heads of United Nations agencies, who would be flying into New York from around the world today. The meeting would take place all day tomorrow, when they would discuss three items: the relationship between the United Nations system and civil society, including the private sector; integrated and coordinated follow-up to recent global conferences; and administrative questions such as staff security.

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For the first time, the ACC would go on a "retreat". Mr. Eckhard said the officials would be taken out of the city by bus tomorrow afternoon to the Pocantico Conference Centre at the Rockefeller Estate in Tarrytown, New York. They would discuss the changing role of the State and its implications for the role and functioning of the United Nations system, on which a discussion paper was available. The officials would have a panel discussion tomorrow evening. Participating would be Wim Kok, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands; Percy Barnevik, Chairman of Asea Brown Boveri; and Enrique Inglesias, President of the Inter-American Development Bank. On Saturday, they would break up into three groups. One would discuss "New approaches to, and new partnerships for, development financing", to be chaired by James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank. The second would discuss "New emphasis, new approaches, new partnerships in the pursuit of development objectives", to be chaired by Rubens Ricupero of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The third group would examine "the role of ACC and new arrangements for inter-agency cooperation and the possible need for constitutional changes within the United Nations system", one of the reform recommendations of the Secretary-General. The Director-General of the IAEA, Hans Blix, would chair. They would finish their work at about 4 p.m., Mr. Eckhard said.

Concerning the Secretary-General's appointments today, the Spokesman drew attention to a meeting with the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum, a group of business leaders from the United Kingdom who had formed a non- governmental organization for the practice of corporate citizenship and sustainable development internationally. In addition, the Secretary-General would host them at a luncheon. Mr. Eckhard also announced that the International Police Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia had a troop-contributors' meeting today at 3:15 p.m. in Conference Room 6, adding that it would be a closed meeting.

On assessed contributions, Japan had paid $26.3 million for their peace- keeping account, he said. That figure represented about one quarter of their outstanding contributions. Contributions outstanding now totalled $2.2 billion.

He alerted correspondents to the presence, at tomorrow's briefing, of the President of the International Court of Justice, Stephen Schwebel.

Mr. Eckhard also announced that at 2:30 p.m, the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Dr. Peter Piot, and the Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Dr. Nafis Sadik, would officially open the AIDS Clock exhibit, to coincide with the opening of the tenth annual meeting of the Committee of Co-sponsoring Organizations of UNAIDS. The Secretary-General would address that body at 3 p.m.

Also, Mr. Eckhard said, at 2 p.m. today in Conference Room 6, the co-sponsors of the Children's Vaccine Initiative (CVI) will meet to endorse the new strategic plan, followed by a ceremony in which the foreword to the

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plan will be formally signed. The CVI was founded following the 1990 World Summit for Children in New York, he added, and its founding co-sponsors were UNICEF, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation. A press release on the subject was available in the Office of the Spokesman.

To a question as to whether the United Nations had been in touch with Iraq over yesterday's UNSCOM developments, Mr. Eckhard said, "at this time, no".

And were the personnel who were refused entry into Iraq this morning part of the regular UNSCOM rotation into the country? a correspondent asked. Yes, said Mr. Eckhard, recalling that he had told correspondents yesterday that there were about 12 Americans in UNSCOM, based in Baghdad, of which two were in Bahrain, where UNSCOM also had offices. The staff rotated regularly between Baghdad and Bahrain, and the two turned back had been scheduled to be rotated back to Baghdad today. Pointing out that Ambassador Butler had said yesterday that the rotations were ongoing and that he would attempt to continue them, Mr. Eckhard said he did not know when the next one would be.

Was the plan, then, to fly again? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said he could not say what the plan was. Ambassador Butler had said that while the investigation activity would be suspended immediately, the staff could do office work in Baghdad.

A correspondent also asked what the deadline was -- "according to the United Nations" -- for the Americans to leave Iraq. The Spokesman stressed that the deadline was not that of the Organization. "The letter that we received gave seven days for the UNSCOM members of United States nationality to leave Iraq, seven days from the delivery of the letter, which was yesterday."

Asked if United Nations surveillance flights over Iraq would continue, Mr. Eckhard answered, "to my knowledge, yes".

He was also asked why the IAEA official was refused entry, if the target of the order was UNSCOM. Mr. Eckhard said that the IAEA was not covered by the Iraqi letter, but the IAEA official was instructed that if the UNSCOM people were refused entry, he, too, was to return.

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said the Assembly had, this morning, taken up the agenda item on the election of 18 members of the Economic and Social Council. Noting that he had checked just before the briefing to see if he could provide the results of the elections, he said it appeared that the Assembly would have to go into restrictive ballots later in the afternoon. He pointed out that, of the five regional groups, the African Group and the Western European and Other Group had endorsed candidates whose number of candidates matched the number of vacant seats. The three other groups had more candidates than vacant seats, and the restrictive ballots would have to be held to fill those

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seats. A list of the vacancies and the candidates was available to correspondents in room S-378. (See also Press Release GA/9340.)

On the subject of reform, Mr. Taukatch pointed out that the 9th meeting of the open-ended informal consultation of the plenary, which was originally scheduled for today, would instead be held tomorrow at 4 p.m.

In reference to a question yesterday about the First Committee holding closed meetings over sectoral items, he referred the correspondent to resolutions 48/87 and 49/85, which, in part, provided for informal thematic discussion of specific items under consideration in the First Committee. The procedure in question had been taking place for a while, he said, as part of efforts to rationalize the work of the Committee. Noting that it would be considered again during the current session, he stressed that the Committee would have a chance to review its working methods.

Turning to the Fifth Committee, Mr. Taukatch said it had yesterday concluded its general discussion of the item on the scale of assessments for the apportionment of the expenses of the United Nations, and would now go into informal consultations. Those consultations would be conducted by E. Besley Maycock (Barbados).

Mr. Taukatch also said that the President of the General Assembly had made an announcement yesterday regarding upcoming pledging activities. The Pledging Conference on United Nations Development Activities would be held on Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 and 5 November. There would also be announcements of voluntary contributions: on 7 November, for the 1998 Programme of the UNHCR; and on 2 December, for 1998 programmes of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). A special international meeting in support of the United Nations inter-agency programme of international assistance to areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster would be held on Tuesday, 25 November.

Concerning the situation in the First Committee to which Mr. Taukatch had referred, the correspondent said that what he had meant yesterday was not merely the rationalization of the work of a Committee, but the "substantive discussion" of issues, which, he said, was happening now in the First Committee. Mr. Taukatch said that one of the resolutions he had cited set out the parameters in which the discussion of specific items took place, and the other one specifically mentioned "informal, thematic discussions" of these items. He understood that this issue was expected to come up again in the discussion of rationalization during the session, adding, "we will see what happens".

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