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, said at today's briefing that in Baghdad this morning, three teams of the United Nations Special Commission set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) -- one on missiles, another on chemical weapons and the third on biological weapons - - had departed the Commission's Baghdad Monitoring and Verification Centre for their inspection sites. On arrival at those sites, they were told by the Iraqi officials that they could continue their inspections, but not with United States nationals. As the teams could not proceed under those circumstances, they had returned to the Verification Centre.

The Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, Richard Butler, had informed the Security Council in writing this morning of that incident and the Council would discuss Iraq today on its agenda under 'Other Matters'. Meanwhile, Mr. Eckhard continued, the three United Nations envoys, headed by Lakhdar Brahimi, were on their way to Kuwait, travelling via Frankfurt, (not Geneva as the Spokesman had announced yesterday, at an earlier stage in the planning process). The team was expected to arrive in Kuwait shortly. They would spend the night there and leave tomorrow for Habbaniyah Airfield, near Baghdad, on a regularly-scheduled flight of the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM). Their first meeting with the Iraqi delegation, led by Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, was scheduled to start at the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the afternoon.

Mr. Eckhard said that the "oil-for-food" programme in Iraq had not been hindered by the current developments and the United Nations had yesterday provided Iraq with Weekly Report No. 37 on the implementation of that programme. Last week, the 661 Committee, which oversees the sanctions on Iraq, had approved seven humanitarian sales contracts under Phase II, which was the current 180-day period. He recalled that the Committee had also approved 16 sales contracts and put 17 applications on hold, under Phase I, the previous 180-day period. The total oil proceeds in Phase II had reached nearly $1 billion by the end of last week, half the amount authorized by the Security Council. Copies of that Report were available in the Spokesman's Office.

Drawing attention to the Secretary-General's appointments for today, he noted the meeting with the Permanent Representatives of China, Egypt, France, Poland and Russia, identifying them as members of the Security Council who have embassies in Baghdad. He pointed out that Poland represented the United States in Baghdad, while Russia represented the United Kingdom. The Secretary-General had asked to meet with them because of the mission of the three United Nations envoys.

Concerning the Security Council, Mr. Eckhard said that in addition to its discussion of Iraq today, it would also discuss its programme of work, as well as the Secretary-General's report on the Central African Republic.

Mr. Eckhard announced that Major-General Gian Giuseppe Santillo of Italy, who had been the Force Commander of UNIKOM since 1 December 1995, would be relinquishing his post on 30 November. He would be replaced by Major- General Esa Kalervo Tarvainen of Finland. The exchange of letters with the Security Council was available on the document racks.

Mr. Eckhard also announced that Iran had yesterday ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, having signed the treaty on 13 January 1993. The Convention now had 165 signatories, and 103 ratifications or accessions.

He further told correspondents that the Under-Secretary-General for Management, Joseph Conner, had told the General Assembly yesterday afternoon that the Secretariat would issue three new conference room papers on reform related to: the revolving credit fund; the dividend for development; and results-based budgeting. They were expected to be distributed to the General Assembly this afternoon, he added.

He then drew attention to a statement made this morning on behalf of the Secretary-General by the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, to the 1997 Pledging Conference for Development. In it, the Secretary-General had said that the combined total resources channelled through United Nations funds and programmes, comprising both core and non-core resources, had remained relatively stable over the last four years, at about $4.5 billion a year. The funding through voluntary contributions, however, was not generating enough core resources to meet agreed programme targets and requirements.

"Non-core, ear-marked resources now make up more than half the total funds available for United Nations development cooperation", the Secretary- General had said, adding that "core contributions have declined, and become unpredictable". He had therefore recommended to Member States "a new core resource system of voluntary contributions and negotiated pledges appropriated in multi-year tranches". In connection with the subject, Mr. Eckhard referred correspondents to Mr. Desai for any questions they might have.

He said that the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Antonio Cassesse, had this morning addressed the General Assembly on the fourth annual report of the Tribunal. He had said that "within the means available to us we have achieved considerable success. Although we have been endowed with only the minimum necessary logistics, the Tribunal is a vibrant, fully-operational judicial body". Copies of that statement, in both English and French, were available in room 378.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 4 November 1997

Also available in the Spokesman's Office was a Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) press release, embargoed until tomorrow. It contained an important announcement, but he would not say more owing to the embargo. He then drew attention to the UNDP Flash for this week, in which he flagged two items. The first said that UNDP was making funding and technical assistance available to countries to enable them to prepare for, and respond to, the disastrous consequences of the El Nino weather pattern. "El Nino has had an impact on global weather, as you know, and is blamed for causing droughts, forest fires, reduced agricultural productivity, primarily in the developing world", Mr. Eckhard said. Also in the UNDP Flash, he added, was an announcement of the launch in Edinburgh, Scotland, last week of the Global Business Council on HIV/AIDS. That represented the first coordinated response by the business sector to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and had been created with support from the UNAIDS programme. Mr. Eckhard also announced a press conference on climate change, to be addressed by the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Michael Zammit Cutajar, at 11:15 a.m., Wednesday, 5 November, in room 226. That announcement, with additional details, was also available in room 378. A correspondent asked the Spokesman to confirm a report that the Secretary-General had asked the Government of Iraq to extend the deadline of Wednesday, 5 November, the date by which they had asked members of UNSCOM who were United States citizens to leave the country. Mr. Eckhard replied that the Secretary-General had told the Security Council in a closed session yesterday, in response to a query by a Member State, that he would attempt to speak to the Iraqi authorities this morning to try to persuade them to postpone that deadline. The Secretary-General had then had a conversation with Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, this morning, who said he would get back to the Secretary-General. "Our expectation is that it would be within a matter of hours, so we are hoping for an answer from him by the end of business today." Asked "to be more specific on the actual deadline, and who said it", Mr. Eckhard said there could be no confusion about who had said it, since it had been contained in the letter sent by Iraq. "It [the deadline] is 1 a.m., Thursday, Iraq time", he explained, "which translates into 5 p.m. Wednesday, New York time." He was then asked what would happen at that time if the deadline was not extended. "We are not prepared to say at this time what our response would be", he said, adding that the United Nations recognized only that Iraq had put the Organization on notice that the American members of the investigation team would not be welcome in the country by that date. "We do not recognize that this is in any way consistent with Iraq's obligations under the Security Council resolutions", he stressed.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 4 November 1997

To a question about a human rights report this week concerning "increasing executions" in Iraq, Mr. Eckhard would not comment. [Later, Mr. Eckhard issued the following statement, attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:] "The Secretary-General spoke by phone with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz this morning and urged him to postpone the Thursday deadline that Iraq sought to impose for the expulsion of American members of the United Nations inspection team. "The purpose of his request was to provide an opportunity for his three envoys to discuss with the Iraqi authorities the importance of Iraq complying with the Security Council resolutions governing the work of the United Nations team. "The Secretary-General is pleased to announce that Mr. Aziz has informed him that the Government of Iraq will comply with his request. He has been assured that no members of the team will be expelled from Iraq while his envoys are in the country. "The Secretary-General welcomes this action as a positive beginning of the talks that will take place starting tomorrow, when the envoys will meet with the Deputy Prime Minister in the afternoon. Their task will be both delicate and difficult. Let's all wish them success". Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said the Assembly had this morning taken note of the report on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and was discussing that issue, for which there were 16 speakers on the list. As a second item for today, the Assembly would take up the University for Peace, for which there was a draft resolution (A/52/L.10). Eight speakers were expected to take part in the debate. On the elections for the Economic and Social Council in the Assembly yesterday, he said that, after three ballots, the Assembly had failed to elect a candidate to fill the remaining vacancy from the Latin American and Caribbean States. It would take up that item again Wednesday afternoon. On reform, Mr. Taukatch noted that the eleventh open-ended informal consultations would be held this afternoon and would be addressed by the Secretary-General. The President of the General Assembly was looking forward to the Secretary-General's intervention and felt that it was an extremely important part of the negotiation and consultation process. Concerning the conference room papers mentioned earlier by Mr. Eckhard, he said that more of them were expected to come out today. The President also felt that was an important part of the consultation process. Member States were requesting more and more information and the Secretariat was speedily providing that, which became "part and parcel" of the process of consideration of the item, Mr. Taukatch continued. As part of his own efforts to promote a decision on the matter, the Assembly President had

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 4 November 1997

this morning met with the Chairman of the Group of 77, the Permanent Representative of the United Republic of Tanzania, and then with the Permanent Representative of Cuba. He was also scheduled to meet with the Permanent Representative of Japan, and then with his "Friends" on Reform, the Permanent Representatives of Brazil and Norway. Looking ahead, Mr. Taukatch said the General Assembly would take up item 30: Necessity of ending the economic and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba. On that, there was a draft resolution (A/52/L.11) and 14 speakers had been inscribed on the list. By way of historical background, he pointed out that there had been a vote last year on the same item, which had a vote of 137 for and three against with 25 abstentions. Turning to the Committees, he said that the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) was today continuing an exchange of views on the rationalization of its work and reform of its agenda, which it had begun yesterday by focusing on further streamlining of its disarmament efforts. In his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Mothusi Nkogowe (Botswana), had highlighted some of the challenges facing the body, as it tried to streamline its work. On that subject, Mr. Taukatch referred those who were interested to Press Release GA/DIS/3090 which contained some very interesting thoughts about how the work of the First Committee could be rationalized. Concerning the Second Committee (Economic and Financial), he invited those who had special interest in the question of emerging markets to follow those proceedings today, as there was a panel discussion on "Financial and Development Issues", to be moderated by the Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Rafeeudin Ahmed. The Committee was also scheduled to take up issues of sustainable development and international economic cooperation. Mr. Taukatch said the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, Cultural) was today expected to conclude its consideration of the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Yesterday, it had been addressed by the High Commissioner, Sadako Ogata. The Fifth Committee was scheduled to conclude general discussion of the item on pattern of conferences today and to continue its first reading of the budget. That would involve a section-by-section consideration of the proposed programme budget for the 1998-1999 biennium. Yesterday, the committee had concluded its discussion on the reports of the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU).

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