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 today's briefing by welcoming the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) on the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Richard Butler, who was going to make a statement and answer a few questions. (Mr. Butler's briefing is being issued separately.)

The Spokesman then read the following statement:

"The Secretary-General met with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz of Iraq this morning at 10 a.m.

"The Deputy Prime Minister had come to say goodbye, and to inform the Secretary-General of Iraq's decision to expel United States members of the United Nations inspection mission.

"The United Nations could continue its normal work, Mr. Aziz said, with personnel of other nationalities. However, U-2 flights must cease, although Iraq hoped to avoid a military confrontation.

"Mr. Aziz assured the Secretary-General that Iraq did not want a confrontation with the United Nations, and did not want an escalation of current tensions. He hoped that the United Nations Special Commission would continue its inspections until a diplomatic solution could be found. Iraq wished to continue a dialogue to that end.

"The Secretary-General responded that the situation could have been resolved through diplomatic effort, which is why he sent his team to Baghdad and worked with the Security Council to find a solution. It is regrettable, he said, that these strenuous efforts had not been successful.

"The matter is now in the hands of the Security Council."

Mr. Eckhard then turned the briefing over to Mr. Butler, who made a statement and left after fielding questions from correspondents.

Mr. Eckhard then said that there was as yet no definite time for a Security Council meeting on Iraq, but there were indications that the Council was aiming for consultations sometime in the afternoon. Meanwhile, the new Executive Director of the United Nations-Iraq programme, Benon Sevan, had left for Baghdad and was expected to arrive there tomorrow. Reminding correspondents that Mr. Sevan was also the United Nations Security Coordinator, he pointed out that it would be his first visit to Iraq in his

new capacity. The trip was planned several weeks ago, he added, its objective being for Mr. Sevan to familiarize himself with the operation of the "oil-for- food" programme on the ground, and to prepare for the next 180-day report on the implementation of that programme, which he hoped to finalize and issue by 28 November. The current 180-day period comes to an end on 5 December. Mr. Sevan would be meeting with the various heads of United Nations agencies in Baghdad, and was also planning a four-day visit to northern Iraq. He was expected to leave Iraq on 23 November.

The Secretary-General was at the time of the briefing attending the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly, Mr. Eckhard said. Concerning other appointments for today, he said that the Secretary-General had been scheduled to travel to Boston this afternoon to deliver a public lecture at Harvard University; that trip was now cancelled.

Mr. Eckhard alerted correspondents that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, would arrive in New York tonight. Tomorrow morning, she would address the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) and take questions from delegates. In the afternoon, she would address the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

Peru yesterday had ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), the Spokesman said, bringing the number of ratifications to eight. The number of signatories to that Treaty was 148.

Mr. Eckhard announced that the United Nations University was organizing a symposium tomorrow and Saturday in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium on the theme "The United Nations and the Global Environment in the 21st Century". Among the participants were the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai; and the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Elizabeth Dowdeswell. Correspondents were invited.

He then issued a reminder of the press briefing this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Elizabeth Rehn. She would be focusing on the issue of rape and abuse of women committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

Still on press conferences, tomorrow at 11 a.m., the Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Sandra Mason, would give a briefing. Two members of that Committee -- the Permanent Representative of Italy, Francesco Paolo Fulci; and the wife of the permanent representative of Burkina Faso, Awa Ouedraogo -- would also be present.

A correspondent asked if Tariq Aziz, in his goodbye visit to the Secretary-General, had indicated whether he would be leaving New York today. "He didn't say", replied Mr. Eckhard, "and I don't have any information about that".

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 13 November 1997

Following the vote of the United States Congress last night, it seemed that the United Nations would not get its arrears from the United States, a correspondent said. Did the Secretary-General have a comment on that? No, Mr. Eckhard said, remarking that it was somewhat ironic that those events happened on the same day that the General Assembly had approved a substantial portion of the Secretary-General's reform package. "We understand that 'its not over till its over'", he added. "There might be another day, and we understand that the Administration has not given up trying to get this money from Congress."

Another correspondent asked if Mr. Eckhard had any statistics about how the Congressional vote would affect the United Nations. In addition, how was UNSCOM funded, and would the Commission be directly affected by that vote? Mr. Eckhard said that the Commission had initially been funded by voluntary contributions. Following the initiation of the "oil-for-food" resolution, some of those funds went to cover the Commission's costs. "The monies that were eliminated from the draft legislation last night were arrears, and our capacity to absorb the shock of arrears diminishes as peacekeeping operations diminish in size and in number", he said. The United Nations had been depending on the reconciliation with the United States, and the beginning of the flow of the payment of arrears by it to allow the Organization to meet its obligations. "It is a bad situation that would just get worse, I'm afraid, but again, the Administration told us this morning that they hadn't yet given up."

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), in reference to the Assembly action late yesterday on the draft resolution on reform, described the experience as "an awfully long day but an awfully important day as well". The draft had been approved without a vote, he noted, recalling that both the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly had spoken at the occasion. A large number of delegates had expressed their view on that significant decision as well.

The President of the General Assembly had said that in dealing with the agenda item, the Assembly broke new ground, said the spokesman. Referring to the long process of consultations that preceded the decision, he said that the President had stressed in his statement that "as we went about our business, we may not have made big headlines, but we certainly made great headway towards building a consensus". Mr. Taukatch announced that Mr. Udovenko was planning to meet with the press tomorrow by joining the noon briefing.

Anticipating the question, "what next", he said that early next week, the Assembly -- in accordance with the resolution -- would continue its consideration of the report of the Secretary-General, turning its attention to the Secretary-General's recommendations. He reminded correspondents that the Assembly had already done the first reading of that part of the report.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 13 November 1997

Still on events at the Assembly yesterday, he noted that the other item had been the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Following a lengthy debate, the Assembly adopted a resolution.

Turning to this morning's programme, he reminded correspondents that the meeting in the General Assembly Hall was not the fifty-second session, but the resumed tenth emergency special session on "Illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory". At the time of the briefing, there were 28 speakers inscribed on the list. By the terms of a three-page draft resolution (document A/ES-10/L.3), the Assembly would, in part, reiterate its recommendation that the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War to convene a conference on measures to enforce the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including Jerusalem. In that connection, it would request the Government of Switzerland, in its capacity as the depositary of the Geneva Convention, to undertake necessary preparatory steps, including the convening of a meeting of experts to follow up that recommendation. There were two related documents, Mr. Taukatch added: a report of the Secretary-General (document A/ES-10/16) and the addendum to it, which the Secretary-General had submitted following the previous action by the General Assembly.

Concerning the Main Committees today, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) was continuing action on all resolutions submitted to it on all items on its agenda. At the Second Committee the main topics were the Convention to Combat Desertification, the United Nations Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and training and research.

The spokesman said the Third Committee was focusing on human rights, and would also hear introductory statements by five Special Rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights. Among the items to be considered by it in the afternoon was the "promotion and protection of the rights of the child". Recalling that Mr. Eckhard had said earlier that the Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, Ms. Mason, would be addressing a press conference tomorrow, Mr. Taukatch noted that she had met with the President of the General Assembly this morning. At that meeting, they had exchanged views on the importance of addressing the issue of the rights of the child both at the United Nations and at the national level.

* *** *