DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, at today's briefing drew the attention of correspondents to the text of the Secretary-General's letter to President Laurent-Desire Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo concerning the human rights investigative team, which had been transmitted to the President of the Security Council yesterday. The team had met with President Kabila yesterday and received assurances from him that it could begin its work, and in his letter, the Secretary-General acknowledged that. The team announced in Kinshasa today that it had informed the Government of its intention to go first to Mbadanka in Equateur province in the north. If all went well, the team would leave for Mbadanka as early as tomorrow.

Arrangements were now being made for transportation for the team using a United Nations aircraft that had been borrowed from the mission in Angola, Mr. Eckhard went on. A few elements still needed to be provided by the Government to make the trip possible, including assigning a liaison officer to the mission; travel authorization; and official documentation introducing the members to local authorities. The team's intention was to spend approximately one week in Mbadanka doing preparatory work for a more in-depth investigation.

Concerning the Security Council today, Mr. Eckhard said that it had just met formally to adopt two resolutions on the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and on the United Nations Transition Mission in Haiti (UNTMIH). On UNPREDEP, the Council decided to roll over the mandate until 4 December. On Haiti, he said the Council was expected to approve the establishment of the United Nations Civilian Police Mission (MIPONUH), composed of up to 300 civilian police, with a mandate limited to a single one-year period ending on 30 November 1998.

In reference to questions from correspondents concerning the Secretary-General's report on the "oil-for-food" programme for Iraq, the Spokesman reiterated that it was still expected to be issued on Monday, 1 December.

Concerning Afghanistan, the Secretary-General's three-monthly report on developments in that country was on the racks today, Mr. Eckhard said. In it, the Secretary-General observed that "a peaceful settlement in Afghanistan remained elusive, in spite of the untiring efforts of the United Nations to broker peace among the warring factions". It went on to say that "what we are witnessing is a seemingly endless tragedy of epic proportions". It was clear, the Secretary-General had concluded, that as long as those governments inside and outside the region with influence on Afghanistan chose not to exercise such influence with the parties, the efforts of the United Nations would not suffice to bring peace in the country. In that connection, Mr. Eckhard

continued, there would be a meeting of the Afghan Support Group here in New York next Wednesday, 3 December. It was being organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Norway.

Mr. Eckhard drew attention to the announcement late on Wednesday that the Secretary-General had appointed Elizabeth Rehn of Finland as his Special Representative and Coordinator of United Nations Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina with effect from 16 January. She was only the second woman to be appointed Special Representative in any peacemaking or peacekeeping context, he pointed out, her one predecessor being Dame Margaret Joan Anstee of the United Kingdom who had served as Special Representative in Angola from February 1992 to June 1993. Ms. Rehn would replace Kai Eide of Norway who had been in that post since February; she had served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights for the situation of human rights in Bosnia, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia since 1995, he added.

He announced that ministers and other senior government officials from 150 governments were preparing to meet in Kyoto, Japan, starting on 1 December for what was likely to be the most high profile conference on the environment since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was expected to conclude on 10 December. In Kyoto, for the first time, developed countries were expected to adopt legally-binding targets and timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In one of the biggest Internet projects ever undertaken, the Conference would be broadcast live in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Russian and Spanish, and would be delivered from more than 15 computer servers in seven countries. A press release on the issue was available in the Spokesman's Office.

Mr. Eckhard said that the Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court would meet in New York from 1 to 12 December. They were expected to tackle issues still pending, such as judicial assistance and general principles of criminal law. They would meet again in March 1998, and go into the plenipotentiary meeting in Rome from 15 June to 17 July. The Sixth Committee (Legal) of the General Assembly had confirmed those dates for the final meeting. In that connection, he reminded correspondents that on Monday, 1 December, Emma Bonino, the European Union Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner, would give a press conference at 11 a.m. on the appeal for the international criminal court.

Concerning the Somalia flood emergency, he said that the Department of Humanitarian Affairs had announced that more than 1 million people were affected, and the death toll had risen to almost 1,500. Two hundred and thirty-thousand people were displaced. So far, humanitarian aid had reached about 160,000, and the response to the Flash Appeal had been encouraging. Mr. Eckhard announced that $9.8 million had been pledged out of the

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$13 million requested. The international community was working hand in hand with the Somali people through local authorities and elders, religious leaders and women's groups and volunteers. Relief had been delivered by planes, trucks, boats, donkeys, manpower and air-drops. About 1,000 metric tons of food aid had been delivered, as well as drugs, blankets, tarpaulins, high-protein biscuits, and resettlement kits. A major stumbling block continued to be the lack of helicopters, he noted, adding that security in some parts of the country had also been a factor. A situation report from the Department on Somalia was also available in his office.

The Spokesman also reminded correspondents that tomorrow was the fiftieth anniversary of the General Assembly's action on the partition of Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish State. That was resisted on the part of the Arabs, he noted, resulting in several wars and ongoing hostility and suffering in the area. However, Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, who was representing the Secretary-General in Tel Aviv tomorrow, would deliver a message on his behalf. The text of that statement was available in the Spokesman's Office, Mr. Eckhard said, embargoed until delivery.

He also announced a press release from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) which said that the UNHCR today added its voice to the growing chorus of alarm about the food crisis in the central Afghan region of Hazarajat.

Mr. Eckhard said that the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, in cooperation with the Very Special Arts Foundation, which promotes the artistic abilities of people with disabilities, and the Department of Public Information (DPI) would be sponsoring events to commemorate the International Day of Disabled Persons at Headquarters from 1 to 3 December. Its theme this year was "Disability, Arts and Sports", and on Monday, the day's events would begin at 5:30 p.m. with the opening of an exhibit. More information on the event was available in the Spokesman's Office, he added.

Concerning the human rights investigations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a correspondent said that his understanding from the intervention of the Permanent Representative of the United States, Ambassador Bill Richardson, had been that separate teams of investigators would go to eastern and northern locations simultaneously. Had that changed? Mr. Eckhard said the United Nations team thought that it would not be possible to go into the east right now. The idea seemed to have been accepted that the investigators would go to the north now and to the east as soon as was possible.

In the week since the return of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) to Iraq, another correspondent asked if there was a general impression at the United Nations about how their work was going. The Spokesman said that what the inspectors had been doing almost exclusively throughout this week was restoring their remote monitoring, trying to account

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for anything that might have been removed at the time those systems were tampered with. There was no "bottom line" assessment that he was aware of, he noted, but if they found anything serious that was missing, he was sure that it would be reported to the Security Council.

The correspondent further asked if the Secretary-General was concerned about the current back-and-forth between Iraq and "certain members of the Security Council" over "Presidential palaces and sensitive sites". "No", answered Mr. Eckhard, because the Security Council resolutions required Iraq to allow the inspectors to go wherever they needed to go, anytime they felt they needed to go there for the purpose of eliminating Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. "Any change in that regime would be a matter for the Security Council to consider", he stressed.

Asked when the Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, Richard Butler, would be travelling to Baghdad "finally", he said the Ambassador was giving consideration to that question, "but he is not ready to announce just when he might go". Pressed for confirmation of next week for Mr. Butler's departure, Mr. Eckhard said he could not.

To another question on when the full-fledged report of the inspectors would be released, he said he would find out whether there was a fixed time for that.

Mr. Eckhard was asked to clarify if he had said that the Security Council would pronounce on the issue of inviting diplomats and representatives of Member States into the "sensitive" sites. "What is the purpose of that?" the Spokesman wondered, noting that if the proposal was as a replacement for inspections, the Security Council had set up a regime for inspections which involved UNSCOM inspectors. He added that his understanding was that the invitation was extended to a certain number of Member States who could respond to it, stressing that it still did not meet the requirements for inspections as spelled out by the Council.

Concerning the food situation in Afghanistan, did he have an update? Mr. Eckhard replied that all that was available was the UNHCR press release that he had mentioned. On whether the World Food Programme (WFP) would embark on food drops in Bamyan, he said he would check.

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