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 informing correspondents that the Executive Director of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, would be present shortly to brief them on the Secretary-General's report on the implementation of the "oil-for-food" programme, which came out yesterday. (Mr. Sevan's briefing is being issued separately.)

Mr. Eckhard announced that the Executive Director of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) on the disarmament of Iraq, Richard Butler, was planning to visit Baghdad at the weekend, if the details could be worked out with his counterpart in Iraq, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Should the arrangements go through, Mr. Butler would be discussing with Mr. Aziz weapons questions relating to VX -- special warheads capable of carrying chemical and biological weapons -- and how to move forward on the "full, final and complete disclosure" on biological weapons, as well as policy questions regarding access to the "sensitive" sites. Mr. Butler had already proposed the agenda for the discussions in his letter to Mr. Aziz of 27 October, which was made available to correspondents soon after.

Still on Iraq, the Spokesman said that the United Nations yesterday had provided that country with "Weekly Report No. 41" on the implementation of the "oil-for-food" programme. It showed that the Security Council Committee which oversees sanctions on Iraq had approved nine humanitarian sales contracts, and put on hold three applications. So far, the Committee had approved 117 sales contracts under Phase II, the current 180-day period, amounting to $747,500,000. For Phase I, he said that the Committee had by last week approved a total of 778 applications worth $1.2 billion. Last Friday, the United Nations Overseers had approved another oil contract to a Russian company with a volume of 1.2 million barrels; this morning, they approved another one, also to a Russian company, with a volume of 500,000 barrels. With those additions, there were now a total of 34 oil contracts approved, with a total volume of 127.3 million barrels. The oil proceeds in Phase II amounted to $1.5 billion, he noted.

Mr. Eckhard announced that, at the invitation of the British Government, the Secretary-General was sending a three-person team to the United Kingdom today, in connection with the Lockerbie bombing case. The team comprised Enoch Dumbutchena, a former Chief Justice of Zimbabwe; Henry Schermers, a human rights professor at Lyden University in the Netherlands; and one staff member from the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs. Their visit would begin in London tomorrow, and continue on Thursday and Friday in Scotland, where they would visit a prison facility and meet with officials from the Scottish court and prison services.

He then drew attention to a story in the newswires last night that following the Secretary-General's meeting yesterday with the Permanent Representative of Libya, Abuzed Dorda, the Ambassador told the press on his way out of the Building that the Secretary-General had agreed to send a mission to Libya to discuss with the Libyan authorities the effects of sanctions on that country. Mr. Eckhard said he had confirmed the story last night, adding that it would be a three-person team led by the Head of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Vladimir Petrovsky. The team was expected to leave for Libya in the middle of December.

The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Choong-Hyun Paik, had left for a regular visit to that country on Sunday to prepare for his next report to the Commission, the Spokesman said. He would remain in Afghanistan until 11 December and would attempt to go to the northern part of the country where mass graves had been discovered recently. While there, he would look into the possibility of engaging the assistance of a forensic expert to look into what appeared to be a grave violation of human rights. Mr. Eckhard said he would keep correspondents briefed on the trip as it progressed.

Concerning the Secretary-General's human rights investigative team to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said that the departure for Mbadanka planned for today did not take place. The team's planned transport plane, which was being brought in from the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA), had been unable to land in Kinshasa because necessary clearances had not been granted. After the plane returned to Angola, the clearances were then received and the plane came back to Kinshasa. Mr. Eckhard said there had also been other administrative matters which, earlier thought to have been resolved, turned out not to be so, and the trip had again been put off until tomorrow.

The Security Council was this morning being briefed by the Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on Cyprus, Diego Cordovez, the Spokesman said. Arrangements had been made for him to talk to correspondents at the stand-up microphone following that briefing. The Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahima Fall, was also briefing the Council today on the subject of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mr. Eckhard said that the Secretary-General had arrived in Ottawa, Canada, last night at about 7 p.m. to begin a State visit. His programme today included a visit to United Nations staff in Canada at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR); a visit to a peacekeeping monument; and a State luncheon hosted by the Governor-General. He also had meetings scheduled for this afternoon with the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and the Minister for International Cooperation. He would end the day with a dinner hosted by the Prime Minister.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 2 December 1997

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, was on her way back from Guatemala, where she was awarded the Medal of Peace by the Guatemalan President. Mr. Eckhard said she had also visited Mexico, where there were 28,000 refugees remaining from the 46,000 who had fled the civil war in Guatemala. Many refugees had also returned home with the help of the UNHCR, which was working with the Mexican Government to solve the remaining cases of those who wished to return. A briefing note was available in the Spokesman's Office on that subject.

Mr. Eckhard also stated that the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, was visiting Africa from 3 to 11 December. Additional information on the specifics of that trip were available in the Spokesman's Office.

Turning to the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, now in its second day in Kyoto, Japan, the Spokesman said that Canada and New Zealand had announced their targets today. Canada called for a 3 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2010, and 8 per cent by 2015. New Zealand's timetable called for a 5 per cent reduction from 1990 levels no sooner than 2005. Negotiators had organized themselves into three groups, and concentrated their talks on elaborating a possible approach to differentiated targets, whereby each developed country would adhere to different emissions goals.

Concerning the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, Mr. Eckhard said that in accordance with article 15, the Convention would open for signature in Ottawa from 3 to 4 December, and then move to United Nations Headquarters in New York thereafter until its entry into force. That would take place on the first day of the sixth month after the fortieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession had been deposited.

He drew the attention of correspondents to the second annual report of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which was out on the racks today.

He also announced a statement from the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Yasushi Akashi, expressing sorrow and indignation at the death of Karine Mane, a French national working for a non-governmental organization relief organization in Tajikistan, which was a UNHCR partner in the relief work in that country.

Turning to Somalia, he stated that water levels had started to recede in many areas. However, the most recent reports indicated that it had been rising considerably again in the past few days; the floods had also deeply affected the north-eastern province of Kenya, where Somali refugees had been flooded out. The UNHCR was moving about 5,000 refugees out of their camps in that area.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 2 December 1997

Today was the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, the Spokesman reminded correspondents. The Secretary-General's message on the occasion was available in the Spokesman's Office.

He extended an invitation to correspondents -- "please mark the date, Monday, 8 December" -- to attend the release of UNHCR's biennial report, State of the World's Refugees. It would be launched by Mrs. Ogata at a press conference at 10:30 a.m. on that day in Geneva. In New York, the media was invited to a launch taking place at a press conference at 11 a.m. The former head of the New York office of the UNHCR, and now Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, Soren Jessen-Petersen, would conduct the briefing.

Mr. Eckhard announced that at 2:30 p.m. today, Dan Becker, the National Climate Spokesperson for the Sierra Club, and John Paarlberg, the Co-chair of the Economic Justice Committee of the National Council of Churches, would brief correspondents on the Kyoto Climate Change Conference. Tomorrow, at 11:30 a.m., the Permanent Representative of Belarus, Alyaksandr Sychou, would talk about the position of his country regarding the current status and future of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The Spokesman was also asked about the three-person team going to Libya. Would they be looking at the economic impact of United Nations sanctions against that country? He explained that the Libyan Government had asked the Secretary-General to send a delegation to discuss with them the impact of sanctions on Libya. The Secretary-General had agreed to do so, proposing mid- December as a date. The Permanent Representative met with the Secretary- General yesterday to confirm the acceptance of that proposal, and the team would be going there at the middle of the month.

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said that the President this morning had made a statement at the meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Assembly for the Announcement of Voluntary Contributions to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Pointing out that that body's forty-eighth anniversary was coming up in less than a week, the spokesman said that in his statement, Mr. Udovenko stressed that the United Nations could be proud of the work of UNRWA, one of its oldest operational agencies. He had also stressed that it was not enough merely to salute the work of UNRWA without giving the agency the resources, and its dedicated staff the tools, needed to carry out the work entrusted to them. The President called on Member States to continue to support UNRWA.

Concerning the Assembly's agenda today, Mr. Taukatch said it would continue its consideration of agenda 36: "Question of Palestine", which it commenced yesterday afternoon. Eleven more speakers were scheduled to take part in the debate today. It was also expected that the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 2 December 1997

would introduce three draft resolutions, which concerned the Committee itself; the Division for Palestinian Rights of the Secretariat; and the special information programme by the Department of Public Information (DPI). A total of five drafts were circulated yesterday in the Assembly, the spokesman said.

Concerning questions he had been asked on action by the Assembly on the drafts under that same item, he said he did not expect any today. Instead, action on those texts was likely to come tomorrow after the Assembly's consideration of the item on the situation in the Middle East.

He reminded correspondents that open-ended informal consultations of the plenary on the draft proposal on the recommendations contained in the report of the Secretary-General on reform would continue today. They were being conducted by the Permanent Representative of Botswana, Legwaila Joseph Legwaila, and the Permanent Representative of Ireland, Joseph Campbell. The draft proposal had been distributed to all Member States earlier, for their review and comments.

Mr. Taukatch noted that the President of the General Assembly had met this morning with Ambassador Besley Maycock (Barbados) to discuss ongoing consideration in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) of matters relating to the scale of assessments. Ambassador Maycock was acting as the coordinator in the Fifth Committee on that issue.

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