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.)

Juan Carlos Brandt, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's briefing by congratulating the newly elected Executive Committee of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) for 1998, to be presided over by Ted Morello of the Far Eastern Economic Review. On behalf of the Secretary-General, the Office of the Spokesman, and the Department of Public Information, he wished the new team well, and thanked the outgoing Executive Committee, headed by Raghida Dergham, whose presidency he described as "productive". He also took the opportunity to draw attention to the recent award to Ricardo Aldai, Chief United Nations Correspondent of NOTIMEX (the Mexico News Agency), of the 1997 Francisco Zarco Award by the National Association of Editors of Mexico, for international news reporting. He pointed out that Mr. Aldai had also been elected a member of the new UNCA executive.

On behalf of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), he announced to listeners of the BBC World Service at the United Nations that the World Service audio feed had been interrupted temporarily. The engineers of the BBC and the telephone company were working on the problem and promised to have it fixed by Tuesday, 16 December. The BBC apologized for inconveniences caused.

Mr. Brandt then read the following statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

"The Kyoto Conference on Climate Change has taken a major step towards the objective of limiting growth in greenhouse gas emissions. The developed countries have set an overall target to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by more than 5 per cent below 1990 levels by early next century. This will represent a major shift in the trend of emissions; it shows true political leadership by the largest industrial economies. The Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change provides opportunities for partnership between government and the private sector, notably in transferring finance and technology for sustainable development in developing countries. This is a sound foundation for a global cooperative strategy which will bring together, under the aegis of the United Nations, governments, civil society and the business community in a joint effort to protect a common environmental resource. The Secretary- General urges governments now to move expeditiously in ratifying and implementing this historic agreement." (See today's Press Release SG/SM/6420- ENV/DEV/457.)

There was a press release received from the Conference this morning which contained more information on the agreements that had been reached in Kyoto, the Associate Spokesman said.

The next round of discussions between the United Nations and Iraqi officials on a new distribution plan for the third phase of the oil-for-food programme was now expected to take place in Baghdad on Sunday, Mr. Brandt said. Those discussions began last Sunday, and United Nations agencies were now finalizing a distribution plan for northern Iraq which would be incorporated into the overall distribution plan. The Security Council indicated in resolution 1143 that the Government of Iraq should submit a new distribution plan to the Secretary-General for approval before 5 January 1998.

Concerning the human rights investigative team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said the team began their field work today in Mbandaka in the north-west of the country. Investigators reported, however, that their scheduled 9 a.m. deployment was delayed when the three members of the Government's Liaison Committee accompanying them refused to cooperate unless they were joined by four more government officials. The four additional officials arrived in Mbandaka yesterday, even though the investigative team had agreed with the Liaison Committee that it would go to that area with three officers only. They told the three liaison officers that the team was not responsible for the four additional personnel and that it could not start work with them because agreement on them had not been reached. Discussions were going on to resolve that difficulty, although work in Mbandaka was going ahead in the meantime. Mr. Brandt noted that the team had also faced additional difficulty when the investigators that had set off for Wendji were surrounded by demonstrators and prevented from reaching that locality. Team members were still discussing the matter with Wendji authorities.

Concerning the Security Council yesterday, he stated that it was briefed in informal consultations on the situation in Angola by the Secretariat. After the meeting, the Council President made a statement to the press conveying details of the Council's discussions, including its call on the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to complete its remaining obligations under the Lusaka Protocol and to stop laying new mines. It also urged President Eduardo dos Santos and UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi to meet in Angola as soon as possible. The Council would discuss the situation in Angola again next week after the issuance of the Sanctions Committee report.

Also yesterday, continued Mr. Brandt, the Council addressed the situation in the Central African Republic. He said he understood that it welcomed the work of the Inter-African Mission for the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements (MISAB) there, describing it as "a successful example of preventive diplomacy".

Turning to the work of the Council today, he said it had been briefed this morning by the Secretariat on the situation in Burundi. There seemed to be a feeling that the chances for peace in Burundi and in the Great Lakes region, in general, would be enhanced if there were a genuine will on the part

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of all parties to the conflict to cooperate with the mediation efforts of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere. Today, the Council was scheduled to consider the second report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Sierra Leone.

Mr. Brandt said today was the final day of the Secretary-General's official visit to Iran, and it was also the third and final day of the eighth summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Secretary-General held bilateral meetings and attended the closing session of the conference. With the President of Azerbaijan, Geidar Aliyev, he discussed the conflict with Armenia and the proposal of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) for a settlement. He then met with the President of Chad, Idriss Deby, with whom he discussed a number of issues, including demining in northern Chad.

The Secretary-General also discussed regional issues with the President of Benin, Mathieu Kerekou, and the internal conflict in the Comoros with the President of that country, Mohamed Abdoulkarim. He also had meetings with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasaina, the only woman head of State at the conference; with Omar Mustafa Muntasser, the Foreign Minister of Libya; and with Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, the President of the Sudan.

The Secretary-General gave a press conference in the early afternoon, the transcript of which the Spokesman's Office would be providing to correspondents shortly. During that conference, the Secretary-General had repeated a phrase from his Human Rights Day speech at the Tehran University, where he said: "Faith elicits respect; fanaticism provokes hate."

The Associate Spokesman said the Secretary-General would leave Tehran tomorrow morning for Kuwait, where he would visit the United Nations Iraq- Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), as well as observation posts in the demilitarized zone with Iraq. He would then proceed with an official visit to Kuwait.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, gave a statement in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday on the occasion of Human Rights Day. The text of that statement was available in the Spokesman's Office.

Mr. Brandt also announced two updates on El Niño received today. One was from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), saying that this weather phenomenon had raised the number of countries facing food supply shortages to the highest number since 1984. The other was a situation report from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs on the floods in Ecuador due to heavy rainfalls which were attributed to El Niño.

On behalf of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the Associate Spokesman announced that today, at a special ceremony to be held at 6 p.m. in

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Conference Room 6, the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs, Yasushi Akashi, would present the Tenth Sasakawa-Department of Humanitarian Affairs Disaster Prevention Award 1997 to two recipients. One was to Observatorio Sismológico Del Sur-Occidente, of the Universidad del Valle (Colombia), and the other to Dr. Anand Swarup Arya (India). In connection with that award ceremony, the laureates would make a presentation on the El Niño phenomenon in order to further understand the unstable ocean atmosphere system which produced periodic climate changes over the tropical Pacific, with important consequences for current global weather conditions. The Award, which carries a prize of $60,000, was created in 1986, and endowed by the late Ryoichi Sasakawa, through the Nippon Foundation, for outstanding achievement in the field of disaster prevention and preparedness. A press release on the subject was available on the racks.

He also drew attention to a press release from the World Food Programme (WFP) concerning airlifts of emergency aid to flood-stricken Kenyans.

At tomorrow's briefing, he continued, Ms. Rosemary Waters, the President of the Staff Committee, would make a statement and take questions on the question of security and independence of the international civil service. She would address the growing threats to United Nations staff security all over the world.

Mr. Brandt also announced a background briefing on United Nations reform by two senior Secretariat officials on Monday, 15 December, at 3:30 p.m. in the press briefing room.

He further informed correspondents that the recently recorded World Chronicle television programmes with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Special Representative in the Palestinian Territories, Timothy Rothermel, and another with the Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Agwu Ukiwe Okali, would be shown today on in-house television channel 6 or 38 at 2:30 p.m. and 3 p.m., respectively.

Asked for further information about reports of 200 refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo having been killed in Rwanda, the Associate Spokesman said he would check.

To another question, about whether a meeting had been scheduled between Angolan President dos Santos and Mr. Savimbi, he said efforts were being made in that direction. The correspondent wanted to know what the Secretary- General was doing to fulfil that request of the Security Council. Mr. Brandt replied, "He encourages, he prods, he pushes, he makes statements and lots of phone calls, he works through his Special Representative there (Alioune Blondin Beye), but for the time being nothing seems to have worked. As with everything else in diplomacy, we keep trying."

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Asked which of the men was resisting, Mr. Brandt responded, "You don't expect me to say that. I would not be polite."

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), began his briefing by noting that there was no action in the plenary today. Tomorrow afternoon, the Assembly would meet to take up the reports of the Third Committee.

He said Mr. Udovenko was out of the Building this morning, but he had been following with interest the events at the Kyoto Climate Conference, and felt that the agreement reached showed that the spirit of international cooperation could help to overcome the most scientifically complex and politically sensitive issues.

Concerning questions about sources for background information on the consideration in the Fifth Committee of the proposals on reform, the spokesman drew attention to Press Releases GA/AB/3200 (of 5 December) and GA/AB/3201 of 8 December).

Asked about the work of the Credentials Committee and its position on Congo-Brazzaville, Mr. Taukatch pointed out that the Committee had held its meeting and, as far as the spokesman knew, was now working on its report. Until the report came out and was approved by the Assembly, he noted, the situation remained as it had been before. He recalled that so far the Committee had announced its position only with regard to Cambodia at the outset of the fifty-second session, and there had been no news since then.

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