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, noted at the beginning of today's briefing that the Security Council had been briefed yesterday by the Executive Chairman of the Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM), Richard Butler. In that connection, Mr. Butler had been invited to talk to correspondents at the briefing. (Mr. Butler's remarks have been issued separately.)

The Council had also yesterday held an open debate on the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH), presided over by Fernando Naranjo Villalobos, the Foreign Minister of Costa Rica, said Mr. Eckhard. It would resume its consultations on Mr. Butler's report on Iraq later today. Also on the agenda for today were two reports of the Secretary-General, the first on the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), and the other on his Good Offices there. The Council was also to have received a briefing on Somalia today, but it was now understood that both reports and the briefing had been put off until Monday.

He said that the Council was now continuing its open debate on UNMIBH, and it was expected that the mandate, including that of the International Police Task Force (IPTF), would be extended for an additional period of six months, terminating 21 June 1998. It was also the Council's intention to renew the UNMIBH mandate for a further period beyond that June date, unless there were significant changes to the security arrangements as currently provided by the multinational stabilization force (SFOR).

Concerning the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), Mr. Eckhard said the Council would also hold a formal meeting today, and was expected to endorse a recommendation of the Secretary-General to terminate the mandate of that mission on 15 January 1998, and to establish in its wake a follow-on United Nations Civilian Police Mission for a single nine-month period.

Following yesterday's consultations on Tajikistan, the President of the Security Council made a press statement expressing the Council's concern about the delays in the implementation of the peace process and the worsening security situation, the Spokesman said. That had happened late in the day.

Concerning Abkhazia, Georgia, Mr. Eckhard said that the first meeting of the Coordinating Council, made up of representatives of the two parties and created in November at a meeting chaired by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Liviu Bota, took place yesterday in Sukhumi, also under the chairmanship of Mr. Bota. The Abkhaz leader, Vladislav Ardzinba, attended and

addressed the opening meeting. Also present were: the Russian Federation, which was the facilitator of the process; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); the group of Friends of the Secretary-General -- France, Germany, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United States; the Secretary of the joint Georgian/Abkhaz commission, Zhurad Lakerbaya; and a representative of the International Red Cross.

The Spokesman announced that the Head of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Vladimir Petrovsky, had completed a six-day mission to Libya, and would report to the Secretary-General next week. He was expected in New York or Monday or Tuesday.

Turning to the human rights team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he stated that the text of the "First 100 Days" press conference by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, in Geneva yesterday, was available in the Spokesman's Office. In it, she had said that Atsu-Koffi Amega, the head of the team, had had a good discussion with representatives of the Government on Tuesday. The Government had reassured the team that it would be provided the necessary environment in which to do its work. The team was expected to resume its investigation at Mbandaka in early January.

The sixth meeting of the Ministerial Council of the OSCE opened in Copenhagen, Denmark, yesterday, Mr. Eckhard said. The Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, who represented the Secretary- General, circulated a message to the participants. In it, the Secretary- General mentioned a long list of operations that would benefit greatly from joint involvement and a close working relationship between the OSCE and the United Nations.

Mr. Eckhard said that it had been announced today in Geneva that United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) officials would be travelling to Rwanda today to search for alternative sites to accommodate the survivors of last week's Mudende massacre. In the meantime, talks were continuing between representatives of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and the UNHCR about the survivors' possible repatriation.

On the subject of the draft resolution on reform recommendations, he said that the text of the Secretary-General's address to the General Assembly this afternoon would be made available later today on an embargoed basis. A new document (A/C.5/52/36) on United Nations reform was on the racks today. That document was in connection with the programme budget implications of draft resolution A/52/L.72 on United Nations reform, in particular the financial implications of the creation of the post of the Deputy Secretary- General and the discontinuation of the High-level Advisory Board on Sustainable Development. "So, bureaucracy can shrink, in fact", Mr. Eckhard remarked.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 19 December 1997

He announced a press release from the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which stated that the Office of the Prosecutor yesterday filed motions to withdraw the indictments of four of the accused. Details were available in the press release in the Spokesman's Office.

Mr. Eckhard noted that the Secretary-General this morning met with the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov. The Ambassador gave him a cheque for $63,150,000, mainly for peace-keeping arrears of the Russian Federation.

He announced that two Member States -- Algeria and the Czech Republic -- had paid their 1997 regular budget dues in full. Their assessed contributions were $1,704,126 for Algeria and $2,662,697 for the Czech Republic. The payments brought to 99 the number of Member States paid in full for this year. At the end of last year, only 98 had paid in full. "We see some creeping improvement there", the Spokesman noted, "although the amount of money owed to the Organization now is the same as what was owed as the end of 1996".

The Spokesman announced a press release from the World Food Programme (WFP) appealing for $12.8 million in emergency food aid for victims of civil strife in northern Uganda. That was also available in the Spokesman's Office.

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), began by saying that there was every indication that Friday, 19 November, was going to be a momentous day for the Organization, one that would confirm the earlier predictions that the fifty-second session would go down in history as the "session of reformers". He recalled that at the outset, Mr. Udovenko had stressed that on the reform issue, the United Nations was making a crucial step from the quicksand of the uncertain to the firm ground of the possible. Today, by acting on the resolution on United Nations reform, the General Assembly would take another important step in turning that possibility into reality. He noted that that would be the second resolution adopted by the Assembly on the subject, the first having been on the actions part of the report of the Secretary-General; today's resolution dealt with his recommendations.

Drawing attention to the draft itself (document A/52/L.72), he pointed out that it now had a Rev.1, which carried some minor changes. He noted that the resolution was supposed to have been the first item to be taken up by the Assembly in the afternoon, but it had now been moved to third place. First, the Assembly would deal with the item on the strengthening of coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations; and then strengthening of the United Nations system, on which there was a draft resolution (document A/52/L.71) submitted by Canada.

Mr. Taukatch drew correspondents' attention to the fact that the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) would be meeting at the same time as the Assembly at 3 p.m. There was also a change in the work of the Fifth

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 19 December 1997

Committee, which would take up as the first item the budget implications of the reform proposals, he said. It was expected that as soon as the Committee acted on the budget implications, the document would go to the Assembly, allowing it to take action on the reform draft. The spokesman pointed out that it was a consensus decision, the draft having been submitted by the President of the General Assembly following extensive consultations at various levels. In consideration of the reform item, the Secretary-General was expected to address the Assembly. The United States, China, Japan, Egypt, Republic of Korea and Luxembourg (on behalf of the European Union) were also inscribed on the list, as were the Permanent Representative of Botswana, Legwaila J. Legwaila, and the Permanent Representative of Ireland, John Campbell, who had coordinated the consultations as "Friends" of Mr. Udovenko on reform.

What would remain was the Fifth Committee, Mr. Taukatch continued. "It is one of those difficult sessions when the two major items with the Fifth Committee -- the biennium budget and the scale of assessments -- overlap." That happened once in six years, since the budget was considered every two years, and the scale of assessments every three. It was, therefore, one of those "happy" coincidences this year, putting an extremely heavy burden on the Fifth Committee. They would be meeting late today, and probably tomorrow, to finish the second reading of the budget. Meanwhile, consultations continued on the scale of assessments.

Yesterday, the President of the General Assembly addressed the Fifth Committee, the spokesman said, and he urged them to finish their work as soon as possible. This morning, he met with the Chairman of the Committee to consider how to expedite the Committee's work.

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