DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Juan Carlos Brandt, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's briefing by wishing correspondents a happy and prosperous 1998 on behalf of the Secretary-General, the Office of the Spokesman and the Department of Public Information (DPI).

Mr. Brandt then announced that the Secretary-General had appointed Enrique ter Horst as the new Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. Mr. ter Horst would start on 1 February and serve as Deputy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, who began her work in September. The post would be at the level of Assistant Secretary-General. Previously, Mr. ter Horst served as the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Haiti, from March 1996 until December 1997.

The Deputy Spokesman said that Finland had become the first Member State in 1998 to pay its assessed contributions to the United Nations budget amounting to $5.6 million. This time last year, two countries had paid in full. To date, the outstanding contributions were now $3.1 billion -- $1.6 billion for the regular budget and $1.5 billion for peacekeeping.

The Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP) was now available, Mr. Brandt said. The Mission of 28 military observers from 25 countries monitored the demilitarization of the Prevlaka peninsula. Its mandate expired on 15 January.

According to the report, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had retained their divergent interpretations regarding the Prevlaka peninsula, Mr. Brandt said. Croatia considered the matter to be a security issue, while the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia considered it a territorial issue. Both countries had indicated their willingness to seek a negotiated solution to the dispute, even though substantive negotiations had not yet begun. The Secretary-General was, therefore, recommending a further six-month extension of UNMOP's mandate, until 15 July. He was also appealing to the two countries to begin substantive talks as quickly as possible.

Mr. Brandt said France would hold the presidency of the Security Council for the month of January. Council President Alain Dejammet was holding bilateral consultations today and the Council was expected to meet tomorrow to discuss its programme of work for January. Bahrain, Brazil, Gabon, Gambia and Slovenia were new non-permanent members of the Council. A list of the Council's full membership was available in the Spokesman's Ofice.

Mr. Brandt drew attention to the draft distribution plan for phase III of the Iraq oil-for-food programme. He said final administrative steps were being completed and the Secretary-General might be in a position to approve

them late this afternoon. Once the Secretary-General approved the plan, he would inform the Security Council. The Executive Director of the Iraq programme, Benon Sevan, would then convey the Secretary-General's decision to Iraq through its Permanent Mission. If that happened this afternoon, the Spokesman's Office would make an announcement.

Once the Secretary-General approved the plan, Iraq could start pumping oil and submitting new oil contracts to the United Nations for approval, Mr. Brandt said. Iraq had not yet submitted a new oil-pricing formula for January. However, that would not prevent Iraq from submitting new oil contracts and the United Nations overseers from approving them. Once Iraq submitted a new formula, the United Nations overseers would review it and submit it to the Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990), which oversees the sanctions on Iraq. The Committee would then have 48 hours to respond to the new formula.

Mr. Brandt said a fact sheet was available in the Spokesman's Office concerning the trial of Zlatko Aleksovski by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which begins tomorrow. Mr. Aleksovski was charged with two counts of grave breaches of the 1949 Geneva Conventions and one count of violation of the law or customs of war, for the unlawful treatment of Bosnian Muslim detainees in his capacity as a commander of the detention facility at Kaonik.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child would hold its seventeenth session in Geneva, from today until 23 January, Mr. Brandt said. The Committee, which was composed of 10 independent human rights experts, would discuss the promotion and protection of children's rights in the Maldives, Libya, Ireland and the Federated States of Micronesia.

The Committee was formed in 1991 to monitor the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most complete statement of children's rights ever made and the first to give them the force of international law, he said. So far, 191 countries had ratified or acceded to the Convention; only the United States and Somalia had not, although the former had indicated its intention to do so. The Convention was the most widely accepted human rights instrument ever, protecting the rights of over 2 billion children.

Mr. Brandt said the Secretary-General had been "enjoying a well-earned rest" and was expected back in his office next week.

A correspondent asked for a response to a report by the Greek-Cypriot leader that the Secretary-General was preparing a document to be submitted to the intercommunal talks in March. Mr. Brandt said that the Secretary-General, in his report on Cyprus last December, had indicated that he was convinced of the need for his good offices on that particular question as the only commonly agreed means of reaching a negotiated settlement of the dispute. The

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 5 January 1998

Secretary-General had also expressed his desire and intention to continue working on the issue until it was resolved.

Did the Secretary-General have any comment regarding the recent massacres in Algeria? a correspondent asked. As recently as last month, the Secretary-General had given his views on terrorism at the Summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Tehran, Mr. Brandt said. The Secretary-General also felt his words of last August were still valid. At that time, he expressed regret at the continued loss of life in Algeria through violence and said that tolerance and dialogue must prevail over the forces of violence.

In Tehran, the Secretary-General had expressed his distress at the increased resort to violence and terror by extremist groups in the name of Islam, Mr. Brandt went on to say. He had ended that speech by saying, "They are soiling the name of a religion whose very name signifies peace and whose Almighty is the compassionate, the merciful." The Secretary-General remained extremely concerned about the violence and hoped that it would end.

The Secretary-General believed that it "takes two to tango", Mr. Brandt said. Until the Algerian Government expressed the desire, will and intention to seek some kind of international assistance on the matter, it would have to deal with the problem.

A correspondent asked for additional information on the committee to be formed on children in difficult situations, in war and in conflicts. Mr. Brandt promised to look into the matter.

Asked what the United Nations intended to do to address the situation in Haiti, Mr. Brandt said the Organization was continuing its presence in that country in an effort to see the situation there normalized. However, it was up to the Government -- the President and the Parliament -- to resolve the situation. The United Nations would be there to help.

Did the Secretary-General intend to intervene in Haiti? the correspondent asked. Mr. Brandt said the United Nations was present in Haiti; he had no further information on any particular initiative by the Secretary-General. The United Nations was trying to assist Haiti.

What was the Secretary-General doing to make Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and the leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Jonas Savimbi, meet each other? a correspondent asked. Mr. Brandt said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye (Mali), was doing his utmost to try and get the two men to hold a dialogue, which would result in a better situation in Angola.

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