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 reminding correspondents of an earlier announcement that the Secretary-General had approved the draft distribution plan for phase III of the Iraq oil-for-food programme. After approving the plan last evening, the Secretary-General had informed the President of the Security Council and the Government of Iraq.

Weekly Report No. 46 on the implementation of the oil-for-food programme was available in the Spokesman's office, he said. It states that the Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990), which oversees the sanctions against Iraq, last week approved 44 humanitarian sales contracts, blocked none, and put 15 applications on hold -- all under phase II.

So far, 280 sales applications had been submitted to the Committee under phase II of the programme, of which 230 had been approved, Mr. Brandt said. The contracts approved under phase II were valued at $940 million, so there was still a way to go under that phase II. The total oil proceeds under phase II had reached $1.979 billion, against a ceiling of $2 billion.

Mr. Brandt said copies of the letters from the Secretary-General to Council President Alain Dejammet (France), and from the Executive Director of the Iraq programme, Benon Sevan, to the Permanent Representative of Iraq, were available in the Spokesman's office.

The Security Council had adopted its programme of work for January, under the Presidency of France, Mr. Brandt said. The President of the Council had also convened a meeting of its Sanctions Committees, which were composed of all Council members, to elect their respective bureaux for 1998.

Mr. Brandt said the officers for the various Sanctions Committees were as follows: for Iraq, the Chairman was Portugal, the Vice-Chairmen Gabon and Brazil; for Libya, the Chairman was Slovenia, the Vice-Chairmen were Portugal and Gabon; for Somalia, the Chairman was Bahrain, the Vice-Chairmen were Gambia and Costa Rica; for Angola, the Chairman was Kenya, the Vice-Chairmen were Costa Rica and Japan; for Rwanda, the Chairman was Japan, the Vice- Chairmen were Bahrain and Sweden; for Liberia, the Chairman was Costa Rica, the Vice-Chairmen were Japan and Sweden; for Sierra Leone, the Chairman was Sweden, the Vice-Chairmen were Costa Rica and Kenya. Copies of the list of names of the Chairmen were available in the Spokesman's office.

Mr. Brandt said the newly appointed Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Western Sahara, Charles Dunbar, would be at Headquarters until Thursday, to be briefed on the identification and referendum process. Mr. Dunbar was expected to arrive in the Mission area towards the end of January or the beginning of February. He had also been invited to attend tomorrow's noon briefing.

Still on Western Sahara, Mr. Brandt said that since the identification process had resumed on 3 December, 16,351 people had been convoked and 10,036 had been identified. So far, a total of 70,148 people had been identified, he said.

A Department of Humanitarian Affairs situation report on the floods in Somalia was available in the Spokesman's office, Mr. Brandt said. According to the United Nations Resident Coordinator for Somalia, the most recent confirmed figures put the death toll at 1,855, with approximately 1 million people still at risk. More than 33,000 livestock had been reportedly killed. Severe diarrhoea, malaria and respiratory infections were widespread and had taken a heavy toll. There had also been cholera outbreaks, and the situation had been worsened by the fact that the water and sanitation systems had collapsed in some areas of the country.

He said that through November and December 1997, the Somalia Inter- Agency Flood Response Team, which had been set up by the Somalia Aid Coordination Body, brought emergency food and non-food relief to over 350,000 people in the affected regions by helicopter, plane, boat and truck. Much remained to be done, however, and much assistance was needed. A new $12.8 million appeal had been launched for a new phase of continued relief and rehabilitation.

Mr. Brandt then drew attention to the $378.2 million appeal launched today by the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Catherine Bertini. The appeal was to expand the WFP's emergency feeding operation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in order to avert a heightened threat of famine in 1998. Ms. Bertini described the operation as the biggest in WFP history, in terms of dollar amount. A press release on the appeal was available in the Spokesman's office.

In Geneva this morning, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Sadako Ogata, expressed concern about the increased number of Kurdish immigrants and asylum-seekers from Turkey or Iraq currently arriving in Italy, the Deputy Spokesman said. Many of those people were the victims of unscrupulous traffickers, who demanded huge sums of money for the trips. The UNHCR applauded the Italian Government's decision to allow access to the asylum procedure for all those who wished to apply for asylum. The UNHCR briefing notes were available in the Spokesman's office.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 6 January 1998

Asked about the release date for the Secretary-General's final report on the oil-for food programme, Mr. Brandt said the report would probably be released before the end of January.

A correspondent asked if Ms. Ogata had mentioned any UNHCR programme in Italy to aid Kurdish asylum-seekers from Turkey and Iraq. Mr. Brandt said the press release dealt with the treatment received by those asylum-seekers at the hands of people who wanted "to make a quick buck at their expense", as well as with Italy's response to the situation. The Deputy Spokesman said he would check on any UNHCR programmes for the asylum-seekers in Italy.

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