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 President of the General Assembly.)

Fred Eckhard, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by announcing Security Council activities. He said this morning the Council considered its programme of work for February and also continued its consultations on the Secretary-General's report on the Central African Republic (document A/1998/61). A related draft resolution was expected to be introduced this morning with possible adoption tomorrow morning. The mandate of the Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements (MISAB) expired on 6 February.

Mr. Eckhard said that Ambassador Richard Butler, the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) which monitors the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, would brief the Council tomorrow afternoon. Mr. Butler was expected to provide the Council with clarification on missile warheads, biological-weapon productions and other related issues. The exact timing of the meeting should be confirmed later today.

The Council had tentatively scheduled to take up the Secretary-General's report on the "oil-for-food" programme on Monday, 9 February, in the afternoon, Mr. Eckhard continued. Weekly Report Number 50, on the implementation of the programme, was available in the Spokesman's Office.

Last week, the Sanctions Committee approved 42 humanitarian contracts, blocked none and put on hold five applications -- all for Phase II of the oil- for-food programme. To date, the Committee had approved 420 out of 481 humanitarian sales contracts and had blocked only one for Phase II. For Phase I, the Committee approved only one contract last week. There was no change in the status of oil contracts. For Phase III, 34 of the 34 contracts received had been approved and nothing was pending.

Turning to other matters, Mr. Eckhard said that there was a "full house" for the weekly cabinet meeting this morning, which considered a paper on United Nations personnel policies, presented by the new Assistant Secretary- General for Human Resources Management, Rafiah Salim. The paper proposed revamping the United Nations human resources system, consistent with the Secretary-General's reform objectives, simplifying the rules and making the system more flexible and fair.

The discussion, which lasted over an hour-and-a-half, was "animated and long", Mr. Eckhard continued. There was unanimous support for the need to overhaul the personnel system. A task force of experts from inside and outside the United Nations system was being assembled to review it. They would meet for the first time on 19 February. More details on the composition and objectives would be made available at that time.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, who was also at this morning's Cabinet meeting, issued a statement today concerning the execution in Texas last night of Karla Faye Tucker. The statement was available in the Spokesman's Office.

The Department of Economic and Social Affairs was organizing a three-day consultative meeting among regional institutions in New York starting today, Mr. Eckhard said. Attending would be 31 participants from various United Nations and non-United Nations organizations, including three regional development banks and regional political bodies. On the agenda were various regional issues, including possible modalities for planned exchanges of national experiences and the role of regional institutions; regional priorities in relation to the Commission on Sustainable Development; and major trends and innovative practices in regional cooperation in selected areas.

It is the second meeting of its kind, Mr. Eckhard continued. The first one was held three years ago, but this is the first time that non-United Nations organizations would participate. The results of the meeting would be made available to the next session of the Commission on Sustainable Development and the Inter-Agency Committee on Sustainable Development. The sessions, which were closed, would be held in Conference Room 5.

Mr. Eckhard said the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Vienna and Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme, Pino Arlacchi, met yesterday with several federal Government officials in Switzerland. Among the issues discussed was Swiss policy on drugs.

During a press conference, Mr. Arlacchi said that some reporting on the Swiss heroin experiment was incorrect, Mr. Eckhard continued. The Swiss did not freely supply heroin to drug addicts. Their experiment involved only a small number of addicts who had been addicted for more than two years and whose efforts in other treatment programmes had failed. The heroin distribution to that limited number of addicts was controlled by medical prescription. The success of the Swiss experiment was due to the quality of the support services offered to the addicts.

The Swiss authorities agreed with Mr. Arlacchi that their experiment was not exportable to other countries because of the differences in their respective social contexts, Mr. Echard added.

The Spokesman then made a series of announcements: A press release from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on a cholera outbreak in Pointe Noire, Republic of the Congo, was available in the Spokesman's Office.

Members of the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict would hold a press conference sponsored by the Department of Public Information (DPI) at 11 a.m. tomorrow, in room 226. The Commission was holding a one-day

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 4 February 1998

forum in connection with two reports that the Secretary-General had brought to the attention of the Security Council on an informal basis.

The former United States Secretary of State, Cyrus Vance, would chair the forum. Other Commission members included the President of the Carnegie Corporation, David Hamburg; Executive Director, Jane E. Holl; and the President of the International Peace Academy and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children in Armed Conflict, Olara A. Otunnu. The Secretary-General was expected to co-host the forum and might make an appearance at the press conference. More information would be available tomorrow morning. (See Note to Correspondents No. 5493.)

The recently recorded World Chronicle television programme with Under- Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast would be shown at 2:30 p.m. today on in-house channel 6 or 38.

The text of the Secretary-General's message to the Olympic Winter Games opening in Nagano, Japan, on 7 February, was available in the Spokesman's Office. (See Press Release SG/SM/6452.)

Mr. Eckhard then drew correspondents' attention to an announcement in today's Journal, concerning the use of the General Assembly Hall as part of a live satellite-linked worldwide choral performance for the opening ceremony of the Nagano Winter Olympics. There would be no audience at the performance, but correspondents were welcome to attend.

Also in the Journal, a notice on a presentation today, entitled "New Perspectives of Global Cooperation at the Turn of the Century" by Dr. Uner Kirdar, Senior Adviser to the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The presentation would be held at 5:30 p.m. in the Hank Shannon Conference Room (DC1, twenty-first floor).

The Czech Republic today paid in full its regular assessment with a cheque for approximately $1.8 million. The number of Member States that had paid their contributions in full was now 23, compared with 28 countries at this time last year.

Finally, Mr. Eckhard said the United Nations was launching an appeal today for $157 million to ensure the continuation of humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan.

A correspondent asked for comments on the letter from the Chairman of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to the President of the Economic and Social Council objecting to delays in its consideration of the Committee's report. Mr. Eckhard said that he had not seen the letter, nor discussed it with the Secretary-General, but would ask him about it.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 4 February 1998

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for Assembly President Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said the Assembly this morning took note of a solemn appeal by the President in connection with the observance of the "Olympic Truce" during the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Mr. Taukatch said that in his appeal, the President urged everybody, individually and collectively, to take the initiative to abide by the "Olympic Truce" as a way to promote goodwill and encourage the peaceful settlement of conflicts in full conformity with the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. The President had also noted that the forthcoming Nagano Games would be the last Winter Olympics this century and a symbolic link to the next millennium. The text of the President's appeal was available as document A/52/782.

The President had also recorded a brief video-taped message which would be sent to Nagano for use during television broadcasts, Mr. Taukatch said, adding that the text of the message was available in his office.

In other action this morning, the Assembly adopted the report of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), Mr. Taukatch continued. The report (document A/52/744/Add 1) dealt with the salary and retirement allowance of the Secretary-General and the salary and pension remuneration of the UNDP Administrator.

Immediately following the conclusion of the plenary meeting, the President and "everybody else" went to Conference Room 2 for the third meeting of the open-ended working group on the reform of the Security Council. At yesterday's meeting, there were 17 speakers, and today, at the time of the briefing, 14 speakers were scheduled. He described the discussions as "very lively".

Referring to questions as to why today's meeting was listed as the third one in the Journal when there was only one meeting yesterday, Mr. Taukatch reminded correspondents that there had been an organizational meeting last year to elect the Bureau of the open-ended working group -- the Assembly President as Chairman and the Permanent Representatives of Finland and Thailand as Vice-Chairmen.

On a final note, Mr. Taukatch said that the President noted this morning that he had received a letter from the Secretary-General informing him that 39 Member States were in arrears in the payment of their financial contributions within the terms of Article 19 of the Charter. The letter (document A/52/785) contains a list of those countries.

Traditionally, Mr. Taukatch continued, before the first Assembly meeting of the year, the President announces the countries that have failed to pay their arrears and who, therefore, under the terms of Article 19, lose their Assembly voting rights.

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