DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's briefing by announcing that the Secretary-General had returned fully rested to the office today. He had immediately taken up the issue of Iraq, starting with an internal meeting at 9:30 a.m., followed by a meeting with Ambassador Nizar Hamdoon of Iraq at 11:30 a.m.

Over the weekend the Secretary-General had studied draft procedures for the inspection of the eight presidential sites in Iraq, Mr. Eckhard said. Those detailed procedures were referred to in paragraph 4 of the Memorandum of Understanding negotiated between the Secretary-General and the Government of Iraq, but were not spelled out.

The Security Council today was expected to receive a Secretariat briefing on the situation in Croatia, the Spokesman said. It would then resume its consultations on a draft resolution on Iraq. The Croatia briefing would be given by Hedi Annabi, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. That briefing had been mentioned as likely to take place last Friday, but had been postponed until today.

Concerning the draft resolution on Iraq, the Spokesman said that some Council members still seemed to be discussing the text this morning, even though the draft resolution had come out in blue on Friday evening. As at the beginning of today's noon briefing, Council consultations had not begun.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, would arrive in New York this afternoon after a two-day mission in Iran, Mr. Eckhard said. In Tehran, she had met with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kamal Kharrazi; the Deputy Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif; and Masumeh Ebtekar -- the only woman Vice-President of Iran. The High Commissioner had opened the sixth Asia and Pacific regional workshop on arrangements for the promotion and protection of human rights, which had been the main focus of her trip. She had also met with Iranian non-governmental organizations -- mainly women's groups concerned with the rights of women and the rights of children. She had also spoken to faculty and students at the Institute for Political and International Studies.

Mr. Eckhard said that environment ministers and senior government officials from around the world were attending the second meeting of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) High-level Committee of Ministers and Officials in Nairobi from today until 4 March. The issue of freshwater was high on the Committee's agenda and delegates would review UNEP's freshwater strategy. The Committee would also discuss how to secure reliable sources of future financing for UNEP, and UNEP reform in the context of wider United Nations reform. Two UNEP press releases on the subject were available in room 378.

The Executive Committee on peace and security would meet this afternoon and was expected to discuss Somalia, Sierra Leone, Georgia, the Great Lakes region of Africa, and, possibly, other subjects, the Spokesman continued. The Executive Committee on humanitarian affairs would meet tomorrow morning. At that meeting, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sergio Vieira de Mello, would brief the Committee on his recent trip to Afghanistan. The Committee would also take up the issues of demobilization, the Great Lakes and Sierra Leone. The Executive Committees -- of which there were four -- were policy formulation groups created by the Secretary-General as a part of his reform programme, the Spokesman added.

The United States had made a partial payment, of $10.2 million, against its outstanding contributions for peacekeeping operations, Mr. Eckhard said. As at this date last year, 39 Member States were paid in full for the regular budget.

On Friday, Belize had signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, Mr. Eckhard said. This brought the total number of Member States that had signed to 124. Five countries had ratified the Convention. It had been announced on 23 February that Uzbekistan had been the sixteenth Member State to sign the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings; in fact, it had been the fifteenth.

The Commission on the Status of Women had begun its two-week session today in Conference Room 1, Mr. Eckhard went on to say. The conference room was overflowing with participants, many of them from non-governmental organizations. This year, a record number of non-governmental organizations were taking part in the annual session. The Division for the Advancement of Women had registered 450 -- each represented by two or three individuals. Last year, 300 non-governmental organizations had participated, so there had been a 50 per cent increase.

There was a press release out from the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) appealing for $159 million to help refugees in five countries in the Great Lakes region of Africa, Mr. Eckhard said.

The Spokesman then announced that the Security Council had begun its consultations at 12:05 p.m.

In order to provide an opportunity to meet the new Chairperson of the current session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the German Mission would be hosting a briefing and luncheon in the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) club today from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Mr. Eckhard said. Correspondents were invited to attend.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 2 March 1998

At 12:45 today in room 226, there would be a related press conference by Joan Ruddock, Under-Secretary of State for Women of the United Kingdom, Mr. Eckhard continued. She was expected to discuss the current session. Tomorrow morning at 11:15, also in room 226, Noeleen Heyzer, Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), would also give a press conference on the Commission.

Asked to provide details on the substance and atmosphere of Ambassador Hamdoon's meeting with the Secretary-General, Mr. Eckhard said, "We didn't get a readout, it ended too close to the beginning of the briefing. I wasn't able to talk to anyone."

A correspondent asked whether the Spokesman could provide any details on the arrangements the Secretary-General had been investigating for the implementation of paragraph 4 of the Memorandum of Understanding. "Those are the detailed procedures that I referred to at the outset", the Spokesman said. The Secretary-General had been shown a draft on Friday evening, which he had studied over the weekend. He had discussed it with his aides first thing this morning. The Spokesman said he expected it would be finalized shortly, but could not say exactly when.

Was the Secretary-General considering new initiatives on Angola? a correspondent asked. The Spokesman said he did not have any guidance on the subject of Angola today.

A correspondent asked whose fault it was that one month after the successful end of the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), everything in Eastern Slavonia was crumbling. There were accusations that it was General Klein's fault.

The Spokesman said, "I think the Secretary-General feels that Jacques Klein did a great job there. A little like Cambodia, we can help the parties to a conflict get back on their feet, resolve their differences, but then at some point it has to be up to them to make it work." The Spokesman said that in this case the United Nations was not ready to concede that everything was falling apart. There was some concern about the security situation there, regarding the Serbian minority. That concern had been raised in the Council, and was the reason for the background briefing this morning. The Council continued to keep its eye on the Danube Region and had authorized an ongoing police mission there to try to guard against the kind of intimidation being seen on a limited scale right now. The hope was that the parties would cooperate with each other, and that a multi-ethnic existence could continue to survive in Eastern Slavonia.

Asked to comment on the charge by Ambassador Hamdoon that Ambassador Richard Butler, Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission, had mis-spoken when he had said that he would be the person to whom the

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 2 March 1998

inspectors would report from the presidential sites, the Spokesman said that the Memorandum of Understanding was clear on the reporting chain. The special group that would oversee the inspections within the presidential sites was headed by a Commissioner -- Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala -- appointed by the Secretary-General last week. Mr. Dhanapala was one of 22 Commissioners. The Chairman of the Commissioners was the Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, Mr. Butler. The reporting line, as spelled out in the Memorandum of Understanding, was through the Executive Chairman to the Secretary-General to the Security Council. So, the Spokesman added, there should not be any dispute about the reporting line.

Did that imply that the Ambassadors had no function other than to oversee the process of entering those sites? the same correspondent asked. "The Ambassadors are not technical experts", the Spokesman said. The Under- Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, Hans Corell, had told correspondents that during his briefing last week. Their job was merely to provide a "bit of a cushion" to make the inspection of the presidential sites more palatable to the Iraqis without in any way undermining the quality of the work that the inspectors -- qualified specialists -- were doing.

Did the Spokesman have any comment about an article in today's USA Today which made reference to the very congested agenda of Senator Trent Lott? "When the Secretary-General decided to postpone his trip to Washington he wasn't even aware that his staff had been unable to fix an appointment with Senator Lott", the Spokesman said. "He was focused, really, on the timing of the Council's consideration of this resolution on Iraq. His guess last week was that they might get to it on Tuesday. He briefly considered doing just the first day of the three-day visit, but then, with the uncertainty about the Council acting on Tuesday, as opposed to Monday, after consulting with the United States Administration, he decided to postpone the entire trip. And what I hear this morning is it may not be postponed for very long."

Was the Secretary-General seeking another appointment with Senator Lott? Mr. Eckhard said that the Secretary-General's reason for going to Washington was to meet with administration officials and with Congressional leaders. Probably, the planning for the re-scheduled trip was taking place now and contact would be made with a number of the individuals that the Secretary- General hoped to see.

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