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, said at the beginning of today's noon briefing that the detailed procedures for the inspection of presidential sites in Iraq had been finalized and would be presented to the Security Council on Monday, 9 March. At 12:30 p.m. on that day, there would be a background briefing for correspondents by two senior United Nations officials. Jayantha Dhanapala, Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs and head of the Special Group for the inspection of the presidential sites, would travel to Baghdad on Monday evening to prepare the ground for the activities of the Special Group.

On Monday, the Secretary-General would be meeting at Headquarters with the Foreign Minister of Iraq, Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf, on the subject of the "oil-for-food" programme, the Spokesman said. As had been mentioned, the Foreign Minister and his team expected to be in New York for a full week. Yesterday afternoon, the appointment of Prakash Shah, the former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, as Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Iraq had been announced, he added.

Mr. Eckhard went on to say that the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) had informed his Office that Scott Ritter and his team had resumed inspections in Iraq today. They had viewed three sites between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time. All three of those sites had been declared "sensitive" by Iraq. Nevertheless, there had been full cooperation on the Iraqi side, and the inspectors had been able to inspect all of the sites to their full satisfaction.

The Ritter team had included 50 inspectors who had arrived in Baghdad yesterday, Mr. Eckhard said. The team consisted of members of 11 nationalities. They were from Argentina, Australia, Egypt, Germany, Jordan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Syria, United Kingdom and the United States. They had been joined by additional resident inspectors. The inspections they had carried out were essentially the continuation of the work that had been interrupted in January.

The number of inspectors would vary from day to day as they carried out their current round of inspections in Baghdad, Mr. Eckhard continued. This would depend on the specific sites that they wished to visit. The UNSCOM had approximately 100 staff currently in Baghdad. The Ritter team was expected to stay until the middle of next week.

There had been an article in Al-Hayat stating that the Secretary-General had not been consulted on the dispatch of the Ritter team, the Spokesman said. "I can categorically deny that. There was full consultation between the Secretary-General and Ambassador Butler, the Executive Chairman of UNSCOM."

The 661 Committee -- the Iraq Sanctions Committee -- would be meeting this afternoon, Mr. Eckhard said. That meeting would take place at 3:30 p.m. in Conference Room 7 and would be closed. However, following the meeting, the Chairman of the Committee would brief correspondents in room S-226, possibly around 6 p.m. [That meeting and briefing were subsequently cancelled.]

The Secretary-General had now firmed up a visit to Washington, D.C., the Spokesman said. It would take place next Wednesday for one day only. He would meet with President William Clinton and senior members of his Administration. It was not yet clear whether there would be any meetings with members of Congress, but the Secretary-General planned a second visit to Washington after the congressional Easter recess for the specific purpose of consulting with members of Congress.

Yesterday, the Secretary-General's plans for a trip to the Middle East -- leaving Geneva on 17 March -- had been announced, Mr. Eckhard said. Contrary to that announcement, Jordan could be included in the rescheduled visit, because of arrangements worked out yesterday with that Government. He would now visit Jordan on the first day of the trip -- 18 March -- where he would meet with Crown Prince Hassan. He would then go to Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Gaza and Israel.

The Spokesman went on to say that today the Security Council was holding its periodic review of the Libyan sanctions, then would consider a draft presidential statement on the situation in Croatia. That statement was expected to be adopted at a formal meeting.

International Women's Day (8 March) fell on Sunday, this year, but, as had been mentioned, it had been observed in New York yesterday, the Spokesman said. There was a press release available upstairs from Geneva on the observances taking place there today.

The United Republic of Tanzania had paid in full its assessed contribution to the 1998 regular budget -- $42,065 -- the Spokesman said. A total of 42 Member States had now paid in full. The total outstanding contributions -- because since the end of January the 1998 unpaid contributions had been counted as delinquent -- was $3.1 billion. $1.2 billion of that was for the regular budget; $1.8 billion was for peacekeeping; and over $100 million was for the International Tribunals. That was about the same as at this time last year. For more details, correspondents could consult a report on the outstanding contributions as of 28 February.

The Fifth Committee would hold the first part of its resumed fifty-second session from 9 to 27 March, Mr. Eckhard said. Correspondents would, therefore, be likely to see Alex Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, at Monday's noon briefing, he added. The Committee's programme of work was available on the racks as document A/C.5/52/L.22.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 6 March 1998

Slovakia had ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on 3 March, bringing the total number of ratifications to 10, Mr. Eckhard said. The number of signatories remained at 148.

Mr. Eckhard went on to say that there was a briefing note available upstairs from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stating that Vincent Cochetel, kidnapped in North Ossetia five weeks ago, remained in captivity. No information on his condition was available. Also in the note, the UNHCR expressed its alarm at the recent upsurge of violence in Kosovo.

Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the Office of Drug Control and Crime Prevention, was in Bonn today on an official visit, Mr. Eckhard said. He met with several senior German officials who had expressed their support for the United Nations International Drug Control Programme's global plan for the eradication of illicit crops.

In Pakistan, there were torrential rains, as well as the effects of a tornado that had hit on Tuesday, the Spokesman said. A total of 150 people were dead and 500 were missing. Details were available in a press release upstairs from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

There would be a symposium on the "Elimination of Violence against Women and Children" organized by the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh, together with the International Health Awareness Network, today from 2 to 5:30 p.m. in Conference Room 4, Mr. Eckhard said. At 2 p.m. today, there would be a press conference sponsored by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). Speakers would be members of the Federation of African Women's Peace Network from a variety of countries in Africa. They would address the subject of how women contribute to peace building in Africa.

A correspondent asked if the Secretary-General was going to take up an offer made by the Russian delegation of a deputy for Ambassador Butler. The Spokesman said, "He only just reviewed this morning the letter from the Russian Ambassador suggesting that, as a follow-up to the emergency meeting of the Special Commission in December, there be a Russian deputy of UNSCOM, and he is still reviewing that letter."

Was there possibly a legal problem in terms of modifying the structures of UNSCOM? the correspondent asked. "I'm sure that in reviewing it he will probably look into the legal aspects as well, and he will look at the document approved by the Council following that emergency session of UNSCOM", the Spokesman said. Was there a feeling of relief on the part of the Secretary-General following the successful visits to the three sensitive sites, or was this what he expected? "This is what he expected", Mr. Eckhard said. "It is what he was told would happen by the President of Iraq, and he expects the continued full cooperation of Iraq with these inspections."

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 6 March 1998

On the Al-Hayat story, a correspondent asked if consultations were required with "sensitive" sites, or were they only required with presidential sites. It was not standard procedure for there to be consultations, Mr. Eckhard said. In this case, the Secretary-General and Ambassador Butler had discussed it. They had lunch that day and had discussed it more than once. Such consultations were not required.

Was there any news on a possible Security Council session on Kosovo? "No, we have nothing on that", Mr. Eckhard said. There were no indications from the Council that they were preparing to take up the subject. Yesterday, the Spokesman added, he had mentioned the Albanian request for a meeting.

Asked how the Security Council would handle the question of Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard said, "I don't want to speculate how the Council would act when they haven't even decided yet to take up the subject."

Could the Spokesman provide a breakdown of the numbers of United States and British inspectors on Mr. Ritter's team? Mr. Eckhard said he would have to check with UNSCOM.

Asked to comment on whether there would not be any American or British ambassadors in the Special Group, Mr. Eckhard said he could not comment on the contents of that paper. It would be available on Monday, and there would be a full briefing on it, so that the procedures would be very clear to correspondents.

Would that briefing be before or after the Security Council meeting? It would be after the Council had received the text of the procedures. It was unclear as yet whether or not they planned to meet in the morning.

Had there been a formal complaint lodged regarding the Secretariat's handling of some of the events in connection with the Commission on the Status of Women? The Spokesman said, "No, not to my knowledge." He said he would have to check.

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