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 noon briefing by welcoming Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, Joseph Connor, who would speak with correspondents following the Spokesman's briefing, on the financial situation of the United Nations at the end of 1997 and speak about the financial prospects for this year. Mr. Connor had made a presentation earlier in the morning to the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), and some 16 Member States commented on his presentation.

On Iraq, Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had last night transmitted a letter to the Security Council concerning the request from the Russian Federation for the creation of a post of Second Deputy Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) on the elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

On the ongoing inspections in Iraq, Mr. Eckhard said Scott Ritter and his team had left Baghdad today, having completed their current round of inspections. The team had seen eight sites which had been declared sensitive by Baghdad, and the inspections were successfully completed.

Talks between the United Nations and Iraq on the expanded oil-for-food programme were continuing this morning, Mr. Eckhard went on to say. Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette had opened the talks yesterday, and a technical meeting had followed in the afternoon. The head of the Iraq programme, Benon Sevan, led the United Nations side at those technical talks. Dr. Shawqi Murqus, Under-Secretary-General of the Ministry of Health of Iraq, led his country's delegation.

The Spokesman said the technical talks yesterday had touched on the arrangements and financing for an Iraqi Haj visit to Mecca, Saudi Arabia; Iraq's capacity to produce and export oil; the procedures of the Security Council Committee monitoring the sanctions regime against Iraq; and the procedures for processing applications. In-depth discussions on a new distribution plan for the expanded oil-for-food programme were to be held this morning. Those talks would continue in the afternoon and were expected to conclude tomorrow morning. The Foreign Minister of Iraq, Mohammed Said Al- Sahaf, and the Deputy Secretary-General, Ms. Frechette, would meet again on Thursday to round up those talks.

The Spokesman also announced that a group of United Nations oil experts would visit Iraq on Thursday, 12 March, to assess the country's capacity to

export oil up to the authorized level of $5.2 billion in the next phase. Two United Nations oil overseers would be joined by six experts from the Saybolt Company, which had been monitoring Iraq's oil exports for the United Nations.

Mr. Eckhard said that several more contracts for oil exports under Phase III were approved last week. The thirty-sixth contract went to a Bulgarian company for 3 million barrels; the thirty-seventh went to a Russian company for 1 million barrels; and the thirty-eighth went to a Russian company for 4 million barrels. The volume of the total oil contracts approved so far had reached 159.8 million barrels.

The Security Council was taking up the issue of the International Civilian Mission to Haiti (MICIVIH), Mr. Eckhard said. The Council was being briefed by the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Haiti, Julian Harston. The Council would also take up the report of the Secretary-General on the Central African Republic and his proposal for a United Nations peacekeeping mission there.

Under other matters, the Spokesman said, he understood that the representative of the United Kingdom would brief the Council on the so-called "Contact Group Meeting", which had been held at the ministerial level in London yesterday on the subject of the Kosovo province of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Also on Kosovo, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced today in Geneva that it was hard to determine the scale of displacement of ethnic Albanians because its staff thus far had no access to the areas which had borne the brunt of the military and police crackdown over the weekend. The UNHCR had asked the Belgrade authorities for access to all areas and reiterated its concern about the situation in Kosovo. The agency estimated that over 4,400 people had fled the province to neighbouring Montenegro. Those people were mostly staying in private homes in the municipality of Rozaj. The group included both ethnic Albanians and some Serbs.

The UNHCR also recalled in a press release issued today that there were no new developments in the kidnapping of Vincent Cochetel, its staff member who had now been held for 41 days in Russia, Mr. Eckhard said.

President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah today reassumed his office as President of Sierra Leone in a ceremony in Freetown, the Spokesman said. The Secretary- General was represented at the ceremony by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahima Fall. In his message, the Secretary-General said: "The return of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah to Freetown today, following the removal from power of the illegal military junta, accomplished a major objective not only for Sierra Leone, but also of the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the entire international community." The Secretary- General recalled that shortly after the coup last May, he had said that "Africa can no longer tolerate and accept as fait accompli coups against elected governments and the illegal seizure of power by military cliques." The text of the message was available in the Spokesman's Office.

Mr. Eckhard said the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Justice Louise Arbour, had issued a statement, as follows:

"The Prosecutor wishes to point out that the Statute of the Tribunal empowers the Tribunal to prosecute persons responsible for serious violations

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of international humanitarian law committed in the territory of the former Yugoslavia since 1991. The jurisdiction is ongoing and covers the recent violence in Kosovo. In this regard, the Prosecutor is currently gathering information and evidence in relation to the Kosovo incidents and will continue to monitor any subsequent developments. The Prosecutor expects the full cooperation of the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in respect of investigations into the Kosovo situation."

Also from the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal, the Spokesman said that Dragoljub Kunarac had pleaded guilty to one of the four counts against him, namely the count of rape. That was the first accused to ever plead guilty to a rape count at the Tribunal. The hearings on his plea were continuing, and information would be brought to correspondents as it was received. The next hearing was set for Friday morning at 8:30 a.m.

Mr. Eckhard said that the Permanent Representative of France, acting as coordinator for the five permanent members of the Security Council, had requested a meeting with the Secretary-General to present a demarche on the Cyprus issue. That meeting would take place in the afternoon, at 3:15 p.m.

The Secretary-General would also meet his with Special Adviser on Cyprus, Diego Cordovez, who would be travelling to the area next week, the Spokesman announced. Following a stop-over in London, Mr. Cordovez would travel to Cyprus, Athens and Ankara. A briefing for special representatives/envoys was scheduled to take place in Geneva on 26 March. Before his departure, Mr. Cordovez was scheduled to brief the Security Council on Thursday, 12 March.

Mr. Eckhard told correspondents that Poland had become the forty-third Member State to pay in full its 1998 regular budget contribution to the Organization. Its assessed contributions totalled $2,639,585. At this date last year, 40 Member States had paid in full.

The Spokesman drew the attention of correspondents to a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO), in which the agency had denied a

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report in the British press that it had suppressed a study showing that passive smoking did not cause lung cancer. The press release was available in his office.

Mr. Eckhard said the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had also issued a press release yesterday, which he had forgotten to mention to correspondents. The release was on the resumption yesterday in Brussels of the final round of negotiations on a legally binding convention on international trade in hazardous chemicals and pesticides, such as PCBs, Lindane, Aldrin, Dieldrin and other harmful pesticide formulations.

Under the current voluntary arrangement, 22 harmful pesticides and five industrial chemicals which had been banned or severely restricted in a number of countries should not be exported unless agreed to by the importing country, Mr. Eckhard said. The new convention would replace the current voluntary system. It would legally require exporters to notify recipient countries of exports of hazardous substances subject to national bans or severe restrictions.

Mr. Eckhard also announced that a press release from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia was available. The release stated that the trial commencement date for the Kovasevic case was set for Monday, 11 May, at 10 a.m.

The Spokesman said the Secretary-General had issued two reports to the Committee on New and Renewable Sources of Energy and on Energy for Development. Those reports were available on the press racks today. The first was a follow-up to the previous sessions of the Committee (document E/C.13/1998/2), while the second report dealt with environmentally sound and efficient fossil energy technologies (document E/C.13/1998/3).

Also available for correspondents, was the monthly summary of troop contributions to peacekeeping operations as at the end of February, the Spokesman announced.

A correspondent asked what promises the Secretary-General had made to Iraqi officials in view of the complaint by the Iraqi Foreign Minister that no disciplinary measure had been taken against unauthorized statements to the press by UNSCOM staff members despite the promises made by the Secretary- General? Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had made no promises. "There were no hidden agreements or hidden understandings during his recent visit to Iraq. Everything he negotiated is in the Memorandum of Understanding that was released recently." The United Nations had been dealing with Iraq for a total of seven years and there could have been discussions of the problem of inspectors who spoke to the press or of concerns about the release of classified information. "These were not promises made by the Secretary- General", he said.

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Asked if disciplinary measure would be taken against UNSCOM staff members who violated the rule of confidentiality, the Spokesman said there was a code of conduct drawn up by Rolf Ekeus, the previous Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, concerning the behaviour of inspectors. That code of conduct did have provisions for not revealing any confidential information which inspectors came across in the course of their work. "I don't know that there is any action being contemplated against any individual at this time", he said.

Another correspondent asked if the Secretary-General would be responding to specific issues raised in the letter from the Iraqi Foreign Minister. Mr. Eckhard said the letter was under review.

Asked if the Secretary-General had expressed any concern to UNSCOM Executive Chairman Richard Butler or anybody else in UNSCOM about the comments that were made on CNN, the Spokesman said he was not aware that the issue had been discussed, but that it was under review generally in the light of the existing code of conduct. "All inspectors are obligated to respect the confidentiality of their work."

On the Russian proposal for another Deputy Chairman of UNSCOM, a correspondent asked whether the Secretary-General considered it a good idea? Mr. Eckhard said he did not think the Secretary-General's view was important. "It is what the Security Council feels would benefit UNSCOM as a whole, the Spokesman said. And in this case, the existing guidelines from the Council did not provide for a second deputy, so he had to pass it over to the Council." There was a feeling in the Council, which was also expressed by the Commissioners when they met last year, that a greater internationalization of UNSCOM would be beneficial. "I believe that UNSCOM itself feels that that would be beneficial." It was up to the Council to decide whether a new deputy position was needed to accommodate the Russian view.

Asked for details about the Secretary-General's suggestion that the 15 Security Council Ambassadors might want to go to Baghdad in the context of the presidential sites inspection, Mr. Eckhard said there had been some discussion about that at the Security Council monthly luncheon at the end of last week, and a number of members had expressed their interest. The Secretary-General was responding to that, and he basically extended an invitation to all of them.

A correspondent wanted to know if that invitation to Baghdad would be taken up collectively or individually? "The invitation is there for them to accept or reject individually", Mr. Eckhard said.

What were the minor problems Mr. Butler said had been worked out in UNSCOM yesterday? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said he assumed that Mr. Butler would be reporting to the Council on the latest mission. Based on what

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Mr. Butler had said and what UNSCOM had told his office, "they are pleased with how this latest inspection went".

Asked if the sensitive sites visited by UNSCOM were among those earlier blocked by Iraq, the Spokesman said the correspondent would have to ask UNSCOM about it. "All I know is that this current round of inspections was a continuation of the series of inspections that would have been conducted in January but were blocked."

Would the dire financial situation faced by the United Nations because of the pattern of non-payment by the United States would be the focus of the Secretary-General's message in Washington, D.C. tomorrow? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said that the trip had a two-part agenda. Iraq was very much on the Secretary-General's mind and was part of a pattern of visits he would be making to the five permanent members of the Security Council, to "shore up" their support for the Memorandum of Understanding. However, he could not go to Washington without talking finances, which was the major item on the United States/United Nations common agenda.

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