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 at 11:45 a.m. by announcing that the Secretary-General would introduce the new Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Kensaku Hogen, to correspondents at noon.

On the Security Council, Mr. Eckhard said there were no surprises for today. As was announced yesterday, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast would brief the Council on the Great Lakes region of Africa, while the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, Diego Cordovez, would speak on the situation in that country. The Council would also consider a draft resolution on a proposed peacekeeping mission for the Central African Republic.

He said the Iraq Sanctions Committee would meet at 3:30 p.m. today to take up the financing arrangements for Iraqi pilgrims to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Chairman of the Committee, Antonio Monteiro (Portugal), would brief the press afterwards.

Mr. Eckhard said the four-day talks between United Nations officials and the Iraqi delegation on the expanded "oil-for-food" programme ended yesterday. The two sides held in-depth discussions on priority areas for a new distribution plan and on Iraq's capacity to produce and export oil up to the authorized level of $5.2 billion, including questions relating to spare parts, the procedures for the processing of applications, and the transition from Phase III to Phase IV. Further discussions would be held in Iraq later this month concerning the new distribution plan. Questions relating to Iraq's oil capacity would have to await the report of United Nations oil experts now visiting various sites in Iraq.

The Spokesman told correspondents that the Secretary-General would leave tomorrow for Geneva for a two-day programme. He would leave Geneva for the Middle East on Tuesday, 17 March, as had earlier been announced. While in Geneva, the Secretary-General would participate in the inauguration of the fifth-fourth session of the Commission on Human Rights on Monday, where he would make a statement. On Tuesday, he would address the Advisory Board on Disarmament. The Secretary-General's programme in Geneva was available for correspondents at the Spokesman's Office.

To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations representative in Italy, Staffan de Mistura, had negotiated with an Italian fashion house, Benetton, a joint campaign to promote the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, Mr. Eckhard said. The

advertisement showed portraits of young people from around the world with a text from the Declaration stating that "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights".

The Spokesman showed a photocopied sample of the advertisement to correspondents. He said the text would be placed in the middle of the portraits and that it would be translated in different languages. The advertisement would be distributed worldwide and would include no product identification.

Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had asked his Special Envoy for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, to deliver on his behalf a message to the twenty-fifth session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Doha, Qatar. The statement was available in the Spokesman's Office.

On Monday, 16 March, at 9 a.m., the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change would be opened for signature at United Nations Headquarters, the Spokesman announced. The Kyoto Protocol contained legally binding targets for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. So far, Maldives, Argentina, Antigua and Barbuda, and Samoa had indicated their intention to sign the Kyoto Protocol on Monday.

Mr. Eckhard also informed correspondents that the Executive Secretary of the Climate Change Convention, Michael Zammit Cutajar, would address a press conference in room 226 at 3:30 p.m. on Monday. Separate interviews with Mr. Cutajar, who spoke both English and French, could be arranged for interested correspondents.

Mr. Eckhard then announced that Thailand had paid over $1.6 million to the regular budget, making it the forty-sixth country to pay its assessed contributions in full so far this year. On this date last year, 42 Member States had paid their contributions in full.

The Netherlands yesterday became the seventeenth country to sign the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, Mr. Eckhard said.

He also announced an update of the handout his office had produced on sanctions regimes in the United Nations system, of which there were now 10. Correspondents could pick that up in the Spokesman's Office.

The Secretariat of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction 1990-2000, in Geneva today launched a new approach in earthquake prevention through its initiative called RADIUS -- Risk Assessment Tools for Diagnosis of Urban Areas against Seismic Disasters, Mr. Eckhard said. RADIUS would consist of case studies on earthquake-prone cities. The following nine cities had been selected for the studies: Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Antofagasta (Chile), Bandung (Indonesia), Guyaquil (Ecuador), Izmir (Turkey), Skopje (the

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 13 March 1998

former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Tijuana (Mexico) and Zigong (China). A press release on the initiative was available.

Mr. Eckhard also informed correspondents about a World Chronicle television programme featuring the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Denis Halliday, to be shown at 3 p.m. today on in-house television channels 6 and 38.

The Spokesman said he had been asked by the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) to remind correspondents that UNCA's Executive Committee would meet at 2:30 p.m. today in the club room. Committee members were urged to attend.

Asked if the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia would be increased or decreased, Mr. Eckhard noted that the Secretary-General had said that he would like to take a fresh look at that peacekeeping mission. The Secretary-General believed that the position of the Security Council might be shifting with regard to the planned closure of the mission by the end of August. The Secretary-General had said he would present a report to the Council but had not said when he would do so.

Asked if the issue had come up in Washington, D.C. during the Secretary- General's recent visit, Mr. Eckhard said he was not sure; it could have come up during the visit to the State Department. He advised the correspondent to check with Acting Deputy Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt on that.

A correspondent asked what the Secretary-General had discussed with United States Defence Secretary William S. Cohen and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger in Washington, D.C. Mr. Eckhard said there had basically been a three-part agenda at the Pentagon. The lunch with Mr. Berger was a private affair and he could not say what was discussed there.

Another correspondent asked whether the United Nations Department of Political Affairs had any assessment of the refusal of the Albanian delegation to come to the negotiating table over the situation in Kosovo. Mr. Eckhard said he did not have anything on that; he said he would check on it today.

Asked about a possible meeting between the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) leader and the Angolan President, Mr. Eckhard said that by the end of this month, Mr. Savimbi and other UNITA leaders were expected to come to Luanda, according to the terms of the latest agreement.

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for General Assembly President Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said it was likely that the tenth emergency special session of the General Assembly would resume on Tuesday, 17 March. He drew the attention of correspondents to a letter from the Permanent Mission of Syria to the United Nations (document A/ES-10/21). The Permanent

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Representative of Syria, in his capacity as Chairman of the Arab Group and on behalf of the League of Arab States, was requesting that the tenth emergency session of the General Assembly be resumed to consider a joint resolution entitled, "Illegal Israeli Actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the Rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory".

Mr. Taukatch said that Acting Assembly President Khiphusizi J. Jele (South Africa) had written a letter to Chairmen of the regional groups to inform Member States about the request. Mr. Jele was expecting their response towards the end of the day today. A draft resolution had been mentioned but had not yet been received by the Secretariat.

Mr. Udovenko was in Malaysia following his trip to Japan, the spokesman went on to say. In Malaysia, he met today with Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi and they discussed a number of international issues, including Kosovo and United Nations reforms. The Assembly President was scheduled to meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad tomorrow before returning to New York.

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