DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Juan-Carlos Brandt, Senior Associate Spokesman for the Secretary- General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that 18 diplomats had arrived in Baghdad today. They would accompany the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors to eight presidential sites in Iraq.

With two diplomats already resident in Baghdad, the United Nations now had all the 20 diplomats identified by the Commissioner of the special group, Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala. They would be briefed on their functions before starting their work later this week.

The Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, Richard Butler, had concluded talks with the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Tariq Aziz, in Baghdad today, Mr. Brandt continued. According to Mr. Butler, a new spirit of cooperation, which appeared since the Memorandum of Understanding was signed in February, was reflected in the talks. They talked about speeding up the inspection process so as to close the files on chemical weapons and missile areas.

They also agreed to hold new technical evaluation meetings on chemical weapons and missile issues, Mr. Brandt said. As for biological weapons, they had agreed to wait for the results of the ongoing technical evaluation meeting in Vienna. Mr. Butler had indicated that UNSCOM would continue full inspections in Iraq, and expressed satisfaction with inspection 227, which was headed by Scott Ritter and involved in the inspection of the Department of Defence.

Mr. Butler was scheduled to give a press conference tomorrow and would leave Iraq on Thursday, Mr. Brandt continued. The Executive Chairman had indicated and would state at that press conference that his next visit to Baghdad would be in June.

The Senior Associate Spokesman said all international United Nations staff members had been pulled out from Kandahar, Afghanistan, after a violent incident yesterday involving the Governor of Kandahar. That assault was the latest in what seemed to be a serious pattern of harassment and violent behaviour against the Organization's staff in Kandahar. In light of the extremely serious and unacceptable nature of that attack, the decision was made to close the United Nations office there and to withdraw its international staff. Two United Nations officials had flown to Kandahar today to raise the issue with the authorities.

Continuing, Mr. Brandt said the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, had issued a statement on that subject today. In that statement, he had said that following a decision yesterday to close United Nations offices in Kandahar,

all international staff had today been withdrawn and all humanitarian programmes suspended.

Mr. Vieira de Mello had stated that he deeply regretted the factors which had led to that decision and the impact on the United Nations ability to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of the Afghan people in the Kandahar region. He trusted that the United Nations would be in a position to resume its programmes quickly, and to that end, it would await written assurances from the Taliban authorities that international law and principles would be respected.

Mr. Brandt told correspondents that the Secretary-General's Investigative Team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had issued a press release today with additional details about the incident that took place in Mbandaka last week, which prompted the withdrawal of the team from there.

"On 21 March, the Secretary-General's investigative team withdrew the team of investigators which had been in the city of Mbandaka, Equator Province, since 6 February. The team in Mbandaka had been reinforced on 17 March by the arrival of three forensic anthropologists.

"On 18 March, the team had located a site in the village of Wendji, some 20 kilometres south of Mbandaka, suspected of being the place where, according to witnesses, a large number of victims of summary executions had been buried in May 1997. Preliminary exploration of the site by the forensic experts confirmed the existence of at least one mass grave, whose contents appear to have been removed several months after burial, possibly in an attempt to destroy evidence. No bodies were disinterred by the forensic team.

"The following day, the team was prevented from returning to Wendji to begin clearing and mapping the site by an armed crowd of several hundred persons. Attempts by the Governor of the Province to mediate a solution which would allow the team to continue its work did not produce the results hoped for, and the Governor warned the team that, in the circumstances, he could not guarantee their safety.

"Accordingly, and in view of the security situation and the serious obstacles to continuing investigative work in Equator Province, the Director of the Secretary-General's investigative team decided to withdraw the investigators. The team deployed to Goma on 19 March continued there."

Mr. Brandt told correspondents that the Chairman of the Commission of Human Rights, Jacob Selebi (South Africa) had just issued a presidential statement out of Geneva on Kosovo, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The text of the statement would be made available shortly. In that statement, Mr. Selebi had said the Commission on Human Rights was deeply concerned at the recent outbreak of violence in Kosovo and deplored the death of a large number of civilians, including women, children and the elderly.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 24 March 1998

According to the statement, the Commission had condemned the excessive and brutal use of force by the Serbian police, Mr. Brandt continued. It once again had called on the authorities in Belgrade to cease violations of human rights and to take urgent steps to protect and promote internationally accepted standards of human rights in Kosovo. The Commission had urged the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's Government and the leadership of the Kosovo Albanian community to start a genuine dialogue, with the aim of finding a peaceful solution.

Mr. Brandt said the Secretary-General had concluded his visit to Gaza this morning with a meeting with senior Palestinian officials, followed by a visit to the Jabaliya refugee camp administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). He and his party had then travelled to Israel by road, crossing at the Erez checkpoint. At midday, he had met with Israeli President Ezer Weizman, followed by a luncheon hosted by the President that the Secretary-General had described as extremely cordial. They had also spoken briefly to the press before lunch.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General had met with the President of the German Bundestag (Parliament), Gerhard Shroeder, who was also in Israel on an official visit, Mr. Brandt continued. The Secretary-General had then met for more than an hour with Israeli Defence Minister Itzhak Mordechai, including a tete-a-tete, during which they discussed southern Lebanon and the Middle East peace process.

Mr. Brandt also said that in the evening the Secretary-General had met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, initially one on one, during which the Prime Minister had informed him that he would seek Israeli Cabinet approval for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon. They had then met with the press. At the time of the briefing, the Secretary-General was at a small dinner hosted by the Prime Minister. After that dinner, he would meet with the families of Israeli soldiers missing in action, including that of Ron Arad.

Regarding Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette's appointments for today, Mr. Brandt said they included a meeting at noon with the Permanent Representative of Poland, Eugeniusz Wyzner, and a meeting this afternoon at 4:30 p.m. with the Permanent Representative of New Zealand, Michael John Powles.

The Secretary-General would be meeting with Mr. Denktash in Geneva on Saturday, 28 March, at 10 a.m., and not on Friday, 27 March, as he had announced yesterday, he continued.

Mr. Brandt informed correspondents that the United Nations Coordinator of International Assistance for Chernobyl, Under-Secretary-General Vieira de Mello, would on 26 March chair a meeting in Geneva in support of the inter-

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agency programme of international assistance to areas affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

That programme highlighted the significant ongoing impact of the disaster on the affected populations in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, Mr. Brandt continued. The projects contained in the programme focused on meeting the health, nutritional and rehabilitation needs of the victims of the disaster. The United Nations hoped that donors would respond generously in helping to mitigate the many lingering effects of the Chernobyl accident.

Mr. Brandt said that 37,000 children in Burundi would, as from tomorrow, benefit from aid being flown in by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). That was the beginning of a 10-day WFP airlift of sugar, powdered milk, oil and other supplies for distribution throughout Burundi. More details were available in a press release.

The World Health Organization (WHO) was working to address the issue of chemical safety. According to a new WHO fact sheet, chemicals posed health hazards to all men and women, particularly the poor. Pesticides could cause epidemic incidents of poisoning, especially in developing countries, Mr. Brandt said.

In response, the WHO was working to implement an international programme for chemical safety, he added. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) were also part of that effort. More details were available in the WHO press release.

The Women's Caucus for gender justice in the international criminal court would hold a press briefing at the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Club at 1 p.m. today about the need for such a court, Mr. Brandt said. Also a representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists would be in the UNCA Club between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. today to distribute advance copies of the Committee's annual publication Attacks on the Press in 1997.

The representative would also try to help arrange interviews with the author, Mr. Brandt went on to say. The 443-page book was embargoed for release at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 26 March. Also, tomorrow at 1:15 p.m. at the UNCA Club, a panel of experts from the Coalition for an International Criminal Court would brief correspondents on the progress of the current meeting of the Preparatory Committee on the establishment of such a court.

Asked if there were any details about the incident in Kandahar, Afghanistan, Mr. Brandt said that the latest incident had involved the slapping in the face of a United Nations staff member by the Governor of the Province in full view of other local and international staff members. When asked why this had happened, Mr. Brandt said he had no further information,

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but apparently it was during an outburst of anger and that other incidents had involved throwing of objects in people's faces.

Another correspondent wanted to know the location of those who had been pulled out. Mr. Brandt said they were in Islamabad. When asked how many United Nations staff were involved, Mr. Brandt said 14.

A correspondent wanted to know whether it was a senior staff member who had been assaulted. Mr. Brandt said yes, and that the staff member was the UNDP Officer-in-Charge of the United Nations Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs in Kandahar. The assault took place during a visit by the Governor to the staff member's office and in the presence of national and international staff members.

Asked for the staff member's name, Mr. Brandt replied "Erasmus Ibom".

Another correspondent wanted to know where Mr. Ibom was from. Mr. Brandt said he did not know Mr. Ibom's nationality, but he could try to find out; "in any case, it really does not make any difference, does it?"

In relation to the Burundi aid shipments, one correspondent wanted to know why the United Nations or anybody would send nutritionally endangered people sugar, which had no nutritional value whatsoever and was in fact detrimental in many ways to health. Mr. Brandt said he was not sure people would agree and asked the correspondent to try to take sugar away from coffee in the morning to see how it tasted. It was not just sugar that was being given. Sugar was being used as a nutritional element in addition to other things that were used for cooking and preparation of meals that people needed; it was just part of the whole set of aid that was being sent.

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