DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Conveying a statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary- General, Juan-Carlos Brandt, Senior Associate Spokesman for the Secretary- General, told correspondents at today's press briefing that the Security Council had authorized the establishment of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA). That would be the first new United Nations peacekeeping mission to be established in Africa since October 1993. Previously, Mr. Brandt reminded correspondents, a major expansion of the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) had been approved by the Council in February 1995. The MINURCA would take over responsibility from the Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Bangui Agreements (MISAB) and would be tasked to continue to maintain security and stability in Bangui.

The Council had authorized the Secretary-General to take measures necessary to ensure that MINURCA was fully deployed by 15 April, Mr. Brandt continued. That deadline was unusually tight. The Secretary-General hoped that Member States would assist the Secretariat in meeting that deadline. The Secretary-General was grateful to those countries that had contributed troops and logistical support to MISAB, those who had agreed to take part in MINURCA, as well as to the new troop contributors.

The establishment of MINURCA had demonstrated the continued commitment of the United Nations, and the international community at large, to helping Africa to attain stability and peace, said Mr. Brandt. The MINURCA would be established for an initial period of three months. Any extension beyond that period would depend on satisfactory progress being made by the Central African Republic parties towards the full implementation of the Bangui Agreements and the National Reconciliation Pact. Copies of the statement would be available in the Spokesman's office.

For ease of reference, Mr. Brandt told correspondents, the last United Nations peacekeeping operation established had been the one that took place in Guatemala early last year. It was a little noticed operation, but was carried out successfully. Approximately 150 United Nations military observers had overseen the disarmament and demobilization of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) fighters, numbering around 3,000. The Security Council had authorized that mission in January 1997. It had gone into operation in March and had concluded in May.

The current total strength of the United Nations peacekeeping operations was approximately 13,000, with 15 missions, Mr. Brandt added. The Spokesman's office had a table of troop contributions broken down by month since August 1992 up until last month.

Still on the Security Council, Mr. Brandt said that it was understood that agreement had been reached at the level of experts in the Council on a new arms embargo against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It was likely to be adopted early next week.

Mr. Brandt told correspondents that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, had written to President Ange-Felix Patasse of the Central African Republic and had expressed her dismay at the killing of two gendarmes last Tuesday. The policemen had reportedly been killed by four Rwandans, who had since not been found. Mrs. Ogata had also regretted that the incident had led local visitors to attack other Rwandans in the area, resulting in the deaths of several innocent refugees.

The High Commissioner had urged the Central African Republic Government to separate the 240 Rwandans who had been identified as being former combatants rather than genuine refugees, from the others, Mr. Brandt continued. About 1,200 Rwandan refugees were in the Central African Republic. That country's national eligibility commission had decided that 240 were former combatants and not legitimate refugees.

Finland would become the sixteenth country to sign a memorandum of understanding on the standby arrangements for the United Nations peacekeeping operations, Mr. Brandt said. A signing ceremony would take place at Headquarters next Monday at 12:30 p.m. The Minister of Defence of Finland, Anneli Taina, would sign for her country. The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, would sign for the United Nations.

To date, 71 countries had expressed their willingness to participate in the standby arrangements regime to expedite the deployment of United Nations peacekeeping operations, continued Mr. Brandt. Cote d'Ivoire and Latvia had been the latest countries to join in the arrangements. A list of those 71 countries was available in the Spokesman's office.

The Chairman of the Security Council Committee monitoring the sanctions on Angola, Njuguna Mahugu (Kenya), had met Wednesday with the leadership of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) in Andulo, Mr. Brandt said. Mr. Mahugu had urged UNITA to respect its engagements within the framework of the peace process, pointing out that the Security Council could consider lifting sanctions already in place when it next met, which would be towards the end of April. However, he had also warned UNITA that the Council could impose additional economic sanctions if it was not satisfied that UNITA had been making every effort to implement the Lusaka Protocol.

Basically, UNITA had to complete the rapid demobilization of its remaining 1,500 troops, support the continuing normalization of State administration, transform its radio station into a non-partisan broadcaster and move the leadership to Luanda, in order to fulfil its commitments to the peace process, continued Mr. Brandt. Mr. Mahugu would return to New York on 19 April, following his assessment of the impact of the air and travel restrictions imposed on UNITA, and his visit to neighbouring countries, which would include the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Africa, Namibia and Zambia.

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The inspections of the Radwaniyah presidential complex, approximately 20 kilometres west of Baghdad, had ended today, Mr. Brandt told correspondents. A total of 71 personnel from the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), accompanied by senior diplomats from 20 countries, had conducted inspections from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Inspections at other presidential sites would take place for the next 10 days or so.

The Secretary-General had today opened the semi-annual meeting of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) in Geneva with a one-hour private meeting among the heads of agencies, funds and programmes, without their staffs, Mr. Brandt said. The ACC was the highest-level coordinating body in the United Nations system. They had discussed a range of issues from Iraq and the Middle East, to the Great Lakes region of Africa and the Asian financial crisis.

The ACC had then held its first open meeting -- a two-hour discussion on poverty eradication, based on a background paper prepared jointly by the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank, continued Mr. Brandt. After lunch there had been two more additional items on the agenda: first, United Nations reform and the functioning of the ACC machinery: and second, staff security, in which staff representatives had participated.

In addition, the Secretary-General had held meetings with a number of United Nations officials, Mr. Brandt went on to say. Last night he had seen Juan Somavia, the new Director-General-elect of the International Labour Organization (ILO). After the afternoon ACC session, he had been scheduled to meet the Permanent Representative of Japan, Hisashi Owada, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, James Gustave Speth, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata.

After lunch, the Secretary-General had met with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, continued Mr. Brandt. Tomorrow he was scheduled to meet the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Rauf Denktash, and then to chair the concluding session of the ACC.

Sunday morning the Secretary-General would leave for Moscow, on the final leg of his three-week trip, which would also include visits to Beijing, China and London, Mr. Brandt said. Those were the remaining capitals of the three permanent members of the Security Council. He had visited France on his way to Baghdad, Iraq, and on his way back to New York. Also, he had visited Washington, D.C., before his Middle East trip.

The purpose of the Secretary-General's visit to the three remaining capitals would be to discuss the situation in Iraq, Mr. Brandt went on to say. He felt that the agreement with Iraq was partly his responsibility and he wanted to see that political support for it was sustained. He had

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acknowledged the important role many capitals had played, but particularly those of the permanent members of the Council in endorsing his mission and in pressing Iraq to comply with its obligations.

Samoa had become the fifty-second Member State to pay its regular budget dues this year, with a cheque for over $10,000 dollars. "Thank you Samoa", said Mr. Brandt. On this date last year, 45 Member States had paid up, Mr. Brandt told correspondents.

Yesterday, Cyprus had signed the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, Mr. Brandt said. So far, 20 countries had signed that treaty, which would enter into force after 22 States had ratified it.

Today, in Geneva, Klaus Toepfer, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director, had briefed senior United Nations officials on international efforts to tackle the forest fires in Indonesia and Brazil, Mr. Brandt informed correspondents. Joint teams from UNEP and the Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs would be leaving this weekend for both countries to assess local needs, and to formulate a coordinated response strategy.

Mr. Toepfer had also announced that he would be convening a meeting of international fire-fighting experts in Geneva on 20 April, to be followed the next day by a donor's conference, Mr. Brandt said. Initial efforts were being aided by a $750,000 grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). A press release was available but so far only in French.

Also available was another UNEP press release which gave background information on the recently adopted Convention on International Trade in Chemicals and Pesticides, Mr. Brandt went on to say. The UNEP was also announcing that on 20 June, negotiations would begin on an international convention on persistent organic pollutants, such as DDT, PCBs and dioxin.

There were a number of other press releases available in the Spokesman's office, including a situation report from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on the El Nino-induced drought in the Federated States of Micronesia, Mr. Brandt said. If correspondents wanted to know more about El Nino, a bulletin from the World Meteorological Organization entitled "Info-Nino" was available in French only and was embargoed until next Tuesday. Also available was a fact sheet from the World Health Organization (WHO) on efforts to eradicate guinea worm disease.

With reference to the arms embargo draft resolution on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, a correspondent wanted to know what the United Nations had to say about illegal paramilitary groups, from an international law point of view. Mr. Brandt said that the prudent thing would be to wait until the resolution was adopted next week. He had no answer to the very particular

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question for the time being. He had not seen the wording of the resolution and it would not be fair to those drafting the text to comment on something he had not seen.

Referring to Mr. Brandt's earlier statement that inspections of presidential sites in Iraq would take place over the next 10 days, one correspondent wanted to ascertain whether those inspections would be limited to that period of time or would there just be a lot more of them. Mr. Brandt replied that over the next 10 days there would be inspections, but that did not imply that there was any strict time limitation for future inspections.

Asked to comment on a New York Times story yesterday which described the Secretary-General as being rough on Israel, Mr. Brandt said he did not agree with that. "I do not think the Secretary-General was rough with anybody. I think the Secretary-General, as he has always done, says it as he sees it." He was, throughout his comments, speeches and statements, reflecting the feeling of the international community on the peace process in the Middle East, he concluded.

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