SECRETARY-GENERAL'S ACTIVITIES IN GENEVA, 26 - 29 MARCH

Press Release
SG/T/2126

SECRETARY-GENERAL'S ACTIVITIES IN GENEVA, 26 - 29 MARCH

The Secretary-General arrived in Geneva from Jerusalem in the afternoon of Thursday, 26 March, having concluded his trip to the Middle East, where he visited Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, the Occupied Territories, and Israel.

That evening, he met with the Permanent Representative of Chile to the United Nations, Juan Somavia, also the newly elected Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), to congratulate him on his recent election.

On Friday morning, he talked with Vladimir Petrovsky, Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and Personal Representative of the Secretary- General to the Conference, about the conclusion of the first part of the 1998 session of the Conference and adoption of a work programme. The Secretary- General was pleased with the developments there, which he saw as a step forward, however modest.

The Secretary-General then chaired a private meeting of the 1998 first regular session of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC). He briefed the Committee on his recent visits to Iraq and to the Middle East, and discussed the situation in the Great Lakes region of Africa, the financial situation of the Organization, and the East and South-East Asia financial crisis. He then chaired the open meeting, which began at 11 a.m. It was a two-hour discussion on poverty eradication, based on a background paper prepared by the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank. After lunch, the meeting focused on reform of the United Nations system and the functioning of the ACC machinery, as well as staff security, in which staff representatives participated.

At 6 p.m., he met with Hisashi Owada, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations in New York, who is President of the Security Council in April. He also met that day with James Gustave Speth, Administrator of the UNDP; Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights; and Enrique ter Horst, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights. He later attended a dinner held in his honour by the Council of State of the Republic and Canton of Geneva.

- 2 - Press Release SG/T/2126 1 April 1998

On Saturday, 28 March, the Secretary-General met in the morning with his Special Adviser for Cyprus, Diego Cordovez, to discuss recent talks which Mr. Cordovez held in Nicosia, Athens and Ankara on the Cyprus situation. He and Mr. Cordovez then met with Rauf Denktash, leader of the Turkish Cypriot community. The Secretary-General later issued a statement through his Spokesman saying that he had expressed his disappointment to Mr. Denktash at the outcome of the recent round of talks, and, in particular, that it was not possible to find a common basis for continuing the process of negotiations between the leaders of the two communities. He urged Mr. Denktash to resume talks within the framework of the Good Offices Mission, saying there was no alternative route to a peaceful settlement. He said he intended to ask Mr. Cordovez to continue his efforts, and that he was encouraged that Mr. Denktash had reiterated his continued support for the Secretary-General's good offices and his wish for a peaceful settlement of the Cyprus problem. The Secretary-General said he would be reporting to the Security Council on the outcome of their meeting. (See Press Release SG/SM/6507 for the full text of this statement.)

Later in the morning, the Secretary-General chaired the concluding meeting of the biannual session of the ACC.

The Secretary-General left Geneva on Sunday morning, 29 March, to visit Moscow, Beijing and London, the capitals of three remaining permanent members of the Security Council with whom he wished to discuss the situation in Iraq. He had already seen the French President while coming and going to Iraq, and he had gone to Washington, D.C., before starting his Middle East tour. The Secretary-General wanted to ensure that political support for the agreement with Iraq was sustained. He acknowledged the important role many capitals played, particularly the permanent members of the Security Council, in endorsing his mission and in pressing Iraq to comply.

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