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, began today's noon briefing by announcing that United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson had this morning issued a statement concerning the detention yesterday of Christopher Harland, a United Nations human rights officer, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That statement was available in room 378.

In the statement, Ms. Robinson said she was relieved that her colleague had been released unharmed, Mr. Brandt went on to say. She remained concerned, however, that his luggage, which contained sensitive documents from his work in the Goma area, had been opened and searched. Mr. Harland and other United Nations officials had attempted to prevent the seizure of the luggage, which had clearly been the focus of the security officers' interest.

Mr. Brandt told correspondents that Ms. Robinson's statement also said that there was no excuse for such a flagrant breach of a Government's obligations under the Convention on privileges and immunities governing the treatment of the Organization's staff members. Mr. Harland had been clearly identified and carried a United Nations laissez-passer. There should now be an assessment of the implication of that incident. Clearly there were justifiable doubts about the value of maintaining the investigative effort in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the statement concluded.

Conveying a statement issued today by the Spokesman for the Secretary- General, Mr. Brandt said a preliminary report had been received from the head of the investigative team about Mr. Harland's detention in Kinshasa by Congolese authorities. In view of the serious nature of the circumstances described in the report, including the search and seizure of official United Nations documents, the team had been instructed to suspend its activities until the facts were clarified and explanations received from the Congolese authorities.

At the time of the briefing, the Security Council was holding a formal meeting to adopt a resolution on Rwanda, Mr. Brandt said. By that action, the Council was deciding to reactivate the International Commission of Inquiry, which had looked into illegal arms flows to former Rwandan government forces and militias in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Copies of the draft resolution and a list of speakers were available in the Spokesman's office. The United States representative was currently addressing the meeting prior to the voting on the draft resolution. There were 13 speakers scheduled to speak before the vote.

The report on the technical evaluation meeting on biological weapons in Iraq, held in Vienna late last month, had been submitted to the Security Council late yesterday, Mr. Brandt said. The report by the Commissioner of the Special Group, Jayantha Dhanapala, on the inspections of the presidential sites in Iraq, was still being finalized and was likely to be submitted by the Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) on the disarmament of Iraq to the Council through the Secretary-General by the beginning or middle of next week. The biannual report of the UNSCOM Chairman was also expected to be submitted to the Council by the middle of next week. The report of the oil experts on Iraq's capacity to produce and export oil was expected some time next week as well.

"Thank you very much Bhutan", Mr. Brandt said. That country had become the fifty-fifth Member State to pay its regular budget dues in full, with a cheque for over $10,000. Last year at this time, full payment from 50 Member States had been received. Available on the racks was a report on the status of contributions as of the end of February.

Mr. Brandt drew correspondents' attention to a wire report this morning on the arrest of two persons indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Miroslav Kvocka and Mladen Radic were brought in by SFOR forces and were now in detention at the Tribunal. Their first hearing would be next Tuesday. A press release with background information on the accused and the charges against them was available at the Spokesman's office.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) this morning called on the United States to "take all measures at its disposal" to prevent the execution of a Paraguayan national who was scheduled to be put to death in the state of Virginia on 14 April, Mr. Brandt said.

The Court wanted the United States to prevent the execution of Angel Francisco Breard until it could decide on a case brought to it by Paraguay, Mr. Brandt went on to say. Paraguay contended that Mr. Breard was arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced without the guarantees required by the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Both Paraguay and the United States are parties to that treaty.

In making its decision today, the Court pointed out that the issue before it had nothing to do with the entitlement of the United States to resort to the death penalty, Mr. Brandt said. Judges also noted that the Court's function was to resolve legal disputes between States and not to act as a court of appeal. A press release was available in the Spokesman's office.

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Frechette had a number of appointments today, including afternoon meetings with the Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services, Reinhart Helmke; the Permanent

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Representative of Algeria, Abdallah Baali; and the Permanent Representative of Jordan, Hasan Abu-Nimah. All the rest of her appointments were of an internal nature.

Mr. Brandt said the recently recorded World Chronicle television programme No. 704, with the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Olara A. Otunnu, would be shown today on in-house channels 6 and 38 at 2:30 p.m. Since many questions had been asked by correspondents about Mr. Otunnu's role and activities, the programme would provide a good opportunity to tune in to hear and see him describe the latest developments in his portfolio.

Still on children in armed conflict, Mr. Brandt drew attention to a press release that was available in the Spokesman's office concerning Mr. Otunnu's visit to Canada last weekend, 1 to 2 April, at the invitation of Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy. The release had a lot of useful information which Mr. Otunnu would probably refer to in the television show.

The press release stated that in the past decade alone, 2 million children had been killed in armed conflicts, Mr. Brandt said. An estimated 250,000 children as young as eight years old had been used as soldiers in some 30 theatres of conflict worldwide. Twelve million were left homeless, and half of the world's estimated 53 million refugees and internally displaced persons were children, often orphaned. Civilians constituted up to 90 per cent of those affected by today's conflicts, as compared to 5 per cent during the First World War.

Correspondents who wanted to see the future of the Organization were cordially invited to witness the closing sessions of the National College Model United Nations on Saturday, 11 April, at Headquarters, Mr. Brandt said. The participants were the future leaders of the world, and it was worthwhile to look at them and how they would play their roles. This year, over 2,000 students from 170 universities and 12 countries were participating in the conference. Over the course of the conference, the students simulated five major organs of the United Nations, 19 committees and five intergovernmental organizations.

Their sessions would be held in several conference rooms throughout the day and they would end with closing ceremonies in the General Assembly Hall at 5 p.m., Mr. Brandt said. The exercise was sponsored by the National Collegiate Conference Association, a non-governmental organization associated with the United Nations. Their activities at Headquarters were coordinated by the Department of Public Information (DPI).

Mr. Brandt drew attention to two press releases from the World Bank announcing that two African countries would receive debt-relief packages: Mozambique would receive nearly $3 billion, and Uganda would receive

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$650 million. Those packages were granted under the Initiative for Heavily Indebted Poor Countries. Uganda was the first country to receive debt relief under that Initiative.

The Bureau for Development Policy/Office of Development Studies of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) would be releasing a new study on "Perspectives on International Financial Liberalization", Mr. Brandt said. A press breakfast would take place at the Regal United Nations Plaza Hotel in the Perez de Cuellar Room on the twenty-ninth floor on Tuesday, 14 April, from 9 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Correspondents were cordially invited to attend.

Mr. Brandt said the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) would convene an international round-table meeting from 14 to 17 April to discuss progress made since the Cairo 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in addressing adolescent reproductive and sexual health needs and in reducing levels of teenage pregnancy.

Mr. Brandt said that the eight children from Belarus, victims of the Chernobyl nuclear plant explosion, would be given lunch, refreshments and gifts by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, in room 3627. He encouraged correspondents to attend, observe, "write a lot of stories, and follow this very important issue that needs to be attended to".

On Monday, 13 April, there would be a press conference on behalf of the Chairman of the fifty-third session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Shah A.M.S. Kibria, Mr. Brandt said. The Permanent Representative of Bangladesh, Anwarul K. Chowdhury, would host the conference to launch the Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, 1998. Copies of the Survey would be made available at the press conference. An ESCAP press release on the Survey was available in the Spokesman's office.

Mr. Brandt reminded correspondents that the Permanent Representative of Cameroon, Martin Belinga-Eboutou, had invited them to a reception in the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Club today at 3 p.m. Details of the invitation were posted on the UNCA bulletin board.

Why was Paraguay intervening so late to stop the execution of Mr. Breard? a correspondent asked. Quoting from a press release received from the International Court of Justice, Mr. Brandt said that Paraguay had instituted proceedings against the United States in 3 April. The reason for one country calling for the attention of the Court was something that Paraguay needed to be asked, since the Spokesman's office was simply relaying information received from the Court. The issue was something for the Member States and the Court to decide. The Spokesman's office provided information received and created the interest for correspondents to follow-up.

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Responding to a question about the claim by the Democratic Republic of the Congo that Christopher Harland was not a member of the investigative team, Mr. Brandt confirmed that Mr. Harland was in that country as a member of the United Nations investigative team and had a United Nations laissez-passer. He was an official of the Organization, which was what made the incident so serious.

Asked why the investigation had not been halted altogether, Mr. Brandt called attention to the last paragraph of Mary Robinson's statement, which left no doubt about the assessment of the future of that mission. That assessment and that thinking was happening right now regarding the future of the mission. When the time came to make an announcement, it would be done as quickly as was possible. That decision had not been taken as yet, he said.

One correspondent asked whether the response by the Organization was the first step towards winding down the investigation? Mr. Brandt said he would not call it a first step; there were a number of steps that had to be taken by the United Nations to reassess the future of the mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

What would be the next step for the International Commission of Inquiry if the Security Council adopted the Rwanda resolution? a correspondent asked. Mr. Brandt invited correspondents to read the resolution if that happened. In very clear language, it established the decision of the Security Council to reactivate the work of the Commission. The Commission had submitted the last report on its work in December 1997. In January 1998, the Secretary-General had transmitted additional information to the Council which had been collected by the Commission since the 1997 report.

A number of documents relating to the Commission's work were available, Mr. Brand said. Once the resolution was adopted, there would be a need for the Secretary-General and the Secretariat to take a series of steps to trigger the work of the Commission again.

Asked if it would take a lot of time before the Commission resumed its work, Mr. Brandt said that would be dictated by the adoption of the resolution by the Council. Once that happened, the political will would have been expressed and the work of the Commission would begin.

Mr. Brandt then reminded correspondents that tomorrow would be an official United Nations holiday. The Organization was celebrating, as mandated by the General Assembly, the holiday of Good Friday. The building would be closed, by the Spokesman's office would be staffed throughout the weekend if assistance was needed.

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