DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Juan Carlos Brandt, Senior Associate Spokesman for the Secretary- General, began today's press briefing by welcoming Alyaksandr Sychou, Permanent Representative of Belarus; Sergey Lavrov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation; and Vladimir Yelchenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine. Together with Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs Sergio Vieira de Mello, they would discuss the Chernobyl nuclear accident of 12 years ago. They would call attention to what had happened since the tragedy and answer correspondents' questions in that regard. (The briefing of the guests at today's press briefing is being issued separately.)

Mr. Brandt then read the following statement:

"The Secretary-General was pleased to see the level of support in the Senate -- on both sides of the aisle -- for payment of a significant portion of the United States arrears to the United Nations system as evidenced by the debate on the State Department authorization conference report. However, he regrets that United States fulfilment of its financial obligation remains uncertain due to an extraneous matter. He appreciates the continuing efforts of President Clinton and the Congressional leadership to resolve this issue.

"The United Nations system does many things each day which benefit the citizens of the United States, and of the world. Conversely, the continuing support of the United States is critical to the success of the United Nations. It is time to get the question of arrears behind us, and to move forward to strengthen this vital relationship, on which so much depends."

He said that statement would come out as a press release, copies of which would be available in the Office of the Spokesman after the briefing.

Mr. Brandt then read another statement:

"The United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) has reported severe fighting between Government forces and elements of the United Tajik Opposition (UTO) east of Dushanbe and within the eastern city limits. The fighting began yesterday, apparently triggered by the arrest of three opposition members on criminal charges. The UNMOT and the Contact Group [of Guarantor States and Organizations for the implementation of the General Peace Agreement] are making strenuous efforts to contain the situation.

"The Secretary-General is very concerned at this flare-up of hostilities, which carries the risk of escalation. He calls on the government and the UTO to work together to stop the fighting and to restore calm."

Turning to Security Council matters, Mr. Brandt said that as part of the efforts to make the work of the Security Council more transparent, for the first time a reminder had been posted in the Journal mentioning the availability of the monthly tentative forecast to all Member States, a service which the Council has been providing since July 1993.

He said Kenya had assumed the Council Presidency for the month of May. Ambassador Njuguna M. Mahugu was holding bilateral consultations today on the Council's work programme for this month and the Council was expected to consider it next Tuesday.

Mr. Brandt then announced "historic news" from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda: today the country's former Prime Minister, Jean Kambanda, pleaded guilty to the crime of genocide and other charges against him. That was the first confession of guilt for the crime of genocide by any person at any international tribunal.

In entering his plea, Mr. Kambanda emphasized that he "freely and voluntarily" admitted his guilt to all counts against him, Mr. Brandt added. The Prosecutor then pronounced Mr. Kambanda guilty of genocide, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to genocide, complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity. Details of those charges against the former Prime Minister and the proceedings today at the Tribunal were all contained in a press release that was available in the Spokesman's office.

Mr. Brandt said that Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, had issued a statement today in which she joined Soli Sorabjee, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Nigeria; Param Cumeraswamy, the Special Rapporteur on Lawyers and Judges; and Bacre Waly Ndiaye, Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, in expressing deep concern at the sentencing to death of six defendants on charges of treason on 28 April this year. A total of 30 people had been charged in connection with an alleged coup plot announced by the Government of Nigeria in December last year. The text of that statement was available in the Spokesman's office.

On Sudan, Mr. Brandt said that the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mr. Vieira de Mello, had decided to send Ross Mountain, the Director-Designate of the Geneva office of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to Khartoum on 2 and 3 May for discussions with officials of the Government of Sudan on ways to facilitate a faster response and wider access to the population in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in Bahr el-Ghazal and in Bentiu.

He said the World Food Programme (WFP) had issued an appeal to the international donor community today to fund urgently needed emergency airdrops of food aid to victims of war and drought in southern Sudan. The airdrop

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would be part of a $65.8 million operation starting today to deliver 83,000 tons of food to almost 2.5 million Sudanese, mainly in southern Sudan, for the next 12 months. The WFP had said that the situation was extremely serious in the region, where the combined effects of insecurity, drought and floods had caused widespread crop failure.

Turning to Afghanistan, Mr. Brandt said that the talks between the rival Afghan factions in Islamabad adjourned late yesterday. The factions were unable to agree on the lifting of the Taliban blockade of Hazarajat, a central region of Afghanistan that had been blockaded since last summer. Due to that blockade, the humanitarian situation had been deteriorating. The two sides managed to agree on the composition of Ulema (Islamic scholars) and the talks were expected to resume on Sunday, 3 May, to discuss the blockade, the time and venue of the next round of talks and other remaining questions.

Meanwhile, also in Afghanistan, two WFP staff missions climbed the mountains of the Hazarajat region on horseback to determine the extent of hunger among the 1.2 million isolated villagers who were facing a severe food shortage, Mr. Brandt added. They were now back from the region and had filed unconfirmed reports of as many as 100 deaths by starvation, mostly women and children. That information was contained in two press releases available in the Spokesman's office.

He said two countries had paid their contributions in full -- Botswana, with more than $105,000, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, over $52,000. Correspondents would see on the racks a report on the status of contributions as of 31 March. By that date, about $1.5 billion had been collected for the regular budget. That was less than had been received at the end of March last year, when $1.6 billion had been paid to the regular budget.

Mr. Brandt said that Romania had signed the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings yesterday, and Spain was expected to sign it today. That would bring to 22 the number of countries which had signed the Anti-terrorism Convention. Also yesterday, Sao Tome and Principe signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. So far, 125 had signed the landmine ban, which would enter into force after 40 countries had ratified it.

The Secretary-General had spent the entire morning at the closing session of the Conference on African Women and Economic Development, Mr. Brandt said. He then attended a luncheon hosted by the Ethiopian Government for the senior-most officials attending the Conference -- the Presidents of Botswana and Burkina Faso, the Prime Ministers of Algeria and Ethiopia and the Vice-Presidents of Ghana and Uganda.

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General had held a series of bilateral meetings, starting with President Festus Mogae of Botswana, Mr. Brandt said.

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He then met with President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, who will host the next Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit. He had a tour d'horizon of African issues with the two Presidents.

He added that those meetings were followed by one with Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia of Algeria. They discussed sanctions regimes, specifically the one applied to Libya, the peace process in Western Sahara and the internal situation in Algeria, on which the Secretary-General pressed for acceptance of a United Nations human rights rapporteur. With Mohamed Said Saadi, Minister for Family and Childhood of Morocco, he discussed Western Sahara.

The Secretary-General was now being briefed by Soren Jessen-Petersen of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on his recent five- nation tour of the Great Lakes region of Africa, Mr. Brandt continued. He had visited Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, United Republic of Tanzania and Ethiopia. This evening the Secretary-General would have dinner with the heads of United Nations agencies in Addis Ababa, hosted by the Economic Commission for Africa.

Mr. Brandt said that as mentioned yesterday, Sunday, 3 May, was World Press Freedom Day. In that connection, an event would be held on Monday, 4 May, and a note to correspondents had been made available yesterday containing details of the event. The Secretary-General's message on that occasion emphasized that freedom of the press ultimately implied freedom of reporters, broadcasters and editors to work without interference or coercion -- governmental, political or commercial -- in telling the true story.

The Secretary-General pointed out that many developing countries were conscious of the need to improve and strengthen their media organizations, Mr. Brandt said. That depended, above all, on the quality of their human resources -- indeed on their ability to report and express their opinions freely without interference or intimidation of any kind. World Press Freedom Day should be used to "honour the memory of those members of the press who had fallen in their quest to bring us the news, to tell the truth and to expose injustice". The entire message was contained in Press Release SG/SM/6543, available on the racks.

Mr. Brandt then said that a new publication from the World Resources Institute, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Bank was launched this morning in Washington, D.C., with UNEP Executive Director Klaus Topfer, and UNDP Administrator James Speth participating. Copies of World Resources 1998-99: A Guide to the Global Environment were available at the documents counter.

Finally, the recently recorded World Chronicle television programme with Rafiah Salim, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management, would be shown today on in-house television channel 6 or 38 at 2:30 p.m.

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In connection with World Press Freedom Day, a correspondent asked for a comment on the decision by the Office of the High Representative for Implementation of the Peace Agreement on Bosnia and Herzegovina to close certain broadcasting stations in Bosnia. Mr. Brandt replied that he could not comment because he was not aware of that, but he would check.

Asked by another correspondent whether any report was expected on Kosovo, he said the Secretary-General was due to bring a report on Kosovo to the attention of the Security Council. The deadline was believed to have been yesterday or today and that report would be on its way to the Council shortly.

Another correspondent asked for an elaboration on the blockade of Hazarajat. Mr. Brandt responded that he could not elaborate further than he already had. There were several agencies and programmes of the United Nations system that were trying to look into the matter and see how best to help the needy population in that area.

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