DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by announcing that the Secretary-General was tentatively scheduled to meet with the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf, on Thursday, 28 May. Mr. Al-Sahaf would be arriving in New York tomorrow, 27 May. The Iraqi delegation was scheduled to meet with United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) officials also on Thursday to go over all aspects related to the disarmament of weapons of mass destruction. The Special Commission would give Security Council members a technical briefing on 3 June on the remaining work to be done.

The new distribution plan for an expanded "oil-for-food" programme was still being reviewed at the working level, he added. The draft plan might be finalized by the end of this week. An informal briefing, which the Executive Director of the United Nations Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, planned for Iraq Sanctions Committee members for this afternoon, had been postponed until Thursday, 28 May, due to the delay in finalizing the draft distribution plan.

There was no Security Council meeting today, he said. The Council was expected to hold consultations on the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan Heights tomorrow, 27 May. The UNDOF mandate expires at the end of this month. The Secretary-General had recommended a further six-month extension of the mandate.

Mr. Eckhard read a statement, which was available in room 378. "In response to a request for assistance from the Government of Albania, the Secretary-General has decided to undertake a preliminary evaluation of the situation in the country, in close cooperation with the Albania authorities, with a view to developing a programme of weapons collection from the civilian population. The team will visit Albania from 1 to 5 June.

"The team is headed by the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, and composed of United Nations officials from the Department for Disarmament Affairs, the Department of Political Affairs and the Department of Peacekeeping Operations. The visit will be financed from voluntary contributions by the Government of Italy." (Press Release SG/SM/6573)

Any questions on that issue should be directed to Mr. Dhanapala, Mr. Eckhard said.

A ceasefire signed yesterday, 25 May, by representatives of the Abkhazian and Georgian sides had failed to stop heavy fighting in a buffer zone, the Spokesman said. However, Georgian authorities said that communications problems had prevented the transmission of the necessary

orders, and they hoped that the ceasefire agreement might come into effect tomorrow, 27 May. The ceasefire was to have come into effect at 6 a.m. local time today, with both sides withdrawing all reinforcements from the conflict zone. The agreement also stipulated that the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) peacekeeping forces participate in special groups. Their efforts would be aimed at creating the right conditions for displaced inhabitants to return to the Gali region, where fighting between Georgian armed elements and Abkhazian forces had been focused.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet delivered an opening address at a one-day African peacekeeping training strategy session, Mr. Eckhard said. The session, organized by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, opened today at 10:30 a.m. in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. The main issues discussed this morning were the United Nations peacekeeping training initiatives for Africa and United Nations standby arrangements and the information process. The session would continue this afternoon, from 3 to 5 p.m. The event was a follow-up to the 5 December 1997 meeting on improving the capacity of African countries to respond to crises in the area of peacekeeping. A copy of Mr. Miyet's remarks were available in room 378, in both English and French.

Mr. Eckhard added that Mr. Miyet would hold a press conference on 29 May, at 11:15 a.m. in room 226. He would discuss his recent trip to Haiti, the fiftieth anniversary of peacekeeping and other topics. Journalists interested in an interview with Mr. Miyet should contact Sophie Sebirot- Nossoff of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations at 963-8217.

The group of governmental experts on small arms held its first meeting today, he said. The session was being convened following a General Assembly resolution adopted last year (52/38J) which requested the Secretary-General to make recommendations with the assistance of experts on the issue of small arms. That report was due at the Assembly's fifty-fourth session, in 1999. The experts would meet three times leading up to the Assembly session. The meeting which began today would last until Friday, 29 May.

The Spokesman said there was a press release available in his office from the International Court of Justice on a case brought by Iran against the United States. The case, which was filed in 1992, concerned the destruction caused by United States Navy ships to three Iranian oil platforms in the late 1980s. Iran said those acts breached treaties between the two countries as well as international law. In the latest development, the Court extended the time-limits for the parties to file documents.

As was announced earlier, the United Nations concluded a memorandum of understanding with Taliban authorities on 13 May, Mr. Eckhard said. Considerable progress was made on a number of issues, including privileges and

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immunities, particularly the safety and security of humanitarian personnel, and access of girls and women to health and education. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was also pleased by the Taliban decision to allow the World Food Programme (WFP) to begin an assessment of food needs in the central highlands of Afghanistan.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) informed correspondents this morning in Geneva that the humanitarian situation on the ground in Kosovo was deteriorating, Mr. Eckhard said. The number of people displaced in the fighting now exceeded 34,000 within Kosovo alone. There was also a dramatic increase in people fleeing Kosovo for Montenegro. There were 818 new arrivals from Kosovo registered in the course of last week, compared to six the week before. One third of those who fled were Serb males apparently trying to avoid being drafted or otherwise drawn into the conflict.

Mr. Eckhard added that, in Pristina, Kosovo, the food situation appeared to be worsening. Private shop owners complained that they had been unable to replenish their stocks depleted by "panic buying". More details in the UNHCR briefing notes received from Geneva were available in room 378. The UNHCR had also sent a press release announcing that the High Commissioner, Sadako Ogata, had issued an urgent appeal for funds for its 1998 operations. Ms. Ogata warned that the organization might not be able to continue caring for the world's refugees if contributions remained scarce and unpredictable. That press release was also available in room 378.

Mr. Eckhard said a special session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) ended a three-day session on Friday, 22 May, in Nairobi, by solidly backing the reform proposals presented by UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer. Environment ministers and other senior government officials welcomed proposals which reflected new areas of concentration for the organization. Those areas were environmental information; assessment and research, including environmental emergency response capacity and strengthening of early warning and assessment functions; enhanced coordination of environmental conventions and development of environmental policy instruments; freshwater; technology transfer and industry; and support to Africa.

In another press release available from UNEP, he said it was announced that 23 individuals and organizations, including six in the youth category, had been elected to the prestigious ranks of UNEP's Global 500 Roll of Honour. They were awarded for their outstanding contributions to the protection of the environment. Laureates included Aga Akbar, a zookeeper from Afghanistan who lived 18 terrible months on the front lines rather than abandon his charges; Mike Anane, a journalist from Ghana whose gutsy articles brought to the fore the alarming rate of environmental destruction in his country; Sylvia Earle, an American oceanographer; and Yuri Luzhkov, Mayor of the City of Moscow, for his commitment to sustainable urban development.

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As part of its continuing series of articles to promote the upcoming United Nations Drug Summit, the Department of Public Information (DPI) was releasing today a feature story on one of the session's main themes, "Alternative Development: Moving Away from Drug Crops", the Spokesman said. Twenty-one heads of State, 11 heads of Government and one Vice-President would be participating in the three-day special session of the General Assembly, which begins on 8 June. The DPI contact person for the session was Bill Hass at 963-0353.

What was the situation in Angola in regard to the implementation of the peace plan? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said that, according to news reports, about 40,000 people had fled their homes during the last month owing to the activities of armed bands in six of the country's 18 provinces. The worst hit had been the province of Benguela in the south-west where 34,000 people had been displaced. The Special Representative of the Secretary General for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, had been involved in efforts to resolve the recent crisis. He met yesterday with the head of the Angolan police force to try to end human rights abuses by police there. The Joint Commission planned to meet today in Luanda to review implementation of the five-point plan put forward last week by Mr. Beye in his effort to get them to conclude the Lusaka Protocol by the end of this month. Everyone was engaged and while the situation looked bad, there was the five-point plan whose deadline was the end of the month. "So we'll be watching anxiously in the days ahead", he said.

In a press conference in Sydney, Richard Butler, Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, told reporters that he was prepared to change strategy and submit a "road map" to the Security Council and Iraqi officials about what was left in Iraq, a correspondent said. Does the Secretary-General have an opinion about on that? Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General favoured any measure that would move Iraq closer to full compliance with Council resolutions. As a result of full compliance and disarmament called for in the resolutions, the Security Council could consider lifting the sanctions. The Secretary-General felt that the more open approach that Mr. Butler promised in the Sydney speech was probably good for the process at its current stage.

It was expected that the Council on Wednesday, 3 June, would be given fresh information on the status of the disarmament process, he added. There will be exchanges between the Iraqi delegation headed by the Iraqi Foreign Minister and Council members. That intensified activity and exchange of information could move the process closer to the ultimate objective: the disarmament of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, the lifting of sanctions and Iraq's return as a normal member of the international community.

On the refugee flow from Kosovo, a correspondent asked if people were fleeing from the Kosovo Liberation Army which, she said, was undertaking terrorist activities. Mr. Eckhard said that people in the country had been

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displaced by fighting and that involved at least two sides. Could you name those two sides? the correspondent asked. He replied that they were the Albanians and the Serb authorities.

While there was a disarmament effort being taken in Albania, should similar efforts be taken in Kosovo also? the correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said the objective of disarmament was to stabilize the situation in Albania and he could not speculate on the impact it could have on neighbouring countries.

Another correspondent asked Mr. Eckhard how he would characterize the two sides in the fighting in Kosovo. The Spokesman said that there were Serbian authorities and a large ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo that wanted more say in the running of their affairs. The correspondent asked if there was ethnic cleansing going on against Serbs. Mr. Eckhard said he could not characterize fighting there as ethnic cleansing. There was evidence that the small number of Serbs in Kosovo were among those dislocated by the fighting.

Why wouldn't you classify fighting in Kosovo as ethnic cleansing? Kosovo became 90 per cent Albanian because Albanians "ethnic cleansed" everyone else, a correspondent said. Mr. Eckhard said her statement was her view of history, and he could not comment on it.

The correspondent said that the Spanish newspaper El Mundo was reporting that Italian troops with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Stabilization Force (SFOR) were organizing a prostitution ring involving children as young as 12 in Sarajevo. Was that part of their mandate? Mr. Eckhard said he did not know about the El Mundo story, and he could not comment on it. He said the United Nations had recognized that child prostitution was a serious problem, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, was examining the issue worldwide. The United Nations moral position on that issue was clear, but he had no specific comment on the situation she had mentioned.

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