DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

(Incorporates briefing by spokesman for General Assembly President.)

Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, opened today's noon briefing by announcing that Pino Arlacchi, Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, would be joining the briefing to take correspondents' questions. (The briefing is issued separately.)

He said that Conference Room 1 in the basement had televised proceedings of the special session's meetings. Correspondents would also find facilities for audio and visual transmission, computer modem outlets, a documents counter with press releases, speeches and selected documents related to the world drug problem. On the third floor could be found a documents counter and the Office of the Spokesman. For correspondents wanting to cover any of the national representatives addressing the Assembly, there was a press gallery in the Assembly Hall, and they could apply for a pass at a media liaison centre located on the third floor near the express bar.

Mr. Eckhard said that the Secretary-General addressed the Assembly this morning and pointed out that there were 21 million victims around the world who abused cocaine and heroin and 30 million who abused amphetamine-type stimulants. "We cannot ease their suffering, but we must fight this", the Secretary-General said. He supported the target date of 2003 for Member States to enact appropriate national legislation covering money-laundering and said that was long overdue. He said that by the year 2008, Member States should have made real progress in eliminating or reducing significantly the crops of opium poppy, coca and cannabis.

The Secretary-General's attention had been called to a two-page advertisement in The New York Times this morning on the global effort to combat narcotic drugs, the Spokesman continued. If correspondents had any questions about that, they could ask Mr. Arlacchi, but it was the Secretary- General's view that the process culminating in the special session was an open one, involving the cooperation of all countries. The aim of the United Nations was to arrive at an agreed-upon plan of action for the world as a whole with respect to narcotic drugs.

Mr. Eckhard went on to say that the Secretary-General invited anyone with suggestions, proposals or ideas that could help improve the international community's response to that problem to come forward. All proposals that would assist the United Nations to deal more effectively with the global drug crisis were welcome. "We do not believe we have a monopoly on knowledge", the

Secretary-General said, and asked for creative contributions that would help refine the Organization's strategy. The Secretary-General pledged himself to maintain an open dialogue on that issue.

The Spokesman said there would be a workshop on media and drugs, "Telling and Selling the Drug Story in the New Multimedia Environment", to take place tomorrow, 9 June, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. in Conference Room 2. That was co-sponsored by the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, the Department of Public Information (DPI) and Radiotelevisione Italiana (RAI), and was under the auspices of the Permanent Mission of Italy. The workshop would consist of a morning session on "Informing about Drugs in a Changing World" and an afternoon session on "Selling Stories about Drugs". Mr. Arlacchi would make an opening statement, and Barry McCaffrey, the White House adviser on drugs, would be a guest speaker at a luncheon between the two sessions. The workshop would be moderated by Kensaku Hogen, Under-Secretary- General for Communications and Public Information.

On the Iraq "oil-for-food" programme, Mr. Eckhard said there were two 180-day reports, the first by the Secretary-General on Phase III, released this morning. The 60-page report detailed the sale of petroleum and petroleum products and the purchase and delivery of humanitarian supplies to Iraq from December 1997 to May 1998. It covered all sectors, which included food and nutrition, medical supplies, water and sanitation, electricity, agriculture and education.

Since the beginning of Phase I up to May 1998, $2.7 billion was allocated to the food and nutrition sector, and an accumulative total of 5.4 million tons of food and related items had arrived in the country, he went on to say. However, the Secretary-General expressed concern that the erratic arrival of supplies meant that a full basket of food was delivered only once to recipients, in March 1998. The Secretary-General emphasized that while the nutritional status of infants had not deteriorated, there was no sign of improvement from March 1997 to April 1998. The report had 19 pages of tables and a mass of statistics on all aspects of the United Nations humanitarian programme in Iraq.

The second 180-day report was by the 661 Committee which oversees the sanctions against Iraq, the Spokesman continued. It was also on the racks. In it, the Committee indicated that at current prices, total oil revenue for the whole period of Phase III was estimated at about $2.14 billion, including pipeline fees. The oil revenue was, therefore, on target. Fifty-two oil contracts were approved for a volume of approximately 184.1 million barrels for the entire period. The Committee also noted that it had taken a number of steps to expedite the process of approving humanitarian aid contracts, including the adoption of guidelines related to applications for foodstuffs. The Committee also approved during the period $24 million worth of spare parts and equipment for the repair and maintenance of the Kirkuk-Yumurtalik pipeline.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 8 June 1998

Mr. Eckhard said that Iraq's Council of Ministers, which was chaired by President Saddam Hussein, decided on Saturday that Iraq would no longer accept humanitarian donations from other countries and organizations, that was outside the United Nations oil-for-food programme. It was understood that that decision had no impact on the programme. Available in the Spokesman's Office was a list of all 23 so-called special humanitarian flights that had come into Iraq so far this year.

On another matter, the Spokesman said 48 United Nations staff members, as well as 58 nationals of several countries were evacuated from Asmara, Eritrea, on Saturday. They were taken to Djibouti. A small group of eight international United Nations staff remained in Asmara, and the Organization continued to watch the security situation there closely.

In Georgia this morning, two United Nations personnel were injured when their vehicle was damaged by a landmine in the lower Gali district of Georgia, he said. A military observer and an interpreter were injured and both had been evacuated and were in stable condition. Three others escaped with no injury.

The Secretary-General's 30-day report on Kosovo was on the racks, Mr. Eckhard said. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that the flow of people crossing into northern Albania from Kosovo over the weekend slowed to about 200 a day. The emergency food situation was still bad, and correspondents could pick up UNHCR briefing notes.

On Afghanistan, he said that United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) helicopters had managed to fly in food to the 56 villages hardest hit by the 30 May earthquake in that country. Today's update on the humanitarian relief effort was available in the Spokesman's Office.

Mr. Eckhard said that the number of high-level representatives at the United Nations was resulting in a windfall of signatures on United Nations conventions. The Foreign Minister of Panama, Ricardo Alberto Arias, and the Foreign Minister of El Salvador, Ramon Ernesto Gonzalez Giner, would each sign the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change. The Minister of the Interior of Lithuania would sign the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings. Lithuania would also sign the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and would accede to the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

Out on the racks today was the report on the status of contributions as of the end of April, the Spokesman said. Also available was a press release from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) on a just-concluded interim review of the risks posed by drums of toxic waste stored at the port

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 8 June 1998

of Asuncion in Paraguay. The UNEP said urgent action was needed to prevent flooding that could result in contamination of the Paraguay River and downstream areas. Details could be obtained from the press release.

For the record, he said, the Security Council adopted a resolution on India and Pakistan last Saturday. By that resolution, the Council condemned the nuclear tests by the two countries, demanded that they refrain from further nuclear test, and called on them to stop immediately their nuclear weapon development programmes, and encouraged them to find mutually acceptable solutions that address the root causes of tensions, including Kashmir. The full Council was not planning to meet during the special session of the Assembly.

A correspondent asked whether the Secretary-General had any comment on the reported death of General Abacha, the Nigerian head of State. Mr. Eckhard said press reports had been seen, but not of his death, which might be a more recent report. The earlier reports said that troops had surrounded his residence and office. The situation was being followed closely.

Asked by another correspondent whether the Secretary-General had had any communication with the government of either India or Pakistan, following the adoption of a Security Council resolution on Saturday, Mr. Eckhard said he was not aware of any and would have to double check.

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for General Assembly President Hennadiy Udovenko (Ukraine), said that the Assembly adopted this morning the official title of the session -- the "twentieth special session of the General Assembly devoted to countering the world drug problem together".

Also this morning, the Assembly unanimously elected Mr. Udovenko as President of the special session. Responding to questions he had received earlier, the spokesman explained that the person presiding over the opening of the session was the representative of Ukraine. According to the Assembly rules, a member of the delegation presiding over the previous session did the temporary duties of the President.

Mr. Taukatch said that in his statement, which was available in the Office of the Spokesman, the President said that presiding over the special session had special significance for him because he was representing Ukraine at the United Nations when the previous special session of the General Assembly took place in 1990. Ukraine was then the initiator to proclaim the United Nations Decade against Drug Abuse that is to end in the year 2000.

The spokesman said there would be three meetings of the plenary -- in the morning from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., in the afternoon from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. and in the evening from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Because there were so many speakers, a special light system would be used to ensure that speakers kept to their

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 8 June 1998

allotted seven-minute time limit. A green light would be activated at the start of the statement, an orange light 30 seconds before the end of the seven minutes and a red light when the seven minutes had elapsed.

The spokesman said that the latest change indicated that 23 heads of State, eight heads of government and one vice-president would attend the special session.

Under Article 19 of the Charter, 23 Member States were in arrears, he said. The document number for the special session on that particular subject was A/S-20/8. The Credentials Committee would meet this afternoon at 3 o'clock, and the ad hoc Committee of the Whole would meet at the same time.

Mr. Taukatch said that document A/S-20/4 was the document symbol for the report of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs that acted as the preparatory body for the special session. It contained the texts of all the decisions adopted this morning, as well as the declarations and main documents to be adopted by the session.

* *** *