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 saying that the Security Council had a full agenda today. It first took up Bosnia and Herzegovina this morning. A draft resolution on that subject was tabled yesterday and there now appeared to be a consensus on that text. The Council was expected to adopt it on Monday.

The next item being considered was Iraq, Mr. Eckhard continued. The Council was now discussing the two 180-day reports on the implementation of the "oil-for-food" programme and the question of oil spare parts and equipment for Iraq.

Angola was the third item on the agenda, he added. The Council had before it a draft resolution by which it would impose additional sanctions on the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) unless UNITA had complied with all its remaining obligations to bring the peace process to a successful conclusion. The Council's intention was to adopt that resolution as soon as possible. There was a possibility that the Council may meet over the weekend to adopt it.

Consultations on Sierra Leone had been postponed by the Council to early next week in view of the full agenda today, the Spokesman said.

On a different matter, he said the Secretary-General was concerned to learn this morning that two United Nations military observers and their interpreter had their lives threatened by masked fighters in Tajikistan during a routine patrol late yesterday. The unmarked patrol was stopped by gunmen at about 5:15 p.m., local time. The military observers and the interpreter were severely beaten. Their VHF radio was destroyed and other communications equipment was stolen as were some personal items. The United Nations personnel were released about three hours later and were receiving medical treatment. The United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) was investigating that incident further.

Referring to the report of the Secretary-General's investigative team on human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Eckhard said that the report would be sent to the Governments of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo next Monday for their advance information. The report would then be transmitted to the Security Council on 21 June and would also be made public at that time.

The Spokesman then said that Olara Otunnu, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, issued a statement this morning expressing shock and outrage at reports of the killing of 80 students in western Uganda. He expressed his concern about the plight of children

affected by the ongoing conflict situation in the northern and western parts of Uganda and said the continuing abuse and brutalization of children -- including abduction, maiming, displacement and deprivation of education and medical care -- was unacceptable. (See Press Release AFR/72-HR/4368.)

Turning to another matter, Mr. Eckhard said that the Under-Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sergio Vieira de Mello, on mission to take a comprehensive look at the humanitarian situation in Sierra Leone, today visited a hospital treating war victims and a camp housing refugees and displaced persons near Freetown. During his three-day mission Mr. Vieira de Mello was discussing with various officials issues of access, security as it related to humanitarian intervention, and donor response, which had been poor. He would also hold a press conference in Freetown tomorrow, Saturday, 13 June.

Mr. Eckhard then drew correspondents' attention to the racks on the third floor, where they would find a press release announcing the appointment of Tom Eric Vraalsen, of Norway, as Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs for the Sudan. Ambassador Vraalsen, who was currently the Ambassador of Norway to the United States, would succeed Robert van Schaik of the Netherlands in the Special Envoy's post. His appointment was effective from 15 June. He planned to visit the Sudan and neighbouring countries shortly to consult with all parties concerned on additional ways to meet the urgent humanitarian needs of affected populations in all areas of the Sudan.

The Spokesman said that Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, wrote yesterday to the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, raising concerns about the human rights situation in Kosovo and urgently repeating her request that the Government permit the establishment of a sub-office of her Office in Pristina.

Mrs. Robinson had also issued a statement concerning the human rights situation in Chiapas, Mexico, he added. The text was available in the Spokesman Office. She referred to the alarming deterioration of the situation there over the last few days. Those reports painted a grim picture of an atmosphere of fear among the indigenous people of Chiapas, she said, caught between government forces supported by officially funded militias on one side, and armed resistance groups on the other. Such conflict did not serve the interest of anyone.

Referring again to Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard said that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced in Geneva today that the Norwegian Air Force had agreed -- in accordance with an offer by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to assist UNHCR humanitarian operations -- to airlift emergency supplies to Albania's capital Tirana beginning tomorrow morning. The airlift would shuttle between Sarajevo and Tirana two or three times a day for up to four days. It would transport around 150 tons of supplies, including ready-to-eat meals, mattresses, blankets, jerrycans, kitchen sets and plastic sheeting. Inside Albania, the

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aid would be trucked to the north where between 10,000 and 12,000 refugees were being sheltered.

Kosovo refugees continued to arrive in northern Albania in much smaller numbers of 100 to 200 new arrivals a day, the Spokesman continued. The UNHCR office in Montenegro reported arrivals of about 350 persons a day, bringing the total of displaced persons from Kosovo in Montenegro to about 9,000. There were reports that large numbers were waiting to cross. More details were available in a UNHCR summary available in the Spokesman's Office.

Turning to treaty signatures, Mr. Eckhard said that Malawi and Fiji had just ratified the anti-landmine Convention. There were now 19 States party to that treaty and 126 signatories. Forty ratifications were needed for the Convention to enter into force.

Also, Tajikistan became the fourteenth country to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty, which had 149 signatories, he added.

Meanwhile, preparations continued for the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, which was expected some time after the year 2000, he continued. A two-week series of preparatory meetings just ended in Bonn, and a press release was available in the Spokesman's Office with details of that event. The next conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change would take place in Buenos Aires this November and the Spokesman's Office would keep correspondents posted.

Mr. Eckhard said his Office had a World Food Programme (WFP) press release issued in Faizabad, Afghanistan, on wheat deliveries by mule caravans to remote villages destroyed or heavily damaged by the earthquake of 30 May.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) was commemorating the Day of the African Child, 16 June, with an exhibit of Kenyan children's art at the General Assembly Public Lobby between 15 June and 8 July, the Spokesman said.

He ended the briefing by reminding correspondents of the Secretary- General's plan to travel to Rome where, among other things, he would open the session of the Diplomatic Conference on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court on Monday. An outline of his schedule, without specific times, was available. It gave an idea of what the Secretary-General would be doing in the morning and afternoon of both Monday and Tuesday. He would return to Headquarters on Wednesday.

Asked by a correspondent whether Eritrea was requesting a formal Security Council session, Mr. Eckhard said he was not aware that that had happened. The Secretary-General had met with the Ambassador of Eritrea this morning, but no read-out of that meeting was available by the time of the noon briefing.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 12 June 1998

Another correspondent asked whether Shashi Tharoor had received a new title. Mr. Eckhard replied that planning for the reorganization of the Office of the Secretary-General had been going on for a few months. It was not yet finished and would be announced later today or Monday. It could be confirmed, however, that as part of the reorganization, Shashi Tharoor, one of two Executive Assistants to the Secretary-General, would be named Communications Director.

The need for a communications strategy had been discussed since December 1996, after the Secretary-General's election, he continued. The Secretary- General, in describing his objectives in reorganizing the Department of Public Information, had talked about the need to focus on strategic issues. The elements that needed to be coordinated were the information department, the speechwriters, the public relations activities headed by Gillian Sorensen, and even the work of the Spokesman's Office. Mr. Tharoor's new responsibility would be to coordinate the message that the United Nations put out to the public.

Responding to a question on Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard said he had no information on plans by the United Kingdom to introduce a resolution in the Security Council if President Milosevic did not meet certain conditions requested of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by Monday.

Asked by another correspondent about contradictory statements by the German Foreign Minister and the United States Secretary of Defense on the need for a United Nations mandate before further intervention in Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard said that was a matter for Member States both of the Security Council and of the North Atlantic Council to sort out. It was clear from some of the public statements that there were differences of views, but it was not for the Spokesman's Office to comment on them.

Finally, in response to a question about the content of the Secretary- General's meeting with ambassadors of the five permanent member States of the Security Council yesterday, Mr. Eckhard said he could only give a general sense of the agenda. It was about the nuclear situation in South Asia following the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan, and about nuclear disarmament.

Asked who had requested the meeting, Mr. Eckhard said it had occurred by mutual decision. Did the Secretary-General have any comment on the renewed peace talks between India and Pakistan? the same correspondent asked. The Secretary-General was following the situation very closely, the Spokesman replied. He felt it was essential that India and Pakistan enter into a dialogue and try to sort out the rather serious matters that divide them.

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