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 introducing the Head of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia, David Stephen, who joined the briefing to speak on the current situation in Somalia. (Coverage of the Somalia briefing is issued separately.)

The Security Council was still in consultations, Mr. Brandt said. It had addressed the issues of Cyprus and Georgia and was dealing with other matters not currently known. With regard to Cyprus, the Secretary-General's report on his mission of good offices there had been submitted to the Council. Copies of the report were available in room S-378, and it would be issued as a document later.

In the report, Mr. Brandt said, the Secretary-General had reviewed his own efforts and that of his special advisers during the past six months to make the necessary arrangements for a continuing and sustained process of direct negotiations. It was regrettable that all the efforts so far had not proved sufficient to lead to a resumption of the process. The Secretary- General also strongly hoped that all parties involved would abstain from any action that could further exacerbate tensions. To continue exploring possibilities that could lead to a new momentum, the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus intended to visit the island in the coming weeks, the report indicated.

Regarding the second item before the Council, Georgia, Mr. Brandt said, the Council was briefed by Bernard Miyet, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. That was on the situation in Abkhazia. The Secretary-General's report on the issue was released late last week. It drew attention to the outbreak of hostilities that took place in the Gali sector during the latter half of May, and on the efforts made by the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) to assist in ending the confrontation.

That report stated that the hostilities led to the displacement of some 30,000 people from the Gali district, the Senior Associate Spokesman said. However, the latest information from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicated that more than 40,000 people had been driven from the region. The UNHCR estimated that 48 civilians died during the fighting and hundreds more were injured. On 8 June, a UNOMIG military observer and an interpreter were injured when a United Nations mine- protected vehicle detonated a mine in the Gali district.

The Secretary-General had proposed in his report on the situation a month ago, Mr. Brandt said, that a self-protection unit be deployed in the mission area. In the new report, the Secretary-General noted that while the

Georgian authorities had expressed support for the idea, the Abkhaz leadership had objected to it. Both, however, had supported UNOMIG and its mandate. Therefore, the Secretary-General asked the Council to consider redeploying UNOMIG and resuming operations using mine- and ballistic-protected vehicles. That would require temporarily establishing the mission's strength at 98 military observers, up from its current strength of about 80.

Moving on to the Conference in Rome, Mr. Brandt said, this morning at the international criminal court conference Bill Richardson, the United States representative to the United Nations, had said that the United Nations Security Council had to play an important role in the work of the international criminal court, including in the court's "trigger mechanism". Justice Richard Goldstone, the first Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, said the court would have no credibility, and international justice would be seriously compromised, if the court or its prosecutor were made subject to the control of political bodies, whether of the Security Council or of States parties. Twenty-four other statements were made in the morning by countries, international governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations. Twenty-two speakers were listed for the afternoon.

Yesterday at the Conference, he said, the Committee of the Whole had begun work on the text of the draft statute. It had referred text on the establishment of the court and on general principles of criminal law to a working group, which began work this morning. The Committee of the Whole today began discussion on which crimes the court would have jurisdiction over. The Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, Phillipe Kirsch of Canada, had attended today's briefing by Sue Markham, the spokesperson for the Conference. Mr. Kirsch had said there was general agreement that the Netherlands would host the court in The Hague.

The plenary was to finish hearing general statements tomorrow morning, Mr. Brandt said, and he would make information available as it became known from Rome. The proceedings could also be followed on a website, he added, and that had lots of information, including up-to-the-minute press releases, speeches, audios of major conferences and still photos. He announced the website address as WWW.UN.ORG/ICC and encouraged feedback from journalists who used it.

The Office of the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan issued a statement in Islamabad today, Mr. Brandt said. The statement said the Taliban authorities' move to close Kabul's home-based education facilities for girls and to cut community based training programmes by half violated the letter and spirit of a memorandum of understanding signed by senior Taliban authorities and the United Nations last month. The United Nations had thus requested an urgent meeting with Taliban authorities to discuss yesterday's move. The statement with more information was available in room S-378.

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From Angola had come word that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General there, Alioune Blondin Beye, had met yesterday with the leadership of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) for about eight hours in Andulo, Mr. Brandt said. The meeting had begun with Mr. Beye insisting that no substantive discussions could take place until immediate steps were taken to release the three United Nations civilian police observers from the detention imposed on them by UNITA forces in Kasombo. As announced yesterday over the public address system, the United Nations personnel had indeed been duly released within the hour, and the equipment initially confiscated was returned to them.

Also during that meeting, Mr. Brandt said, UNITA had agreed to meet with all parties, including the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA), the Angolan Government, and the troika of observer States. That meeting would occur in Andulo tomorrow, to be followed on Friday by technical meetings in Bailundo and Andulo, and on Saturday by technical meetings in Mungo and Narea. Those four areas were to be handed over to State administration by 23 June or else Security Council sanctions would be imposed on UNITA.

From Ethiopia/Eritrea, preliminary reports from United Nations offices from Asmara and Addis Ababa indicated that the Eritrean Government had sent a group of 14 buses to meet a group of 700 ethnic Eritreans rounded up in the Ethiopian capital, Mr. Brandt said. The Eritreans were expected to cross the border into the Teseney region of Eritrea today. Reports had stated that between 5,000 and 6,000 ethnic Eritreans in Addis Ababa had been threatened with deportation. Reports on the number of ethnic Eritreans residing in Ethiopia ranged from 200,000 to 700,000.

In Guinea-Bissau, all United Nations international staff members and their dependents had been evacuated because of the continuing insecurity, Mr. Brandt said. Eighty-nine non-essential staff and their dependents left on a French naval ship yesterday, followed by the remaining six international staff on a Portuguese frigate.

In addition, Mr. Brandt said, the World Food Programme (WFP) had made an appeal through a press release issued in Rome for combatants in Guinea-Bissau to hold hostilities so that aid workers could distribute emergency food aid. Heavy shelling had kept aid workers from reaching tens of thousands fleeing into the countryside. The UNHCR also expressed its concern about the nearly 5,000 Senegalese refugees in Guinea-Bissau, who were vulnerable to border attacks. That press release was available in room S-378.

Regarding Sierra Leone as related to the issue of the meeting in Rome, Mr. Brandt said, the top United Nations humanitarian leaders, in a statement issued in Geneva today, made an appeal to delegations in Rome by saying that the current crisis in Sierra Leone was a "brutal reminder" of the urgent need for an effective international criminal court. The statement was available in

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room 378. The top United Nations humanitarian leaders referred to were Carol Bellamy, Sadako Ogata, Olara Otunnu, Mary Robinson and Sergio Vieira de Mello.

The Secretary-General arrived this morning from Rome, the Senior Associate Spokesman reported. The Secretary-General came straight from the airport to the building. He first attended a meeting of the Senior Management Group, the regular Cabinet meeting taking place every Wednesday. This particular meeting heard a presentation by the Assistant Secretary-General of the Office of Human Resources Management, Rafiah Salim. The presentation was on the work being conducted with a view to revamping the whole United Nations personnel system.

Then the Secretary-General met with Ambassador Kamalesh Sharma of India, Mr. Brandt continued. That happened at 11:37 a.m. The Secretary-General was in his office and would go to his residence, most likely not returning in the afternoon, but expected to be working from his house.

The Deputy Secretary-General, who had also attended the Senior Management Group meeting in the morning, was leaving Headquarters shortly, Mr. Brandt said. She was going to Halifax, where she would deliver an address before the Academic Council of the United Nations tomorrow morning. It was the Council's eleventh annual meeting, held at the Lester Peerson Canadian International Peacekeeping Training Center. The theme of the meeting was, "50 Years of Peacekeeping Operations: What Actors, What Roles, What Futures?". The Deputy Secretary-General would deliver the Distinguished World Leader Lecture. Her remarks were expected to be available before they were delivered in the morning.

An International Court of Justice press release had been received from The Hague in both English and French, Mr. Brandt said. It was on the conclusion of hearings regarding fisheries and jurisdiction between Spain and Canada.

On other matters, the Prime Minister of France, Lionel Jospin, would be speaking to journalists at the stake-out position outside the Security Council on Friday, 19 June, following his meeting with the Secretary-General, Mr. Brandt said. The meeting was expected to occur at about 5 p.m. and the press opportunity at around 6 p.m.

A press release available in room S-378 concerned a memorandum of understanding between the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the Government of Israel, Mr. Brandt said. The purpose of the memorandum, which looked good, was to promote enterprise and development in developing countries.

As announced yesterday, today was World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, he added. Lots of messages had been given on that, including from the Secretary-General, the Executive Director of the United Nations

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Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Executive Secretary of the Convention to Combat Desertification, as mentioned yesterday.

Also today, the Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued an appeal in Geneva at the request of the Russian Federation. It concerned the situation created by the melted snows in eastern Russia, with many victims as a result of flooding. The text of the appeal was available in room S-378.

Again on Friday, at 2:45 p.m., the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafic Hariri, would hold a press conference in room S-226, Mr. Brandt said. English and Arabic interpretation would be provided. Mr. Hariri would refer to Security Council resolution 425, South Lebanon, the Lebanese detainees, the reconstruction of Lebanon and the peace process there overall.

The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) had announced a briefing tomorrow in the UNCA Club by Dilip Hiro, the author of a dictionary of the Middle East, Mr. Brandt said. The subject of the presentation was, "The Caspian Sea bubble? Is the Caspian Basin a rival to the Persian Gulf oil riches? Facts and hype".

A journalist asked for details regarding the Secretary-General's meeting with India's Ambassador Sharma. Mr. Brandt said he had not had time for a read-out of the meeting prior to the noon briefing but would try to get one and convey the information after the briefing.

Was there a date for a meeting on East Timor? another correspondent asked. Mr. Brandt said no, there were no particulars on that yet.

Asked by another correspondent whether there were any particulars on Friday's meeting between the Secretary-General and the Prime Minister of France, Mr. Brandt said he would be in a better position to say something tomorrow, or even at Friday's noon briefing, since the meeting was taking place in the afternoon. Also tomorrow, there would be an announcement regarding Friday activities involving the Foreign Minister of Japan.

Finally, a journalist asked what the Secretary-General's position was, on the whole, regarding the aggression between Eritrea and Ethiopia. Did Eritrea attack Ethiopia?

Going back to the statement first made when the aggression occurred about a week and a half ago, Mr. Brandt said, the Secretary-General's position was clear. These were two countries who had been very close to each other over the years. The Secretary-General urged them to "keep their cool", lay down their arms, stop the fighting and resolve their disputes by diplomacy and peaceful means. There was absolutely no need to put innocent civilians into harm's way when the situation could be resolved at the negotiating table. That was also true of any other conflict between parties who could react in a civilized way and talk to each other.

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