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 welcoming to the briefing the Under-Secretary-General for Management, Joseph Connor, who would comment on a new report by the United States Government Accounting Office on United States finances and arrears. (Coverage of Mr. Connor's briefing is issued separately.)

First, the Spokesman said, the Security Council was spending much of the day on Iraq. This morning, it was being briefed by the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), Richard Butler. Council members were now making statements in response. In the afternoon, the Council would be briefed by the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Iraq, Prakash Shah. Under "other matters" in the afternoon, the Council was expected to take up Angola.

On Angola, Mr. Eckhard said, the Council President had, yesterday, said that the Council was waiting for the results of an important meeting of the Joint Commission in that country to take place before making any further decisions. That meeting had ended about an hour ago in Luanda.

Mr. Eckhard said the Executive Director of the United Nations Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, was visiting northern Iraq today. He was in Dohuk to meet with the Governor and United Nations agency representatives. He was scheduled to visit Erbil tomorrow and the next day, and then would travel to Suleimaniya. His visit to Iraq was in connection with the expanded "oil-for- food" programme.

In Guinea-Bissau, Mr. Eckhard said, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was dispatching a mission today at the request of the Secretary-General, since further fighting had resulted in the flight of a growing number of people both inside and outside Guinea-Bissau. The mission would be led by Martin Barber of that Office, who would be joined by representatives of the Department of Political Affairs and of United Nations agencies operating in the region.

There was a rather long statement attributable to the Spokesman on the subject of Cambodia, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary-General welcomed the communiqués issued on 20 June at the end of their meeting in Bangkok by the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) troika and by the "Friends of Cambodia", which was attended by a United Nations delegation of the Director of the Asian Division of the Department of Political Affairs, Francesc Vendrell, who had visited Cambodia prior to the meeting of the Friends, and the Secretary-General's Representative for Cambodia, Lakhan Lal Mehrotra. The rest of the statement reads as follows:

"As the ASEAN Troika and the Friends of Cambodia noted in their statements, considerable progress had been made in the preparations for the elections scheduled to be held on 26 July, since the two groups had last met in April, although a series of concerns remain to be addressed on issues such as voter intimidation and equitable access by all parties to the electronic media.

"The Secretary-General is pleased with the significantly large turnout by the Cambodian people to register for the elections and commends the National Election Committee for their efforts. At the same time, the Secretary-General is keenly aware that much still needs to be done in order for the Committee to accomplish the tasks entrusted to it. He notes, in particular, that the Committee still has an estimated shortfall of $3 million. He wishes, therefore, to take the opportunity to make an urgent appeal to donor countries to close this funding gap as soon as possible, since elections were only a month away.

"The Secretary-General wishes also to reiterate his call to the Cambodian Government to do its utmost to create an environment conducive to the holding of free, fair and credible elections in line with the principles set forth in his memorandum of 2 April. The Secretary-General stands ready to cooperate with the Cambodian authorities and other political actors to move the electoral process forward.

"The Secretary-General is giving his personal attention to the developments in Cambodia and would be making a further review in early July of developments regarding elections and of the United Nations' role in coordinating international observers." (See Press Release SG/SM/6612.)

A press release from the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA), the Spokesman said, announced that the arrival of 120 Egyptian soldiers yesterday in Bangui had brought the military component of that Mission to its full strength of 1,350 Blue Berets.

The Secretary-General would be leaving tomorrow, Mr. Eckhard said, on an overseas trip that would first take him to the United Kingdom, where he would attend the Ditchley Conference and give the Ditchley lecture on Friday evening, followed by an off-the-record talk with Conference participants on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon, the Secretary-General would go to Vienna, where he would participate in the panel discussion with Nobel laureates on human rights and the rule of law in societies in transition. He would chair that meeting, give an opening remark and hold a press conference before leaving Vienna.

The mid-month status of contributions statement was available in room S-378, Mr. Eckhard said. It showed that the regular budget assessments owed now exceeded $977 million. That was the total for both this year and previous years. It compared poorly with last year, when on this date the Organization was owed $738 million.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 24 June 1998

It was a pleasure to announce that the United Nations had concluded a new lease agreement for the DC-I and DC-II buildings, Mr. Eckhard said. Those were the two relatively new buildings across the street from the Secretariat, and under the new arrangements, the United Nations would realize long-term substantial savings. It was worth noting that the savings had been achieved during a tight real estate market, when large commercial office space was not readily available.

A press release by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) issued in Kampala today strongly condemned the latest abduction of 40 girls in northern Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army, Mr. Eckhard said. The latest abduction on Monday was in addition to the 8,000 children who had been abducted and the 2,000 to 4,000 who remained in captivity. According to UNICEF, the girls were being kept by the Lord's Resistance Army as slaves and sexual objects, and they would be subject to a life of torture and brutality.

In the press release, Mr. Eckhard said, UNICEF stated that the abduction of children, and the unacceptable treatment they endured, constituted crimes against humanity. The UNICEF called for such crimes to be tried. The UNICEF also said the adoption of a statute for establishing an international criminal court, now under discussion, was "the expression of an unequivocal message from the international community that heinous violations of human rights, such as the latest abduction, could not go unpunished".

A press release from the World Food Programme (WFP) issued in Abidjan warned that available food supplies in Sierra Leone would be strained during the coming months with the onset of the heavy rains, the Spokesman said. It was a time known locally as "the hungry season", he added.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, was also going to Vienna, Mr. Eckhard said. She would be leaving tomorrow to take part in a conference, organized by the Government of Austria and the United Nations, on "Establishing the Rule of Law in Post-Conflict Situations". On Friday she would speak at the opening of the "Building Justice" conference. Copies of her speech would be available tomorrow in room S-378.

Also, as a second reminder, Mr. Eckhard said, there would be a press conference in room S-226 tomorrow by the new Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Bacre Ndiaye, and Allen Keller of the Bellevue/New York Program for Survivors of Torture. The press conference was on the subject of torture.

Asked by a journalist to confirm the date of the press conference, Mr. Eckhard said the press conference was tomorrow. Friday was the first observance of the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 24 June 1998

In response to a request by another journalist, Mr. Eckhard clarified that the Secretary-General's report on the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo would be released on Monday, 29 June. It would go to the Security Council, and copies would be available presumably in the morning. The head of the investigative team, Atsu-Koffi Amega, was also coming in to brief the press, probably at the noon briefing. [It was later announced that Mr. Amega could not make to New York; Daniel Michael O'Donnell of the team would replace him.]

Finally, in response to a question regarding Mr. Sevan's schedule in Iraq and whether he would brief the press on his return, Mr. Eckhard said Mr. Sevan was returning in early July. If possible and the press desired, Mr. Sevan would brief the press then.

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