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.)

Juan Carlos Brandt, Senior Associate Spokesman for the Secretary- General, opening today's noon briefing, said that Karl Paschke, the Under- Secretary-General for International Oversight Services, was at the briefing to discuss the recent performance evaluation of the United Nations conducted by his office. The report of the Secretary-General, which considered the 1996-1997 biennium (A/53/122 and Add.1), showed that despite the many well-known constraints facing the Organization, its output had been improving in recent years.

The Security Council was busy all of today with an open debate on the situation in the occupied Arab territories, Mr. Brandt continued. No draft resolution or draft presidential statement had yet been introduced related to that debate.

The "661 Committee" -- the Security Council committee established by its resolution 661 (1990) to oversee sanctions on Iraq -- approved 10 humanitarian sales contracts last week. None of the contracts considered by the Committee had been put on hold or blocked.

The Office for the Iraq Programme had recently reported that 569 contracts had been approved, out of 597 submitted during Phase III of the Council programme authorizing the sale of Iraqi oil to pay for humanitarian goods. According to those figures contained in the Office's most recent report, the Sanctions Committee had approved 95 per cent of contracts submitted. The programme, established under Council resolution 986 (1995), is operated under a 1995 agreement between Iraq and the United Nations known as the "oil-for-food" formula. Mr. Brandt continued by noting that oil proceeds from Phase III exceeded $2 billion, out of which $1.2 billion were available for the financing of humanitarian supplies.

An approval last week by the United Nations oil overseer of three new contracts had brought the total contracts approved during Phase IV of the programme to 34, out of 41 submitted. The latest approved contracts, totalling 11.6 barrels of oil, were with Ukrainian, Russian and Portuguese companies. The volume of oil contracts approved under Phase IV stood at 236.5 million barrels.

Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights, was in South Africa today, Mr. Brandt continued. She was there to participate in the second Conference of African National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. The High Commissioner would be one of the keynote speakers at the opening of the Conference tomorrow in Durban. From South Africa, Ms. Robinson would travel to Botswana to meet with senior government officials

and with officials of the Southern African Development Community. She would return to Geneva on Saturday, 4 July.

At a briefing in Geneva today, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) announced that it had been in contact with authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and representatives of the ethnic Albanian population in Kosovo. Those contacts were to arrange for a delivery this week of emergency supplies for several hundred Kosovo Albanians. Too afraid to return to their villages, those people had been stranded in the hills between the town of Junik and the Albanian border. They would receive parcels containing such items as supplies for infants, hygienic items, plastic sheeting and food. Notes from that briefing were available in the Spokesman's office.

The UNHCR had also announced in Geneva today that its workers in Guinea were still unable to reach the refugee site near Gueckedou where some 150,000 refugees from Sierra Leone had recently arrived. Access to the site had not been possible since 15 June. The welfare of children among the refugees was of particular concern to the UNHCR. Even before access to the site had been restricted by national authorities who had cited security concerns, the mortality rates among children under five were unacceptably high.

The Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters had begun its three-day session yesterday, Mr. Brandt said. This morning, Jayantha Dhanapala, the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, had addressed the Board on behalf of the Secretary-General. He had said that the nuclear tests by India and Pakistan had served to reiterate that the dangers associated with nuclear weapons were still at the top of the international agenda.

Mr. Dhanapala had pointed out that the end of the cold war had offered the hope that the world would ultimately move towards eliminating nuclear weapons. He had stressed that despite the current pause in achieving disarmament, the vision of a nuclear-free world should continue to inform the Organization's work. He had also welcomed moves towards the preparation of a treaty establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Central Asia. Copies of that statement were available.

Mr. Brandt then turned to the travel schedule of the Secretary-General who was in Nigeria at the invitation of that country's head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, to discuss ways in which the United Nations and the international community could support the transition process to democratic rule. The Secretary-General had been welcomed to Nigeria yesterday by the Foreign Minister, Tom Ikimi, who had hosted a dinner in his honour. This morning, the Secretary-General and his delegation had met with General Abubakar. The Secretary-General had then met privately with the head of State for almost an hour.

The Secretary-General had spoken frankly with General Abubakar about the critical transition process to democratic rule in Nigeria and about the

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regional security concerns, particularly the situations in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The Secretary-General considered the visit to be the beginning of an extended dialogue to seek ways the United Nations and the international community could support a credible transition process in Nigeria.

The Secretary-General was to begin a series of meetings with representatives of groups with different political views, in order to acquaint himself with the situation in the country. This afternoon, for example, he would meet with the Chairman of the National Election Commission, Dagogo Jack, as well as the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Justice Nwokedi. He also would begin a series of meetings with a range of political leaders -- Dr. Olusola Saraki, former Majority leader of the Senate, and Dr. Alex Ekwuemi, former Vice-President and the current leader of a political grouping known as the "Group of 34", which brought together political opposition leaders from throughout the country. The Secretary-General had also expressed interest in meeting the winner of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Press Freedom Award, Chris Anyanwe, who had received the award last month and subsequently was released from prison.

The Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette had arrived this afternoon in Saint Lucia where she would attend the opening ceremonies of the nineteenth Conference of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) hads of State. This year marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Chaguaramas Treaty establishing CARICOM and the Caribbean Common Market in 1973. Ms. Fréchette would return to New York on Thursday, 2 July.

A member of the Secretary-General's Investigative Team in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Daniel Michael O'Donnell, would hold a press conference at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon in room 226. Mr. O'Donnell would discuss the Secretary-General's report on the Team's investigation. That report would be available this afternoon.

A press release was available with information on the twelfth World AIDS Conference, which was now under way in Geneva. The release discussed progress which was being made as part of an initiative launched in late 1997 to make HIV-related drugs more accessible to broad sectors of the population in developing countries.

A press release had also been received from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) regarding its Commodity Market Review 1997-1998, released today in Rome. According to the release, the economic turmoil in Asia and a drop in the price of cereals had caused the overall value of global agricultural trade to decline last year.

A situation report on damage caused by the earthquake that struck southern Turkey on Saturday, 2 June, was also available upstairs, Mr. Brandt noted. According to the report, the Turkish Government had told the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ankara today that 117 people had been killed

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and 1,517 wounded, with 30 others still missing. While casualties and damage caused by the earthquake had been confined to Turkey, the shock had been felt in Cyprus, Syria and Israel.

The United Nations Coordinator for Humanitarian and Development Activities in Afghanistan, at a press conference in Geneva today, announced that while $157.3 million had been requested during the 1998 Inter-Agency Consolidated Appeal for Assistance to Afghanistan, only $30.4 million had been pledged to date. That amount represented 19.3 per cent of the total requirements.

The Permanent Representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, André Mwamba Kapanga, would brief the press today at 4 p.m. in room 226. At tomorrow's noon briefing, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme, Klaus Toepfer, would discuss the report of the Secretary-General's Task Force on Environment and Human Settlements.

In closing, Mr. Brandt announced that the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) was hosting a press briefing by the Former President and Prime Minister of Pakistan, Azad Kashmir-Sardar Abdul Qayyum. The briefing, to be held at 3 p.m. in the UNCA Club, would focus on the "India-Pakistan tension: root causes and solutions".

Asked by a correspondent about the United Nations mandate for protecting the "no-fly" zone in Iraq, Mr. Brandt said he would check the Security Council resolutions which established that mandate. Noting the recent reports that a United States F16 aircraft had bombed a radar position in the region, Mr. Brandt referred related questions to either the United States or the United Kingdom, as they were the Member States leading the multinational force in the region.

Asked for details on the trip of Alvaro de Soto, Assistant Secretary- General for Political Affairs, to South Asia, Mr. Brandt said that he would check on the stops Mr. de Soto planned during his trip.

A correspondent asked if the Secretary-General had discussed the release of Chief M.K. Abiola with Nigerian officials or if he planned to meet with Chief Abiola. Pointing out that the Secretary-General had been working to secure Chief Abiola's release, Mr. Brandt said Chief Abiola's situation had been discussed when the Secretary-General met with Nigeria's head of State. A meeting between the Secretary-General and Chief Abiola was possible.

Alexander Taukatch, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, told correspondents that the Assembly President had returned over the weekend to Kiev from Warsaw, where he took part in the international conference "International Relations and Democracy." During his visit to Warsaw, Mr. Udovenko, who was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, had met with Poland's Prime Minister, Jersy Buzek; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Bronislav Geremek; and other government officials. He had also met with the

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Chairman of the Foreign Relations Commission of the Polish Sejm, Czeslaw Bielecki. During his meetings in Poland, the President had discussed a wide range of international issues, including the role of the United Nations and the work of the General Assembly.

Mr. Taukatch went on to say that the Assembly President had been profoundly saddened to learn about the tragic death in an aircraft accident of Maître Alioune Blondin Beye, the Secretary-General's Representative for Angola, and five of his colleagues from the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA). The President extended his heartfelt condolences to the families of all the victims and conveyed his grief and support to United Nations staff in Angola. The tragic incident once again underscored the dangers facing the staff of the United Nations sent to trouble spots on missions of goodwill. International civil servants, who selflessly devoted their lives to the cause of peace, deserved the deepest gratitude and appreciation. (See Press Release GA/SM/47.)

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) had met in a resumed session yesterday and approved two draft decisions on revitalizing and streamlining the disarmament machinery of the United Nations. The Committee had thus concluded its work for the fifty-second session. Now the Committee's report on the two decisions would be forwarded to the General Assembly for action in plenary during its current session. (See Press Release GA/DIS/3103 of 29 June.)

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