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 reporting on the opening of the substantive session of the Economic and Social Council.

Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General's opening remarks had focused on the lessons learned from the recent Asian financial crisis, which had demonstrated that the world was more interdependent than ever. The Secretary- General had pointed out that although globalization might sometimes seem like "a force of nature beyond human control", it was actually the result of "deliberate policy choices". Now was the time to strengthen the frameworks of international cooperation that could spread prosperity in the age of globalization, he said. (For text of statement, see Press Release SG/SM/6629- ECOSOC/5762.)

The Economic and Social Council was holding its high-level policy dialogue on important developments in the world economy, the Spokesman said. Participants included the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Michael Camdessus; the President of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn; and the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Rubens Ricupero.

Turning to the Security Council's agenda, the spokesman said that its members were being briefed by the Secretary-General's Special Adviser on Cyprus, Diego Cordovez, on his visit to Cyprus last week. During his visit from 2 to 4 July, Mr. Cordovez met with Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash. The Council had nothing further scheduled for today or tomorrow.

The Secretary-General's report on the situation in Kosovo (document S/1998/608) was on the racks this morning, he said. Annexed to the report were several letters from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Western European Union, the Danube Commission, the United Kingdom, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), concerning a comprehensive monitoring regime for the arms embargo, as well as the overall situation there. Also in the report, the Secretary-General expressed increasing concern that unless the hostilities were stopped, tensions could spill across borders and destabilize the entire region. He welcomed diplomatic efforts to address the fundamental aspects of the situation which could be resolved only through negotiation.

Following an earlier announcement of a possible visit by the Secretary- General to Latin America, the spokesman confirmed that on Monday, 13 July, the Secretary-General would begin a Latin American trip in Brazil. From there, he would visit Uruguay, Argentina, Guatemala and Mexico. Additional details of the trip would be made available this afternoon in a press release. (Press Release SG/SM-6631-SG/T/2143)

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 6 July 1998

Also, following a prior announcement concerning the formation of a panel of eminent persons appointed by the Secretary-General to visit Algeria, Mr. Eckhard said that its members would be in New York on Wednesday, 8 July, for briefings by the Secretary-General and other United Nations officials. They would return to their respective countries and later leave as a group from Europe to Algeria on 22 July. The purpose of the mission was to gather information on the Algerian situation and report to the Secretary-General. The Secretary-General would then make the panel's report public.

Mr. Eckhard drew attention to an announcement over the weekend by the World Food Programme (WFP) stating that it had managed to get some 46 tonnes of urgently needed food aid into Guinea-Bissau. The inter-agency team, which spent last week assessing the immediate humanitarian needs of those displaced by the fighting, was now preparing an emergency appeal, expected by the end of the week. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had appealed for non-food items to meet the needs of the displaced persons inside Guinea-Bissau.

Germany paid in full its regular budget assessment for 1998 with a check for more than $100 million, he said. To date, 81 countries had paid in full for the year, compared to 73 on the same date last year. The outstanding balance was still $2.4 billion.

The Secretary-General would address a memorial service today at 12:30 p.m. in Conference Room 4 for Alioune Blondin Beye and his colleagues from the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA), who were killed in the 25 June air crash near Abidjan, he said. Mr. Beye had served as the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Angola. At the service, which would begin with a minute of silence, the Secretary-General would present a United Nations flag to the families of the deceased. The Presidents of the United Nations Staff Council, the Security Council and the General Assembly, as well as the permanent representatives of Mali and Angola were also expected to speak.

He then said that the Spokesman's Office had agreed to "lend" to MONUA David Wimhurst, who had temporarily been helping out in the Spokesman's Office during its "great transitional year of 1998", in which it had been experiencing a significant turnover. Mr. Wimhurst would be in Angola for one month. For 18 months, he had served as the spokesman for the mission. His task now was to reorganize the press office in preparation for the new Special Representative, who would likely be named later this week.

Asked for the location of the departure of the Algerian panel on 22 July and whether any press could travel with the panel, Mr. Eckhard said he was not yet ready to give out that location and doubted whether any press could go along.

Alex Taukatch, spokesman for General Assembly President Hennadiy Udovenko, later announced the plenary meeting of the General Assembly scheduled for 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, Tuesday, 7 July, on the question of Palestine. The Assembly would have before it a draft resolution concerning the participation of Palestine in the work of the United Nations (document A/52/L.53/Rev.2).

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