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, reported at today's noon briefing that the Security Council had met this morning to discuss two peacekeeping operations before them -- the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG). A draft resolution and a draft presidential statement on UNIFIL had been tabled this morning, and the Council was expected to take formal action on both items next week.

Under "other matters", the Council had taken up Iraq, Mr. Eckhard said. In that connection, Richard Butler, Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), had transmitted a letter to the President of the Security Council last night concerning an incident on 18 July, in which the Iraqi side had refused to provide an inspection team with a document related to "special" munitions capable of delivering chemical and biological warfare agents. It had eventually been decided that the document would be jointly sealed by UNSCOM and Iraq and stored in the custody of Iraq's National Monitoring Directorate pending Mr. Butler's forthcoming visit to Baghdad from 2 to 5 August. It would then be reviewed by him and by Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

The Spokesman went on to say that the 661 Committee, which oversees the Iraq sanctions régime, was having a meeting at 3:30 this afternoon in Conference Room 7. However, the Chairman of the Committee would not be able to brief correspondents in room S-226 as he normally did. Any journalists with questions about that session should try to intercept the Chairman outside Conference Room 7 when the meeting ended.

Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General was to conclude his official visit to Mexico and to Latin America today. He had met with members of Mexico's Parliament this morning and had then held a meeting with Foreign Minister Rosario Green. The Secretary-General was to give a lecture at the Foreign Ministry at 12:45 p.m. (New York time). Embargoed copies of that text could be picked up in the Spokesman's Office. (See Press Release SG/SM/6652.)

The Secretary-General would give a press conference at 1:45 p.m. (New York time), meet with representatives of human rights organizations and then with non-governmental organizations in the course of the afternoon, the Spokesman continued. Correspondents with a special interest in the subject could obtain a detailed read-out of the Secretary-General's meeting yesterday with President Ernesto Zedillo. Also available was the text of his remarks at his meeting yesterday with the Mayor of Mexico City, and the transcript of the press conference he had given in Guatemala on Tuesday.

Mr. Eckhard then said that the second round of the Georgia-Abkhaz talks had opened this morning in Geneva under Liviu Bota, the Secretary-General's

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 23 July 1998

Special Representative for Georgia. It was a closed session that was expected to last until Saturday (25 July). The parties would review the state of negotiations on the main aspects of a comprehensive settlement of the conflict, and identification of areas where concrete political progress might be made. They would also consider the question of the return of refugees and displaced persons, as well as efforts in the economic, humanitarian and social areas.

On another subject, he said that the United Nations High-level Panel on Algeria had arrived in Algiers yesterday and started its activities by holding a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ahmed Attaf, lasting more than two hours. Today, the Panel would meet with Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia; the Minister of Interior, Mustafa Benmansour; the Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adami, and the President of the Constitutional Council, Saaed Bouchaeer. During the course of its mission, the Panel intended to meet also with a wide range of people, including parliamentarians, representatives of political parties, the media and civil society. Two press releases from the United Nations mission in Algeria were available in room S-378. The Spokesman then said that following the death of accused Slavko Dokmanovic on 29 June, the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had ordered an internal inquiry to determine the circumstances surrounding that death. The inquiry had found no evidence either of violence suggesting a criminal act, or of negligence on the part of those responsible for his incarceration. He had been suffering from depression and was under medical supervision. The inquiry had found that he had tried to commit suicide twice before, and on the third attempt he had managed to hang himself with a tie fastened to a door hinge of his wardrobe. Details could be obtained from a press release available in room S-378.

Mr. Eckhard said that Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), had said in a press release issued in Nairobi today, following a three-day to trip to the Sudan, that the recently announced ceasefire there must be adhered to and expanded in order to ensure that urgent humanitarian relief could reach the people most in need.

He quoted Ms. Bellamy as saying, "The suffering I witnessed in these famine-stricken areas was horrific. Children who should be running and playing have become mere skeletal figures, too weak to stand and barely able to feed themselves. "While the three-month ceasefire announced by the Government of Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement is a welcome start, what children and their families need most is a prolonged period of peace encompassing the entire area of southern Sudan. This should include the western Upper Nile, where insecurity is having devastating effects on the delivery of humanitarian assistance, as well as on the lives of the people who live there."

The Spokesman said Ms. Bellamy, who had visited the towns of Wau and Panthou in Bahr el Ghazal, southern Sudan, would brief correspondents on her trip on Monday at 1 p.m. in room S-226.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 23 July 1998

Mr. Eckhard then reported that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) had made a statement this morning to the World Trade Organization's Committee on Trade and Environment, stressing the need to clarify possible conflicts between environmental agreements and international trade rules. A UNEP press release on that subject was available from the Spokesman's Office.

The General Assembly was expected to resume its consideration of the Secretary-General's reform package next Tuesday, he said. The Assembly would have before it a new document issued just this morning concerning time limits on new initiatives. "Some people call that 'sunset provisions' -- we don't", the Spokesman said. That report, containing a hypothetical illustration of how time limits would work, would be on the racks shortly. A senior United Nations official from the Secretary-General's staff was prepared to give correspondents a background briefing on the time limits issue. He would be available either tomorrow, Friday, 24 July, or Monday, 27 July.

In a press release issued in Geneva, the Spokesman said, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, had renewed her appeal for the release of Vincent Cochetel, staff member of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), who was abducted by armed men from his residence in North Ossetia and held at an unknown location. Tomorrow would mark the end of his sixth month in captivity.

He added that the UNHCR statement said it had maintained daily contact with Russian and Ossetian authorities in an effort to secure his release. The agency said that the abduction was one in a series of incidents illustrating the growing dangers of humanitarian work. The full text of the UNHCR statement was available in room S-378.

On treaty updates, Mr. Eckhard said that at 4 p.m. today, France and Germany would ratify the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Landmines and on Their Destruction. So far, 25 countries had ratified the landmine ban. Forty ratifications were required for it to enter into force. Also this afternoon, Malaysia would become the 150th country to sign the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty.

Finally, the Spokesman said, available on the racks today was an exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council concerning the composition of the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone.

There were no questions.

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NOTE: The final line on page 4 of the notes of the press briefing on 22 July 1998 by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, should read: "Asked if he was considering a deadline, he said 'yes'."