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 that the Secretary-General was chairing the wrap-up session of the meeting between the United Nations and regional organizations this morning. He would meet with the press at 1 p.m. to discuss the outcome of that meeting. (For the transcript of the Secretary-General's press conference, see Press Release SG/SM/6656.)

The Spokesman said that the Secretary-General's closing statement, which summarized the results of the one-and-a-half-day meeting, would be distributed to correspondents before the press briefing, giving them a chance to digest it. The Secretary-General would initially take only questions on the regional meeting. When those were exhausted the briefing would be opened up to any other matter correspondents might want to ask him about.

Mr. Eckhard then read the following statement, attributable to the Spokesman, concerning Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi: "The Secretary-General is aware of the statement issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, regarding the standoff in Myanmar involving Aung San Suu Kyi. He shares her concern regarding this matter and hopes her appeal will be heeded. The Secretariat has been in touch with the Myanmar authorities, and in particular has requested that a visit by his Envoy, Alvaro de Soto, be scheduled at an appropriate date in the not-too- distant future." (See Press Release SG/SM/6657.)

Turning to Angola, Mr. Eckhard said it was understood that Lakhdar Brahimi, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, would arrive in Luanda on Friday. While his work programme there was still being finalized, it was thought that he was likely to meet with President Jose Eduardo dos Santos on Monday and then with Jonas Savimbi, head of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), thereafter. Mr. Brahimi was then expected to visit neighbouring countries, probably late next week.

The Spokesman went on to say that tomorrow, the United Nations Secretariat was planning to brief the Security Council on its preliminary assessment of the plane crash that had killed the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, and his aides. Correspondents would be briefed on that assessment after the briefing to the Council.

Mr. Eckhard then said that a Special Conference on Sierra Leone, convened by the Secretary-General in consultation with the Government of Sierra Leone and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), would be held tomorrow. It would be a full-day meeting and would take place in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. It would include a delegation from Sierra Leone, headed by President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, as well as representatives of ECOWAS,

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United Nations agencies and other international organizations. President Kabbah had met with the Secretary-General this morning.

The Special Conference would try to focus the attention of the international community on the situation in Sierra Leone, he continued. It would consider the government programme for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants. It would also take up the needs of the ECOWAS Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) -- the military arm of ECOWAS -- and the humanitarian and refugee situation, as well as the government's long-term rehabilitation and recovery programme. Both the conference programme and a list of participants were available in the Spokesman's Office.

On Security Council matters, Mr. Eckhard said that the Council was dealing with a number of items as mentioned previously. First was the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iraq. Council members were then scheduled to discuss a draft resolution on the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG).

He added that under other matters, the Council was expected to be briefed by Sergio Vieira de Mello, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, on the situation in the Sudan. The Spokesman's Office had Mr. Vieira de Mello's talking points for that briefing and was trying to see if they could be released to correspondents.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo had signed a protocol yesterday which enabled the agency to have access to the Angolan refugees arriving in that country, he said. The UNHCR had registered 30,000 new refugees, of whom up to 21,000 were in the Katanga province in the south-eastern part of the country. Authorities in the Democratic Republic estimated the number of new refugees at 100,000. Preliminary reports indicated that they included government officials and national police officers who had fled with their families following the resumption of tension along the Angolan border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Mr. Eckhard said that tomorrow the Secretary-General would recognize movie star Michael Douglas as a United Nations Messenger of Peace. Messengers of Peace were individuals who possessed recognized talents in the arts, literature, music or sports and who had agreed to help focus worldwide attention on the work of the United Nations. Mr. Douglas would join the previously appointed Messengers of Peace: Enrico Macias, Luciano Pavarotti, Elie Wiesel and Magic Johnson. A background note was available in room 378. Mr. Douglas would come to room 226 to talk to the press at 12:45 p.m. tomorrow.

For two weeks beginning on Monday 3 August, the Spokesman said, correspondents would have an opportunity to see a cartoon exhibit, outside the cafeteria, depicting the work of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the largest of the five regional economic commissions

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of the United Nations. The exhibit was the result of a competition involving leading professional cartoonists from 13 countries in the Asia/Pacific region who had expressed their views on the environment, development, poverty alleviation, trade and other areas in which ESCAP was involved.

He added that the exhibit was sponsored by the Regional Commissions' New York Office and would be shown until Friday, 14 August. A press release with more details was available in the Spokesman's Office.

On signatures and ratifications, Mr. Eckhard said that this morning, President Kabbah of Sierra Leone had signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Landmines and on Their Destruction. That brought the number of signatories to 128.

He added that Ambassador Jorge Perez-Otermin of Uruguay had signed the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change, bringing the number of signatories to 48.

Asked by a correspondent to comment on a Financial Times article about an audit finding that the UNHCR was wasting money, Mr. Eckhard replied that the article had referred to a draft report by external auditors. The standard procedure was that the draft report was shown to management for comment and then changed as necessary.

He went on to say that frequently, the final report submitted to the General Assembly was significantly different from the external auditors' initial draft. It was unfair that the initial draft had been leaked to the press. It was understood that the UNHCR would brief the press and donor governments in Geneva tomorrow. A full and robust rebuttal by UNHCR could be expected.

Did the Secretary-General have any views as to whether the article would endanger Mrs. Ogata's position in her bid for re-election? another correspondent asked. The Spokesman answered that he did not know whether there was any connection between the article and re-election politics. But there was no question that the Secretary-General had full confidence in Mrs. Ogata. In the seven years that she had headed UNHCR, it had taken on some of the most complex emergencies in the post-Second World War era and handled them in a way that had restored the confidence both of donor governments and UNHCR staff in the work of the agency. The Secretary-General, therefore, had full confidence in her and in the agency she led.

What changes were made to the external auditors' draft before the final report and what was so significantly different in that final report? the first questioner asked. Mr. Eckhard said that management invested a significant amount of time in reviewing a draft report by the external auditors and commented wherever they felt something was wrong, or needed amplification or explanation. The auditors might then reflect those comments or change the draft outright once they had had a valid explanation or correction from management. Typically, the final reports were changed and, apparently with some frequency, changed substantially from the initial draft to the final report presented to the General Assembly.

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