DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Juan Carlos Brandt, Senior Associate Spokesman for the Secretary- General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that the President of the Security Council for the month of August, the Permanent Representative of Slovenia, Danilo Türk, was today holding bilateral consultations with other Council members on the programme of work for the month. The Council was expected to take that up tomorrow morning.

There was a paper in the Spokesman's Office on the high-level mission to Algeria, in English and French, Mr. Brandt said. It had appended to it a chronological list of the people met and the places visited during the mission by the Panel of Eminent Personalities established by the Secretary-General at the request of the Algerian Government. The first two paragraphs of the communiqué indicated that on Sunday, 2 August, the Panel concluded its series of meetings. Today, Monday, 3 August, it had met with the President of the country, Liamine Zeroual, and would depart for Lisbon on Tuesday, 4 August.

During its nearly two-week stay in Algeria, the Panel met with a cross- section of government personalities, political leaders, and representatives of civil society, the media and religious institutions, Mr. Brandt went on to say. It had listened to a range of views and submissions and was grateful for the cooperation received from all concerned. It was most likely that now the former President of Portugal and team leader, Mario Soares, would meet the Secretary-General during his forthcoming visit to Portugal, to give him a preliminary report on the Panel's visit. That meeting was expected to take place on Thursday, 6 August.

Mr. Brandt said that a position paper on Operation Lifeline Sudan and the emergency in that country from the point of view of humanitarian affairs was also available in the Spokesman's Office.

The Secretary-General was back at Headquarters, said Mr. Brandt. Tonight he would host a working dinner for the Foreign Ministers of Portugal, Jaime Gama, and Indonesia, Ali Alatas, ahead of the formal talks on East Timor that were expected to take place tomorrow. The Secretary-General would meet both Foreign Ministers separately tomorrow morning starting at 10 a.m., then chair a joint meeting at 11 a.m. Ambassador Jamsheed Marker (Pakistan) would then chair the meetings after the Secretary-General left for other official duties. The talks were tentatively scheduled to continue tomorrow afternoon and Wednesday morning and to adjourn around 1 p.m. on Wednesday.

In response to requests from the press for Ambassador Marker to take questions and comment on the talks, Mr. Brandt said that the Ambassador had indicated that he could be in a position to meet with correspondents and give

more information on the talks after the adjournment of the meeting on Wednesday. The Spokesman's Office would keep the press posted and make an announcement. For those who followed the issue closely, Mr. Brandt recommended that they get a copy of the working paper that was prepared by the Secretariat on the question of East Timor (document A/AC.109/2111), which was dated 1 June. Originally produced in English, it had interesting data that could be useful prior to the talks scheduled to take place.

"Thank you very much Chad", said Mr. Brandt. That country had made a payment of $389,301 which covered present and past dues and had taken them out of the Article 19 list. That meant that overall outstanding contributions were now over $2.3 billion, out of which over $0.8 billion was outstanding for the regular budget, over $1.4 billion outstanding for peacekeeping operations and under $0.1 billion outstanding for the International Tribunals.

Mr. Brandt informed correspondents that Spain, last Friday afternoon, had ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) that was adopted by the General Assembly on 10 September 1996. That brought the number of ratifications to 17.

Regarding Papua New Guinea, Mr. Brandt said the Spokesman's Office had an update from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on the tsunami in that country. Copies were available in room S-378. Also available was a press release from the World Health Assembly, which said that experts at the European Forum on Transport, Environment and Health had agreed that diesel exhaust contained a number of potential and proved carcinogens and contributed to lung cancer.

Mr. Brandt told correspondents that tomorrow a press conference would be held at 11 a.m. on the International Day of the World's Indigenous People, which would be observed on 5 and 6 August. The briefing would take place in preparation for the Day's observance and to call attention to the activities scheduled. A backgrounder with more details was available in the Spokesman's Office.

The speakers at the press conference would include the following: Deputy Director of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Elsa Stamatopoulou; Director of the New York office of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Nina Sibal; Chairperson, NGO Committee on the United Nations International Decade for the World's Indigenous People (1995-2004), Esmeralda Brown; and Vice-Chairman, NGO Committee on the United Nations International Decade for the World's Indigenous People and Event Coordinator of the World Sacred Pipe Ceremony for Peace commemorating the International Day of the World's Indigenous People.

A correspondent asked about the United Nations position on Central Africa, especially with regard to countries such as Burundi and Rwanda, where

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 3 August 1998

there were reports of widespread fighting and 13,000 people being displaced over the weekend. Mr. Brandt said that he had no particular statement at the moment except that the Organization was looking into that development very closely. It was something that worried the United Nations tremendously and was of great concern to the Secretary-General, he added. It was not only the Central African Republic and Burundi that were being affected by the situation, but Rwanda and other countries in the region.

Another correspondent highlighted that the President of Burundi, Major Paul Buyoya, had pointed the finger at the leader of the Hutus for not paying close attention to the ceasefire agreements and said that there was really no such thing since it was just an agreement on paper. Mr. Brandt reiterated that he had nothing specific at the time on the matter, but that the Organization was aware of the serious situation that was unfolding and was looking at it very closely. When he had something, he would let correspondents know.

Asked about the Angola mission of the Special Representative in Support of the Secretary-General's Preventive and Peacemaking Efforts, Lakhdar Brahimi, Mr. Brandt said that a meeting had taken place today between Mr. Brahimi and the President of Angola, Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Mr. Brahimi would meet tomorrow afternoon with the leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Jonas Savimbi. There was, however, no readout of that meeting available as yet.

A correspondent wanted to know if the United Nations was in the process of recognizing that there were two Angolas. Mr. Brandt said that the Organization was trying to bring together the two sides and to obtain a resolution of the crisis that was basically threatening the whole peace process in the country. It was not only the United Nations which was following the situation very closely, but a host of other leaders in Africa who were in contact with the Secretary-General and were also contributing their efforts to obtaining a resolution. That was why Mr. Brahimi was there and why efforts continued.

When asked how optimistic the Organization was about the talks on East Timor producing some kind of breakthrough, Mr. Brandt said it was his understanding that there was a certain positive atmosphere on the eve of the talks that he had referred to earlier. Ambassador Marker recently had an interesting and very productive visit to the area. That gave him a very unique understanding of the situation at the present time prior to the meeting. The Secretary-General had talks as recently as last week with the Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Guterres, and had also talked with Indonesia, the other side. There seemed to be, as opposed to the last time when such talks happened, a better environment for the meeting. It would be very imprudent for him to say any more, Mr. Brandt added, but it seemed that it was going to be a good beginning. The Secretary-General wanted to get

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 3 August 1998

together with the two Foreign Ministers tonight and, hopefully, that would help ease them into a good and productive session.

A correspondent wanted to know if the United Nations was considering removing its humanitarian personnel, given the recent development in Afghanistan. Mr. Brandt said yes, and that the Organization was looking into that very closely. It had a very minimal presence at the moment; in Mazar-i-Sharif, however, there were 11 or 12 non-governmental organization representatives stranded in that area in the compound of Médicins sans frontières. Efforts were being made right now to see if they could be taken out because the fighting was increasing, and it was becoming quite serious.

Mr. Brandt concluded by reminding correspondents that, if they rushed, they could see Winnie the Pooh at the Visitor's Lobby.

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