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, began today's noon briefing by referring correspondents to the issue of Myanmar which, due to media reports, was raised in several questions during and after yesterday's noon briefing. He could confirm that last week, the Secretary-General wrote to the Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council and the Prime Minister of Myanmar, Senior General Than Shwe, proposing to send a special emissary to that country towards the end of this week to hold discussions with the Government about current developments.

Given the special nature of the visit, Mr. Brandt continued, the Secretary-General had requested that Ambassador Razali Ismail (Malaysia) and President of the fifty-first session of the General Assembly, be his special emissary at this particular time. The response from the Prime Minister of Myanmar was polite but stated that there was no reason for such a rushed visit. General Than Shwe also stated that the dialogue, which had been maintained by the Secretary-General and the Government of Myanmar since 1994, could continue next month when the Foreign Minister of that country, Ohn Gyaw, would be in New York for the fifty-third session of the Assembly. The Secretary-General was disappointed by the response, Mr. Brandt added.

The Security Council was being briefed this morning on the situations in Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mr. Brandt told correspondents. Those briefings would be given by the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast.

Mr. Brandt said that the Council's full agenda meant it could take up Angola either today or tomorrow when it would consider a draft resolution renewing the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) for one month. Under other matters, the Council would consider a draft, co-sponsored by Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania and the United States, on the terrorist bombings that took place on 7 August in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam.

Also under other matters, Gabon was expected to introduce a draft resolution strengthening the effectiveness of arms embargoes in Africa, Mr. Brandt told correspondents. That resolution reflected the consensus of the ad hoc working group of the Security Council established under resolution 1170, which was adopted in response to the Secretary-General's report on Africa (document A/52/871-S/198/318).

Regarding Iraq, Mr. Brandt said that the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for that country, Prakash Shah, had arrived in Baghdad this morning and was scheduled to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz at noon (New York time) today. For those correspondents who had asked, Mr. Brandt emphasized

that Mr. Shah was not carrying a letter for the Iraqi leadership, but would be delivering an oral message from the Secretary-General.

Mr. Brandt said that following his meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Shah would meet with the media at about 2:30 p.m. (New York time). The Spokesman's Office had been told to expect a transcript of the main points made during that exchange which would be made available to correspondents towards the end of the afternoon. "We will announce it and squawk it to you as soon as it is ready", he added.

The first progress report by the Secretary-General on the Mission in Sierra Leone was now available, Mr. Brandt said. The Secretary-General noted that the creation of the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) had been warmly welcomed by the Government and people of that country. The adoption of a comprehensive programme for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of former combatants by the Government had set the tone for UNOMSIL future efforts.

Deployment of the first phase of the Mission, 70 military observers, was well under way, Mr. Brandt continued. The Secretary-General was heartened by the improved security situation in the country and renewed his call to donors to contribute to the logistical requirements of the military observer group of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He also called on donors to contribute to the inter-agency appeal for humanitarian assistance to Sierra Leone. Mr. Brandt reminded correspondents that the next report by the Secretary-General on Sierra Leone was due in 60 days.

He then informed correspondents that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Government of Indonesia had signed this morning in Geneva a Memorandum of Understanding for technical cooperation in human rights. The personnel assigned to that project, which would be based in the office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Jakarta, would have access to all parts and regions of Indonesia in order to be able to assess priority needs. That was understood to include facilitating access to East Timor. The technical cooperation to be extended by the Office would cover the areas of the Indonesian national plan of action for the promotion and protection of human rights and the strengthening of national capacities, among others.

Continuing, Mr. Brandt said that today's agreement signalled the successful conclusion of a process started in 1994, when the then High Commissioner for Human Rights/Centre for Human Rights and the Indonesian Government had signed a memorandum of intent on cooperation in the field of human rights. The present United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, welcomed the agreement and expressed the hope that it would contribute to addressing the urgent concerns regarding human rights in

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 13 August 1998

Indonesia. More details were available in a press release in the Spokesman's Office.

The Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Frechette, was having a series of internal appointments and a couple of open ones, Mr. Brandt said. One of those appointments was with the Foreign Minister of Uruguay, Didier Opertti Bada, who, as correspondents knew, had been selected as the candidate of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States for the post of President of the fifty-third General Assembly.

A correspondent noted that the sole copy of a videotape distributed by the Iraqis on the meeting with the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission on the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (UNSCOM), Richard Butler, was being checked out by the Secretary-General's Office and had not been returned as yet. Mr. Brandt was asked who was in possession of the tape and how long it would be kept. He replied that he understood that it was not just one tape, but two which ran for a total of five or six hours. The recordings had arrived yesterday afternoon and he believed they would be viewed by the relevant staff in the Secretary-General's Office.

The same correspondent stated that it was understood that the Secretary- General was "monopolizing" the tapes and wanted to know when other people who had access to the tapes or the tape library would get to see the recordings. Mr. Brandt said he did not think that "monopolizing" was the case. The tapes had just been received. They would be viewed and then returned to whomever had provided them to the thirty-eighth floor.

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