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, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that the Security Council would be briefed today at 3:30 p.m. by Rolf Knuttsen, Director in the Executive Office of the Secretary- General, on talks between the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Iraq, Prakash Shah, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Tariq Aziz.

Mr. Eckhard said the Council would also consider its response to two letters sent to it last week by the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission for the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (UNSCOM), Richard Butler, and by the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed Elbaradei. The Japanese delegation had prepared draft replies for consideration by the Council.

The Security Council would also take up the question of candidates for judges on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, he said. The Council was expected to defer for the second time its consideration of that item, owing to a shortage of candidates. [The Spokesman later announced that 18 to 27 candidates were being sought for nine openings.]

The Spokesman drew attention to the Secretary-General's report on the situation in Tajikistan (document S/1998/754). In the report, which covers the current mandate period, the Secretary-General notes that the political crisis over a bill concerning political parties based on religion -- a crisis that was eventually resolved -- had been subsequently overshadowed by the murder of four members of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT). "I cannot find words strong enough to condemn" those murders, he states in the report, adding his hope that the perpetrators would soon be found and brought to justice.

The report also finds that continuing security concerns had limited UNMOT's activities and movements in the field, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary-General had encouraged the Tajik parties to make good use of continuing international backing for the peace process, and he expressed his conviction that valuable impetus could be provided by the ministerial level meeting currently being prepared by the Contact Group.

The Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA) would be issued on Friday, 21 August, Mr. Eckhard said. The report contained recommendations on possible United Nations involvement in the electoral process of that country, and it would likely be considered by the Security Council next week.

The Spokesman drew attention to a press release from the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda which stated that the Prefect of Butare in June 1994, Alphonse Nteziryayo, today in Arusha pleaded not guilty to all charges

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 17 August 1998

brought against him, including genocide, incitement to genocide, complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the Geneva Conventions. Specifically, Mr. Nteziryayo was accused of ordering the murder of all surviving Tutsis in Butare, and of having taken part in some of those murders himself. He was arrested in Burkina Faso on 24 April and transferred to Arusha in May.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, today called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard said. She would dispatch her top operations officer, Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Soren Jessen-Petersen on Tuesday for a four-day mission to the region, including to Belgrade and Kosovo. There, he would meet with political leaders and make a first-hand needs assessment of the victims of the conflict, which had driven nearly 250,000 people from their homes. Many of those people were in dire need of help and could not be reached. Mrs. Ogata, in an "op-ed" editorial in today's International Herald Tribune, urgently appealed for the end to the bloodshed in Kosovo and warned that, with the onset of cold weather, the "humanitarian disaster in the making" would become "a full-scale catastrophe".

The Spokesman drew attention to a press release issued today announcing the Secretary-General's designation of the Department for Disarmament Affairs as the focal point for the coordination of all action within the United Nations system relating to small arms. The press release also contained information about the proposal to hold an international conference on the illicit arms trade in Switzerland in the year 2000.

The International Seabed Authority had resumed its work in Kingston, Jamaica, with a meeting that would extend through 28 August, Mr. Eckhard said. The main item for discussion was the rules governing exploration of mineral resources in areas of the deep seabed beyond the jurisdiction of individual countries.

The Spokesman drew attention to a press release from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) warning of the multiple threats to the health, well- being and basic education of children in Indonesia, which constituted nothing short of "an international emergency".

He also announced that Mexico had paid its regular assessed contribution to the United Nations budget for the current year in full, in the amount of just under $10 million. That brought to 87 the number of Member States that had paid in full so far this year.

Mr. Eckhard also announced that Malawi had now ratified the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti- Personnel Mines and on their Destruction.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 17 August 1998

On behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Mr. Eckhard reminded correspondents that the current Security Council President, Danilo Turk (Slovenia), would brief correspondents in room 226 today at 2:30 p.m. on the Council's work programme for August. The briefing would not be televised, so interested correspondents should attend.

Asked about the availability of a report completed in Tajikistan and sent to the Secretary-General concerning an update on the murders of four United Nations personnel, Mr. Eckhard said he would get back to the correspondent.

To a request for additional information on the apparent shortage of candidates for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Mr. Eckhard said that it was up to Member States to submit candidates. A number of calls by interested parties had been received in Arusha, but they could not be accepted directly. It was likely that the candidates were out there, but the procedure set up for identifying them was operating very slowly.

Citing requests made by the authorities in Iraq for the Secretary- General to become more personally involved in the situation there, a correspondent asked whether he was planning anything other than sending his Special Envoy, Mr. Shah. No, Mr. Eckhard said -- the Secretary-General viewed the current situation as a stand-off between the Council and the Government of Iraq.

The correspondent went on to say that the Council seemed to be "passing the ball back" to the Secretary-General. Mr. Eckhard said he could not define the intentions of the Council members. The Secretary-General did not foresee any personal role on the matter at present.

With so many of the Council members seemingly placing their faith in the outcome of talks between the Iraqis and Mr. Shah, what was the plan for his reporting back to the Council? another correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said "the bottom line" of Mr. Shah's report would be presented to the Council this afternoon by Mr. Knutsson. He further understood that Mr. Shah would return to New York on Thursday. It was unknown whether the Council would ask that he brief it personally, but he would be available to do so.

Asked whether there was any difference between the current situation in Iraq and what occurred last year, in terms of the Secretary-General's personal involvement, Mr. Eckhard said there was "a material difference". In February, there had been a threat of war. The Secretary-General, responding to very strong international pressures to do something -- including from major churches and so forth -- had then brought the members of the Council together, defined a role for himself, and carried it out. The present situation was not comparable. * *** *