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 expressing his hope that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Central African Republic, Oluyemi Adeniji, would be able to brief correspondents at the noon briefing upon the conclusion of his briefing to the Security Council.

Prior to taking up the situation in the Central African Republic, the Council was briefed this morning by the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hedi Annabi, on the situation in Western Sahara, Mr. Eckhard said. The Council then considered a recommendation of the Secretary-General, contained in his report on the Central African Republic (document S/1998/783), to approve proposals for United Nations assistance in the electoral process there, and to modify the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA) accordingly.

The Council would then take up the draft resolution, introduced yesterday by the United Kingdom and the United States, for a Scottish court trial, to be held in the Netherlands, of the suspects in the Lockerbie Pan Am 103 bombing. In that regard, the Council would consider a letter from Libya requesting a postponement of a decision on that draft resolution. The letter from Libya was issued as a document of the Security Council this morning (document S/1998/803).

Mr. Eckhard said the Council was also expected to take up the naming of candidates for the third trial chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. It would finalize its discussion tomorrow in a formal meeting before forwarding the names of the candidates to the General Assembly, which would then formally elect the new judges. Under other matters, the Russian Federation was expected to introduce a draft resolution concerning Afghanistan. The Council was also scheduled to hear a briefing by a member of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations on security measures being taken in Tajikistan. The Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Civilian Police Mission in Haiti (MIPONUH) was being issued today (document S/1998/796), the Spokesman announced. The report was in line with a request to the Secretary- General by the Security Council to report every three months on developments in the Mission until the expiration of its mandate on 30 November. Noting that Haiti was still without a government, the Secretary-General reiterated his appeal to the Haitian authorities and political leaders, especially legislators, for the swift ratification of a new Prime Minister.

In his report, the Secretary-General highlighted the paramount importance of taking concrete steps to prepare for the next local and legislative elections, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary-General went on to state that the United Nations stood ready to provide a few international

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 26 August 1998

experts to assist the Provisional Electoral Council, if requested. Citing a widely accepted notion that there would be continuing need for international training of the Haitian National Police, the Secretary-General noted that consultations were needed with the Haitian authorities in the coming months regarding the role of the international community on that matter.

The Spokesman drew attention to a note from the Department of Public Information (DPI), which highlighted the Secretary-General's reference to the radio broadcasts of MINURCA in his report to the Security Council on the Central African Republic. Those broadcasts were the result of a contribution by the Government of Denmark that permitted "Radio MINURCA" to be on the air 24 hours a day. Many of the lessons learned and the exercises conducted in past missions had emphasized the value of radio broadcasting in enhancing the capacity of peacekeeping operations to achieve their mandates. "Radio MINURCA" -- broadcast in French and Sango, the national language of the Central African Republic -- was the country's only non-State news source and the only in-country 24-hour broadcast.

Concerning reports of flooding in Bangladesh, the Government there had issued an appeal for emergency relief and post-disaster rehabilitation, the Spokesman announced. The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs would issue a situation report today detailing the assistance requirements. The Office had a United Nations disaster assessment and coordination team on standby for deployment to Bangladesh. In the meantime, the Office had already provided $50,000 in an emergency grant, which was supplemented by another $50,000 grant by the Government of Norway to be used to provide some shelter materials to the flood victims. The Office was also channelling $168,000 donated by Luxembourg.

An update from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on the humanitarian situation in the Great Lakes region of Africa was available, Mr. Eckhard went on to say. It also included information on the suspension of programmes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo because of the fighting there.

The Spokesman then announced that Jordan had yesterday ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), adding that there were now 20 parties to that Treaty.

Mr. Eckhard said a briefing was scheduled for 1 September from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. in Conference Room 4 on the recently released World Resources Institute report, entitled "Reefs at Risk: A Map-based Indicator of Potential Threats to the World's Coral Reefs". The media was invited. That map-based analysis was co-sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and was the first global assessment of the likely degree of the human threat to the world's coral reef ecosystems. The Institute researcher and co-author of the report, Lauretta Burke, was expected to highlight the biological and

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economic value of those "rainforests of the sea". A press release from UNEP on the was on the racks. The Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Catherine Bertini, would give a press conference on the food crisis in Cuba caused by the El Niño-provoked drought. The press conference would take place on Tuesday, 1 September, at 11 a.m. in room S-226.

Citing the report on Radio MINURCA, a correspondent asked whether it would become standard practice for the United Nations to establish a radio station in countries that had the presence of United Nations peacekeepers. Mr. Eckhard said that had gradually become a standard practice. The first example of United Nations radio playing a key role in a peacekeeping mission was in Cambodia, where the radio was credited with the huge voter turnout. The large turnout, it was felt, had prevented potential attacks on the voters. Since then, it had become a matter of standardizing peacekeeping procedure. A 24-hour-a-day broadcast took a lot of resources, and the United Nations was quite pleased that it had such broadcasting capacity in the Central African Republic. A correspondent asked whether the United Nations proposal to assist in the electoral process in the Central African Republic had been prompted by allegations several weeks ago that the President was refusing to fund the country's national electoral commission. No, Mr. Eckhard said. More generally, that was an offer to assist -- on the technical side, primarily, and to a certain extent, on the security side -- to enhance the chances of the elections being fully free and fair.

Given that the Secretary-General was on his fourth or fifth appeal for the establishment of a government in Haiti, and with general elections coming up in November, what was the United Nations going to do? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General could not appoint a Prime Minister. The United Nations was waiting for the Haitians to complete that process, and there was some hope that, this time, that might succeed. "Let's just keep our fingers crossed", he added.

To a follow-up question as to whether the United Nations had a contingency plan, the Spokesman said the United Nations role in Haiti was to promote the professionalization of the police force. The head of the Mission also stayed in touch with the Government to follow political developments in the country, but that it was a rather limited role.

A correspondent asked about the Secretary-General's view regarding Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, on self-defence, by which the United States claimed justification of its military strike against the Sudan and related violation of Pakistani territory. Mr. Eckhard said the United States had presented its justification under Article 51 for the missile attacks on Afghanistan and the Sudan to the Security Council. It was, therefore, a Security Council matter. If the Council wanted to ask the Secretary-General for his legal opinion, he would feel obliged to give it to them. Otherwise, it was a matter for the Council.

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