DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19980828
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by informing correspondents that at 11 p.m yesterday, the Security Council had unanimously adopted resolution 1192 (1998) concerning the trial by a Scottish court in the Netherlands of the two suspects accused of blowing up Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988.
The Council was now meeting in a formal session to adopt a resolution on Afghanistan, which had been introduced by the Russian Federation, he said. That resolution expressed the Council's grave concern at the continuing Afghan conflict. It demanded that all Afghan factions stop fighting, and that outside interference cease immediately. Also by that text, the Council condemned the attacks on United Nations personnel, and called on the Taliban to investigate the killing of two Afghan staff members of the World Food Programme (WFP) and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The Spokesman went on to say that the resolution requested the Secretary-General to continue investigations into alleged mass killings of prisoners of war and civilians, as well as ethnically based forced displacement of large groups of the population.
He said he understood that the Council was planning an "Arria-formula" meeting at 3:30 p.m. on Monday, 31 August, on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The meeting had been requested by Kenya. [An Arria- formula meeting allowed delegations, other than Council members, to participate in informal consultations. The meeting got its name from the Venezuelan Ambassador who first proposed it.]
The Secretary-General's report on the situation of democracy and human rights in Haiti was on the racks today (document A/52/986), he said. In it, the Secretary-General reports on the activities of the International Civilian Mission in Haiti (MICIVIH). In his conclusions, he states that, on the surface, the human rights situation in Haiti appeared to be "relatively healthy" despite certain slippages with regard to the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms and individual liberties. He also states, however, that institution- building was seriously hampered by the prolonged political crisis. He mentions as examples the worrisome trends of police involvement in crime and drug trafficking, the ill treatment of people in police custody and the misuse of the law as a form of retribution.
The Government of China today asked the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs to deploy a United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination Team in the context of the deteriorating flood situation there, he said. The Team would be dispatched shortly to carry out on-site visits in some of the worst affected provinces, and to assist in the mobilization of
resources from the international community to respond to that natural disaster.
Mr. Eckhard said that in response to appeals from the Government of Bangladesh for international assistance to aid victims of this year's unusually prolonged flooding, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) had reported that it was distributing supplies of oral rehydration salts and water purification tablets. The UNICEF states that it was the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research in Bangladesh that had pioneered the development of oral rehydration salts. Also available in the Spokesman's office was a statement by the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Sergio Vieira de Mello, endorsing the appeal made by the Government of Bangladesh for emergency relief.
The WFP had issued a news update on the Sudan, which provided new information on what it calls "the largest humanitarian food air drop operation ever", he said. Starting tomorrow, the WFP said it would begin flying its seventh C-130 transport aircraft, bringing the total fleet size to 15 large aircraft. The C-130 was donated by the United States. Notwithstanding the WFP's plans to increase aid to more than 2 million Sudanese famine victims, it had also reported severe problems for aid operations in many areas because of the late, heavy rains.
A UNHCR summary of its briefing to correspondents in Geneva today was also available, he said. It touched on Liberian refugees and population movements in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as in Kosovo.
Mr. Eckhard said that China paid the United Nations nearly $9.5 million today, making it the ninety-first Member State to be paid in full for 1998, and the fourth permanent member of the Security Council to have fully paid. "And, you get no money if you can guess who the fifth is", he added.
A press release from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, he said, was available in room 378. It contained an update on the various cases before the Court, and the Court schedule for next week. As a reminder on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, historic judgements, including in the case of Jean-Paul Akayesu, were due out beginning on Wednesday, 2 September. The Spokesman's Office would bring the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Legal Counsel, Hans Corell, to the noon briefing on Wednesday, to provide an analysis of the judgement which should have been received by that time.
He said the United Nations Correspondents' Association (UNCA) had asked the Spokesman to announce that at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, 31 August, Security Council President Danilo Turk (Slovenia) would brief correspondents on the conclusion of his term as Council President.
Mr. Eckhard said, in response to a question, that as he had reported earlier this week, the report by the panel on Algeria was due out sometime in September, perhaps towards the middle of the month.
* *** *