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, said at the beginning of today's noon briefing that the Security Council was being briefed by Benon Sevan, the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme on his 90- day report, which covered the period up to the end of July and included an update through to the present. Copies of his talking points on the report were available in room 378 for correspondents interested in reviewing them. The Spokesman said Mr. Sevan had been invited to the briefing, but if he was unable to make it, he would talk to correspondents at the stake-out outside the Security Council chamber. (Mr. Sevan did show up at the briefing; coverage of his briefing is issued separately.)

Mr. Eckhard said the Council was also discussing preparations for the ministerial-level meeting that it would hold on 24 September to further consider the Secretary-General's report on Africa. The Spokesman said he had overheard the United States Chief Delegate telling journalists that, under other matters, the Council was expected to discuss the recent missile test carried out by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

He said preparations were under way for a memorial service for United Nations and affiliated staff members who died on Swissair flight 111. The service would take place at Headquarters in the middle of next week following the Secretary-General's return to New York. Today, two officials -- a stress counsellor and a security coordination officer -- had been sent to Halifax to assist the families of the victims of the crash who had begun to arrive in that Canadian province. The coordination officer would also assist with the identification of the bodies. The two officials would stay in Halifax as long as there were family members there. The United Nations Office at Geneva -- where the United Nations flag was flying at half-mast -- had observed a minute of silence at 10 a.m. today in memory of the victims.

Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General should be in the air -- "I hope he's sleeping" -- on a long flight from South Africa to Europe. It was an overnight flight and he would catch a morning plane to New York. The Secretary-General had had a series of meetings in Durban in the morning following the conclusion of the Non-Aligned Movement's summit late last night. He met with the Deputy President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, to review the outcome of the summit meeting, and discussed the follow-up to it, and also the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other crisis spots in Africa. He also met with Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). They reviewed the ongoing talks on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the steps ahead. They also talked about the United Nations operations in Angola and the Eritrea- Ethiopia conflict, in which the OAU was pursuing mediate efforts.

Other meetings the Secretary-General had today included talks with the Foreign Minister of Iran, Kamal Kharrazi. They reviewed the situation in Afghanistan, as well as the results of the Non-Aligned Movement's summit. The Secretary-General held talks with the Foreign Minister of Myanmar, Ohn Gyaw, during which he pressed him on the need for a democratic liberalization of Myanmar and for a sustained and effective dialogue with Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader.

Mr. Eckhard said Jean Kambanda, former Rwandan Prime Minister, was sentenced to life imprisonment today by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. He had previously pleaded guilty to charges of genocide and crimes against humanity. "This is the first-ever sentence pronounced for the crime of genocide", Mr. Eckhard said. A press release from the Tribunal was available in room S-378. He also said Justice Louise Arbour, Prosecutor of the Tribunal, had issued a statement today at the Hague in which she said: "The sentence of Jean Kambanda and the conviction of Jean-Paul Akayesu (former mayor of Taba) are the most significant steps to date in the eradication of the culture of impunity in Rwanda and elsewhere in the world." The text of the statement was available in the Spokesman's Office.

On another subject, the Spokesman said about 30 United Nations staff members, Ethiopians of Eritrean origin, all working in the United Nations complex in Addis Ababa, had been declared "persona non grata" by the Ethiopian Government. The Government had accused them of "espionage activities, deemed incompatible with the national security interest of the country". They had been given one month, starting on 7 August, to leave the country. The United Nations had sent a strong protest to the Ethiopian authorities, reminding them that United Nations staff members enjoyed privileges and immunities and were independent officials responsible to the Secretary-General only. The United Nations had also firmly stated that blanket and unsubstantiated accusations were not acceptable. The Legal Office was pursuing the matter with the Ethiopian authorities. In the meantime, those staff members and their families were being relocated for their safety, the Spokesman said.

Mr. Eckhard then posed the following question: "Did you know that the assets of the three richest people in the world exceed the combined gross domestic products of 48 of the world's poorest countries?" If correspondents knew, they probably had read this year's Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He said by now most of them should have received copies of the report which focused on global consumption -- estimated at $24 trillion this year -- amidst devastating poverty. The report was embargoed until next Wednesday, 9 September, when it would be released at a press conference at Madison Avenue and 35th Street featuring UNDP Administrator James Gustave Speth. A media advisory with all the details was available on the racks. Correspondents could contact UNDP for copies.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 4 September 1998

Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was gearing up for her trip to China which would start next week, the Spokesman said. She had given a press conference in Geneva today, and a transcript of it was available for correspondents. Also out of Geneva, he said the Human Rights Special Rapporteurs had issued a statement there today, expressing their concern that Malaysia had not abided by the Economic and Social Council's decision in the case of Param Cumaraswamy, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers. Last month, the Economic and Social Council had requested an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice and had called upon the Government of Malaysia to halt all proceedings pending the receipt of the Court's opinion. However, according to the statement issued today, the Malaysian Court had continued with the proceedings. The text of the statement was available at the Spokesman's Office.

He said the Cambodian Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had strongly condemned the attacks which took place yesterday and today against ethnic Vietnamese accused of responsibility for a spate of suspected food poisoning in the Phnom Penh area. Three Vietnamese were violently killed by a mob and two others were injured. According to the results of the investigation carried out by the Human Rights Office, there was no evidence linking them to the food poisonings. The Office was also investigating reports of eight further cases of people who had been attacked as a result of the scare. The text of that statement was also available.

On the racks today, was a report of the Secretary-General on the status of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (document A/53/253).

From the Department of Peacekeeping Operations was an announcement that the Nordic countries would host a senior management seminar on all aspects of peace-keeping operations from 7 to 11 September. Topics that would be touched upon included the role of the Security Council, cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations, the making of a mandate, planning and support operations, the role of civilian police, the mine action service and humanitarian operations. Thirty participants from 25 countries would attend the seminar which would open on Labour Day, 7 September. The full programme of activities, as well as the list of participants was available in the Spokesman's office.

A World Food Programme (WFP) press release issued in Nairobi today -- and available in room S-378 -- reported that Somalia's worst harvest in five years threatened the food supply for some 600,000 people over the coming months. Also in the Spokesman's office was a summary of the briefing of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, in Geneva earlier today which contained her reaction to the Swissair flight 111 crash, as well as updates on the refugee situation in Guinea and Kosovo.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 4 September 1998

During question time, a correspondent commented that senior correspondents would remember that Under-Secretaries-General or Assistant Secretaries-General used to brief journalists before the opening of a new session of the General Assembly and that those briefings helped them write their "curtain raisers". He said correspondents were now being told that there never was such a practice. The Spokesman said the new General Assembly session would open on Wednesday, and he assumed that correspondents could write their curtain raisers on Tuesday. He had asked the spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, Alex Taukatch, to look into a format for such a briefing.

Mr. Taukatch, commenting on the remarks of the correspondent, said he did recall that until about five years ago, Under-Secretaries-General briefed correspondents on what was to be expected during the new session of the General Assembly. He would look into the issue, he said. At the same time, he drew attention to the fact that the new session would be starting much earlier than previously. He reminded correspondents that the decision for its early opening, rather than the usual third Tuesday of September, had been taken initially at the fifty-first session. He also noted that as far as he knew, the decision about the spokesperson for the new General Assembly President had still not been made.

Turning to the current session, he said that it would conclude on the morning of Tuesday, 8 September. Drawing attention to today's Journal, the spokesman told journalists not to be intimidated by a long list of items, totalling 58, to be taken up on Tuesday. A majority of them had been kept open, in case the need arose for their consideration, and now the Assembly would simply close them. Action would be taken only on the first eight items, among them reports of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) and those of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security). The President of the General Assembly would make a concluding statement, and there would be a moment of silence. The session would then formally conclude.

Mr. Taukatch said he had been asked by the President of the Assembly to inform correspondents that he had been deeply saddened by the tragedy of the Swissair plane crash and wished to convey his deep sympathies to the bereaved families. He was particularly saddened by the fact that the victims included United Nations staff members. In response to previous questions, he said that the President could not recall whether he had travelled on that particular flight before, but the President had recently taken a Swissair flight from Beirut to New York, coming back from an official visit to Lebanon.

As regards the fifty-third session, the spokesman said it would open at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 9 September. As was the practice, the Chairman of the delegation of the outgoing President -- in this case, Ukraine, would open it. There would be a minute of silence and private meditation. One of the first actions of the new session -- of interest to correspondents, he said -- would be the appointment of members of the Credentials Committee. That would take

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 4 September 1998

place, even before the election of the President of the session, he added. There would also be consecutive meetings of the Assembly's Main Committees to elect their Chairmen, followed by the election of the Vice-Presidents of the session.

The spokesman said that one of the questions which had been frequently asked was why the session was being opened early and what would happen before the general debate began on Monday, 21 September. The general debate was being shortened to two instead of the usual three weeks to make it more compact and to allow for consultations and bilateral discussions by the leaders attending the session. The move was also one of the efforts to rationalize the work of the General Assembly. Another reason for the early start of the session was to allow for the resolution of a whole range of organizational and logistical matters, he said.

The General Committee, which approved the agenda for the new session, was scheduled to meet on Friday, 11 September, and its report would have to be approved by the plenary of the Assembly. The spokesman again drew correspondents' attention to document A/53/100 which gave a background on all the items to be considered by the Assembly. The document, which he described as very helpful, was an annotated preliminary list of items to be included in the provisional agenda of the Assembly's fifty-third regular session.

He said a high-level meeting of the Assembly, to be held on 17 and 18 September, would consider the topic: "The social and economic impact of globalization and interdependence and their policy implications". Questions on the subject matter should be directed to the office of the Under- Secretary-General for the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, he said.

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