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 reading from a statement attributable to him on the situation in Afghanistan. It was a long statement, and the full text was available in the Spokesman's Office, but in part it reads:

"The Secretary-General received with sorrow the reports that the Taliban had discovered the bodies of nine Iranian diplomats who had been missing since 8 August, when the militia captured Mazar-i-Sharif.

"The Secretary-General strongly condemns these cruel murders and violations of international law. He calls for an urgent investigation so that the perpetrators can be brought to justice. The Secretary-General remains deeply concerned about the fate of the other two Iranian diplomats, and journalist, who were in the Iranian Consulate General in Mazar-i-Sharif on that day and have been missing since then. He appeals to the Taliban to do their utmost to determine their whereabouts and to ensure their safe and prompt return to Iran if they are still alive. The Secretary-General stands ready to cooperate in this."

"The Secretary-General would like to express his deep concern about the overall situation in Afghanistan, in particular the heightening tensions on the Afghanistan/Iran border areas", Mr. Eckhard continued. "The Secretary- General urges all the States and parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint and to refrain from any action which might be construed by others as provocative."

Mr. Eckhard reiterated that the excerpt was just a segment of the full statement. Correspondents were invited to pick up a copy of the full text in his Office, room S-378.

Further, the Spokesman said the Secretary-General this morning had addressed the memorial service held at Headquarters for the victims of Swissair flight 111. The Secretary-General had issued a statement that concluded, "We will always carry on the work of these souls borne on wings."

Each of the United Nations victims was eulogized, Mr. Eckhard said. In addition to the five staff members, two associates and one spouse who had previously been identified, a former staff member of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Ahaman Omran of Chad, had been added to the list of members of the United Nations family killed in the accident. He, too, had been eulogized this morning.

Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had presented the families of the victims with a United Nations flag, and then he had met with them privately in

an adjacent room. The ceremony was opened and closed by the United Nations Singers. The full text of the Secretary-General's remarks was available in the Spokesman's Office.

The Security Council was not meeting today and Council members were scheduled to have their monthly luncheon with the Secretary-General, Mr. Eckhard went on to say. To recap, he added, yesterday afternoon the Council had discussed the Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Mission of Observers in Angola (MONUA). The mandate of that mission expires next Tuesday. The Council would meet in consultations on Monday to discuss a draft resolution, and a formal meeting was anticipated for next Tuesday.

Several hundred demonstrators appearing to be agent provocateurs had been seen in the demonstrations taking place in Phnom Penh today, Mr. Eckhard said. Many had been armed with wooden sticks or were carrying stones. Some had been seen with firearms. In a statement issued in Phnom Penh, the Cambodia office of the UNHCR called on the Government and the security authorities to take urgent measures to disarm and disband those groups. "It is essential", Mr. Eckhard said quoting the statement, "that those who seek to provoke violence should be identified and isolated to prevent an escalation of the situation." The full text was available in room S-378.

The pre-sentencing hearing by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in the Akayesu case was now set for 28 September in Arusha, the Spokesman said. A press release from the Tribunal, which provided further details and updates on other cases before the Tribunal, was available in his Office.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, was now halfway through her 10-day visit to China, Mr. Eckhard said. A press release also available in his Office provided further details of her upcoming programme.

The World Food Programme (WFP) planned to launch a major relief operation for 20 million people in Bangladesh affected by the longest floods ever recorded in the country, Mr. Eckhard said. Quoting WFP Executive Director Catherine Bertini, he said, "The world has yet to fully grasp the magnitude of this disaster." A press release was also available.

A preview of expected events for next week included the presentation of two reports of the Secretary-General to the Security Council, Mr. Eckhard said. One was on the United Nations Police Support Group in Croatia and the other was on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

Also next week, Mr. Eckhard said, the Secretary-General, along with the President of the General Assembly, would open the annual DPI/NGO Conference on Monday morning. The conference, which would focus on the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, would continue through Wednesday.

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A record number of participants were expected and 2,600 had registered. A fact sheet on the event was available in room S-378, and a Department of Public Information (DPI) press release on the event was on the racks.

On Friday, Mr. Eckhard said, the Secretary-General would lay a wreath outside the Meditation Room in the Visitor's Lobby to commemorate the thirty- seventh anniversary of the death of former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld and those who had accompanied him on his last mission for peace.

On Thursday and Friday of next week, the General Assembly would hold a high-level dialogue on the issue of the social and economic impact of globalization, the Spokesman said. The Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, had been invited to the noon briefing on Wednesday to give a preview of the event.

There had been a sigh of relief today, Mr. Eckhard said, when Japan had made its payment for 1998 in the amount of $189 million. "That should keep us going for a few weeks", he added, stating also that Romania had also made a payment of over $1 million. Japan and Romania had thus become the ninety- fifth and ninety-sixth Member States to pay their contributions for 1998 in full.

Upcoming press conferences included one on Monday morning by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), when the agency would be launching its Trade and Development Report 1998, the Spokesman said. A background note was available in room S-378 for the event, which would be held at 10:15 a.m. Then at 11 a.m., the World Health Organization (WHO) would hold a press conference to launch two exhibitions to be described at the press conference.

Finally, Mr. Eckhard said the latest summary of troop contributions to peacekeeping operations was available in room S-378. Those figures were as of 31 August.

A correspondent then asked about a letter the Secretary-General had received from the Taliban, admitting that Iranian diplomats had been killed by unidentified soldiers of the Taliban. In view of that admission, were they being held responsible for the act? What were the Secretary-General's views on that?

It was not for the Secretary-General to apportion blame, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretariat had been talking with Pakistan and Iran about organizing a mission to Afghanistan to look into the matter. Those talks had been under way several days before yesterday's announcement, but the discussions were continuing. If all parties agreed that it would be helpful and if it would diffuse some of the tension, the United Nations was prepared to participate in such a mission once the logistics and security arrangements could be worked out.

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At what level would the participation be? the correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said it would be in the form of technical experts who would look at the site where the bodies had been found.

Asked by another correspondent if there was any indication the Taliban would accept such a mission, Mr. Eckhard said that talks had been ongoing with Pakistan regarding Taliban's receptivity to such a mission. Asked by another, "where and with whom" the talks with the Taliban were occurring, Mr. Eckhard said, "we have been talking to Pakistan and Iran, looking into just how such a mission will be organized and how its security could be guaranteed".

Who is involved in the talks about the Taliban? another correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said he would not go into details about "everyone we're talking to", but the discussions were based on a letter from Iran requesting that such a mission be organized. There was a second letter from Pakistan approving the concept of the mission and nominating participants from the Pakistani side. The talks were primarily with those two Governments regarding how such a mission could be organized and how its security could be guaranteed.

A correspondent then asked whether any United Nations staff were left in Afghanistan. Mr. Eckhard said there were no international staff members left, but the United Nations humanitarian agencies were continuing their work there, relying on local staff.

Beyond urging Afghanistan and the Taliban towards restraint, what other steps did the Secretary-General see fit to take for defusing the situation at the border of Afghanistan and Iran? a correspondent asked. "I think I have to rest with the statement I just made", Mr. Eckhard said.

Ted Morello, President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), asked if there was any more information on the memorial service for victims of Swissair flight 111. Mr. Eckhard said a simple programme had been issued yesterday, and there had been radio and television coverage by DPI.

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said the President had taken part in the morning's memorial service for the staff members of the organizations of the United Nations system who had died in the crash of Swissair flight 111. From there, the President had proceeded to the first meeting of the General Committee, which was still in progress at the time of the briefing.

The Committee was considering organizational matters regarding the fifty- third session with a view to making recommendations to the plenary, she said. At noon, there were a number of speakers inscribed to make recommendations for inclusion of a particular item.

Other than that, the General Committee had agreed to recommend that the general debate should last for two weeks, Ms. Mihalic said. It had also

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agreed to recommend that the First (Disarmament and International Security), Fourth (Special Political and Decolonization), Third (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), and Sixth (Legal) Committees adjourn by 20 November; the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) by 27 November; and the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) by 4 December, with the first part of the fifty-third session to recess on Friday, 11 December. If the General Committee concluded its work today, she added, the next meeting of the plenary would be on Tuesday afternoon.

A correspondent asked how much longer the General Committee would be meeting and when the election for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees would take place. Ms. Mihalic said the General Committee was only preparing recommendations to be made to the plenary for adoption of the agenda for the fifty-third session. Consideration of any items on the agenda would be scheduled and would start later in the session. The Assembly had not yet adopted its agenda for the fifty-third session. That was going on at present. The General Committee was going through the provisional agenda, and through all the proposals for items that had been submitted, with a view to making recommendations to the plenary as to what items should be on the agenda.

What was the status of the Credentials Committee? another correspondent asked. It likely would not be meeting for another few weeks, Ms. Mihalic answered. "I understand not too many credentials have been received to date", she said.

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