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 welcoming the Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, to the briefing. Mr. Griffiths was to brief correspondents on his recent visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to Rwanda. (Mr. Griffiths' briefing has been issued separately.)

The Security Council had met at 11 a.m. today for further consultations on a draft resolution introduced yesterday on Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard continued. The Council would meet at 3:30 p.m. to adopt the resolution. That meeting would be chaired by the Foreign Minister of Sweden.

Under other matters, the Spokesman continued, the Council had agreed that next Tuesday it would discuss the Secretary-General's report on assistance to refugees and others. In the meantime, the Council would resume work on Monday with consultations on Croatia and a briefing on the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Back on Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard said, there was a report available today from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on the general situation there. That appeared as an addendum to the Secretary-General's report to the Council on Kosovo. It provided an analysis of the spillover potential of the Kosovo conflict and concluded that the only hope for a peaceful solution was an immediate cessation of the Serbian military offensive.

Again on Kosovo, it had just been learned from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that an estimated 6,000 people had been displaced as a result of a fresh government offensive that had begun yesterday outside of Pristina, Mr. Eckhard announced. The UNHCR was coordinating the United Nations humanitarian effort to assist nearly 300,000 refugees and displaced persons in the Kosovo conflict. It was receiving reports that at least 17 villages and at least 10,000 people were being affected by the government offensive, which had entered its second day.

The Security Council would meet tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the level of foreign ministers, Mr. Eckhard said. The purpose of the meeting was to assess the progress that had been made in achieving peace and security in Africa since last September, when the last such meeting had been held on the subject. As a follow-up to the Secretary-General's report on Africa, which was submitted in April, the Security Council had in May established a working group to review for six months the recommendations submitted to the Council by the Secretary- General in his report. The Council had also decided to work closely with the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in the follow-up to the report and to meet at the ministerial level every two years.

Further on Africa, Mr. Eckhard said six subgroups had been established to look at the main recommendations of the Secretary-General's report. Three of those groups had produced documents on their work. The work of the group dealing with regional cooperation was covered in Security Council resolution S/RES/1197, adopted on the 18th of September. The work of the group concerning the strengthening of Africa's peacekeeping capacity was reflected in a presidential statement on 16 September. And the work of the group looking into strengthening the effectiveness of Council-imposed arms sanctions regimes was covered by resolution S/RES/1196, also adopted on 16 September.

Three other subgroups had not yet concluded their work, the Spokesman said. One of those subgroups was concerned with an international mechanism to assist host governments in maintaining the security and neutrality of refugee camps. The work of a second group concerned arms flows, in particular, suppliers and intermediaries. The work of the third group was concerned with enhancing the capacity of the Council to monitor activities authorized by it.

Eighteen speakers were expected to take the floor on Africa tomorrow, Mr. Eckhard said. Those speakers would include the 15 members of the Council and the Secretary-General, as well as the Secretary-General of the OAU, Salim A. Salim, and the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, who was the current OAU Chairman.

Tomorrow was the date for the annual luncheon of the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the Security Council with the Secretary- General, the Spokesman announced. The group traditionally issued a statement afterwards and the event would be monitored by the Spokesman's Office on behalf of correspondents.

Mr. Eckhard said a statement had been issued on Lesotho, saying that the Secretary-General was very disturbed by the turn of events there and that he was following them closely. He was in contact with leaders in the region, with a view to helping in the restoration of normalcy and the pursuit of a meaningful national dialogue to resolve the recent political problems. He appealed to the leaders in Lesotho on all sides to show statesmanship and to work both together and with the Southern African Development Community (SADC) for the sake of the people of Lesotho.

The Secretary-General had a meeting today with the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Spokesman said. The meeting was to foster support for implementation of the Secretary-General's report on Africa. The Secretary-General was expected to call the attention of the DAC countries to such issues as the need to increase the volume and improve the quality of official assistance, the opening of markets for African exports and possible measures to encourage investment in Africa. The Secretary-General would also urge donor countries to convert the debts of African countries into grants.

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It had been announced last week that the Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Agwu Okali, would be going to Washington, Mr. Eckhard said. He had gone there yesterday and had met with the United States Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues, David Scheffer. They had discussed United States support for -- and cooperation with -- the Tribunal, including witness support matters and the enforcement of sentences. Mr. Okali had also met separately with the Coalition for International Justice, which was an umbrella non-governmental group of organizations and individuals actively involved in issues of international criminal justice. That information was available in writing in room S-378.

On the Turner Fund, Mr. Eckhard said, the board of the foundation overseeing the Fund had met last week and had approved the second round of grants from Mr. Turner's $1 billion gift in support of United Nations causes. A press release on the Fund was expected tomorrow, with details on all the new projects approved. Money for the first round of projects approved had reportedly started flowing.

The long-awaited Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was available on the racks today as document A/CONF.183/9, the Spokesman announced. The Sixth Committee of the General Assembly was scheduled to discuss the Court from 21 to 23 October, and correspondents would be kept informed.

As a note for an event that would take place Friday, Mr. Eckhard announced that the Governments of Canada and Norway were convening a special information session here at Headquarters on small arms and light weapons. The Under- Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, Jayantha Dhanapala, would address the session, which would begin at 9 a.m. Advance copies of his statement would be available tomorrow on an embargoed basis.

A United Nations Messenger of Peace, the actor Michael Douglas, would attend that session, Mr. Eckhard added. The actor would address participants at a luncheon at 1 p.m. As background, Mr. Eckhard said that in accepting his designation as a Messenger of Peace, Mr. Douglas had expressed particular interest in the issue of small arms. An advance copy of Mr. Douglas' text would be requested from his publicity office.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs had sent word, Mr. Eckhard said, that the United Nations Inter-agency Appeal for Emergency Relief and Initial Rehabilitation in China had been launched in Beijing and Geneva. The Appeal was seeking $139 million to assist over 5.8 million persons affected by the worst floods in decades along the Yangtze River and north-east China. The Secretary-General was deeply distressed over the unprecedented magnitude of the devastation caused by the flooding, which had affected one fifth of China's population of some 223 million people. A United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) note on that same subject was available in room S-378.

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Reviewing forthcoming press conferences and briefings, Mr. Eckhard said that at 12:45 p.m. in room S-226, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand, Don McKinnon, would speak on the Biological Weapons Convention. At 2:45 p.m. in the same room, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, would take questions. Then, at 4 p.m. in the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Club, UNCA was hosting a briefing by the Taliban's designated representative at the United Nations, Abdul Halkeem Mujahid.

A correspondent asked for read-outs of two meetings, one on the Secretary-General's meeting with Security Council members and the other on his meeting with the United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright.

Mr. Eckhard said there was no read-out on the meeting with the Security Council members other than to say that the Secretary-General had elaborated on a number of points that had been raised in his two previous meetings on the comprehensive review of Iraq, one with the permanent five and another with the other 10 members of the Council. After that elaboration with all 15 members, the next step in the process would come next week, when the Secretary-General and presumably members of the Council would meet with the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Tariq Aziz, starting on Monday.

The meeting with the United States Secretary of State this morning had lasted about 25 minutes and had covered a range of issues, Mr. Eckhard continued. Those were: United Nations reform; the United Nations budget and the United States contributions to it; the situation in Iraq; the United States/United Kingdom proposal on Lockerbie, which concerned Libya; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the ministerial-level meeting on Africa; the situation in Afghanistan; and nuclear non-proliferation issues. It was quite a wide agenda.

In response to a series of questions by a correspondent on arrangements for the Lockerbie trial, Mr. Eckhard said the United Nations Legal Counsel was clarifying for Libya a number of questions they had raised concerning the United States/United Kingdom proposal. The process was continuing by telephone, through meetings and perhaps in writing. While there was no read-out on the specific issues, Libya's questions had been described as concerning such issues as where the defendants would serve their sentences if convicted and who could be called as witnesses in the trial.

In response to questions on refugees in Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard said the figures would have to be confirmed with the UNHCR, but that, of a total of 270,000 refugees, some 200,000 were within Kosovo. It was not known how many of those were refugees freezing in the mountains, but it was known that tens of thousands were in the mountains or just outside without proper shelter.

Would today's resolution in the Council on Kosovo include language authorizing the use of force? another correspondent asked. Would the

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Secretary-General support the resolution and the use of force, if it was called for as a way of stopping the aggression against a civilian population?

"We don't get into the business of interpreting what the Council means by its resolutions. You'll have to ask the Council members", Mr. Eckhard replied. "The Secretary-General, of course, supports all resolutions of the Council as a matter of principle."

United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) experts had arrived at Headquarters today, a correspondent noted. Were final results expected from the tests conducted in France and Switzerland on the missile fragments found in Iraq?

Mr. Eckhard responded that it had been announced earlier in the week that meetings would be held here at Headquarters on Thursday and Friday to review the differing results from the three separate laboratory tests on the missile fragments. The assumption was that the official results had been received, even though earlier it had been announced that UNSCOM did not expect final results until the end of the month. The UNSCOM would be consulted on that.

In response to other questions, Mr. Eckhard said he would get an update on the Commission of Inquiry regarding arms in the Great Lakes region, which had been authorized by the Security Council and whose six-month mandate was due to expire in September. [Mr. Eckhard later clarified that there was no September expiration date, that an interim report had been issued in August, and a final report is due in November.]

Finally, in response to a question on why the Sixth Committee (Legal) had to debate the International Criminal Court Statute, Mr. Eckhard agreed that the Statute was indeed a done deal, requiring only signatures and ratifications. Sixth Committee members would have to be questioned about what they intended to take up, why they had wanted the items on the agenda, and how they intended to deal with it.

Jadranka Mihalic, Spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said the Assembly this morning had continued the general debate with statements by the President of Colombia, Andrés Pastrana Arango, and the President of Suriname, Jules Wijdenbosch. Following that, statements had been made by the Prime Minister of Mauritius and the Foreign Ministers of China, France, Italy, United Arab Emirates and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the afternoon, Ms. Mihalic continued, the Assembly was scheduled to hear the Presidents of: Djibouti, Hassan Gouled Aptidon; Niger, Ibrahim Maïnassara Baré; and Nicaragua, Arnoldo Alemán Lacayo. Following that, the Assembly would hear from the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Foreign Ministers of Portugal, Ukraine, Chile, Spain, Czech Republic, Sweden, Ireland and the Dominican Republic, the last of which had been added to the list this

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morning. Also, on the side table was a list of speakers for the next day's two plenary sessions.

In closing, Mr. Eckhard said a last item concerned the discussions on Monday between the Executive Director of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), Pino Arlacchi, and the President of Colombia, Andrés Pastrana Arango. Press reports yesterday had said the United Nations would give a "juicy check" of $1 billion to the Colombian President for the next 10 years for United Nations activities in the drug control area there.

A statement from Mr. Arlacchi was available in room S-378, Mr. Eckhard announced, which basically said that "Pino Arlacchi is not Ted Turner". The $1 billion was what the UNDCP estimated would be needed to eradicate illicit crops in Colombia over 10 years, and that they would attempt to raise the money from a variety of sources. "Please pick up that statement, so we get the record straight", Mr. Eckhard said.

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