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 noting that the sand truck barriers used for security had been removed from First Avenue and traffic was flowing freely, within the building as well. "That probably means the threat from terrorists was surpassed by that from irate New Yorkers", Mr. Eckhard said.

Mr. Eckhard said the Security Council had begun an open meeting at 10:30 a.m. on "Protection for Humanitarian Assistance to Refugees and Others in Conflict Situations". Twenty-five speakers had been scheduled, including representatives from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The Security Council was also expected to issue a presidential statement following the open meeting.

Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette had presented to the Security Council, the Secretary-General's report on humanitarian assistance, the Spokesman continued. The report had set out the challenges and obstacles confronting humanitarian agencies working in violent and dangerous environments. In her opening statement, Mr. Eckhard continued, Ms. Fréchette had said "no one will dispute that warfare reflects the breakdown of political structures. It is the responsibility of the Security Council to be bold, committed and determined when confronted by such crises. Unquestionably, securing a durable peace is the most important role of the Council, and represents the best support it can provide to humanitarian agencies struggling with the humanitarian consequences of warfare". The full text of Ms. Fréchette's statement was available in the Spokesman's Office.

In Tajikistan, Mr. Eckhard said, after intensive negotiations over the last few days among Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov, the Chairman of the Commission on National Reconciliation, Said Abdullo Nuri, and other opposition members, the United Tajik Opposition had today decided to resume its activities in the Reconciliation Commission and in the Government. The two sides had issued a joint statement announcing an agreement to set up a joint commission to oversee an investigation into the recent killing of a senior opposition member. They had also agreed to accelerate the integration of opposition members into Government structures.

The Spokesman then said the Executive Directors of the World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF, the two leading United Nations humanitarian organizations assisting victims of war and famine in the Sudan, had both issued separate news releases today to express concern about the resurgence of fighting in the Juba area of southern Sudan. The World Food Programme's Catherine Bertini and UNICEF's Carol Bellamy had both made an appeal for the extension into the Juba area of the three-month ceasefire covering part of

southern Sudan. Further details were contained in the news releases available in room S-378.

Tomorrow, Mr. Eckhard said, the Security Council would establish a short list of candidates for the judges to be elected for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. A ballot box would be open from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. outside the Council President's office. Of a list of 22 candidates, Council members would choose 18 by secret ballot. At 3:30 p.m., a formal meeting would be held to adopt a resolution indicating the 18 names to be sent to the General Assembly, which would later elect nine judges to sit in the two current Trial Chambers as well as in the new Third Chamber, established by the Security Council last April.

Four of the six current judges sitting in the two Trial Chambers at present were seeking re-election for a new four-year term, the Spokesman continued. Their current term would end at the end of May 1999. The judges for the new Third Trial Chamber could start working as early as January.

On 6 October, the Spokesman announced, the Organization would observe the fiftieth anniversary of United Nations peacekeeping operations by paying tribute to all peacekeepers, military as well as civilian, who had served since 1948 and in particular, those who had died while serving under the United Nations flag. At a special commemorative meeting of the General Assembly on that morning, the Secretary-General would present the first Dag Hammarskjold Medals to the families of three United Nations officials who had lost their lives while pursuing peace missions.

Mr. Eckhard said those recipients would include the families of Dag Hammarskjold, the second Secretary-General of the United Nations; Commandant Rene de Labarriere, the first peacekeeper to lose his life in a United Nations peacekeeping mission; and Count Folke Bernadotte, the United Nations Mediator in Palestine, who had been assassinated in Jerusalem in 1948. Also in attendance would be former senior United Nations officials in charge of peacekeeping, including Special Representatives, Force Commanders, Chief Military Observers and Civilian Police Commissioners.

In addition, Mr. Eckhard continued, a photo exhibit on United Nations peacekeeping would be opened in the public lobby of the General Assembly building at noon. Informal consultations would take place in the afternoon with the invitees on the future of peacekeeping, and that would be followed by a reception. An information kit with background material on 50 years of peacekeeping would be available at the documents counter in English or French this afternoon.

Also this afternoon from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., Mr. Eckhard said, as part of the process of ongoing consultations between the United Nations and regional organizations, members of the Secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) would meet with members of the United Nations Secretariat.

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Representing the United Nations would be members of the Department of Political Affairs, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and the Department for Disarmament Affairs. The purpose of the meeting was to review the implementation of General Assembly resolution 52/204 on United Nations and SADC cooperation. The Executive Secretary of SADC, Kaire Mbuende, and Assistant Secretary- General for Political Affairs Ibrahima Fall would be present.

Mr. Eckhard recalled that as part of the United Nations reform efforts, the Secretary-General had proposed that savings from administrative cuts be put into a development fund and turned into a "dividend for development". The General Assembly had approved the proposal and had set aside $13 million from the regular budget for that purpose. A new report available on the racks as of yesterday (document A/53/374), described the projects that had been proposed to be funded with that money. The projects focused on the concept of networking for development as a means to broaden the benefits of globalization and to help developing countries avoid economic marginalization.

Mr. Eckhard said the Business Council for the United Nations had held its annual dinner last night. At the dinner, the Secretary-General had welcomed the announced plan of the Business Council to merge with the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA/USA). The Secretary-General had said, "We need to cultivate better public awareness about the United Nations in the United States." On the matter of payment of United States arrears, the Secretary-General said that "every man and woman -- decent and silent Americans and some not so silent -- understands that this is a treaty obligation, a basic moral responsibility, a fundamental commitment".

The United States Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, had been the principal honouree at the dinner, Mr. Eckhard continued, and she had echoed the Secretary-General's sentiment. "The time has come to stop treating the United Nations like a political football", she had declared. "The United States is not a failed State. We have no excuse -- plain and simple, we should pay our United Nations bills."

Ms. Albright's views had been echoed by virtually every United States corporate leader who had spoken at the event, Mr. Eckhard said before extending congratulations to correspondent Craig Turner of The Los Angeles Times, who was present at the noon briefing, for having been awarded the Korn/Ferry International Journalism Award for Excellence in United Nations Reporting at the dinner. Mr. Turner had shared the prize with James Traub, who had authored the portrait of the Secretary-General that had appeared in The New York Times Magazine last March.

Mr. Eckhard then said the summary of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) press briefing in Geneva, which had been held earlier in the day, was available in room S-378. He added that

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the UNHCR would issue a press release, following the action of the General Assembly on the Secretary-General's proposal to extend for two years, the term of office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata.

On signatures and ratifications, the Spokesman said, Benin had signed the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, becoming the forty-second ratifier. Yesterday, Iceland had signed the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings, becoming the thirty-fifth State to sign the Convention. And between yesterday and this morning, the Solomon Islands and Turkmenistan had signed the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,becoming respectively the fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth States to sign it.

It had been announced that some acknowledgment would be made of the Landmine Convention coming into force, Mr. Eckhard said. That event had now been scheduled for Thursday from 11 a.m. to noon. The event would not be held in room S-226, as had been originally envisioned, but rather in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. The event would be moderated by Jody Williams, of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Also speaking would be Queen Noor of Jordan; the Foreign Minister of Canada, Lloyd Axworthy; Ambassador Ole Peter Kolby of Norway; Deputy-Secretary-General Louise Fréchette; and George Soros. A background note on the event was available in room S-378.

The Mission of Denmark was sponsoring a press conference in room S-226 tomorrow afternoon at 4 p.m., Mr. Eckhard announced. The subject of the press conference would be the current situation in Myanmar. The guest speakers would be from the World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) and from the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma. There were no names provided yet but they would be posted on the bulletin board when available.

Also on the bulletin board was information about a press conference to be held on Thursday on the International Criminal Court, Mr. Eckhard added. That press conference would be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday. No details were available yet on who would speak. Further, the President of the Security Council for the month of September was inviting correspondents to a briefing tomorrow, right after the noon briefing, on the work of the Council during Sweden's presidency. If any delay in the Council's consultations occurred in the morning, that briefing would be delayed.

Finally, Mr. Eckhard announced that as of yesterday, a bullet-point style format of highlights of the noon briefing had begun to be posted. Those highlights would be posted every day within a couple of hours after the noon briefing. The address would be http://www.un.org/news/ossg/hilites.htm.

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A correspondent then asked if readouts were available on the Secretary-General's meetings with representatives of the League of Arab States and the Organization of Islamic Conference. Mr. Eckhard said readouts were obtained on almost all meetings, but they were not always available quickly because some of those involved went into subsequent meetings and they could not be debriefed until later. Staying in touch with those in room S-378 was the best way to eventually get a readout on a meeting. "Of all the dedicated United Nations workers who have lost their lives, how and by whom had the first three been chosen?", a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said he had no information on the process except to know that those chosen were high-ranking and well-known heroes. "Will those same people choose the recipients every year?" the correspondent further asked. Mr. Eckhard said he would look into the process and get back with an answer.

Another correspondent questioned whether Dag Hammarskjold's family would receive an award. In the course of clarification, Mr. Eckhard again repeated the three names of those whose families would receive the Hammarskjold Awards. The correspondent then questioned the Security Council voting procedure for electing the Rwanda Tribunal judges. Was the ballot box unsupervised? Was this the usual way the Security Council voted? Why was the Council handling the voting in that manner? Mr. Eckhard said he would check with the Council and get back with answers, but the process was supervised. [He later reported that this procedure had been used only since the Council began electing judges for the Ad Hoc Tribunals.]

"Does the fact that there is a discrepancy between the United States and Swiss test results on the United Nations Special Commission set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (UNSCOM) fragments hurt or help the present relationship with Iraq? What is the impact of the different findings?" a correspondent asked.

"First, the results of those findings are not yet public", Mr. Eckhard answered, adding that his understanding was that yesterday the findings had gone to the Executive Director of UNSCOM, Richard Butler, and that he would convey the information to the Security Council. "So, first I can't comment on something that's not public and second, I'm not sure it's my place to comment on it."

The same correspondent then said he understood no progress had been made in the meeting between the Secretary-General and Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, during their meeting yesterday. "Did the Secretary-General just say to him that this is the way it is, Iraq has to comply? Is that what happened?"

"The Secretary-General made it very clear that the Council expects Iraq to come back into compliance before consideration would be given to a comprehensive review", Mr. Eckhard said, adding that the meeting yesterday was

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just the beginning of a process. The Deputy Prime Minister was expected to meet, and had already met individually, with members of the Security Council. During their meeting yesterday, the Secretary-General and Mr. Aziz had agreed to meet again toward the end of the week, once the Deputy Prime Minister had completed this round of consultations with Council members.

The United States had today proposed that the Secretary-General appoint a "high-level personality" to investigate attacks on humanitarian personnel, a correspondent said. "Had the United States mentioned this to the Secretary-General beforehand and had he had any reaction?" Mr. Eckhard said he would check and get back with an answer.

Was there anything that could be announced on the Secretary-General's meeting last week with the Cypriot President, or on the peace initiative on Cyprus? a correspondent asked and Mr. Eckhard indicated there was not.

During the general debate, several delegates had mentioned their concern over the degradation of the role of the General Assembly to that of the Security Council, a correspondent said. That was especially true since all matters came down to global peace and security. The Council was dealing with almost all issues, from refugees to humanitarian assistance. Did the Secretary-General share the concern of delegations that the General Assembly would eventually be phased out? Mr. Eckhard said he had not heard the complaints and could not comment on them. "I think the Charter clearly defines the role of the Council and of the Assembly. Any debate about the division of those labours is for Member States to sort out among themselves."

The newly replaced United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Denis Halliday, had held a press conference today in Baghdad. Was there anything new on him and was he coming to New York next week? "He is coming to the United States, but I'm not sure he's coming to New York", Mr. Eckhard said. Asked about Mr. Halliday's future plans by another correspondent, he cited Mr. Halliday as having said he was "leaving the system" and said it was not known what Mr. Halliday's next plans were.

A correspondent asked whether the Secretary-General would have a message for Yugoslavia's Foreign Affairs Minister when they meet this afternoon. Mr. Eckhard said he did not know what subject the Secretary-General planned to raise during his meeting with the Yugoslav Foreign Minister.

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said the President had met this morning with the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Azerbaijan. He had also met with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Malta, and with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh. He was also chairing the plenary.

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This afternoon, Ms. Mihalic said, the President was scheduled to meet with the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica and Tunisia, as well as with the Minister of State in Charge of Foreign Affairs of Cameroon. He would also meet with the Permanent Representative of Sweden, whom he would meet in his capacity as President of the Security Council for September.

This morning, the Assembly had continued the general debate, Ms. Mihalic continued. The Assembly had heard statements by: the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Malta; Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Syria and Azerbaijan; the Secretary of the General People's Committee of the People's Bureau for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation of Libya; the Deputy Prime Minister of Fiji; the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan; and the Minister for External Relations of Sudan.

After the last speaker in the general debate this morning, the Assembly would take up agenda item 16(b), the election of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the spokesman said. In the note contained in document A/53/389, the Secretary-General had proposed that Sadako Ogata's term be extended for two years, from 1 January 1991 to 31 December 2000, in accordance with her preference, for personal reasons, not to serve another four-year term.

In the afternoon, Ms. Mihalic continued, the general debate would resume with statements by: the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Water Resources of Nepal; Chairman of the delegation of Samoa; Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia; Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mauritania and Benin; Minister for Foreign Affairs of Andorra; Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan; Chairman of the delegation of Barbados; and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Kenya.

On the side table were the lists of speakers for today and tomorrow, the spokesman concluded.

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