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 Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, who would brief correspondents on her recent visit to Sierra Leone. (Ms. Bellamy's briefing is being issued separately.)

Mr. Eckhard then said the President of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin, had called the Secretary-General this morning and the two had spoken for 25 minutes over the critical situation in Kosovo. The President had described the efforts being made by his Government to ensure that President Slobodan Milosevic and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia complied fully with Security Council resolution 1199 (1998), which among other things called for a cessation of hostilities and access to Kosovo for humanitarian workers.

The Secretary-General's report on Kosovo had been issued this morning, Mr. Eckhard continued. In that report, and in response to the Security Council's request to provide an assessment of whether the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had complied with resolutions 1160 (1998) and 1199 (1998), the Secretary-General had said that "fighting in Kosovo continued".

The Secretary-General had outlined what he described as "action urgently required on several fronts", Mr. Eckhard continued. He had said the violence on all sides had to be brought to a halt, full humanitarian access had to be granted and conditions needed to be created that would enable refugees and internally displaced persons to return to their homes with confidence that they would not face harassment or worse.

The Secretary-General stated that "It is imperative that the international presence be strengthened and made more effective", the Spokesman continued. The Secretary-General had also noted having had to rely largely on information and analysis from sources outside the United Nations. Unlike reports to the Security Council on missions or operations where the United Nations had direct political presence on the ground, the means necessary to provide an independent assessment of the situation had not existed in Kosovo and the Secretary-General had concluded that the Council would possibly wish to make its own judgement in respect of compliance on the basis of the present report.

The report was based on information from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Contact Group and individual Member States with a presence in Kosovo, the Spokesman said. Also included were findings from recent missions by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, and the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu. It was thought the Council would take up the matter of Kosovo tomorrow or possibly Wednesday.

This morning the Council had met with the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Salim Ahmed Salim, Mr. Eckhard said. It had been an Arria-formula meeting called by Kenya. Mr. Salim had briefed Council members on African issues, including the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Secretary-General had also attended that meeting. Later, at 5 p.m., the Secretary-General would brief the Council on Iraq.

The Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, had arrived in Teheran yesterday at the start of his mission to the area, Mr. Eckhard then said. The mission had been agreed to at the "Six-plus-Two" meeting on Afghanistan held in New York on 21 September. Mr. Brahimi would stay in Teheran until Wednesday or Thursday, when he was expected to travel to Islamabad. While on the mission, the Special Envoy was in company of two senior members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

A report out of Tokyo today that the Secretary-General would visit Japan as a guest of the Government could now be confirmed, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary-General would visit on 20 October and stay through Thursday, 22 October. During his stay in Japan, the Secretary-General would attend the Second Tokyo International Conference on African Development, which was co-organized by the Government of Japan, the United Nations and the Global Coalition for Africa.

This morning at 11 a.m., China had signed the International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights, the Spokesman announced. That had brought the number of signatories to that Covenant to 60. Adopted in 1966, the Covenant had entered into force in 1976. A statement issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, in welcome of China's signing of the Covenant, was available in Room 378.

The fiftieth anniversary of United Nations Peacekeeping would be observed tomorrow, Mr. Eckhard said. It would start with a commemorative meeting of the General Assembly at 10:30 a.m., at which the Secretary-General would speak. The Secretary-General would also present the Dag Hammarskjold medal to the families of Dag Hammarskjold and of Commandant Rene de Labarriere, the first peacekeeper killed, as well as of Count Folke Bernadotte. All three had lost their lives during United Nations missions. A number of former senior United Nations officials involved in United Nations operations would attend, and a tentative list of attendees as of this morning was available in Room 378.

In addition, the Spokesman continued, a photo exhibit on peacekeeping would open in the General Assembly Public Lobby at noon, in which there would be a presentation of commemorative stamp albums. In the afternoon, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., informal consultations would take place in Conference Room 4 between the current and former senior officials involved in peacekeeping.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 5 October 1998

That would be followed by a coup de champagne at 6 p.m. for the participants of the informal consultation.

The Department of Public Information (DPI) had prepared a poster on the 50 years of United Nations peacekeeping, Mr. Eckhard added. It was available at the documents counter in English, French and Spanish.

Closed consultations among members of the Security Council and troop contributors to the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) would be held this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in Conference Room 6, the Spokesman said.

Also, Mr. Eckhard continued, today was World Habitat Day. In his message for the Day, the Secretary-General had said that with urban violence around the world estimated to have nearly doubled in the last 20 years, it was appropriate that World Habitat Day 1998 should focus on the theme "Safer Cities". It would be observed this afternoon at 3 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjold Library auditorium and members of the press were invited.

On Saturday, the United Nations had released a statement on the its investigation of possible abuse of access to duty-free liquor and cigarettes by a small number of members of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). A formal report was expected in a few days as to who and how much was allegedly involved.

In response to questions asked last week, the Spokesman said the former Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, Denis Halliday, had arrived in New York yesterday. On Tuesday he would go to Washington, D.C., to meet with a group of 40 members of the United States Congress. Mr. Halliday was officially on the United Nations payroll until the end of October.

The usual flood of General Assembly reports by the Secretary-General on Monday had made its appearance, Mr. Eckhard said. To mention just three, document A/53/368 on Western Sahara contained no new information but was a useful reference with its summary of major developments over the last year. Document A/53/378 from Portugal contained the statements adopted during two conferences held this summer on youth. Those were the Lisbon Declaration on Youth Policies and Programmes and the Braga Youth Action Plan, adopted at the Conference in Braga which the Secretary-General had attended.

Document A/53/398, Mr. Eckhard continued, was a report by the Secretary-General on the volatility of global financial flows and their impact on developing countries. The report provided the outlines of the consensus on national and international policies for macroeconomic and financial management. The Secretary-General had concluded that the new consensus was possibly sufficient if the storm "blew over soon" and widespread recession was

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avoided. However, if the storm worsened, the policy paradigm for development in a globalized market economy would possibly need revision.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference had signed a new cooperation agreement, Mr. Eckhard announced, adding that a press release containing details was available in Room 378.

Also available were two press releases by the UNHCR, Mr. Eckhard added. One was a statement by High Commissioner Sadako Ogata on the opening of the UNHCR Executive Committee in Geneva in which she appealed to the European countries to intensify efforts to find a political solution to the Kosovo crisis. The other UNHCR press release was on the awarding of the 1998 Nansen Medal to a Crimean Tatar activist in recognition of his efforts to help his people reintegrate into their native Ukraine. The prize, named after a Norwegian diplomat and explorer, was awarded for exceptional service on behalf of refugees. The text of the Secretary-General's message at the Nansen ceremony was also available. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), had reported that the world's children were under increasing threat from HIV/AIDS, the Spokesman said. The Executive Director of UNAIDS, Dr. Peter Piot, had urged greater efforts to improve the conditions of children affected by the infection. Dr. Piot and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Stephen Lewis would join the noon briefing tomorrow to give more information.

In response to a media advisory alert from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) announcing an exhibit commemorating 20 years of South-South cooperation, Mr. Eckhard said a print-out had been made available to correspondents on the side table. The print-out stated that Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai had made a statement to the Interim and Development Committees during the ongoing joint meetings between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington, D.C. Details regarding further information were available in the print-out.

On press conferences, Mr. Eckhard mentioned Ms. Bellamy's briefing at 12:30 p.m. today, then said that tomorrow at 11 a.m. the Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece would speak to the press in Room 226. At 4 p.m. tomorrow, a senior United Nations official would brief correspondents on the General Assembly's general debate, summarizing the trends and messages given by the speakers. That would not be of particular news value but rather of informational value, he added.

The World Chronicle television programme would today feature the Vice- President of the World Bank's Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Network, Ian Johnson, the Spokesman said. That would be at 2:30 p.m. on channels 6 and 38.

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On the Sudan, Mr. Eckhard said, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) had confirmed the postponement of the meeting of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development Technical Committee on Humanitarian Assistance. That meeting had been originally scheduled to begin today in Nairobi, Kenya, and was to have been chaired by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Humanitarian Assistance for the Sudan, Ambassador Tom Vraalsen.

A correspondent then asked about a proposal for the autonomy of East Timor said to have been worked out for presentation to the two sides involved. Mr. Eckhard said meetings were planned for this week on East Timor but that particular details could not be confirmed. Any available detail that could be confirmed would be conveyed.

In response to a correspondent's questions regarding the Secretary-General's conversation with Mr. Yeltsin this morning, Mr. Eckhard said he could convey no more detail than he had given. "Executive privilege", he added. In response to other questions from the same correspondent, Mr. Eckhard said that tomorrow's briefers on the General Assembly's general debate would be the same who had addressed correspondents on the issue the previous year. The meeting with Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz had been scheduled for Wednesday and so far no word had come of any change.

"What about Iraq is the Secretary-General expected to brief the Security Council on?" the correspondent asked.

"He will be giving them the state of play as of today", Mr. Eckhard replied. "And I guess he'll be trying to pave the way for some kind of agreement before Tariq Aziz goes back to Baghdad."

Was the Secretary-General getting Council approval on his ideas for the comprehensive review and was the review finished? the correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said the review had not yet begun. Any ideas on what the Secretary-General would talk to Tariq Aziz about, what the review could be about?

"The Council members are still talking among themselves", Mr. Eckhard said, adding that the process had not yet been completed. "We hope it will be completed by midweek." Asked by another correspondent when Mr. Aziz was going back, Mr. Eckhard said "we don't know, but certainly not before Wednesday", adding that Mr. Aziz could be consulted on that question.

Would the Secretary-General still be going to DisneyWorld a few days before his departure for Japan? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said yes, prompting the correspondent's suggestion that the Secretary-General's heavy schedule might make him consider going to DisneyWorld in Japan.

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Asked about a meeting between the Secretary-General and United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright later today concerning her possibly joining the United Nations system, Mr. Eckhard said he knew nothing of such a meeting nor of a meeting with Ms. Albright today.

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said the General Assembly had concluded its general debate on Friday afternoon. The President had delivered his closing remarks summarizing the main issues raised during the debate, and they had been issued as a press release in both English and Spanish.

A total of 180 speakers had addressed the Assembly during the debate, Ms. Mihalic continued. That had included 26 Heads of State, one Vice- President, one Crown Prince, 15 Prime Ministers, 14 Deputy Prime Ministers/Ministers for Foreign Affairs, 105 Foreign Ministers, and six other Ministers, among others.

Also on Friday, the spokesman continued, the President had announced that Equatorial Guinea had made the necessary payment reducing its arrears below the level established in Article 19 of the Charter. That left 13 Member States in the category of being below the level established.

This morning, the Assembly was considering the report of the Secretary-General on the work of the Organization, Ms. Mihalic continued, recalling that the Secretary-General had introduced the report on 21 September, just before the opening of the general debate. Under this item, 16 speakers had been inscribed, and then also this morning, the Assembly would take action on draft resolution A/53/L.2/Rev.1, on emergency assistance to Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

As mentioned on Friday, the Main Committees were beginning their substantive work today, Ms. Mihalic said. The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) and Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) were meeting today, while the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) was holding informal consultations on its programme of work and would begin its general debate tomorrow.

Also, tomorrow morning after the address by the President of Botswana, as the Spokesman had mentioned, the Assembly would hold a commemorative meeting marking the fiftieth anniversary of United Nations peacekeeping. The Assembly President would make an opening statement, which would be issued as a press release, and the Secretary-General would also make a statement, as would the Chairmen of the regional groups and the representative of the host country. At the end of the first segment of the meeting, the Assembly was

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scheduled to adopt a declaration, the draft text of which was available in document A/53/L.5.

The second part of the commemoration would begin at 11:30, Ms. Mihalic said. After the remarks by the Secretary-General and by the Presidents of the Security Council and the Staff Committee, the Secretary-General would present the Dag Hammarskjold Medals. Members of each receiving family would also make statements. A note for correspondents outlining the press arrangements for tomorrow's events would be available by 1 p.m. today.

Tomorrow afternoon, the plenary would take up consideration of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development, Ms. Mihalic said. A correspondent then asked whether there was a possible agenda for a meeting between the Presidents of the General Assembly and of the Security Council in light of certain fears that the role of the General Assembly in dealing with political and security issues was becoming diminished.

"The President of the fifty-third General Assembly session believes in very close cooperation with members of other main bodies of the Organization", Ms. Mihalic answered, adding that the Charter outlined in an obvious way the responsibilities of each of the bodies. The President believed that improved communication with the Security Council was a very important aspect of the close communication, and during his term in office he intended to work very closely with the Security Council and to meet regularly with the Council President.

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