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 Under-Secretary-General for Management, Joseph Connor, who would brief correspondents on the Organization's financial situation. (Mr. Connor's briefing has been issued separately.)

The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz was meeting with the Secretary-General now, Mr. Eckhard said. The meeting had started at noon and was expected to last an hour, after which Mr. Aziz would talk with the press at the Security Council stake-out.

The Security Council had met this morning to review the mandate of the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM)), the Spokesman said. The Council had decided to maintain the mission as recommended by the Secretary-General.

Council members last night had ended their informal consultations on Kosovo at 10:50 p.m., following a marathon seven-hour session, Mr. Eckhard continued. They had discussed the two most recent Kosovo reports by the Secretary-General, and heard a briefing by the Secretariat. The Council President had read out an oral statement to the press. In addition, an update on the humanitarian situation in Kosovo was available in room S-378.

Further, on Kosovo, the Spokesman said the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had been investigating the situation in Kosovo without obstruction by Belgrade. Recently, however, the authorities in Belgrade had refused to issue visas for investigators to travel to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Belgrade maintained that the Prosecutor had no jurisdiction to conduct investigations in Kosovo and that the investigations were a violation of the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

In a statement released out of The Hague today, the Tribunal's Prosecutor, Justice Louise Arbour, had stated that the position of the Belgrade authorities was "totally unacceptable", Mr. Eckhard said. Justice Arbour had asserted that such a position ignored not only the express terms of the Tribunal's statute, but also various Security Council resolutions and presidential statements, which unequivocally stated that the Tribunal did in fact have jurisdiction over Kosovo. The full text of the Prosecutor's statement was available in room S-378.

The Senior Management Group had met for its weekly session this morning, and among other things discussed were the themes that had emerged from the general debate in the General Assembly, the Spokesman said. The Under-Secretary-General for General Assembly Affairs and Conference Services, Yongjian Jin, had mentioned a statistic worth repeating. His department had

arranged facilities for 892 bilateral meetings in the two-week period of the General Assembly's open debate. That was the bilateral activity taking place in the Secretariat building, and not including the many taking place in missions off United Nations premises.

On Angola, Mr. Eckhard said a letter from the Foreign Ministers of the United States, Russian Federation and Portugal to the leader of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Jonas Savimbi, had been issued as document S/1998/916. The troika of observers to the Angolan peace process had urged the UNITA leader to help reverse the precarious situation in Angola by contacting President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and agreeing on immediate steps to avert war.

"This is UNITA's last opportunity to secure a legitimate and constructive role in the Angolan body politic", Mr. Eckhard said in quoting United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama. "We urge you to take the high road and honour your commitments to the Lusaka Protocol in a final attempt to give peace a chance", they had concluded.

The Executive Committee on Peace and Security would meet this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. to discuss Angola, Mr. Eckhard added. The Secretary-General's report on Angola was due out tomorrow.

Talks on Prevlaka between Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia were expected to take place in Belgrade tomorrow, Mr. Eckhard announced. The Secretary-General's next report on Prevlaka, due on 15 October, would reflect any progress made in the talks. The current mandate of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP), established in January 1996, would continue until 15 January 1999. The United Nations had no direct involvement in those bilateral talks being held in Belgrade.

A workshop on a rights-based approach to gender equality for bilateral and multilateral organizations had concluded its three-day deliberations today in Rome, Mr. Eckhard said. Held from 5 to 7 October, the workshop had been attended by 45 representatives of United Nations agencies and offices, and by 45 representatives of bilateral organizations. The final communiqué would be available in room S-378 later this afternoon, but further information could be obtained from the Development and Human Rights Section of the Department of Public Information at (212) 963-1453.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, had issued a statement in response to the detention of 54 more people in Myanmar today, Mr. Eckhard said. The text was available in room S-378.

A number of newly issued documents were of interest, Mr. Eckhard said. A report of the Secretary-General containing responses from Governments on the United States embargo against Cuba had been published as document A/53/320, as well as Add. 1 and 2. Also on the racks was a resolution sponsored by Cuba on the same subject, published as document A/53/L.6.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 7 October 1998

A report of the Secretary-General on the debt situation of developing countries as of mid-1998 had been published as document A/53/373, Mr. Eckhard continued. That report contained seven pages of statistical tables and also explained the International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt Initiative, which had received much attention lately in light of the meetings in Washington, D.C.

A report of the Secretary-General on traditional or customary practices affecting the health of women, such as female genital mutilation, had been issued as document A/53/354, Mr. Eckhard said. The report was a follow-up to the General Assembly's adoption last year of a resolution on that issue for the first time since 1954.

And on the management side of matters, Mr. Eckhard said a report of the Secretary-General containing comprehensive guidelines for the use of consultants in the Secretariat had been issued as document A/53/385.

In Rome today, Mr. Eckhard said, 18 additional countries had signed the International Criminal Court Statute, bringing the number of signatories to 52. The Statue would be open in Rome until 17 October, when it would move to United Nations Headquarters. A comprehensive list of the signatories was available in room S-378 for those interested.

Mr. Eckhard said five new members of the Security Council would be elected tomorrow and a list of all 15 Security Council members, including the five new ones whose terms started on 1 January, would be finalized by his office tomorrow and made available in room S-378.

The World Chronicle television programme being previewed today would feature the Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Spokesman said. The programme would be available on in-house channels 6 or 38 at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had met this morning with J. Gerard Bosio, the editor of a book of art by 100 artists from 74 "cultural areas", in the terminology of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The works were illustrations of the preamble and articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the book had the moral, but not financial support of the United Nations, UNESCO and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. A reference copy of the book was available in the Spokesman's Office. It was expected that all the works would eventually be contributed to the Palais Wilson in Geneva, where the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was housed.

In response to a question from a correspondent, Mr. Eckhard said Ambassador Jamsheed Marker would talk to the press on Thursday or Friday, once the meetings on East Timor were concluded.

With regard to a question asked about the 892 bilateral meetings held at Headquarters during the two weeks of the General Assembly's debate, Mr. Eckhard said arrangements for bilateral meetings had entailed scheduling

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 7 October 1998

rooms for the meetings rather than providing translation or conference services. "They formally request a room for space to be made for a bilateral meeting and we try to accommodate everybody", he said.

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said the Assembly this morning had commemorated the twentieth anniversary of the adoption of the Buenos Aires Plan of Action for promoting and implementing technical cooperation among developing countries. Ten speakers had been inscribed to address the Assembly on that item.

This afternoon, Ms. Mihalic continued, the plenary would first consider the report of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) regarding the scale of assessments and apportionment of expenses of the United Nations, contained in document A/53/464. The plenary would then resume consideration from yesterday afternoon of item 37, the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development. Sixteen speakers had been inscribed to speak under that item this afternoon.

Tomorrow morning, as the Spokesman had mentioned, the General Assembly would hold elections for five non-permanent members of the Security Council, Ms. Mihalic continued. This year, the two-year terms of office would expire for Japan and Kenya, representing Asia and Africa; for Costa Rica, representing Latin America and the Caribbean; and for Portugal and Sweden, representing the Western European and Other States Group.

The endorsed candidates by the regional groups were Malaysia and Namibia for the vacancies for Africa and Asia, and Argentina for the vacancy in the Latin American and Caribbean Group of States, the spokesman continued. For the two seats belonging to the Western European and Other States Group, the three candidates were Canada, Greece and the Netherlands. None of those three had the Group's endorsement, and an election would take place in accordance with the General Assembly rules of procedure.

With regard to the work of the Main Committees, Ms. Mihalic said that this morning the Special Political and Decolonization Committee had been holding hearings by petitioners from Non-Self-Governing Territories as part of the debate on decolonization matters. The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) had been continuing its general debate on social development.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), Ms. Mihalic said, had continued this morning with consideration of issues on the agenda all week, including the Support Account for Peacekeeping Operations, administrative arrangements for the International Trade Centre and gratis personnel. It would then proceed with informal consultations on the Development Account and on the Support Account for Peacekeeping Operations.

In response to a question, Ms. Mihalic said the election of the new non-permanent members of the Security Council would be held at 10 a.m. It was the only item on the agenda.

* *** *