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 delivering a statement on Afghanistan, which read:

"The Secretary-General is concerned at reports of border clashes between the armed forces of the Taliban movement in Afghanistan and Iran. The Secretary-General urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint in accordance with Security Council resolution S/RES/1193 (1998) of last August. The Secretary-General expects the Taliban to cooperate with his Special Envoy for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, with a view to defusing the existing tensions with Iran.

"Following a four-day visit to Teheran, where he met with President Seyed Khatami, Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazzi and other senior officials of the Iranian Government, Mr. Brahimi arrived in Islamabad. He intends to meet with senior Taliban representatives, as well as with officials of the Government of Pakistan, during his stay in Pakistan. He is accompanied by officials of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and has said his mission is focused on easing tensions between Iran and the Taliban, and on improving the human rights situation in Afghanistan."

Mr. Eckhard then said the Secretary-General today had had another of his periodic meetings with the Executive Director of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), Richard Butler. They had assessed the recent visit of Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, as well as the status of the comprehensive review of Iraq's compliance with Security Council resolutions as proposed by the Secretary-General and recently agreed to by the Security Council. Mr. Butler had confirmed UNSCOM's readiness to participate in such a review once the Security Council had decided to proceed with it.

Mr. Eckhard went on to say that several press reports in the last few days had attributed to the Secretary-General a proposal that UNSCOM, or its inspectors, should be required to prove that Iraq still had weapons of mass destruction. That was inaccurate, he said, adding that the Secretary-General had suggested a possible concept for the comprehensive review of Iraq's compliance, which the Council in its resolution 1194 (1998) had decided to conduct if and when Iraq had rescinded its decision of 5 August and had resumed full cooperation with UNSCOM and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The Secretary-General's proposal had envisaged, Mr. Eckhard continued, that all relevant information, including relevant evidence of non-fulfilment by Iraq of its obligations, would be placed before the Council so that the Council could determine what Iraq still needed to do to fulfil Section C of

resolution 687 (1991), the letter and spirit of which, of course, remained unchanged.

Also, Mr. Eckhard said, a quote attributed to the Secretary-General in this morning's Financial Times had stated that the Secretary-General was disturbed by the moves of one Security Council member. "The Secretary-General did not say that or anything like that", Mr. Eckhard said. "Those are not his words, he does not talk like that, and I don't know who the paper is quoting."

The Security Council was not meeting today, but its President, Jeremy Greenstock (United Kingdom), was hosting the Council's monthly lunch in honour of the Secretary-General, the Spokesman said. Among the topics expected to be discussed were the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the tense situation between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette would also be attending the luncheon today.

Mr. Eckhard then said that following the conclusion of talks today between Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations on the future of East Timor, the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General on East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, would speak to correspondents at the Security Council stake-out. That would take place at around 4 p.m. and would be announced. The talks, which had begun on Tuesday, were the first ambassadorial round since the ministerial round held in August. They were focused on United Nations proposals for autonomy.

"A report out of the Republic of Korea can be confirmed this morning", Mr. Eckhard announced, adding that the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan would visit the Republic of Korea as guests of the Government from Thursday 22 October through Saturday 24 October. During his stay, the Secretary- General would meet with President Kim Dae-Jung and other high-ranking officials on the various issues related to the United Nations. That travel schedule also included the Secretary-General's participation as a recipient in the awarding of the Seoul Peace Prize.

The Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Pino Arlacchi, was in New York for two days, the Spokesman said. Mr. Arlacchi had addressed the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) this morning and the text of his remarks was available in room S-378. During his New York stay, Mr. Arlacchi would have working meetings with various United Nations officials, including the President of the General Assembly.

The Secretary-General's report on the Status of Women in the Secretariat was out this morning as document A/53/376, Mr. Eckhard said. The report provided information on special measures for women, contained extensive statistical information, and stated that there had been significant progress in improving the representation of women at the Director level. The Secretary-General had been encouraged by that development, yet had expressed concern at the "incremental pace" of the overall representation of women at

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the Professional level. That was partly due to the small number of appointments each year, which limited the opportunities for promoting women. Still, the Secretary-General remained committed to achieving gender balance in the Secretariat, and he had asked Member States to propose more women candidates for a wide range of positions.

Yesterday, a mission led by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and comprising representatives of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), had initiated a two-day mission to Kalemie and Uvira in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The main purpose of the mission was to assess the humanitarian situation of the displaced population, and it had confirmed the existence of 6,000 internally displaced persons in Kalemie in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, who had arrived from Uvira. The mission was discussing modalities for responding to humanitarian needs in health and food. Today, Thursday, the mission was assessing humanitarian conditions in Uvira itself, in South Kivu.

The spokesman said that a UNHCR press release from Geneva today had announced that the agency, as the main refugee agency of the United Nations, had launched a global campaign to encourage wider ratification of refugee and statelessness conventions, as the number of States ratifying those instruments was lower than those signing other human rights instruments. The text of the release was available in room S-378.

Mr. Eckhard said UNICEF had released a statement today noting the just-released revelations of a report by Human Rights Watch, "War Without Quarter: Colombia and International Humanitarian Law". The timely overview focused on child soldiers in Colombia and noted that all armed groups in that country were culpable. It urgently recommended adoption of the optional protocol of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibited the recruitment into armed conflict of children under 18 years of age. The full statement was available in room S-378.

Also on Colombia, the new dates for the visit to that country of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, were from 19 to 23 October, Mr. Eckhard said. Myriam Dessables of his Office could assist correspondents interested in travelling with Mrs. Robinson.

In a press release issued in Geneva today, Mr. Eckhard went on to say, the World Health Organization (WHO) had called for increased political and financial commitment to accelerate the worldwide campaign to eradicate polio. That release was also available in room S-378.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia had yesterday resumed its weekly press briefings, which had been interrupted in May 1996, Mr. Eckhard. The new spokesman for the Tribunal was Jim Landale, who had held a briefing yesterday, and who had been "a youngster when working

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with me in Sarajevo", the Spokesman added. Another spokesman would be appointed to deal directly with the Office of the Prosecutor. The briefing notes were available in room S-378.

Finally, the Spokesman said, the results of the General Assembly vote for new Security Council members would be announced by the spokesman for the General Assembly President. A print-out listing all 15 members for 1999 was available in room S-378.

In response to a question regarding a possible meeting over the French analysis for VX virus on missile fragments from Iraq, the Spokesman said an announcement out of the Quai d'Orsay in Paris had been seen today. As of noon, UNSCOM had not yet received a proposal from the French to convene an expert group to review the results of the three sets of laboratory tests.

In the meantime, Mr. Eckhard added, UNSCOM itself had been planning to conduct a review later this month. "So the first thing is to wait for an official approach to be made towards UNSCOM, and then the second was a decision on a date", he said.

In response to a question from another correspondent, Mr. Eckhard said he did not know why the weekly briefings from the Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia had been interrupted. Asked if there was a response to the testimony of the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Denis Halliday, in the United States Congress on Tuesday, Mr. Eckhard said there had been no official response from the United Nations. "He did testify with the blessing of the Secretary-General", the Spokesman added. "And he is on the United Nations payroll until the end of this month."

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said the Assembly this morning had held elections for the five non-permanent seats in the Security Council for the term of office from 1 January 1999 until 31 December 2000. On the first ballot, the Assembly had filled vacancies by electing Malaysia and Namibia from Asia and Africa; it had elected Argentina from the Latin American and Caribbean Group, and Canada and the Netherlands from the Western European and Other States Group. Accordingly, Ms. Mihalic said, the 10 non-permanent members of the Council from 1 January to 31 December 1999 would be Argentina, Bahrain, Brazil, Canada, Gabon, Gambia, Malaysia, Namibia, Netherlands and Slovenia.

Also this morning, she continued, the President had announced the Assembly's plenary schedule from today until Tuesday, 3 November. The only change from the previous schedule through 16 October was consideration of the Security Council report, rescheduled from Monday, 12 October to Wednesday, 21 October. That schedule was available in document A/533/INF/3/Add.1.

This afternoon, Ms. Mihalic continued, the President would leave New York for 10 days to attend to responsibilities as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uruguay. The President would be back on 19 October.

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The spokesman then said the General Assembly yesterday afternoon had adopted, without a vote, a decision approving the agenda of the first session of the Preparatory Committee for the special session of the General Assembly in the Year 2000 on the Implementation of the Outcome of the World Summit for Social Development and Further Initiatives. That first session would take place in May of next year.

In other business yesterday afternoon, Ms. Mihalic said, the Assembly had decided without a vote, at the recommendation of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), that the non-payment of dues by the Comoros and Tajikistan was for reasons beyond their control. The Assembly had decided that the two would retain voting rights for the duration of the fifty-third session. The Assembly had also decided to grant a temporary waiver for non-payment of arrears to Georgia and Guinea-Bissau. That would be for three months, beginning 7 October. Accordingly, for the next three months, the voting rights of only nine Member States would be suspended in accordance with Article 19 of the Charter.

Tomorrow morning, the plenary would take up consideration of item 164, the Secretary-General's report on the causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa, Ms. Mihalic said. So far, 16 speakers had been inscribed to address the Assembly on that item.

As for the work of the Main Committees, Ms. Mihalic said the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today was continuing its general debate with 14 speakers in the morning and 26 inscribed for the afternoon. The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) would this morning conclude its general discussion of social development issues. It would also discuss item 101, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, and item 102, International Drug Control. As mentioned, the Director of the Drug Control Programme, Pino Arlacchi, had addressed the Committee this morning. The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was holding informal discussions on a series of items, both in the morning and afternoon.

Responding to a request from a correspondent, Ms. Mihalic then repeated the status of this year's exemptions from the Article 19 provision as she had outlined above.

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