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 announcing that the Secretary-General had warmly welcomed the news of a breakthrough in efforts to end the Kosovo crisis.

"It is of paramount importance, the Secretary-General feels, that both sides in Kosovo honour their commitments and fully comply with the provisions of the two Security Council resolutions on Kosovo", the Spokesman continued, adding that the Secretary-General intended to send a mission to Kosovo in the coming days in response to the Security Council press statement of last week.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose Office was the leading humanitarian agency on the ground in Kosovo, had welcomed the report of a breakthrough in principle, Mr. Eckhard said. The UNHCR had said it hoped the reported agreement would contribute rapidly to reducing the level of fear, which was currently keeping so many displaced persons from returning home.

Mr. Eckhard then read the following statement on East Timor, which had been issued today: "The Secretary-General is concerned by the rising tensions in East Timor. In particular, he is disturbed by reports of armed clashes in the Territory and by remarks that have been attributed to local officials and appear to have provoked large-scale protests in the last few days.

"The Secretary-General would like to underline that, in view of the important opportunities that have been created for a resolution of the question of East Timor through the negotiations under his auspices, and through the commendable efforts made by Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, the Apostolic Administrator of Dili, as well as by others to foster tolerance and peace in East Timor, it is incumbent on all parties concerned to avoid taking steps that could jeopardize or unnecessarily complicate the delicate efforts to find a just settlement to this long-running dispute."

The Secretary-General had called for a cessation of all military activity and for a substantial reduction of the Indonesian military presence in the Territory, Mr. Eckhard added. Following the latest senior officials meeting between Indonesia and Portugal, held at Headquarters from 6 to 8 October under the chairmanship of the Secretary-General's Personal Representative, Jamsheed Marker, the Secretary-General intended to further intensify his consultations with East Timorese leaders, with a view to ensuring their active involvement in the negotiating process.

Mr. Eckhard then read the following statement on Lesotho, which had also been issued today: "The Secretary-General has been following closely the discussions involving the Government and Lesotho's political parties, held under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). He has noted that constructive agreement has been reached on most of the issues,

including the holding of general elections within 18 months. The Secretary-General appeals to all parties in the negotiations to do their utmost to reach agreement on the outstanding issues so that the electoral process can get under way smoothly and the elections can be held in an atmosphere of peace and tranquillity conducive to the development of Lesotho. The United Nations stands ready to provide all possible assistance to facilitate this process."

The Security Council, Mr. Eckhard then said, had begun meeting at 10:30 a.m. on Iraq, hearing the Executive Director of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), Richard Butler, and the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed El-Baradei. The Council would then hold consultations on Angola. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Angola, Issa Diallo, would brief Council members on the state of the peace process. At 3 p.m. there would be a troop contributors and Security Council meeting on Angola.

Meanwhile in Angola, Mr. Eckhard said, the World Food Programme (WFP) had announced today that a 35-truck convoy under a United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) armed escort carrying emergency food supplies had arrived safely in the northern Malanje. Increased fighting over the past few months had displaced thousands of rural farm families. Many were stranded far from their home villages with little food or money to survive and they had no family or friends to offer support. The press release available in room S-378 carried more details.

Also available in room S-378 was the weekly summary of the Iraq Programme, now issued on Mondays, the Spokesman said. The summary noted that 45 new contracts for oil spare parts were received last week, bringing the total to 175. The Security Council Committee established by resolution 661 (1990) overseeing the sanctions on Iraq had approved 43 humanitarian sales applications, had put three on hold and had blocked none. There had been no new oil contracts.

Issued yesterday on the late side had been a statement concerning the Secretary-General's meeting with the Permanent Representatives of Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Syria, as well as the Permanent Observer of the League of Arab States, Mr. Eckhard said. The Ambassadors had come to express their concern at the current tensions between Syria and Turkey. They had underlined Syria's determination to find a diplomatic solution and had rejected the threat of the use of force as a means to settle differences between States. Through the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations, the Secretary-General had received a letter on the matter addressed to him by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Turkey.

The monthly summary of troop contributions to peacekeeping was also available in room S-378, Mr. Eckhard noted, adding that it was accurate as of the end of September.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 13 October 1998

There would be an unveiling of a bust of Count Folke Bernadotte today at 3 p.m. outside the Meditation Room in the public lobby, the Spokesman announced. The Secretary-General would make a statement there, as would King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and the son of Count Folke Bernadotte. Count Bernadotte was the United Nations Mediator supervising the truce in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, who was assassinated on 17 September of that year in Jerusalem by Jewish terrorists. Ralph Bunche had succeeded Count Bernadotte as the Mediator.

Documents of interest continued to pour in, Mr. Eckhard said. One was a report of the Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography (document A/53/311). That report dealt with the problems of child labourers, forced conscription of children, inter-country adoptions and mail order brides. The Special Rapporteur provided a set of recommendations to stop the trafficking, sale and prostitution of children and to help protect victims.

Today's UNHCR summary of its briefing in Geneva, available in room S-378, included updates on the weekend refugee outflow from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Republic of Tanzania, across Lake Tanganyika and overland to Burundi. The summary also answered some questions regarding asylum seekers from Kosovo.

Press conferences tomorrow included one at 11 a.m. in room S-226 by the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, John Ruggie, Mr. Eckhard said. That would be the launch of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report on the least developed countries for 1998. Also tomorrow, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Louise Arbour, would be at the noon briefing, after being originally scheduled for today.

The Spokesman then mentioned the announcement made yesterday that Elton John would be speaking with the press at 12:45 p.m. today in room S-226, after his being named Messenger of Peace by the Secretary-General. A letter from the entertainer's office had been received yesterday, saying "Sir Elton does not feel he has sufficient time to honour this commitment in the proper manner, nor to give it the support it deserves". As a result, Sir Elton had asked for a postponement of his appointment as a Messenger of Peace.

All were invited, however, Mr. Eckhard said, to a World Bank briefing on heavily indebted poor countries and the external debt crisis, given by Axel Van Trotsenberg of the World Bank from 1:30 to 2:45 p.m. in Conference Room 7.

Also, Mr. Eckhard said, it was by now widely known that the Nobel Prize in Physics had been shared by three scientists, including Horst L. Stoermer of Germany. It was probably not known that Dr. Stoermer had received the news from a United Nations staff member, Dominique Parchet, of the Protocol Office. Ms. Parchet was Dr. Stoermer's wife and she had realized her husband had won the Prize when a reporter from Germany had called her home at about 6 a.m.,

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 13 October 1998

asking to speak to the latest Nobelist. "Ms. Parchet is open to interviews, as long as she's not asked about physics," the Spokesman added.

Asked by a correspondent where the Nobelist lived, the Spokesman said the Nobelist's wife was in the Protocol Office up the hall and she would answer that question.

"Has a Messenger of Peace ever turned down the award?" the correspondent then asked, with regard to Elton John. "What happened? I presume his office had said yes, we accept the honour".

"Yes", Mr. Eckhard concurred, adding that talks had been ongoing for months and that Sir Elton was scheduled to give several concerts in New York this week. "My sense is that he just suddenly looked at his programme and realized it was the wrong time to be taking on a fresh commitment".

"Was there a back-up singer"? another correspondent asked and the Spokesman joined in the general laughter. "I think the Secretary-General's intention is to have Messengers of Peace by the dozens, so I don't think this will be the last nominee you'll hear about", Mr. Eckhard answered.

Asked whether the Secretary-General had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize being announced next week, Mr. Eckhard said there had been no talk of the Secretary-General himself being nominated, but some reports had said the United Nations had been nominated for its work on human rights, this being the fiftieth anniversary year of the Universal Declaration. There was no way to confirm that, the Spokesman added.

Asked whether it could be confirmed that Iraq had asked for sanctions approval for liposuction devices, Mr. Eckhard said their requests would be looked into. He was not aware that Iraq had asked for liposuction devices.

The Secretary-General's report on loss of property during peacekeeping (document A/53/34) had come out within days of the peacekeeping anniversary, the same correspondent pointed out. "Can you put on record why dozens of items over $1,500 each had been lost or misplaced in the period from 1992 to 1995 -- when you were in peacekeeping"? the correspondent added.

"Peacekeeping was at its peak during those years", Mr. Eckhard said, adding that there had been 80,000 soldiers in 17 different areas of the globe then. The annual peacekeeping budget had been three times the United Nations regular budget during those three years, or over $3 billion per year. Also, in the biggest of those missions, namely Somalia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, peacekeepers had been functioning in a war situation with widespread chaos. Thus, the loss of vehicles and other equipment to theft and accident had been quite elevated. Which did not mean that things would not be done differently as a result of the report, such as instituting tighter security measures, he said.

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 13 October 1998

"But again, the amount of loss discussed in the report was about $23 million in goods and equipment out of a budget totalling about 9 billion dollars over 3 years", Mr. Eckhard emphasized. "That is about .0025 per cent. Which, again, is not to say that any $23 million loss is acceptable, but it needs to be seen in perspective of size, of the budget and of the operations during those years".

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said no plenary meetings had been scheduled for today but tomorrow morning the Assembly would take up agenda item 29, the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba. Fifteen speakers had been inscribed so far to address the Assembly on that item. The Assembly would also have before it a report of the Secretary-General, document A/53/320 with two Addenda, and a draft resolution contained in document A/53/L.6. The draft would be introduced by the Foreign Minister of Cuba.

Regarding the work of the Main Committees, Ms. Mihalic said the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) this morning was continuing its general debate and would hear seven speakers. This afternoon, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) was expected to take action on one draft decision and five draft resolutions on decolonization matters.

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial), Ms. Mihalic went on, would continue the discussion of macroeconomic policy questions, introducing the discussion of the issue of commodities. It would also open the discussion of sectoral policy questions, which included business and development, and industrial development cooperation.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) this morning had continued its general discussion of crime prevention and criminal justice and of international drug control, the spokesman added. This afternoon, the Committee was expected to take action on two drafts on those two issues and on a draft regarding social development, namely regarding the International Year of Older Persons.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), both in the morning and afternoon today, was holding informal discussions on the support account for peacekeeping activities and on gratis personnel, the Spokesman said. The Sixth Committee (Legal) would this afternoon continue the discussion of the report of the International Law Commission. After that, it would proceed with informal consultations on oceans and on the Law of the Sea.

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