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, opened today's noon briefing by welcoming Sandro Tucci, spokesman for the Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Pino Arlacchi, who had come from Vienna to "observe how the Spokesman's Office functions -- or doesn't".

Mr. Tucci, however, was not the principle guest at the briefing, Mr. Eckhard added. The Registrar of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda since March 1997, Agwu Okali, was now meeting with the Chief-of-Staff, Iqbal Riza, and would join the noon briefing to give an update on the work of the Tribunal. (Mr. Okali's briefing has been issued separately.)

The Security Council was to have met this morning for consultations on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), but would meet on that subject tomorrow, the Spokesman said. The Council would be briefed by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet, who had just returned from a trip to the region. The Secretary-General's report on the situation in Western Sahara, issued here late yesterday, had noted that Mr. Miyet, Special Representative Charles Dunbar and the Chairman of the Identification Commission, Robin Kinlock, had submitted to the parties a set of measures for overcoming current obstacles to the holding of a referendum, which the report indicated could be held in December 1999.

Mr. Eckhard said the Council had been briefed as scheduled on the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) by the Assistant Secretary- General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hedi Annabi, and the Council President would issue a press statement on Sierra Leone at the end of consultations. Also, the Council would be briefed by the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, on the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, where the concern was that with the end of the rainy season, a greater risk of an outbreak of hostilities could exist. The Foreign Minister of Eritrea was expected at United Nations Headquarters later this week.

And finally, Mr. Eckhard said, the Council would be briefed on Angola. The Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Annabi, would also give that briefing, during which the Council would be informed that today in Luanda, the Angolan National Assembly had considered abrogating the law conferring a special status on National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) leader Jonas Savimbi, a requirement of the Lusaka Protocol.

Mr. Eckhard then said the Secretary-General had asked the Under- Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr. Prendergast, to travel to East Africa, to look into ways the United Nations might be able to help in the processes under way to resolve the conflicts in Somalia and the Sudan. Mr. Prendergast would be in the region from 9 to 18 November, travelling to

Nairobi, Addis Ababa and Khartoum. He would meet with leaders of the region and with parties to the conflicts, as well as with United Nations agencies working on the ground in the region.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had reported from Kosovo that its teams had seen checkpoints being dismantled, sandbags swept away and temporary barracks burned hours before a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) deadline Tuesday for the withdrawal of Serbian security forces in Kosovo, Mr. Eckhard said. The UNHCR, which had been coordinating the aid to some 300,000 people who had escaped the fighting in Kosovo, had said in Geneva today that the threat of a humanitarian disaster had receded considerably.

From a peak of about 50,000 people who had been living out in the open during the summer, Mr. Eckhard continued, the number had now been estimated at several thousand or possibly as many as 10,000. Quite a few villages were still empty, but the cold had forced many to seek refuge in areas they considered safe.

The Secretary-General would visit the countries of the Maghreb region of North Africa in November, Mr. Eckhard said. He would travel from Paris to Mauritania on Saturday, 7 November, and from there would go to Elayoun in Western Sahara on Sunday, 8 September. He would be in Morocco from 9 to 12 November, and in Tindouf, Algeria, on 12 November. On 13 November, he would be in Tunisia, from 14 to 16 November in Algiers, and his return, on 16 November, would be through London.

While in the region, the Secretary-General would travel in a private plane, which would be accompanied by a "big, bad old nasty Antonov" belonging to MINURSO, the Spokesman said. "There's room on the Antonov for journalists who like bumpy rides and roughing it", he added. Any journalist who wanted to join the Secretary-General in Mauritania, follow the executive jet in the Antonov to the various destinations and then arrange a separate flight from Algiers back to New York should contact the Spokesman's Office in room 378. "That applies to you as well", Mr. Eckhard said to those in Geneva and elsewhere by way of the videocamera.

The Spokesman then said that the heads of the six principal charter organs of the United Nations would meet as a group tomorrow afternoon for the first time in the history of the United Nations. The charter organs were the Secretariat, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council and the International Court of Justice. The Presidents of those organs and the Secretary-General would meet and informally discuss international developments and trends, as well as the overall financial situation of the Organization. A photo opportunity would be arranged.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 27 October 1998

Mr. Eckhard then said the media officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, had today announced in Geneva that a joint mission to Indonesia would be undertaken in November by the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, and the Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination and Xenophobia, Maurice Glele-Ahanhanzo. Moreover, the working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances would visit Indonesia early next year. Both visits would be undertaken at the invitation of the Government of Indonesia and would follow up on the Memorandum of Understanding signed between that Government and the High Commissioner's Office on 13 August.

The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA) had deployed its troops to five of six sites outside Bangui, the capital, in preparation for the upcoming elections, Mr. Eckhard said. The Security Council had given an additional mandate to MINURCA in support of national elections now set for 22 November.

The summary of the day's briefing in Geneva by the UNHCR had contained a report of approximately 4,000 Liberian refugees arriving in western Côte d'Ivoire over the past few weeks. The refugees had told the UNHCR they had left Monrovia following confrontations last month between Government troops and followers of faction leader Roosevelt Johnson. That report was available in room 378.

This evening, the Secretary-General would address the United Nations Association of the United States (UNA-USA) at a Global Leadership Award dinner, Mr. Eckhard said. Other speakers would include United States Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, actor Michael Douglas, and "our friend and benefactor, Ted Turner." A press release with details was available in room 378.

A number of documents out today would be of interest, the Spokesman said. Among those was the annual report of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (document A/53/428). In a note attached to the report, the Secretary-General had said the Office had matured since its inception in 1994, and its well-established working methods were now a part of the Organization's management culture. Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services Karl Paschke would be at tomorrow's noon briefing to talk about the report, Mr. Eckhard added.

Also on the racks, Mr. Eckhard went on to say, was a report on the ongoing process of reform, specifically, the Secretary-General's proposal for employing results-based budgeting (document A/53/500/Add.1). The report contained a prototype of the system providing the necessary link between resources and expected results. Also available was a report on the development of a United Nations international radio broadcasting capacity (document A/AC.198/1998/4), which would be considered at this afternoon's meeting of the Committee on Information, "organized by you?" the Spokesman

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 27 October 1998

asked the General Assembly President spokesman, Jadranka Mihalic, who answered in the affirmative.

There would be a press briefing tomorrow at 11:15 a.m. in room 226 by the Director of the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Joseph Chamie, Mr. Eckhard said. That would be on the 1998 Revision of World Population Estimates and Projections. At 3 p.m. tomorrow in the same room, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, Mr. Arlacchi, would give a briefing on his recent trip to Colombia and the important developments in combatting drugs in that region.

A correspondent then asked whether a briefing could be arranged on the subject of outer space, in light of Headquarters activities related to it, such as the Outer Space Committee concluding its meeting and the upcoming third United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE III) next year. Mr. Eckhard said that someone would be found to give such a briefing, if possible.

Another correspondent said he had two questions in light of the legal precedent set by the General Augusto Pinochet case. Had the Secretary-General or the United Nations issued a statement of position on General Pinochet, and what had happened to General Espinosa, the military head of the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), who had been involved in "nefarious trials in the post-coup era in Chile".

Mr. Eckhard said a statement had been issued last week and the Secretary-General preferred not to comment on the legal issues being debated now. The Secretary-General had said he felt "it was easier to get prosecuted for killing one person than for killing 100,000". The Secretary-General had also said there needed to be "an international system" for pursuing those who had committed gross violations of human rights while serving as head of a State, Government, or whatever position they had held. That comment did not imply that General Pinochet was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, but that, in general, the Secretary-General felt there was a need to go after some of those people under an international legal regime.

General Espinosa, Mr. Eckhard went on to say, had gone at his own request to visit his Government. "And that's all I have to say on that", he added.

Were the heads of the six United Nations organs really meeting for the first time ever tomorrow? another correspondent asked. "Yes", the Spokesman said. "They may all have been together at some larger event over the last 53 years, but to sit and talk about a common agenda -- it's the first time."

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 27 October 1998

A radio correspondent raised concerns and questioned the consultations on the expansion of the United Nations international radio broadcasting capacity. "What guarantee can the United Nations make that the new $7 million operation originating at the United Nations, involving such entities as CNN and Deutsche Welle, will not marginalize Third World radio stations or others making reports from the United Nations?" the correspondent asked.

Mr. Eckhard said he was not aware of the consultations described by the correspondent and said he would facilitate a meeting between the concerned correspondent and the Radio Division of the Department of Public Information. "They can tell you who was consulted, and perhaps they can also answer your concern about competition", the Spokesman said.

Ms. Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said that yesterday afternoon the President had issued a statement on the agreement reached between Ecuador and Peru. Issued as a press release in both English and Spanish, it was available in room 378 and was well worth a look.

This morning, Ms. Mihalic said, the plenary had taken note of the report of the International Court of Justice during the period from 1 August 1997 to 31 July 1998. The Court President, Stephen Schwebel, had addressed the Assembly, as had eight other speakers. The plenary had then opened consideration of agenda item 24, the progress report of the Secretary-General on the Implementation of the New United Nations Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. So far, 23 speakers had been inscribed to address the Assembly on that item, meaning the plenary would continue into the afternoon.

Tomorrow morning, the spokesman said, the Assembly would first consider the second report of the General Committee containing recommendations to include two additional items into the agenda for the session, and then it would consider the issue of cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union. There were, so far, 12 speakers inscribed to address the Assembly on that issue, and there was a draft resolution, A/53/L.12, to be introduced by Spain. Tomorrow afternoon, the plenary would meet to consider the third annual report of the International Tribunal for Rwanda.

As for the Main Committees, Ms. Mihalic said, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) was continuing this afternoon a thematic discussion of agenda items 60 through 80 of its agenda, together with relevant draft resolutions. The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) had this morning continued its general debate on the international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) would hold informal consultations this afternoon on three draft resolutions, the spokesman said.

Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 27 October 1998

Those would be under the items of sectoral policy questions, as well as sustainable development and international economic cooperation. Also, under the auspices of the Committee, a panel discussion on "Adjusting the role of Governments to globalization" would be held today from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. in Conference Room 6. The panellists would be the Director of the Management Development and Governance Division of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Manager of the Public Sector Management Unit of the World Bank.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), Ms. Mihalic said, would hold two meetings today to conclude its discussion of the elimination of racism and racial discrimination and of the right of peoples to self-determination. The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) would hold informal consultations all day, on the scale of assessments in the morning and on the pattern of conferences in the afternoon. The Sixth Committee (Legal) had met this morning to consider the report of the International Law Commission.

In response to a question on when the elections of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) would take place, Ms. Mihalic said the item would go first to the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), but had not been scheduled yet.

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