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 Palestinian journalists who were in the room, participating in a Department of Public Information (DPI) training programme. He then said today's guest at the noon briefing would be Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Nitin Desai.

Mr. Desai would be briefing correspondents on the outcome of the Administrative Committee on Coordination (ACC) meeting that had finished on Saturday, Mr. Eckhard said. The ACC was the body that pulled together the heads of all the agencies, funds and programmes of the United Nations system. The group met twice a year, once in New York and once in Geneva, and Mr. Desai would be giving a read-out of the New York meeting that had just ended.

(Mr. Desai's briefing has been issued separately.)

With regard to Iraq, Mr. Eckhard said, the President of the Security Council for the month of October, Jeremy Greenstock (United Kingdom), had called Council members to closed consultations on Saturday at 4 p.m. to deal with the question of Iraq on that last day of his Presidency. The Office of the Executive Director of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), Richard Butler, had informed the Council in writing that on Saturday evening, Baghdad time, UNSCOM had been informed by the Iraqi authorities that the Revolutionary Command Council had decided to suspend all activities of the Special Commission, including monitoring.

Following its meeting on Saturday, Mr. Eckhard said, the Council had issued a statement to the press unanimously condemning the Iraqi decision, which the Council considered a flagrant violation of Council resolutions. The Council was expected to continue consideration of the issue this week under the presidency of United States representative Peter Burleigh, who had now assumed the Council presidency for November.

The Secretary-General had met with Mr. Butler this morning and would meet with Mr. Burleigh this afternoon, the Spokesman continued. He also said that when asked by the press on Saturday about his role, the Secretary-General had told the CNN television audience, "It's the Council's responsibility, and I will see what the Council wants to do".

Many would be watching the Council this week on that matter, Mr. Eckhard noted, adding that UNSCOM had reported that today its inspectors had been allowed to visit the sites equipped with surveillance cameras in order to change video cassettes and maintain the equipment. However, that was not the bulk of the monitoring programme, which involved visits by inspectors, the activity blocked by Iraq.

The Council today was involved in bilateral discussions between the new President and the individual members, as they discussed informally the programme of this month, he said. No consultations had been scheduled for today.

Some action had occurred with regard to getting oil spare parts for Iraq during the past week, he said. The Security Council's Iraq Sanctions Committee, also known as the 661 Committee, had approved 23 contracts and had lifted the "holds" on 13 more, bringing to 36, the total of contracts approved -- worth more than $15 million. That brought to 111, the overall total of approved contracts -- worth close to $88 million out of the $300 million authorized by the Council for spare parts. As the Iraqi Government had noted, none of those spare parts or equipment had arrived in Iraq. The Office of the Iraq Programme had said that was not surprising. "Most of the equipment is specialized and much has to be made to order. We're not talking off-the-shelf items; delays are normal and many of the contracts specify delivery periods of up to 160 days."

Also available from the Office of the Iraq Programme was the weekly update on oil spare parts, Mr. Eckhard said. The update could be obtained in room S-378, and the Office had reported no disruption in oil-for-food activities as a result of Iraq's decision of Saturday.

A press release available in room S-378 was on the climate change talks that had just opened in Buenos Aires on Saturday, Mr. Eckhard said.

On Guinea-Bissau, the Spokesman said, the Secretary-General had welcomed the announcement of an agreement signed yesterday, in Abuja, to end the conflict there. The Secretary-General had also congratulated the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), as well as the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, General Abdulsalam Abubakar of Nigeria and President Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia, for their efforts in helping to conclude the negotiations.

"The Secretary-General also wishes to express his deepest condolences to the families of victims of Hurricane Mitch, and to their governments", Mr. Eckhard said. "His heartfelt sympathy goes out to all who have been touched by this disaster", the Spokesman added. The Secretary-General had urged the international community to show the utmost generosity in the aftermath of the hurricane, which had left thousands dead and several hundred thousand suffering throughout Central America.

In response to requests for international assistance from the Governments of Honduras and Nicaragua, the United Nations had dispatched two teams to assist the two countries in a needs assessment and relief coordination effort. In Honduras, where some 250,000 had reportedly fled their homes, rescue boats and helicopters were urgently needed to support the search and rescue activities, especially in the north of the country. Other

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 2 November 1998

emergency requirements included food, medicines, blankets and systems for both drinking water and sanitation.

In Nicaragua, some 180,000 people had been left without basic provisions and thousands more were unaccounted for, Mr. Eckhard said. Situation reports compiled by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) were available on the OCHA website.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, had this morning, presented to the General Assembly her progress report on Five Years after the Vienna Human Rights Conference, Mr. Eckhard announced. Mrs. Robinson's statement was available in room S-378. On Wednesday, she would present her annual report to the General Assembly.

Out today, as a Security Council document, was the Secretary-General's progress report on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia (document S/1998/1012), Mr. Eckhard said. In that report, the Secretary-General had said that efforts to reinvigorate the peace process in Georgia had continued with increasing bilateral contacts taking place between the Georgian and the Abkhaz sides, facilitated by the United Nations. The recent meeting between the two sides in Athens on confidence-building measures had been "an achievement". The Secretary-General had appealed to both sides to implement in good faith the measures agreed upon at that meeting and to expand their relations further in order to unblock the political stalemate regarding the two core problems, the political status of Abkhazia and the return of refugees and displaced persons.

Mr. Eckhard then said the Special Representative of the Secretary- General on Human Rights in Cambodia, Thomas Hammarberg, had indicated he would brief the press on Friday 6 November at the noon briefing. On Friday morning, Mr. Hammarberg would present his report to the General Assembly.

Several documents on the racks today were of particular note, Mr. Eckhard said. One was the report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burundi (document A/53/940). Another was a note from the President of the Security Council on expanding the Council's cooperation with troop-contributing countries (document S/1998/1016). Among other agreed upon initiatives, the document had called for the Secretariat to provide weekly briefing notes on field operations, not only to the Security Council, but also to troop-contributing States.

And finally, with regard to reports, Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General's report on the safety and security of humanitarian personnel (document A/53/501) had provided grim details on the escalating attacks against United Nations personnel in the field. "It is time for Member States to recognize that humanitarian, human rights and development activities do not substitute for political action", the Secretary-General had written. "It is no longer acceptable that staff members carrying out United Nations mandates be expected to serve at high risk duty stations." Without the unstinting help of the international community, the Secretary-General had warned, United Nations personnel would continue to be at risk.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 2 November 1998

In March of this year, Mr. Eckhard said, the Secretary-General had asked the Italian author, journalist and human rights activist, Anna Cataldi, to assist the United Nations in promoting human rights. Today at 4:30 p.m., the Secretary-General would officially recognize Ms. Cataldi as the seventh United Nations Messenger of Peace in a ceremony that would take place in his offices. Copies of the citation that would be given to Ms. Cataldi were available in room S-378, along with a background note on all Messengers of Peace.

No press conferences had been scheduled for either today or tomorrow, Mr. Eckhard said, but it had been mentioned last week that the Secretary-General wanted to meet with journalists before going off to North Africa. The Secretary-General now considered it better to wait until after the Mahgreb trip, and would therefore hold his next news conference, most likely, in the third week of November.

And finally, today at 2:30 p.m. on in-house television channel 6 or 38, Mr. Eckhard said, the World Chronicle Television programme would feature the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland.

In response to a question on Iraq, Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General would not "fire" the UNSCOM Executive Director, Richard Butler, in whom he had full confidence.

"The United States Secretary of Defense William Cohen has said it's Kofi Annan's reputation on the line in this crisis. How do you respond to that"? the same correspondent asked.

"The Secretary-General considers this to be a situation where it is the Security Council resolutions that are being defied", Mr. Eckhard answered. "The Memorandum of Understanding that the Secretary-General had worked out with Iraq last February had been merely to get Iraq to once again comply with those resolutions. So the underlying basis for the conflict was the resolutions and Iraq's refusal to comply."

"So he'll take a back seat on this?" the Spokesman was then asked.

"He will follow the instructions of the Council on this", Mr. Eckhard responded. "It is primarily the Council's responsibility. He is waiting to see what they will do and what, if anything, the Council will ask him to do."

When asked if it could be said that the Secretary-General did not consider his credibility to be on the line, Mr. Eckhard said, "the Secretary-General does not see this as a matter of his credibility".

Upon being asked for a read-out of the meeting this morning between the Secretary-General and Richard Butler, the Spokesman said a detailed read-out would be requested. "Overall, I think the Secretary-General wanted to know

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how UNSCOM's work would be affected by Iraq's decision, and he had been informed, as I already mentioned, that UNSCOM had been allowed to maintain its surveillance equipment. However, that in no way constitutes an adequate monitoring function, so the monitoring activities are effectively blocked".

A correspondent then referred to an article in today's Washington Post on United Nations money matters. Mr. Eckhard said he would look into it and perhaps register a reaction later.

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said this morning the plenary had first adopted, without a vote, three reports of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) regarding the financing of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) and the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP). The plenary had then taken up the Question of Falkland Islands/Malvinas and had decided to postpone the consideration of that item to the fifty-fourth session of the Assembly.

The Assembly had also adopted, without a vote, a draft resolution entitled emergency assistance to Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, Ms. Mihalic said. The resolution had been introduced by Honduras and was contained in document A/53/L.17. Then the Assembly had begun consideration of the report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which had been introduced by the Agency's Director-General, Mohamed El-Baradei. Draft resolution A/53/L.18 related to that subject had been introduced by the representative of Slovenia, and an amendment contained in document A/53/L.19 had been introduced by Iraq. So far, 21 other speakers had been inscribed to address the Assembly on the item, so that debate would continue this afternoon.

Tomorrow morning, Ms. Mihalic said, the Assembly would hold elections for nine judges of the International Tribunal for Rwanda. Those positions would be for the two existing Trial Chambers, for which the terms of office would expire on 24 May 1999, and for the Third Chamber, where the term of office would begin as soon as possible. A list of 18 candidates had been established by the Security Council for the nine vacancies on the Tribunal.

With regard to the work of the Main Committees, the spokesman said the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) was expected to conclude this afternoon, its thematic discussion of agenda items 63 through 80 and all relevant draft resolutions. It was scheduled to begin taking action on all 49 drafts tomorrow. The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) was continuing this morning, its general debate on the comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping in all their aspects. The committee also had before it a draft resolution on the issue (document A/C.4/53/L.8).

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The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) had this morning concluded its general discussion of the Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the 1990s, Ms. Mihalic said. The Committee had then begun considering the implementation of the First United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty. This afternoon, the Committee would first hear an address by the President of the Economic and Social Council, Juan Somavia, and then would conclude its general discussion of the Decade for the Eradication of Poverty. Under Committee auspices, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, Catherine Bertini, would give a briefing today from 1:15 to 2:45 p.m. in the Trusteeship Council Chamber on "Eradicating Hunger".

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), Ms. Mihalic said, had continued this morning the consideration of the comprehensive implementation and follow-up to the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action on human rights. It had heard a statement and had held a dialogue with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson. The debate on that item would continue in the afternoon. Also, two draft resolutions would be introduced, one on the programme of activities of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People and the other on the rights of peoples to self-determination.

The spokesman then said the Fifth Committee, this morning was holding informal consultations on the scale of assessments. This afternoon, it was scheduled to complete the general discussion of the thematic reports of the Office of Internal Oversight Services and of the Joint Inspection Unit, as well as to begin the general discussion of the United Nations common system and of the United Nations pension system. At the end of the afternoon, the Committee would continue informal consultations on programme planning. On Friday, the Committee would hold elections for the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).

And finally, Ms. Mihalic said, the Sixth Committee was continuing today to discuss the report of the International Law Commission on the work of its fiftieth session.

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