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 appealed to African leaders today to "settle their differences through compromise rather than violence", while addressing the opening session of the Africa-France Summit in Paris. Copies of the address were available in the Spokesman Office (room S-378). Highlighting the speech, Mr. Eckhard said that the Secretary- General had stated that, in too many parts of Africa, ethnic divisions continued to obstruct economic progress and good governance, making "every peace fragile and every division explosive".

Further, the Secretary-General had said it was unfair that those conflicts affected the way the entire continent was seen by the rest of the world, Mr. Eckhard continued. "My greatest anxiety", the Secretary-General had said, "concerns the war over the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a war in which half a dozen or more African States are implicated." In that war, the Secretary-General had added, "we may well face our greatest challenge". In the Democratic Republic of the Congo as everywhere, the Secretary-General said, the need was for all parties "irrevocably" to choose peace and compromise, turning their backs on violence and conflict.

At midday today, Mr. Eckhard continued, the Secretary-General had attended an official luncheon hosted by the President of the National Assembly, Laurent Fabius, in honour of the heads of State and others attending the Summit. This afternoon, the Secretary-General would hold a series of bilateral meetings, including with the heads of delegation of Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the latter being the country's President, Laurent Kabila, in a meeting not yet held. Other heads of delegation scheduled to meet with the Secretary-General included those of Cameroon, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Liberia, Uganda and Zambia. This evening, the Secretary-General would take part in an official dinner hosted by French President Jacques Chirac.

A brief review of the Secretary-General's programme tomorrow indicated he would start the day by returning in the morning to the Africa-France Summit, scheduled to conclude tomorrow. Following a working luncheon with the Prime Minister of France, Lionel Jospin, the Secretary-General would meet with Mr. Chirac and would then proceed to the Sorbonne University where he would be presented with an honorary doctorate. The Secretary-General would then take part in a dinner hosted by the Professors of the Sorbonne in his honour.

The talks on the future status of East Timor between Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations had continued this morning and were expected to conclude at 4 p.m. today, Mr. Eckhard said. The Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, would speak with

correspondents at the Security Council stake-out position once the talks had been concluded. "We'll squawk the time", the Spokesman added.

In Angola, two contractors working for the World Food Programme (WFP) had been shot and killed yesterday when a WFP convoy had come under fire near the town of Cacula, Mr. Eckhard said. It was the second time in a month that a WFP convoy had been attacked in that country and WFP contractors killed. The latest shooting had come one day after Security Council members had called for safe access in Angola for humanitarian organizations working on behalf of populations in need.

The 30-vehicle convoy had been carrying 400 metric tonnes of food under the escort of the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA), the Spokesman went on to say. It had been on its way north from Lubango, the capital of Huila province, when it was ambushed at 6:15 a.m. about 14 kilometres outside the town of Cacula. The MONUA escort, consisting of three armoured vehicles from the Namibian contingent, had immediately returned fire and repelled the attack. No information was available on the identity of the assailants.

A WFP press release had called both the latest and the previous attacks "despicable", Mr. Eckhard said, and the press release containing further information was available in room S-378. In addition, the Under-Secretary- General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, had expressed his dismay over yet another attack on United Nations personnel in Angola.

Mr. Eckhard then said the Office of the Iraq Programme had received from the Iraqi Government the first part of its distribution plan for Phase V of the "oil-for-food" programme. Annexes containing concrete details of the distribution plan had not yet arrived. More information on the subject would be available from the Office of the Iraq Programme next week.

The United Nations demining expert, Patrick Tillet, who had been dispatched to Nicaragua to assess the mine situation in that country following the floods caused by Hurricane Mitch, had reported to Headquarters by telephone that Nicaraguans did not consider a mine threat to be immediate, Mr. Eckhard said. Rather, Nicaraguans were more keen on rebuilding bridges, with about 40 bridges needing to be either rebuilt or repaired. Adding that there were about 400 well-trained deminers in Nicaragua, the Spokesman recalled that mines planted around the bridges and believed to have been washed away with them had caused concern in the wake of the hurricane that they would pose an additional threat.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had announced today in Geneva that the two-day meeting with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and its military arm, the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG), had

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ended with a number of agreements, Mr. Eckhard said. It had been agreed that a ministerial meeting on refugees in Western Africa would be held, and, in addition, a draft accord for cooperation between the UNHCR and ECOWAS had also been agreed upon.

The ministerial meeting would be held in March 1999 in Conakry, Guinea, Mr. Eckhard went on to say. Participants would review issues such as the situation of the newly 700,000 Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees and the peace process in Guinea-Bissau. At the meeting, the Ministers for Foreign Affairs were also expected to review a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the UNHCR and ECOWAS, which would formalize and expand on existing cooperation in the field. The MOU would also promote information exchange and ensure that the civilian nature of refugee camps would be maintained. Copies of the UNHCR briefing notes, containing further information, were available in room S-378.

The United Nations had today issued an appeal for $70.3 million in emergency assistance to be provided for over a half million persons in Uganda, Mr. Eckhard said. Proceeds of the appeal would provide food, water, shelter, health and sanitation to communities in conflict-affected areas and to approximately 400,000 internally displaced persons. In addition, the funds would help meet the needs of some 182,000 refugees from neighbouring countries presently in Uganda. A press release on the appeal by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was available in room S-378.

"The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has released its annual State of Food and Agriculture Report, and it shows that the number of hungry people worldwide is rising", Mr. Eckhard said. According to the report, the number of chronically undernourished people in developing countries was now an estimated 828 million, compared to 822 million in the early 1990s. A press release on the report from the FAO was available in room S-378.

Among the documents on the racks today was a note by the Secretary- General on human resources management (document A/C.5/53/34), Mr. Eckhard said. The report contained the views of United Nations staff representatives on a wide range of subjects, from the use of consultants to the problem of sexual harassment.

"Today, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had become the 109th Member State to make its full payment to the United Nations regular budget for 1998 by submitting a cheque of over $657,000", Mr. Eckhard announced. On this date last year, only 95 Member States had been paid in full.

With any luck, Mr. Eckhard then said, he would be leaving this afternoon to join the Secretary-General for a resumption of the Maghreb trip to North Africa, which had been interrupted by the recent crisis over Iraq. Mr. Eckhard said he had used the qualifier "with any luck" because after announcing his

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departure for the first leg of the trip weeks before, within an hour of the flight he had been told to stay put. "If I do go this time", Mr. Eckhard added, "the briefings next week will be conducted by my new deputy, Manuel de Almeida e Silva, whom you recently met -- so go easy on him."

Also, Mr. Eckhard continued, a sad farewell was being offered to Associate Spokesman David Wimhurst, who had held the fort until the new Deputy Spokesman could arrive. Since joining the Spokesman's Office in March, Mr. Wimhurst had distinguished himself in New York as he had during 18 months with MONUA, building warm attachments with both correspondents and his colleagues in the Office. Mr. Wimhurst would be missed, the Spokesman concluded, thanking the Associate Spokesman for doing such a "professional job with such warmth and good humour".

"The week ahead feature is rather elaborate this time", the Spokesman then said, adding that of first importance was to note that the presidency of the Security Council would rotate from the United States to Bahrain on Tuesday. As a result, the Council's programme had not yet been set.

Sunday would mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Mr. Eckhard continued, adding that the Day would be commemorated here at Headquarters on Monday. The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People would hold a solemn meeting starting at 10:30 a.m. in the Trusteeship Council Chamber. At 6 p.m, an exhibit in observance of the Day entitled "Bethlehem 2000" would open in the Public Lobby of the General Assembly Building and it would run through Sunday.

Also on Monday, the Secretary-General would leave Algiers for a one-day visit to Tindouf and Camp Smara, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary-General was scheduled to return Monday evening to Algiers, where he would remain through Tuesday for an official visit to Algeria.

Further on Monday, Mr. Eckhard said, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, would brief the Security Council with regard to his recent trip to the Horn of Africa. In addition, a United Nations senior official would on Monday at 3:30 p.m. in room S-226 give a background briefing on the situation in Ethiopia-Eritrea, the Sudan and Somalia.

Still again on Monday, the Spokesman said, the United Nations would kick off the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which would be marked on 10 December, with a Human Rights Film Festival, with films shown in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium at 6 p.m. daily through 9 December. A detailed schedule was due out today. In addition, the second session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention to Combat Desertification would open in Dakar, Senegal, on Monday and would run for two weeks. At 10 a.m. on Monday, the United Kingdom and Tajikistan would sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

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The trial of Goran Jelisic would open on Monday at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, at The Hague. A note with details on the latter was available in room S-378.

On Tuesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, would be in New York, making a breakfast presentation to the Council on Foreign Relations on the subject, "On the Humanitarian Front Lines: Refugee Crises and the Unwinnable Wars". The High Commissioner would attend a dinner that evening at the Historical Society marking "The Trilateral Commission at 25". Also on Tuesday, the Security Council was expected to consider a draft resolution put forward by the Troika on Angola concerning the mandate of MONUA, which would expire on Thursday.

In addition, Mr. Eckhard continued, Tuesday would be World AIDS Day and the commemoration would kick off the day before with an event at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., featuring the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, as well as others. Part of the event would include a talk show hosted by Ricki Lake, a personality "better known to correspondents than to me", the Spokesman said.

At Headquarters on Tuesday, Mr. Eckhard said a commemorative event would start at 10 a.m. in the Economic and Social Council Chamber, with "our own" Afsane Bassir Pour, correspondent for Le Monde, moderating a panel discussion on "Youth: A Force for Change". Panellists would include actress Sharon Stone. A note to correspondents containing details was on the racks (Note No. 5536), while the Secretary-General's message on World AIDS Day was out as Press Release SG/SM/6798.

On Wednesday, the Secretary-General would travel from Algiers to Tunis, Mr. Eckhard said, and the Security Council on that day was expected to act on a draft resolution on MONUA's mandate. Also on that day, the Disarmament Commission would hold an organizational meeting for its 1999 session at 10 a.m. in Conference Room 4 and in the evening, the Deputy Secretary-General would make a speech at the Cosmopolitan Club on United Nations response to global crises.

Thursday would be the International Day of Disabled Persons, the Spokesman said. The Secretary-General's message for that occasion was out as Press Release SG/SM/6803. In addition, Thursday would mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Conference of Non-governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations, marked by an event to be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Conference Room 1 at which the Deputy Secretary-General would deliver the keynote address.

On Friday, the Secretary-General was scheduled to travel from Tunis to Djerba, Mr. Eckhard said, and also on that day, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights would wrap up its two-week session in Geneva. Recommendations were expected on the reports of Israel, Cyprus, Switzerland,

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Germany and Canada regarding their compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The availability of the round-up press release would be squawked as soon as issued.

A correspondent said that on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), thanks were offered to David Wimhurst not just for the "great and good will he showed towards us but also for good help". Mr. Wimhurst would be missed.

A correspondent then said it had been heard that the United Nations and the World Bank had held "secret negotiations with the Burmese Government", offering money in exchange for political flexibility. "Can you say anything about that"? the correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard replied no. "You don't know anything about that?" the correspondent further asked.

Mr. Eckhard said "the Secretary-General will not comment on the press reports out of Yangon on Thursday except to say they are highly speculative", adding that as he had enumerated in the last and all previous reports on the subject, the Secretary-General had a good offices mandate concerning Myanmar. The Secretary-General's discussions with the Government, and those of his Special Envoy with both the Government and with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, were confidential in character and covered a wide range of issues. While the solution to the problems of Myanmar had to be attained essentially amongst the people of that country, the Secretary-General had often repeated his concern over a member of the United Nations being so isolated from the international community. The Secretary-General had also expressed the great hope of assisting in the process of finding ways for Myanmar to address the concerns that had led to that isolation. In that effort, the Secretary-General reserved the right to consult with interested and influential governments as well as with agencies and programmes of the United Nations system.

Asked if the Secretary-General would travel next month to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference in Hanoi and whether he would have a problem meeting the "Burmese leaders" there, Mr. Eckhard said he did not know the Secretary-General's schedule for next month and was not aware of further travel in December after the North Africa trip.

Asked whether the Secretary-General was optimistic on the talks in Western Sahara, given that Morocco seemed to be foot-dragging in giving a response, Mr. Eckhard said the purpose of the Secretary-General's "now two- legged" trip to North Africa was to try to spur that process along. "I don't want to characterize his attitude as optimistic", Mr. Eckhard added.

"Pessimistic?" the correspondent asked. "How about moderately hopeful?" another correspondent suggested. Mr. Eckhard grinned, quoting former Secretary- General Javier Perez de Cuellar as saying he was always hopeful, never optimistic. "I think that's true of this Secretary-General", Mr. Eckhard added.

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Was there any information on the letter from Iraq? another correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said neither he nor anyone in his office had seen it. "We're still trying to get our hands on it and, of course, we would never leak it to you, so good luck getting a copy", Mr. Eckhard said jokingly. Asked if Iraq had handed over any documents, Mr. Eckhard said that as far as he knew, Iraq had not. "But I need to check with Baghdad before I say one way or the other".

Finally, one correspondent asked Mr. Eckhard to confirm at least that the World Bank was involved in the negotiations with the Myanmar Government. "I cannot say any more than exactly what I read out to you", Mr. Eckhard answered.

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