DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, opened today's noon briefing by reporting that the Secretary-General had arrived in Tunis from Algiers and had been greeted by the Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Said Ben Mustapha. The Secretary-General had begun his Thursday programme by meeting with the Minister alone for 15 minutes, and for another hour and a half with their delegations. Topics discussed had included the peace process in Western Sahara and the Secretary-General's efforts to work out details of transferring to the Netherlands the two suspects in the Lockerbie case. Regional issues had also been reviewed, along with a series of African topics.

At a press encounter after the meeting, Mr. Almeida e Silva continued, the Secretary-General had been asked if he could confirm that he would travel to Libya. "Yes", the Deputy Spokesman said the Secretary-General had answered. "I will travel to Libya on Saturday to discuss the Lockerbie affair." Further, Mr. Almieda e Silva said, the Secretary-General had been asked if he expected to meet with President Muammar Al-Qadhafi of Libya and his answer had been, "Yes, I think so". The Secretary-General had then travelled to the Presidential palace at Carthage, where he had met privately with President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. The Secretary-General would continue his programme in Tunis tomorrow.

The Security Council, in the meantime, had been meeting this morning for consultations on Angola and on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mr. Almeida e Silva said. The Council had agreed on a draft resolution on Angola expected to be adopted this morning following the consultations. The current mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) was to expire today and the Council was expected to extend the mandate until 26 February 1999. At the moment, the Council was receiving a briefing from Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahima Fall, on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. A tentative briefing for correspondents by a senior United Nations official on the subject of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was planned to be held tomorrow, while today, under "other matters", the Council was considering taking up Afghanistan.

Mr. Almeida e Silva then said the record should be set straight on remarks made by the Secretary-General during a radio interview with Radio Europe One in Paris on 29 November. When asked if the United States and the United Kingdom could strike Iraq without seeking authorization from the United Nations, the Secretary-General had said, as informally translated from the French:

"Washington and London have already indicated that. They have indicated that next time, they will go fast. Perhaps, there would be no time for diplomatic demarches. They are frustrated. They believe their action is

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based on existing resolutions and there will be no need for another resolution. This matter has been discussed. I was in the Council last time. This is a matter for the Council. I do not have an impression that the other members of the Council would fight very hard on this."

"Today, Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons had entered into force", Mr. Almeida e Silva announced, adding that the event had been anticipated exactly since, six months to the day, or on 3 June, Lithuania had become the twentieth State to ratify the Protocol, which had signalled its automatic entry-into-force six months later. Applicable to both international and internal armed conflicts, Protocol II now prohibited the use and transfer of non-detectable anti-personnel landmines, and restricted the use of non-self-destructing or non-self-deactivating mines to designated marked and monitored areas.

"This is a boon for mine clearance because the 27 countries that have now ratified Protocol II will no longer use or transfer mines that are difficult to find and clear", Mr. Almeida e Silva emphasized, adding that a list of those countries was available in room S-378. He also noted that another anti-landmine instrument, the Ottawa Convention, would enter into force on 1 March 1999.

Also, the issue of landmines was one the Deputy Secretary-General had included in her address this morning to the Conference of Non-governmental Organizations on the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, Mr. Almeida e Silva said. "NGOs have helped shape the agenda of global issues, including a far-reaching blueprint for action against the use of landmines", the Deputy Spokesman said Ms. Fréchette had noted in her speech, the full text of which was available in room S-378.

Mr. Almeida e Silva then said that today, Estonia had become the 111th Member State to have made its full payment to the regular budget by submitting a check for over $480,000.

Also, the Deputy Spokesman added, this morning, Solomon Islands had become the sixty-second country to sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. A list of all signatories was available in room S-378.

The Secretary-General had applauded the gift announced yesterday by Bill and Melinda Gates, which had been described as the single largest individual gift in children's health this century, Mr. Almeida e Silva declared. "The true measure of success in a human life is what we give back to our fellow men and women", the Deputy Spokesman continued, quoting the Secretary-General.

The Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, had said the gift marked a major step toward making new vaccines available to all children, Mr. Almeida e Silva continued, especially to children in the poorest developing countries. Ms. Bellamy had also noted

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that 12 million children in the developing world still died every year of preventable causes. The UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO) would be working with the Seattle-based Program for Appropriate Health, which would administer the $100 million pledged to help vaccinate children around the world.

The humanitarian agencies of the United Nations had today made a $28 million appeal for Sierra Leone, Mr. Almeida e Silva then said. The funds were requested to cover the costs of emergency assistance to the more than 300,000 internally displaced people in Sierra Leone, as well as to support the needs of the 450,000 refugees uprooted by the war in the country.

As mentioned yesterday, Mr. Almeida e Silva said, today was the International Day of Disabled Persons. The theme of this year's observance was "arts, culture and independent living", and in his message to mark the occasion, the Secretary-General had pointed out that independent living, based on equal access to services and employment opportunities, was a pathway to full participation of disabled persons in society. The Secretary-General had also called for greater attention to be given to promoting a disability perspective in development policies and programmes. The full text of the Secretary-General's message had been issued as Press Release SG/SM/6803.

In addition, the Deputy Spokesman gave a reminder of the panel discussion on life-cycle approaches to sustainable and secure livelihoods for persons with disabilities to be held today in Conference Room 4 from 1:45 to 2:45 pm. A media advisory with further details was available in room S-378, he added.

Mr. Almeida e Silva then announced that today was the start of the week-long Human Rights Film Festival organized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in cooperation with the United Nations to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Held at 6 p.m. daily in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, each showing of a human rights film would include a film screening followed by a panel discussion moderated by the Executive Director of the International Council of the National Academy, Georges Leclere. All showings were open to media, delegates, staff and NGOS. The festival programme was on the racks.

Advance copies of UNICEF's State of the World's Children 1999, as well as an accompanying press release embargoed along with the report until the London launch on December 8, had been distributed to the United Nations press corps, Mr. Almeida e Silva said. Copies not received were obtainable through UNICEF's Media Section -- Telephone: 326-7162 -- in Spanish, French or English editions.

The recently recorded World Chronicle TV programme, No. 730 featuring the Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, Karl Paschke,

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would be shown today at 2:30 p.m. on in-house television channel 6 or 38, the Deputy Spokesman said.

As a heads-up, Mr. Almeida e Silva recalled that a full day of events would take place on 10 December, the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By way of providing guidance to the events of the day, a briefing would be held on Monday, 7 December, at 11:30 a.m. in room S-226 by the Chief of the Information and Planning Service of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI), Susan Markham, and by the Deputy Director of the New York Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Elsa Stamatopoulou.

Finally, Mr. Almeida e Silva said it was a great honour to note that today, 3 December, marked the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA). In an announcement on the anniversary, UNCA had remembered "some of the true pioneers and veterans, working with us now for over two decades". Those pioneers had included UNCA founding member David Horowitz of the World Union Press. Others named in the announcement included: Behzat Baris, IKA, Ankara; Raghavandera Chakrapani, Samachar, India; Raghida Dergham, Al-Hayat, London; Louis Foy, Agence France Presse; Mercedes Hervas, El Periodico, Barcelona; Anthony Goodman, Reuters; Michael Littlejohns, Reuters; Evgueni Menkes-Ria, Novosti, Moskow; Ted Morello, Far Eastern Economic Review; Sana Youssef, Al-Akhbar, Cairo; Dogan Uluc, Huriet, Istanbul; and Valerde Gustavo, Tiempo, Madrid.

The announcement also thanked those who had made UNCA a success for over 20 years for their time and effort, Mr. Almeida e Silva said. As mentioned yesterday, the event marking the UNCA celebration would be a Mediterranean cuisine reception hosted by the Cyprus Mission in the UNCA Club at 5:30 p.m.

A correspondent asked whether the Secretary-General had received backing from the Security Council to negotiate with President Al-Qadhafi. Mr. Almeida e Silva said the Secretary-General was travelling to Libya, where, in his own words as stated earlier today in Tunis, the Secretary-General would "try to resolve some problems and find solutions together".

Was there any particular expectation with regard to outcome? the correspondent asked. "A contribution to solving an impasse", Mr. Almeida e Silva answered, adding there could be no speculations beyond that at this point.

Had the Secretary-General received clearance from the Sanctions Committee to fly into Libya? another correspondent asked. Mr. Almeida e Silva said he had. Asked to elaborate further on the Secretary-General's travel and meeting schedule, Mr. Almeida e Silva said that, for understandable reasons, it was necessary to keep details of the trip confidential for a while longer.

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Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said the President this morning had delivered a statement at the annual pledging conference for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The President's statement was available as a press release in English and Spanish. The Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Peter Hansen, had also delivered a statement, copies of which were available on the side table, and there had been 27 other speakers.

Both the President and Mr. Hansen had emphasized the dire financial situation of UNRWA, which provided essential services to some 3.5 million Palestinian refugees, the spokesman continued. The Agency would need $322 million in 1999 to continue or reinstate services that had been cut in view of shrinking contributions. At today's conference some $68.5 million had been pledged, representing some 20 per cent of UNRWA's needs for the next year.

Also this morning, Ms. Mihalic said, the plenary had been holding open- ended informal consultations on agenda item 30, United Nations reform: measures and proposals, concentrating on the preparations for the Millennium Assembly. More information was not available as it was a closed meeting.

This afternoon, the spokesman said, the plenary would first consider agenda item 18, Implementation of the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. The representative of Syria, in his capacity as the Rapporteur of the Special Committee on decolonization, would introduce the report of the Committee (document A/53/23), while the representative of Cuba would introduce draft resolution A/53/L.58 on behalf of 13 co-sponsors. This afternoon, the Assembly would also take up the reports of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization).

Tomorrow morning, the plenary would take up the reports of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), Ms. Mihalic said, and in the afternoon, the Credentials Committee would hold a special meeting to examine the credentials of Cambodia. The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) would continue informal consultations today, with morning, afternoon and evening meetings scheduled.

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