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, began today's noon briefing by reviewing the schedule of the Security Council, which included consultations this morning on the situation in Iraq. At the outset of those consultations, the Deputy to the Chef de Cabinet, Rolf Knutsson, and the Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme, Benon Sevan, who is also the United Nations Security Coordinator, updated the Council on the situation in that country. The Council was then expected to take up the situation in the Central African Republic and Somalia.

Continuing on the Council's agenda, the Deputy Spokesman said that the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Bernard Miyet, would introduce the Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA). The Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, would brief the Council on Somalia.

Tomorrow, Mr. Almeida e Silva said, the Council was expected to take up the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as in Ethiopia and Eritrea, in the morning. At 3 p.m., it would resume the open meeting on maintenance of peace and security and post-conflict peace-building. That meeting had been suspended last week because of the crisis in Iraq. Presently, more than 20 speakers were scheduled to participate.

This morning in Jordan 93 United Nations humanitarian personnel had left Amman for Baghdad, the Deputy Spokesman said. They had crossed into Iraq and would arrive in that city this evening. Seven dependents were also returning. Yesterday, the independent inspection agents from the Lloyds Register had returned to work at the port of Umm Qasr and Al-Walid, along the shared border with Syria. By last night, the inspection agents had cleared the backlog of 34 trucks at Al-Walid, and, this morning, they had resumed work at Trebil, on the border with Jordan, where the backlog of some 100 trucks was being cleared.

Mr. Almeida e Silva said the Executive Director of the Iraq Programme, Mr. Sevan, had asked the humanitarian coordinator on the ground, Hans von Sponeck, and the United Nations agencies in Iraq for an assessment of the impact of the military action, with particular attention to installations and facilities related to the "oil-for-food" programme. He had also requested them to provide information about urgent humanitarian needs, which required funding and resources from outside the "oil-for-food" programme. Those assessments should be completed in approximately one week. Mr. Sevan looked to donor governments and organizations to respond generously to any additional needs identified by the humanitarian agencies.

The Secretary-General's report on MINURCA was on the racks, the Deputy Spokesman said. In the report, the Secretary-General outlined not only the

accomplishments of the Mission, including the most recent assistance in the legislative elections, but also the fragility of the peace process, the need to create a professional national security and defence force, the need to rebuild the national police and the gendarmerie and to further assist in the upcoming presidential election. The Secretary-General therefore invited the Council to consider extending the Mission's mandate within the existing structure and overall strength.

The Deputy Spokesman drew attention to the Secretary-General's suggestion, also contained in the report, concerning the creation of a United Nations training-assistance team composed of 35 military personnel, in addition to the existing 25 United Nations civilian police advisers, to assist in the restructuring of the armed forces and in the "train-the-trainers" process. The exit strategy for the operation, the Secretary-General stated, would be firmly linked to the conduct of presidential elections, scheduled to be held by the fall of 1999. The Mission would be terminated no later than 60 days after the announcement of the election results. Its current strength was 1,362 personnel, and its current mandate would expire at the end of February.

Mr. Almeida e Silva noted that the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, had concluded his current mission to Indonesia. Today, he had met with Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and President Jusuf Habibie. Yesterday, he had met with the Minister of Security and Defence, Wiranto, and dined with a daughter of the late Indonesian President Sukarno, Megawati Sukarnoputri. He had had wide-ranging talks with them on the question of East Timor. Ambassador Marker was leaving Indonesia tomorrow.

He drew attention to the availability in the Spokesman's Office of the text of a statement issued today by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, on the conviction and sentencing in China yesterday of Xu Wenli and Wang Youcai. Mrs. Robinson said she would continue to press for respect for internationally recognized standards of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and association, and the right to a fair trial.

Following the outbreak of fighting in Congo-Brazzaville early last week between Government troops and militia, hundreds of thousands of residents in the Bacongo and Makelekele areas of south Brazzaville had fled their homes, the Deputy Spokesman said. The Humanitarian Coordinator had reported that up to 250,000 residents had crossed into the northern part of the city, where they were staying with families or in churches. As previously announced, the United Nations international staff in Brazzaville had been reduced from 15 to five over the weekend. A press release from the World Food Programme (WFP), also available in the Spokesman's Office, warned that continued deterioration of the situation would require a large-scale humanitarian response.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 22 December 1998

As announced a few days ago, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, was continuing an official visit to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, he said. Mrs. Ogata had met yesterday with displaced persons in Malisevo, who had told her that the population would return if Serbian security forces withdrew from the town -- still empty of its ethnic Albanian population of 3,000. Today, the High Commissioner was scheduled to meet with President Slobodan Milosevic. She would also consult with a group of Belgrade-based ambassadors and address the press at the airport in Belgrade before returning to Geneva. The briefing notes from the UNHCR contained additional details about Mrs. Ogata's visit.

The UNHCR also expressed concern in the briefing notes about the increased fighting in Sierra Leone, especially around Koidu in the eastern part of the country, he said. Although there were no reports of new refugee flows into Guinea or Liberia, the fighting was reported to have caused new internal displacement. The briefing notes also touched on the situation of some 3,000 refugees who had fled the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Uganda.

This afternoon, the Secretary-General would unveil an exhibit on extended loan from the United Arab Emirates, entitled the "Barjil", he said. The presentation would take place at 3:30 p.m. at the north-west corner of the third floor. The Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates and the Secretary- General would make brief remarks.

Gabon, this morning, had become the seventieth country to sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, he said. Two more countries -- Denmark and Monaco -- had ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), bringing to 23 the total number of ratifications of that Treaty, which had 151 signatories so far.

He announced that the guest at the noon briefing tomorrow would be John Zogby, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Zogby International, a polling and market research firm. Mr. Zogby was expected to discuss the results of the latest poll of United States citizens on their views of the United Nations.

Asked if he had anything to report on Cyprus, the Deputy Spokesman said that, no, he did not think so. He added that as soon as he had confirmation of Security Council consultations on Cyprus, he would inform correspondents. [It was announced later that the Security Council was holding consultations in the afternoon on Cyprus, Somalia and the Central African Republic.]

Another correspondent asked for a response to a report in the morning edition of the Washington Post that the Secretary-General was setting up a task force to study spinning off the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) into its component parts. Mr. Almeida e Silva said that the

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 22 December 1998

Secretary-General had an informal, internal group of people from his Office and from the Iraq Programme who were advising him on the current situation in Iraq.

To a follow-up question about how far the UNSCOM spin-off idea had advanced, Mr. Almeida e Silva said he did not know. Meanwhile, it should be remembered that the Special Commission was a subsidiary organ of the Security Council.

Replying to a question about the Secretary-General's plans to send an assessment mission to Iraq, he said he did not have any information on that.

The correspondent then asked for some guidance on the meeting planned for later today between the Secretary-General and the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, Sergey Lavrov. The Deputy Spokesman said if he had a read-out, he would share it with the correspondent later.

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