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, informed correspondents at today's noon briefing that the Security Council was not scheduled to meet until Tuesday, 29 December, when consultations were planned on Ethiopia and Eritrea, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and possibly also on the maintenance of peace and security and post-conflict peace-building.

Continuing, Mr. Almeida e Silva said that the open meeting on post- conflict peace-building, which had been suspended last week, was concluded last night. The Council might discuss a presidential statement on the subject. The briefing on Ethiopia and Eritrea, which had been scheduled for yesterday, was postponed due to the Council's full schedule. It was not yet clear when it would next take up the Iraqi situation.

On Iraq, the Deputy Spokesman said that the Office of the Iraq Programme was undertaking an assessment of the humanitarian impact of the military action there, on which it might be able to report to the Security Council by the middle of next week. The regular weekly update on implementation of the "oil-for-food" programme would be made available at the beginning of the week.

In view of increasing insecurity in Sierra Leone, the Deputy Spokesman announced that the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL) was relocating non-essential staff to Conakry, Guinea. The Mission was also relocating its field team sites to the capital of Freetown. Of the 20 internationally recruited staff from various United Nations agencies in Freetown, some might also be relocated to Conakry as precautionary measures, leaving only essential staff members in Freetown.

Mr. Almeida e Silva said that 29 December was the International Day for Biodiversity. A press release from the Office of the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was available in the Spokesman's Office. It contained a message from the Executive Director of UNEP, Klaus Töpfer, stating that conservation of biological diversity remained one of the greatest challenges facing humankind. Astrologers believed that Mars once sustained life. The problems currently faced on Earth included hunger, the impacts of climate change, global warming, desertification and pollution of oceans and freshwater bodies. Mr. Töpfer also noted that since the entry into force of the Convention on Biological Diversity on 29 December 1993, 174 countries had ratified it.

He announced that Canada had ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which now had 26 States parties. The Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-personnel Mines (Ottawa Convention) was ratified by Swaziland, bringing to 58 the total number of States parties. Slovakia yesterday became the seventy-first country to sign the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court; there were no

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 24 December 1998

ratifications yet to that Statute. Albania today became the 117th Member State to pay its dues in full, with a check for more than $31,000.

The Deputy Spokesman said it was the last formal briefing of the year, however, as always, the Spokesman's Office would be staffed next week and stood ready to answer any questions and convene any ad hoc briefings that might be warranted.

In a final note, he said the Secretary-General was receiving a very large number of calls and communications from people around the world, in particular, from the United States, expressing concern about the situation in Iraq. One letter that really moved the Secretary-General was written by a four-and-one-half year-old boy who attended the United Nations International School in New York.

The Deputy Spokesman read the letter, as follows:

"Dear Mr. Annan,

Please talk to the President of Iraq. Please make up. Work it out."

The Secretary-General's handwritten note said:

"Dear Lucas,

Thank you for your kind letter. I am glad to see that one is never too young to speak out for peace. I promise you I will work very hard for peace in Iraq and everywhere else in the world. Good luck to you and happy holidays.

Sincerely,

Kofi Annan."

In response to a question, the Deputy Spokesman said correspondents could receive copies of the exchange of letters.

Replying to another question, he said he did not have any more details on the Secretary-General's conversation yesterday with the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Tariq Aziz.

Another correspondent asked if the United Nations was going to do anything about the latest reports of a large tank movement in Kosovo and the concern expressed by the head of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The Deputy Spokesman said he would have to look into that.

Mr. Almeida e Silva wished correspondents a happy holiday and expressed his appreciation for their support.

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