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 outlining the Secretary-General's movements. He told correspondents that the Secretary-General had gone to the Brussels' Town Hall yesterday afternoon to meet with the Mayor, and then to the Palais d'Egmont to meet the Belgian Prime Minister, Jean-Luc Dehaene. Also at that meeting had been the Belgian Foreign Minister, Erik Derycke, and the Secretary of State, Reginald Moreels. The Prime Minister had announced that Belgium would contribute 15 million Belgium Francs (about $434,000) to United Nations de- mining and disarmament programmes. They discussed a number of issues including peacekeeping, United Nations reform, Kosovo, Iraq, and the Great Lakes region of Africa.

The Prime Minister and the Secretary-General had had a brief exchange with the press after that meeting, he continued, and a transcript was available in his Office, the Spokesman said. The Prime Minister had then hosted a dinner in honour of the Secretary-General.

Today was the final day of the Secretary-General's official visit to Belgium, Mr. Eckhard continued. He had begun it with a meeting with the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Javier Solana. He had then gone to NATO headquarters, where he had been invited to address the North Atlantic Council. Although that had been a closed meeting, the Secretary-General's comments had been made available to the press, and copies could be obtained from the Spokesman's Office.

The Secretary-General had then gone to the headquarters of the Western European Union, where he met with that organization's Secretary-General, Jose Pines Cutileiro. Following that meeting, he had proceeded to the headquarters of the European Union, where he was welcomed by its President, Jacques Santer. The Secretary-General had given a short press conference -- about 10 minutes -- the text of which was available in the Spokesman's Office. At the time of the noon briefing, he would be on his way to Luxembourg, where his official visit would begin tomorrow.

The Security Council had started consultations this morning on Western Sahara and the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) with a view to a formal meeting, Mr. Eckhard said. The Council was expected to adopt resolutions extending the mandates of both the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and UNOMIG.

The Council would also discuss a paper on "practical proposals to the Sanctions Committees for the improvement of their work". This was a follow up, Mr. Eckhard explained, to a document prepared last November by the chairpersons of the Sanctions Committees, which in turn had been inspired by a General Assembly resolution from 1997 -- resolution 51/242. The second part of that resolution dealt with sanctions, and the points it raised were: when

sanctions should be resorted to; what kinds of time-frames should be used; how to avoid unintended adverse effects of sanctions; the partial lifting of sanctions; humanitarian exceptions; and the impact on third countries. (The discussion on sanctions was postponed.)

When those consultations adjourned, Mr. Eckhard said, the Council was expected to hold a formal meeting to adopt a resolution on the extension of the mandate of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and a presidential statement on that Mission.

The meeting of senior officials on East Timor had started this morning, the Spokesman said. Those talks were expected to last for about a week and were chaired by the Personal Representative of the Secretary General, Jamsheed Marker. The Indonesian and Portuguese delegations were led by the Director General of Political Affairs of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, Nugroho Wisnumurti, and the Director General for Special Political Questions at the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fernando Neves.

As had been the usual practice in the East Timor talks, Mr. Marker started with bilateral meetings with each delegation, said Mr. Eckhard. This morning at 11 a.m. he had met with the Indonesian team, and he was probably starting his meeting with the Portuguese side at this very moment. In response to requests from the press yesterday, Mr. Marker had agreed to speak to correspondents at the end of the morning talks. He would do that at the second floor stake-out, outside the Security Council Chamber. Mr. Eckhard estimated that it would take place around 1:15 to 1:30 p.m. An announcement would be made over the public address system.

In his speech to NATO in Brussels, the Secretary-General had acknowledged the need to use force when all other means had failed, the Spokesman said. The Secretary-General had said, "We may be reaching that limit, once again, in the former Yugoslavia".

He had urged NATO members now deliberating on the future course of action in Kosovo to recall the lessons of Bosnia, Mr. Eckhard continued. "That means", the Secretary-General had said, "full and unconditional respect for human rights of all citizens in Kosovo; full and unconditional acceptance of peaceful negotiation as the only way to resolve the conflict in Kosovo; and full and unconditional respect for the authority of the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal throughout all of the territory of the former Yugoslavia".

The Secretary-General had stressed that the people of Kosovo must have enough autonomy to live their lives free from terror or violence, the Spokesman continued. "What form such autonomy will take", the Secretary- General had said, "will depend not only on the wishes of the Kosovars, but also on the actions of the Yugoslav authorities. We can only hope that they, too, have learned the lessons of Bosnia".

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Mr. Eckhard told correspondents that a press release was available in his Office on the arms-collection project which the United Nations was successfully carrying out in Albania. It covered the meeting held yesterday among the partners concerned, a number of whom had made financial commitments to keeping the project afloat.

He also had an update on the Colombia earthquake, he said. Following a rapid assessment field visit by the World Food Program (WFP), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Colombian Red Cross to two cities most stricken by Monday's earthquake in Colombia, the two agencies were preparing emergency operations to assist the victims of the disaster.

The agencies reported that some 20,000 families were estimated to have lost their homes in one of those towns, he continued, and possibly 10,000 families in small surrounding towns and rural areas. In the other town, the assessment mission had been told by the local Red Cross that 2,500 families were without shelter. The total number of homeless was estimated at 162,500, the majority of them women and children.

In one of the two towns visited, Armenia -- where the damage was more extensive -- the United Nations team reported that many people had made improvised shelters with the plastic they could get hold of, he said. Cooking was done outdoors using, in some cases, small propane gas stoves. There were streets which, due to the extent of the damage, were closed to vehicles. Electrical and water supply had been restored in most of the area, but heavy rains had aggravated the situation.

On their way back to the Armenia airport, the team had observed that looting had started mainly due to the fact that supermarkets were still not open and people were desperately searching for food. The police had had to intervene in order to control the situation. Although relief aid was starting to arrive, there were some delays in distribution due to the circumstances he had mentioned, Mr. Eckhard said.

The Spokesman then informed correspondents that a press statement had just been received from the World Food Programme (WFP) in Rome, which said that an international staff member had been missing in Ethiopia since Wednesday night. He had disappeared in Jijiga town while driving in a marked WFP vehicle. He had arrived Wednesday afternoon in Jijiga for a field visit to assess food security in the Somali-speaking area of Ethiopia. Every effort was being made to locate the staff member, including an extensive air and land search launched by the Country Office and WFP Nairobi. Local authorities, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other agencies were also assisting in the search effort. No other information was available at this time, Mr. Eckhard said.

The WFP had also announced that it had resumed its airlift to Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, to stem what it described as a growing

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humanitarian crisis affecting more than 50,000 people, Mr. Eckhard continued. A press release, issued in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire, was available in the Spokesman's Office.

Turning to payments, he announced that Monaco had become the twenty- ninth Member State to have paid in full. There were still a few days left in January. The end of January marked the end of the eligibility period for the honour roll. The amount of that payment was just over $41,000.

A press release was on the racks today on next week's United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council session in Nairobi, Mr. Eckhard said. During the high-level segment, from 4 to 5 February, the focus would be on three key agenda items: the results of the General Assembly's consideration of the Secretary-General's report on United Nations reform in environment and human settlements activities; linkages among, and support for, environmental and environment-related conventions; and preparations for the seventh session of the Commission for Sustainable Development, to be held in April at United Nations Headquarters.

According to UNEP Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer, the one-week meeting of Environment Ministers and other senior government officials was especially important, Mr. Eckhard said, as the UNEP Governing Council was "the world's principle environment forum" and decisions would need to be taken on the new budget, structure and profile of UNEP.

The World Health Organization (WHO) had announced today that its Bulletin, which had been reporting internationally important health research since 1948, was being re-launched in a new and expanded format, Mr. Eckhard said.

He quoted the WHO Director-General, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, who said that the "Bulletin now places research findings and policy-relevant discussions side by side in the same publication. In doing so, it is making an important point: people with different responsibilities for health cannot afford to ignore each other's work". Correspondents were invited to see the press release for more details.

The United Nations Foundation, set up by Ted Turner, had established a new web page that should interest correspondents, Mr. Eckhard announced. It was called the "UN Wire" and contained a daily news summary covering the United Nations, global affairs and key international issues. The site's address was "www.unfoundation.org", and brochures were available in his Office with details.

Turning to press conferences, Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General planned to launch an initiative to the business community when he participated in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, after his official visit to Luxembourg. He would make a speech on Sunday, 31 January, which would contain

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that initiative. The initiative was a little complicated, Mr. Eckhard said, so he would like journalists to be briefed on it this afternoon on an embargoed basis. Anything the briefers said could be used on-the-record, he explained, but it would have to be held until after the Secretary-General made the speech in Davos. It would be a chance for correspondents to get background information to forward to their colleagues covering the Forum. The people travelling with the Secretary-General would not have time to provide such background at the launch. The briefing would held in the same room as the noon briefing at 3 p.m. today. There would be no MX or television coverage.

The address by the Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, Alain Dejammet, scheduled for 4:15 p.m today, at the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) club had been cancelled, Mr. Eckhard said.

A correspondent asked for a response to the Angolan Government letter to the Secretary-General advising that it would not accept any United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) staff remaining in Angola. Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General was still engaged, through his Special Representative, in consultations with the Government of Angola, and others concerned, regarding the future of the United Nations Mission there. The Spokesman reminded correspondents that the Security Council had requested that the Secretary-General undertake those consultations urgently, following his report to the Council. He would report back to the Security Council on the outcome of those consultations as soon as they were completed. That meant that there was no reaction today. The reaction would go to the Security Council once consultations were completed.

In response to a question about the extension of the mandate of MINURSO, Mr. Eckhard said that he believed it was a technical extension until 11 February.

Asked for a Secretariat response to Indonesia's statement about independence for East Timor, the Spokesman explained that any response would come from the Secretary-General's Personal Representative, Mr. Marker, when he spoke to the press at the conclusion of the morning's session of talks.

The Spokesman then announced several press conferences scheduled for tomorrow, 29 January. The Minister of Finance, Development and Economic Planning of Sierra Leone, James Jonah, would meet the press tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. At 11:15 a.m., there would be a press conference by the Permanent Mission of Georgia to the United Nations, on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia. And at the noon briefing tomorrow, the Under Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, Nitin Desai, and the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Jose Antonio Ocampo, would present a position paper containing United Nations recommendations on international financial reform. The report itself was available from the Spokesman's Office, but was embargoed until 12 noon tomorrow.

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