DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Fred Eckhard:

That clock is wrong. It's exactly 12. I'm exactly on time. How late? (in response to a comment made by one of his staff).

Good afternoon. The guest who will be late is Pino Arlacchi, the Executive Director of the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention in Vienna. He's in New York for consultations, as we announced yesterday. He'll tell you something about his latest activities.

**Secretary-General:

The Secretary-General, since returning from Davos, Switzerland, at the beginning of this month, he's been trying unsuccessfully to shake the flu. So, he's staying at home today and tomorrow to try to get rid of this persistent bug.

Meanwhile, his appointments for these two days have either been postponed or taken over by the Deputy Secretary-General.

**Deputy Secretary-General:

Yesterday, you saw on the Secretary-General's programme that he was briefed on the status of the implementation of United Nations reform by Louise Frechette.

I sat in on that briefing and I found it informative and interesting, so I asked Ms. Frechette if she would come and brief you and she's agreed to do that tomorrow at 3 p.m. here in room S-226. It's not the kind of thing that would generate news, necessarily, but I think as resident correspondents you probably have an interest, as I did, in getting the status report.

**Security Council:

The Security Council is holding consultations this morning to discuss a document published yesterday by the Sanctions Committee on Angola, which proposed additional measures to strengthen sanctions against UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola).

Council members are also scheduled to discuss the Secretary-General's most recent report on Tajikistan. Following consultations, a formal meeting is expected to be convened to read out a presidential statement on the Central African Republic.

The Council is scheduled to resume consultations this afternoon at 3:30 p.m. for a briefing on Angola by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Issa Diallo.

In response to requests by non-Council members to take part in the debate on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, which featured UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) and the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, as well as the International Committee of the Red Cross -- that was last Friday -- the Council decided to hold a second open debate on that same subject. That will take place on Monday.

**Kurdish demonstrations:

As part of the continuing worldwide demonstrations by Kurdish supporters of Abdullah Ocalan, a third United Nations building was occupied today. Kurdish demonstrators forced their way into the United Nations Office in Vienna -- we'll see what Mr. Arlacchi has to say about that -- around 10 a.m., and occupied a section of the ground floor.

After handing over a petition to the Deputy Director, which he agreed to transmit to New York, the group left the United Nations building peacefully about two hours later.

We're continuing to receive reports of demonstrations protesting Ocalan's arrest outside United Nations offices. A one-and-one-half hour demonstration of about 150 persons was reported in Sulaimaniya, in northern Iraq. Peaceful demonstrations were also reported in the Iranian city of Tehran and in Yerevan, Armenia, where some 18 Kurds were reported to be on a hunger strike.

**Disarmament Affairs:

Jayantha Dhanapala, the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, has been invited to deliver the Sir Kenneth Bailey Memorial Lecture at the University of Melbourne in Australia tomorrow. While Mr. Dhanapala will be unable to attend, he's asked Richard Butler, the Executive Chairman of UNSCOM (United Nations Special Commission to monitor Iraq's disarmament of weapons of mass destruction) to deliver the speech on his behalf, and we have advance copies of the text, entitled "Prospects for Nuclear Disarmament", in our Office.

Mr. Dhanapala is expected to be back at work on Monday. He's recovering from an operation.

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**Bethlehem Renovation:

On behalf of the Secretary-General, Kieran Prendergast, the Under- Secretary-General for Political Affairs, delivered a message today at the opening session of the Bethlehem 2000 International Conference, which is taking place today and tomorrow in Rome. The Conference is sponsored by the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, with the support of the Government of Italy.

He said that Bethlehem is in dire need of renovation, and that the Bethlehem 2000 Project of the Palestinian Authority is crucial. The project, which has the full support of the United Nations, aims at improving municipal infrastructure and public services while preserving the city's rich archaeological, cultural and historical heritage.

In his message, the Secretary-General notes that these endeavours will come to naught if peace continues to elude Palestinians and Israelis. He said we must continue to focus all our efforts on achieving a negotiated settlement of the question of Palestine.

The full text of that message is available in my Office if you're interested.

**Afghan Earthquake Assistance:

We have available also a press release issued in Islamabad on assistance being provided by the United Nations to victims of an earthquake that struck a snowy Afghan mountain area south of Kabul a week ago. More than 5,500 homes were damaged or destroyed in the quake, which left at least 30,000 people homeless. Ninety mosques were also ruined.

Although international United Nations staff have been out of Afghanistan since August 1998, the United Nations sent in a team of four international staff members to Kabul this week to help coordinate earthquake relief efforts.

**Women and Children's Health:

In the wake of the condemnation of a woman for genital mutilation, by a French court, the Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and the one on traditional practices affecting the health of women and children issued a statement today in Geneva.

In their statement, the two Special Rapporteurs recall that traditional genital mutilation is a universal problem affecting many countries and cultures. They emphasize the fact that information and education remain the best means to fight effectively harmful traditional practices. They noted

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that alternative initiation rights respectful of the girls' physical integrity have successfully been put in place in several communities.

You can get the complete text of their statement in my Office, but it's available only in French.

**International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia:

The Swedish Foreign Minister, Anna Lindh, will be in The Hague next week to sign an agreement on the enforcement of sentences with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Sweden will become the fourth Member State to enter into such an agreement, along with Italy, Finland and Norway. And, you can get the press release from the Tribunal in my Office.

**Pension Fund to Allow Payment to Divorced Spouses:

Resolutions adopted by the General Assembly last year have been trickling out on the racks -- most of them without much notice. I thought, though, that I'd call your attention to one that came out today on the United Nations pension system.

This resolution, adopted in December, sets out the amendments to the regulations of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund that allow payments to divorced spouses. Basically, it states that if a retired staff member dies, the benefit -- which used to be payable to his or her current spouse only -- should be split equally among all surviving spouses, past and present.

So, see the details in the text.

**Farewell Reception at Headquarters:

Following the common tradition of military and civilian police to formally say good-bye when their service to the United Nations ends, there'll be a farewell reception here at Headquarters from 5 to 6 p.m. today for some 67 gratis personnel officers who are leaving.

The Deputy Secretary-General, Louise Frechette, will make some off-the- cuff comments.

**Press Conferences:

Other press conferences -- today, at 2:30 p.m., the United States Mission is sponsoring a press conference announcing a major international conference to fight organized crime and corruption through civic education.

Then, tomorrow at 11 a.m., you'll be briefed on the outcome of the February session of the Commission for Social Development, by the Commission

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Chair, Aurelio Fernandez of Spain, and by Faith Innerarity, the Vice-Chair of the Commission Bureau and the Jamaican Director of Social Security.

**UNCA Announcement:

I've been asked to announce, on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents' Association, that they'll be hosting a briefing by John Ondawame, Spokesman for the Free Papua Movement, today at 3:30 p.m. at the UNCA lounge, and you're all invited.

**Question-and-Answer Session:

Question: Any response from Libya to the Secretary-General's letter?

Spokesman: No, the letter, as we announced, went out about 1 p.m. yesterday -- at least it was delivered to Ambassador Dorda of Libya, and we have nothing to update you since then.

Jadranka?

The following is a summary of the briefing by Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly:

**General Assembly Today:

Good afternoon. The plenary will meet this afternoon to take up several outstanding items. Among those, as I already mentioned, is the fourth report of the General Committee, which recommended last week the inclusion of an additional item in the agenda for the session, on the granting of observer status for the Customs Cooperation Council in the General Assembly.

In addition, the Assembly is to decide on the remaining vacancy for African States in the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC), and Comoros is the candidate nominated by the Economic and Social Council to fill this position.

Also, a vacancy in the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) -- the President of the Assembly, following consultations, is submitting the candidacy of Sumihiro Kuyama of Japan to fill the vacancy for a five-year term.

Regarding confirmation of the appointment of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) -- at the recommendation of the Secretary-General, Rubens Ricupero of Brazil should be reappointed for another four-year term.

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The President will also announce the appointment of four additional members to the Committee on Relations with the Host Country in accordance with resolution 53/104 of 18 December 1998.

And, finally, the Assembly will take up this afternoon the issue of the closing date of the current session and opening of the fifty-fourth session.

**Arrears under Article 19 of Charter:

Since I last mentioned it, Madagascar and Djibouti paid up their arrears under article 19 of the United Nations Charter, but 40 Member States are still unable to vote in the General Assembly due to arrears.

And, then on a related subject, you will recall that last week the Committee on Contributions held a special session to consider several requests for exemptions from the application of Article 19. I understand the Committee's report should be available on the racks tomorrow.

**United Nations Reform:

And then later this afternoon, following the adjournment of the plenary meeting, the Open-ended Informal Consultations of the Plenary on Agenda Item 30 (United Nations reform: measures and proposals) will be convened in a closed session to consider the preparations for the Millennium Assembly.

**Security Council Reform:

The Open-Ended Working Group on Security Council reform will conclude its current session tomorrow and will reconvene again in late March.

**Fifth Committee:

Finally, I would like to remind you that the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) will hold its first resumed session from 8 to 26 March. And a note on the proposed programme of work and the status of the required documentation should be available soon.

Spokesman: I'm told that Mr. Arlacchi is on his way here from the ACABQ, where he's been in a hearing. So, if you want to hold on just a few more minutes, I think he should be here shortly. Thank you very much.

Spokesman: (following a further update from a staff member): Mr. Arlacchi will be unable to brief right now, but he will be present for the 2:30 p.m. press conference on organized crime and corruption. I have available here the text of his briefing to the Missions in New York on the progress made by the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention.

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