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:

Good afternoon. We're going to try a second time to get Pino Arlacchi to the briefing. I don't see him here but I hope he's on his way. He, of course, is the Executive Director of the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention.

**Secretary-General to Washington, D.C.:

The Secretary-General will visit Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. He'll receive the Georgetown University Trainor Award and deliver a lecture on the future of United Nations peacekeeping.

While he's in town, he hopes to meet with senior Government officials, as well as the new congressional leadership. On Wednesday evening, the Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan will be guests at the White House State dinner for President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana, and he'll be back in New York on Thursday morning.

**United Nations Preventive Deployment Force:

The Secretary-General has recommended to the Security Council a six- month extension of the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP) in The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, which expires at the end of this month.

He says in his report that the potential serious repercussions that continued violence in Kosovo could have on the external and internal security of the country cannot be ignored, given the large proportion of ethnic Albanians in the population.

He adds by contributing significantly to promoting dialogue among the various political forces and ethnic communities the United Nations peacekeeping mission continues to have a stabilizing effect on that country.

**Kurdish Demonstrations at United Nations Offices:

Kurdish demonstrators in support of Abdullah Ocalan continued to have an impact on United Nations Offices today. New York City has authorized a demonstration by Kurds outside the Headquarters building here, starting at 1 p.m. and continuing through the afternoon.

Earlier today, about 20 Kurds forced their way into a UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) office in Stockholm, and continue a peaceful occupation of part of the premises.

A Kurdish demonstration outside the United Nations Office in Armenia entered its fourth day today. Among them is a group of 18 hunger strikers. Every three hours, health officials visit the hunger strikers for check-ups. Until now, they've refused medical help.

Earlier today, a group of 37 demonstrators entered the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) building in Paris, and met with the Assistant Director-General of External Relations, and left quietly after making their demands known. Outside the building, there was a 400-strong protest.

**Saturday Noon Deadline on Kosovo Talks:

As the clock is ticking ahead of the Saturday noon deadline on the Rambouillet talks on Kosovo, there are small signs of normalization in Kosovo amid the general atmosphere of suspense and anxiety, reports UNHCR.

UNHCR also reported that heavy snowfall created difficulties for delivery of humanitarian aid, but agencies continue to operate three convoys a day. UNHCR, in its weekly humanitarian update, also says that agencies have begun considering possible scenarios for the post-Rambouillet period in Kosovo.

You can check the report for more details.

**Possible Saturday Security Council Meeting on Kosovo:

The Security Council is not meeting today, and thus far, they've not been able to confirm for us the rumours that they might meet tomorrow on the subject of Kosovo.

**Outbreak of Mystery Disease in Afghanistan:

The United Nations is trying to reach Darwaz, an extremely remote area of northeastern Afghanistan where a mystery disease has been reported in villages located in the narrow valleys between high mountains.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is planning to send two epidemiologists on Saturday to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, from where they will travel by helicopter arranged by the United Nations Mission in Tajikistan (UNMOT) to as many of the four affected villages as they can get access to. Normal access to the area is by donkey or foot from Faizabad, which is a 10- day minimum trip.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 19 February 1999

Local authorities in Faizabad have also arranged for a helicopter and were to fly to the affected area today with a WHO national staff member from Faizabad.

The WHO in Afghanistan first received reports of an outbreak a week ago from Darwaz authorities, who reported 2,000 cases of people affected, of which 150 died. Symptoms are fever, cough, pain, vomiting, diarrhoea -- with elderly women and children the worst affected.

**Emergency Food Aid to Great Lakes Region of Africa:

The World Food Programme announced in a press release issued in Nairobi today a $270 million emergency food aid programme for the volatile Great Lakes region. This will be one of the agency's largest operations in the world. The two-year operation will start in August of this year, providing a total of 422,000 metric tonnes of food aid to a monthly average of 1.25 million war- affected persons in Burundi, Rwanda, United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda.

**New Human Development Adviser for UNDP:

We have a press release from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) saying that the Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen, has been named human development adviser for UNDP. You can pick that up in my office.

**Urgent Appeal by UNICEF:

UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) has issued an urgent appeal in Geneva today to the G-7 countries, who will be meeting tomorrow in Bonn, to consider both debt relief and a reversing of a free-fall in direct bilateral aid to the world's poorest nations.

The UNICEF press release noted a 16 per cent decline in official development assistance to all developing countries during the 1990s, and offered what it called "devastating evidence" of the impact of the drop in the most vulnerable countries.

A full press release is available.

**Payments to United Nations:

Two more Member States paid in full today. The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia paid over $41,000, and the Maldives, over $10,000. That makes 43 paid in full.

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**Scheduled Press Conferences:

Press conferences -- as we mentioned to you yesterday, Louise Frechette, the Deputy Secretary-General, will brief you in this room (S-226) at 3 p.m. on the status of United Nations reform.

Then, on Monday, at 10:30 a.m. here, senior environmental officials from the North American telecommunications industry will hold a press conference in connection with the finalization of an industry-wide environmental charter. We have a media advisory on that for you in my office.

And, this will be followed at 11:15 a.m. by Ambassador Herb Okun, on the annual report of the International Narcotics Control Board. Copies of the report, which are embargoed until Tuesday morning, are available at the documents counter.

**Week Ahead:

On the week ahead, we've got the full text available for you in my office -- let me just give you some highlights:

The Secretary-General is scheduled to have lunch with President Jacques Chirac of France at the restaurant Daniel at 1 p.m. on Saturday. It's a private luncheon, but there'll be a photo opportunity at the start of the luncheon.

Then, on Monday, the Security Council will hold an open meeting on the protection of civilians in armed conflict in the morning. In the afternoon, they've arranged to hold an Arria formula meeting with the Angolan delegation, headed by Vice Minister for Territorial Administration, General Higino Carneiro.

Tuesday, the Security Council is expected to have two briefings: one by the High Representative for the implementation of the peace agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Carlos Westendorp; and the other on UNPREDEP.

Wednesday, Council consultations are scheduled for the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA), and the oil-for-food programme for Iraq, as well as UNPREDEP.

The Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Civilian Police Mission in Haiti (MIPONUH) is due on Thursday, and then on Friday, the Council is expected to hold a formal meeting on MONUA, whose mandate expires on that day.

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Also Friday, a formal meeting on the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA) is scheduled. The Mission mandate expires two days later, on Sunday.

Another formal meeting of the Council is expected before the UNPREDEP mandate expires on Sunday, 28 February.

The Council has also scheduled a sanctions review for Libya on Friday.

Any questions before we go to Mr. Arlacchi?

**Question-and-Answer Session:

Question: Has the Secretary-General been asked by the Libyan leader for any clarifications in his letter -- there are some published reports that Muammar Al-Qadhafi was not happy with some parts of the letter on sanctions and was going to ask for clarification?

Spokesman: The Libyan Ambassador, Ambassador Dorda, has made some preliminary observations on the Secretary-General's letter. We're now studying those. These were presented orally and informally.

Question: The United States threatens to bomb Yugoslavia and to hit hard. Is the United Nations, the Secretary-General, the Security Council going to remain silent to those threats?

Spokesman: We'll have to see. As I said, there's some talk of a possible Council meeting tomorrow.

Question: Without trying to pre-empt the speech of the Secretary- General, what is the feature of the peacekeeping operation?

Spokesman: Well, it's not for the Secretary-General to decide; that's for Member States to decide. But here at Headquarters, we continue to try to develop the rapid response mechanisms, to streamline procurement, basically to make peacekeeping a more flexible and useful tool to Member States. Whether they use it is up to them.

Question: This mystery disease in Tajikistan -- we don't know at all what it is?

Spokesman: No, that's why we're calling it a mystery, and it's in Afghanistan. If you want any more information, you can ask Marie Okabe of my office, who's been following the matter.

Pino Arlacchi -- what do you have to tell us about drugs and crime?

[Mr. Arlacchi's briefing will be issued separately.]

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