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 Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon, the guest at today's briefing will be Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP). Today, the WFP is appealing to the international community to increase aid to the Sudan in order to avoid complete exhaustion of food aid stocks for that war-torn country. You may also have questions on other issues.

**Situation in Kosovo

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports today that more than 20,000 people have fled fighting which erupted in villages around the central town of Srbica over the weekend. The clashes erupted following the departure of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) monitors from Kosovo. The UNHCR staff who went to the two towns in which the newly displaced sought refuge reported a scene of despair with many houses in flames in nearby villages.

We have a weekly update available for you upstairs. It says that population displacement has been accompanied by the renewed burning of villages and destruction of means of livelihood, thus preventing return of the displaced.

**Ethiopia-Eritrea

The Deputy Foreign Minister of Ethiopia, Tekeda Alemu, and the Foreign Minister of Eritrea, Haile Weldensae, who had been in Washington D.C. last week to attend the United States-Africa ministerial meeting, have been invited today to attend two consecutive "Arria-formula" meetings of the Security Council organized by Namibia. The first of these meetings was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. this morning.

The two senior officials from the two warring countries are also scheduled to meet with the Secretary-General today.

**Commission on Human Rights

The Commission on Human Rights, which is the main human rights organ of the United Nations, started this morning its fifty-fifth session which will be held in Geneva from today to 30 April 1999.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, opened the session this morning by calling for greater emphasis on protection and prevention in a world where armed conflicts "are so grave in their effects,

and so vast in their scale, that they create a sense of powerlessness". She urged the human rights community to advocate public reporting of massacres of civilians and other serious human rights violations; to carry out accurate and timely investigations to dispel propaganda and rumours; to illuminate the underlying causes of conflicts and human rights violations; to deploy human rights monitors when necessary; and to strengthen the establishment of national institutions to protect and promote human rights.

Her speech will be available shortly in room 378. We also have the opening statement of the elected Chairman of this year's Commission session: Ambassador Anne Anderson of Ireland.

**Human Rights Committee Meets in New York

Here in New York, the Human Rights Committee, composed of 18 experts, starts its sixty-fifth session today at New York Headquarters. It will last until 9 April 1999. The Committee, which monitors the implementation of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, will review the status of the implementation of the Covenant in Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica and Lesotho.

**Human Rights Mission Returns from China

The needs assessment mission sent to China by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs. Robinson, returned to Geneva on Sunday, 21 March, after spending two weeks in the country. During their mission, the experts, as instructed by the High Commissioner, sought to advance the ratification and implementation of the two international human rights covenants through a discussion of a comprehensive programme of technical cooperation in the field of human rights. The components of this programme are reflected in the draft of a Memorandum of Understanding, which the Chinese authorities are studying now.

A press release issued by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is available in room 378.

**Bosnia and Herzegovina: Secretary-General's Report on United Nations Mission

The Secretary-General's progress report on the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina is out on the racks this morning. The main activity of the Mission is the 2,000-strong International Police Task Force (IPTF), which continues its efforts to restructure and reform the police services in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and in the Republika Srpska. Despite the agreement on police restructuring and reform in the Republika Srpska and some progress in minority recruitment in the Federation, the Secretary-General says that it is not clear that these steps mark the beginning of self-sustaining progress. The establishment of self-sustaining political institutions continues to present a significant challenge. The Secretary-General

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 22 March 1999

emphasizes the need for the strong and consistent support of the Stabilization Force in providing adequate security as well as diplomatic support for the creation of professional and multi-ethnic police services.

**Iraq: Disarmament Panel Begins Week-long Session Today

The Iraq Panel on Disarmament and Current and Future Ongoing Monitoring and Verification Issues (Panel 1) resumes its work today at 4 p.m. in Conference Room 7. It is expected to meet until 27 March. The other two Panels are expected to meet next week.

**Tomorrow's Press Conferences

Tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. there will be a press conference by Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); and representative Carolyn Maloney, Democrat from New York, of Manhattan's 14th Congressional District, sponsor of UNFPA Funding Act of 1999.

At 11:15 a.m. tomorrow, Amama Mbabazi, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Uganda, will brief correspondents on the way forward in the Democratic Republic of the Congo crisis.

**WHO Event at American Museum of Natural History

The World Health Organization invites you to attend a joint press conference with the city of New York at 9 a.m. this Wednesday, which is World TB Day, at the American Museum of Natural History in conjunction with its exhibit "Epidemic! The World of Infectious Disease."

New York City is expected to release the official number of new tuberculosis cases and WHO will present its annual report on tuberculosis control. The disease is the most common infection in the world -- about one out of every three people in the world is infected with tuberculosis.

**Announcement by United Nations Correspondents' Association

An Albanian Parliamentary delegation will speak to the press at the UNCA Club at 4:30 p.m. today.

**Question and Answer Session

Question: Did you say that one out of three people is infected with tuberculosis?

Deputy Spokesman: I said that about one out of every three people in the world is infected with tuberculosis

Question: When is Issa Diallo going to brief the Council?

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 22 March 1999

Deputy Spokesman: I don't know. The briefing was scheduled for Friday, then it was postponed by the Council. We have not yet received a new schedule.

Question: Can you tell us who are the members of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) panel, which is meeting with the Secretary-General right now on Rwanda?

Deputy Spokesman: I do not have the list of members with me, but we can find out for you.

Question: On the Iraq Disarmament Panel, can you give us some more details about how many of the panelists are actually here? Do they have an agenda? Are they planning to make any kind of public statement?

Deputy Spokesman: I don't think they are planning to make any public statements. Anything on these panels is handled through Ambassador Celso L.N. Amorim of Brazil, who is the Chair of all three panels. The guidance that we have is that any inquiry should be channelled through him.

Question: Where did displaced people in Kosovo go? Have refugee camps been established there?

Deputy Spokesman: No, I don't think there are any refugee camps. At the moment, these people are within the limits of Kosovo. They are internally displaced at this time.

Question: Can you name some of the cities or villages where they are located so people can visit them?

Deputy Spokesman: As I mentioned, a UNHCR weekly update is available in our office, which provides the names of those villages. I don't have those names here with me.

Question: Is there any possibility of the Security Council meeting at the request of the Yugoslav Mission?

Deputy Spokesman: I know that the Council has discussed that, but I do not think it has made any decision on the matter.

Question: Any comment on the establishment of the Electoral Council in Haiti, which was requested by the Secretary-General's report before the Security Council?

Deputy Spokesman: The announcement, which is a decree by the President, is an encouraging development, and let us hope that it will help to overcome the current political and institutional crisis in Haiti.

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 22 March 1999

**Briefing by Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon. The President of the fifty-third session has returned to New York and this morning he is presiding over the meeting of the Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council and Other Matters Related to the Security Council. The Open-ended Working Group will continue its current session through Wednesday.

This afternoon, the General Assembly will conduct open-ended consultations of the plenary on agenda item 30 (United Nations reform: measures and proposals). The informal consultations will be on the question of the Millennium Assembly and the Millennium Summit of the United Nations. The Secretary-General will make an introductory statement. It is a closed meeting.

Tomorrow afternoon, the plenary will be reconvened to take up several issues. There is a letter from the Secretary-General to the President of the General Assembly, contained in document A/53/862, requesting the reopening of agenda item 110 (human rights questions) in order for the Assembly to consider the report of the Group of Experts for Cambodia. In resolution 52/135 of 15 December 1997, the Secretary-General was requested to appoint this group, which submitted its report a few days ago (document A/53/850).

The Assembly will also consider item 58 -- Strengthening of the United Nations system, and take up the issue of the date of closing of the current session and the opening of the fifty-fourth session, provided the consultations on this issue come to a conclusion by tomorrow.

The Assembly will then take up item 169, Observer status for the Customs Cooperation Council in the General Assembly. The item was added to the agenda just a few weeks ago. Chile will introduce draft resolution A/53/L.75 on this item.

The last item to be taken up tomorrow is item 167, Armed aggression against the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So far, seven speakers have inscribed to address the Assembly on this item.

And finally, the Fifth Committee is continuing its first resumed session, which is now in its final week. This morning, the Committee was scheduled to conclude its general discussion of the issue of gratis personnel under the item of Human resources management, and begin the general discussion of the scale of assessments, Pattern of conferences, programme planning, as well as the issue of death and disability benefits, under the item of Administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations. Following the adjournment of the formal meeting, the Fifth Committee was scheduled to continue informal consultations on a series of items, and those are to continue this afternoon and this evening.

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Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 22 March 1999