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:

**Kosovo

United Nations staff are out of Kosovo, and we have reduced the staff presence in Belgrade. We are following the situation very closely.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata -- as you know, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the lead agency for humanitarian affairs in Kosovo -- described the decision Tuesday to evacuate her staff from Kosovo, who had been assisting more than 200,000 war victims, as "tormenting", vowing that the UNHCR will go back to the province as soon as possible. No major movements of refugees have been reported crossing borders today. About 300 crossed from Kosovo to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

**Security Council

The Security Council is meeting in consultations today on Guinea-Bissau. Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Alvaro de Soto is briefing Council members on the subject.

Consultations on Angola are now scheduled for tomorrow at 10:50 a.m., with a briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet. The Security Council meeting follows a troop-contributors meeting on the United Nations mission for Western Sahara at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

**Robinson on Pinochet Extradition Proceedings

Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a statement in Geneva about an hour ago in which she says, "The ruling today by the United Kingdom's highest court in the case of Senator Augusto Pinochet is a vigorous endorsement of the view that torture is an international crime subject to universal jurisdiction. National courts can try torturers, even when the crime has been committed elsewhere."

She continued by saying that the decision is another significant step in the international struggle against impunity. The text of her statement is available in our Office upstairs.

**Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations

The Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations has begun a month-long annual session this morning. Bernard Miyet, the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, delivered an opening statement, stressing that the

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 24 March 1999

United Nations Charter underlines the primary role of the world Organization in maintaining international peace and security. He also elaborated the United Nations efforts to enhance the security and safety of peacekeeping personnel, to strengthen African peacekeeping capacity, to develop our understanding of the role of civilian police in peacekeeping, and to promote gender mainstreaming.

**Commission on Narcotic Drugs

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which is the United Nations' main policy-making body for drug control, currently meeting in Vienna, has agreed today to set up a high-technology monitoring network, including ground surveys and a remote satellite sensing, in a global effort to eradicate the coca bush, the cannabis plant and the opium poppies by the year 2008. A press release from Vienna is available from our Office upstairs -- room S-378.

**International Criminal Tribunals

Also upstairs we have handouts from the International Criminal Tribunals. One is a statement by the Prosecutor, Louise Arbour, in response to a The New York Times article published last Sunday. That article was titled "War Crimes Panel Finds Croat Army Cleansed Serbs".

We also have the notes for the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal weekly briefing.

From Arusha, we have a press release from the International Tribunal for Rwanda announcing the resignation of one of its judges.

**Commission on Human Rights

Also upstairs, we have the summary of the Geneva press briefing by the Commission on Human Rights.

**Great Lakes and Western Africa

Also available is the UNHCR Great Lakes and West Africa update, where you will find information, in particular, on the flow of refugees into Zambia from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and about 7,000 Sierra Leonean refugees registered in Guinea in the last two weeks.

**Freshwater Fish

We have a press release from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) saying that freshwater fish are increasingly threatened worldwide by environmental degradation.

**Afghanistan

Also available upstairs is the weekly humanitarian update on Afghanistan.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 24 March 1999

**Tuberculosis

Today is World Tuberculosis Day, and we have available in our Office a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

**General Assembly

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, could not be here today, but she asked me to inform you that the General Assembly will resume its debate on the agenda item "armed aggression against the Democratic Republic of the Congo".

There are seven speakers on the list, as well as two wishing to exercise their right of reply. These are Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

**Press Conferences

Today, at 2 p.m., Dr. Nafis Sadik, Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA); Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury, of Bangladesh; and Joseph Chamie, Director of the United Nations Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, will brief on preparations for the General Assembly's upcoming special session to review the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development.

Also today, at 4:30 p.m., the United States delegation to the Commission on Population and Development will address the press here. The main speaker will be Julia Taft, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migrations. She is also the head of the United States delegation to the Commission on Population and Development.

Tomorrow, at 11:15 a.m., a Brazilian non-governmental organization called the Legion of Goodwill, sponsored by the Brazilian Mission, will announce the nomination of actor John Amos as a Goodwill Ambassador.

And finally, I have an announcement requested by the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA). The representatives of Law Projects Centre Yugoslavia, an NGO from Belgrade, will brief correspondents on the issue of "Human rights in the Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina". This will be at the UNCA Club tomorrow at 11 a.m.

**Question-and-Answer Session

Question: Who is David Lee, who is listed as Special Coordinator for Haiti and as meeting with the Secretary-General this afternoon at 4 o'clock?

Deputy Spokesman: He is Canada's Special Coordinator for Haiti.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 24 March 1999

Question: How many United Nations people were pulled out of Belgrade, and how many are left?

Deputy Spokesman: We have about 15 left in Belgrade from different agencies -- from the UNHCR, from the World Food Programme, from the World Health Organization, from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and from the United Nations Liaison Office. So, we are basically talking about the humanitarian people. Until yesterday, we had about 30 people there, but that was already a bit reduced from the normal level of staff. We can find out the full number for you later on.

Question: Do you have an update on the transfer of the Libyan suspects?

Deputy Spokesman: I don't have any update. This operation will be conducted under the utmost confidentiality. That is the guidance we have, and I am afraid we will only know when it actually happens. Sorry about that.

Question: A few minutes ago, the Ambassador of Yugoslavia informed us that his country had declared a state of emergency and a declaration of war. The case was not about to be heard by the Security Council and even the Secretary-General. One of the functions of the Secretary-General in the Charter is to alert the Security Council when there is a situation of war. Why is the Secretary-General hiding?

Deputy Spokesman: I don't think he is hiding. The Secretary-General has been, throughout this crisis, in contact with a number of countries, especially the members of the Contact Group. But, as you know, these negotiations have been under the Contact Group leadership. The Security Council is certainly aware of what is happening. I don't think there is anyone who is not aware of what is happening there.

[The Deputy Spokesman then answered a question in Spanish, after which he summarized both the question and answer in English.]

Deputy Spokesman: For those who did not follow the Spanish, I was asked what was the Secretary-General's reaction, and I said he had been following the issue very closely. He had been in contact with the Contact Group members, as I have said, but we may also expect the Secretary-General to make a statement later on today.

* *** *