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'll start again with Kosovo.

**Crisis in Kosovo

The borders between Kosovo and Albania and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are closed. There were virtually no new arrivals at the third major exit point from Kosovo into neighbouring Montenegro.

Overnight, the authorities of The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia cleared a huge field containing tens of thousands of refugees along its border with Kosovo.

In a situation of mass confusion, some of these refugees were transferred to new transit points a few kilometres away. Others were sent by aircraft to Turkey, and yet more were crowded into fleets of buses and reportedly driven towards Albania and Greece.

Aid workers expressed tremendous concern over the fate of the ethnic Albanians who have been inside the Yugoslav border, to whom they had no access and about whom they had no information.

They confirm that those who have been in sight from The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia side of the border had been brought across the border, but those who are on the road behind a hill obstructing the view were now gone.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported today that the situation of the refugees varied from region to region as the international aid effort moved into high gear. Water and sanitation remained a major concern.

As the scale of the crisis continued to increase, a new United Nations inter-agency donor alert was launched. For planning purposes, the appeal -- which runs through 30 June -- estimated 650,000 refugees would probably need help, and the concerned agencies asked for a total of $138.4 million to meet their needs.

In addition to coordinating with United Nations humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organizations, UNHCR was working closely with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), relying on its manpower and logistics, to operate a joint airlift cell in Geneva, prepare transit camp sites, transport relief aid, and evacuate refugees out of danger.

The World Food Programme (WFP) -- the United Nations agency responsible for getting food to the refugees -- said it was appealing for 32,700 metric tonnes of emergency food rations and financial resources to cover the cost of delivering food to 650,000 people for the next three months. There is an especially critical need for humanitarian daily rations and other foods that do not require cooking facilities, the WFP said.

The WFP said it has also increased truck convoys sending rations of high protein biscuits, wheat flour, vegetable oil, pulses and sugar to refugees in northern and southern Albania. It also said it was supplying wheat flour to commercial bakeries, which in turn produce bread for the refugees. The combined production of loaves per day is 27,000, with each loaf weighing 1.2 kilograms.

The High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, flew to the region. Her first stop was Rome for an audience with Pope John Paul II and talks with Italian Government officials.

**Secretary-General's First Day in Geneva

The Secretary-General began the first day of his visit to Geneva with a meeting with Lakhdar Brahimi, his Special Envoy for Afghanistan, who briefed him on his recent talks with representatives of the Taliban, the opposition and the Governments of Afghanistan's neighbours.

He then was briefed on the humanitarian situation in Kosovo by the Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, Soren Jessen-Petersen, and the Operations Director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jean Daniel Tauxs.

At mid-day, he addressed the annual meeting of the Commission on Human Rights, the United Nations main human rights body. The full text of his speech is available in my office.

After that speech, he had a press encounter, at which he took questions on East Timor and Kosovo. A transcript is available in my office.

He then met with Mary Robinson, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who also briefed him on Kosovo. With her was the Special Rapporteur for the situation in the former Yugoslavia, Jiri Dienstbier, and her newly appointed personal representative for Kosovo, Michel Moussali, who leaves for the region tomorrow.

At present, Mrs. Robinson has eight human rights monitors in Albania, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Montenegro and is training six more.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 7 April 1999

The Secretary-General and Mrs. Annan then participated in the opening of a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) exhibit marking the tenth anniversary of the General Assembly's approval of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

He had a working lunch hosted by Mrs. Robinson, which included members of the Commission on Human Rights.

In the afternoon, he addressed a meeting of the Chairman and Coordinators of the "Group of 77" -- those are developing countries. The text is available in my office. Immediately before that address, he had a private meeting with the Chairman of the Group of 77, Ambassador S.R. Insanally of Guyana.

His other meetings of the day included Dr. Azeddine Laraki, the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and he also met with, or may just be meeting now, the Foreign Minister of Iran, Kamal Kharrazi.

This evening he will be at the mercy of the Geneva press corps, when he attends their professional organization's fiftieth anniversary dinner.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding consultations on Iraq. At the moment, the 15 members are being briefed by Ambassador Celso Amorim, who chaired the three panels established by the President of the Council.

Ambassador Amorim is briefing on the report which is out today on the racks as S/1999/356, and it contains the three reports on disarmament, the humanitarian situation and on prisoners of war and Kuwaiti property.

**Treaties

Trinidad and Tobago yesterday afternoon became the second country in history to ratify the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Seventy-nine countries have signed the Statute, which requires 60 ratifications to come into force.

**Payments

Greece became the fifty-sixth Member State to pay its dues in full for this year, with a check for some $3.6 million.

We also have in my office today the status of contributions from the end of last month.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 7 April 1999

**Press Conferences

11:15 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday -- the Ambassador of Thailand, Asda Jayanama, will brief you on the 1999 economic and social survey of Asia and the Pacific, and a detailed background note will be available tomorrow morning in room 226.

**Question-and-Answer Session

Question: The President of Turkey is going to Albania and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia because of the refugee situation. Do you have anything about that?

Spokesman: No I don't, I'm sorry.

Question: When we have a crisis of the dimension of Kosovo, the Secretary-General places a telephone call to the leader. Do you think that he will be doing that while in Europe to President Slobodan Milosevic, because we are talking about the dimension of the crisis and also the absence of the Secretary-General in this crisis.

Spokesman: Yes, you're talking about the absence of the Secretary- General and I've been trying to make clear to you that he has no intention of jumping into a crisis where he doesn't have a useful role to play. Right now, it is the Contact Group that...

Question: ... Why Fred? Under article 99, if there is a crisis of world dimension, his duty is to be part of it.

Spokesman: Yes, but under article 99, he's to bring to the attention of the Council a threat to international peace and security. The Council is already seized of the matter. The Contact Group is taking the lead on the political side, and frankly, there's a war going on.

There are not the opportunities available as there were in Iraq, as many people tried to make a comparison a year ago February, when he intervened then. It's not a comparable situation. He would like to hold himself in reserve if, at any time, there appears to be a useful role for him to play.

Right now, he's concentrating on the humanitarian side.

Jadranka, what do you have for us today?

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 7 April 1999

**Spokesman for General Assembly President

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for General Assembly President Didier Opertti (Uruguay), said the plenary is meeting this afternoon, so it was an opportunity for her to come by.

**Plenary

This afternoon, the plenary will consider a number of reports of the Fifth Committee and draft resolutions adopted by the Committee during its first resumed session, held last month.

Among those, the Assembly will consider a draft resolution on procurement-related arbitration, and then two draft decisions related to procurement reform and also management irregularities causing financial losses to the Organization.

Then, two drafts on human resources management, including the omnibus resolution on this issue, as well as another one on gratis personnel.

Also, the issues relating to IMIS within the programme budget for the current biennium, a draft on programme planning relating to the programme performance for the last biennium (1996-1997) -- this is for transmittal to the Committee on Programme and Coordination for consideration at its thirty- ninth session, to be held in June.

There is also a draft on the pattern of conferences relating to the provision of interpretation services for meetings of regional groups, and also relating to improved utilization of conference facilities at the United Nations Office in Nairobi.

Also, a draft regarding the scale of assessments for the apportionment of expenses of the United Nations, whereby the General Assembly -- at the recommendation of the Committee on Contributions, which was made during its special session held last February -- would allow Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, and Georgia to retain their voting rights until 30 June this year, and the Republic of Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, and Nicaragua until 30 June 2000, since their failure to pay the amount necessary to avoid the application of Article 19 was deemed to be due to conditions beyond their control.

There are also drafts on: the financing of the United Nations missions in Haiti; on death and disability benefits relating to the administrative and budgetary aspects of financing of the peacekeeping operations; and on nominating Portugal as the candidate of the Western European and Other States Group to fill the vacancy in the Committee for Programme and Coordination.

Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 7 April 1999

Then, the Assembly will take up the revision of the general regulations of the World Food Programme (WFP); that is at the recommendation of the Economic and Social Council.

Finally, the Assembly is scheduled to consider a draft resolution on the closing date of the current session, which is proposed to be Monday, 13 September this year, and the opening of the fifty-fourth session, which would take place the following day -- the 1999 International Day of Peace.

There is also a draft proposing the dates for the special session of the General Assembly for a five-year review of the Global Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States, which, according to the draft, would take place on 27 and 28 September this year.

Also, today and tomorrow the ad hoc open-ended working group on financing for development will continue its informal consultations under the chairmanship of the Permanent Representatives of Austria and India. It will continue its consideration of key elements identified in the report contained in document A/53/470, relating in particular to the governance of the international monetary, financial and trade systems.

**Question-and-Answer Session

Question: Have any Member States approached the President of the General Assembly in reference to the situation in Yugoslavia?

Spokesman: No, there have been no formal approaches. The President is not here until next Monday. Actually, the meeting today will be presided by the Acting President, the Permanent Representative of Brunei Darussalam.

Question: Can we expect any statement from the President with respect to the crisis?

Spokesman: There was a statement about 10 days ago. There have not been any since.

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