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:

**Kosovo Crisis

The Secretary-General welcomes the statement by the Chairman on the conclusion of the meeting of the G-8 Foreign Ministers in Germany today, adopting general principles on the political solution to the Kosovo crisis. He is pleased, in particular, at the decision to prepare elements of a United Nations Security Council resolution, to draw up a road map on further concrete steps towards a political solution to the crisis, and to involve other members of the Council in this effort. The Secretary-General believes this is an important step in the direction he advocated when he spoke earlier this week in the Council and appealed to the members to find the unity necessary to achieve the required political solution.

The Secretary-General reiterates his willingness to extend full cooperation in the effort to rebuild a consensus on this question and, in this connection, expects to announce the appointment of his Special Envoys shortly.

The Secretary-General is convening a two-day meeting of all United Nations humanitarian agencies and partners involved in the response to the Kosovo crisis. It will take place on 13 and 14 May in Geneva. The objective of the meeting is to strengthen the response to the emergency in the region, with specific emphasis on humanitarian assistance, long-term assistance and human rights issues.

The top concern for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is the fate of refugees being denied asylum by the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. The UNHCR urged the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to allow thousands of terrified Kosovo refugees into the country. The UNHCR said it feared that thousands of Kosovo refugees have been effectively denied asylum in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia since it stopped allowing Kosovo refugees in late on Wednesday.

UNHCR staff saw about 1,000 refugees forcibly returned to the Yugoslav side of the border Wednesday evening, pushed back first by former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia authorities, then by the Serb side. Once they were back in Yugoslav territory, Serbian troops could be seen beating and shoving the refugees until they were out of sight. So far, there has been no formal response from the Yugoslav authorities on the proposed United Nations inter-agency needs assessment mission to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

**Security Council

The Security Council started consultations this morning on Georgia and on East Timor. On Georgia, Council members were briefed by Assistant Secretary- General for Peacekeeping Hedi Annabi. A draft presidential statement was introduced, and a formal meeting may take place on this subject tomorrow.

Following the signing of the agreements on East Timor yesterday, the Council is taking up that matter today. They have received the report of the Secretary-General on East Timor, and Council members will be briefed by Ambassador Jamsheed Marker, the Personal Representative of the Secretary-General for East Timor. By the way, Ambassador Marker will be available at the stakeout area to answer your questions when he leaves the Council consultations.

In his report, which is now available on the racks, the Secretary-General encloses the agreements signed yesterday and highlights what is expected of the United Nations. He notes that the United Nations will face logistical and other problems to carry out the popular consultation in such a short time frame.

He also says that he has emphasized to the parties the main elements that will be needed in order to enable him to determine that the necessary security conditions exist for the start of the operational phases. The elements he emphasizes include: bringing armed civilian groups under strict control and the prompt arrest and prosecution of those who incite or threaten to use violence; a ban on rallies by armed groups while ensuring freedom of association and expression of all political forces and tendencies; the redeployment of Indonesian military forces; and the immediate institution of a process of laying down of arms by all armed groups to be completed well in advance of the holding of the ballot.

Under the item on Angola yesterday afternoon, Council members received copies of a draft resolution calling for the establishment of expert panels to collect information on the violation of sanctions against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and to recommend appropriate measures. A Security Council document outlining the conceptual framework of the panels is available today as a document on the racks.

**Secretary-General for Washington

The Secretary-General will leave tomorrow afternoon for Washington, D.C., to participate in the commencement activities at Howard University tomorrow evening and Saturday.

He will attend the Commencement Dinner at Howard tomorrow evening, and then he will give the keynote address at the Commencement Convocation on Saturday morning. He will also receive an honorary degree from Howard, a Doctor of Humane Letters.

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While in Washington, he will meet with United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Friday afternoon, and he may have other meetings as well.

**Update on Fever Outbreak

Parental discretion is advised on the following item. We have the results from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the cause of the viral haemorrhagic fever in the north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Marburg disease has been confirmed as the cause. Marburg disease is not very well known. Both Marburg and the closely related Ebola virus are often characterized by the sudden onset of fever, malaise, muscle pain, headache and conjunctivitis. This is followed by sore throat, vomiting, diarrhoea, rash and both internal and external bleeding. Please see the WHO note on this disease for more details.

**Payments

No payments to announce today, unfortunately, especially considering that the United Nations is still owed nearly a billion dollars for the regular budget alone. You'll find the depressing details of the status of contributions update as of the end of April in my Office.

**Yesterday's Decolonization Question

Yesterday, I was asked whether a resolution to the question of East Timor would enable the United Nations to reach its goals for decolonization. The General Assembly did declare this decade to be the International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism, and that was a follow-up to its 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

East Timor is one of the non-self-governing Territories covered by that Declaration, and we hope that the upcoming ballot there will help resolve its status. If so, that would eventually remove East Timor from the list of non-self-governing Territories, but there are still 16 others, including Western Sahara. There, too, the United Nations is working to organize a referendum to allow the people to decide between independence and integration with Morocco.

So, we can't prejudge whether or not we will reach the General Assembly's decolonization goals, but we are still working to achieve them. And by the way, the Decolonization Committee will meet this summer here in New York, so you can follow those proceedings first hand if you are interested.

**Organic Bananas

This is really a slow news day. Global imports of organic bananas have been growing at a rate of 30 per cent per year, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). In a press release issued today, the FAO

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said that organic banana production is well-suited to small and medium-sized farms, and could improve their economic viability. See the press release.

**CNN Event

Finally, tomorrow morning, the Secretary-General will be the keynote speaker at the tenth annual CNN World Report Conference. His speech will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience. CNN correspondent Brent Sadler will participate live from the Balkans via satellite.

The morning segment will be followed by a series of discussions on economic and social affairs, humanitarian questions and issues related to peace and security, with the participation of senior United Nations officials in charge of these matters.

**Question-and-Answer Session:

Question: On Angola, when will the draft resolution be adopted?

Spokesman: I don't know. I think there's a possibility action will be taken tomorrow. And then I think this group that Ambassador [Robert] Fowler [of Canada] has organized as Chairman of the Sanctions Committee is expected to leave over the weekend.

Question: What does "shortly" mean in terms of the announcement of the Kosovo Special Envoys?

Spokesman: This morning [the Secretary-General] told me he just had a few more telephone calls to make. He didn't exclude that it could happen today, but he thought it might not happen till tomorrow.

Question: Has the Secretary-General considered a direct meeting with Mr. [Yugoslav President Slobodan] Milosevic?

Spokesman: He's always said that he would do whatever he needed to do to help the process along, but that any such meeting would have to be carefully prepared and all the groundwork laid for it, and that the time for such a meeting is not now.

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