ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN SWITZERLAND -- 11-14 MAY
Press Release
SG/T/2179
ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN SWITZERLAND -- 11-14 MAY
19990517 The Secretary-General arrived in Geneva from New York on Wednesday, 12 May.The following morning he began preparations for the High-level Meeting on the Crisis in the Balkans by conferring with Sadako Ogata, High Commissioner for Refugees. This was followed by a session with Cornelio Sommaruga, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who shared with him impressions of his recent visit to the region.
He also met with Sergio Vieira de Mello, his Emergency Relief Coordinator, and Mr. Vieira de Mello's Deputy, Martin Griffiths, to review plans for a needs assessment mission that was expected to depart for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia the following weekend.
He then had a telephone conversation with Belgium's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Eric Derycke. They discussed prospective plans for reconstruction in south-eastern Europe and agreed to meet in person a few days later to pursue the same subject.
At midday he held his first meeting with his recently appointed Special Envoys to the Balkans, Carl Bildt and Eduard Kukan. They reviewed the Envoys' terms of reference and discussed the approach to their work.
In introducing them to the press, he said that he and his Envoys would always be available to play a political role. He summed up their job description as "to intensify the search for peace". Mr. Bildt, in response to a question, commented, "We must be better prepared for peace than we, the international community, evidently were prepared for war, because peace is an even more complicated thing than war and requires solid preparation. We see that as our main task". The Secretary-General and the two Envoys then had a private lunch together.
That afternoon, the Secretary-General chaired the High-level Meeting on the Crisis in the Balkans, which was attended by the heads of a variety of United Nations agencies, funds and programmes working in the region. He described their efforts thus far to cope with the emergency as "heroic", but
said they must build on this performance by improving coordination and response time. The meeting, which also touched on contingency planning for the period following any peace agreement, lasted approximately three hours, and was attended by the following: Mr. Bildt and Mr. Kukan, Special Envoys of the Secretary-General to the Balkans; Mrs. Ogata, High Commissioner for Refugees; Mr. Vieira de Mello, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator; Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); Mary Robinson, High Commissioner for Human Rights; Bernard Miyet, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations; Yves Berthelot, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe; Alvaro de Soto, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs; Namanga Ngongi, Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme; Zephirin Diabre, Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme; and Rory O'Sullivan, Head of the Joint European Communities/World Bank Balkans Reconstruction Office, on behalf of the World Bank.
Mr. Griffiths, Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, briefed the press before the High-level Meeting. Mr. Vieira de Mello also addressed the media.
That evening the Secretary-General met with Joseph Deiss, Foreign Minister of Switzerland. He then had a working dinner with United States Deputy Secretary of State, Strobe Talbott.
On Friday morning, 14 May, the Secretary-General conferred again with Mr. Vieira de Mello, and with Mr. Griffiths. Later in the day, he announced the appointment of Mr. Griffiths as Regional Coordinator for United Nations Assistance in the Balkans. Mr. Vieira de Mello would head a Needs-Assessment Mission which was to leave the following day for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Secretary-General then chaired the second and final day of the High-level Meeting on the Balkans. In addition to the Heads of United Nations agencies, funds and programmes that participated on the first day, that day's session included representatives of non-governmental relief organizations active in the Balkans. The Secretary-General called on all present to focus frankly and constructively on how to improve the international response to the humanitarian crisis in the region (see Press Release SG/SM/6992).
At a press conference immediately following the three-hour session, the Secretary-General announced the appointment of Mr. Griffiths, saying that his responsibilities would include coordinating the overall United Nations system operational response to the crisis. He also announced his intention to travel to the region for a two-day visit to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and to Albania for a first-hand look at the United Nations work with the refugees. Asked whether the United Nations had been politically marginalized by the Kosovo crisis, the Secretary-General responded that this is "a
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short-term phenomenon" and added "what may seem initially to have weakened the Organization may in the end reaffirm its central role, its relevance and its importance" (see Press Release SG/SM/6993).
The Secretary-General then addressed the thirteenth Congress of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the Geneva-based United Nations body that monitors weather, water and climate. He congratulated Godwin Obasi on his re-election that morning as Secretary-General of the WMO. He praised the agency's growing work on the reduction of greenhouse gases as well as on advances in weather prediction that allow the WMO to provide effective advance warnings that save lives and reduce damage to property and the environment (see Press Release SG/SM/6991).
At the end of the day the Secretary-General departed for The Hague for a four-day official visit to the Netherlands, which would also include events at United Nations bodies such as the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He would also address The Hague Appeal for Peace Conference and the Centennial of the First International Peace Conference.
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