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.

**Secretary General

Good afternoon. The Secretary-General began his official visit to Sweden this morning by addressing a donors' conference on Central America called to address two themes: the unfinished political and human rights agendas of the peace process, and the reconstruction agenda following Hurricane Mitch. The high-level meeting in Stockholm was attended by the Presidents of Honduras and Nicaragua, delegates from all Central American countries, and representatives of donor countries and multilateral aid agencies. The Secretary-General called for the building of a new compact between the region and the international community so that the paths of peace and reconstruction could be brought more closely together. We have copies of his speech available in our Office both in English and in Spanish.

In the margins of the Central America conference, the Secretary-General had the opportunity to meet with Brian Atwood, Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, and Charles Josselin, France's Minister of International Development, to discuss the humanitarian response to Kosovo.

Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson then hosted a working lunch for the Secretary-General and his delegation, which focused almost exclusively on Kosovo, although they also discussed a Swedish government initiative in support of action to prevent conflicts.

At a joint press conference with the Prime Minister afterwards, the Secretary-General was asked if he saw progress in the peace efforts on Kosovo. He said, "there's lots of activity and lots of discussions going on, but I cannot say that we are going to have peace tomorrow. We need to do some more work". The audio of this press conference, some of you may have heard already, was available through the in-house TV channels. They can also be picked up throughout the day at any time through the United Nations Radio Bulletin Board, which is accessed by dialing 963-3777. We'll also have available later on the transcript of this press conference.

**Rwanda Inquiry

During the press conference, the Secretary-General announced a three- member team to investigate the role of the United Nations in the Rwanda genocide of 1994. Ingvar Carlsson, the former Swedish Prime Minister, will head the team and will meet with the Secretary-General in Stockholm tomorrow

morning. The other two members will be Han Sung-Joo, the former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea, and General Rufus Kupolati of Nigeria, who served three years as head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission based in Jerusalem.

As you will recall, in a letter dated 18 March, the Secretary-General informed the Security Council of his intention to set up an independent inquiry into the actions the United Nations took at the time of the genocide. He said the primary purpose was to establish facts and to draw conclusions as to the response of the Organization to the tragedy. The panel is expected to report to the Secretary-General no later than six months from the commencement of the inquiry. We have the bio notes of the three members, as well as the exchange of letters between the Secretary-General and the Security Council President, in our Office on the third floor.

**Secretary-General, Continued

Continuing with the Secretary-General's activity of the day, after the press conference, he met with Swedish Defence Minister Bjorn von Sidow, with whom he reviewed Sweden's contribution to United Nations peacekeeping and the security situation in Africa. He then met with Swedish business leaders, members of the Svenska Dagbladet Executive Club, and, in his address, he renewed the offer of a compact between the United Nations and the business community, first made at Davos, Switzerland, last January, by saying that, "increasingly, business leaders recognize that their responsibility -- and their interest -- lie not only in how their actions affect their shareholders, but in the way they affect all life on this planet". After this meeting with business leaders, he went to a reception hosted by the African ambassadors in Stockholm, in commemoration of Africa Day, which is the anniversary of the establishment of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

**Kosovo

Still while in Sweden today, in response to a question on the peace efforts on Kosovo, the Secretary-General, as I said earlier to you, pointed out that there is some more work to be done. As part of these international efforts to bring an end to the Kosovo crisis, the Secretary-General has scheduled meetings with his Special Envoys for the Balkans, as well as with the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, on Wednesday, there in Stockholm.

Special Envoy Eduard Kukan was in Brussels today, where he had been scheduled to meet with the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Javier Solana, among others. Mr. Kukan was to travel to Geneva following his meeting to link up with his counterpart, Carl Bildt, before leaving for Stockholm to meet with the Secretary-General. Both Mr. Bildt and Mr. Kukan had a very brief press encounter in Geneva, which finished just about five minutes ago. We hope to get a transcript or a summary of it later today to share with you.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 25 May 1999

Meanwhile, the United Nations needs assessment mission returned to Belgrade several hours ago today. On Monday, the mission members had visited areas inside Montenegro, where, in addition to assessing the needs of the civilian population, they had talks with environmentalists on the impact of the bombings on national parks, flora and fauna. The two members who had been injured in a road accident earlier on in the mission were scheduled to be "medivaced" on Wednesday to the New York area.

Sergio Vieira de Mello, the mission leader, will be giving a press conference in Belgrade tomorrow, Wednesday, at 6 p.m. local time. We hope to be able to have the sound feed here in New York of that press conference. If we do, we'll let you know, of course. Mr. Vieira de Mello will be preparing a report for the Secretary-General and the Security Council, and he is expected to brief the Council early next week.

**Kosovo Refugees

Refugees, meanwhile, are continuing to cross into Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. There were no immediate figures from Albania today, but 1,500 had been reported to have arrived in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Since last Friday, well over 20,000 Kosovar refugees have poured into the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, putting a new strain on the country's reception capacity and signalling another massive wave of ethnic cleansing. Those arriving over the past few days included persons from Pristina and Urosevac areas, as well as displaced people who had moved to those cities over the past year from all over the province.

On the Albania side, staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported a security incident at the border around 7:45 Monday evening, when two shots were fired across the border and came close to our colleagues at border point. This reinforced our resolve to keep moving refugees from the border areas to points south. Over the past month, 100,000 new refugees have arrived in Albania from Kosovo, bringing the total refugee population to around 438,000. Despite the fact that the UNHCR and the authorities have been moving refugees every day from the insecure northern region of Kukes to other parts of the country, there are still close to 100,000 refugees in that area.

**United Nations Agencies in Kosovo

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) issued a report today on rape and abduction among Kosovar women refugees. Based on recent interviews conducted with women in camps around Tirana and Kukes, the report describes instances of repeated rape, beatings and other forms of torture. There are still no accurate estimates for the number of Kosovar women who have been raped. However, reports like this one indicate widespread sexual violence and raise the alarm that the women remaining in Kosovo are under great threat, according to the UNFPA.

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 25 May 1999

In response to the report, the UNFPA is providing training in counselling and psychological support to health professionals to enable them to offer help to victims of sexual violence. Additionally, local Albanian women's groups will receive training in counselling. The training will be done in coordination with other United Nations agencies, including the UNHCR and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), as well as local and international non-governmental organizations.

The Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Federico Mayor, meanwhile, launched a new call for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Kosovo to be found under the aegis of the United Nations.

We have the UNESCO appeal, the UNFPA press release, as well as the usual UNHCR update and the Secretary-General's remarks, which, as I said, will be available later on in our Office upstairs.

**Kashmir

I have here a statement attributable to the Spokesman. "The Secretary- General is concerned about reports of a two-week long heavy exchange of fire between the Indian and Pakistani troops along the line of control in the Kargil and Drass sectors in Jammu and Kashmir. The Secretary-General calls on the parties to exercise restraint and cease the fighting, which has reportedly caused a number of casualties among the civilian population, and displaced others from their villages in the area. These events again highlight the need for a political solution to the dispute over Kashmir."

**Security Council

There is no Security Council meeting today. A troop-contributors meeting on the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) will be held today at 3:30 p.m. in Conference Room 7. The current mandate of UNDOF, which was established to maintain the ceasefire between Israel and Syria, is due to expire on 31 May. The Secretary-General's report on UNDOF came out last Friday, and he recommended a further six-month extension of the mission. Tomorrow, the Security Council will take up the Secretary-General's report on East Timor, and will be briefed by the Secretariat on the humanitarian situation in Angola.

**World No-Tobacco Day

As you recall, yesterday we mentioned today as being World No-Tobacco Day. In his message marking the occasion, the Secretary-General notes that a shocking 4 million people die each year as a result of the effects of tobacco products, and that number is rising. The Secretary-General calls for legislation and education to combat the problem. He points out that it is never too late to stop, and calls on smokers everywhere to "leave the pack behind".

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 25 May 1999

The Secretary-General's message will be delivered by his Communications Director, Shashi Tharoor, at a special event here at Headquarters designed to help smokers quit. It's taking place now in the public lobby of the General Assembly building until 1:30 in the afternoon. And we repeat the invitation of yesterday -- you're all invited to be there.

**ILO against Child Labour

Moving now to labour issues, the International Labour Organization (ILO) announced plans today to adopt a new international treaty against child labour at the annual ILO Conference to be held in June. The convention will aim at an immediate, universal ban on the worst forms of child labour that still afflict millions of children worldwide and, in some cases, appear to be worsening, according to the agency.

The ILO estimates that some 250 million children between the ages of five and 14 work in developing countries alone. Over 50 million children are working in hazardous circumstances. The proposed treaty would protect children who suffer the worst forms of exploitation, including slavery and prostitution. We have a press release upstairs in our Office with more details on this issue, and another ILO press release on forced labour in Myanmar.

**WHO on Iodine Deficiency

At the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), outlined today a series of measures designed to eradicate Iodine Deficiency Disorder within the next decade. According to the WHO, the condition affects 740 million people every year. It causes brain disorders, cretinism, miscarriages and goiter. It is the world's single most important and preventable cause of mental retardation, and it is almost unknown. Equally unknown is the success in eradicating it. A press release with more details is available in our Office.

**Millennium Assembly Hearings in Beirut

The first set of regional hearings on the General Assembly's year 2000 Millennium Assembly wrapped up in Beirut, where over 70 participants representing governments and civil society gathered for two days to discuss the future of the United Nations. Assistant Secretary-General Miles Stoby, the Coordinator for the Millennium Assembly, praised participants for their candid criticism of the United Nations and their interest in contributing to the strengthening of the Organization. Despite the frustrations expressed by many participants, Mr. Stoby said there was no expression of helplessness, a positive sign. He said the hearings were paving the way for democratizing the United Nations. We have a press release in our Office with more details on this.

Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 25 May 1999

**World Environment Day

5 June, as you know, is World Environment Day, and the kits on that Day are available at the third floor documents counter from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Messages from the Secretary-General and UNEP's Executive Director are included, as well as articles from the Prime Minister of Japan, and the environment ministers of Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom, among others.

**Treaties

The Sudan today acceded to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction. There are now 124 parties to that treaty, which entered into force in April 1997.

**Payment

Jordan today became the sixty-sixth Member State to pay its dues, which amounted to over $62,000.

**Noon Briefing Guests

And finally, to inform you that tomorrow at the noon briefing we'll have two guests who will talk about a letter from Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Group of Eight (G-8) countries in advance of the mid-June G-8 summit. The text of the letter, a press release and some background materials will be available. Our guests will be Marta Mauras, Director of the Office of the Deputy Secretary-General, and Georg Kell, an economic adviser to the Secretary-General, who will discuss the background to the letter and answer your questions.

**Question-and-Answer Session

Sorry to be so long with the briefing. Any questions?

Question: On Iraq, has the United Nations officially received word that Baghdad will accept this extension of the "oil-for-food" programme?

Deputy Spokesman: If it hasn't come out yet, it should come out soon -- the confirmation of that, the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. As I came down, it was not there yet, but I understand it is signed and should be out as a document very soon.

Question: Who signs it?

Deputy Spokesman: The Iraqi Mission and the Legal Office here.

Daily Press Briefing - 7 - 25 May 1999

Question: Mr. Vieira de Mello -- what day does he come back and will he be talking with Mr. Annan in Europe before he comes back here to the Council?

Deputy Spokesman: As of now, it looks like they'll be meeting in New York, and that should be very early next week, meaning they'll both be back over the long weekend.

Question: You mentioned the Rwanda panel. When will their inquiry start?

Deputy Spokesman: They are to start working immediately. The Secretary- General announced the panel today in Sweden, and I understand that they will start immediately.

Question: Will they be going to the area?

Deputy Spokesman: I don't have details on that. We'll have to see what the panel will decide to do. It will be up to them.

Question: Is the fighting between the Indian and Pakistani troops still going on now, and do you have figures for the casualties?

Deputy Spokesman: We don't have any figures. And my understanding is that it's still going on.

Question: When the Secretary-General says, "leave the pack behind", is he ready to stop cigars that he smokes?

Deputy Spokesman: I didn't even know that he smokes cigars, so you know more than I do. Let's ask him when he comes back, it's a good question. Thank you very much, have a nice afternoon.

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