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.

Okay. We're going to have Mark Malloch Brown, the new Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), as our guest at the briefing today, his first day on the job. And he'll brief you on his vision for the UNDP under his leadership. We also have at the briefing today a number of guests who are from a newspaper in Saudi Arabia. Welcome to you.

**Kosovo

On Kosovo, just to recap, the Secretary-General characterized the discussions at yesterday's meeting of the "Friends of Kosovo" as "very, very useful". He told all of you that consensus understanding had been reached on several issues, including the collective objective of a multi-ethnic Kosovo, in which all people could live their lives in peace. They also agreed on the difficulty and the complexity of the task ahead. The Secretary-General said how quickly the United Nations mission can acquire a capacity to begin assuming responsibility for the urgent demands for pubic security is "entirely in the hands of the Member States".

As you recall, the Secretary-General announced that a total of 1,938 police had been pledged, out of 3,110 required. As of this morning, the numbers pledged rose to 2,241. Only one concrete financial pledge was made yesterday. That was a $1 million contribution announced by the United Kingdom.

The Secretary-General's second report to the Security Council on the needs and challenges of the United Nations mission in Kosovo is due out on 10 July.

In Kosovo, meanwhile, the United Nations top official in Kosovo, Sergio Vieira de Mello, held his second meeting with the Albanian political leadership in Pristina yesterday and discussed means for maintaining essential services and managing the problems posed by reintegration; the need for the Albanian leaders to call on their supporters to reject extremism and violence; and de Mello's proposed creation of a high level transitional council which would involve representatives of the Albanian and Serb communities. No conclusions were reached. De Mello indicated that he would consult separately with the various parties before making a final decision on the establishment of such a council, and its composition. This is intended to be a consultative body to deal with Kosovo-wide issues.

De Mello and his team also continued visits to calm the atmosphere in tension-filled areas of Kosovo to meet with the Albanian and Serb leaders. Mitrovica, Orahovac, Pec and Prizren were among the stops made by senior United Nations officials. De Mello also established the embryo of Kosovo's new judicial system with the appointment yesterday afternoon of nine judicial officials whose first task would be to serve as a kind of itinerant court to offer due process to those arrested and detained by KFOR forces throughout the province. (An estimated 150-200 individuals have been detained for looting, burglary, theft, arson to more serious crimes such as rape and murder).

Meanwhile, the residents of greater Pristina remained cut off from local news broadcasts for the fourth straight day as the standoff among Serb and Albanian radio and television broadcasters continued.

On the humanitarian front, as Soren Jessen Petersen of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) just mentioned to you at the briefing at 11:30 a.m., the number of Kosovo refugees returning home to Kosovo "with lightning speed" topped the half million mark earlier today.

Against this backdrop, the World Food Programme (WFP) has said it has expanded the emergency food aid operation in the Balkans to assist 2.5 million people who have suffered from the Kosovo crisis and previous strife in the region. Among the people WFP will assist with food aid are 650,000 internally displaced in Kosovo.

The International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia has over 100 personnel working in five teams. They are from Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, France and Switzerland and they are now investigating several dozen sites, performing preliminary surveys. Two more teams from Denmark and Germany, and a new United States team, are expected next week. The Tribunal will most probably not investigate all sites. They will focus on sites that are related to the existing indictments for Kosovo and on sites important to further investigations. With soon to be eight teams working round the clock on the ground, they feel confident that they will be able to investigate the bulk of the sites discovered by KFOR.

**East Timor

On East Timor, following the incident in Maliana on Tuesday, there was another incident yesterday afternoon in Vikeke in which about 15 armed militia threatened United Nations staff at their residence. As a result, seven electoral officers were temporarily relocated to Dili. Seven other staff, including United Nations civilian police, continue on at Vikeke.

For more details on this incident, please see a press release issued yesterday by the United Nations mission there and the summary of today's press briefing by United Nations Mission in East Timor's (UNAMET) spokesman David Wimhurst. More details on the action following the Maliana incident are

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included in the summary of a press briefing yesterday by the Special Representative, Ian Martin.

All this information is available in my office. Also available is a paper prepared by UNAMET with guidance for journalists who are planning to go to East Timor to cover the popular consultation process.

All of this type of information and much more -- UNAMET civic education materials, United Nations documents on East Timor, UNAMET radio programmes -- are now available on the UNAMET Web site. Starting soon, some of the information will also be available in additional languages. And if you want to visit that site, get the address from my office.

**Secretary-General to Visit Europe and Africa

The Secretary-General will be leaving on another trip on Sunday, 4 July. He'll take off for a two-and-a-half-week trip to Europe and Africa.

He starts in Geneva, where on Monday he will open the annual meeting of the Economic and Social Council and attend a joint meeting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the International Chamber of Commerce. On Tuesday, he will begin a five-nation tour of West Africa, including Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria. On Sunday, 11 July, he will attend the opening of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit in Algeria. Then from 15 to 17 July he will visit Slovakia and then the Czech Republic. He will conclude his trip in Vienna, where he will open the UNISPACE III Conference. And he is expected back in New York on 21 July.

**Historic Day at Law of Sea Tribunal

Today was a historic day at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which is based in Hamburg, Germany. Rendering its first judgement since it was established in August 1996, the Tribunal declared that Guinea violated the rights of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and awarded Saint Vincent over $2.1 million in compensation.

The case stems from a 1997 incident when a flag vessel of Saint Vincent was attacked by a Guinean patrol boat, which arrested the crew members. The Tribunal found that Guinea used excessive force and endangered human life in this incident. It also said there was "no excuse" for the fact that the Guinean officers fired directly at the ship with live ammunition from a fast- moving patrol boat without issuing any of the signals and warnings required by international law and practice.

You can read more in a press release in my office.

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** Afghanistan Report

In a new report on the situation in Afghanistan and its implications for international peace and security (A/53/1002-S/1999/698), the Secretary-General observes that the annual rite of intensified fighting in the country during the summer has repeated itself. Hopes for peace have again proven to be illusory.

The Secretary-General stresses that in order to break this "futile annual cycle of false expectations and depressing recurrence of violence" the Afghan factions and the countries supporting them must recognize that a negotiated settlement is the only path to a lasting peace. He once again strongly urges the two warring sides to resume unconditional direct talks without delay. He also appeals to the countries concerned to coordinate and reinvigorate their efforts to find a common approach to settling the conflict. The United Nations, he says, stands ready to assist in this endeavour.

**Security Council

There's no Security Council meeting today. The new President, Hasmy Agam from Malaysia, is holding bilaterals and tomorrow we expect it will have consultations on their programme of work.

**ICJ Press Release

We have a press release from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the cases brought by Libya against the United States and the United Kingdom concerning the Lockerbie affair. The Court has given Libya until 29 June 2000 to reply to submissions by the United States and the United Kingdom.

You can get more in the press release in my office.

**World Food Programme

We also have a press release from the World Food Programme (WFP) on its efforts to help provide relief to the victims of last year's floods in Bangladesh.

**Environment Programme

And we have two press releases from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP):

-- One announces the third UNEP Photo Contest on the Environment, being held again in conjunction with the Canon Company and the Department of Public Information (DPI). We have gone to the private sector again. The previous contest, held for the United Nations fiftieth anniversary, was considered the largest of its kind ever, with over 44,000 entries from 153 countries.

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-- The second press release concerns the freeze of production levels of the ozone-depleting chemical, CFC, as of today, by developing countries. This is the first mandatory requirement for those countries under the Montreal Protocol. The first treaty had allowed a 10-year grace period for developing countries.

** UN Budget

Payments today. Germany met its obligations with a cheque for over $101 million. And Mozambique paid its dues in full with a cheque of over 10,000 dollars. And that brings the total number of Member States paid in full for 1999 to 79.

** Press Conferences

Finally, press conferences tomorrow. At noon, Dr. Peter Piot, the Executive Director of the Joint United Programme on HIV/AIDS, to discuss the impact of AIDS on population and development issues. He'll be the guest at the briefing, and then at 2 p.m. members of the United States delegation to the General Assembly special session on Population and Development.

I will take your questions. We'll go quickly to Jadranka on the General Assembly, and then Mark -- Mark why don't you come up and take a seat here (at the podium) and then we go to Mark Malloch Brown. Any questions for me?

Question and Answer Session

Question: What mission will the Secretary-General be pursuing in West Africa? Secondly, with the discussion now over on the Congo and the expectation that a peace agreement will be signed, does the Secretary-General have any plans to go on a mission there?

Answer: I think we're still watching and waiting to see what develops on the Congo talks. They are dragging on in Lusaka as you know. And so I don't want to speculate on what may happen if an agreement is reached. His trip to West Africa will be primarily to countries where the United Nations has been heavily involved in peace efforts, and then ending in Nigeria, where the Secretary-General gave support to the transition to democracy and a return to civilian rule. And I think he would like to just chat with President Obasanjo and encourage him to continue with the democratization process.

Question: Is the Secretary-General's report on Iraq to the Security Council due by the end of this month? The Security Council on Iraq? It has been requested in the resolution that extended the deal.

Answer: I'll have to check on that. I don't know. I thought you were going to say Libya. Hah! Hah! Hah! The Libya report, I understand, would be

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out tomorrow. We'll check on the Iraq report for you. Okay, Jadranka, what's happening in the General Assembly?

** Briefing by Spokesman for President of General Assembly

Jadranka Mihalic, spokesman for the President of the General Assembly, in her briefing, said:

This morning, the General Assembly continued the general debate at its twenty-first special session. Twenty speakers are scheduled for this morning, another 20 this afternoon and 12 this evening, from 7 to 9. A total of 152 Member States have inscribed to address the Assembly during the special session, in addition to 11 observers. Yesterday morning, the Assembly decided that statements in the general debate at the special session would be limited to seven minutes. This is why they can have such a large number of speakers at each meeting. Copies of the list of speakers for today and for tomorrow are available in the Spokesman's Office. If not, as I told you a few days ago, the list of speakers is on the Internet at .

The Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole for the special session is continuing its work. It is hearing statements by the representatives of specialized agencies and accredited non-governmental organizations. And then also the drafting group of the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole is meeting, under the chairmanship of Ambassador Chowdhury of Bangladesh, who also chaired the preparatory committee for the session. The working document containing proposals for key actions for the further implementation of the Programme of Action adopted at the Cairo Conference is available in document A/S-21/Add.2.

And that's all that I have.

Any questions?

Question: NGOs were able to address the plenary of a previous special session. Why aren't they being permitted to address the plenary of this special session.

Answer: There's a special agreement to that effect; and there's a list of NGOs that have been accredited. Yesterday morning, the Assembly agreed that they could be heard in the Ad Hoc Working Group of the Whole. The decision of the General Assembly is contained in paragraphs 16 and 18 of draft decision II regarding the organizational arrangements for the twenty-first special session (A/S-21/2).

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