DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19990707
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General:
Good afternoon. Our guest today is Kevin Kennedy who is the Chief of the Emergency Liaison Branch of the Office of the Coordinator of Humanitarian Affairs. He just came back from Solomon Islands where he led a mission to assess the humanitarian requirements in the area and possible need for the United Nations to support the reconciliation process. Just hold your questions for him until I finish the briefing, which will be a short one today.
**Technical Mission to Iraq
You will recall that we announced a few weeks ago the agreement for a team to go to the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) laboratories in Iraq. So, the technical mission is being sent to close those laboratories, which reportedly contain dangerous chemicals.
The team will be comprised of four experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), as well as one independent biological weapons expert. The experts are Dirk van Niekerk of South Africa, Li Hua of China, Sergey Orlov of the Russian Federation, Miroslav Miklasz of Poland, and Wolfgang Beyer of Germany. The list with names and nationalities is available in the Spokesman's Office.
They will leave tomorrow for Bahrain, where they will be briefed by UNSCOM on the laboratory. They will remain in Bahrain until the weekend and then fly to Amman. From Amman, they will proceed by road to Baghdad, where they will be joined by the Acting Director of the UNSCOM office, Jaakko Ylitalo, as well as the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Prakash Shah. Also accompanying the team will be three senior foreign diplomats based in Iraq.
**Kosovo
The acting Special Representative for Kosovo, Sergio Vieira de Mello, today visited the western town of Pec, where he met with the head of the main monastery, which is serving as a refuge for Serbs fleeing violence. Mr. de Mello also met the top Albanian leader of Pec as part of his daily efforts to meet with community leaders, explain the purpose of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and seek their support. "We know we have to rebuild the administration of Kosovo and, with your cooperation, I know we will succeed", Mr. de Mello said while in the war-torn city.
The entire city centre of Pec has been gutted by fire. But signs of economic life are emerging. People are starting to sell things on the streets
such as household supplies and food, and have begun repairing and rebuilding what they can.
The UNMIK spokesman said that the Mission has estimated that a total of 31 million DM (approximately $15 million) to pay salaries of roughly 50,000 public servants for a period of three months is needed.
Meanwhile, small groups of Serb and Roma civilians have requested round- the-clock protection from KFOR, the international troops in Kosovo, or evacuation to Montenegro or to Serbia proper. One group making such requests to the staff of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was in the area of Istok, near Pec. In one village, 54 Serbs said returning Kosovars had threatened to kill them and they wanted a 24-hour KFOR presence, otherwise, they would leave. In another village, six Serbs and 11 Roma told the UNHCR they preferred to go to Montenegro and asked for KFOR escort.
Today, 407 Kosovars joined the UNHCR's first repatriation convoy to Kosovo from Montenegro, travelling from the western coastal town of Ulcinj to Pec in seven buses, two trucks and 17 cars. The Italian Government has flown 580 Kosovo refugees from Italy to Skopje and later sent them by bus to Gnjilane. With the estimate of Kosovo refugees and displaced people remaining in the region at just over 135,000, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said many of those remaining in the camps in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were children and the elderly.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Jiri Dientsbier, will begin a five-day visit to Kosovo on Thursday.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-Habitat Balkans Task Force is going to start operating on the ground soon, probably by the end of this week. The team will design strategies for local authorities and communities so they can effectively participate in the reconstruction efforts. The team will concentrate on creating mechanisms for land title registration, resolving tenancy and property disputes and strengthening municipal administration and leadership. The UNEP component will also be involved in establishing an environmental administration and in environmental education and training.
Justice Louise Arbour, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, will visit the region next week to check up on the ongoing operation of her team and meet with various officials.
**Security Council Consultations
This morning, the Security Council is discussing the Secretary-General's report on Libya. A meeting at the expert level may take place this afternoon
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 7 July 1999
on a draft presidential statement. Under other matters, the President briefed members on his meeting with the Indonesian Permanent Representative on East Timor. Tomorrow, the Security Council will hold an open meeting on the issue of Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration of ex-combatants in a peacekeeping environment. This discussion is being held under the agenda item: "Maintenance of peace and security and post-conflict peace-building". The members may meet this afternoon at the expert level to start discussing a draft presidential statement on that issue.
**Secretary-General in West Africa
The Secretary-General arrived in Dakar last night and began his programme early this morning by meeting with United Nations representatives in the country. Following that, he and his delegation met with Senegalese Prime Minister Mamadou Lamine Loum, and they spoke of the impact on Africa of the globalization of the world economy and the principles of good governance. They also discussed peace efforts in Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The Secretary-General then met with President Abdou Diouf and members of his Government. They discussed recent efforts to peacefully resolve the 18- year rebellion in Senegal's southern region of Casamance. They also talked about Sierra Leone, Angola, Somalia, Sudan, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Libya. Their talks concluded over lunch, and the Secretary-General had to interrupt the luncheon engagement to take a call from the Zambian President, Frederic Chiluba, who reported on progress in the peace talks on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Later this afternoon, the Secretary-General is expected to meet his Special Envoy for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mustafa Niasse, and in the early evening, in Dakar, he will have a press conference.
**Democratic Republic of Congo
The Secretary-General, in consultation with President Chiluba of Zambia who is chairing the peace talks on the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Lusaka, and Salim Salim, Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), asked the Secretariat to brief the Security Council yesterday on the status of the Lusaka peace talks in view of the imminent signing of a ceasefire agreement.
The Secretary-General wanted also to express his concern that the gap between signing and the actual deployment of United Nations personnel be as short as possible. On his instructions, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations is speeding up contingency planning for the deployment of military observers and has been contacting a wide group of possible troop-contributing countries.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 7 July 1999
**Somalia
We have available in the Spokesman's Office copies of a donor alert for south and central Somalia prepared by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
**New United Nations Stamps
Today, the United Nations Postal Administration is issuing a new set of stamps to commemorate the Third United Nations Conference on the Exploration and Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, otherwise known as UNISPACE III. That Conference will be held later this month in Vienna.
The stamps were designed by Atilla Hejja, and you can get more information on the artwork from the Postal Administration, or just see the stamps for yourself downstairs in the lobby.
**Payments
We have an updated list of Status of Member States' Contributions as of 30 June, available in the Spokesman's Office. The total amount owed to the 1999 regular budget is over $915 million.
**United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA)
I have an announcement from the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) that there will be a briefing on the topic, "Peace and security -- the Malaysian view", today at 4 p.m. in the UNCA Club. The guest is Syed Hamid Albar, Foreign Minister of Malaysia. As you know, Malaysia is the President of the Security Council for this month. The UNCA also informs us that refreshments will be served.
**Question-and-Answer Session
Question: Do you have any comment on United Nations observers not being allowed in India?
Deputy Spokesman: You know there is this situation, and we have not been able to use the airport. It seems that some resolution to it is hopefully coming in the near future.
Question: Might this be non-cooperation on the part of the United Nations, since their observers are required to go through customs and immigration in New Delhi, rather than, as international civil servants, being allowed to take a special flight there?
Deputy Spokesman: That's the view of the Indian Government. As you know, since 1972, India has taken a very special view of the United Nations
Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 7 July 1999
Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), and they consider that the mandate of the mission lapsed, but that's not the view of the United Nations. Only the Security Council could put an end to a United Nations mission.
Question: It seems that Sierra Leone is close to signing an agreement that establishes a blanket amnesty. Considering the role of Mary Robinson and the United Nations as a mediator in the negotiation of the agreement, what is the United Nations position on the amnesty?
Deputy Spokesman: Our view is that the United Nations should not get in the way of a peace agreement which would end a long and brutal conflict. If the agreement is reached, and it appears so by all reports, while any sovereign State may grant amnesty for violation of its national laws, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General will sign the agreement with a notation saying that the United Nations will not recognize that amnesty as it applies to gross violations of human rights. Our view is that amnesty and pardon shall not apply to international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law.
Question: Does that mean that they cannot be tried in Sierra Leone, but by some international body that wants to try them sometime in the future? Is there going to be a list of killers or truth squad or commission?
Deputy Spokesman: There is the idea of having a truth commission. I believe there may be some suggestions of those involved or those requesting amnesty having the case looked at by the commission. But, I have no details at this point.
Question: Even if there is not a truth commission, what does it mean that the United Nations does not recognize that? It would still mean that those guys could go free in Sierra Leone, so what does it really mean in practice?
Deputy Spokesman: I would have to look into that with the legal experts and get back to you.
Question: If a peace agreement is signed in Sierra Leone, what role would the United Nations play?
Deputy Spokesman: The idea is that the mission not only would continue, but would also be expanded, and there are already discussions and plans regarding that. There are more details if you are interested.
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