DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19990713
The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Manoel de Almeida e Silva, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General:
**Kosovo
Good afternoon. The Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is out as a Security Council document today. We have invited a senior official to answer questions on the report on a background basis. That will be held in room S-226 at 12:45 p.m.
The Secretary-General, describing the concept outlined in the report to implement the challenging mandate as a novel one, said four international organizations and agencies will be working together in one operation under one leadership, to create conditions of normalcy in Kosovo under which all peoples can enjoy the benefits of democracy and self-governance.
In the report, he strongly encouraged all ethnic communities and parties in Kosovo to demonstrate restraint and tolerance and fully cooperate with the international community in this endeavour. Significant financial resources and personnel, including experts in various fields, will be required immediately.
Louise Arbour, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, arrived in Kosovo today. In Pristina this morning, she met with the top military and civilian officials in Kosovo -- General Jackson and with Sergio Vieira de Mello.
At a news conference in Pristina just a short while ago, she gave an account of the work accomplished so far by the Tribunal and said that she expects that the current work being done by the Tribunal teams will continue at least until next fall. She added that other indictments would be sent related to war crimes committed in Kosovo. "There's every reason to believe that we will be in a position to expand on the charges that we have brought to date", she said. On Wednesday, Ms. Arbour will be visiting two sites under investigation where the British team and the Canadian team are working. Four other teams are currently on the ground -- French, Danish, Swedish, German -- including a German team that deployed yesterday a "mobile digital tracking system" composed of a camera car to film all the destruction and damaged areas. They are scheduled to travel throughout Kosovo in the next five weeks.
"It is absolutely critical that we try to preserve as much of the evidence that we cannot access immediately, and at the same time that we not get distracted from an investigative agenda that is focused and very well targeted", she said.
Sergio Vieira de Mello met today with Kosovo Albanian leader Hashim Thaci. They discussed preparations for the convening of the highest consultative body, the Kosovo Transitional Council, and security-related issues.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) put out two press releases today on its assessments of the food situation in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania.
These press releases are available in the Spokesman's Office.
**Secretary-General in West Africa
Today was the Secretary-General's second day in Algiers, where he is attending the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit. One of the pressing security concerns being discussed in the margins of the summit is how to stop the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea. In his first two bilateral meetings today, the Secretary-General and his Special Envoy, Mohamed Sahnoun, met first with Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and then with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki. His day today is one of several bilateral meetings with several heads of State from different regions of Africa. In the morning, he met with President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso. He also met President Jerry Rawlings of Ghana and President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. In addition to other individual meetings, in the afternoon he had a joint meeting on the Democratic Republic of the Congo involving President Sam Nujoma of Namibia, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and President Laurent-Desire Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as Salim Salim, the Secretary- General of the OAU.
We may have later today a full list of these meetings which we will make available to you.
The Secretary-General is scheduled to leave Algiers tomorrow morning for Bratislava to begin an official visit to Slovakia.
We have available in the Spokesman's Office transcripts of press encounters the Secretary-General had following his meetings with Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, Libyan leader Muammar Al-Qadhafi, and President Blaise Campoare of Burkina Faso.
**Secretary-General's Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
I have two announcements attributable to the Spokesman. The Secretary- General has decided to appoint Jacques Klein as his Special Representative and Coordinator for the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH). Mr. Klein, who has served previously as the United Nations Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, is presently the Principal Deputy High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 13 July 1999
Mr. Klein will succeed Elizabeth Rehn who has served as the Secretary- General's Special Representative since January 1998 and who has now decided to return to Finland. She has led UNMIBH with great distinction. During her term in office, the sides have stepped forward towards democratic and multi- ethnic policy in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The opening of police academies in both the Bosniac-Croat Federation and the Republika Srpska, with considerable minority representation in the student body, is a tangible expression of the dynamic work done by the United Nations Mission under Ms. Rehn's leadership.
The Secretary-General expresses his gratitude to Ms. Rehn, and his best wishes to Mr. Klein who will assume his post on 2 August.
We have available in the Spokesman's Office a biographical note on Mr. Klein.
**Guinea-Bissau
The second statement is on Guinea-Bissau. Last Friday, the military junta in Guinea-Bissau handed over to the transitional civilian government, the remaining political prisoners it had detained following the 7 May events.
The Secretary-General welcomes this development. It is consistent with the spirit and the letter of the 6 July press statement of the Security Council on Guinea-Bissau and constitutes a resolute step by the authorities towards national reconciliation and restoration of the rule of law.
**Security Council Consultations
This morning in New York, the Security Council discussed the report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP), introduced by Bernard Miyet, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. The Security Council is likely to look at a draft resolution tomorrow on the extension of the mandate of the Mission.
Alvaro de Soto, Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, is now briefing the Security Council on the letter by the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council, in which the Secretary-General proposes 16 July as a new date to start voter registration for the popular consultation process in East Timor.
**Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
At today's briefing by the UNHCR in Geneva, they focused on the first humanitarian mission to a rebel-held area of Sierra Leone, an assessment mission to look into the situation of 2,000 refugees from Congo/Brazzaville in Gabon and the start of a repatriation of refugees from Guinea-Bissau.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 13 July 1999
For more details, please see the update we have in the Spokesman's Office.
**United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
Rubens Ricupero, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), will head to the Netherlands tomorrow for two days of talks with the country's economic officials.
Mr. Ricupero is expected to discuss international assistance to the least developed countries, links between trade and environment issues, and electronic commerce for developing countries.
We have a press release in the Spokesman's Office with more details.
**Human Resources Meeting
Today, a two-day conference on strengthening and modernizing the international civil service is wrapping up here at Headquarters.
This is the first conference of its kind organized by the Consultative Committee on Administrative Questions.
Over 150 participants from all organizations of the United Nations, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are here to discuss human resources management.
The meeting's final wrap-up will be at 5 p.m. in the Trusteeship Council Chamber.
**Payments
Panama made a full payment of over $135,000. This brings the total of Member States paid in full for 1999 to 82.
**Iraq
I have just received a note from the Iraq Programme on their regular weekly update which is out. It shows that last week Iraq exported $17.4 million of oil, and that, with the steady increase of the price of oil over the past weeks, the revenue so far in Phase VI is already $1.2 billion. Phase VI began on 25 May and the first oil in this phase was exported on 1 June. The update also notes that, so far, $44.4 million of oil industry spare parts and equipment has arrived in Iraq.
Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 13 July 1999
**Question-and-Answer Session
Question: Does the postponement of registration mean that the date set in August for East Timor elections still hold?
Deputy Spokesman: So far, yes, but the Secretary-General has to make a determination before Friday, 16 July, as to whether we are going to proceed with the registration on 16 July. At that time, he will confirm whether there will be the need for any delay on the balloting date if we start on 16 July. We hope no changes are needed there, but that is being reviewed by our colleagues who work with the electoral process at the United Nations Mission in East Timor.
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