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:

Good afternoon. Our guest at today's noon briefing will be John Ruggie, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General. He will be discussing Kosovo with you.

**East Timor

Later this afternoon, the Secretary-General's report on East Timor (document S/1999/803) will be available on the racks. It provides an overview of the popular consultation process, the deployment of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), as well as security issues.

The first few days of registration have proceeded relatively peacefully, the report says, adding that there have been no further incidents in which UNAMET staff or property have been attacked or seriously threatened. The report also says that Indonesian authorities' serious efforts to provide the necessary security have contributed to this positive trend.

It also discusses the internal displacement issue, noting that a large number of East Timorese are internally displaced, either forcibly relocated or intimidated into fleeing. In addition to this posing humanitarian problems, it affects the "prospects for holding a free and fair vote," especially since voters are required to register and vote in the same place. UNAMET is developing plans to help internally displaced persons take part in the process.

The report also notes what was mentioned earlier, that the Secretary- General will make another assessment of the security situation, halfway through the registration process.

Available in the Spokesman's Office is the transcript of today's daily briefing in Dili, East Timor. The Spokesman there said this morning that all registration centres have reopened after being closed for a half-day on Wednesday. He explained that the registration centres will be closed for a half-day every five days, so that registration data could be collated and sent to Sydney, where it will be recorded and tabulated on computers.

**Kosovo

The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia now has five teams operating on the ground. They are from the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Denmark and Sweden. Two more from Belgium and Germany are expected by

the end of the week. Three teams -- from the United States, Switzerland and the Netherlands -- have completed their work and are back in their countries, preparing their reports and physical evidence that will be submitted to the Tribunal.

The KFOR told the Tribunal that about 200 sites have been reported to them. The Tribunal expects to be able to investigate the majority of those reported sites through the end of the summer and through the fall.

Still on Kosovo, the team from the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) is in Pristina today. They are currently reviewing legal instruments available for Kosovars and all property registries in order to identify possible gaps and make recommendations on the land and property registration.

We have available in the Spokesman's Office a transcript of a press briefing in Geneva today by Carl Bildt, one of the Special Envoys of the Secretary-General for the Balkans, and also an update on landmines, UXO and mine action in Kosovo. This update is by the United Nations Mine Action Service.

**Security Council Consultations

Today, members of the Security Council are holding consultations on Iraq. After that, the Council will be briefed on the situation in Eritrea and Ethiopia by Mohammed Sahnoun, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy in Africa.

If time allows, Ambassador Sahnoun will speak to correspondents in the stakeout area on the second floor when he has completed briefing the Council.

Under other matters, the Security Council is expected to discuss the application of Tonga for membership to the Organization.

Meanwhile, the report of the Secretary-General on Georgia will be out tomorrow.

**Iraq

During Security Council consultations this morning on Iraq, members were briefed by the Chef de Cabinet, Iqbal Riza, on the work being done in Baghdad towards the closure of the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) laboratory. The destruction of chemical agent standards and the mustard agent samples have started. The team is expected to finish their task in the coming days.

The waste products from the disposal operation will be sealed in a concrete block and will be stored in the chemical laboratory. I should also add that unlabelled products found in the laboratory will remain there once it

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 21 July 1999

is confirmed by the experts from the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) that they are not toxic. According to the OPCW, no contamination was detected in the laboratory. When the work is concluded, the Director-General of the OPCW will be reporting to the Secretary-General, who will in turn report to the Security Council.

**Small Arms Report

Out on the racks today is a study by a group of experts on the problem of ammunition and explosives (document A/54/155). The group was convened to determine what, if any, controls could be placed on these weapons in order to stem the negative effects of the abuse of small arms and light weapons.

It found a worldwide lack of data on ammunition and explosives, as well as a wide variety in the quality and range of control measures. The group pointed out that enhanced transparency in the legitimate trade would help in stopping the traffic in illicit explosives. The report contains a series of recommendations, including the creation of a United Nations advisory group on ammunition and explosives.

**United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is reporting that more than 50,000 people have been forced to flee the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Congo-Brazzaville over the past three weeks. High Commissioner Sadako Ogata warned that contributions to help refugees in the Great Lakes region are "not even meeting the needs of long-time refugees, much less the new arrivals".

There is a press release on this issue by the UNHCR available in the Spokesman's Office.

**Passenger Air Traffic Expected to Grow

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) today reported that total passenger air traffic in the world is expected to grow by about 4 per cent this year, 5 per cent next year and nearly 6 per cent in the year 2001. We have details on these latest forecasts in a press release from ICAO available in the Spokesman's Office.

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