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's Briefing

I'm sorry, we had a computer problem, when today we wanted to come earlier because the Secretary-General is expected to be out of the Council and talk to you soon.

Question: Will he come to the noon briefing?

Deputy Spokesman: No, he'll be at the stake-out area.

Question: Can you find out when?

Deputy Spokesman: Yes. As soon as we're done here, I'll go in and we'll announce it.

**Security Council

Speaking of the Council, they started this morning, consultations around 10:30 a.m., and it was on Iraq, continuing the discussions of yesterday. After that, they moved on to the briefing by the Secretary-General on his recent visit to Africa. After his briefing to the Council, the Secretary- General will talk to you here in the stake-out area of the second floor. Once the Secretary-General concludes his briefing to the Council, the Council will continue their morning session, and by then, early afternoon, with a briefing by the High Representative for the Implementation of the Peace Agreement on Bosnia and Herzegovina Carlos Westendorp.

This afternoon, the Council's Committee on the Admission of New Members will meet to consider the application of Tonga as a Member of the United Nations. Also this afternoon, there will be two troop-contributors meetings, first at 3:30 for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and then at 4:15 for the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG). Both meetings will take place in Conference Room Seven.

**Kosovo

Last night, and this is just to recap, the Security Council issued a statement to the press in which it strongly condemned the massacre of 14 Serb farmers in Kosovo and called for a speedy and thorough investigation to bring those responsible to justice. United Nations international police are helping in the investigation by interviewing witnesses and others with information about the killings. The Secretary-General's Special Representative for

Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, is planning to attend the funeral for the 14 victims tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the village of Gracko.

On the eve of the first donors' conference for Kosovo, to be co-chaired by the European Commission and the World Bank in Brussels, the European Commission and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at a joint press conference in Pristina, announced results of their damage assessment surveys. Their findings reached similar conclusions on the extent of the damage. Please see the summary of the joint briefing for details, which we have upstairs.

At a donors' meeting in Geneva, United Nations humanitarian agencies launched an appeal for $434 million. The amount includes assistance to the more than 170,000 Serbs, Romas and other minorities who have fled Kosovo since the international community established its presence in the province. We also have available in our office a press release from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-Habitat Balkans Task Force, which has just completed the first part of its assessment of the environmental impact of the worst damaged industrial sites in Yugoslavia. The 12 scientists have taken extensive soil and ground-water samples, which will now be sent to independent laboratories for detailed analysis. Further missions to the region are planned, and we think this will happen in August, in order to assess the impacts of the conflict on the Danube river; the region's biological diversity; and on human health. A final report will be submitted to the Secretary-General in September.

**East Timor

Also to put on the record, yesterday evening the Secretary-General sent a letter to the Security Council announcing his decision to continue the registration of East Timorese voters on the understanding that the Indonesian authorities will work with the United Nations Mission in East Timor to achieve the improvements in the security situation and urgently address the problem of internal displacement. The Secretary-General said that with only occasional temporary closures due to local security problems, the 200 registration centres throughout East Timor had been opened for the first 10 days of registration. During this period 239,000 East Timorese registered, 233,000 of them in East Timor and the remainder at external registration centres.

The Secretary-General noted that security conditions improved in a number of regencies, a positive development in part due to greater cooperation now being shown by the Indonesian authorities, in particular the police, he said. However, overall security conditions remain inadequate. A serious consequence is that tens of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) cannot return to their homes in safety. This morning in Dili, East Timor, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Ian Martin, briefed the press. And in the transcript, which we have available in our office, you will

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have more details of the Secretary-General's letter, and also Mr. Martin's views on the current situation in East Timor.

**Sudan

Moving to the Sudan, the World Food Programme (WFP) today said it fears a worsening humanitarian crisis in southern Sudan as a flight ban across the Western Upper Nile region enters its second week. The ban, which was announced on 14 July by the Government of Sudan, makes most of the region inaccessible for WFP and other relief agencies trying to deliver urgent humanitarian assistance to 150,000 people in an area continually wracked by war and insecurity. Between February and April this last year, a flight ban imposed by the Government of Sudan meant that little relief assistance could get into the war-torn region of Bahr El Ghazal, quickly turning a region already suffering from food shortages and the strain of tens of thousands of people fleeing conflict, into a famine zone.

**The International Criminal Court

The International Criminal Court (ICC) took one step closer to coming into existence yesterday when Italy ratified its Statute. So far, four countries have ratified the Statute, which needs 60 ratifications to enter into force. Eighty-three countries have signed it, indicating their intention to ratify. The four countries that have ratified are Italy, which I just mentioned, San Marino, Senegal and Trinidad and Tobago.

This is all I had for you this morning. Any questions?

Question and Answer Segment

Question: Will Mr. Westendorp brief us after the Council?

Deputy Spokesman: We don't have confirmation of that. We'll see what's possible.

Question: The Secretary-General is scheduled to meet this afternoon with the Friends of Angola. Do you know who those Friends of Angola are?

Deputy Spokesman: The "Friends" refers to countries, Member States who are particularly interested in a given situation. Many operations have that. I don't have this list with me, but I can look into that for you.

Question: What can you tell us about what was at the heart of the recent incident in Kosovo, the killing of the 14 Serbs, and how it happened?

Deputy Spokesman: Fourteen Serb farmers were killed and there is an investigation going on to identify the perpetrators.

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Question: Have they not been identified yet?

Deputy Spokesman: To my knowledge, they have not. They are working on it.

Question: What is Sergio Vieira de Mello's function now that Bernard Kouchner has been designated Special Representative?

Deputy Spokesman: He resumes his original position at Headquarters as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. He should be arriving, if not today then tomorrow.

Question: Is there any information on those eligible to vote in East Timor?

Deputy Spokesman: No, we don't have any figures on that. There are some estimates but no precise figure on that.

Question: Is there any chance we'll get a crack at Sergio Vieira de Mello when he comes back?

Deputy Spokesman: I think there's a good chance. We have raised this matter, but he's not back yet. We'll hear from him when he comes back. We have requested it, so we'll see what can happen.

Question: Regarding that ban on flights in southern Sudan, had they threatened to shoot down any relief planes making air drops to the starving people?

Deputy Spokesman: In my notes, I don't have any details on that. But when we're done here we can follow up in our office to see if there's any more detail on what this ban means.

Question: Okay, because if there have been definite threats about planes identified with international symbols, such as the Red Cross, we'd like to know that.

Question: My colleague from Nigeria raised a question yesterday about a warrant issued for Dr. Savimbi in Angola. Was there any follow-up on that?

Deputy Spokesman: We did follow up with him, and the answer was that this was not a new issue in Angola. As you know, the National Assembly had already made that same kind of statement in terms of declaring him a "criminal", I believe was the word used in their resolution, something of that nature, which by the way, is indicated, and I may have it here, in the report of the Secretary-General, 24 February this year. This indicates, at the beginning, that on 27 January the National Assembly of Angola adopted several resolutions. In one of them the Assembly declared Mr. Savimbi a "war

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 27 July 1999

criminal" and an "international terrorist", and it called for his and his collaborators' arrest and prosecution, and it stressed the need to achieve total annihilation of the subversion headed by Mr. Savimbi. This is what the report states was in the resolution.

Question: The representatives of Savimbi at the Assembly were sitting there?

Deputy Spokesman: These resolutions were adopted unanimously, with those National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) deputies who were present, voting in favour. Okay? Thank you so much, have a good afternoon.

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