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.

**Security Council

In an unusual format aimed at fostering transparency of the work of the Security Council, the Chairman of the Sanctions Committee on the situation concerning Angola, Ambassador Fowler of Canada, has briefed the Security Council this morning in an open meeting. That is still going on as we speak. The briefing is followed by a question-and-answer period. I'm sure most of you have been following that on United Nations TV, but for the benefit of those who haven't, he has reported on his two visits in his capacity as Chairman of the Sanctions Committee, one to Central and Southern Africa, which has already been the subject of a report to the Council, document 644 dated 4 June, and also on his trip to Europe and his participation in the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Council of Ministers that took place in Algiers in July. That document is coming out today. We have some advance copies in our office, but it should be out on the racks early this afternoon, document 829.

The two reports together have a total of 19 recommendations that he makes. During his presentation at the Council, he highlighted the cooperation of Member States that is required in this endeavour, enforcing sanctions, providing information and demonstrating through words and actions that they want these sanctions to work. I'm sure you'll be able to get more on that from him himself. I understand he'll be available to talk to the press afterwards.

Following this open meeting, the Council has scheduled consultations, still on Angola and on East Timor. On East Timor, just for the record, early yesterday evening, the Secretary-General sent a letter to the Security Council, informing members of his decision to postpone, for technical reasons, the date of the consultation in East Timor, to 30 August. He has asked the Security Council to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) by one month to enable the mission to perform its tasks. The Secretary-General, also in that letter, indicated that he'll be reporting to the Council very shortly on plans for the post-public consultation phase, what's known as Phase Two, which is what follows the ballot date.

**Kosovo

Now on Kosovo. The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, met today with visiting United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and General Michael Jackson in Pristina. After the meeting, Ms. Albright told reporters that she was encouraged by the

cooperation between the United Nations Mission and the Kosovo Security Force, KFOR. She said they were working very well together. Ms. Albright also said, in response to a question, "I have not been critical of the speed. I have understood that this is a very difficult mission". In comparison to other start-ups in other places, Ms. Albright said she thought this mission was moving along very well. "I respect what Mr. Kouchner is doing. He's not alone. He has to be supported by the international community."

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General dispatched his Special Envoys for the Balkans, Carl Bildt and Eduard Kukan, to Sarajevo to attend the two-day stability pact summit meeting that began in Sarajevo today to focus on peace and stability in the region. Bildt will deliver his statement on the Secretary-General's behalf Friday, tomorrow. Kouchner will also be attending the meeting in Sarajevo tomorrow.

The European Commission and the World Bank, hosts of yesterday's conference on Kosovo, gathering more than 100 donor countries and international organizations in Brussels, reports that pledges made at the conference added up to $2 billion. In Kosovo, the deployment of international police is under way as scheduled. On Tuesday, 37 Swedish police officers arrived. Yesterday, 101 Bangladeshi police arrived and 52 German police are expected to arrive today. The General Assembly met yesterday afternoon to adopt a budget for the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK). It authorized the Secretary-General to spend up to $200 million for the Mission's operation, and notes his intention to submit a detailed budget to the Assembly at its next session.

Also, we mentioned yesterday that we were trying to get Sergio Vieira de Mello at Monday's noon briefing. Unfortunately, contrary to what I said yesterday, we have just learned that he'll not be in the office in the early part of next week and he'll be here with us on Thursday. If you have individual interview requests, you may contact his office, Rosa Malongo, at 963-2830.

**Incident in Sri Lanka

I have a statement attributable to the Spokesman:

The Secretary-General is shocked to learn of the assassination of Neelan Thiruchelvam, a prominent member of the Sri Lankan parliament from the Tamil United Liberation Front, who was actively involved in constitutional reform and who had tirelessly defended human rights and contributed to the search for a political solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka. The Secretary-General condemns this act of terrorism in the strongest terms. There could be no better tribute to Mr. Thiruchelvam's memory than to bring an end to the senseless violence in that long-suffering country.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 29 July 1999

On the same subject, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, also issued a statement in which she condemned the killing of Mr. Thiruchelvam and called it a "direct attack on efforts to bring about reconciliation and build a culture of peace and respect for fundamental rights in the South Asian country".

**Guinea-Bissau Trust Fund

Moving back to Africa, we'd like to inform you that the Secretary- General has announced the establishment of the United Nations Trust Fund in support of the activities of the United Nations Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau. It is now established and it's ready now to receive contributions in accordance with its terms of reference, which include mobilizing international political support for assistance to Guinea-Bissau; enhancing the participation of civil society and the armed forces in peace- building, democracy and the rule of law process; contributing to the civil education of former combatants, national armed forces and police; and assisting the Government in implementing its programme of voluntary arms collection, disposal and destruction, as well as demining. The Secretary- General calls upon Member States to contribute generously to this Trust Fund. We have a press release issued on this with more details. (Press Release SG/2058-AFR/161)

**Human Development Forum

The first Global Forum on Human Development, organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is taking place from today through Saturday. Leaders in the field of human development will debate key issues and innovations in human development concepts, measurements and strategies for implementation. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, who pioneered the human development concept with the late Mahbub ul Haq, delivered the keynote address. The Secretary-General, in his remarks to the Forum this morning, told participants that the Forum provided a chance to rethink efforts for development, even our definition of what development is, in a bold and inquiring manner. "People like you are our only hope: if you do not produce ideas, who else will?" he challenged the policy makers, researchers and academics in attendance. Copies of the Secretary-General's speech are available in the Spokesman's Office. (See also Press Release SG/SM/7082.)

In this context of the Human Development Forum, just to flag to you that our guest at tomorrow's briefing will be Anton Kruiderink, the Director of UNDP's Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), who will discuss a new report called "Transition 1999 -- a Human Development Report for Europe and the CIS".

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 29 July 1999

**Democratic Republic of Congo Agreement Published

Available on the racks today is the agreement signed on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the agreement signed in Lusaka, Zambia, on 10 July. It is now a Security Council document available on the racks.

**Statement at Conference for Finance Ministers

Wealthy nations must honour the June Cologne initiative of the G-7 and speed debt relief to countries that make a commitment to reduce poverty, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and OxFam said in a joint paper submitted to the Conference of Finance Ministers opening today at the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa. The critical imperative, the agencies say, is to identify the actual new resources that will be used for debt relief and hasten the exit of Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) from the debt crisis. Without a commitment to find new money, the paper says, the wealthy countries will inevitably raid their aid budgets, which have suffered serious declines since 1992. The full release is available in our Office.

**Locust Alert

And finally, I have a press release, which is available from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and which says that infestations of locusts have spread into areas of the Russian Federation from Kazakhstan, where they originated, according to a Special Alert released today by the FAO's Global Information and Early Warning System on Food and Agriculture. The locusts developed in the Almaty area of eastern Kazakhstan and in the north around Pavlodar Oblast. Locust swarms have also moved into Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The situation is serious, as both farmers and the government in all the affected countries lack adequate resources and technology to deal effectively with the problem. The locusts, in addition to causing severe localized damage to crops in Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, have laid eggs over millions of hectares. These eggs, unless they are destroyed, will hatch in the spring of 2000, posing a greater threat to next year's crops.

Do you have any questions? Well, if you don't, thank you very much and have a nice afternoon.

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