DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19990818The 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
Good afternoon. Let me start by telling you that the Security Council is holding consultations and it has had a briefing on Kosovo by Hedi Annabi, Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations. As you know, the Council has requested and the Secretariat will be providing the Council with weekly briefings on Kosovo.
Kosovo
Still on Kosovo, today, the Spokeswoman for UNMIK issued an appeal concerning security on behalf of the Secretary-General's Special Representative, Bernard Kouchner, and KFOR Commander Lieutenant-General Michael Jackson. She noted that the Serbian and other minority communities clearly feel threatened and said incidents of intimidation and murder are unacceptable. The United Nations and KFOR condemned these illegal and threatening activities. KFOR patrols are out 24 hours a day in Pristina and throughout Kosovo, together with United Nations International Police, she noted.
"We are not standing still", she said. "We are continually reviewing the security situation and improving our response." Already, there are 700 United Nations international police deployed in Kosovo, including 200 in Pristina. She emphasized that both the United Nations and KFOR are committed to responding to the needs of all vulnerable people within Kosovo and to helping them to build a free and democratic society for all.
The full text of that statement is available in the Spokesman's Office. We also have the list of those who will be attending the next meeting of the Kosovo Transitional Council, which is scheduled for Saturday. I should point out that in addition to those who attended the last time, Ibrahim Rugova will also be present, representing the LDK at the meeting.
In another development, the Joint Advisory Council on Legislative Matters set up by the United Nations and Kosovar legal representatives met for the first time today. You may recall that reference to this has been made regarding a statement made by Bernard Kouchner on Sunday. The Council will review Kosovo's existing legislation and draft new laws, which would eliminate discrimination. It will break into working groups dealing respectively with various aspects of the law, including criminal, administrative and civil matters. A press release with more details is available upstairs.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, known as Habitat, is conducting a workshop in Pristina on the creation of an independent commission on housing and property rights under United Nations auspices. Habitat's Acting Executive Director, Klaus Toepfer, will meet with Dr. Kouchner in Pristina on Friday to discuss related issues. For those of you who are interested, we have a press release upstairs with more information. (See also Press Release HAB/156-UNEP/42 of today's date.)
Also available upstairs is a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO), which warns of the need to build Kosovo's public health systems, so that they can contain communicable diseases. In the past few days, one suspected case of polio and 24 suspected cases of hepatitis A were among the diseases registered in the province.
East Timor
Following the violence in Viqueque, East Timor, last week, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Ian Martin, and the Chairman of the Indonesian Task Force, Ambassador Tarmidzi, visited today Viqueque, Suai and Maliana. Their arrival in Maliana coincided with serious disorder last night and this morning with clashes between pro-integration forces and independence supporters.
Following an incident this morning with a convoy entering Maliana, a student centre was attacked by pro-autonomy groups and two students were left seriously injured. Though UNAMET personnel was not targeted, as a security measure all staff assembled in the United Nations compound in Maliana.
Meanwhile, another cantonment of militia weapons took place today in Cassa, in the Cova Lima area. Fifty-five weapons were presented to be sealed in a wooden container, including assault rifles, although the majority were hand-made guns. A third cantonment of weapons is due to take place in Dili tomorrow.
Also tomorrow, the electoral lists will be published, which will show a total of 451,000 East Timorese voters registered to vote in the 30 August ballot.
Afghanistan
We have upstairs the weekly update from the Office of the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan, which is based in Islamabad. During the last week the United Nations continued to address the needs of villagers forced out by fighting from the Shamali Valley, north of Kabul. The United Nations currently estimates that 30,000 to 40,000 people have fled to Kabul since the beginning of August. The World Food Programme (WFP) has extended its five-day food distribution programme for two more weeks, so it will now run through 26 August.
The update also gives information on the activities of other United Nations agencies operating in Afghanistan, including the WHO, which is working to deal with reports of cholera in the country.
Secretary-General's Report on Somalia
Today, the Secretary-General's report on Somalia is available. For those of you interested, it is document S/1999/882. In the report, the Secretary-General makes an observation that "despite persistent security threats and rising distribution costs caused by clan conflict, mines and other problems, the United Nations agencies and their humanitarian partners continue to deliver food aid to a high proportion of the most affected areas and to most settlements known to have incorporated displaced families".
However, the Secretary-General notes, "the operation capacity of humanitarian agencies has gradually been eroded, primarily owing to inadequate donor support for medium-term rehabilitation measures. For United Nations agencies, this is shown by the weak donor response to the 1999 Consolidated Appeal."
Bosnia and Herzegovina
We have also received quite a few questions on the story regarding Bosnia, and we have been in contact with our office in Sarajevo. There are a couple of points that may be useful. The Anti-Fraud Unit, which has been referred to in the newspaper story yesterday, is a unit of the Office of the High Representative, not the United Nations.
I also wish to follow up on what I said yesterday: our office in Bosnia and Herzegovina has contacted all United Nations agencies on the ground and none of those that we have checked with had money deposited in the BiH Banka mentioned in the story.
Having said this, the United Nations International Police Task Force (IPTF) takes the allegations of official corruption very seriously. They have specialized monitors trained in solving these kinds of crimes who provide valuable advice and expertise to the local police. They monitor these cases very closely, offer advice and support, as appropriate, and refer the most difficult cases to the office of the High Representative for action.
Earthquake in Turkey
Late yesterday afternoon, when some of you were already gone, we received a bulletin from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on the earthquake in Turkey. The bulletin reported that OCHA has authorized a $50,000 grant to the country for immediate relief needs.
This morning's update from OCHA reports on the devastating effect of the earthquake and its after-shocks. While there are no official figures on the numbers of people affected, unconfirmed reports indicate that up to 2,400 are dead and 13,000 injured. Tens of thousands of people are homeless.
The situation report also gives details on the action of United Nations advance teams, as well as what governments have done in response to the earthquake. It is available upstairs in our office. Also, OCHA has informed us that in addition to the information in the report, the Dutch Government is sending two plane-loads of a special chemical product to fight a serious fire at an oil refinery.
New United Nations Members
We have been asked a number of questions on when the General Assembly will take up the applications of the three countries recommended for admission to the United Nations by the Security Council. You will recall that those countries are Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga, and they would bring our membership up to 188.
We understand that the General Assembly will take up their applications on the first day of its new session, which starts on 14 September.
Press Conference Announcement
Tomorrow at 11 a.m., the Permanent Missions of Grenada and of Costa Rica will be hosting a press conference here about a soccer tournament taking place from 19 September to 3 October, in celebration of the 1999 United Nations International Day of Peace. Among the speakers will be Ambassador Stanislaus of Grenada and Ambassador Castro de Barish of Costa Rica.
This is all I have for today. Do you have any questions? If there are no questions, I wish you a pleasant lunch and a good afternoon. Thank you.
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