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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon. I was away practicing my retirement. It’s nice to be back.

**East Timor

We’ll start with East Timor, where we had more disturbing incidents.

At approximately 4:45 this afternoon, local time, shots were heard in the vicinity of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) compound in Dili. Local militia members fired their weapons and threw rocks at a house about 300 metres from the compound. They then chased a group of journalists, who witnessed this incident, in the direction of the United Nations headquarters. The journalists took refuge inside the compound, as did a few hundred internally displaced persons living in a school next to the headquarters building.

The militia clashed with a group of youth outside the United Nations offices, and more shots were heard. The Indonesian police dispatched an armed patrol to secure the UNAMET perimeter.

While no shots were fired at United Nations headquarters, some rocks and stones were hurled in the direction of the compound. No UNAMET staff, international or local, were injured during this incident, which lasted for about one hour.

At least two houses near headquarters were set ablaze by the rioters.

At 8:50 p.m. the Indonesian police informed UNAMET that they considered it safe for UNAMET staff to return to their residences. Convoys were arranged to transport them home.

Some 300 internally displaced persons (IDPs) who took refuge at the United Nations compound are going to spend the night there. Although the situation is now calm, they are too afraid to leave. Police protection has been arranged and some UNAMET staff will also spend the night in the compound with these people. With the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and local non-governmental organizations, UNAMET has provided these people with food and water.

The Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, is briefing the Security Council on this incident this morning, and Council consultations are expected to start any minute.

Throughout this incident, vote counting continued undisturbed at the counting centre across town next to the central police station. All UNAMET ballot boxes arrived in Dili on Tuesday and the reconciliation of ballots began this morning at 6 a.m. During the reconciliation stage, which should end tomorrow, the number of ballots cast are matched with the people who voted. Once that is done, the actual counting of the ballots will begin. That is not expected to happen for another two days.

You can get more details on the counting procedures in the transcript of today’s press briefing in Dili, which is available in my office.

**Kosovo

Today the Kosovo Transitional Council held its weekly meeting in Pristina.

The Council was briefed on the improved security situation in the province, as well as the current deployment of United Nations police; 896 police have been recruited, and 748 are in the mission area. They are gradually establishing the United Nations police presence in Pristina, and will take over responsibility for security entirely by 9 September. Meanwhile, the Police Academy training recruits for the Kosovo Police Service will open Monday with an initial class of 200 candidates.

The Kosovo Transitional Council also agreed to send United Nations International Police to Orahovac to help defuse tensions and meet the security concerns of the local population, which has been opposing the deployment of Russian KFOR troops.

The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, chaired this meeting. He proposed that the body move forward towards transforming itself into an interim governing council with more executive responsibilities.

We have a press release on that meeting available in my office.

Also on Kosovo, more than 50 per cent of the province's 1,000 schools were to open today. This is not the official start of the school year -- it is just catch-up classes to complete the last term, which was disrupted by the conflict. The formal school year will open only in October after schools have been repaired and textbooks and equipment restored. The United Nations Mission estimates that 130 schools in the province were completely destroyed and 151 severely damaged. Currently, repairs of 190 schools are in progress.

You can read more in the transcript of today's briefing from Pristina, which also is available in my office.

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today reported that attacks on Serbs in Kosovo have decreased in the past week, despite several incidents of abductions and intimidation. UNHCR says that KFOR officials reported that the drop may reflect a more secure environment, but it could also be due to the fact that there are fewer Serbs in Kosovo to target.

You can pick up the UNHCR Kosovo Emergency Update in my office.

**East Timor

Arriving just 15 seconds too late was this statement on East Timor, which I’ll read now, attributable to the Spokesman.

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the violence that took place outside the UNAMET headquarters in Dili on Wednesday in which it has been reported that at least two people have been killed. As a result of the violence, several hundred local people have taken shelter in the UNAMET compound.

“The Secretary-General calls on the Indonesian police to arrest those responsible for the violence and to take immediate steps to ensure it does not happen again. He urges the Indonesian authorities to take firm action to control armed groups and reminds them of their responsibility to protect all UNAMET staff, both international and local.

“The United Nations will not allow this violence to deter it from completing arrangements for the popular consultation so that the will of the East Timorese people can be determined.”

**Democratic Republic of the Congo

In the wake of the rebel signing of the Lusaka ceasefire agreement for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations is dispatching tomorrow a three-person team from United Nations Headquarters to pave the way for the deployment of the first phase of United Nations military personnel to be dispatched to the region.

The Department of Peacekeeping Operations team leaving tomorrow evening will travel to Nairobi, where it is expected to assemble within a week the initial group of 26 United Nations military liaison officers. Four members of the team will support the Joint Military Committee to be established in Lusaka, Zambia, while six members will set up an advance United Nations headquarters in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC. The remaining 16 will be dispatched to regional capitals of the signatories of the ceasefire accord, initially to Bujumbura, Burundi; Kigali, Rwanda; Kinshasa; Kampala, Uganda; Windhoek, Namibia; and Harare, Zimbabwe.

As you recall, the dispatch of these officers is the first phase of a three-stage plan outlined by the Secretary-General in his 15 July report to the Security Council on the DRC.

**Cambodia

Ralph Zacklin, the Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, has completed his week-long mission in Cambodia, where he discussed the establishment of a mixed tribunal to prosecute Khmer Rouge leaders.

Talks focused on the legal and practical aspects of establishing, under Cambodian law, a mixed tribunal with the participation of international judges and prosecutors. The tribunal would prosecute the Khmer Rouge leaders responsible for the most serious crimes carried out between 1975 and 1979.

Mr. Zacklin is on his way back to Headquarters to report to the Secretary-General on the results of his mission, and we have invited him to the briefing here to tell you first-hand of his discussions with the Cambodian officials. We’ll give you the exact date once we’ve firmed it up.

**Sierra Leone

As we announced last week, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Olara Otunnu, is on a mission in Sierra Leone.

In addition to meeting with a number of government officials, Mr. Otunnu visited a camp hosting some 200 children who have been victims of amputation. An estimated 900 of Sierra Leone's children have suffered from this heinous form of torture.

Later this week, Mr. Otunnu is scheduled to meet with former child soldiers as well as children who had been held as prisoners of war. He also had a meeting scheduled with the President of Sierra Leone, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

You can read more about this, if you are interested, in a note that I have in my office.

**Chad

The World Food Programme (WFP) today signed an agreement with the Government of Chad that will pave the way for the agency to provide emergency food assistance to some 53,000 people.

The $1.2 million programme will provide 45 days' worth of rations to vulnerable people, including single mothers, widows living on their own, the elderly and the disabled.

You can read more about that in the press release.

**Millennium Assembly

Japan will be hosting the next set of hearings on the year 2000 Millennium Assembly.

The two-day hearing, which starts in Tokyo on 9 September, will provide a forum for discussion on how the United Nations can best address the challenges of the next century.

The results of this Asia and Pacific regional hearing, along with those held in Western Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean, will be incorporated into a report by the Secretary-General which is due out next March.

There's a press release on the racks with information.

**Treaties and Payments

Paraguay this week ratified the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

That Protocol now has 84 signatories and 14 parties.

Payments: We received a cheque from Nigeria today for over $400,000. With this payment we now have 94 Member States paid in full for this year, 1999.

**Press Briefing on Somalia

David Stephen, the Representative of the Secretary-General for Somalia and Director of the United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), based at Nairobi, Kenya, is at Headquarters for some meetings this week, and we have asked him to join us at the briefing tomorrow.

**Question-and-Answer Session

Question: In light of the recent violence in East Timor, is the Secretary-General considering to ask for a United Nations or international peacekeeping force?

Spokesman: No. The conditions of the agreement between Indonesia and Portugal are very clear. Indonesia is fully responsible for security. There is no intention at this time to ask for a change of that. Rather, what we are doing is pressing the Indonesian authorities to work harder at securing the environment.

Question: One representative going into the Security Council said the conclusion was possible that Indonesia is not fulfilling its responsibilities and that it will be asking the Secretary- General to prepare for the possibility of getting together an international peacekeeping force. Are you prepared for that contingency?

Spokesman: This is a hypothetical question. If you are talking about a peacekeeping force, that would have to be done with the agreement of Indonesia as the host country, and would have to be approved by the Security Council. And to my knowledge, there has been no discussion of that contingency.

Question: Will the Security Council consider an arms embargo imposed against Indonesia?

Spokesman: You would have to ask members of the Council. I myself have not heard any talk of that.

Question: Would the Secretary-General recommend something like that?

Spokesman: I think he would wait for the Council to discuss the matter and decide what they wanted to do. I don’t think he would get ahead of the Council on that.

Question: Is there any news on the two local staff who were unaccounted for?

Spokesman: As of today, we only have confirmation of that one local staff member who was killed. I have no information on those missing. I will double check for you to see if there is any update on that.

Question: Do you have any count of how many people died since the ballot began until now?

Spokesman: I will get that for you.

Question: Have there been any communications between the Secretary-General and [New Zealand Foreign Minister Donald] McKinnon on a non-United Nations peacekeeping force?

Spokesman: I am not aware that the Secretary-General has had any contacts. He is back in New York, as you may or may not know. I would have to check what contact, if any, he might have had.

Question: Do you have any comments on a non-United Nations intervention force by New Zealand and Australia?

Spokesman: I have seen press accounts of Australia’s reaction to that comment. It doesn’t sound to me like the bandwagon is rolling in that direction.

Question: When will the results of the ballot be known?

Spokesman: We don’t have a precise date. We just said: within a week. We are looking therefore at probably Friday, Saturday. It would be better for all of you, of course, if it could be before the three-day weekend, but these things aren’t entirely under our control. It will take as long as it takes.

Question: Is there a tolerance for a difference between the number of people who voted and the votes that are counted?

Spokesman: I don’t know that there is any specific plus or minus. We will just have to see what they come up with during the reconciliation process.

Question: Is there any concern that the militias might target the counting centre?

Spokesman: There were no security incidents in the area where the ballots are currently stored and where the reconciliation process is under way. And apart from the rocks thrown at the United Nations compound today, there is no indication that the United Nations itself was the target of the incidents today.

Question: Is there any Security Council discussion of a condemnation of the Indonesian regime?

Spokesman: They are meeting in closed consultation, so I can’t tell you what is going on behind those closed doors. You can try to catch the delegates as they come out of this morning session and put that question to them.

Question: Who is guarding the United Nations compound and how many of them are there?

Spokesman: I would have to look into that. Normally we have a security detail that looks after the headquarters. That might be reinforced by United Nations police. But of course, again, we would primarily depend on the Indonesian police and military if necessary.

Question: Is this the same for the place where the ballots are stored?

Spokesman: That is my understanding. Again, it is primarily the Indonesian police that are responsible.

Question: Will the Secretary-General be pressing for condemnation of the Indonesian Government in the Security Council?

Spokesman: Again, I think he will be following the lead of the Council. He will be listening to what they are saying. He is doing his part by briefing them, which he is doing today through Kieran Prendergast, keeping them up to the minute of the developments as we are aware of them. It is then up to them to decide what, if anything, to do.

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