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.

**East Timor

Good afternoon. The United Nations presence in East Timor is now concentrated in the United Nations headquarters in Dili, where about 215 international and 120 local staff share cramped quarters with about 2,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs). Food and water supplies remain adequate, with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees looking after the IDPs. Three babies were born over night, including a boy at 3:45 a.m., who was named Pedro UNAMET Rodriguez. It’s a fact.

From the compound, one could see government buildings burning in downtown Dili. There were reports of widespread looting by the militia as well as the forcible transport of thousands of civilians to West Timor. But as night fell, things quieted down, as the Indonesian military took over from the mobile police in guarding the United Nations compound area.

The Indonesian Government declared martial law in the wee hours of this morning, in what is seen as a last ditch effort to get the rampaging militia under control. The military have imposed a curfew as of 9 p.m. tonight until sunrise tomorrow.

The security situation has removed the capacity for humanitarian agencies to provide humanitarian assistance for the new wave of IDPs, estimated to number between 150,000 and 200,000.

In Geneva this morning, the High Commissioner for Human Rights (HCHR), Mary Robinson, urged the Commission on Human Rights to consider holding a special session on East Timor. The Commission has held only three such sessions in the past, on the former Yugoslavia in 1992 and 1993 and on Rwanda in 1994. The text of her statement is available in my office.

Over the holiday weekend, the Security Council agreed to send a mission to Jakarta to "discuss with the Government of Indonesia concrete steps to allow the peaceful implementation of the ballot result", in the words of a press statement issued by them Sunday evening.

On Monday they announced that Namibia would head the mission, which would also include the Permanent Representatives of Malaysia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom and the Deputy Permanent Representative of the Netherlands. By Monday evening they were on a flight for Jakarta and are, I assume, still in the air.

The Secretary-General was on the phone much of the weekend, including with President Habibie of Indonesia late Sunday. He briefed the Security Council mission at 5 p.m. Monday afternoon, before their departure for Jakarta.

**Security Council

This morning, the Security Council is meeting in informal consultations. The main agenda item was Kosovo.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet was responding to some questions on several aspects of the Kosovo operation. Miyet said a more thorough Council briefing on the United Nations in Kosovo is expected to take place on Friday by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative Bernard Kouchner, who will speak to you following that presentation, either here at the briefing, or at the stand-up mike. Kouchner is arriving in New York tomorrow afternoon.

Under other matters, the Security Council President reported on the mission to East Timor, which is expected to arrive in Jakarta in the middle of the night tonight.

**Kosovo

The Special Representative of the Secretary-General Bernard Kouchner today swore in eight judges and three prosecutors at the District Court House in Pec, bringing the number of judges and prosecutors appointed so far to 48.

Today's appointment included mostly Albanian judges, a Bosnian Muslim and with a seat reserved for a Serb judge to be appointed at a later date. The swearing-in ceremony of the new judges and prosecutors represented an important step towards a new, independent and multi-ethnic judiciary for Kosovo.

Also today, the first class of the Kosovo Police Service School began at 8:30 a.m.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, today issued a report on the situation in Kosovo.

In over 20 pages, the report detailed human rights abuses that were among the root causes of the mass exodus of more than 1 million ethnic Albanians out of Kosovo. This included specific information on the killings which took place during the NATO campaign, when an estimated 10,000 Kosovo Albanians died, and several thousand more are still missing. In addition, the report examines violations of the rights of minorities in today's Kosovo, including murder, eviction, rape and kidnapping.

Among her recommendations, the High Commissioner calls on the people of Kosovo to refrain from violence and end attacks against minority groups. She also calls on the Belgrade Government to specify the charges against detainees transferred from Kosovo.

On Monday, Kouchner relaunched a childhood immunization programme that had been disrupted since March 1998.

Also Monday, Kouchner announced the formation of the Kosovo Economic Policy Board consisting of local experts representing the political spectrum of the province as well as experts appointed by the United Nations mission, and Tom Koenigs of Germany took up the post as Deputy Special Representative to head the United Nations mission’s Civil Administration pillar. He replaces Dominique Vian, who returned to his duties in France.

The last team of international scientists from the joint United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) Balkans Task Force (BTF) left for Serbia and Montenegro on Tuesday. This is the final field mission conducting independent scientific and technical assessment of the environmental and human settlements impact of the Balkans conflict.

**UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention

Pino Arlacchi, the Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, arrived in Moscow yesterday and met with the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin. They discussed mutual cooperation in combating organized crime and the trafficking of illegal drugs as well as possible United Nations assistance to Russian law- enforcement agencies. They also reached agreement on the need for a “security belt” around Afghanistan and for strengthening border control capabilities of the Central Asian States.

**Daghestan

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that the situation in Daghestan deteriorated drastically over the weekend, with hundreds of rebels crossing the border between Daghestan and Chechnya and attacking several villages in the Novolaksk area.

Around 6,000 women and children from Novolaksk fled the fighting Sunday to a UNHCR-assisted reception centre in Makhachkala. Rebels reportedly allowed women and children to leave the besieged villages while men were forced to dig defensive ditches.

According to the Daghestani Migration Service, the number of people displaced by the conflict yesterday reached 22,000. UNHCR said it could not independently verify this information since it does not have any staff present in Daghestan.

**Christian Solidarity International

Today, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations is meeting in an open session to consider the consultative status of Christian Solidarity International (CSI).

You'll recall that this summer, the Economic and Social Council had asked the Committee to meet in order to give CSI representatives an opportunity to address Committee members. Following CSI's address this morning, Committee members have been asking questions of its representative, who has been answering. By the end of today's meeting, which is scheduled to continue at 3 p.m., the Committee is expected to make a recommendation to the Economic and Social Council on whether CSI's consultative status should be maintained or withdrawn.

**United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

There is a press release from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) available at the documents counter, providing details on the progress made last week in Geneva by delegates drafting a Protocol on Liability and Compensation for Damage Resulting from Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal. It is hoped that the text will be finalized in December at the fifth Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention, the treaty that deals with this subject.

**Credentials

Starting at noon today -- and it should be happening right now -- the Secretary-General is receiving credentials from a number of new Ambassadors: from Barbados, June Yvonne Clark; from Zimbabwe, Tichaona Joseph Jokonya; from Austria, Gerhard Pfanzelter; from Kenya, Fares M. Kuindwa; and from the United States, Richard Holbrooke.

Biographies on all these individuals are on the racks today, and these meetings are expected to last until about 1 p.m.

**Payments

And finally, we received payments today from two countries: Barbados with a cheque for over $83,000; Fiji for over $41,000.

That brings to 96 the number of countries paid in full for this year.

**Question-and-answer session

Question: There is a report from the Washington Post today saying that an intervention mission for East Timor is in its final stages of planning. Do you have any additional information on that?

Spokesman: No, the Secretary-General over the weekend declined to comment at all about contingency planning. I have told you a few times that there has been no discussions in the Security Council itself of either a peacekeeping force or an intervention force, although it is clear from statements coming out of capitals that a number of Governments have been talking about this and planning for it. The Secretary-General said last night, again to the press, that in 24 to 48 hours we should test the decision by the Indonesian Government to impose martial law. If there is not a dramatic change for the better in the situation in East Timor, then we would have to talk to Indonesia about next steps -– alternative measures -– to try to get the situation under control.

Question: Does your statement mean that no United Nations representatives were involved at all in the discussions for the formation of this intervention force?

Spokesman: There are meetings, regularly, of about 33 Member States, that have a special interest in East Timor, and the United Nations Secretariat attends those meetings. There may, in addition to those meetings of 33, be other meetings at hoc -- gatherings of Governments and their representatives – at which, perhaps, Secretariat members are also present. The Secretariat has been involved. The Secretary-General himself has been talking on the phone with a number of Governments, and has taken a keen interest in the composition of a possible intervention force, should Indonesia request such assistance from the United Nations.

Question: What is the procedure after these 48 hours?

Spokesman: Well, I think it is useful that the Council’s mission will be in Jakarta when this 48-hour period is up. If the situation has not dramatically improved, I think they’ll be able to talk to Indonesia about next steps. It would be up to the Council to consider the options. The Governments that have publicly been saying that they are prepared to contribute troops have also been saying that that would also be on condition that Indonesia asks for help. I think the first step -– if the next 48 hours don’t result in law and order being re-imposed on East Timor – the next step would be for Indonesia to ask the international community for assistance. The Council would then act, and the Governments who were prepared to go in militarily, would then form a “Coalition of the Willing” and deploy as quickly as they are physically able.

Question: Will this “Coalition of the Willing” be a United Nations peacekeeping force, or an outside peacekeeping force with the blessing of the Security Council?

Spokesman: If the United Nations were to try to organize a force including recruiting the troops, naming the leadership, organizing the transport, it would take months. I don’t think that is a realistic option. The “Coalition of the Willing” is a much quicker alternative. The Security Council would bless such an action and then the Governments capable of taking that action would organize amongst themselves, including the transport, the deployment, the supply of those troops.

Question: Will those Governments pay for that themselves?

Spokesman: Under those circumstance the cost would be borne by the Governments taking part. They would not be shared among all Members of the United Nations.

Question: The Security Council or the Secretary-General have requested Governments to have troops ready…

Spokesman: The Security Council has not asked for anything and has not even discussed the subject, and the Secretary-General has declined to discuss contingency planning.

Question: What happened to the “standby arrangements”?

Spokesman: Standby arrangements apply to United Nations peacekeeping where you try to take an exercise that normally takes three to six months and reduce it to something more useful in terms of rapid deployment, maybe a month or two. Those arrangements get more fully subscribed all the time. In theory we could call up those who have subscribed to these standby arrangements and ask if they would like to go to East Timor. It still is not as quick an option as a “Coalition of the Willing”. There are Governments who said they could put troops in East Timor in 72 hours. We can't match that.

Question: When did the period of 48 hours start?

Spokesman: That was a comment the Secretary-General made to the press last night, here at the stake-out, and it was about one hour before we saw wire-service stories that Indonesia had declared martial law. It was in response to a question about martial law. He had to speak a bit hypothetically, although he had discussed with President Habibie this option and the President had told him that martial law would be declared and it had been approved by the cabinet. He was expecting that to happen; it had not happened when you asked him that question.

Question: The intervention forces are not going to disembark on Wednesday night at 8 p.m., will they?

Spokesman: No, but the Security Council mission will be there by the middle of the night New York time. Everyone, I think, will be watching East Timor closely. We don’t have eyes and ears throughout the province. As I just mentioned to you, we are all behind circled wagons in Dili and I believe there are only about 20 international press still in East Timor, and those people are in our compound. We will be a bit limited as to what we can report, but we’ll get around and I think we should have some sense of whether there has been a dramatic decrease in the amount of violence and intimidation. That is what everyone will be looking for. The 24-48 hours was merely the Secretary-General’s indication of what he thought was reasonable; that he felt that the situation on the ground was so bad, that the international community could not afford to wait more than a day or two.

Question: Will the Secretary-General be asking for indictments from the International Criminal Court?

Spokesman: There isn’t an International Criminal Court yet. And when and if it does get created -– and we all hope it will be -– it will not have retroactive jurisdiction. Rather we would be talking about the creation of an ad hoc tribunal, similar to what was done for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. I personally haven’t heard of any discussion about that. I don’t think there has been any discussion of that in the Security Council’s closed consultations. I must say that a number of journalists in the last 24 hours have asked questions, so the idea is floating out there somewhere, but I don’t know that Governments have given serious consideration to that option. Although it is possible.

Question: Has the Secretary-General thought about any sort of sanction to threaten or apply against Indonesia?

Spokesman: The Secretary-General really doesn’t have much clout in this area as the head of an organization of Governments. Governments themselves have a number of options. I don’t want to comment on the position of Governments, except to say that it is clear that international frustration with Indonesia over their failure to get control over these militias, their failure to stop the killing, the deportation of people, the destruction of property, the attack on United Nations staff, is clearly mounting. I think it is hurting Indonesia’s international reputation, which is something you can’t put a dollar value on. And whether governments would want to go take the further step, I don’t know. Their posture right now though, is to appeal to Indonesia to get the situation under control. The Secretary-General has suggested that that should be extended 24-48 hours from last night, and if that can’t happen, to talk to Indonesia about an international force to help them out.

Question: Why does Indonesia have to give permission for this force? Why can’t the Security Council take action under Chapter VII without Indonesia’s permission?

Spokesman: They can, legally, take that action as they did in Kosovo, and as they did in Kuwait when Iraq invaded. That is another step, that is a more intrusive step. That amounts to a declaration of war, to move troops into a sovereign country without that country’s permission. In this case, of course, you are talking about territory that is not part of Indonesia’s sovereign territory. But you would probably, in the context of this agreement on the referendum, want to get Indonesia’s and Portugal’s agreement -- because they are the United Nations two partners in the referendum agreement -– to send the troops in. If you did not have that agreement, again, the option is there, but you would expect a lot more political opposition in the Security Council. The debate on approving that kind of mission would be prolonged and difficult.

Question: Do you have any figures on the number of refugees or dead?

Spokesman: It has been very difficult for us to get those figures. You would expect the police in East Timor to maintain those records of number killed. At the moment I don’t think we have any authoritative figures. It is just based on eyewitness accounts brought to us by individuals, who sought refuge in our compound, by journalists who have witnessed events.

Question: How many United Nations staff are there in East Timor right now and are there any plans to move anymore of them out?

Spokesman: We moved all of those in Baucau, which was the last regional office still open. They were moved out today to Darwin. And then you have the numbers that I gave you at the beginning of this briefing. Now, all our people are in Dili: 215 internationals, 120 local staff and a lot of displaced people.

Question: Has by force of circumstance the 48 hours the Secretary-General mentioned become a deadline?

Spokesman: I think he wanted to quantify the amount of time that he sensed the international community was willing to wait for Indonesia to get the situation under control. The events on the ground were so disturbing that to wait more than a day or two in his view -– and I think he felt in the view of many Member States -– would be irresponsible.

Question: Would those 48 hours then be followed by some sort of diplomatic arm twisting?

Spokesman: Yes, I think Governments would then, perhaps starting with the Security Council’s mission in Jakarta, begin talking to Indonesia seriously about a concerted action involving foreign troops.

Question: If the violence continues, and countries don’t want to send troops in without the authorization of the Council, what would happen?

Spokesman: There is no world government and there is no world police force. We basically rely on cooperative efforts to deal with issues like this. If Indonesia continues to say: let us handle law and order, and then they don’t, the Council would then have to consider the option of a forced intervention. But that would be an extreme step and it would take quite a bit of political work to get it done in the Council.

Question: A report from the Post mentioned a force of 5,000 to 7,000 troops. Is that also in agreement with what the Secretary-General had in mind?

Spokesman: I have not been privy to the discussions that Governments have had on this subject, so I can’t confirm that number.

Question: The report also says that Habibie has pretty much agreed with the Secretary-General on that number. Is that true?

Spokesman: They did discuss on Sunday what would happen if martial law were not successful. The Secretary-General suggested that it might then be necessary to talk about international support to Indonesia. The President acknowledged that yes, that may be so. But I am not saying that he said that: yes, Indonesia would be ready to ask for assistance. He said he would have to consider that.

Question: Ambassador Marker said yesterday it was very clear that Indonesia did not live up to the agreement to maintain adequate security. Does the Secretary-General agree with that statement?

Spokesman: I think it is understandable why Ambassador Marker would be very candid on that point, because when the agreement was being negotiated, there was concern about security during Phase II: between the announcement of the results and when the Indonesian parliament took formal action to change the status of East Timor. People were quite concerned about the security situation on the ground. Indonesia, though, insisted that it could and would maintain law and order. The fact that they haven’t, now, of course, is creating an awful situation on the ground. And that is really why the Security Council mission is going to Jakarta, and that is what we are all trying to deal with.

Question: So Indonesia has failed to live up to its promise?

Spokesman: Whether they would not or could not, I really don’t know, but clearly they have not.

Question: Portugal is the legal administrative authority in East Timor. Does the Secretary-General believe that Portugal actually has surrendered some of its rights to take action through their agreement with Indonesia to allow Indonesia to take care of law and order? Could Portugal, without the United Nations, invite an international force in? Does the United Nations have anything to say on this subject?

Spokesman: We just focus on the agreement, because Portugal and Indonesia agreed to these terms, and the United Nations agreed to carry out the referendum. There may have been misgivings at various times that the agreement was being negotiated, but in the end the signatures went on the paper, it was signed right in this room before you and the referendum went forward. The Secretary- General really praised the courage of the East Timorese for turning out in such numbers and then things fell apart. I can’t speak for Portugal, but I have to assume that Portugal agreed by their signature to the agreement to allow Indonesia to maintain peace and security. Now that Indonesia has you can use the word failed in that, everyone is scrambling to put the thing back together again and, more precisely, to try to prevent the continuing loss of life.

Question: Can one say that Indonesia, by failing to live up to the agreement, has abrogated it, and that Portugal is now at liberty to ask for an intervention?

Spokesman: I don’t know if Portugal wants to do that. Lawyers might say there was an abrogation, but the fact is we have chaos on the ground. That is what we are trying to deal with. We have turned to Indonesia first. Saying that under the terms of the agreement this is your responsibility; can you do it? And now we have said that if you can’t do it in the next two days or so, we are going to come back to you with a proposal for us to assist you.

Question: There have been reports that China is not happy with the idea of imposing a force against Indonesia’s wishes.

Spokesman: What we are talking about now is working with Indonesia, saying, we would like to help you get this situation under control. Will you accept foreign troops? That is the first step.

Question: Would the Secretary-General be willing to propose an intervention under Chapter VII?

Spokesman: The Secretary-General would not get out in front of the Council on this, so I am not really prepared to answer that question. I would just like to clarify that Chapter VII does not necessarily means: over Indonesia’s objections. Even with Indonesia’s permission you would probably need a Chapter VII provision, so that the troops going in could use the necessary force to get the situation under control.

Question: Why would the Secretary-General not want to go out in front of the Security Council? Is this not a classic case where he can dispense on his international “capital”?

Spokesman: He can do that kind of thing behind the scenes. It is political suicide for a Secretary-General to get too far out in front of the Council. He is their servant. The Charter gives him a certain amount of latitude to bring to their attention threats to international peace and security, and that provision has been interpreted liberally over the years and Secretaries-General have taken a more active role on peace and security issues. But it has got to be done in a very gingerly way.

Question: The Carter Center said that the militia operations have been planned, and they have heard about this for two months. Did the United Nations hear about these plans?

Spokesman: I can’t say that we have. I did already say that there was concern about security during Phase II. It was discussed at the time. Indonesia said they would take care of it, and that became the basis of the agreement.

Question: Was the Secretary-General surprised that this happened?

Spokesman: Frankly, I think that a lot of people are surprised at the extent of the violence. But anyway, it is now a fact. We can go over the who-did-what later, but I think our immediate concern is to try to stop the killing and the rampaging by the militias.

Thank you very much.

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