DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF 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. Following the announcement by President Habibie of Indonesia that the Indonesian Government accepts the offer of the international community to assist it in restoring peace and security in East Timor, Foreign Minister Ali Alatas is arriving in New York today and will meet with the Secretary-General at 3:30 this afternoon here at Headquarters. Before that meeting, in fact as we speak, the Secretary-General is discussing the situation in East Timor with the five Permanent Members of the Security Council.

The Council will hold consultations at 4:30. They will hear the report of the Council delegation that went to Jakarta and Dili last week and that is returning to New York today.

Meanwhile in Dili, while the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) reported another quiet day, the humanitarian crisis is becoming increasingly dramatic. UNAMET went around Dili today and recorded between 5,000 and 8,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) camped in an area stretching from the Governor’s Mansion to the port. The heliport has been ransacked, hotels Makhota and Turismo have been burned down, the UNAMET transport workshop has been burned with most vehicles destroyed, and the warehouse of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Bishop Belo’s compound have been burned to the ground. Initial estimates are that 70 to 80 per cent of Dili’s business area has been destroyed and 50 per cent of all homes have been burned.

In a statement today, issued in Geneva by the High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, she said, “We are in a race against time to help save the lives of tens of thousands, or perhaps even more, terrified people affected by weeks of wanton violence and forcible displacement.”

Assistant Relief Coordinator Ross Mountain, whom the Secretary-General just appointed as the Humanitarian Coordinator ad interim for the East Timor crisis, is in Jakarta and will be working together with other humanitarian actors on the assistance and protection of IDPs. An inter-agency team is currently being assembled in Jakarta. Kevin Kennedy from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is now in Dili negotiating with the Indonesian military authorities visits to the IDP locations to assess their needs.

Three hundred thousand daily food rations have been stockpiled in Darwin, Australia. The World Food Programme (WFP) and the UNHCR are currently moving more food and shelter items to the region.

In Jakarta, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, recommended today the establishment of an international commission of inquiry as a step towards “establishing accountability for the grave violations” committed in East Timor. She was speaking after meeting Indonesian President Habibie at the end of a two-day visit to assess firsthand the human rights situation in East Timor.

A press release is available in my office.

For the record, I would like to mention that the Secretary-General welcomed Sunday morning the decision of the Indonesian Government to accept the offer of the international community to assist it in restoring peace and security in East Timor. He also called on the Indonesian authorities to do their utmost to maintain order and security in East Timor until the arrival of the international force. He said he was confident that through this cooperation between the Government of Indonesia and the United Nations the desire of the East Timorese people to become independent would be realized.

On Saturday, the Security Council Mission visited Dili. The Mission went to two internally displaced camps and they saw the very poor conditions of the IDPs. They also attended a briefing at the Indonesian Military Headquarters and following this, they visited the UNAMET compound, where they were briefed by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and other UNAMET senior officials. During the humanitarian briefing they heard a description of the forced relocation programme in which IDPs were taken first to police stations and then trucked and shipped out of the Territory. They were also told that the IDPs in Falintil cantonment sites, in Dare and in the hills and forests were rapidly running out of food.

While at the UNAMET compound, the Security Council mission also met with IDPs who sought refuge in the compound and who today number about 1,300.

During their stay in Dili they were able to see destruction everywhere they went. Few buildings, except for some government structures, were intact. The city is virtually deserted and all its shops have been looted.

Meanwhile in New York on Saturday, the Security Council held a public meeting on East Timor. Fifty-two speakers and the Secretary-General took the floor. The Secretary-General opened the debate. He described the conditions in which the East Timorese popular consultation process evolved, the recent wave of violence, death and destruction, and his efforts in search of a solution. The Secretary-General reiterated that “what is happening in East Timor may well fall into various categories of international crime. The individuals who have ordered and carried out these crimes must be held accountable.”

Copies of the Secretary-General’s statements of yesterday and Saturday are available in my office.

**United Nations Children's Fund

The Secretary-General today reappointed Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), to a second five-year term as head of the agency.

He said, “Over the past four-and-a-half years Ms. Bellamy has served with distinction and devotion. The world’s children will most certainly benefit from her continued leadership of this vital organization.”

Ms. Bellamy’s reappointment takes effect on 1 May of next year at the conclusion of her present term.

I saw her in the hallway on Friday and she said, “I love my job.” So, she’s got five more years of it.

**Security Council

This morning, the Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) through mid-December.

This is intended to allow time for the Mission to complete the identification of voters, implement confidence-building measures and conclude all outstanding agreements needed to implement the Settlement Plan. It will also allow for the continuation of the appeals process.

This afternoon, the Council will meet at 4:30 on East Timor.

**Civilians in Armed Conflict

Despite the adoption over the past 50 years of the main conventions of international humanitarian and human rights law, hardly a day goes by where we are not faced with evidence of the abuse of civilians in situations of armed conflict. In February, the Security Council, under Canada’s presidency, requested the Secretary-General to present a report on the protection of civilians in armed conflict, offering concrete recommendations. The report (S/1999/957) is now available on the racks and is expected to be considered in an open session of the Council on Thursday, 16 September. Martin Barber, Officer-in-Charge of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Policy, Advocacy and Information Division, will brief journalists at 3 o’clock today in this room on the background to this report.

**Kosovo

On Kosovo, today the United Nations International Police took over policing duties in the entire region of Pristina. All four police sub-stations of the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK) are now operational, with more than 500 officers deployed.

There is a 24-hour emergency number to report incidents to United Nations police. Also, the UNMIK police traffic unit is up and running in Pristina – giving out tickets, I assume. That unit will soon start issuing fines to violators of internationally recognized traffic rules.

In other news, a large World Bank team is in Kosovo studying 15 sectors of the economy for the targeting of future investment requirements.

You can read more in the briefing notes.

Also on Kosovo, 20 Member States have paid their full assessments to UNMIK. As of today, contributions amounting to $21.4 million have been received out of a total assessment of $125 million. So we are still $100 million short.

**United Nations Balkans Task Force

The last team of environment experts from the United Nations Balkans Task Force finished their fieldwork today in Yugoslavia. The Chairman, Pekka Haavisto, played down concerns of an ecological catastrophe, but he said action was needed for the environment “hot spots” that had been identified by the Task Force’s scientific assessment of the environmental and human settlement impact of the Balkans conflict. Among those “hot spots”, he said, were the heavily polluted canals at the Pancevo industrial complex. They would need to be cleaned and the mercury would have to be removed from the ground. He recommended the immediate removal of toxic waste at the Zastava car factory in Kragujevac and expressed concern about unexploded ordnance in national parks.

The final report of the Balkans Task Force will be submitted to the Secretary- General late this month or early next.

There is a press release on the racks.

**Central African Republic

At 10 p.m. local time Saturday, President Ange Patassé, of Central African Republic, announced in Bangui that for technical reasons, the presidential elections were postponed for one week, since the ballots were not printed on time. Two hundred electoral observers from the United Nations are deployed throughout the Central African Republic to monitor the vote, which is now scheduled to take place next Sunday, 19 September.

**Afghanistan

The Special Rapporteur for violence against women, Radhika Coomaraswamy, was in Afghanistan last week, where she determined that widespread and systematic violations of women's human rights remain an official policy in Taliban-held areas.

According to the Special Rapporteur, the Taliban's Department of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice is the "most misogynist such entity in the world". She said its edicts about women were completely unacceptable and it should be disbanded.

Discrimination takes a variety of forms, such as violations of the physical security of women, including public beatings, violations of the right to education, health, employment, freedom of movement and freedom of association.

You can read more in the briefing notes from UNIC Islamabad, which will be out on the racks this afternoon.

**General Assembly

As most of you know, the fifty-third session of the General Assembly closes today and the fifty-fourth session opens tomorrow. This morning, the Assembly adopted a Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace (A/53/L.79). In 10 articles, the Declaration defines what a culture of peace entails and sets out what is needed to more fully develop values, attitudes and modes of behaviour conducive to promoting peace. The Programme of Action outlines how to implement concrete strategies towards this end. Among a number of activities tomorrow, the Secretary-General will mark the beginning of the International Year for the Culture of Peace by ringing the Peace Bell.

The outgoing President of the General Assembly, Didier Opertti Badan of Uruguay, will give a press conference in this room at 1 p.m.

This afternoon at 5:30, the Secretary-General will address an annual prayer service held in conjunction with tomorrow's opening of the fifty-fourth session. The text of his remarks will be out on the racks later today.

At tomorrow afternoon's session, the Assembly will elect its new President. It is also expected to admit Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga as the newest members of the United Nations. As usual, the Assembly will then break into committees so that they can elect their officers before meeting again in plenary to elect Vice-Presidents of the Assembly. By tomorrow, we'll have a new General Assembly spokesman to explain these matters to you.

**International Day of Peace

Tomorrow, some 200 students from several schools in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania will take part in an interactive celebration of the International Day of Peace. They will meet with United Nations peacekeepers and will hear from Nane Annan, wife of the Secretary-General.

Later, the children will take part in a flag-raising ceremony in support of United Nations peace efforts worldwide.

You'll find more information on these activities in a press release on the racks (PI/1171).

**Press Conferences

Two additional press conferences to mention:

Tomorrow, Tuesday, at 11 a.m., David Cheney, the Chief of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Editorial Division, will be here to discuss the IMF annual report on the theme “Financial Crises Prompt Consideration of Proposals to Strengthen the Global Financial System”.

And then our guest at the noon briefing tomorrow will be Madame Justice Navanethem Pillay, President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, to discuss the work of the Tribunal.

**Question and Answer Session

Question: Does the Secretary-General anticipate any difficulty on the question of non-Asian troop-contributing countries?

Spokesman: President Habibie told him, and I understand that the Foreign Minister was in the room with the President at the time that that phone conversation took place, that there would be no conditions. And he said, when he came in this morning, that it is up to the United Nations and the Security Council to decide the composition of the force.

Question: Doesn’t the host country normally have some say in this matter?

Spokesman: In theory, no. In practice there is usually some consultation with the host country. But we have our own guidelines on who would be an appropriate troop contributor and who would not be. I mean, we have been doing this for a long time.

Question: So you anticipate no difficulties on this question?

Spokesman: I don’t know what to anticipate. President Habibie did not have any of the details or did not want to discuss any of the details with the Secretary- General over the phone. He said the Foreign Minister would be coming here to do that. We don’t know what will be on the Foreign Minister’s agenda. We are hoping that there will be no obstacles. I think everyone wants to see quick deployment of the force.

Question: President Habibie said he did not want Australia on the force.

Spokesman: I haven’t seen that statement and that is not our understanding of their position.

Question: Does the Secretary-General support Mary Robinson’s call for an inquiry?

Spokesman: We only just saw that announcement that she made concluding her visit to the region. He did say on two occasions, including what I just announced this morning, that those guilty should be brought to justice, so I assume he would support this.

Question: He said the other day that this was premature. Does he still think it is premature?

Spokesman: I think the question was on the creation of an ad hoc tribunal. I don’t think he was prepared to speculate about that.

Question: The ASEAN countries decided during a meeting that Asian countries should take the lead of the international force. Does this affect United Nations plans?

Spokesman: I understand that ASEAN countries are among those that have volunteered to contribute troops, I think not only to the multinational force that we are talking about now, but also to the peacekeeping force that we envisage for the third phase after the Indonesian parliament formally changes the status of East Timor. But at this point I don’t want to speculate about what countries will be contributing. As I have already said, there will be a substantial number of Asian countries, but it will not be an exclusively Asian force.

Question: President Habibie was talking about a peacekeeping force. Is there a confusion of the terms, because the force we are talking about is not a Blue Helmet force.

Spokesman: There isn’t a final decision by the Security Council yet as to whether this would be a peacekeeping force or a multinational force. There is a strong preference, including on the part of the Secretariat, for a multinational force, because it is simpler and quicker. That would be our hope. But again, we are waiting to hear first from the Foreign Minister of Indonesia. Also the Foreign Minister of Portugal is flying in. We hope that there might be a tripartite meeting with the Secretary-General before the end of the day. And the Foreign Minister of Australia is also in the air now, coming to New York, arriving late tonight. So I think there will be a lot of consultations by the end of today and we’ll see how far we can get as far as deciding which kind of force it will be.

Question: Is the international commission of inquiry a first formal step towards the establishment of a Tribunal and does that require the approval of the Security Council?

Spokesman: That is a question I am looking into. Can you answer that question? [To a member of his staff.]

Staff Member: There are plans for the Human Rights Commission to meet in an extraordinary session.

Spokesman: So the next step is for the Human Rights Commission to react, and we are waiting for an extraordinary session to be called.

Question: Is there any news from Angola?

Spokesman: From Angola? No. I mean, the news on Angola today is the Human Rights Watch report. And I’ve seen that Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada, who is the Chairman of the Sanctions Committee and who headed a visit to Angola recently, reacted to it, welcomed it for drawing attention to the violations of sanctions. But off the top of my head I don’t have anything else to report on Angola today.

Question: Beyond the composition of the force, what else will be discussed between the Secretary-General and the Foreign Minister of Indonesia?

Spokesman: We really don’t know. I mean, we have got a concept of operations. If there were a decision now by the Security Council to allow this force to be deployed as a multinational force, we would know exactly who would be part of it, how they would go and when they would go. But President Habibie said he was sending his Foreign Minister here to discuss the details. Until he gets here and starts talking to us we don’t know what kind of issues he might raise.

Question: So the concept of operations is open to amendments?

Spokesman: Within reason, yes. But again, let’s not speculate about what the Foreign Minister will raise, let us just wait for him to come.

Question: When we are talking about a peacekeeping force or a multinational force, what would be the mechanics, under which flag would either of them be?

Spokesman: A peacekeeping force would be recruited by the United Nations, the military leadership would be appointed by the United Nations, the logistical support, transport, housing, food, all the rest, would be supplied by the United Nations. And the cost would be divided among the 185, soon to be 188 Member States of the United Nations. With a multinational force, the Council authorizes a group of nations, and usually specifies a lead nation, to organize a force and carry it out. The logistics then are handled by the lead nation, and the costs are borne by the countries who contribute. You can see that the second option is simpler and quicker. It is under the United Nations flag, one way or the other.

Question: When do you think there will be a resolution?

Spokesman: I think, if some governments could have their way, we might see a draft resolution by late tonight. But again, we don’t know what the outcome of these various meetings that are scheduled for today will be, and whether some unforeseen issues could be raised that could slow up the process. But I think the fastest it could happen would be tonight.

Question: You say that there are no conditions. At the same time the Foreign Minister comes here to discuss details. Isn’t this a bit absurd?

Spokesman: No, I said that consultation with a host country is common in peacekeeping. There are plans to send troops into East Timor where Indonesian troops are now deployed. Certainly, the coordination between the Indonesian military and the multinational force going in will have to be discussed. The more understandings that can be reached before going in, I think, the fewer problems we will encounter on the ground.

Question: Is the Secretary-General worried about problems between the international force and the Indonesian military? Does he prefer that the Indonesian troops withdraw?

Spokesman: No. President Habibie has said, come in and assist us. Our assumption is we will be working with the Indonesians to get the militias under control.

Question: What happens to the refugees in the compound?

Spokesman: There are 1,300 of them as of today, as I think I just mentioned. There is, for the moment at least, food and water. The sanitary and health conditions are adequate. We have a couple of doctors in the compound. Everything is okay for the short term, but we are concerned about our ability to continue to provide for them over the longer term.

Question: What kind of coordination is possible with the force that led to the killings?

Spokesman: Whenever you get two military forces on the ground, you need coordination. The military know how to cooperate with each other. The multinational force is going in with a mandate -- which hasn’t yet been specified by the Security Council, but I assume it will be to restore security and law and order to East Timor in cooperation with the Indonesian military. It is a job they will have to do together.

Question: There are reports that the Australian Consulate in Jakarta was trashed this night. That has got to raise some concerns.

Spokesman: I didn’t see that report.

Question: Will the Secretary-General be part of the meeting of the Security Council tonight?

Spokesman: I assume he will be sitting in. I think he also will brief them at some point.

Question: Which countries would write the draft resolution tonight?

Spokesman: I don’t know. And if I did I couldn’t say.

Question: Tonight there is a reception at the Indonesian Mission that the Secretary-General was supposed to go to. Is it still on his agenda?

Spokesman: I assume it is and maybe the Foreign Minister will be there as well. They can continue their discussion in a social context.

Question: What if President Habibie reneged on his agreement to allow international troops?

Spokesman: Oh, we don’t even think about that. There is no reason to think that he would. I haven’t heard anyone even speculate about that. That is a dirty thought. Don’t think it.

Question: How long will it be before the United Nations staff in Darwin can go back after the multinational force goes into East Timor?

Spokesman: We would like to rotate people back in as soon as possible after the MNF arrives. Not so much our political people, as the humanitarian workers. As I have already mentioned, the fresh concern now is the condition of people camped out in Dili, living up in the hills, driven into exile in West Timor. They need food, they need shelter and we want to provide it. We want to get in the people who can do that as quickly as possible. I hope that at least the planners would arrive at the heels of the MNF. I have already mentioned to you that there is a High Commissioner for Refugees person and an OCHA person, Kevin Kennedy, in the Dili compound, negotiating with the Indonesian military now on access to the IDPs. So, as quickly as possible.

Question: Could you give us a list of the countries who are willing to contribute troops to a multinational force?

Spokesman: That list remains confidential until the Security Council authorizes the force and we are prepared then to finalize the list of the participants. We need to know the number that the Council will approve and then we can finalize the list and make it public. But we don’t make these offers of contributions public until we are ready to announce the final composition of the entire force.

Question: Can you confirm two incidents? One that there was a massacre in Dare, and one that militias wearing United Nations caps were herding people down to the port and sending them off in boats.

Spokesman: I believe, in Dare, that there was an incident on Saturday night in which one person was killed and several were injured. That may have been what David Wimhurst was getting details on. On people being herded into trucks driven to boats, I don’t have anything specific on that. We know people were trucked into West Timor. It would be consistent with a pattern of forced deportation that we have seen before.

Question: Is the Secretary-General concerned about the bigger ramifications beyond East Timor? Especially for the next time that the United Nations has to organize a referendum? How can people believe the United Nations when the United Nations was not there to prevent the bloodshed in East Timor?

Spokesman: We did organize a vote in East Timor. People did turn out in record numbers and it was done peacefully and successfully. Where it broke down was in the security arrangements for after the vote, but before the transition to independence. At the time everybody thought this was the best agreement we could get: leaving Indonesia responsible for peace and security. It was signed by Portugal, as well as Indonesia. The East Timorese resistance accepted the deal; the Security Council blessed the deal. Everyone thought it was the best opportunity for a referendum when that happened. Will we take a closer look at security aspects of future votes? Maybe.

Question: How long will there be between the acceptance of a resolution by the Security Council and the sending of troops?

Spokesman: I don’t know, but given that some of the countries that have publicly declared that they were offering troops have also publicly declared that they could deploy in a matter of days, and I assume that the Council could act quickly, I think we are talking about days rather than weeks.

Question: You said the troops would be under the United Nations flag. During the Gulf War the troops were authorized by the Security Council but not under United Nations flag. Is this going to be different.

Spokesman: It is a bit different in that for a potential multinational force the Secretariat, indeed the Secretary-General himself, has been deeply involved in the recruiting of the troops. There are shades of difference. Whether physically there will be a United Nations flag flying, or not flying if it is a multinational force, I don’t know, but the main thing is that the Security Council will authorize the force. They will be going in with the approval and the blessing of the Council.

Question: Would you say that this is the force that would go in for phase III, just accelerated, or is this completely different?

Spokesman: I think this is different, because its mandate is different. Its mandate is to help the Indonesians to restore peace and security. I think we’ll continue to plan for a peacekeeping force, a more classic Chapter 6-type of force, for phase III, the transition to independence. You should probably keep those two things distinct in your mind. If the security situation does get under control, then I think this force going in now would be replaced by another.

Question: If you cannot compare this force to the Gulf War, can you compare it to some other previous peacekeeping operations? Korea?

Spokesman: The force authorized in Korea still flies the United Nations flag. Probably you have examples of multinational forces flying the flag or not flying the flag. I honestly don’t know what the Council is going to do and how the leader of the force, whoever it is, will organize it. If it is a multinational force they will not be wearing blue berets, they won’t have a United Nations-appointed commander and they will be on their own to organize the logistics. And they would also be on their own to organize the force and select the participants. Although, as I just said, in this case the Secretary-General is more intimately involved in the planning.

Question: Would it be comparable to SFOR or KFOR?

Spokesman: I don’t know that it is helpful to try to compare this to anything that went before. It is not in a class by itself, but peacekeeping itself has been evolving dramatically over the last 10 years and there are new elements in the way this force came about. And in fact it has not yet come about. We still have to have the Council adopt a resolution creating it.

Question: In attacks on refugee camps in West Timor militias used United Nations vehicles. Do you know how many United Nations vehicles were stolen?

Spokesman: No, I don’t, but I reported to you last week that we had reports that militia were driving around in United Nations vehicles in West Timor. They have stolen a number of our vehicles and who knows what they are doing with them.

Question: Who would have the biggest say in the composition of the multinational force, the Secretary-General or Australia. Is the Secretary-General acting as a multinational coordinator?

Spokesman: There have been 33 Member States that have been part of a contact group on East Timor that have been meeting with Secretariat officials, peacekeeping, political affairs, security and so on. The contingency planning for this force has been going on for a long time, has involved a lot of countries and has involved the Secretariat.

Question: Would it be possible that the Australian forces are kicked out because the Indonesian military are saying that they cannot work with Australian troops because of Australian criticism of Indonesia?

Spokesman: I don’t want to speculate about what might come out of the consultations that will take place later today. I already mentioned, in addition to the Indonesian Foreign Minister, we have the Portuguese Foreign Minister, the Australian Foreign Minister. There will be lot of high-level discussions of this force, including the composition. Let these talks take place, then the Council will act and we’ll see what the outcome is.

Thank you very much.

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