PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA

At a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa said his country would pursue with others the need to restructure the United Nations.

President Mbeki said his Government was interested in a restructuring of the whole system of international organizations to reflect some concerns it had. "We are willing to pursue these matters ourselves with various countries to encourage the process leading to the restructuring that needs to take place", he said in response to a question.

He said he had not detailed any particular African question in his address to the General Assembly deliberately, but had placed African issues in a larger context.

Asked whether he would raise specific African problems at his meeting with United States President Bill Clinton tomorrow (Tuesday), he said there was no doubt that they would discuss some of the problems being raised in the General Assembly.

A correspondent asked what steps the United Nations and the international community could take with respect to the situation in Angola, particularly regarding sanctions against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) movement. The President was also asked whether, while at the United Nations, he would hold talks with other leaders on Angola, in the light of the worsening conflict there. He replied that the summit conference of the Southern African Development Community, which had taken place in Maputo last month, had agreed, at the request of the Angolan Government, to provide urgent humanitarian assistance. His Government had consequently appealed to the South African public to respond.

He said the question of sanctions against UNITA remained a matter for the Security Council, as he had observed in his speech before the General Assembly. It was an issue that the United Nations should continue to pursue, he added.

President Mbeki told a correspondent that the bilateral National Commission of the United States and South Africa was a functioning body that dealt with all aspects of cooperation between the two countries. Its life did not depend on its joint chairmen. He referred to an extradition treaty signed last week by the South African Minister of Justice and the United States Attorney General as an offshoot of that cooperation mechanism. The interaction between the two countries would continue, irrespective of changes in government.

Replying to a question on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he said he was sure that the conflict there would not be started again. Nobody would walk away from the agreement that had stopped it. He said it was necessary for the issues agreed upon by the parties to be implemented, such as the establishment of a joint military commission to be headed by somebody other than the belligerents. That had been done, he added, with the appointment of an Algerian general. Another step to be taken was the disengagement of the warring factions. He was not aware of any fighting in the Kasai Province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he told a correspondent. The belligerents had agreed to keep the peace under the ceasefire pact, he added.

Was he worried about the future of United States-South African relations because of next year's presidential elections in the United States? a correspondent asked. President Mbeki said the relations between the two countries were at a governmental level, irrespective of who was in office. "So the outcome of any election process in the United States has no impact." South Africa would continue to interact with whoever constituted the United States Government.

Asked about the dispute over the pricing of American pharmaceuticals, he said his Government would move ahead to ensure that legislation on the matter came into force.

What were the immediate needs and strategies for achieving nuclear disarmament? a correspondent asked. Abdul Minty, Deputy Director-General of the South African Foreign Ministry and a disarmament expert, said that a meeting of a core group of countries had worked on the subject. An increasing number of countries were sponsoring a resolution on the matter and getting more support. He said there would be a review meeting of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which would be independent of the effort under way in the General Assembly. The review meeting was very important in the context of nuclear disarmament.

Returning to the subject of the controversy over the prices of United States pharmaceuticals and drugs, a correspondent said "there is word that you (i.e., the South African Government) have reached or are about to reach an agreement with the United States on compliance with the World Trade Organization, allowing for compulsory licensing and parallel importing of specific AIDS drugs". The correspondent then posed the following questions: Would the agreement allow for those? Had the South African Government asked the United States Government to allow it rights to patents the United States controlled? Did he expect the pharmaceutical companies to withdraw the suit that they had currently suspended? Would the agreement allow for adequate access to those drugs, and others?

President Mbeki said the South African legislation was not in violation of World Trade Organization rules regarding intellectual property rights. His Government had insisted on that from the beginning. The issue therefore had nothing to do with permission being granted one way or the other by anybody. There had been a debate about the matter, with the pharmaceutical companies taking the opposite position. The fundamental question that had to be addressed was the issue of affordable medicine, the President said. "If a patented drug is on sale in the United States for 50 cents and is on sale in South Africa for 2 dollars, we will buy it in the United States, patented and packaged as it is. We will not compromise ourselves on the trademark."

There had been an understanding that the South African Government indeed had a commitment not to violate World Trade Organization rules, he said. That had been the intention from the beginning and that was why the matter had not reached the World Trade Organization. His Government had no intention of violating anybody's intellectual property rights.

Asked whether, in the light of improving relations between South Africa and Nigeria, the two could join forces to obtain seats on the Security Council, he said the matter had not been discussed.

A correspondent asked whether the question of United States debts to the United Nations would be discussed during his talks with President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and what he would tell them. President Mbeki said the issue was a matter between the United States and the United Nations. "We all have obligations to the United Nations and should meet them, so that it is able to do the things that it is supposed to do."

President Mbeki told a questioner that his Government maintained its position that with Libya's hand-over of the Lockerbie suspects for trial, the United States should lift its sanctions against that country. He added, however, that he did not "imagine that we will go to any particular special operation to mediate the issue".

Noting that the President had made a strong call for the restructuring of the United Nations in his address this morning, a correspondent asked how much consensus there was for that to be achieved and how optimistic he was that it could happen soon.

President Mbeki replied that the fact that it had taken so long for the issue to come into the open meant there was a problem. "I think it would be foolish to think that a mere statement in the General Assembly this morning would be sufficient to move the process forward."

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