DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY 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, and Shirley Brownell, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon.

**Secretary-General Sends Humanitarian Assistance Mission to War-Torn Chechnya

The following statement is attributable to the Spokesman: The Secretary-General has for some weeks been concerned about the severe impact of the conflict in Chechnya on the civilian population, many thousands of whom have been driven from their homes.

He is in touch with the Russian authorities and has sent a senior official to Moscow to discuss the possibility of sending a United Nations humanitarian assistance mission to the northern Caucasus. Those consultations were successful, and a mission will leave for the region very soon -- possibly before the end of the month.

The Secretary-General reiterates his appeal to both sides in the conflict to show restraint and to take special care to avoid civilian casualties. While the problem of terrorism is one of legitimate concern to all governments, it is important that the response to it should be proportional, and that the provisions of humanitarian law in armed conflict are respected at all times.

In situations as complex as that in Chechnya, the solution must ultimately be political.

**Secretary-General Strongly Condemns Assassination of Armenian High Officials; Sends Condolences to Armenian People

Yesterday afternoon, we issued the following statement on the developments in Armenia: “The Secretary-General has learned with deep sorrow of the assassination of the Chairman of the Armenian Parliament, Karen Dermichian; the Armenian Prime Minister, Vazgen Sarkissian; the Deputy Chairman of the Parliament, Yuri Bakhshian; and the Minister of Operative Issues, Leonard Petrossian. He expresses his condolences to the people of the Republic of Armenia and to the families of all those killed inside the Chamber.

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns this shocking act of violence. He reiterates his total condemnation of terrorism from whatever quarter. At

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 28 October 1999

the same time, he demands that all hostages be released immediately and unconditionally.”

And, of course, the reports of today were that the remaining hostages were released.

**Prendergast to Burundi; Will Discuss Prospects for Peace in West African Region

As we announced earlier, at the request of the Secretary-General, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Kieran Prendergast, will be travelling to Burundi and other countries in and outside the region starting tomorrow. He will begin his trip in Addis Ababa with meetings with officials of the Organization of African Unity.

Over the course of his trip, he will visit Burundi, the United Republic of Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The objective is to discuss with the leadership in those countries the situation in Burundi, get a first-hand understanding of their assessment of the situation there and the prospects for the peace process, and find out what the United Nations can do to keep the peace process on track.

This mission was prompted by the deterioration in Burundi's political and security situation and by the death of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, who was the Facilitator of these peace talks. The vacuum caused by his death has caused concern in the light of increasing violence and instability in the country.

**As Consultations Continue, Security Council Briefed by UNICEF, Iraq Programme Directors

The Security Council has scheduled consultations this morning on Iraq and on the United Nations Mission in the Prevlaka Peninsula.

Council members first heard a briefing by Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), on her recent visit to Iraq. We have copies of her statement available in our office.

The Council then took up the “oil-for-food” programme and heard a briefing by Benon Sevan, Executive Director of the Office of the Iraq Programme. In his remarks he referred to two letters by the Secretary- General to the Council President, dated 12 and 22 October, on the programme, in particular the holds placed on applications and the adjustment to the distribution plan for the current phase of the programme (Phase VI), including the question of allocating an additional 300 million dollars for oil spare parts and equipment.

The Council is also expected to take up the report of the Secretary- General on the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka with recommendations and options to develop confidence-building measures between the parties to the disputed issue of Prevlaka.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 28 October 1999

**East Timorese Repatriation Continues; First Returns Arrive From Australia

Since the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) began airlifting refugees to East Timor on 8 October, some 23,000 people have gone home using planes, ships and trucks. Of that number, around 16,000 were repatriated from West Timor and the rest were flown from Jakarta and Surabaya on the main Java Island and Denpasar in Bali.

On Thursday, that's today, 42 refugees flew from Darwin to Dili in the first organized return from Australia. The returnees included a disabled woman and a single mother with seven children. They were among 1,500 Timorese refugees in Australia.

The UNHCR also reported today that it hopes to begin transporting returnees from the West Timor port of Atapupu to Dili in East Timor on Friday. Two ferries, each with a capacity of 500, will be used in the operation from Atapupu, located 230 kilometres east of the West Timor capital of Kupang. Revised government estimates show some 219,000 refugees remain in West Timor. About 150,000 of them in the Belu regency along the border with East Timor where Atapupu is located. A trickle of refugees has gone back on foot across the border in recent weeks.

**UNHCR Convoy Attacked in Kosovo near Montenegrin Border Yesterday

From Kosovo, yesterday afternoon, the KFOR escorted a humanitarian convoy of the UNHCR consisting of four buses and some 21 cars containing 155 Serb men, women and children. As they were going through Pec, near the Montenegrin border, the last eight cars stopped because one car had car trouble. The rest of the convoy continued, but a crowd of some 1,500 Albanians quickly surrounded the stopped cars. A riot ensued and 17 cars, including the cars in the convoy, were set on fire. About 10 to 15 people were slightly injured. There were no serious casualties and no fatalities.

By 7 p.m., the situation had calmed down, and the KFOR cleared the road.

The Secretary-General's Special Representative, Bernard Kouchner, and KFOR Commander General Reinhardt condemned the incident in a joint statement. They said, "The KFOR and the UNMIK cannot tolerate blockades which deny the citizens of Kosovo their fundamental and democratic rights of freedom of movement and will make every effort to bring those responsible to justice."

**Secretary-General Recommends Increase of UNMIK Civilian Police

Out on the racks today is an addendum to the Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

In it, the Secretary-General recommends that the total number of United Nations civilian police officers in the Mission be increased to 4,718. This

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 28 October 1999

increase is intended to ensure that the Mission has the capacity to both establish and maintain civil law and order through a fully functional international police service in Kosovo.

The UNMIK civilian police will provide a broad spectrum of basic law enforcement services, including patrolling, crime prevention, criminal investigations and interdiction against organized crime. The number of the Mission's civilian police will be gradually reduced as the force progressively fulfils its parallel mandate of developing capable local police forces.

**Secretary-General to Stress Eradicating Poverty in Address to Links, Inc.

The Secretary-General will deliver a speech at the luncheon of The Links, Inc., this afternoon. He will note that eradicating poverty requires us to work on several levels, at the field level, at the policy level and at the level of political will.

He will tell the participants, "There is much you can do as our allies in civil society. You can help mobilize the necessary political will by explaining and advocating to the public and their elected leaders that it is within our reach to help the millions on the margins. You can promote the understanding that people and markets are interconnected -- that what happens to our fellow human beings happens to us."

You can get copies of that complete statement in my office.

**Secretary-General Discusses Political, Foreign Affairs at 92nd ST. Y

This evening, the Secretary-General will be participating in a discussion on political and foreign affairs with Walter Isaacson, the Managing Editor of Time Magazine in the Kaufmann Concert Hall at the 92nd Street YMHA at 8:50 p.m. The program is organized by the YMHA as part of its 1999-2000 lecture series, which takes place in a relaxed atmosphere. There is no formal written comment; it's just a conversation between the Secretary-General and Mr. Isaacson.

**Palestinian Trade Performance Worsens, Warns UNCTAD

And finally, the Palestinian trade performance has worsened appreciably over the past six years, according to a new report issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

The agency's Trade and Development Board will debate the "Report on UNCTAD's Assistance to the Palestinian People" on Friday. It states that there has been a welcome diversification of imports over the past two years. However, during the 1990s as a whole, the overall dependence of Palestinian trade on Israel has increased, to the detriment of other traditional markets and sources of supply.

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 28 October 1999

You can read more in a press release, which will be out on the racks shortly.

Questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question: Does the death of President Nyerere spell the end of his mission? Is Prendergast's mission a replacement of that mission?

Spokesman: No. The death of President Nyerere, as I said in my announcement, has created a vacuum, and that's dangerous because of the deteriorating situation in Burundi. So, the Prendergast mission is not to replace that, but merely to assess the current situation and decide how the United Nations can help.

Question: What is the structure of the Mission in Chechnya?

Spokesman: The mission will leave for the Northern Caucasus most likely next week and I don't have its composition. Its mandate will be humanitarian needs assessment and it will most likely visit Ingusetia. [It was later announced that the Mission will not go to Chechnya itself, but to neighbouring areas where the refugees are concentrated.]

Question: During the Secretary-General's discussions with Moscow on this mission, did he seek at all to play any kind of a political role or try to facilitate political talks?

Spokesman: No. To my knowledge, from the outset, it was a discussion of a purely humanitarian mission. The senior official who was sent there is a senior advisor to Sergio Vieira de Mello, the head of the Humanitarian Affairs Department, and a former senior official of the High Commissioner for Refugees. So it was he who went to Moscow and met with the relevant agency heads, including the Deputy Prime Minister, who has responsibility for humanitarian issues, and they worked out the modalities for this mission.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

There is no plenary meeting today. Yesterday afternoon, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on cooperation between the United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (A/54/L.9), welcoming the support provided to the United Nations by national parliaments through their world organization. It also expressed the wish that the cooperation between the two organizations would be further strengthened and enhanced in the third millennium.

As the Assembly was hearing statements on the item, Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab informed the Members that he had received information from the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations that gunmen had stormed the Parliamentary Sessions Chamber of the Republic of Armenia and opened fire; and that Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkissian, as well as the Chairman and Deputy Chairman of Parliament and a Minister, were killed. He paid tribute to the memory of the late Prime Minister and other dignitaries

Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 28 October 1999

who had met with tragic death. The Assembly then observed a minute of silence in tribute to the memory of Prime Minister Sarkissian and his fellow victims. Copies of the President’s statement were made available after he spoke.

In connection with agenda item 20, entitled “Strengthening of the coordination of humanitarian and disaster relief assistance of the United Nations, including special economic assistance”, the President announced that the first meeting of the informal consultations, coordinated by Ambassador Jorgen Bojer of Denmark, would be held on Thursday, 4 November, at 3 p.m. Some 18 sub-items fall under this general heading.

At two meetings tomorrow, the Assembly will elect 18 members of the 54-member Economic and Social Council for a three-year term starting 1 January 2000, and will take action on eight reports of the Fifth Committee, including on the financing of peacekeeping missions in East Timor, Angola and along the Iraq-Kuwait border.

In the ECOSOC elections, for five African seats, there are an equal number of candidates: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Sudan. For three Asian seats, there are six candidates: Bahrain, Fiji, Japan, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka and Thailand, with Japan and Sri Lanka seeking re- election. For one Eastern European seat, there are three candidates: Croatia, Hungary and Lithuania. For four Latin American and Caribbean seats, there are six candidates: Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Suriname and Uruguay, with Cuba and Mexico seeking re-election. And for five Western European and other States seats, there are an equal number of candidates: Austria, France, Germany, Greece and Portugal, with France and Germany seeking re-election. A list of the candidates and other members of the Council is now available in room 378.

In Committee action, this morning the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) is continuing its thematic discussion on specific disarmament topics and hearing the introduction of draft resolutions. Twenty- eight texts have been introduced so far. The Committee will take action on a total of 48 draft resolutions and four draft decisions from 1 to 9 November, before concluding its work on the 12th.

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial), this morning, is hearing the introduction of two draft resolutions on implementation of the outcome of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements A/C.2/54/L.12 and L.13) and a text on international migration and development (A/C.2/54/L.13), before concluding its discussion of governance and interdependence.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) is continuing discussion, this morning, of agenda item 112, on promotion and protection of the rights of children. Among the documents before it are reports of the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict (A/54/430), the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography (A/54/411) and of the Secretary-General on the status of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (A/54/265).

Daily Press Briefing - 7 - 28 October 1999

This afternoon, the Committee will, in addition to continuing that discussion, take action on eight draft resolutions: three on social issues -- implementation of the World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons: towards a society for all in the twenty-first century (A/C.3/54/L.9/Rev.1), cooperatives in social development (A/C.3/54/L.11) and follow-up to the International Year of the Family (A/C.3/54/L.12); one draft on international cooperation against the world drug problem (A/C.3/54/L.20); three texts on the advancement of women -- improvement of the situation of women in rural areas (A/C.3/54/L.15), the United Nations Development Fund for Women (A/C.3/54/L.16/Rev.1) and improvement of the status of women in the Secretariat (A/C.3/54/L.19); and one text on universal realization of the right of peoples to self-determination (A/C.3/54/L.25).

A reminder of the discussion, at 6:15 p.m. today in Conference Room 1, among youth delegates in the Third Committee and other young people involved with the United Nations, on “The United Nations’ future in the eyes of youth”.

This morning, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) is considering the item on the United Nations common system. As it took up the proposed programme budget for 2000-2001 (A/54/6) yesterday afternoon, the Secretary-General addressed the Committee, as did the Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and the Chairman of the Committee on Programme Coordination (CPC).

The first speaker, the United States, described the proposed budget as still too input-oriented and called for a results-based budget. It also insisted that the budget should be brought down, after recosting, to the current budget level, or below $2,533 million. The United States also announced a payment of $47 million to its regular budget assessment. Guyana, speaking on behalf of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, called the Secretary-General’s proposal a zero growth budget. Finland spoke for the European Union and associated States; the Philippines for the Association of South-East Asian Nations; and nine other delegations took part in the discussion.

At two meetings today, the Sixth Committee (Legal) is continuing its extensive discussion of the report of the International Law Commission on the work of its fifty-first session (A/54/10).

* *** *