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, and Shirley Brownell, spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by Spokesman for Secretary-General

Good afternoon. I'm sorry for the late start. First, I'd like to welcome to the noon briefing Agnes Asekenye-Oonyu, Chief of the Africa Section of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. She has just returned from Angola, and we will be hearing from her shortly.

**Secretary-General in Beijing: Day Two

The Secretary-General met for almost two and a half hours this morning with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan. Their wide-ranging discussions, which included the situation of the Falun Gong, continued over lunch. This afternoon, the Secretary-General met with President Ziang Zemin for over an hour, and then with Vice-Premier Qian Qichen. With all three leaders, he discussed a range of political, economic, social, disarmament and human rights issues, as well as regional matters in Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans.

The Secretary-General raised the Falun Gong issue with both the Foreign Minister and the President, who explained to him how they saw the problem. The Secretary-General stressed the importance of respecting the fundamental rights of those involved. He offered the assistance of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) project on governance, to help strengthen the country's capacity to deal with this problem in accordance with international practice and norms.

After his meeting with the Foreign Minister, there was a press encounter. We have a transcript available in my Office. The Secretary-General concludes his visit to China tomorrow morning, and then flies to Istanbul, Turkey, the next stop on his current tour.

**Security Council Briefed on Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan

The Security Council today met in informal consultations on the situations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Afghanistan. They began with a briefing on the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet and Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahima Fall.

They briefed the Council on the recent meetings between Special Representative of the Secretary-General Moustapha Niasse and Democratic Republic of the Congo officials, including President Laurent Kabila; and on the work of the United Nations technical team in the country. The technical team visited

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Goma yesterday, and is beginning a series of visits to smaller, rebel-held towns.

After the Democratic Republic of the Congo briefing, the Council is expected to hear from Francesc Vendrell, the Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, and that briefing will be on Afghanistan.

**Violent Reaction to Sanctions Keeps UNHCR Offices Shut in Afghanistan

The offices of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were closed today in Afghanistan, following the violent demonstrations yesterday against the United Nations after United Nations sanctions against the Taliban went into effect. In those attacks, a UNHCR office in Farah was burned to the ground, and other offices in Kandahar, Mazar- i-Sharif, Kabul, Herat and Jalalabad were attacked.

Erick de Mul, the United Nations Coordinator for Afghanistan, travelled to Kabul today with Louis Georges Arsenault, Country Representative for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), to request that the Taliban provide further cooperation in respecting security arrangements.

**Special Representative Meets with Mothers of Srebrenica Victims

Today in Sarajevo, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jacques Klein, met for about an hour with a delegation of family members of victims of Srebrenica. During the meeting, Mr. Klein handed them a copy of the report of the Secretary-General on Srebrenica, which was made public yesterday unofficially. The group, called “Mothers of Srebrenica”, had demonstrated last week in front of the United Nations building in Sarajevo, demanding to know when the report was going to be issued.

**ICTY Today Chooses New President, Vice-President

We just learned from The Hague that the Judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) have chosen Judge Claude Jorda of France as President of ICTY, and Judge Florence Mumba of Zambia as Vice- President. A press release and their bios are available in my Office.

**UNFPA Provides Home Delivery Kits for Mothers in East Timor

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said today that it has begun to distribute emergency home delivery kits to mothers in East Timor, who currently lack access to maternity care. The UNFPA says that the kits provide basic supplies to perform clean, safe deliveries at home. Those supplies include soap, plastic sheeting, razor blades to cut umbilical cords, cotton cloths to wrap babies, and instructions.

An estimated 85 per cent of East Timorese babies are delivered at home, and 60 per cent of these deliveries are not attended by a trained health professional. We have a press release available in my Office.

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**UNFPA Appoints Goodwill Ambassador

Also, we have available upstairs a release from the UNFPA on the appointment of balloonist Bertrand Piccard as UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador. Of course, he did a press conference with Nafis Sadik, the head of the UNFPA, this morning.

**High Commissioner Ogata Travels to Russia as Special Envoy

I mentioned yesterday that (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) Sadako Ogata would be going to the Russian Federation. I want to specify that she will be travelling as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General. She is expected to leave today, and the purpose of her visit is to follow up on the assessment mission that was sent to the Northern Caucasus from 3 to 8 November. We'll try to give you the details of her programme as they become firmed up.

**De Mello Arrives in Dili

Let me give you this on East Timor, here, before I go on to the Economic and Social Council: we got word late this morning that Sergio Vieira de Mello arrived in Dili this afternoon -- actually he was several hours late -- at about 7 p.m. local time. He met the press at the airport and took a few questions. We were promised a transcript of that press encounter, but we don't have anything from them yet, so as soon as we get it we'll squawk it.

**Economic and Social Council Endorses Call for Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Violations in East Timor

Yesterday, the Economic and Social Council endorsed the call by the Human Rights Commission for the Secretary-General to establish an international commission of inquiry on human rights violations in East Timor. The Council took that action by a roll-call vote of 27 in favour to 10 against with 11 abstentions.

The members of the International Commission of Inquiry will meet in Geneva this week to prepare for their deployment to East Timor. They are scheduled to go the region at the end of the week. They will interview witnesses and visit sites where rights violations were reported to have taken place, and they will return to Geneva to prepare their final report to the Secretary-General, which must be submitted by 31 December 1999.

**Secretary-General Appoints New Commander for Interim Force in Lebanon

An announcement of an appointment: the Secretary-General has appointed Major-General Seth Kofi Obeng of Ghana as Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). That takes place on 1 December. General Obeng succeeds Major-General Jioje Konousi Konrote of Fiji, who served as Force Commander from 1 October 1997 to 30 September 1999. And, of course, the Secretary-General takes this opportunity to pay warm tribute to Major-General Konrote for his distinguished service.

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**Memorial Services for Crash Victims To Be Held in Rome, Pristina, UN Headquarters

There are several memorial services planned for the 24 passengers and crewmembers of the World Food Programme (WFP) plane that crashed en route to Kosovo. There will be a memorial service tomorrow at the WFP headquarters in Rome, and Mr. S. Iqbal Riza, Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary-General, will attend. There will also be a service here tomorrow, near the Cafeteria, and that will be 12:45 p.m. to 1 p.m. Louise Fréchette, Deputy Secretary-General, will chair that service, and you are all welcome to attend. And the third service will be held in Pristina at the United Nations mission on Friday. Mr. Riza will also attend that service.

**Women Justice Ministers Meet at UN Headquarters

Today and tomorrow, women Justice Ministers from more than 15 countries are participating in a meeting here. United States Attorney-General Janet Reno is delivering the keynote address today, in a meeting that is being chaired by former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell.

Last night, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette greeted the Justice Ministers. She drew attention to the need to build strong democratic institutions and legal systems, and said she looked forward to the day when a permanent International Criminal Court will be able to deal with crimes against humanity. We have a copy of her speech available upstairs.

**Ministerial Meeting on Consequences of Chernobyl, Thursday

On Thursday, the United Nations will convene a meeting of the Quadripartite Coordination Committee on International Cooperation on Chernobyl. The Committee intends to raise awareness of the continuing economic, social, health and environmental consequences of the 1986 accident in Chernobyl.

The United Nations has requested a total of $9.5 million to bring relief to the communities still affected by the disaster. It is estimated that even today, some 7 million people in Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine suffer serious health problems from the nuclear accident, and have so far only received a small fraction of the assistance they need.

The meeting will be convened by Carolyn McAskie, the Acting United Nations Coordinator of International Cooperation on Chernobyl, and will include senior officials from Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. It will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Economic and Social Council Chamber.

**Winterized Tents, Sleeping Bags 'Priority' for Earthquake Victims in Turkey, OCHA says

Thousands of winterized tents, sleeping bags and blankets are the priority for western Turkey following last week's earthquake, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The OCHA says that a tent city of 980 units has already been set up in central Bolu, while at least 3,500 tents have been sent to the region by Turkish authorities. The Turkish Government has

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reported that, as of last night, 452 people had died and 2,386 had been injured in the earthquake.

We have a situation report from OCHA available in my Office.

**Press Conference Tomorrow

Finally, the press conference tomorrow, 11:30 a.m., Klaus Toepfer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), will be here to introduce the 1999 UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize. That goes to Professor Mario Molina, the noted ozone expert, atmospheric scientist and Nobel Laureate for Chemistry.

Any questions before we go to Shirley?

**Questions and Answers

Question: Could you check into why this Timor Commission of Inquiry had to go to ECOSOC when both the Secretary-General and the Security Council had asked for it? Wasn't there another way to do this before noon yesterday?

Spokesman: I assume there wasn't, because this was how it was done, but I think to answer your question, I'll have to go to the Legal Department -- which I'll do for you.

Question: (Zambian President) Chiluba today lamented the lack of international support for the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He said that the United Nations deployment had been so slow, that now the Organization was just trying to save its conscience. Do you have any comment on that?

Spokesman: I think we've reported to you why our deployment in the Congo was delayed. It had to do with the lack of security guarantees and the lack of permission from the Government of the Congo for our people to deploy to all those areas that the Security Council had said they were to deploy to -- in other words, not just rebel areas but areas controlled by the Government. That is the only reason there was any delay in deploying the liaison officers in this assessment team. So there's nothing on our conscience at all – perhaps, some frustration -- but no guilt.

Question: Is there concern that the delays might, however, lead to the peace process falling apart, as it appears to be, with the ceasefire violation?

Spokesman: This ceasefire agreement has been shaky from the beginning. If anything, it looks now like beginning to go in the right direction, despite reports of some continued fighting. For example, as a result of the visit of Moustapha Niasse to the region and the very good meetings he had with President Kabila, our technical team finally got off the ground. And it's now still travelling around the Congo, to the various places it has on its agenda to visit -- and that is preparatory to Phase II, which would be the deployment of 500 military observers. So we keep plodding ahead here -- two steps forward, one step back -- it's frustrating, but I think only through tenacity will we succeed, and we're hanging on for dear life. Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 16 November 1999

Question: Does the Secretary-General sense that he may soon see a reconstituted UNSCOM (United Nations Special Commission) going back into Iraq?

Spokesman: We've been seeing press reports for weeks now of progress being made in the discussions among the five permanent members. The Secretary- General's hope is that they can build a consensus within the Security Council, and Iraq will then cooperate with whatever it is they come up with. I don't want to comment on whether I think we are any closer to that consensus today than they were a week ago. Let's just let them do their work and hope they finish successfully and soon.

Question: Yesterday, you said that you didn't get to see the "60 Minutes" report on human rights in Haiti. I wonder if the Under-Secretary- General for Political Affairs will watch it before the United Nations film on its success in Haiti is screened on 22 November. Are we invited to see that film?

Spokesman: That's a film that one of our people did on human rights in Haiti and yes, you're all invited to go see it. I'll have to ask whether the Under-Secretary-General saw "60 Minutes". I asked yesterday to be sent a transcript, so we'll look at it when we get it.

Question: There is a problem between the Dominican Republic and Haiti --concerning mass expulsions -- that is being mediated by the Organization of American States (OAS). Is the United Nations concerned about this?

Spokesman: Yes. We have been monitoring that situation. I can't give you any read-out on the OAS mediation efforts and whether we're involved. I'll have to check on that for you.

Question: What exactly is the Secretary-General trying to do regarding the Falun Gong? Is he asking for information? Is he asking the Chinese to back off from this group?

Spokesman: I don't think I can go beyond what I said earlier. To simplify it, he listened to their explanations of how they're dealing with the Falun Gong. He urged that the fundamental rights of these people be respected. And then he took the additional step of offering the services of UNDP's governance project. The Chinese did not react immediately to that, one way or the other, but that offer is on the table. Its purpose is to help them deal with this problem according to international practices and norms.

Question: Is he meeting any Falun Gong members?

Spokesman: No.

Question: Will he be meeting Mr. Lee here in New York?

Answer: Not that I'm aware of, no.

Question: Can you be more specific as to Mrs. Ogata's mandate going to Moscow?

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Spokesman: It's fairly technical. The simplest way to describe is as I said: a follow up to the assessment mission. I have more specific language if you want to see me after the briefing, but I don't think it would add much to that one sentence I've already given you.

OK, Shirley.

Briefing by Spokeswoman for General Assembly President

Good afternoon.

The General Assembly holds a commemorative meeting tomorrow to mark the end of the United Nations Decade of International Law (1990-1999). Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab will address the meeting, as will the Under- Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and Legal Counsel, Mr. Hans Corell. Twenty- nine other speakers are inscribed, including the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, Mr. Hans Van Mierlo, and representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Permanent Court of Arbitration.

In declaring the Decade, the Assembly outlined its main purposes as promoting acceptance of and respect for principles of international law; promoting means and methods for the peaceful settlement of disputes between States, including resort to and full respect for the International Court of Justice; encouraging the progressive development of international law and its codification; and encouraging the teaching, study, dissemination and wider appreciation of international law.

Item 34 on the Assembly’s agenda is entitled “dialogue among civilizations”. Last year, the Assembly designated 2001 as the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations (resolution 53/22). It invited governments and organizations to implement cultural, educational and social programmes to promote the concept of dialogue among civilizations. In implementing that resolution, the Secretary-General appointed a Personal Representative, Giandomenico Picco, to launch initiatives aimed at furthering such a dialogue, the idea for which had been put forward by President Mohammad Khatami of Iran. Mr. Picco has just completed a visit to Tehran during which he held talks with the Iranian President and other officials on steps to advance the concept of dialogue among civilizations. The Secretary-General will submit his first report on the subject to the Assembly in the coming days. A press release on the Picco trip is available in room S-378.

At two meetings today, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) will hear the introduction of 17 draft resolutions dealing with crime prevention and criminal justice, advancement of women and human rights questions and situations; take action on three texts on the elimination of racism and racial discrimination (A/C.3/54/L.28/Rev.1), the right of peoples to self- determination (A/C.3/54/L.27), and the elimination of all forms of religious intolerance (A/C.3/54/L.61); and conclude its consideration of refugee-related questions.

This afternoon, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) takes up item 91, on questions relating to information. Daily Press Briefing - 8 - 16 November 1999

The Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Mr. Kensaku Hogen, will address the Committee, updating members on the work of the Department of Public Information (DPI) over the past year and on its future activities. For its general debate, the Committee will have before it the report of the Committee on Information (A/54/21 and Add.1). The addendum, on the Committee’s resumed session, incorporates revisions made to paragraph 35 of draft resolution B –- United Nations public information policies and activities -– concerning the continued development, maintenance and enrichment of United Nations Web sites; and also to a draft decision on increasing the Committee’s membership to 95, and to appoint Liberia and Mozambique as members.

`The report of the Secretary-General (A/54/415) states that during the reporting period, DPI concentrated its reorientation efforts on three areas: continued application of the latest technological developments to both improve programme delivery in the print, radio and television media, and at the same time further strengthen its outreach to audiences around the world through the United Nations Web site on the Internet, which the Department manages and coordinates; the development of a more effective news gathering and delivery system, which has been identified by the Secretary-General as one of the most immediate priorities in the process of reorientation of the work of DPI; and continued strengthening of the Organization’s ability to communicate at the country and regional levels, to ensure that the global messages of the United Nations are tailored to national orientations.

This morning, the Sixth Committee (Legal) continued its discussion of measures to eliminate international terrorism. It was also scheduled to take action on a draft resolution on the report of the Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization (A/C.6/54/L.11).

Today is the International Day of Tolerance. To mark the occasion, the non-governmental organization Friends of the United Nations is sponsoring a luncheon where the 1999 Global Peace and Tolerance Lifetime Achievement Awards will be given to seven honourees who use their creative talent to further peace and tolerance. The Permanent Representative of Seychelles, Ambassador Claude Morel, will make a statement on behalf of Assembly President Theo-Ben Gurirab. In those remarks, the President says the solutions to conflicts do not lie in peacekeeping alone or greater application of military force, but in building and strengthening that peace, which begins in the minds of men and women and which can only be nurtured by the acceptance of Universal Human Rights and by the proper values of respect for diversity, affection for each other and tolerance. Copies of the statement are available in room S-378.

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