DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000112The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General:
**Secretary-General's Travel Plans
Good afternoon.
Because of a number of premature reports on the Secretary-General's travel plans, we are obliged to confirm most, but not all, of his itinerary for the end of the month and for February. Our own planning of these two trips is still incomplete. We intended to hold off another few days. But anyway, it's out in the press, so here it is.
As reported by ITAR-TASS, I can confirm that the Government of Russia has invited the Secretary-General to Moscow later this month for meetings with senior Government officials.
The current plan is for the Secretary-General to leave New York on Wednesday, 26 January, for basically a two-day programme in Moscow.
From Moscow, he will go to Geneva on Saturday, 29 January, where he will chair the opening of the next round of the talks on Cyprus on Monday, 31 January, which we already announced to you.
He will then return to New York for about a week, before leaving for Bangkok, Thailand, on Tuesday, 8 February.
In Bangkok, he will attend the Tenth Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD X), and he would also have an official visit to Thailand.
From UNCTAD X, he will visit a number of other countries in the region, as well as the peace mission in East Timor. So he will leave from Bangkok to Singapore on Sunday, 13 February. From Singapore he will to go to Jakarta, Indonesia, on Tuesday, 15 February.
From Jakarta, he will go to the peacekeeping mission in Dili, East Timor, on 17 February, and from Dili he will go to Australia, first to Sydney on 19 February and then to Canberra on 21 February.
From Australia he goes to New Zealand, as announced by the Foreign Ministry of New Zealand today, and that will be on Tuesday, 22 February.
And we were still planning for one more leg of that Asian trip. And when those plans are firmed up -- or when one of you leaks it -- we will announce that detail.
**Security Council Notes
The Security Council is having closed consultations on the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and on Sierra Leone. The Assistant Secretary- General for Peacekeeping, Hedi Annabi, is briefing for the Secretariat on Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Council also has the Secretary-General's three-monthly report, which was published in December. In it he expresses his serious concern that "progress in physical reconstruction has not been matched by progress in political integration, social reconciliation and economic development".
The report in today's briefing highlighted the need for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the international community to support law enforcement and judicial institutions in order to overcome "entrenched opposition from extremist political interests and criminals".
The Secretary-General today presented the Security Council with a report proposing an expansion in the concept of operation and the strength of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone. This is a response to the situation created by the withdrawal of Nigerian troops serving under the Military Observer Group of the Economic Community of West African States or ECOMOG.
The Secretary-General is requesting an increase in the mission strength from 6,000 to 11,100. This would enable the United Nations force to carry out additional tasks, currently assigned to ECOMOG, including the provision of security at Lungi airport -- in the capital -- and at key installations, buildings and Government institutions in and around Freetown as well as the disarmament camps and weapons storage sites. The peacekeepers will also conduct mobile patrols and provide armed escorts to ensure the free flow of people and goods, as well as of humanitarian assistance.
The Secretary-General says in this report, "The rapid expansion of UNAMSIL (that's the peacekeeping mission) will be indispensable to maintain the necessary security conditions for the implementation of the Lomé Agreement, in particular the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programme, the extension of State administration throughout the provinces and, in due course, the conduct of elections in Sierra Leone."
We have a senior United Nations official who will brief you on this subject, of the current state of affairs in Sierra Leone and of the mission there as soon as Security Council consultations are over. You can probably guess who that will be.
**Sadako Ogata to Brief Security Council
Some of you have been asking about tomorrow's Security Council meeting, which will feature the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, and in particular, about the issue of refugees and so-called internally displaced persons (IDPs) in need of help.
It turns out that the current issue of Refugees magazine, which is published by UNHCR is on the subject of the world's 20 to 25 million IDPs as they are referred to here at the United Nations. There's a copy.
We have available for you advance highlights of three articles from the issue, including the main story -- why the internally displaced are different from refugees, and on the global debate on how best to help them and UNHCR's thinking on the subject.
Fuller versions of these reports are in the magazine. We expect to get additional copies later this afternoon.
Mrs. Ogata will be available at the stakeout -- outside the Council -- following her briefing of the Council tomorrow. Any individual interview requests for Mrs. Ogata should be made with the UNHCR's office here in New York.
**Notes from East Timor
Officials of the United Nations Transitional Authority in East Timor (UNTAET), the International Force (INTERFET) there, and the Indonesian armed forces today signed a memorandum which will help improve cooperation at the border crossings between East and West Timor.
Today's memorandum covers a total of 11 crossings between East and West Timor.
The memorandum, which was signed just west of Dili today, establishes checkpoints at 11 crossings, to help facilitate the crossing of refugees from West Timor back to the East. United Nations military observers will act as liaisons between the Indonesian forces and the multinational force at these checkpoints.
This morning, 346 people disembarked in Dili from a ship, operated by the International Organisation for Migration, which brought them from the provincial capital of West Timor, Kupang. A large number of East Timorese living in the camps near Kupang continue to register for repatriation, with several hundred more gathering in Kupang's transit centre today, according to the UNHCR.
In other East Timor news, more than 9,000 East Timorese collected applications for United Nations jobs today after the Mission launched its recruitment campaign to employ local staff to fill 1,905 positions.
The Mission is also in the process of establishing a civil service for East Timor, which will of course provide additional jobs.
On Thursday and Friday, the third meeting of the National Consultative Council will take place -- of the United Nations personnel and the East Timorese -- in which the Council is expected to discuss the new civil service, including recruitment plans and salary scales for future civil servants.
**Canadian Ambassador Visits Angola
Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada, the Chairman of the United Nations Security Council Sanctions Committee on Angola, visited the former headquarters of UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) rebels yesterday during his fact-finding mission to Angola.
Ambassador Fowler visited the city of Andulo to inspect war materiel which had been left by UNITA rebels after Government forces seized the area last October. He is accompanied by several experts who are investigating how to strengthen the United Nations sanctions that prohibit trade in diamonds and in arms with UNITA.
On Monday, Fowler met with Angolan Minister of External Affairs João Miranda and Vice Minister of Geology and Mines Carlos Sumbula. Fowler said that the United Nations has made progress in enforcing the sanctions, and added, "there is no doubt that sanctions against UNITA are much better understood today than a year ago".
As you will recall, Fowler is scheduled to participate in an open briefing of the Security Council on Angola next Tuesday. And we will try to get him here to speak to you on that day.
**Secretary-General's Report on Democratic Republic of Congo Due Out Next Week
This is just a heads-up. The next report by the Secretary-General on the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the Security Council is expected to come out on Monday, 17 January, and we have asked Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Bernard Miyet here to explain it in person at the noon briefing.
That report will contain a concept of operations based on the information sent back from the deployment locations by the military liaison officer teams now in place in nine locations in the DRC and also in the capitals of neighbouring countries.
The week of 24 January, as you know, is the Council's week on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
**MINUGUA Report Available
On the racks today is the latest report from the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), which covers events from 1 January until 30 November of last year.
The report says that "the number of human rights violations reported during the period under review increased markedly in comparison with the previous reporting period".
During the first nine months of 1999, the report says, the United Nations Mission admitted 316 complaints involving more than 3,500 violations of human rights. Including investigations of complaints from earlier years, the Mission confirmed a total of more than 4,700 violations during that nine-month period.
According to the report, a large number of violations stem from the failure of the judiciary, the Public Prosecutor's Office and other key parts of the justice system to follow up on investigations of massacres and disappearances which occurred before the end of the armed conflict.
**Weekly Humanitarian Update on Afghanistan Available
We also have available for you the weekly humanitarian update on Afghanistan.
Today's edition reports on the plight of displaced persons in the Afghan capital of Kabul and notes there are about 3,000 families (totalling about 16,000 people, 10,000 of which are children) in the former Soviet Embassy compound alone. These people had initially settled with relatives who now find it impossible to support them.
In addition, humanitarian agencies are seeking to assist as soon as possible the most vulnerable among the displaced community living outside the compound.
From the last summer's fighting, Kabul has received about 65,000 from the Shomali Plains alone. That is in addition to tens of thousands of displaced people from the previous fighting. The World Food Programme targets about 350,000 IDPs in Kabul.
**Notes from Kosovo
We have today's press briefing notes from the United Nations Mission in Pristina, Kosovo.
In it, there is a statement by Bernard Kouchner, the Special Representative, on the killing Monday of four members of a Bosniak family living in Prizren.
**Tuvalu Application for Membership
I'd also like to draw your attention to a letter that's on the racks today, in which the Secretary-General circulates the application of Tuvalu for admission to membership in the United Nations.
The note includes as an annex a letter from the Prime Minister declaring that Tuvalu accepts the obligations contained in the United Nations Charter and solemnly undertakes to fulfil them.
Tuvalu, formerly called the Ellis Islands, became an independent country in 1978. The United Nations currently has, as you know, 188 Member States. If accepted, Tuvalu would make 189.
**Dhanapala to Deliver Speech at Stanford University
We have also available upstairs embargoed copies of a speech to be delivered tonight by Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala. He will deliver the speech, "The Prospects for Global Nuclear Disarmament," at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University at 5 p.m., California time, so the text is embargoed until 9 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.
**Payments
No not final. Next to final. Again, honour role for today. They keep rolling in. Three more Member States have made their year 2000 dues payments in full. They are Estonia, Liechtenstein and Singapore. And they've become the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth Member States to become paid in full for this year. Estonia paid over $78,000, Liechtenstein about $63,000 and Singapore $1.8 million. The updated honour role is in my office.
**World Chronicle Television Programme
The last item for today is the World Chronicle television programme which will be shown at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon on in-house channels 3 or 31, and will feature Nitin Desai, the Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Is the idea, Fred, that the Secretary-General would attend a ceremony, perhaps in Dili, for the turnover -- the handover -- from Australia to the United Nations?
Spokesman: I don't think they're ready to do that. But I haven't seen the programme. As I say, we're still firming up the details.
Question: How close are we to that handover?
Spokesman: I think the planning is complete. I think what they want to do is a phased replacement of the multinational force by the United Nations force. It's going to take place over a month. I don't have specific dates.
Question: In Jakarta, who will he be seeing? Do you know yet?
Spokesman: As an official visit you would expect it would include many of the senior members of the Government, but again I don't have those details. If you give just a few more days when the programmes are all firmed up we'll announce the details.
Question: What is the latest on the search for the new head of UNMOVIC?
Spokesman: It's not a Serbo-Croatian name, Richard. It's UNMOVIC.
No change. We announced yesterday that the Secretary-General had met with members of the Council. I said, or I did not say, I was authorized to say if you had asked that more than two names were on the table. The Financial Times had reported on Monday that two names had been circulated to the Council. That was true. Two names had been circulated, but more than two names were discussed yesterday. The Secretary-General was asked when he came in the building this morning, does he still hope to make the announcement on Friday. He said he still hopes to.
Question: He described the process as a little more difficult than he originally thought. What can you say about that?
Spokesman: I think we've found it more difficult than we expected to get candidates willing to be considered. We had lots of good names but either the candidates, or their governments, were not willing to allow them to be considered.
Question: Fred, what is the status of the Secretary-General's review of the East Timor human rights report?
Spokesman: Youre going to have to give us more time on that. That just came in yesterday. His idea is -- he's mandated to make a recommendation on the basis of the report. He has circulated it to a number of his principle advisors, including his legal counsel. And he will get a reaction from them and then he will decide how to handle it. Eventually, as I already announced, it has to go to the Security Council, the General Assembly and the Human Rights Commission. It will get very wide circulation. But exactly how we will handle it yet, we're not prepared to say.
Question: But Fred, do you have some kind of time-frame so we don't keep asking you? Do you have a sense of a week or two or three?
Spokesman: I don't. Give us a few days more to get the reaction from the senior officials and maybe I'll be able to say more.
Question: Back to Iraq. After these consultations and people declining the offer, have you narrowed the list at all? Is it a shorter list than you had on Monday?
Spokesman: I can't give you any details like that. I'm sorry.
Question: This morning's The New York Times has a story about a Bengali women who claims she was abused while working as a maid for a diplomat assigned to the United Nations. I don't know if you've seen the story. I just wondered if you had any comment at all.
Spokesman: No. This involves a diplomat who enjoys full diplomatic immunity so its a matter between States. The United States, as the host country, the country that the diplomat represents and the country from which the maid comes, so it's not a matter for us.
Question: On this Bosnian Muslim family that was massacred today, I read a report that the Kosovar Albanians have been blamed for this. Is this the United Nations view? How many families like this, or how many Bosnian Muslims have been targetted and killed in Kosovo?
Spokesman: I think we're still investigating, so I think it would be premature to say who is suspected. Bosnians have always been one of the minorities that the mission has been dealing with, and they've been represented at the various inter-ethnic meetings that the mission has organized. I don't know if they have any details on how this particular minority grouped has been targetted. Whether its been a major problem or not, we'll have to look into it.
Question: They were accused of being collaborators. They were collaborating with the Serbs. I guess they didn't join the independence movement. There have been a number of incidents. This is only the report that I read this morning. I'm curious if you --
Spokesman: I have no further details.
Do we have the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) item? We have to stop using paperclips because they -- we had an IAEA item -- if you would just give me a minute. No, I don't see it. I blew it.
Question: What is the reaction to Iraq letting an IAEA team in?
Spokesman: Thanks for asking that question. We've spoken today to the International Atomic Energy Agency. They are expecting to receive official confirmation shortly that visas have been issued for their team to visit Iraq. IAEA, however, draws a clear distinction between what should happen next week and the inspections mandated by the Security Council.
The IAEA says that they expect a team of four inspectors and one technician to travel to Iraq next week. They will visit one site, one location -- Twaitha -- near Baghdad for what they call a "physical inventory verification".
That means that they will check that the 1.8 tons of low enriched uranium and a larger quantity of natural uranium mined in Iraq are still there. These had been left under seal when the arms inspectors left Iraq in December 1998.
This inspection is happening under the Safeguards Agreement of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which mandates "annual inspections of known and declared nuclear materials in the country".
So it's under the NPT regime, its not under the weapons inspection set up by the Security Council. To put it simply -- the IAEA inspectors are going back to Iraq to check that what was left, under their seal, in December 1998 is still there. Question: Even though it's separate from UNMOVIC doesn't it show some encouraging signs that Iraq is beginning to cooperate with international bodies?
Spokesman: I'll let you make the editorial judgements. I just report the facts.
Question: So is it 50-50 that we'll know an UNMOVIC name by Friday, or what do you think?
Spokesman: It's impossible to say.
Question: Regarding the Financial Times, you said they were correct in saying there were two names. Were those names the correct ones, the ones they reported?
Spokesman: I cannot comment on specific names.
Question: Will we be speaking Swedish again in this subject, will there be a return?
Spokesman: Are there any other questions? Thank you very much.
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