DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000117Good afternoon. The extra bodies in the room are from Israel, I understand. Welcome to the briefing. They are on a short visit to New York as guests of the United States Information Agency.
**Iraq
The Secretary-General's consultations concerning the nomination of an Executive Chairman for the Iraq Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission are exhausted.
The Secretary-General, therefore, this morning conveyed to the President of the Security Council the name of his nominee for Executive Chairman, which is Rolf Ekeus, currently Sweden's Ambassador to Washington, and from 1991 to 1997 the Executive Chairman of UNSCOM, the first inspection commission for Iraq. The Secretary-General now awaits the Council's response.
**International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
Carla del Ponte, the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, issued a statement today in The Hague following the death of Zeljko Raznatovic, also known as Arkan. In it, she says: "Other investigations involving persons who sponsored Arkan, or who were otherwise linked to him are ongoing." She added that she has no intention to seek a lifting of the order of confidentiality of the indictment. She said, however, that "Arkan's activities in the eastern Slavonian part of Croatia and in eastern and north-western Bosnia for the entire period between 1991 and 1995 have been thoroughly investigated and well documented". She remains confident "that other persons who shared responsibility with Arkan for his crimes will ultimately be brought to justice".
We have a full text of her statement available in the Office.
**Côte d'Ivoire
The Secretary-General is sending a special envoy to Côte d'Ivoire to encourage the transitional authorities to make an early return to constitutional rule.
The special envoy is the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ibrahima Fall. He will be accompanied by a number of officials, including from the United Nations electoral assistance division.
General Robert Guei took power in a military coup on 24 December. In sending a special envoy, the Secretary-General is supporting the efforts of the Organisation of African Unity and the Economic Community of West African States who have also sent high-level delegations to Abidjan.
**Afghanistan
The Secretary-General has appointed Mr. Francesc Vendrell, who is the Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, his Personal Representative and Head of the Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA), at the rank of Assistant Secretary-General. The appointment, which takes effect on 1 February, has been communicated to the Presidents of the Security Council and the General Assembly.
**East Timor
The United Nations is investigating the causes of a disturbance in Dili on Saturday when violence broke out among 7,000 people waiting for job interviews with the United Nations Transitional Authority.
The United Nations had advertised that it would be employing 1,900 local staff. In the violence, one international force soldier was hit in the office by a stone thrown from the crowd, and a number of applicants were also hurt. Mr. Ramos Horta arrived and helped calm the situation, and the interviews were cancelled for the day.
Following Saturday's experience, the United Nations is now working with the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) to look at ways of breaking the large number of applicants into smaller groups.
In other developments, a workshop is under way in Dili on the issue of the Timor Gap. This has been organized by the Australian Government to introduce East Timorese to the history, geography and environmental issues involved in the Timor Gap Treaty -- which was an agreement between Australia and Indonesia on the exploitation of natural resources in the area between Australia and East Timor.
The first scheduled commercial flight is due to land in Dili tomorrow -- it will be an "Air North" flight from Darwin, Australia. There will be two flights a day, six days a week.
**Secretary-General's Report on Angola
The Secretary-General's report to the Security Council on the United Nations office in Angola is out on the racks today.
The Secretary-General notes the "extremely alarming" humanitarian situation in Angola, where the war-affected civilian population is estimated at around 3.7 million, of whom nearly 2 million are internally displaced, and urges the donor community to respond generously to this year's appeal, amounting to some $258 million.
He also expressed his earnest hope that the Status-of-Mission Agreement can be concluded without further delay, so that the United Nations office in Angola can begin to assume its functions. A status-of-mission agreement is a legal contract between the United Nations and the host country.
Finally, the Secretary-General voices his hope that the evolving situation may offer new opportunities to initiate an inclusive dialogue, and that the United Nations would welcome such a development and would be ready -- if the parties so wished -- to play an active role in furthering this process.
As you know, the Security Council will hear an open briefing tomorrow on Angola, including information from the Chairman of the Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada, who will have completed a fact-finding mission to Angola. Ambassador Fowler will be here to talk to you in room S-226 at 1 p.m.
**Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Secretary-General has approved his next report to the Security Council on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which contains a concept of operations for the next stage of deployment by the United Nations mission in that country.
The report has not yet been issued to Security Council members.
We have, therefore, rescheduled the briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet, from today to tomorrow here at the noon briefing.
**Western Sahara
The United Nations mission for the referendum in Western Sahara today issued the second part of the list of potential voters. Out of 51,220 members of the last three tribal groupings who presented themselves last year, 2,130 were found eligible to vote.
These names will be added to the 84,251 eligible voters identified from the initial 147,000 applicants.
The Identification Commission today began hearing appeals at 14 appeals centres in Morocco, the territory of Western Sahara, Mauritania and the Tindouf camps in Algeria.
**Deputy Secretary-General in Tokyo
The Deputy Secretary-General arrived today in Tokyo. She will be attending the United Nations University Conference, called to prepare for the upcoming Millennium General Assembly. She will be delivering the keynote address on Wednesday, which we hope to have copies of soon. She will also hold meetings with heads of the United Nations programmes and agencies, members of the Parliamentary Association for the United Nations and members of the Parliamentary Group for Japan's Contribution to the United Nations. She will depart for New York on 22 January. Her full programme is available in the Office, for those who are interested.
**Kosovo
We have today's briefing notes from Pristina. In it, police for the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo reported five murders on Sunday, two involving Kosovo Albanians, and three involving Serb males returning from Serbia.
In addition, we have a press update from KFOR, the NATO-lead international force responsible for establishing a security presence in Kosovo, on the murder of a young girl for which an American soldier was charged over the weekend.
The UN mission in Kosovo also reported today that the province suffered a further setback in the power situation when Serbia cut off the power supply last night. With the restart of one of the two power plants of Kosovo now delayed until Tuesday, power availability has now been further cut to two hours on and six hours off.
**Expo 2000
The United Nations and the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany have just agreed on the United Nations participation in Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany, from 1 June to 31 October. The Secretary-General has appointed Nadine B. Hack as Commissioner-General to coordinate the UN participation in the exposition which will be the largest international exposition ever held. Ms Hack was formerly New York City Commissioner for the United Nations. The theme of the Expo is: "Humankind, Nature, Technology". A grant of 4.5 million German marks which will fully cover the UN's costs for the Expo is being funded by four German corporations: Volskwagen AG; a large technology firm RWE AG; Deutsche Telekom; and the Association of German Public Sector Banks.
**Special Representative of Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflicts
Olara Otunnu, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, gave a press conference today in Geneva on the discussions currently being held on the minimum age for participation and recruitment in armed forces. A summary of his press conference is available in the Office.
**United Nations Correspondents Association
Finally, the Correspondents Association has asked me to remind you that their annual general membership meeting will be held today at 2 p.m. in the UNCA Club. Its your duty, so, please attend.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Is the Secretary-General concerned that Mr. Ekeus have the support of the entire Council? There was a sense that at least three of the permanent five members did not want him to take the job. Is he concerned that there is no consensus support for Mr. Ekeus as a candidate?
Spokesman: Over 30 days, he raised something like 25 names, and he could not find one on which all would agree. So he put forward the name of the person he thought would be best for the job.
Question: When did he tell the Council this, and has there been any reaction from the Council? Will the Council meet in either formal or informal session? Spokesman: We will have to check with the President of the Council. The letter was sent mid- to late morning today to the President. I was told just before noon that the President was just finishing sending the letter to all of the other Council members. What the President decides to do will most likely be based on consultations with other members.
Question: Procedurally speaking, does the Security Council have to agree with this choice? And if they dont, what happens next?
Spokesman: The resolution says they have to approve it. The Secretary- General nominates, but it doesnt become effective until the Council approves.
Question: Is there a plan B?
Spokesman: Youll have to ask the President of the Council.
Question: Concerning the legal situation, wasnt this supposed to have been done last night? Was the letter sent this morning or last night?
Spokesman: He sent it this morning. Im not sure that we need a legal interpretation of the deadline. The deadline fell on a Sunday, he submitted his name on Monday morning. I think that is more or less within the limits.
Question: Have you received assurances that the P-5 wont veto?
Spokesman: I cant say anything more about the Secretary-Generals consultations with the members, other than -- as I have already said -- there was no agreement on any single name. And so by submitting his nominee to the Council, he is putting the ball in their court.
Thank you very much.
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