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:

Good Afternoon

** Democratic Republic of Congo

The Secretary-General is currently chairing a so-called "mini-summit" of the seven visiting African heads of State. Also attending that meeting are the visiting Foreign Ministers and the facilitator of the Lusaka process on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It began a little late. It was scheduled to start at 10:30 and it is expected to end at 12:30.

The Security Council, meanwhile, met at 9 o'clock this morning for an informal consultation on a draft Presidential Statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Those consultations are now continuing at the "expert" level. At this stage, it's not clear what will develop this afternoon. If the experts conclude their work by sometime just after lunch, I think the President's intention is to call the Council back into session -- a formal session this time -- to adopt that statement. So we will be tracking that closely and we expect there to be greater clarity about two o'clock this afternoon.

We have been asked at the last two briefings about a draft resolution, and I think you heard the Council President this morning indicate that a resolution is in the works, but that first he wants to deal with the Presidential Statement they are working on now.

** Appeal for Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights

For the first time in its short history, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will launch an appeal, for $53 million, to fund its work. That's expected to happen tomorrow. In the foreword of the appeal, the High Commissioner says that in the five years of its existence there has been a dramatic increase in the demands on the Office of the High Commissioner. Human rights officers are posted in 23 countries and there are some 50 technical cooperation projects around the world. The Commission on Human Rights has appointed 35 special rapporteurs with either thematic or country mandates. And the Office of the High Commissioner is responding to requests from an increasing number of countries wishing to establish independent national human rights commissions or institutions.

The High Commissioner adds: "In order to fulfil the demands on the Office, we need to be able to count on continuous, stable funding."

The complete text of the appeal is on the human rights web site, but we have copies of the foreword and the executive summary available in my office.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 25 January 2000

** Iraq “Oil for Food” Programme Update

We have some new figures from the “Oil for Food” Programme this morning. In the week ending last Friday -- the 21st of January -- Iraq exported 13 million barrels of oil, for an estimated revenue of $330 million. This brings the revenue, since Phase VII began on 12 December, to about $1.6 billion from the sale of 67.3 million barrels of oil.

On the humanitarian side, the Office of the Iraq Programme is mainly processing contracts for the previous phase -- Phase VI -- and reports so far that the Iraq Sanctions Committee has approved $1.4 billion worth of humanitarian supplies, but has put on hold $622 million worth.

Further details will be available in the weekly update, which should be out later this afternoon.

** Atomic Energy Agency Inspectors Finish Iraq Inspections

Yesterday, we said that International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in Iraq would finish their work around the end of the week. Well, they finished today and they will be leaving Baghdad tomorrow. The IAEA in Vienna says they received full cooperation and were able to conduct the inventory check of the low-grade enriched uranium and natural uranium required under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

** Chechnya

Heavy fighting around Grozny is pushing more people out of Chechnya, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. More than 8,000 people have fled to Ingushetia over the past four days. On Monday alone, over 2,000 people crossed the border with Ingushetia. There is also continued movement of the displaced back into northern Chechnya, which is controlled by Russian federal troops. However, over the past few days, twice as many people have left Chechnya as have gone back, according to the UNHCR. The UNHCR also reports that the medical shape of the displaced in Ingushetia is worsening, with reports of more cases of tuberculosis, respiratory disease and other health problems.

** Eritrea

The High Commissioner for Refugees also announced today that Eritrean authorities agreed on Monday that the UNHCR will resume its work in Eritrea, after being absent from that country for more than two and a half years.

During meetings between Eritrea's President, Isaias Afwerki and other Eritrean officials, and visiting Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, Soren Jessen-Petersen, it was agreed that the UNHCR will focus on the voluntary repatriation of some 147,000 Eritreans registered in refugee camps in the eastern Sudan.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 25 January 2000

The UNHCR international staff were expelled from Eritrea in May of 1997 over what Eritrea at the time saw as UNHCR's undue pressure to revive the stalemated repatriation of Eritrean refugees from eastern Sudan. The new agreement could lead to a breakthrough on the repatriation issue, allowing Eritreans from the Sudan to go home after more than 10 years in exile.

Meanwhile, humanitarian agencies of the United Nations and their partners will launch a new appeal for Eritrea and Ethiopia on Friday in the capitals of those two countries, according to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

** Kosovo

In a press release issued today in Pristina, Kosovo, on a meeting of the Interim Administrative Council, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, is quoted as telling reporters after the session that the Serb community representatives told him yesterday that they planned to join the Council in 10 to 12 days.

Kouchner said that the representatives of the Serb National Council had indicated a wish to vote on the subject of joining the Council in a meeting in Gracanica yesterday. One of the four Kosovar seats is to be held by a Serb, who has yet to be named.

** Meeting on Sale of Children Protocol

The Working Group in charge of drafting an optional protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography began a two-week session in Geneva yesterday. Although there is broad agreement on the text of the resolution, there is still no agreement on the concept of the sale of children. Some Member States want to limit it to the sale of children for sexual exploitation, while others would like to see a broader definition that would include the sale of children for adoption and the sale of their organs for medical purposes.

** Afghanistan Update

We have available upstairs the latest United Nations Weekly Update on Afghanistan. It includes information on an outbreak of an unknown disease -- believed to be measles, but not yet officially identified -- which has claimed at least 50 lives in the Darra Souf district of Samangan province. Local authorities have asked the United Nations to respond to the outbreak, since there are no medical facilities or doctors in the area. In fact, Darra Souf, you might recall, is so inaccessible that the United Nations last week delivered aid to the villagers there on a convoy of 1,500 donkeys.

** Payments

We have received payments from two more Member States; their full contribution for the year 2000. France became the thirtieth Member State to be paid-in-full for this year, with a cheque for approximately $68.8 million. And

Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 25 January 2000

Hungary became the thirty-first Member State, with a cheque of close to $1.3 million.

** Press Releases Available from Spokesman's Office

We have a press release from the World Health Organization on efforts to expand its food safety programme.

We also have a press release from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons marking the end of the first 1000 days of the Organization's existence. Among its achievements has been the inspection and sealing of all of the world's 60 declared chemical weapons production facilities.

So you can check out those two press releases if you're interested.

** Secretary-General to Meet Senior European Union Official

In a day filled with meetings with African heads of State, the Secretary- General will also meet, at 3:30 this afternoon, with Javier Solana, the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union. You will recall that Mr. Solana was formerly the Secretary-General of NATO.

Following that meeting, we hope to make Mr. Solana available to take your questions at the stand-up microphones just outside the Security Council. We think he will be at the mike there at roughly 4:15, and we'll try to squawk that to you when he is on his way down.

** Press Conferences

Finally, three press conferences to announce.

Don't forget that at 12:45 today, President Pasteur Bizimungu, the President of Rwanda, will give a press conference in this room, and there will be French/English interpretation for that press conference.

Tomorrow, at 12:30, Ambassador Fulci of Italy will meet with you to review his 1999-2000 term as President of the Economic and Social Council. He'll also deliver statements on poverty eradication and on debt relief for poor countries.

At 2:30 tomorrow, Adnan Kassar, the President of the International Chamber of Commerce, and Maria Cattaui, the Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, will discuss with you business's contribution to the Millennium Assembly.

** Questions and Answers

Question: What do you expect to come out of this mini-summit? Are they going to produce anything after this? Do the African heads of State go home? What's the end thing?

Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 25 January 2000

Spokesman: I'm not aware that there will be any particular statement. I don't think that has been discussed. What they are talking about, in that room, are the terms of the deployment of the United Nations troops -- where they are to be deployed; why they are to be deployed there; why the numbers are what they are; what needs to happen to make it possible for the Joint Military Commission to do its work properly and to allow the United Nations military liaison officers to do the job they have been asked to do in terms of the Lusaka Agreement. So, it's a pretty “nuts-and-bolts” review of the Lusaka Agreement and the response to it here at the United Nations, at the highest levels involving the heads of State of these seven nations. I guess what we would hope for is a clearer understanding of how it's going to work, therefore greater support for the process.

Question: Does the Secretary-General have any immediate response to how things went yesterday? What is his general sense of people's willingness to get into the “nuts-and-bolts” and make it work?

Spokesman: I think he attaches a fair amount of importance to this closed meeting today. Because it is not over, I think we should let them conclude their work and then see if we can get a read out for you.

Question: Any reaction to the announcement by the Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) of when it will hold elections? Anything we can say from the United Nations point of view?

Spokesman: I think we are still studying that statement He mentioned the date that the elections would be concluded by, not when they begin. That was October of this year I believe. No, I think we are still studying that. I'm not sure we will have a reaction, but we'll let you know if we do as soon as we have it.

Question: Any reaction to the Sudanese President's disbanding of his cabinet, except for four posts, in light of the civil war in that country?

Spokesman: At this point I don't have a reaction to that. I can ask for you to see if we would have anything to say. I tend to think we would not -- not at this stage.

Thank you very much.

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