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.

**Security Council

The Security Council’s consultations on a draft presidential statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo are continuing. The intention is for the Council to meet in an open session as soon as there is agreement on the draft statement. We’ll make the draft available as soon as it is finished.

**Iraq

Regarding Iraq, you probably heard the President of the Council, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke of the United States, announce that the Council has been unable to reach consensus on the Secretary-General's nomination of Ambassador Rolf Ekeus of Sweden as the Executive Chairman of the Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq, also known as UNMOVIC.

Ambassador Holbrooke said the Council has now reached consensus on another candidate, Hans Blix also of Sweden. Dr. Blix retired in 1997 as the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The Council’s decision on Ambassador Ekeus and its consensus regarding Dr. Blix’s candidacy are being conveyed to the Secretary-General under the terms of the resolution establishing UNMOVIC. The Executive Chairman is to be appointed by the Secretary-General in consultation with, and with the approval of, the Security Council.

**Secretary-General Travels to Moscow

The Secretary-General leaves this afternoon for Moscow, where he will have meetings tomorrow and Friday with senior Russian officials, including Acting President Vladimir Putin. We have the broad outlines of his programme available to you in my office.

In a brief exchange with Russian State Television this morning, the Secretary-General confirmed that among the issues to be discussed in Moscow was the situation in Chechnya. “Innocent civilians”, he said, “the vulnerable, must be paramount in everyone's mind".

We can make the text of that exchange available to you after it has been broadcast in Russia, which is at about 1 p.m. today.

I will be travelling with the Secretary-General, and John Mills, my Acting Deputy, will be in charge while I'm away. And he will be assisted by Marie Okabe, the Associate Spokesman.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 26 January 2000

You know that from Moscow, the Secretary-General goes on to Geneva, where on Monday he will chair the next session of proximity talks on Cyprus. He’ll be back in New York on Tuesday.

**Notes from East Timor

Despite an unsatisfactory security situation in the East Timorese enclave of Oekussi, two United Nations forensic experts arrived in the enclave this morning to begin excavation of what may be the largest mass grave from the post-referendum violence in that territory.

Up to 60 bodies, according to local witnesses, could be buried at the site, which is in the village of Passabe near the border with West Timor. The experts will spend approximately two weeks at the site, and they will have 24- hour security provided by the multinational force, INTERFET.

Meanwhile, the new Timorese Border Control Service will get up and running on Friday. The first five international customs experts arrived in Dili yesterday –- they were from New Zealand. They will begin training East Timorese in customs and immigration procedures.

And refugee returns continue slowly, but steadily. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been running an information programme, taking journalists and film crews to different locations in East Timor, then showing the footage to refugees in West Timor. The UNHCR says this campaign is having an impressive effect. At this point, over 132,000 people have returned voluntarily to East Timor.

**Notes from Kosovo: Transitional Council to Expand

Today in Kosovo, the Kosovo Transitional Council, which is the highest- level political consultative group to the UN Mission there, discussed plans to expand, so that the Council can include more minority representatives and members of diverse political parties.

The newly expanded Council will be inaugurated on 9 February. Bernard Kouchner, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo, said today that the Council would resemble an "interim parliament" until elections take place in Kosovo.

The Council, he added, could propose alternatives to decisions made by the Interim Administrative Council, the quasi-executive body that yesterday finalized a list of names for the enlarged Kosovo Transitional Council.

Also yesterday, Kosovo's first tax inspectors were sworn in, after 34 tax inspectors graduated from a rigorous one-week training programme. The candidates were selected from more than 700 applicants, and their first new job will be to educate the owners of large establishments on a pending tax to be placed on all hotels and restaurants that gross more than 15,000 deutsch marks a month. That tax will go into effect on 1 February.

We have press releases on both those topics upstairs.

**International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia

Today in The Hague, the Appeals Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia reduced the sentence imposed to Dusko Tadic from 25 years to a maximum of 20 years imprisonment. The Judges found that although Tadic's criminal conduct "was incontestably heinous, his level in the command structure, when compared to that of his superiors, or the very architects of the strategy of ethnic cleansing, was low".

We have a from the Tribunal on that subject.

**Secretary-General to Meet ICC President

At 12:30 p.m.today, the Secretary-General will meet with Adnan Kassar, the President of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). He is expected to receive from Kassar a world business message on the role of the United Nations in the century ahead, which was delivered on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce's worldwide membership of more than 7,000 business associations and companies.

The message urges that the Millennium Assembly, which will begin on 5 September here in New York, will ensure a lead role for the United Nations in supporting an open system of international trade and investment and opposing protectionism. It also welcomes the Secretary-General's proposal for a Global Compact for businesses to uphold strong labour, human rights and environmental standards.

At 2:30 p.m. today, Mr. Kassar and Maria Cattaui, the Chamber's Secretary-General, will hold a briefing in this room about the business message they delivered today. We also have a press release with further details available in my Office.

**Hearing Opens in Law of the Sea Case

Tomorrow, in Hamburg, Germany, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea will open a hearing on the case of a Panamanian fishing vessel, the "Camouco", which has been detained since last September by French authorities in Réunion Island.

Panama instituted proceedings against France on 17 January, requesting the Tribunal to order the release of the "Camouco". The hearing is expected to conclude on Friday, and a judgement is expected within 10 days of the hearing's conclusion.

**UNDP to Appoint New Goodwill Ambassador

Among the press releases available today, we have an announcement from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that international football star Ronaldo –- I guess he’s so famous he goes by just one name -- will be appointed a UNDP Goodwill Ambassador in the fight against poverty. That will take place on 1 February in Geneva.

**WHO Press Release Available

We also have a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the contents of the latest WHO Bulletin.

**Payments

Money keeps rolling in. Malta and Mauritania have become the thirty- second and thirty-third Member States to pay their dues for the year 2000 in full. Malta with a payment of just over $147,000, and Mauritania just over $10,000.

**Jacques Klein Addresses Council of Europe

Jacques Klein, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Bosnia and Herzegovina, addressed the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, yesterday on the issue of Bosnia's accession to the Council of Europe. We have the text of his statement if you’re interested.

**Press Conference

Press conferences -- 12:30 p.m.today, Ambassador Francesco Paolo Fulci of Italy will meet with you to review his 1999-2000 term as President of the Economic and Social Council.

**UNCA Announcement

And finally, the Correspondent’s Association has asked me to undertake the sad duty to inform you that your colleague Marian Isaacs, the publisher of the Diplomatic World Observer, passed away last Saturday at Lenox Hospital in Manhattan. Members will be advised of funeral arrangements in due course.

That’s all I have for you. Yes, Richard?

**Questions and Answers

Question: Don’t we call you by name –- Fred –- just like Ronaldo? What is the Secretary-General’s reaction to the Council statement within the hour that they reached a consensus on a new person as chief weapons inspector for Iraq?

Spokesman: I think it’s probably a sense of relief that a qualified expert of Hans Blix’s experience reached the consensus status within the Council. So, I’m sure he will be turning around the paperwork on that, possibly even today. The next step, of course, would be for him to nominate Hans Blix in a letter to the President of the Council. So, we’ll see if that can be done before he leaves for Moscow this afternoon.

Question: Was his name one of the 25 at all?

Spokesman: No, his name had not come up. To my knowledge, his name had not come up.

Question: Do you know how his name came up and whether the Secretary- General played any part of this at all behind the scene?

Spokesman: I can’t really tell you. I think you heard Ambassador Holbrooke say that it was the French Ambassador, Alain Dejammet, who first mentioned it to the President. It was my impression that the French played an important role in putting this name forward, but where it originated I can’t tell you.

Question: How soon would he start, Mr. Blix?

Spokesman: I don’t think we can say. He’s presently, last I heard an hour ago, trekking across the ice in Antarctica on a vacation in a remote place. We were able to get through to him by cell phone in the course of this morning, and he’ll be talking to a representative of his Government in the next few hours, after which I think we’ll be able to announce his reaction to the fact that the Council appears to have reached a consensus concerning his candidacy.

Question: When do you expect him to be here in New York?

Spokesman: I don’t know how long it takes to get from Antarctica to New York, I really don’t know. Let’s take it a step at a time. He has to formally signal his acceptance. When the United Nations receives that signal, we will send a letter to the Council with the nomination.

I’m just told that the consultations of the Council have adjourned, and a formal meeting is just beginning, with the purpose of adopting a presidential statement on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Question: When does the Secretary-General leave for Moscow, today, what time?

Spokesman: About 3:30 this afternoon. He’ll be on an evening flight, which will get him into Moscow tomorrow morning at 11 a.m., I think, local time. His first appointments begin tomorrow afternoon. I mentioned that we put out his programme in my Office. You can pick it up.

Question: What does the consensus on Mr. Blix mean now for the resumption of the United Nations’ work in Iraq?

Spokesman: You’re assuming that Mr. Blix will accept, the Secretary- General will nominate, the Security Council will appoint or approve the nomination. And then the next step, of course, is whether Iraq will accept the new Executive Chairman. We certainly hope they will. I think by the fact that the new candidate enjoys the undivided support of the Council that should improve the prospects of his eventually being accepted by Iraq, as well.

Question: What would be the main topic of discussion between the Secretary-General and Mr. Putin? Would Chechnya be one of them?

Spokesman: Yes, I mentioned, I think just before you came in, that Chechnya will be on the agenda. The Secretary-General made some comments to

Russian National television this morning, and we’ll make those available to you once they’ve been broadcast in Russia about 1 p.m. this afternoon our time. He did say in those comments to Russian television that he expects to discuss the full range of United Nations-Russian issues, including Georgia, Tajikistan, Nagorny Karabakh. But he specifically confirmed that Chechnya will be on his agenda.

Question: You mentioned we have to wait to see if Iraq accepts this new person. Does that really play a role?

Spokesman: Well, “accepts” in the sense of allowing the new Executive Chairman to get into Iraq to do the work that the Council has asked him to do. The presumption here is that Iraq would cooperate with the United Nations to carry out the mandate of the Council.

Question: Besides you, who’s accompanying the Secretary-General on his trip?

Spokesman: If you come to my Office after this briefing, I can give you a sense. It’s a different set of people for Russia and Geneva.

Question: I don’t know if you mentioned the question of Ecuador. Do you have any follow-up?

Spokesman: No, I think the Secretary-General’s statement of last Saturday stands. We asked if there’s to be any update on that and the answer is no.

Thank you very much.

* *** *