DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000310The following is a near verbatim-transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General:
Good afternoon. Jayantha Dhanapala, the Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, is our guest at today's briefing. He will announce the Secretary-General's appointment of 16 Commissioners for the new inspection commission for Iraq (UNMOVIK), and take your questions.
A press release with the names of the 16 Commissioners, and the accompanying biographies, are available in my office.
**Floods in Southern Africa
Aid workers battled against heavy rains for the second straight day in Mozambique today, where the World Food Programme (WFP) reported grim conditions in camps housing flood victims. Because of the rains, some of the roads were not able to support the weight of trucks carrying food and other relief supplies.
A United Nations plane did manage to go out on an assessment along the Limpopo River during a lull in the rains to look into reports of a large group of people stranded, but reported that they did not spot any such group. The team flew at less than 500 feet above ground and reported that while houses appeared intact, there had been major damage to agriculture.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said there was a huge concern for a rise in malaria in Mozambique, where even before the flooding, one out of seven people had the disease in 1999.
Meanwhile, WFP began airlifting food to flood victims in Madagascar. Two Antonovs were expected to have delivered 400 tons today to the isolated town of Mahanoro, one of the areas worst hit. WFP said that the biggest problem in Madagascar was in trying to reach victims scattered in small groups in the jungles. WHO reported that the number of deaths from a cholera epidemic in that country had now topped 1,300. The Government of Madagascar has launched an emergency aid appeal for some $3.7 million for more than 560,000 people affected.
WFP said food assessments were also under way in Zambia and Botswana. A United Nations Inter-Agency Appeal for Emergency Relief for Zimbabwe for some $3.2 million has been issued targetting 96,000 people hardest hit by the disaster.
**Security Council Consultations
The Security Council began its closed consultations today by considering a background note prepared by the Secretariat, on general sanctions issues. The note is an evaluation by the Secretariat of how it has followed up on 20 recommendations proposed in a note by the President of the Security Council that was issued on 29 January 1999. The Secretariat note specifies ways in which it has acted on the Council's practical proposals to make sanctions work more effectively. After that consultation, the Council will hear a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi on the situation in Tajikistan.
Also under the agenda are further discussions of the programme of work, among other matters.
However, one item we announced yesterday afternoon is not on the agenda today. Although we had said that the Council planned to discuss Western Sahara today, following discussions later yesterday afternoon, there was no consensus among Council members for a briefing on that subject today. A briefing on Western Sahara may take place early next week and we will keep you posted.
**East Timor
The Force Commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in East Timor, Lieutenant-General Jaime de los Santos, and the Director of the United Nations Mission's political affairs section, Peter Galbraith, met with Indonesian Foreign Minister, Alwi Shihab, in Jakarta yesterday and delivered a stern demarche concerning the escalating militia attacks in East Timor from West Timor.
They asked the Indonesian Government to seal the border, close down the militia training camps, disarm the militia and assist in the return of refugees to East Timor. The Indonesian Foreign Minister was clearly taken aback by the magnitude of the security incidents caused by the militia. The United Nations officials documented 14 attacks from West Timor into East Timor since the Indonesian President, Abdurrahman Wahid, visited East Timor at the end of February. They said they would report this matter immediately to the President.
This morning, the Indonesian Defence Minister, Admiral Widodo, told the visiting UNTAET officials that Indonesia would close down the militia training camps, stop the militia attacks and disarm them. These words are encouraging. It is hoped that they will be translated into deeds, which would help stabilize the situation on both sides of the border.
Meanwhile, UNTAET's border control officers yesterday confiscated two hand grenades, three airguns and several packets of airgun pellets, one ounce of hashish and a number of bayonets from the passengers on a ship carrying returnees from West Timor.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is concerned about Indonesia's plan to cut off aid to an estimated 100,000 East Timorese refugees remaining in West Timor unless they make up their minds by 31 March on whether they will remain in Indonesia or go back to East Timor. The Indonesian officials assured United Nations Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees Soren Jessen-Petersen, who was visiting Jakarta this week, that they would be flexible in enforcing this deadline. They also promised to neutralize the militia.
**Kosovo
The United Nations mission in Kosovo confirms that the deputy police commissioner for Mitrovica, John Adams, has been removed from Mitrovica and is now to work with United Nations police in Pristina. Reports suggesting that he had been fired are incorrect. However, the United Nations mission said that his position was changed because he had taken a functional problem to the press, which was to have been handled between the Mission and the Kosovo Force (KFOR).
The United Nations mission stressed that relations between the United Nations police and KFOR are very close, and have been getting closer over the past month as events in Mitrovica have heated up. KFOR is in charge of security, and law and order; while the United Nations police are in charge of investigations. That distribution of authority has not changed.
**Sierra Leone
A high-level meeting was convened in Freetown yesterday by President Kabbah of Sierra Leone as a follow-up to a meeting in Bamako. Former rebel leaders Foday Sankoh, and Johnny Paul Koroma, as well as Chief Hingha Norman of the Civil Defence Forces were also present. Mr. Oluyemi Adeniji, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and General Vijay Jetley the United Nations Force Commander also attended.
They all agreed that there will be unhindered access in all parts of the country to the United Nations peacekeepers and humanitarian workers; that there are no longer any areas of control by any combatant group and the Government has full control over every part of the country, and that disarmament will take place throughout the country as facilities are made available.
**Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bernard Miyet, on the first leg of his mission to explain the United Nations plans to deploy an observer mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, met earlier today with President Laurent Kabila in Kinshasa.
A preliminary read-out of the meeting indicated that the discussions were positive. United Nations reconnaissance missions to the sectoral headquarters of the newly approved observer mission have now been planned to start as early as next week.
The Secretary-General dispatched Miyet to seek the full support essential to deploy the more than 5,500-strong force.
Meanwhile, UNHCR said refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo continued to seek asylum in neighbouring countries, particularly Congo Brazzaville. The UNHCR said they were fleeing fighting as the rebel forces of Jean-Claude Mbemba advance southwards along the river toward the town of Mbandaka.
An estimated 25,000 refugees have settled in villages on the Republic of the Congo side of the river.
**ICTY Prosecutor Says Milosevic Must Face Trial
Addressing the press in Budapest, Hungary, Carla Del Ponte, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia said, It is my desire to make life more difficult for Slobodan Milosevic and all other indicted accused. In her statement, delivered yesterday, she also said she was dismayed that 10 months after Milosevic was indicted by the Tribunal, he still remained in power and was avoiding international justice.
She added, This situation cannot be allowed to continue and I wish to remind the world that he is an indicted accused, who must be delivered to the Tribunal to face trial.
We have the complete text in my office.
**Report on Oil-for-Food Programme for Iraq
The Secretary-General's next report on the implementation of the oil-for- food Programme for Iraq, which is due today, is likely to be issued early next week, possibly on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning.
**Payments
One more government became paid in full for the year 2000 for the regular budget dues. That was Bosnia and Herzegovina who paid their dues with a cheque for just over $52,000.
**The Week Ahead
We have the week in review, which I will not highlight for you. You can get a copy in my Office.
**New Staff Member for Spokesman's Office
Just a housekeeping announcement. John Mills is recovering nicely, and is spending a bit of time each day in his office at the oil-for-food programme. However, it will not be possible for him to do the two jobs -- the other one was acting Deputy Spokesman.
In the meantime, it has been nice to have Hiro Ueki back, pitching in with his usual diligence. However, Hiro has a new job heading the peace and security section of the Information Department and has to move on.
Manoel de Almeida is stuck in East Timor and cannot return on time to his old job as Deputy Spokesman. So on Monday, we will have recruited David Wimhurst. He was the United Nations spokesman in Angola and in East Timor, and has worked temporarily before in the Office of the Spokesman.
He will begin on Monday and I hope you will all welcome him back.
**Questions and Answers
Question: Regarding the disciplinary action taken against the deputy police commissioner for Kosovo -- yesterday you said both KFOR and the United Nations police could conduct investigations. Yet, today you say it is the responsibility of only the police. Could you clarify?
Spokesman: I did say that on instructions from the mission. Frankly, we got this shortly before I came to do the briefing. I will have to clarify with the mission. What was perhaps a more important matter of policy was that KFOR secures the area before the investigation can begin and so the police officer was critical of KFOR for not letting the police in and yet KFOR was operating according to standard procedure. [He later clarified that while the police are responsible for investigations, these are carried out jointly with KFOR.]
Question: Was he disciplined for speaking out of line and to the press? Did he say the wrong thing? Also, who is allowed to speak to the press in the United Nations mission?
Spokesman: Yes. The rules there are the same that we have here at Headquarters -- that anyone can speak to the press within their area of competence. But, I think that the leaders of the mission felt that this officer spoke inappropriately by criticizing KFOR for doing something that was in their mandate to do.
Question: It seemed as though the statement yesterday that he did not visit the scene was erroneous, whereas today's statement says he went with a functional problem to the press as if there was a problem, and he was being punished for speaking. Was there a problem?
Spokesman: I do not have anything on which to base a judgement on that, except that what he said was considered inappropriate and so he was removed from Mitrovica because of that.
Question: Is somebody from the Secretary-General's Office briefing the Security Council on sanctions? Are they dealing specifically with Iraq?
Spokesman: No one from the Secretariat is briefing on sanctions. There will be relevant Secretariat members in the room should any member have questions. It is more a theoretical discussion of sanctions as a whole. I do not think it has a specific focus on any one regime. However, Member States can raise any specific questions they might have.
Question: Do you have any comment on the proposal made by the President of the Republic of Korea for cooperation in certain areas between that country and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea? How can the United Nations facilitate that undertaking?
Spokesman: You should check with me after the briefing and maybe I will be able to give you something.
Question: Could you comment on the report in The Financial Times about the carriage of Sudanese militia members on United Nations aircraft.
Spokesman: That story is essentially correct, although the internal investigation of that hostage incident is still being finalized. But, it does confirm that the United Nations Operation Lifeline Sudan, did transport three militia members on one of its planes and this triggered the hostage incident of last month. It is also correct that Operation Lifeline Sudan has tightened its procedures to keep this kind of thing from happening again. In our view, that was an isolated incident and not part of a broader pattern.
Question: Did the increase in militia incidents in East Timor coincide with the hand over from the Australian-led force to the United Nations? Spokesman: It did take place after the hand over happened. I do not think that we made the direct link between the two. Rather, we pointed out that these incidents all happened following President Wahid's visit to East Timor. Therefore, it appeared not just a threat to East Timor and the United Nations mission there, but a threat to the President's policies. That was the angle we took when presenting the information to the Government yesterday and this morning, and we were very pleased with the quick and positive response that we got.
Question: What was the difference between the mandates of the multinational force and the United Nations force?
Spokesman: The multinational force was to restore order and the United Nations force to maintain order. So, I think there was a difference. The United Nations force like the multinational force can use force as necessary to protect itself. The number of these incidents was quite disturbing and we feel that the Indonesian military can get the situation in West Timor under control. There is no reason for their occurrence and the situation is undermining the peace mission, but it is also undermining the policies of the President of Indonesia. We hope that the orders given today by the President will be quickly followed by the Indonesian military in West Timor.
Question: Is Hédi Annabi's briefing to the Security Council going to be specifically on the recent Tajikistan elections, or is it going to be on general peacekeeping issues?
Spokesman: I would have to check on that for you.
[Subsequently, the Spokesman's Office announced that the briefing would be on the elections.]
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