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. Our guest today is Joseph Connor, the Under-Secretary- General for Management, who will update you on the financial situation of the Organization.

**Secretary-General Speaks at SHIRBRIG Seminar

This morning at the Rockefeller Center, the Secretary-General delivered an address on the challenges facing United Nations peacekeeping at the Shirbrig (Standby Forces High Readiness Brigade) Seminar, which is being held here today and tomorrow.

Participants in the seminar include the Defence Ministers of Austria, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands and Poland -- whose nations have participated in the Shirbrig Initiative, which is intended to provide, on a standby basis, a high readiness brigade for United Nations peacekeeping.

The Secretary-General told the delegates that, as the nature of conflicts changes and more internal conflicts are waged, peacekeeping operations must also change. "If we show up looking small and weak, we are inviting trouble", adding that a credible deterrent capacity is fundamental to the success of peacekeeping efforts.

It is also important, he said, to exercise leverage in other ways, from the strengthening of democratic institutions to efforts to curtail the financial support that allows military factions to keep fighting.

Shirbrig, he said, would be important in the future to help constitute a credible military capacity that could deter fighting, and to help parties implement peace agreements quickly.

We have copies of the Secretary-General's speech in my Office. Also, his remarks will be played on United Nations Television, in-house channels 3 and 31, immediately after the noon briefing. United Nations Television was at the Rockefeller Center and recorded the Secretary-General's comments. That is a 24-minute video because he took questions after his opening remarks.

**East Timor

Three teenage boys were killed today by an exploding grenade in the town of Gleno, East Timor, about an hour's drive south of Dili. Five boys apparently carried a grenade that they had found into a house where it exploded killing three of them. The other two fled the scene. It's not immediately known if they were injured.

Last week, three boys were killed and a fourth was seriously injured near Baucau when a shell they were throwing stones at detonated. This second incident involving fatalities caused by unexploded ordnance occurred before a

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 27 March 2000

publicity campaign to warn of the dangers of unexploded ordnance could get off the ground.

Officials from the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) met last week to plan a joint effort to raise public awareness of the serious threat that unexploded ordnance poses. We also have a media briefing from Dili in my Office, if you're interested.

**Iraq Programme

Many of you might have heard the United States delegate to the Security Council on Friday mention his Government's decision to lift a number of the holds placed on contracts under the “oil-for-food” programme. The Office of the Iraq Programme advises that on Friday the United States lifted holds on 69 contracts worth a total $111.2 million. There were 26 contracts for the oil sector worth $15.6 million and 42 contracts for the humanitarian sectors worth $95.6 million. At the same time, the United States placed on hold seven contracts worth $7.6 million. The net result is that the total level of holds fell to $1.67 billion.

We have that plus further details from the Iraq Programme in the weekly report available upstairs.

**United States Government Surrenders Rwanda Tribunal Indictee

The first individual to be arrested in the United States on charges of genocide by an international criminal tribunal was surrendered to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda at Arusha by United States authorities on Friday last, 24 March.

Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, a former clergyman in Rwanda, was arrested in Texas in September 1996 on the basis of the warrant of arrest issued by the International Tribunal. Earlier this month, United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright signed a decision authorizing his transfer to the Tribunal.

**Deputy Secretary-General in London

The Deputy-Secretary-General, Louise Fréchette, is in London today, where she addressed a high-level donor conference on Sierra Leone. The conference, which she co-chairs with the World Bank and the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, is focusing on reintegration, rehabilitation and reconstruction in Sierra Leone.

In her speech, she said, "The situation in Sierra Leone is fragile -- fragile enough that there is the risk we could lose the peace if we do not cooperate, communicate and coordinate fully. This meeting offers a welcome opportunity for all involved to pledge themselves to just such a unified plan of action, with real commitment and real resources." We have the text of her speech available to you on the racks.

In the afternoon, Ms. Fréchette chaired a coordination meeting of agencies operating in the Balkans, attended by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Balkans, Carl Bildt. **Angola Sanctions Committee Meets

There is no meeting of the Security Council today. However, the Council's Sanctions Committee on Angola is meeting this morning in the Council's consultation room to consider the report of the Angola panel, chaired by Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada. A Committee delegation, you'll recall, visited Angola in January and presented its findings to a meeting of the Council two weeks ago.

Also, this afternoon, the Council's Working Group on Documentation and Procedures will meet.

And then tomorrow, the Council expects to hear a briefing from Under- Secretary-General Bernard Miyet, the head of the Peacekeeping Department, who will report on his recent visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. That, apparently, will be a closed meeting.

**Vorontsov to Meet Secretary-General

The Secretary-General's High-Level Coordinator for the Return of Missing Property and Missing Persons from Iraq to Kuwait, Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov, will meet with the Secretary-General this afternoon. This will be the first such meeting since Ambassador Vorontsov was appointed six weeks ago, when it was announced he would be coming to New York this month to discuss a plan of action with the Secretary-General.

Ambassador Vorontsov serves at the level of Under-Secretary-General on a when-actually-employed basis. He's also the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Commonwealth of Independent States, at the same level and on the same basis.

**Von Sponek meets Saddam Hussein

Hans Von Sponek, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yesterday at the conclusion of his term. That is Von Sponek's term, which began in November 1998. Mr. Von Sponek is the only United Nations official to have met with the Iraqi leader since the Secretary-General's visit to Baghdad in February 1998.

**Human Rights Commission

This morning in Geneva, the Commission on Human Rights started its debate on the right to development by hearing its independent expert on that subject, Arjun Sengupta. In his statement, he recalled that the right to development had been recognized as a universal human right in Vienna in 1993. He said, "Governments who were part of the Vienna consensus are obliged to treat the right to development as a human right in all their dealings and transactions."

We have the text of his statement in my Office. And we also have in my Office the timetable for appearances by special rapporteurs before the Commission on Human Rights.

**Guinea-Bissau Report Issued

The Secretary-General's latest report on the work of the United Nations Peace-building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau is out on the racks today. In it, the Secretary-General notes that, with the elections that were completed in January and the inauguration of President Kumba Yala, Guinea-Bissau's transition process has been completed. He asserted that "the people of Guinea-Bissau have shown a clear desire for peace, but the daunting needs that remain are a reminder that this is not a time for complacency".

The United Nations Office has, in the past several months, helped the Supreme Court of Justice to train 37 new judges, and is also monitoring trials of people who have been detained over the past year, to ensure that human rights standards are upheld.

The Secretary-General said that Guinea-Bissau was one case where the United Nations had clearly helped a country return to peace and to constitutional order. The United Nations Office's present mandate, which is to expire on March 31, has already been extended by the Security Council until the end of March 2001.

**UNDCP Teams up with NBA

The United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) -- there's a combination for you – have teamed up to produce an anti-drug public service announcement featuring Sacramento Kings star Vlade Divac. I hope I pronounced that right. The 30-second announcement will debut simultaneously at the NBA Store on Fifth Avenue in New York City and on NBA.com on 30 March as part of NBA.com Global Week activities. The United Nations Drug Programme has named Divac a “Goodwill Ambassador for Sports against Drugs”.

We have a press release on the racks if you're interested.

**Cafeteria Health Standards

Now, Friday, where's Norberto? He's not here. There were some comments about health standards in the cafeteria. We checked both with Restaurants Associates who run these eating places in our Building and with the United Nations Commercial Activities Service, which oversees the contract.

They acknowledge that New York City health inspectors do not come in from outside to inspect the cafeteria or other eating areas. However, Restaurant Associates has hired an independent firm which conducts surprise inspections to check how well Restaurant Associates complies with New York City health standards. The inspectors, who have passes which allow them to enter on their own, visit on the average of once a month. They examine everything from temperature to sanitary conditions observed by staff.

Restaurant Associates follows the industry-wide Hazardous Critical Point Program in determining its health standards. I think Norberto referred to temperatures of food, as well. This is a temperature-based standard, in which all purveyors of food, including trucks, must bring food at or below 30 degrees; trucks that do not have that temperature set are turned back from the United

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Nations premises. All cooked food must be cooked at or above 162 degrees. This is more information than you wanted, I realize, but I'm going to give it to you anyway. Temperatures of food in the serving areas are taken five times a day.

We asked how well Restaurant Associates did in recent scores given by the outside inspectors, and we were told that their most recent scores fell in a range from 88 to 92 out of 100, which is quite good, but still leaves some room for improvement.

Asked also about rats, or maybe it was mice, I don't know which Norberto said, it is true that we are in a building that sits right on the East River, so we should expect some of our furry friends to be with us at all times. However, we do have pest control and the Commercial Activities Services says that the United Nations has weekly pest control efforts -- I think they come in every Saturday -- and we feel that we are making progress in the fight against vermin.

**Payments

Budget news, the Holy See made full payment to the United Nations regular budget for the year 2000. They have become the second non-Member State to be paid in full for this year. $1,052, is that true? [The Spokesman asked Mr. Connor, who said that the figure seemed too low.] Anyway, maybe we can get them to increase that. We may be off by a factor of 10. We'll double-check that number. [The number was later confirmed.]

**Press Releases

Miscellaneous press releases for today, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today in a new appeal that Mozambique will require at least $13 million over the next six months in reconstruction assistance for agriculture, forestry and fisheries. We have that press release available in my Office.

And we also have a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO), calling for hearings on tobacco as work begins on the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control, and from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), on a conference under way in Geneva today on global jute production.

And finally, we have from Kosovo the United Nations Mission (UNMIK) briefing for today which you can pick up, if you're interested.

Any questions, before we go to Joe Connor?

**Questions and Answers

Question: On Von Sponek, where did he meet President Hussein and who initiated the meeting?

Spokesman: We don't have that information. I did not speak to him directly. I think it could be viewed as what would otherwise, in any other country, be a routine farewell visit by a senior United Nations official before he finishes his term. It's just that in Baghdad those visits are not quite so routine. So you can draw your own conclusions.

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