In progress at UNHQ

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

29 March 2000



Press Briefing


DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

20000329

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

**Security Council Meets on Guinea-Bissau, Bougainville, Somalia

Good afternoon. The Security Council this morning began a busy schedule with an open briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast, on the work of the United Nations Peace-Building Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS).

Mr. Prendergast told the Council that the overall situation in Guinea- Bissau is peaceful, and that the humanitarian situation has noticeably improved, although the new Government still lacks the resources to pay the overdue salaries owed to civil servants and soldiers. We have copies of his briefing notes available upstairs.

After the briefing, the Council went into another formal meeting to adopt a presidential statement on Guinea-Bissau.

The Council then went into closed consultations, in which Mr. Prendergast reported on the latest developments in Somalia, notably, the peace initiative led by President Omar Guelleh of Djibouti. Last week, dozens of Somali civil society leaders met in Djibouti to consider the plan.

After consultations on Somalia wrap up, the Council expects to hear from Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Danilo Türk on the situation in Bougainville.

Under "other matters", the Council is expected to discuss a draft resolution on the allocation of funds for spare parts and equipment for Iraq's oil industry. A vote on that topic is tentatively expected for Friday.

There's no meeting of the Council scheduled tomorrow. Instead, Council members will travel to Washington, D.C., where they are scheduled to meet at the White House, as well as with both the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Senator John Warner, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Senator Jesse Helms. They're also expected to meet with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and other officials.

I believe we've got from the Council their specific programme for tomorrow, if you want to look for that in my Office after the briefing.

**Hostage Exchange in Georgia

There was some good news from Georgia -- not U.S.A., the other Georgia. Earlier today, staff of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) successfully completed an exchange of hostages between the Georgian and the Abkhaz sides.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 29 March 2000

Four men held by the Georgians and seven men and one woman held by the Abkhazis were simultaneously swapped in an "all-for-all" exchange brokered by Dieter Boden, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, who heads the United Nations Mission there.

Two United Nations helicopters were used in this operation, which was initially agreed by the parties at Mr. Boden's initiative early in February.

One helicopter carried the four on the Georgian side from Senaki to Sukhumi, while the second helicopter carried the eight held on the Abkhaz side in the reverse direction. The helicopters landed at their respective destinations at 13:45 local time, which was 5:45 a.m., this morning New York time.

The exchange, which was supported at the highest levels by both sides, ends a series of "tit-for-tat" abductions that have been a cause of growing tension. The four Abkhazis held were two young law enforcement officers taken from their post late last year, and the two other men were involved in a shooting incident in January.

The eight Georgians included two men held since 1998 in connection with charges arising from events in May of that year, and the six other people kidnapped along the ceasefire line in December 1999 and January 2000.

United Nations staff told us this morning the operation went smoothly, to the satisfaction of all involved.

**Notes from East Timor

Out of East Timor we have news that Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Transitional Administrator in East Timor, and Marzuki Darusman, the Attorney General of Indonesia, concluded an interim agreement on the provision of mutual assistance in legal, judicial and human rights matters.

This agreement will be valid for eight weeks, pending a more formal and comprehensive Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on this issue. Mr. Vieira de Mello and Mr. Darusman will meet in Jakarta tomorrow (Thursday) to restart negotiations on that MOU.

In the meantime, the interim agreement allows both jurisdictions access to information that is relevant to an investigation, prosecution or trial. It also allows witnesses to be interviewed in either jurisdiction, and medical experts from both sides to attend exhumations and forensic examinations by either.

We have a press briefing upstairs by the Deputy Legal Adviser to the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) for those of you who want more technical details. And we also have an extensive media briefing note from the mission, which includes details of the Special Representative's trip to Kupang and Jakarta.

**United Nations Staff Withdrawn from Afghanistan

The United Nations has withdrawn its five international staff from Kandahar, Afghanistan, following two incidents in as many days in which Taliban security forces entered United Nations premises in violation of formal agreements between the parties.

Given the seriousness and the repetition of these violations of United Nations immunity, the Office of the Coordinator said in a press release today "the United Nations has been compelled to stop work in the area in the interests and safety of United Nations staff".

Meanwhile, we have learned that the Taliban searched two United Nations offices in Kandahar last night, those of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), where only national staff was present. National staff have now been instructed not to report to the United Nations offices until further notice.

**Kosovo Police Update

According to the latest figures from Pristina, the number of police on the ground in Kosovo is at an all time high -- 2,820.

According to the Civilian Police Unit, there are currently close to 6,000 police deployed in nine United Nations missions worldwide, including Kosovo, East Timor and Bosnia.

**ILO Takes Unprecedented Action against Forced Labour in Myanmar

The International Labour Organization (ILO) says that in an action unprecedented in its 80-year history, its Governing Body has set in motion a discussion which could result in an appeal to its other 174 member States to review their relationship with the Government of Myanmar and to take appropriate measures to ensure that Myanmar "cannot take advantage of such relations to perpetuate or extend the system of forced or compulsory labour" practised against the country's citizens.

Invoking for the first time article 33 of the ILO Constitution, the organization's Governing Body recommended that the International Labour Conference, meeting in Geneva in June this year, "take such action as it may deem wise and expedient to secure compliance" by Myanmar with the recommendations of a 1998 Commission of Inquiry.

Yesterday's Governing Body decision, which was adopted without vote and was categorically rejected by the Government Representative of Myanmar, is the latest in a long series of ILO findings and efforts to eliminate forced labour in that country.

**United Nations Offshore Forum to Be Held in Cayman Islands

On 30 and 31 March, the United Nations Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention will host a meeting on money laundering that will take place in the Cayman Islands.

Pino Arlacchi, who heads that Office, says that "the very mention of the word ‘offshore’ conjures up a highly negative scenario of fast boats, money laundering, tax evasion, and secrecy".

The forum's objective is to reach an agreement on common action to deal with the abuse of the international financial services by money launderers.

Some 40 offshore centres are expected to be represented at this meeting, including the Island of Jersey -- that's not New Jersey, that's the other side of the Atlantic -- the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, and the Bahamas.

The programme of that forum is available in my Office, if you're interested.

**Commission on Human Rights

We also have available in my Office the statements to the Commission on Human Rights by the Special Rapporteurs on Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the former Yugoslavia, Iran, Iraq, the occupied Arab territories, including Palestine. They all spoke either last night or this morning in Geneva. The statements on Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are in French only.

**Payment

We received another payment to the United Nations regular budget -- full payment for the year 2000 -- from Brunei Darussalam which becomes the seventy- fifth Member State to be paid in full for their regular dues for this year and that's with a payment of just over $210,000.

**Press Conferences

Two press conferences tomorrow to alert you to. At 10:30 a.m. in this room, Ambassador Arthur Mbafeno of Nigeria, who is the Chairman of the “Group of 77” developing countries and China, will be discussing the South Summit which will take place in Havana, Cuba, from 10 to 14 April, and, of course, the Secretary-General will be attending that meeting.

And then at 11:15 a.m., Cecilia Medina Quiroga of Chile, the Chairman of the Human Rights Committee, and others, will be discussing the work of the Committee's sixty-eighth session, which began on 13 March and ends this Friday, 31 March.

**UNCA Reminder

And then a reminder from the United Nations Correspondent's Association (UNCA). Ambassador Sergio Vento of Italy will address members of UNCA today at 4 p.m. in the Correspondent's Association Club.

That's all I have for you.

**Questions and Answers

Question: What is the current outstanding money owed by the United States?

Spokesman: The current United States outstanding balance is $1.7 billion of all assessed contributions. And, of course, that would include the assessment

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for the year 2000, which as of approximately 1 February becomes arrears because these bills must be paid within 30 days of when they are sent out.

Question: Does that include peacekeeping?

Spokesman: That includes peacekeeping and Tribunals -- all assessed contributions. It's the assessed contributions that count towards the loss of vote.

Question: How large is the Council's delegation to Washington tomorrow?

Spokesman: I understand all 15 members, including the United States delegate, are expected to attend.

Question: Any of their staff going with them?

Spokesman: That I don't know. We'd have to check with the Council.

[The Spokesman later announced that the 15 members of the Security Council would travel to Washington without any support staff.]

Question: Is the Secretary-General having a say about this trip, about the importance he places on it?

Spokesman: Dialogue is good.

Question: Does the Secretary-General have probably the same reaction to the planned Council missions to Kosovo and the Congo?

Spokesman: We're aware, of course, from what the President of the Council said to you yesterday, that they are discussing a trip to Kosovo. And, yes, I think the same rationale applies. It's always good for Council members to see the situation on the ground firsthand. I know from our point of view -- from the mission's point of view -- it gives the chance to see what our problems are, and the difficulties we're dealing with on a daily basis.

Question: The Trump building gets higher and higher. I wonder if there's been any action by United Nations lawyers to take a look at where it stands?

Spokesman: No, the United Nations lawyers did provide some documentation concerning commitments made by the City of New York at the time the UN Building was built. But I believe that the challenge in the local courts was not successful and the huge structure that you see there across the street appears only about half finished. So it's going up another 40 stories or so.

Question: Is there anything new about Von Sponeck's press conference in Baghdad?

Spokesman: I thought we got back to you yesterday. We checked with Baghdad and there was no press conference. But ask David -- David's the one that has the details on that. He [Von Sponeck] might have made some comments, but he did not give a press conference.

Very good. Thank you very much.

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For information media. Not an official record.