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 David Wimhurst, Acting Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

**Secretary-General in Geneva

The Secretary-General had a busy day in Geneva today, where he arrived this morning. He met one on one with his Special Envoy for the Balkans, Carl Bildt. He and Mr. Bildt were then joined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, who reviewed with them the refugee situation in the Balkans, which she had recently visited. He then met with members of the Bureau of the fifty-sixth Commission on Human Rights, following which he met with the Foreign Minister of Nepal, Chakra Prasad Bastola.

The Secretary-General then addressed the Commission on Human Rights. He said that, "where dissent is forbidden, where expression is curtailed, where the flow of ideas and the exchange of views are limited by force, human well-being and prosperity are threatened and conflicts made more likely". He appealed to those States that had not yet done so to ratify the two covenants on political and economic rights, social rights and the principal international human rights instruments so that "universal realization of human rights can be given practical expression". We have the full text of his remarks to the Commission, which were made available to you yesterday under the embargo.

In the early afternoon, he met one on one with Terje Roed Larsen, his Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and his Personal Representative to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority. The Secretary-General then met with Israel's Foreign Minister David Levy, who informed him of Israel's intention to withdraw from southern Lebanon by the end of July and who asked for the United Nations cooperation during that withdrawal. We have the Secretary-General's statement on this from Geneva, which reads as follows:

“I was pleased to receive the Foreign Minister of Israel, David Levy, at his request in Geneva this afternoon. The Minister reaffirmed his Government's decision to withdraw Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in accordance with Security Council resolution 425 (1978), fully and without conditions. The Minister informed me that the withdrawal will occur in "one go" by the end of July. The Minister assured me of his Government's intention to cooperate fully with the United Nations throughout the process, within the framework of the relevant Security Council resolutions. The Minister and I agreed that cooperation by all parties concerned would be needed in order to avoid any deterioration of the situation during the withdrawal.

“I welcome these assurances from the Foreign Minister and look forward to a formal notification from the Government of Israel on this matter.”

The complete text of the statement is available for you upstairs, as well as a transcript of the remarks made by Foreign Minister Levy following his meeting with the Secretary-General.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 4 April 2000

Following this meeting, the Secretary-General had a brief encounter with journalists, and we are getting a full transcript of the remarks very soon following this briefing.

At Geneva airport, the Secretary-General met with Mary Robinson, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, who is on her way from Russia, where she also visited the Northern Caucasus, including Chechnya.

**High Commissioner for Human Rights on Chechnya

The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, urged the Russian Government to establish an independent national commission of inquiry to deal with "serious and documented" allegations of abuse in Chechnya. Mrs. Robinson was speaking in Moscow at the end of a five-day visit to the Russian Federation. She said that an inquiry body "would go a long way towards providing a credible, sustained response to the large and growing number of documented reports of violations allegedly committed by the country's military personnel in Chechnya during the latest conflict". She added that this morning, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov had indicated that her recommendation would be examined carefully and had invited her to return to Chechnya and the region in a few months to again assess the situation.

A press release with more details on her trip is available to the press.

**Razali Ismail (Malaysia) Appointed to Myanmar

I have a statement by the Spokesman for the Secretary-General:

“The Secretary-General has appointed Mr. Razali Ismail as his Special Envoy for Myanmar. The Secretary-General hopes that Mr. Razali would be able to visit Myanmar shortly to carry out the Secretary-General's good offices efforts to facilitate the implementation of General Assembly resolution 54/186.

“Mr. Razali has been serving as the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia. He was the Permanent Representative of Malaysia to the United Nations in New York from 1988 to 1998 and is remembered for his many contributions to the work of the United Nations during his tenure. Mr. Razali was active in a variety of areas and distinguished himself by taking an active role in the preparation of the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (1992), by being a prominent voice in the United Nations reform process, and by playing an exemplary leadership role as the President of the fifty-first session of the General Assembly (1996-1997).”

**Appointment by Secretary-General

The Secretary-General has appointed Kim Hak-Su of the Republic of Korea as the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok. Mr. Kim -- an ambassador-at-large for International Economic Affairs and a prominent economist -- replaces Adrianus Mooy of Indonesia, whose term expires on 30 June. The ESCAP deals with questions such as regional economic cooperation, environment and sustainable development, poverty alleviation through economic growth and social development.

We have Mr. Kim's biographical note available for you upstairs. His appointment is at the level of under-secretary-general.

**Statement on Haiti Attributable to Spokesman

The Secretary-General wishes to take the occasion of the murder yesterday of Jean Dominique, who was a Special Advisor to President Preval and the Director of Radio Haiti, to condemn the recent escalation of violence in Haiti.

In the Secretary-General's view, these events underscore the urgent need to re-establish democratic institutions in Haiti. Recalling that last week nine people died in Port-au-Prince alone, the Secretary-General urges all Haitians to refrain from any further acts of violence. He encourages the Government to hold the planned elections in order to meet constitutional deadlines for the seating of Parliament.

We also have a statement upstairs of the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Koichiro Matsuuva, expressing his shock at the murder of Mr. Dominique.

**Statement on Kosovo Attributable to Spokesman of Secretary-General

The Secretary-General welcomes the decision of the Serb National Council of Gracanica to participate as observers in the sessions of the Interim Administrative Council, as well as in the Kosovo Transitional Council. This is an important and courageous step, which underlines the commitment of the Kosovo Serb representatives to take their rightful place in a multi-ethnic and democratic Kosovo. It is hoped that the representatives of the Serb National Council in Kosovska Mitrovica will also soon join these structures.

For its part, the United Nations is determined to take every measure to ensure that the Serb community is able to live with dignity and in safety in Kosovo. The Secretary-General hopes that, in the very near future, the Serb community will feel confident to fully participate in the Joint Administrative Structures.

**Security Council

This morning, the Security Council President for the month of April, Ambassador Robert Fowler of Canada, will continue bilateral meetings with other members of the Council. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the Council will go into closed consultations to discuss its programme of work for April. Once the programme of work is approved, the Council is expected to discuss the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observer Mission (UNIKOM) tomorrow in closed consultations. The Secretary-General, in his latest report on the Mission, which was issued yesterday, said that it had contributed to the generally calm situation at the Iraq-Kuwait border; the Mission's current mandate is set to end on Thursday.

**United Nations Iraq Programme

The regular weekly update from the Office of the Iraq Programme is now available upstairs. It shows that last week Iraq exported 6.5 million barrels, bringing revenue estimated at $155.5 million. Total revenue for Phase VII, which began on 11 December, is now around $4.621 billion. In Phases IV to VII, the Security Council's 661 sanctions committee approved $5.38 billion worth of contracts for humanitarian supplies and put $1.33 billion on hold for the same period. In the oil sector, the committee has approved contracts worth $689.2 million and put $335.7 million worth on hold.

**Afghanistan

We have the weekly humanitarian update available upstairs, which includes an information note on a drought affecting southern Afghanistan. It warns that the situation is likely to get worse, because the period for rain is rapidly ending, and the next rains are not expected until December.

**UNHCR Welcomes Human Rights Ruling in Europe

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today welcomed a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that the sending back of asylum seekers to situations where they could face persecution violates the European Convention of Human Rights, regardless of whether the oppressors are governments or others such as paramilitary or rebel groups.

Available upstairs are the briefing notes containing more details on the Court's decision on a case involving a Sri Lankan man who fled to Britain from Germany.

**UNDP Poverty Report

Just after this briefing ends, Mark Malloch Brown, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), will give a press conference in this room to launch UNDP's Poverty Report for 2000, entitled "Overcoming Human Poverty". The report stresses the need for new approaches on poverty that concentrate more on governance and the empowerment of people and less on social welfare systems. The report says that, although three quarters of the world's poorer nations have estimated the scale of poverty they face, fewer than one third of them have set targets to eradicate extreme poverty or reduce overall poverty substantially.

In addition to Mr. Malloch Brown, Stephen Browne, Director of UNDP's Social Development and Poverty Elimination Division, and the report's coordinator, Terry McKinley, will be at today's briefing, which begins at 12:30 p.m..

**Press Briefings Tomorrow

For tomorrow, we have a background briefing for you at 1 p.m. The Canadian Mission Security Council team will give a briefing to the press on the Council's programme of work for April.

Also tomorrow, we have a press conference at 11:15 a.m. -- sponsored by the United States Mission to the United Nations -- by OXFAM America and Save the Children on the worsening conditions in Ethiopia.

**Questions and Answers

Question: Regarding the Israeli pullout from southern Lebanon, what is going to happen to the United Nations presence there?

Answer: I think those details will be worked out between now and the end of July, when the withdrawal is scheduled to be completed. Right now, I cannot go into any details, but as the deadline draws nearer, there will certainly be more information available on this subject.

Thank you very much.

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