PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000525The following is a near-verbatim transcript of todays noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.
**Lebanon
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Terje Roed Larsen, is currently meeting with President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Selim el-Hoss of Lebanon. We expect to issue a statement from him shortly after that meeting.
On arriving in Beirut yesterday, Mr. Larsen said, "The eyes of the world are on Lebanon", and added, "After 22 long years, the occupation of southern Lebanon is rapidly coming to an end and Lebanese sovereignty can soon be restored throughout the area." We have copies of that statement in my Office.
Mr. Larsen plans to meet on Friday afternoon with General Seth-Kofi Obeng, the United Nations Force Commander, to discuss the plan for United Nations confirmation of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.
Earlier today, a United Nations team of cartographers and a military adviser went to Naqoura, the United Nations Force's headquarters in southern Lebanon, to discuss with General Obeng the final practical arrangements for confirmation. As you recall, the team intends to establish a "practical line" on the ground to correspond to the 1923 border line between Israel and Lebanon.
On the ground today, the United Nations Force describes the situation as relatively quiet, with United Nations troops and civilian officers patrolling extensively in an effort to maintain calm. The mood has been upbeat, with a national holiday declared today in Lebanon.
Prime Minister el-Hoss visited southern Lebanon today, and the mission also reports that Lebanese authorities, including members of the gendarmerie, are gradually moving into the vacated areas.
The Secretary-General yesterday sent letters to Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel and President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon, as well as to other regional leaders with whom he has been in regular contact in recent weeks (from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran), stressing the need for everyone's full cooperation in order to ensure a successful implementation of Security Council resolution 425 calling for Israel to withdraw from Lebanon.
He appealed to them to be as supportive as possible of this process.
**Sierra Leone
A team from the United Nations Mission, made up of the Deputy Force Commander and military observers, today travelled to the site where two journalists were killed - that is, Kurt Schork of Reuters and Miguel Gil Moreno of APTN -- and two others injured in an ambush by suspected members of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) near Rogberi Junction yesterday afternoon.
Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 25 May 2000
The four journalists were travelling in the company of Sierra Leonean Army troops in two vehicles. The two survivors were taken to a hospital in Freetown. They are reported to be in stable condition. As you know, we issued a statement by the Secretary-General yesterday evening.
Meanwhile, the 29 freed detainees who had been in Liberian custody were flown back to Sierra Leone earlier today, bringing the total released via the Liberian town of Foya to 233. The 29 were all Zambians and appeared to be in good health, except for two who contracted malaria. We have no word on further detainees today.
The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, was on his way to Abuja, Nigeria, to attend a series of meetings of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), starting with a ministerial- level meeting tomorrow and then senior official meetings continuing through the weekend.
Kenya has offered much-needed stress counsellors to be on hand for the newly released detainees, but the United Nations still has no offers for forensic experts to help identify the remains found earlier this week at Rogberi Junction.
The Humanitarian Coordinator mentioned reports of large numbers of civilians leaving the Makeni/Magburaka area, fearing new fighting and concerned over the shortage of food. Access to newly displaced people is limited by insecurity.
**Ethiopia/Eritrea
The Security Council is currently hearing a briefing by Under-Secretary- General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast on the Ethiopia/Eritrea conflict.
The Government of Eritrea has responded to the appeal by the current Chair of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), President Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, by agreeing to end hostilities and restore the status quo ante of 6 May 1998. President Bouteflika is in the Eritrean capital, Asmara, and visited Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, yesterday.
Yesterday evening, in a statement attributable to the Spokesman, the Secretary-General welcomed the statement issued by the Eritrean Government and urged the Government of Ethiopia also to respond positively to the OAU appeal.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said today that more than 20,000 Eritreans have been registered at three refugee encampments along the Sudanese border, and thousands more are expected to move into the Sudan if there is any further fighting.
As an emergency measure, the UNHCR will begin airlifts next week of tents from its stockpiles in the Balkans, including 1,000 tents from Kosovo and another 1,000 from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
The World Food Programme (WFP) also announced today that it will launch a $3.4 million emergency feeding programme to feed approximately 50,000 Eritreans who have fled their homes during the recent fighting. We have a press release on that upstairs.
**Security Council
This morning, the Security Council held informal consultations first on the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) in the Golan Heights, and then on the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).
Joachim Hütter, Director of the Peacekeeping Department's Asia and Middle East Division, briefed the Council on UNDOF, and Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hédi Annabi briefed the Council on the Secretary-General's report on Western Sahara.
The Secretary-General has recommended that the Council extend the Western Sahara Mission by two months, until the end of July, and the Disengagement Observer Force by six months, until the end of November; both have current mandates that expire at the end of this month.
The Security Council is considering draft resolutions to extend both mandates, which it expects to take up next Tuesday, 30 May. It also considered the text of a draft presidential statement on the Golan Heights, which it may also adopt next Tuesday.
Also this morning, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast briefed the Council on recent developments in Ethiopia/Eritrea, as I just mentioned.
After that briefing is done, the Council expects to hear a briefing by Mr. Annabi on recent developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. You'll recall that I announced yesterday the ceasefire violations in Equateur Province and an agreement on the withdrawal of troops from Kisangani.
This afternoon, at 3:30, the Council will go into a formal session to hear an open briefing on East Timor. We expect that Mr. Annabi will brief the Council on recent developments there.
**Secretary-General's Visit to Washington, D.C.
The Secretary-General is in Washington today. He will attend a luncheon function hosted by the John Quincy Adams Society, which is an informal grouping of moderate Republicans from the House of Representatives. Over 70 members of the House are expected to attend the luncheon, at which the Secretary-General will make brief remarks and then take questions.
Then in mid-afternoon, the Secretary-General will go to the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University to deliver a commencement address. In that address, which is on the theme of the United Nations role in maintaining peace and security, the Secretary-General looks at some of the peacekeeping issues raised most recently by the Mission in Sierra Leone.
"The United Nations can do more than just keep the peace between angels", he will argue. "With a credible and robust presence, it can deter and discourage potential violators of the peace agreement." He will call for reconsideration of some of the most basic assumptions about peacekeeping -- neutrality, the good faith of the parties and the non-use of force. And he'll ask how we can better protect a people from leaders who are so insular and narrow that they neglect their people's interests. We have embargoed copies of both speeches in my Office.
**Afghanistan
The Taliban bombardment of Taloqan in north-eastern Afghanistan on the night of 20 May killed a United Nations field worker who had devoted much of life to taking care of disabled people.
A bomb landed directly on the home of Bashir Ahmad of the United Nations, who was involved in the Comprehensive Disabled Afghans Programme. It landed in the room in which his children were sleeping, killing him and six of his seven children. Although severely injured, his wife and their sole surviving child, a six-year-old daughter, are recovering in the Taloqan provincial hospital.
United Nations Coordinator Eric de Mul said, "This is not the first time that indiscriminate aerial bombardment or rocketing has killed Afghan civilians. Inflicting such suffering is unconscionable."
The United Nations has repeatedly called for all military and political authorities in Afghanistan to respect the rights of non-combatants to be treated as civilians, and to refrain from military activity that targets or results in avoidable harm and suffering of civilians.
**UNEP
From 29 to 31 May, the world's environment ministers will meet in Malmo, Sweden, at the first Global Ministerial Environment Forum. The format for the meeting, which is being organized by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is designed to provide the ministers with an opportunity to bridge information and policy gaps on critical environmental issues through informal discussions with global leaders from academia, business and industry, and civil society groups such as the media and the non-governmental community. Presentations are to be made by several heads of State, a Nobel Prize winner and the chief executive officers of several multinational corporations. Details are available on the racks in a UNEP press release.
**Press Conference
There will be a press conference tomorrow at 1 o'clock. Techeste Ahderom, the Co-Chair of the Millennium Forum, will talk about the conclusion of the Forum and the Millennium Forum Declaration, which will be adopted in the final plenary session taking place tomorrow afternoon in the General Assembly Hall.
**Questions and Answers
Question: At one time, there was a plan for the Secretary-General to meet with Sandy Berger; was that changed?
Spokesman: Yes, we squawked that to you yesterday afternoon. That was cancelled, apparently because Mr. Berger had to attend a funeral, but I don't know any further details. It was for a personal reason that he had to cancel the appointment.
Question: On Sierra Leone and the deaths of those two journalists, do we know if the Sierra Leonean troops returned fire at all?
Spokesman: Four members of the SLA [Sierra Leone Army] were killed in the same exchange. I can't say whether they returned fire, but it was a bloody ambush.
Question: Do you have anything more on Mr. Larsen trying to secure airspace for the helicopters to fly over the borders?
Spokesman: He just wants assurances from the Lebanese, Syrian and Israeli Governments that the United Nations can patrol that airspace to verify the withdrawal of the Israelis. I think we mentioned this morning that the cartographers involved in carrying out the marking of the practical line are in Naqoura making final preparations. So, we'll get some word from Mr. Larsen after his current meetings in Lebanon. From there, we expect him to go to Syria. Things aren't yet final, but moving close to final.
Question: Do you know if the Shaba farms will be included?
Spokesman: I think the Shaba farms issue was addressed in the Secretary- General's report and that is the final word as far as we are concerned. [Resolutions] 425 and 426 apply to Lebanese territory and under the mandate of UNIFIL; the Shaba farms are not part of their operational territory. At the time of those resolutions, they were not considered part of Lebanon.
Question: As of yesterday, the Lebanese Army seemed to be reluctant to move into the former Israeli Security Zone, and let the Hezbollah guerrillas have almost all the control. Is there any concern in the United Nations about this, that they are not moving in as quickly as they should, and is that part of what has to be confirmed? In other words, for 425 to be fulfilled, it seems that the Lebanese Army would also have to move into those areas and take control. Would that have to happen first before the troop contributors give more troops?
Spokesman: No, the terms of the current plan are that we will merely confirm that Israel has withdrawn. The mandate of UNIFIL over these 22 years has been to assist the Lebanese Government in re-asserting its authority over this area -- that's part of the longer-term plan. As far as I know, and this is based partly on Mr. Larsen's comments of yesterday and what we've learned today, there is a gradual movement of Lebanese authorities into the area. We mentioned the customs officials moving down yesterday, today gendarmerie. So we have only good news to report the first three days, and we have our fingers crossed.
Question: Can you give us any information on the progress on United Nations/Cambodian negotiations, and also on the arrest made yesterday at the Credit Union?
Spokesman: I have nothing to add to what I've already said yesterday, namely, that the Secretary-General did receive a letter from Prime Minister Hun Sen, responding to the earlier letter by the Secretary-General. He considers this a positive development. There still need to be some clarifications for which purpose the Legal Counsel, Hans Corell, will be accepting the Cambodian Government's invitation to return to Phnom Penh. The next steps would be for the Cambodian Parliament to adopt legislation reflecting the understandings agreed
between the United Nations and the Prime Minister. Following that, there could be a formal agreement signed between the United Nations and Cambodia.
On the arrest in the Credit Union, I understand that an employee of the Credit Union has been charged with stealing funds, and as a result there was an arrest this week. That's all I can say on that subject.
Question: Two quick questions on Afghanistan. With this latest bombing by the Taliban, is the United Nations mulling possible withdrawal of some of its staff from at least that part of Afghanistan? Also, have there been any contacts between the United Nations and Russia over its announced threats to perhaps bomb or make air strikes on alleged pro-Chechen bases in Afghanistan?
Spokesman: I don't know the answer to your second question. On your first, I'm not aware that there's been any change in our risk-assessment as a result of this bombing incident, but I'd have to check and get back to you.
Question: Well, if it's an arrest, then the record is public. So then why are you not giving the name and nationality of the Credit Union employee? If he's arrested in New York, it's a public record.
Spokesman: Until I get authorization from the Legal Counsel's office to say more than I've already said, I prefer to play it safe and keep it brief.
Thank you very much.
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