DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
20000607The following is a near-verbatim transcript of the noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and by Shirley Brownell, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly:
**Minister Killed in Sri Lanka Bombing
The following statement on the situation in Sri Lanka is attributable to the Spokesman:
"The Secretary-General is profoundly shocked by the reported suicide bomb attack that occurred today in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He deeply deplores the loss of innocent lives, including Sri Lanka's Industrial Development Minister, C. V. Gunaratne. In the strongest possible terms, the Secretary-General reiterates his condemnation of terrorism from whatever quarter.
"The Secretary-General sends his condolences to the families of those killed and his best wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured in this senseless terrorist act."
**Renewed Fighting in Kisangani
Despite a ceasefire that went into effect yesterday evening, fighting broke out between Rwandan and Ugandan troops again at daybreak today in Kisangani, according to the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
According to preliminary reports from the field, United Nations observers in Kisangani said that a shell hit a hospital in the city, killing as many as 16, injuring 60 others, including children, and causing extensive damage.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kamel Morjane, and his team are devoting their best efforts to ensure that those injured in the shelling are receiving emergency medical assistance and to achieve a lasting ceasefire in Kisangani.
In a statement attributable to the Spokesman, the Secretary-General said that he deplores the loss of life and massive property damage caused by the two foreign forces and their supporters in Kisangani. He calls on the armed forces of those two governments to cease fire immediately and to withdraw from the city in accordance with their agreements. The United Nations is prepared to assist in these efforts. The actual statement is fuller and I recommend that you look at the full text after the briefing.
**Special Envoy Returning after Lebanon Talks
The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Terje Roed Larsen, is in the air now, having left Beirut to return to United Nations Headquarters in New York. He's expected to arrive later this afternoon.
United Nations and Israeli experts met into the early hours of this morning in an attempt to resolve one outstanding border issue involving Israel. However, the issue remains unresolved and the experts will need some additional time to sort it out. Mr. Larsen, nevertheless, is convinced that all issues surrounding the withdrawal line would be resolved, as he said in the press statement he issued yesterday, and he was confident enough that he decided to return to New York to report to the Secretary-General on his two-week mission to the region.
Because of the outstanding issue, the four verification teams that we said yesterday were prepared to go to the border to determine whether Israel has withdrawn from Lebanon in compliance with Security Council resolutions, have not gone out on their mission yet. They are prepared to go about their work pending the resolution of this last issue. As I noted yesterday, the United Nations expects that once the issues surrounding the withdrawal line are resolved, the verification of Israel's withdrawal could be accomplished quickly, possibly within 24 hours.
**Update from Sierra Leone
On Sierra Leone, the 21 Indian peacekeepers who were moved by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) from the town of Kuiva are reported to be at the eastern town of Pendembu today. We look forward to their early release. Meanwhile, the RUF have released the four trucks, along with their drivers and rations, which had been detained over the weekend as they were en route to resupply the more than 200 United Nations personnel at the town of Kailahun, which is also in the east. The RUF also permitted the trucks to return to Daru today.
Government forces came under offensive action by the RUF last night in the northern city of Kabala. The United Nations Mission spokesman said, in Freetown, that the closest the action got to the Kenyan peacekeepers stationed in that area was about 800 metres. No casualties were reported. The situation in Kabala is now said to be quiet but tense.
**Security Council Discusses Cyprus, Iraq, Sierra Leone
This morning, the Security Council began closed consultations with a briefing by Alvaro de Soto, the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Cyprus, who presented an update to the Secretary-General's report on Cyprus issued last week. That report noted that the third round of proximity talks between Glafcos Clerides and Rauf Denktash, which had been postponed due to health considerations, will now begin in Geneva on 5 July. The Secretary- General is also asking the Security Council to extend the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) by six months until 15 December.
After that, the Council began a discussion of the first quarterly report of the activities of the United Nations Monitoring Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) for Iraq. The Executive Chairman of the Commission, Hans Blix, briefed the Council on the activities of UNMOVIC since his appointment.
Once the discussion of UNMOVIC ends, the Council expects to hear a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hedi Annabi on the latest developments in Sierra Leone.
Also on Iraq, the Council has been considering a draft resolution on Phase VIII of the oil-for-food programme and expects to vote on it tomorrow, which is the last day of Phase VII of that programme.
The Council also expects to be briefed tomorrow morning on the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
**UN and OAU to Probe Togo Human Rights Violations
We have a statement here, attributable to the Spokesman, which I will read just part of. It concerns human rights violations in Togo and you should get the full text in my Office afterwards.
"United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), Salim Ahmed Salim, today announced the establishment of a joint United Nations-OAU international commission of inquiry into allegations that hundreds of people were victims of extrajudicial executions in Togo in 1998.
"International expert Mahamat Hassan Abakar of Chad is the chairperson of this group. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah of Mauritania and Paulo Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil will make up the other members of the commission."
**State Border Service Inaugurated
Yesterday the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Jacques Klein, inaugurated the first unit of the Bosnia and Herzegovina State Border Service. That took place at a ceremony in Sarajevo Airport. Speaking at the inauguration, Mr. Klein said that the establishment of a border service was a crucial step in the fight against trafficking in women and cross-border trade in illegal goods. Without an effective border service, Bosnia and Herzegovina would also continue to be a major transit point for illegal immigration to Europe.
The service will assume control of the Zvornik, Doljani and Izacic entry points in the next month or so. Expansion will continue until all entry points along the border are staffed. Once the service is complete, some 3,000 police will staff more than 240 border crossings around the country. You can get Jacques Klein's statement in my Office.
**UNTAET Team in Jakarta
In East Timor, a human rights and judicial affairs joint team of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) is in Jakarta, Indonesia, today to meet with their counterparts in the Indonesian Attorney- General's office.
They will meet tomorrow to review arrangements for the visit to Dili of a delegation from the Attorney-General's office that is investigating the killing last year of the Dutch journalist, Sanders Thoenes, the church massacres in Suai and Liquica, and the attacks on the houses of Bishop Carlos Belo and Timorese businessman Manuel Carrascalao.
Also tomorrow, the Governor of West Timor, Piet Tallo, will have a one-day visit to Dili. The Governor will have meetings at UNTAET and at the National Council of Timorese Resistance (NCTR). The discussions at the United Nations mission will cover a wide range of topics, including border control and refugee repatriation. You can have more details on this and other East Timorese news in today's briefing note prepared by the mission, which is available in my Office. That briefing note also has details of two regulations adopted yesterday by the National Consultative Council. Both regulations provide for a more effective prosecution and trial of serious criminal offences such as crimes against humanity and murder.
**UNIFEM Report Launched
Just an hour ago in this room, Noeleen Heyzer, the Executive Director of the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), joined in the launch of this year's UNIFEM report, "Progress of the World's Women 2000". The report's launch this year, of course, occurs during the General Assembly's Special Session to review progress since the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing.
The report's 2000 edition, which is available at the documents counter if you're interested, says that over the past decade, only eight nations have successfully met global agreements on two major targets: to achieve gender equality in secondary school enrolment; and to have women fill at least 30 per cent of the seats in parliament. The report also notes that in 51 out of 59 countries where data was available, women's share in administrative and managerial employment rose in the 1990s compared with the previous decade. A press release is available with more details.
Ms. Heyzer is also participating in a panel discussion in the Dag Hammarskjold Library auditorium, beginning at 3 p.m. and titled "Endangering the peace process: emerging challenges and opportunities." That panel -- which includes Ms. Heyzer, Angela King, the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advancement of Women, and Zephirin Diabre, the Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) -- will review women's participation in peace negotiations and reconstruction work in war zones.
**ILO Standard Ratified
The International Labour Organization (ILO) announced today that ILO Convention 182, which is the world's fundamental international standard on the worst forms of child labour, has been ratified by 27 governments in its first year, racking up more ratifications than any other ILO convention in a comparable period. The convention will come into force on 19 November this year.
**UNHCR Issues $7.5 Million Appeal
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is appealing to donors for $7.5 million to cover the most immediate needs of refugees and displaced persons from the fighting between Ethiopia and Eritrea. You can see the UNHCR update in my Office.
**Iraq Programme Updated
The Office of the Iraq Programme has just released their weekly update on the oil-for-food programme in Iraq, which is also available in my Office. During the period 27 May to 2 June, Iraq exported 19.6 million barrels of oil, which brings the total volume exported under Phase VII to 330.1 million barrels. That generated a revenue of almost $8 billion.
**Ratifications
This morning, Mexico's Foreign Minister, Rosario Green, deposited her country's instrument of ratification for the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons and for the Convention and Protocol relating to the State of Refugees.
**Budget News
The Lao People's Democratic Republic has become the ninety-first Member State to be paid in full this year. That was with a cheque for just over $10,000.
**Press Conferences
Three this afternoon, all sponsored by the United States Mission to the United Nations. At 2 p.m., US Women Connect will be hosting a press conference to release a report card on the United States follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women.
At 2:45 p.m., the Women's Health Coalition will be discussing how advocates for health and the rights of women view the state of negotiations during the review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. And then at 3:30 p.m., the Catholic Family Human Rights Institute will be here to brief you and take your questions.
Tomorrow at the noon briefing, our guest will be Hans Corell, the United Nations Legal Counsel, and he'll be here to talk about the Secretary-General's call for ratification of human rights conventions, particularly on women's rights.
Further press conferences tomorrow morning: At 10:15 a.m., Ambassador Vladislav Jovanovic of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and at 11 a.m., the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), in collaboration with the United Nations Department of Public of Information, will launch a poster illustrating women's participation in politics around the world. Speakers will include Angela King and Anders Johnsson, the Secretary-General of the IPU.
**Question and Answer Session
Question: Will the Togo commission be along the lines and on the scale of the inquiries in East Timor or Rwanda? Will some kind of tribunal be set up to deal with this?
Spokesman: It's too early to talk about tribunals. Just take it at face value; it's a joint United Nations-OAU commission. They'll be looking into these incidents in 1998 and submitting a report to, I assume, both the OAU and the United Nations. What the response to that report will be, we'll have to see.
Question: What took so long? There's not much left to investigate is there?
Spokesman: I'm sure there are witnesses that could be interviewed and information that could be gathered. I cannot tell you why there was this delay.
Spokeswoman's Briefing
Thirty-seven speakers are scheduled to address the General Assembly today -- the third day of its twenty-third special session on Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-first Century.
Governments continue their review and appraisal of progress towards womens advancement by implementing the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women at Beijing in 1995. The Journal lists the names and titles of all the speakers.
The two working groups of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole have each scheduled four meetings for today, as they continue negotiating the outcome document, which governments will adopt at the conclusion of the special session, on Friday, 9 June. The document is entitled Further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action (document A/S- 23/2/Add. 2, Parts I to IV).
Working Group I is dealing with three areas: part I, the Introduction; part II, on Achievements and obstacles in the implementation of the 12 critical areas of the Platform for Action; and part III, on Current challenges affecting the full implementation of the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action. Working Group II has responsibility for part IV of the document, on Actions and initiatives to overcome obstacles and to achieve the full and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.
Reporting on the work, Christine Kapalata (United Republic of Tanzania), Chairperson of the Ad Hoc Committee, said that Working Group I reached agreement yesterday on paragraph 31, dealing with science and technology. Movement had been slower than the day before, but there had been progress. Delegations were no longer bracketing paragraphs, reserving that only for the most difficult issues.
There had not been much movement in Working Group II regarding part IV, Ms. Kapalata said. However, by yesterday afternoon, delegations had reached agreement on a further 12 paragraphs relating to the role of the family. They had agreed to retain 6 of the 12 paragraphs and to delete six others.
On the racks today is part of the draft report of the Ad Hoc Committee (document A/S-23/AC.1/L.1/Add.1). It contains amendments, as approved by the Committee, to part IV of the outcome document.
In the Contact Group, agreement had been reached on paragraph 30, dealing with globalization and the agreed target of 0.7 per cent official development assistance (ODA), Ms. Kapalata said.
Thursday, 5 p.m. was the deadline for the Ad Hoc Committee to finish its work, the Chairperson said, and delegations were being urged to work frantically to complete the document. In addition to presiding over this mornings special session, the President, Theo-Ben Gurirab (Namibia), met with the Chairmen of the regional groups at 11 a.m. He is meeting with the Secretary-General at 12.30 p.m. The President is invited to attend, at 6 p.m., an awards benefit reception hosted by Public-Private Partnerships for Womens Health; to a reception, at 6.15 p.m., hosted by Yukio Satoh, Permanent Representative of Japan, in honour of the Japanese delegation to the special session; and to a dinner in his honour hosted by Jeno C.A. Staehelin, Permanent Observer of Switzerland.
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