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.

**Syria

The United Nations Chief of Staff, Iqbal Riza, is on his way to Syria, where he will attend the funeral tomorrow of President Hafez Al-Assad, who died on Saturday. This Office issued a statement over the weekend expressing the Secretary-General's sorrow at President Al-Assad's passing and his condolences to his family and to the people of Syria. In that statement, the Secretary-General also underscored the urgent need for a comprehensive and lasting solution to the region's problems.

**Lebanon

In neighbouring Lebanon today, verification teams from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), accompanied by Lebanese experts, continued their work in determining whether Israel has withdrawn from Lebanon in accordance with Security Council resolutions.

That work is proceeding slowly on the ground, with the teams having to travel through heavily mined areas, which often lack roads or easy access. Although verification work continued today, it was not expected to be completed by day's end and will likely continue for another day or two.

**Democratic Republic of Congo

United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Peackeeping Operations Hédi Annabi briefed the Security Council in closed consultations on the latest developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Fighting between the Rwandan and Ugandan armed forces in Kisangani now appears to have stopped, as the Rwandan troops have driven the Ugandan forces out of the city centre. Over the weekend, a series of violent demonstrations took place outside the United Nations mission headquarters in Kinshasa. Several United Nations vehicles were damaged and staff narrowly escaped injury as protesters threw stones at the building, smashing some of the windows.

Meanwhile, the Kinshasa Government has denounced the neutral facilitator, Ketumile Masire, and called on the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to nominate a new facilitator. Humanitarian agencies are taking advantage of the lull in the fighting to bring much-needed assistance to the people in Kisangani. The World Food Programme (WFP) announced an airlift to take place tomorrow to the north- eastern city, where water and electricity were cut off after a week of fighting.

**Security Council Consultations

Following the closed-door consultations today on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Council is expected to take up the draft resolution on Cyprus.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 12 June 2000

**Sierra Leone

The team sent by United Nations Headquarters to assess the mission in Sierra Leone is back in New York and is finalizing its report. No decision has yet been made as to whether that report would be made public. Meanwhile, the situation on the ground was reported to be relatively quiet. There has been no change in the situation of the more than 200 United Nations personnel in Kailahun and Pendembu in the eastern part of the country.

**Ethiopia/Eritrea

We welcome the fact that Eritrea on Friday agreed on the OAU's peace plan and Ethiopia's announced agreement to it in principle. A three-person planning mission from the Department of Peacekeeping Operations is on standby to travel to Algiers to discuss a possible United Nations role under an agreed-upon peace plan between the two parties. The team will discuss the technical aspects of United Nations participation at the beginning of the planning process.

**Secretary-General Returns to New York

The Secretary-General is expected back in New York this afternoon, following visits to Washington, D.C. and California over the weekend. Yesterday, he delivered the commencement speech at Stanford University, in which he urged the graduates and their generation to "take the lead in safeguarding the global environment".

He said that the need for sustainable development has failed to register on the political radar screen, yet the challenges are serious. He said that weather patterns have become more volatile and extreme as the warming trend has accelerated, with economic losses from natural disasters totalling some $100 billion just in the last year alone. The Secretary-General warned, "We are in a race against time."

Also yesterday, the Secretary-General met with several top Silicon Valley entrepreneurs at a dinner hosted by Steve Cook, founder of the software company Intuit, and he attended a ceremony in support of the "Mines to Vines" campaign of the California-based non-profit group Roots of Peace. That group has tried in the Mines to Vines campaign to encourage the re-establishment of a vineyard on what had been mine-strewn land in Croatia. The Secretary-General said the group "helped turn what used to be a killing field into a fruitful enterprise".

We issued copies of his remarks and his commencement speech last Friday and have more upstairs.

**General Assembly Special Session Ends

The twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, entitled Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace, also called “ Beijing + 5”, concluded on Saturday afternoon with the adoption of a text on further actions and initiatives to implement the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

In a statement issued on Saturday, attributable to the Spokesman, the Secretary-General said he was delighted at the outcome of the Beijing + 5 negotiations and applauded the spirit of cooperation shown by delegations to ensure that the gains made by women in Beijing five years ago are consolidated, protected and advanced.

Shirley Brownell, the Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly, is here in case you have any questions.

**Iraq ‘Oil-for-Food’ Programme

We have received the latest figures from the Office of the Iraq Programme on the “oil-for-food” programme in the week ending 9 June. Iraq exported 12.4 million barrels of oil with an estimated value of $220 million. That brings the total revenue under Phase VII of the programme, which ended last Thursday, to $8.285 billion.

**Preparatory Commission for ICC Begins Three-Week Session Today

The Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court (ICC) began its three-week session today. The Commission, chaired by Philippe Kirsch (Canada), is required to complete, by 30 June, work on two aspects of the Court’s Statute –- the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, and Elements of Crime.

So far, 97 countries have signed the treaty and 12 have ratified it, with France becoming the most recent, on Friday. Sixty ratifications are needed for the Court to become operational. The treaty establishing the Court remains open for signature until 31 December 2000.

**Committee on Elimination of the Discrimination against Women Begins Twenty-third Session

Also today, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the only United Nations human rights treaty body that deals exclusively with women’s rights, began its twenty-third session. During its current session, the 23-member expert body, which monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, will review the reports of seven States parties -- Cameroon, Republic of Moldova, Lithuania, Iraq, Austria, Cuba and Romania.

**New Deputy Commissioner for UNRWA

The Secretary-General today appointed Karen Abuzayd as Deputy Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). That post is at the level of Assistant Secretary-General.

Karen is currently regional representative for the United States and the Caribbean for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). A native of the United States, she has been with the UNHCR for 19 years, having represented them in a number of crisis areas, including Somalia, Sierra Leone and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the war.

Her duty station will be Gaza, and we have a biographical note in my Office.

**Press Conferences

Tomorrow at 11 a.m., the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is sponsoring a press conference by the United States Committee for Refugees, which is releasing the annual "World Refugee Survey". The survey is a major source of information on refugees for the United Nations and all refugee organizations. A key issue dealt with in this edition is the internally displaced.

Also, following his briefing to the Security Council tomorrow, Jacques Klein, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Bosnia and Herzegovina will hold a press conference. We will let you know when it is about to happen.

**Questions and Answers

Question: There have been reports that fighting has resumed between Eritrea and Ethiopia. What is the latest information you have?

Spokesman: No, we have nothing more than I have already given you.

Question: Who is the most senior person the Secretary-General will meet in Iran or Syria?

Spokesman: We have not announced any travel plans yet. I realize there have been reports that the Secretary-General will be travelling to the Middle East. There is planning under way for such a trip, but we are waiting for the final confirmation of the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon before finalizing the travel plans.

Question: What is the latest confirming the withdrawal from Lebanon?

Spokesman: As I said, the verification teams are out again today. It is a slow go, but they will certainly not be finished today. Our hope is that they can finish in the next day or so.

Question: Will there be talks on Macedonia tomorrow?

Spokesman: I would have to check. Usually, when those talks are over, they send us a note saying they have met again and they will meet yet again. I have not been told that a meeting is taking place tomorrow. I will have to confirm that for you.

Question: On a housekeeping matter, what are the criteria for journalists' access to the conference rooms?

Spokesman: If you see me after the briefing, I will look into it. We could find out what the rules are and what changes might have been made.

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