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.

**Lebanon

This morning, the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Terje Roed Larsen, held a series of meetings with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Selim el-Hoss to discuss the situation along the line of withdrawal between Lebanon and Israel.

Later, at a press conference, Mr. Larsen and Prime Minister el-Hoss said that all Israeli violations had been rectified, except one, which the Israeli side is in the process of correcting now.

The Deputy Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), General James Sreenan, is currently on the line of withdrawal to oversee this process of rectification.

The UNIFIL Force Commander, General Seth Kofi Obeng, is meeting with Lebanese Army representatives in Beirut today to work out the operational matters connected with their joint deployment.

Later in the day, the Special Representative co-chaired, along with Prime Minister el-Hoss, the opening session of the Donors Conference for South Lebanon. Mr. Larsen told the assembled delegates that: "Planning must begin today to institute a development effort that will provide the basis for long-term sustainable growth in South Lebanon." He added: "We must work in a cohesive manner to make Lebanon a confidence-building example for the entire Middle East region."

We have the full text of Mr. Larsen’s statement to the conference in my Office.

**Security Council

This morning, the Security Council first met in closed consultations to receive the text of a draft resolution on Sierra Leone concerning the trial of senior Sierra Leonean nationals responsible for violations of international humanitarian law. The Council is expected to hold expert-level meetings this afternoon to consider that draft text.

The Council has also been considering at the expert-group level another draft resolution concerning the future of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL).

The Council, in its consultations, also considered a draft resolution to extend the mandate of UNIFIL by six months, until 31 January 2001, which it unanimously approved in a formal session after its consultations adjourned.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 27 July 2000

The Council is now engaged in an open briefing on Angola, in which Ibrahim Gambari, the Secretary-General's Adviser for Special Assignments in Africa, presented the Secretary-General's recent report on Angola. The Secretary-General attended that opening meeting.

Mr. Gambari said that the continuing fighting in Angola is "deeply disturbing", but added that "the reports coming from Angola on sanctions are that they are producing the desired results. They are limiting the possibilities of UNITA to procure weapons, thus, making it difficult for the movement to rearm and resupply its forces". He also drew attention to the plight of an estimated 2.5 million internally displaced persons -- about a fifth of all Angolans.

Tomorrow morning, the Council is expected to hold closed consultations on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and then hold formal meetings on the extension of the United Nations observer mission in Georgia, and on East Timor. In the afternoon, it may schedule a briefing by the Force Commander in Sierra Leone, Major General Vijay Jetley, who is in town today. I think we initially announced that he'd be the guest at today’s noon briefing, but due to a revision in his programme, he will now join us tomorrow at noon.

**Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, meanwhile, where the situation was reported calm but unpredictable, the United Nations Mission reports that in the wake of Operation Thunderbolt, members of the rebel "West Side Boys" are starting to come forward to disarm. Seventeen had done so already, and more were reported on their way.

Small groups of Revolutionary United Front (RUF) fighters have reported to Daru and several other locations for disarmament, according to the Mission.

United Nations humanitarian agencies, meanwhile, were looking into the alleged abduction of a group of non-governmental organization personnel who have been reported missing for about a week.

**Ethiopia-Eritrea

The United Nations is opening its second liaison office in the Horn of Africa -- that's in Asmara, Eritrea -- today. The first office opened earlier this week in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

As you'll recall, the Secretary-General, in his latest report on Ethiopia and Eritrea, announced his intention to dispatch liaison officers to the two capitals to maintain the momentum of the cessation of hostilities agreement and to expedite planning for a possible United Nations peacekeeping mission there.

The Secretary-General's next report on Ethiopia-Eritrea, which contains recommendations by the reconnaissance team led by General Timothy Ford, is due out tomorrow.

**Democratic Republic of Congo

The Secretary-General's Special Representative to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kamel Morjane, together with the Mission's Force Commander Mountaga Diallo, are en route to Lusaka to attend a Political Committee meeting of the Lusaka peace accord. The meeting of defence and foreign ministers of the signatories of the Lusaka accord is scheduled to start tomorrow.

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)-led assessment team, meanwhile, is preparing to leave for Kisangani in the middle of next month to assess the loss of life and damage caused by the recent fighting in that city, as requested by the Security Council in its last resolution on the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

**Secretary-General Meets with Colombian Senators

You'll see from the Secretary-General's programme that he's meeting this afternoon with members of the Colombian Senate's Human Rights Commission, including with its former President, Piedad Cordoba.

Ms. Cordoba was kidnapped in Colombia last year by paramilitaries. Under strong international pressure, including a statement issued her condemning her two-week captivity, she was finally released. However, continued threats against her and her family forced her to move to Canada.

We will have a statement attributable to the Spokesman in connection with this visit immediately after the meeting.

**Fact-finding Team Travels to Niger, Congo

Yesterday, a six-member team led by the United Nations Department of Disarmament Affairs, and including members of the Department of Political Affairs, began a mission to the Republic of the Congo -- that's, Congo-Brazzaville.

The mission, led by Joao Honwana, the Chief of the Disarmament Department's Conventional Arms Branch, will be in the country through this Friday, and will gather information on the future needs in the Congo for small-arms collection and the reintegration of former combatants. It will meet with the Foreign and Defence Ministers of the country, along with other senior officials.

Then, starting on Sunday, 30 July, the same team will travel to the Niger on a fact-finding mission, to assist the Government in developing a programme to retrieve and collect weapons. The mission will spend about two weeks in the Niger, meeting with the President, the Prime Minister and other senior officials before departing on 11 August.

The missions to both countries follow requests from the two Governments for United Nations assistance in weapons collection.

**Secretary-General Addresses International Civil Service Commission Anniversary Session

The Secretary-General should be opening the twenty-fifth anniversary session of the International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) about now, that’s in Conference Room 3. In his remarks to the Commission, which are available in my Office, he says that the United Nations cannot afford to be complacent in its search for qualified staff, and notes the broad effort under way to build a "stronger, more flexible and more dynamic international civil service".

**Conventions Signed

I have a couple of actions today on conventions, starting with Mauritania, which yesterday became the 100th nation to present the United Nations its instrument of ratification for the Convention against Anti-Personnel Landmines.

And then today, the Chargé d'affaires of the Bulgarian Mission will sign the International Convention on Arrest of Ships. Bulgaria will be the third country to sign this Convention. What is the arrest of ships? This maritime treaty provides a legal framework for the arrest of ships for maritime claims such as unpaid wages of crew and insurance claims. You learn something new every day.

**Payments

And finally, we're getting up there. We now have 104 Member States paid in full for the regular budget for the year 2000, that is with a payment by Angola of nearly $209,000.

So, that's all I have for you. It's a bit of a slow news day. Yes?

**Questions and Answers

Question: On the small arms collections for the Congo and the Niger. I don't recall anything like this being done for Sierra Leone. Has it been done, and, if not, do they anticipate ever doing anything like that?

Spokesman: I don't know if there ever were plans. I'm not aware that anything like that has happened in Sierra Leone. Let’s check with the Disarmament Department after the briefing and give you a specific response to your question. [Following the briefing, the Spokesman noted that United Nations technical assistance for weapons collection had come at the request of specific governments. In Sierra Leone’s case, the Lomé Peace Agreement envisioned a separate disarmament process.]

Question: Two questions, the first on Sierra Leone. I assume the United Nations is pleased to see that the disarmament process is slowly starting to resume. Is there anything you can say to that? And also, on the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the last you told us on Tuesday was that the first armed units could not deploy because the Government had said that they wouldn't quite be welcomed. What is the peacekeeping department or the Secretary-General doing to try to talk to the Government to reverse that decision? Is there any development on that?

Spokesman: No, I have -- on your second question -- I have nothing to report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo apart from what I said yesterday, that there had been high-level internal meetings assessing the overall situation there, where we have neither a peace process because of the failure of the Inter- Congolese dialogue, nor do we have the cooperation of the Government for the deployment of the peacekeeping mission approved by the Security Council.

On Sierra Leone, what was your question?

Question: Just what the sense is on these slow movements towards disarmament, demobilization and reintegration?

Spokesman: I think it’s still too early to attach great significance. I think our hope is that somehow the political basis could be rebuilt for a resumption of the implementation of the peace accord. So you could get the armed elements once again coming in, surrendering their weapons and so on. I don't think we yet have a clear-enough picture of the post-Foday Sankoh power arrangements in Sierra Leone. It's encouraging, I think, to see what appeared to be spontaneous steps towards disarmament by small numbers. And if this could pick up and turn significant, I think it would be very good for the peace process as a whole.

Question: When will the troops in Sierra Leone be increased?

Spokesman: It's a matter that the Security Council is still discussing, and as I mentioned, there's a second resolution concerning the United Nations Mission that's being discussed at the expert level. So you wait to see what comes out of the Council. The Council has not yet made a decision.

Thank you very much.

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