Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19990106
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, said at the start of today's noon briefing, "12:04 p.m. -- that's a marginal improvement over yesterday", referring to his New Year's resolution to start the briefing on time. He then said that all of the correspondents must have seen the story in The Washington Post today stating that the Secretary-General was suspicious that the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) had assisted United States intelligence efforts in Iraq.
The Spokesman reminded correspondents that the Secretary-General had no operational oversight responsibility for UNSCOM. That was the job of the Security Council, as UNSCOM was a subsidiary body of the Council. The Secretary-General, therefore, had little detailed information about day-to-day operations. He had been aware for some weeks, however, that a number of journalists had been pursuing that story. When he first heard the allegations, he asked UNSCOM's Executive Chairman, Richard Butler, about them, and Ambassador Butler had categorically denied them.
"We not only have no convincing evidence of these allegations, we have no evidence of any kind; we have only rumours", the Spokesman said. Neither the Secretary-General nor any member of his staff had access to classified United States intelligence, although UNSCOM does. "The Secretary-General therefore rejects the characterization of his state of mind attributed to so- called confidants, such as that he is convinced of things, that he is aware of facts, and so on", he said.
Obviously, if those charges were true, the Spokesman continued, that would be damaging to the United Nations disarmament work in Iraq and elsewhere. Finally, The Washington Post states that the Secretary-General was trying to pressure Richard Butler to resign. That was not so. In any case, the issue was not the Executive Chairman, but how to get on with the work of disarming Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction.
Yesterday, said Mr. Eckhard, the Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, Hans Corell, sent an aide memoire to the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations concerning the Iraqi request to replace British and United States nationals working for the United Nations humanitarian programme in Iraq. Mr. Corell had stressed in his reply that it was the responsibility of the Iraqi Government, under the relevant international instruments, to ensure the safety and security of all United Nations humanitarian personnel in Iraq. Recalling the relevant provisions of the United Nations Charter, Mr. Corell also made it clear that the United Nations Secretariat was not in a position to accede to the Iraqi request to replace the personnel in question on grounds of their nationality.
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Asked if the Secretary-General felt a further need to address the United Nations press corps directly about the rumours raised by The Washington Post, the Spokesman said that no, all the Secretary-General had to say had just been said by his Spokesman.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 6 January 1999
Did John Ruggie and/or Andrew Mack ask various United States Government officials, including Assistant Secretary of State, Martin Indyk, about those allegations and, if so, what they were told? another correspondent asked.
Mr. Eckhard said he could not confirm that and did not, in fact, know. Andrew Mack, to whom the correspondent referred, was the head of the Secretary-General's strategic policy unit, and John Ruggie was an Assistant Secretary-General on his staff. They have coordinated efforts on the 38th floor to gather information on Iraq for the Secretary-General, but he did not know with whom they might have spoken or what might have been said.
Another correspondent asked the Spokesman to elaborate on his statement that UNSCOM, and not the United Nations, had access to United States intelligence. Mr. Eckhard referred to the statement made to the press at 11:30 a.m. by Mr. Butler, who had addressed that question directly. In the Spokesman's own statement, he had said that when the Secretary-General had asked Ambassador Butler about those allegations, he had categorically denied them. Mr. Eckhard understood that he did so today as well.
Even if those allegations were never proved, another correspondent asked how damaging those could be to UNSCOM and to United Nations disarmament efforts?
Mr. Eckhard said it was not just about Iraq, but about the United Nations disarmament efforts worldwide, whose credibility rested on its ability to maintain integrity, impartiality and professionalism in its work. That was what the Secretary-General expected of all Secretariat members, and any deviation from that was damaging to the United Nations.
To a question about what the Secretary-General planned to do about those allegations and about UNSCOM in this strangely quiet time devoid of any weapons inspections, the Spokesman said there had been a question yesterday about the strangely quiet time. The matter was in the hands of the Council. On UNSCOM, the Secretary-General had contacts with Mr. Butler as recently as this morning and he tried to stay in touch with UNSCOM's work, which at the moment was suspended in Iraq. Essentially, he was waiting for the Council to deal with the matter and he did not have much leeway.
Did the Secretary-General believe that UNSCOM needed to be reshaped? the correspondent asked in a follow-up question. Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary- General was of the opinion that "Iraq needs to be disarmed of its weapons of mass destruction". That was the priority, and the question now was how best to do that. That was the question that was before the Council.
The Spokesman said there was no discussion of replacing Mr. Butler, in response to a question about whether the Secretary-General had met with any potential candidates in recent days for Mr. Butler's position. There were no candidates and therefore the Secretary-General had not met with any, he added.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 6 January 1999
Asked about the procedure for replacing UNSCOM's Executive Chairman, the Spokesman said that Security Council resolution 687 (1991) requesting the Secretary-General to establish the Special Commission had also called for an Executive Chairman and a Deputy. The Secretary-General "fleshed out" that idea and made a proposal to the Council, which it accepted. Thus, the Commission had come into being. There was no discussion in any document of a replacement. The Secretary-General had a kind of administrative function in appointing the Executive Chairman, but he would do that only after informal consultations with all Council members.
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As one correspondent understood it, the bones of The Washington Post article was that something was going on in the United States Government, which Mr. Ruggie and Mr. Mack were attempting to find out from United States officials. Was the Secretary-General satisfied that nothing "untoward" had happened, or was he still trying to find out what happened? he asked.
The Spokesman said he would have to stick with the statement he made earlier at the briefing. The Secretary-General had no evidence of any kind that UNSCOM had assisted United States intelligence -- had no evidence, whatsoever.
To a follow-up question, Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had discussed the allegations with Mr. Butler, but he did not know whether he had also discussed the matter with Rolf Ekeus, Mr. Butler's predecessor as UNSCOM's Executive Chairman.
Had Mr. Annan spoken with United States officials at any level about the topic? another correspondent asked. The Spokesman said the Secretary-General had received some telephone calls in the last few days, but he was not authorized to say who that was from.
Referring to the profile story in the New Yorker magazine on former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter, in which Mr. Ritter said he had met regularly with Israeli and United States intelligence agents, a correspondent asked if there had been a reaction to that disclosure and a sense that UNSCOM's neutrality had been transcended.
Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 6 January 1999
No, said the Spokesman, because the Council had called on all Member States to assist UNSCOM in its work. UNSCOM had said that it had consulted with intelligence agencies -- not just of those two Governments -- but of a number of Governments as part of its efforts to "break the back of this job that should have been completed in three to six months, and instead has gone on for eight years", he said.
Was anybody prepared to say where the rumours had come from --Baghdad or Washington? another correspondent asked. The Spokesman referred the correspondent to the journalists, adding that calls were received from journalists on the 38th floor and not just on the 3rd floor. The Secretary- General was aware that a couple of different newspapers were exploring that hypothesis because the journalists working on the stories were calling in and asking questions. That was what raised the matter in his mind. He then asked Mr. Butler what he knew and what he thought of it, and the Executive Chairman had denied the truth of those rumours.
To a question about whether there was any brainstorming taking place on the 38th floor about restructuring UNSCOM and resuming weapons inspections, the Spokesman was unaware of such sessions. He added that any change in the existing structure of UNSCOM would be for the Council to discuss, decide and approve.
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