DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960408
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Ahmad Fawzi, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that the situation in Liberia had deteriorated significantly over the weekend. The decision to evacuate United Nations personnel had not yet been made, though most of the military observers had moved into the United States compound.
The United Nations offices in Liberia had not been looted, Mr. Fawzi said, contrary to preliminary reports to that effect, which had been checked. But the offices of other agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) had indeed been attacked over the weekend. "We have a skeletal staff" manning the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), he added.
The Secretary-General was extremely concerned over the situation and was monitoring the situation very closely. "We are in touch with both the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) and the authorities on the ground", in order to take the necessary security measures, Mr. Fawzi said.
At the present time, there were 233 United Nations personnel in Liberia, including UNOMIL and other relief agencies, comprising some 90 military observers and 60 civilian staff, both local and international. "As far as we know, at this time no one has been hurt", Mr. Fawzi said. Communications to Liberia had been briefly interrupted yesterday, but had been since restored.
"The Secretary-General appeals to the factions to desist from any further escalation of the situation and to work with ECOMOG in order to restore order in the city", Mr. Fawzi said.
The United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs had detected population movements, numbering in the thousands, in the areas where the fighting was taking place, Mr. Fawzi continued. The numbers include internally displaced people living in camps near the capital Monrovia and the areas under fire, but as yet it was too early to know if they needed assistance, once freedom of movement was re-established.
The third round of talks on the oil-for-food resolution for Iraq would start today at 3 p.m. Mr. Fawzi said. The Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, Hans Corell, would head the United Nations team and Dr. Abdul Amir Al-Anbari would head the Iraqi delegation. There would be a photo opportunity in front of the Guernica tapestry on the second floor at 3 p.m. The Secretary-General remained optimistic about the possibility of a favourable
outcome of the talks, which would greatly alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people.
The Secretary-General was back at United Nations Headquarters after concluding his visit to the Far East on Friday, Mr. Fawzi said. At 10:30 a.m. today he met with the current President of the Security Council, Juan Somavia, Permanent Representative of Chile. His schedule for the rest of the day included consultations and internal meetings.
The Secretary-General's progress report on Angola was released today as document S/1996/248. In his observations he stated that the progress achieved in the period covered by the report was "limited" and had not fulfilled the hopes generated by the recent meetings between Jonas Savimbi, of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. "Much remains to be done, to fulfil the tasks that the two sides had agreed to undertake, in accordance with the Lusaka Protocol", the report said. If the peace process was to reach a successful conclusion, the next few months "must be a period of dynamic and fundamental change in Angola, and this depends on the political will of the Angolan Government and UNITA".
On the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III), Mr. Fawzi informed correspondents that 214 soldiers from UNITA registered yesterday. Up to yesterday, the total number of registered UNITA soldiers was 19,922, of which 1,652 subsequently deserted. Somewhat less than 16,000 arms, mostly small weapons, had been handed in; six quartering sites were open and a seventh -- of a planned total of 15 -- would be ready soon. On the Government side, out of a declared strength of 3,504 Rapid Reaction Police personnel, 3,381 had been quartered. Angolan soldiers had been returning to their barracks throughout the country since late March, he noted.
India had today become the fiftieth nation to fulfil its treaty obligations, by paying its arrears in full, which amounted to $3,371,877, Mr. Fawzi said. He added that the updated list with the troop contributions of Member States to peace-keeping operations was available in the Spokesman's office.
The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) was sponsoring two press conferences in the next couple of days, Mr. Fawzi continued. Tomorrow, at 2:15 p.m., Dr. Cherif Bassouini, formerly chairman of the United Nations Commission of experts on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, would brief the press on the progress towards the creation of an international criminal court. On Wednesday at 2 p.m., Edvard Radzinsky, author of "The Last Czar", would talk to correspondents about his new book entitled "Stalin". Both briefings would be held at the UNCA Club.
A correspondent asked whether the Secretary-General, who offered his good offices to both Koreas some time ago, had been in touch with authorities
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 8 April 1996
from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (regarding the heightened tensions in the demilitarized zone last week). The Secretary-General just returned from the region where he was in contact with authorities from Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo. The situation of both Koreas was "very high in his agenda" during that trip. At the moment, all that could be said was that the Secretary-General was practising "what we call quiet diplomacy" in that area, Mr. Fawzi said.
In a follow-up question, the correspondent pointed out that, as described, the Secretary-General's trip to Asia had included contacts with Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo, but Pyongyang was not mentioned. Mr. Fawzi referred her to his previous answer, adding that quiet diplomacy, by its very nature, was confidential.
Would the Secretary-General be taking a higher profile in the new round of talks on the oil-for-food talks with Iraq? Mr. Fawzi responded that the Secretary-General had always taken "great interest" in these talks and would continue to do so. It was not anticipated at this stage that he would actually take part in the talks, but the Secretary-General was going to follow them extremely closely. It was his hope that a formula could be found that would allow for the distribution of food and medicine throughout the country and alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people.
Was there a summary of the Secretary-General's trip to Asia? a correspondent asked. A day-to-day summary could be obtained by picking up the Department of Public Information (DPI) press releases on the racks, Mr. Fawzi said.
In a reference to Mr. Boutros-Ghali's op-ed piece in today's The New York Times, a correspondent inquired as to whether that was the Secretary- General's answer to United States Permanent Representative Madeleine Albright's five-year plan to pay the United States' arrears? No, Mr. Fawzi replied, the Secretary-General was sounding the alarm to the international community that the Organization was on the verge of collapse, unless Member States fulfilled their treaty obligations and paid their dues.
Was the headline to the story written by the Secretary-General or was that done by the Times? the correspondent asked. Both the headline and the subhead were written by the Times, Mr. Fawzi said. Only the text was written by the Secretary-General. (The op-ed was entitled "The U.S. must pay its dues"; the subhead was "The U.N. has already been cut to the bone".) A correspondent asked why the Secretary-General was confronting the United States at a time when there were indications that Congress might be willing to approve some payment of the United States arrearage. Mr. Fawzi replied that the Secretary-General was not confronting anyone on that issue, he was stating the facts of the matter in an effort to underline the gravity of the United Nations financial crisis.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 8 April 1996
When would the Secretary-General be attending the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II)? a correspondent asked. Mr. Fawzi said the Secretary-General would attend the opening of the Conference (which would take place 3-14 June) and he would pay a short visit to Istanbul. The spokesman also noted that there had been a very good editorial today on the Habitat conference in The New York Times (entitled "The Megacity Summit").
What level of participation would the conference have? a correspondent asked. Mr. Fawzi said that the Conference would be at the ministerial level, with other city officials, such as mayors, represented.
A correspondent said that last week, the United States Senator and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jesse Helms, proposed a compromise to President Clinton on the payment of dues owed to the United Nations (suggesting that if some three separate departments within the Federal government involved in foreign policy merged with the State Department, the United States could then proceed to pay its arrears to the peace-keeping budget in full and practically all it owed to the normal budget as well). Was there any official comment on that idea, and why was the Secretary-General confronting the American public at the current time? The Secretary-General was "not confronting anyone", Mr. Fawzi said. "We are aware of that proposal", he said, but he was not in a position to comment on it specifically, as it was an internal matter regarding the foreign policy of the United States. Mr. Fawzi again referred correspondents to the op-ed article in The New York Times, urging them to disregard the headline and "read the piece on its own".
Basically, Mr. Fawzi continued, the Secretary-General was endeavouring to warn of the consequences of not fulfilling the obligations contained in the United Nations Charter. "The League of Nations failed before, and it took everyone by surprise", he recalled. The United Nations was on the verge of bankruptcy and would begin to run out of cash by June. If it did not replenish its cash supply by the end of the year, it would collapse. The Secretary-General was not confronting anybody, but was essentially telling the international community, "wake up, this is for real".
But this was not the first financial crisis the United Nations had faced, a correspondent commented. "It is the worst", Mr. Fawzi said.
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Note:In the fifth paragraph of the Daily Press Briefing of 4 April, the third sentence should read: Later he would visit Tsukuba University and the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention.