DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960409
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that the Secretary-General had met last night -- for the third time since returning from his Asia trip -- with Hans Corell, Under- Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and head of the United Nations team in the talks with Iraq on the oil-for-food proposal. Ms. Foa indicated that Mr. Corell had thus kept the Secretary-General briefed on the progress of these talks, the third round of which started Monday.
The Secretary-General, she continued, remained optimistic as to the result of the discussions. He considered the outcome crucial because of the reports about the humanitarian situation in Iraq that he received from non- governmental organizations and United Nations agencies working there. The technical teams had held a meeting this morning and the delegations, headed by Mr. Corell on behalf of the United Nations and by Dr. Abdul Amir al-Anrabi on the Iraqi side, were meeting this afternoon.
The Secretary-General met this morning at 10:30 with the Permanent Representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Pak Gil Yon, who was there to pay a farewell call. The Secretary-General expressed his deep concern over the situation on the Korean peninsula and once again told Ambassador Pak that he was willing to offer his services as an "honest broker" if the two sides accepted such an intermediary. He also told him that he was ready to visit at any time. The Ambassador said he would convey the message to his Government.
The Secretary-General's other appointments for the day included a meeting at noon with a delegation from the leadership of the Anti-Defamation League, which would focus on the theme of international terrorism. At 4:30 p.m., he would meet with Dr. Klaus Schwab, President of the World Economic Forum, and at 5:30 p.m. he would receive the Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom, John Weston.
The Security Council was preparing a draft presidential statement on Liberia. In the document, the Council expressed its deep concern over the new outbreaks of fighting, stating that "unless Liberia's political leaders immediately show by both word and deed a reaffirmation of their commitment to the Abuja Agreement and fully honor their obligation to re-establish and maintain the cease-fire, they risk losing the support of the international community. The Council underscores the personal responsibility of Liberia's leaders in this regard". The Council called on Liberian leadership to work with the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG). Ms. Foa advised correspondents to "stay tuned" to Council
proceedings, as the adoption of the statement could be delayed by other matters such as the situation in Afghanistan. [The statement was adopted by the Council as document S/PRST/1996/16.]
Tomorrow, the Security Council would consider the Secretary-General's report on Liberia, issued last Friday. In the document the Secretary-General expressed his concern over the "rapidly deteriorating situation there, which could have "disastrous" consequences. The Secretary-General asked for "a lot more support" for the ECOMOG forces, Ms. Foa said.
The Spokesman's office was in contact this morning with the Special Representative for Liberia, Anthony Nyakyi, who said that the situation there "was a little bit calmer than yesterday, but still very, very tense", Ms. Foa said. In Monrovia, the ECOMOG forces seemed to be receiving support, and Mr. Nyakyi was hopeful that this would produce some results.
At present, the United Nations staff was in various locations, but at the moment "everyone is accounted for", the Spokesman said. There were about 40 people in the United Nations compound at present. Some 500 staff had taken shelter in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) offices, which were located right off the Mamba Point, she added. Evidently, there was a severe shortage of water and food. The staff of the World Food Programme (WFP) was taking food supplies out of their food warehouses in Monrovia and trying to ship them to Mamba Point, where many people were trapped. The food situation in the United States compound was also serious, the Spokesman added.
Large-scale looting had been going on, Ms. Foa said. The warehouse of the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) had been looted, as had been most of the offices of the humanitarian agencies. The office of the Humanitarian Coordination Office was broken into, she noted.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) stated that they had "about 100 people" in their office in Monrovia. Also, urban refugees and internally displaced people were taking shelter around their office. The UNHCR, Ms. Foa noted, was very concerned about how the situation would affect their repatriation programme, in accordance with the Abuja Accords of 1995, to relocate some 730,000 Liberian refugees in five neighbouring countries (Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria), which had already begun.
"Most of the agencies are putting a lot of hope into the reinforcement of ECOMOG", the Spokesman said.
This afternoon, she said, the Security Council would be discussing the situation in Afghanistan.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 9 April 1996
Today, Cote d'Ivoire became the fifty-first Member State this year to fulfil its treaty obligations by paying the sum of $222,000 to the United Nations, Ms. Foa announced, doffing a United Nations blue beret as she did so. Cote d'Ivoire's assessment was actually $108,770, but it paid more, making up for other postponed payments. However, the United Nations was still owed a total of $2.9 billion, of which $1.2 billion corresponded to the regular budget and $1.7 to the maintenance of peace-keeping operations.
Continuing, Ms. Foa read the following from a letter received from "Louis" in Riverside, California: "Considering their very small operating budget, the United Nations success in promoting humanitarian endeavours, such as promoting the environment, making peace, providing food, water, medicine where needed and promoting democracy where needed, is truly remarkable. Rational self-interest, not just humane concern, should influence the United States to do all we can to support the United Nations and help other countries prevent the suffering and strife caused by overpopulation, disease, poverty, war and environmental degradation. In the interest of building a cleaner, more sustainable world, I am sending you a check for $7."
The amount of the personal checks being sent to the United Nations corresponded to different groups' estimates of the United States' debt to the United Nations, and how much that corresponded to each inhabitant of the United States, the Spokesman continued. The United Nations Association of the United States had one estimate, the World Federalists had another, and "everyone's calculating on a different basis", depending on which amount of money was owed by the United States and whether contributions to other agencies were included.
Turning to the situation in Burundi, Ms. Foa said it was "incredibly tense", the worst in three months, and confrontations were spreading to areas previously untouched by the fighting. Violence had also resumed in some areas that had been calm for some time. In the week ending 3 April, well over 100 people were killed. According to estimates made by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), there were at least 55,000 newly displaced persons in the last two months, some 15,000 to 20,000 of them in the southern part of the country alone since the fighting ignited there.
The Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Lansana Kouyate, had been consulting with Member States as to "how we can best go about jamming the 'hate radio', which has really been pushing people" into confrontations and how best to implement the political aspects of resolution 1049. "Meanwhile", the Spokesman continued, "the United Nations has put a lot of its eggs in the basket" of the respected former President of the United Republic of Tanzania and African leader, Julius Nyerere, who would travel to Burundi on 11 April.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 9 April 1996
Tomorrow, the Chairman of the Sierra Leone Electoral Commission, James Jonah, would hold a press conference in room 226 at 11 a.m. on the recent elections in that country and other developments in the subregion.
The Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, Joseph Connor, would brief the high-level open-ended working group on the financial situation of the United Nations this afternoon in Conference Room 3, Ms. Foa told correspondents. It was to be a closed meeting. Mr. Connor would discuss, among other things, the cash-flow situation.
In response to numerous inquiries about Don "Tiny" Blackman, a 6'8" former American policeman weighing 328 pounds who volunteered to join the peace-keeping forces in the former Yugoslavia, he had now joined the International Police Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia and Herzegovina and "I'm sure he's doing very well", Ms. Foa said. Reports from Sarajevo also indicated that he had not lost any weight due to the "extremely greasy" local cuisine. There had been many inquiries about Mr. Blackman, whose photograph appeared in a local newspaper.
Last Sunday, Ms. Foa continued, 18 monitors from the United States arrived in Zagreb and tomorrow others were expected -- 14 from Portugal, 19 from Spain, 23 more from the United States and also the first German contingent of 85 (out of a pledged number of 140), which would arrive on 23 April in Zagreb. The IPTF now had 967 monitors deployed, which amounted to slightly over half (56 per cent) of the promised total of 1,721. "The IPTF has told us that they're now being given full access to the Central Prison of the Federation in Sarajevo, and Serb authorities are expected" to issue similar instructions, which would allow the IPTF free access to their prisons, Ms. Foa said.
A cable from the United Nations Transitional Administration of Eastern Slavonia (UNTAES) received today "starts off by saying that UNTAES is alive and kicking", Ms. Foa told correspondents. Last Sunday, an ecumenical service was held in Ilok and on 14 April a similar service would be held in Dalj. "These are among the first public activities initiated by UNTAES and they're designed to help develop the sense of community and cooperation in the area", the Spokesman said. The Ilok service was attended by more than a dozen ambassadors and by representatives of the Croatian government. The Transitional Administrator, Jacques Klein, read an Easter message from the Pope. A similar attendance was planned for the Orthodox ceremony on 14 April.
Now there were 200 civilian police deployed in Eastern Slavonia, out of the 600 mandated for that area, Ms. Foa continued. The UNTAES military headquarters was already in place in the Vukovar barracks.
On the World Chronicle programme at 2:30 p.m. today, the interviewee would be Francisco Jose Aguilar, Chairman of the Human Rights Committee.
Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 9 April 1996
Today, at 1 p.m. at the Turkish Mission, the host country agreement for the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) will be initialled by Dr. Wally N'Dow, Secretary-General of Habitat II, and the Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations, Huseyin Celem. The agreement was expected to be signed formally on 1 May. Further information could be obtained from Bill Hass, at extension 0353.
Would the Spokesman comment on the announcement made by the former Assistant Secretary-General who chaired the fortieth anniversary celebrations of the United Nations, Robert Muller, to run for the post of Secretary- General, on the platform of world government? a correspondent asked. Ms. Foa commented that the list of candidates seemed to be getting bigger all the time. She added that she had not heard of the announcement, nor was she aware "that people actually ran for this job". It must be, she added, "the crummiest job in the world, or at least one that I would not want".
A correspondent said that the Secretary-General's article yesterday in The New York Times said a thousand posts had to be cut, whereas Mr. Connor had said very clearly the other day that only 800 jobs were to be cut. Which was the real number? Ms. Foa replied "Some 200 jobs had already been emptied, so we were working with that empty figure, but now an additional 800 posts will have to be cut. Obviously, we are still hoping to do things by attrition and buy-outs, if there's enough money for that, but in order to get within the budget the United Nations will have to decrease staff by at least a thousand".
The Secretary-General said in his report that he hoped support for ECOMOG would be forthcoming, a correspondent said. Was there a United Nations estimate as to how much support was needed? Ms. Foa said that the biggest need was for vehicles and transportation in general and "we heard this morning that part of what was needed was being pledged" by the United States.
Could the Spokesman clarify the $4.40 and $7 estimates as calculations of the per capita of the United States debt to the United Nations, and why those checks could not go directly towards paying that debt? a correspondent asked. Ms. Foa said that according to Mr. Whitehead, from the United Nations Association of the United States, when the campaign was begun last year the United States debt to the United Nations was $1.2 billion and that amount was used to arrive at the estimate of $4.40 per person. The debt had since gone up. It was less clear where the $7 amount came from, but the World Federalists possibly calculated taking into account the sums the United States contributed to the voluntary agencies, and came up with a higher figure. "People are earmarking these checks towards the United States debt", but in fact the legal structure of the United Nations did not permit that without the acquiescence of Member States. The whole question would be resolved next week, Ms. Foa said.
Daily Press Briefing - 6 - 9 April 1996
In 1993, Robert Kaplan wrote an extremely interesting story in the Atlantic Monthly predicting the coming anarchy in Africa, a correspondent said. After the breakdown in Nigeria, Liberia, Burundi, was there anyone within the United Nations that could analyse the root causes of that friction, either from peace-keeping operations, or perhaps their "lessons learned" unit? Several people were working on that subject, Ms. Foa said, adding that it was perhaps a good time to do a separate briefing to discuss that issue, which was a complex one.
The Secretary-General remained optimistic on the food-for-oil talks and was receiving reports from non-governmental organizations and other aid agencies in Iraq, a correspondent said. Were there more details on that? Ms. Foa said the reports, which would be updated this week for correspondents, detailed the disturbing humanitarian situation in that country, and in that sense the Secretary-General was reaffirming his desire for an agreement. The whole humanitarian situation in Iraq "cannot be allowed to continue", Ms. Foa said.
In answer to a question on the interview this morning between the Secretary-General and the Permanent Representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Ms. Foa said that the whole situation of the Korean peninsula had been discussed, and "once again the Secretary-General offered his services as what we call an honest broker, if the two sides need someone to help them out".
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