DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960410
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 with a delegation from the Congress of Racial Equality at 10:30 a.m. to discuss the situation in Liberia.
At 11:15 a.m., he met with Vice-Prime Minister Ivan F. Kouras of Ukraine. Their talks focused on the Chernobyl issue -- 26 April being the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Currently, an international conference on "One Decade After Chernobyl" was taking place in Vienna from 9 to 12 April. A message from the Secretary-General was delivered to the Conference on Tuesday by Hans Blix, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The text of the message was available in the Spokesman's office and would be issued later today as press release SG/SM/5952, she noted.
Continuing with the schedule, she said that at noon the Secretary- General was meeting with General Klaus Naumann, Chairman of the Military Committee of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Their topic was cooperation among the Implementation Force (IFOR), NATO and the United Nations. He was also scheduled to meet with Ambassador Sergey Lavrov of the Russian Federation at 12:30 p.m. At 4:30 p.m. he would meet with the leader of the British Labour Party, Anthony Blair.
On Thursday, she continued, the Secretary-General would be inaugurating the Ralph Bunche Center at Howard University. On that occasion he would deliver a lecture on the work of Mr. Bunche and his considerable contribution to the United Nations.
Turning to the situation in Liberia, Ms. Foa said that word had been received from the Secretary-General's Special Representative Anthony B. Nyakyi that the situation in Monrovia was still quite tense. A "tentative" cease- fire had been reached yesterday, but it remained to be seen how it would work out. Evidently, not all the forces were totally abiding by the agreement. Explosions and sporadic gunfire could still be heard in the city.
She said that the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) had increased its strength in central Monrovia and had created a buffer zone between the factions at the Barclay Army Training Centre, which was helping the situation quite a bit. Contrary to previous reports, no United Nations personnel had been evacuated. The staff member who had been reported as evacuated yesterday had actually made a quick trip to Sierra Leone to make arrangements for United Nations aircraft. There were no
current plans to evacuate anyone. There were still some 40 United Nations staff members in the main compound. About 70 United Nations military observers were based in Monrovia and another 20 in other parts of the country. They were remaining in their compounds. Staff was scattered at various locations in the city, but all had been reported safe and accounted for.
Mr. Nyakyi also said that the looting was continuing and that the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) had lost a number of vehicles and considerable communications equipment -- a loss the Organization could ill- afford.
Ms. Foa said that, according to information from the World Food Programme (WFP), an attempt yesterday to move food by ship from its warehouse in central Monrovia to Mamba Point had fallen through due to the lack of small boats at the Point to off-load the supplies. An effort to make a deal with the factions to escort trucks to Mamba Point was delayed at least another day, after scouts, who were sent to examine the road route, were fired upon. Some 15,000 to 20,000 Liberians were in the United States and United Nations compounds on Mamba Point and the food and water situation was becoming increasingly more difficult.
The Security Council was expected to take up the Secretary-General's three-month progress report of 1 April on Liberia (document S/1996/232) in its morning consultations, she said. The report was not optimistic in its observations about the difficult situation in the country.
On a happier note, Ms. Foa doffed her borrowed hat to Cyprus, which became the fifty-second Member State to pay its 1996 budget assessment in full -- $326,311. The bad news was that the Organization was still owed $2.9 billion ($1.2 billion for regular budget and $1.7 billion for peace-keeping). Another bit of happy news had Guatemala removing itself from the list of countries under the restrictions of Article 19, where a country with more than two years of arrears was prevented from participating in all General Assembly activities. Only 30 countries remained under Article 19.
On Nigeria, Ms. Foa announced that the United Nations fact-finding mission had concluded its visit to Oganiland and was currently in Abuja. The Mission arrived in Nigeria on 28 March and had already travelled to several cities in the north, east and west of the country. It had met with Government officials, politicians and labour leaders. In accordance with its mandate, the Mission was addressing the trial and execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa as well as the plans of the Nigerian Government to restore democratic rule. The Mission was expected to conclude its work in Nigeria by 12 April and subsequently return to New York to report to the Secretary-General.
Also today, she added that the Security Council was taking up the Secretary-General's monthly progress report on Angola (document S/1996/248 and
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 10 April 1996
Add.1) dated 8 April. As of yesterday, 18,512 National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) troops had been quartered. On the Government side, 3,348 rapid reaction police had been quartered.
On the situation in Western Sahara, she said Acting Special Representative Eric Jensen was continuing consultations with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) and the Moroccan Government on the question of the resumption of the identification process, which had been at a standstill for quite some time. In the meantime, the Identification Commission was being downsized. Staff members whose contracts had expired at the end of March were not being renewed. The Commission had diminished from about 90 to about 60 staff members. She reminded correspondents that on 31 January the Security Council had asked the Secretary-General to report by 15 May on the options for the future of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO). Consultations on the matter were currently under way at Headquarters. The mandate of the Mission expires on 31 May.
She also mentioned to correspondents that on Thursday, in Cairo, the "Pelindaba Treaty", creating an African Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone, would be signed. It was the fourth such zone to be created -- others having been established in Antarctica, Latin America and the Caribbean, and in the South Pacific. Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva and Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, would represent the Secretary-General at the signing. Mr. Blix of the IAEA would also be present. The Treaty was the result of 31 years of negotiations. It was hoped that it would be signed by 53 African States, thus creating a zone which banned the possession of nuclear arms, conducting of nuclear tests and the storage of nuclear waste.
On other housekeeping matters, Ms. Foa noted that the report on Afghanistan, which some correspondents had been unable to get on Tuesday, was now available (document A/50/908). It did not contain very encouraging news. The Secretary-General states that the humanitarian situation was getting worse and people who had not been previously affected were now suffering the effects of the conflict. The military option still seemed to be the course of action preferred by the main warring parties.
She went on to say that the Secretary-General had written two letters to leaders of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea -- one to Kim Jong Il and the other to Minister for Foreign Affairs Kim Yong Nam. He had asked Ambassador Pak Gil Yon, who had paid a farewell visit on Tuesday, to deliver the letters. In them, the Secretary-General once again expresses his concern over the deterioration of the situation on the Korean peninsula and offers his good offices to help mediate.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 10 April 1996
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, she said that High Representative Carl Bildt had invited the Bosnian Serbs to the donor meeting in Brussels this week. The Bosnian Serbs had transferred their prisoners to Pale, where they could be monitored by the International Police Task Force (IPTF). Meanwhile, 17 representatives from 17 countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference began a meeting today in Sarajevo to discuss their contribution to the reconstruction of Bosnia. The international community had so far pledged $600 million for that purpose. The organizers of the Brussels meeting hoped to raise another $1.2 billion.
Also on Bosnia, she said the IPTF was focusing on getting rid of checkpoints. Throwing up checkpoints and ripping people off as they moved from one town to another was a violation of the Dayton Agreement. Because of the efforts of the IPTF, there had been a drop in the number of such checkpoints. The IPTF did not give approval to any checkpoint established in a fixed location for more than 30 minutes. The parties had recently given assurances to the IPTF that they would abide by that policy.
Ms. Foa announced that John Whitehead, head of the United Nations Association for the United States (UNA/USA), would hold a press conference at 11:15 a.m. Thursday in room 226, sponsored by the United States, to report on its latest United States public opinion polling data concerning the United Nations.
She added that the "oil-for-food" talks between the Iraq and the United Nations delegations were postponed this morning until noon, since the technical experts had burned the midnight oil until late last night. Time was needed this morning to go over the points examined in the late night session.
To a question about the number of checkpoints in Bosnia, Ms. Foa replied that she would check on that information.
A correspondent noted that the Afghanistan report was in fact "available downstairs" yesterday, but there had been no personnel available to deliver it to the third floor. Adding that he had heard that due to staff cutbacks they were "completely swamped" down in the documents area, he asked if Benon Sevan, Assistant Secretary-General for Conference and Support Services, had any estimates on the costs involved.
Ms. Foa said the various departments were being asked now to give a better idea of what kind of services they would no longer be able to provide because of the cutbacks. Most departments were still trying to maintain services by having staff work longer hours, in conditions of increasing stress. The point was now being reached where the level of services would be falling. An attempt would be made on almost a daily basis to announce what services would have to be dropped. Unfortunately, documentation was a very labour-intensive operation and would be one of the hardest hit areas.
Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 10 April 1996
Following up, the correspondent asked if Mr. Sevan could give the basis on which it was decided to decrease the number of documents made available. He added that delegations were finding it increasingly difficult to get copies of documents, particularly ones that were critical of the work of Mr. Sevan's office.
Ms. Foa pointed out that more than a month ago Mr. Sevan had stated that only a single copy would be given out to each mission, where multiple numbers had been previously available. A savings of $200,000 could be realized this year just by cutting back on the number of copies of documents. She added that she would inquire as to the basis for Mr. Sevan's decision.
The Spokesman's office was also being hit quite hard, she added. They were trying to keep up with normal activities, but it was a problem in keeping up with such areas as filing, week-end duty rosters and lid lists. Each area would have to be evaluated.
The correspondent cited the example of one office that, due to a lack of document copies, had to utilize one staff member full time to down-load documents from the optical disk. Was such a use of labour cost effective in comparison to the savings on documents?
Ms. Foa acknowledged that down-loading from the disk was very labour intensive. She said that the Organization was still in the initial phase of identifying where staff was no longer available to perform certain tasks. The full impact had not as yet been felt.
* *** *