In progress at UNHQ

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

25 April 1996



Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

19960425 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali had arrived in South Africa and would open the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) over the weekend. Tomorrow, he would travel to Pretoria, where he would be received by President Nelson Mandela and Deputy President F.W. de Klerk.

"The big excitement today is in the General Assembly", Ms Foa said, where a resolution on the Middle East had been introduced by Indonesia. The draft resolution was co-sponsored by a total of 25 countries, the 23 listed on the document plus Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

It was not certain whether the draft resolution would be adopted today "as there may be some financial implications", the Spokesman noted, which meant that it would have to be considered by the Fifth Committee and also by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ). The Fifth Committee had already taken up the draft resolution yesterday and was looking at it, she added.

The text of the draft resolution would ask the Secretary-General to dispatch a technical mission to Lebanon to study and prepare, in cooperation with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a report within one month on the human and material losses arising from the damages incurred in the recent fighting. Such a request could have financial implications, which would have to be authorized, Ms. Foa said.

In the Assembly plenary, there had been 51 speakers on the situation of the Middle East as of this morning, the Spokesman noted, including the President of Lebanon and the observer of the League of Arab States. Today, there were 11 speakers on the list, including the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Palestine.

A letter from the Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), transmitting the fifth report on the operations of the multinational Implementation Force of the Dayton Peace Accords (IFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina had been issued at Headquarters, as document S/1996/315. The letter stated that on April 18, which was referred to as "D+120", "a major milestone was passed in the implementation of the Bosnia Peace Agreement, and there is general satisfaction with the cooperation and compliance with the parties in implementing the military aspects of the peace agreement to date".

The Spokesman announced that the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Marrack Goulding, arrived in Bujumbura and was consulting with senior government officials and the leaders of the different political parties.

The Security Council had begun a formal session a few moments before the noon briefing; it would adopt presidential statements on both Georgia and Burundi, Ms. Foa said. On the question of Cyprus, which had come up yesterday, she confirmed that the Council was still considering the letter with the Secretary-General's recommendation for the new Special Representative for Cyprus.

From Liberia, reports from the staff in Monrovia received in the morning indicated that the security situation there continued to improve; the forces from the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) were now deployed around the Barclay Training Centre and had established a checkpoint at Mamba Point. All the hostages had been released from the Barclay Training Centre. "Taxis are on the streets and people are venturing out of their homes, and they seem to feel much more secure these days", the Spokesman said.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that four days ago they had at least 47 cases of cholera in Monrovia and were very worried about the prospect of the disease spreading even further. "This is a city of 1 million people, where the infrastructure, in particular the availability of clean water, has broken down", Ms. Foa said. The WHO was flying in more and more medical supplies, including rehydration salts, to the city.

The activities commemorating the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident began today at Headquarters, the Spokesman said. (See Note to Correspondents No. 5333). All correspondents were encouraged to attend these events.

Tomorrow, at 11:15 a.m., there would be a joint press conference by the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus and the United Nations, on the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl accident. The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Yasushi Akashi, would take part on behalf of the United Nations, she said.

Also today, at 2 p.m. at the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Club, the Chairman of the Democratic Party of Hong Kong, Martin Lee, would hold a press conference for correspondents on the perspectives of rule under China. Answering a question on the draft resolution before the General Assembly, Ms. Foa said that it had been tabled. A vote was possible either today or tomorrow; "they're still looking at the financial implications, because of the paragraph that asks the Secretary-General to send a technical mission". As stated above, the Fifth Committee already had the text and it might also have to be sent to the ACABQ, she noted.

Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 25 April 1996

Were the financial implications the only reason delaying the vote on the draft resolution? a correspondent asked. The Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Ahmad Fawzi, who was present at the briefing, said that there were two different positions at the General Assembly. One group of countries wanted to postpone the vote so that they could get back to their governments for consultations; that delay could take 24 hours, or longer. The other group, he said, wanted to vote today.

Was there any date for the resumption of the food-for-oil talks between Iraq and the United Nations? Monday, 6 May, was the first working day after the return of the Secretary-General from his trip to Africa, but it was too soon to say exactly when the next round would begin, the Spokesman said.

Was there an update of the financing of the United Nations Human Rights Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) and the International Civilian Mission to Haiti (MICIVIH)? a correspondent asked. The Secretary-General was working on that "right now, and we'll probably have something on that tomorrow", the Spokesman replied.

Ms. Foa noted that she had enjoyed spending a good part of the morning with the young daughters of correspondents and staff members, as it was "Take Our Daughters to Work Day".

* *** *

NOTE:On page 2 of yesterday's noon briefing notes, the last paragraph, referring to the indictment of General Dorde Djukic, should have read, "The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia announced ...".

For information media. Not an official record.