DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960501
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 was in Paris. At 3:15 p.m. local time he met with the Prime Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres; they had a tête-à-tête for 20 minutes. At 5 p.m. the Secretary-General was received by the President of France, Jacques Chirac; more information on those meetings would be forthcoming as soon as possible. The Secretary-General would be back at Headquarters by tomorrow.
This morning, another Member State had paid its assessment in full, Ms. Foa announced. The People's Republic of China was the fifty-sixth Member State, out of a total of 185, to comply with its Treaty obligations, with a cheque for $7,994,611. With China's payment, four of the five Permanent Members of the Security Council had paid their contributions in full. It was, she said, "the best news of the day".
Today was a historic day for the United Nations that "few of us will ever forget", Ms. Foa said, adding, "when we remember this day, our stone-cold bureaucratic hearts will give a little hippity-hop for decades and decades to come". Today, she said, the United Nations had received its first contribution from a rabbit. "Hopper" the rabbit, its mother Eliza and its grandparents in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, sent a note saying, "we are all better off knowing that the United Nations is there".
In Angola, in the last two days there had been a real upsurge in the number of soldiers from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) who were entering quartering sites and registering. Yesterday, 1,352 soldiers had registered; the day before, 949 had done so. Last Friday the number had been only 290 and the day before, just 189. The upsurge was due to the upcoming expiration of the mandate of the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) on 8 May. Ms. Foa said that the United Nations was very happy to see the increase in the quartering process in Angola.
As of the end of April, she continued, 26,169 UNITA soldiers were registered. The number of soldiers present in the quartering sites was actually 24,005. The gap between the two numbers represented those who deserted and 18 who had died of various illnesses. There were now 10 quartering sites, of a planned total of 15. On the Government side, 3,878 Rapid Reaction Police out of the declared strength of 3,977 were quartered in 8 cities. Ms. Foa added that "firmer commitments from both sides to the peace process and faster quartering of the soldiers" were needed, particularly on the UNITA side.
In Liberia, as correspondents were well aware, there had been fighting throughout the day, yesterday and today, Ms. Foa said. Reports indicated that the NPFL and the ULIMO-K had brought additional fighters into the city, and the factions were now deployed throughout the city. The shelling yesterday by NPFL of the Barclay Training Centre had since died down, but the fighting continued in other areas of the city, particularly around Executive Mansion.
The forces belong to the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) had suffered a number of casualties since the fighting flared up again on Monday afternoon, Ms. Foa continued. The Secretary-General's Special Representative to Liberia, Anthony Nyakyi, met with faction leader Charles Taylor yesterday and prevailed upon him to go along with a cease-fire and withdraw his fighters from the city; Taylor said that as long as the Krahn forces -- belonging to the rival faction -- remained deployed outside the camp, he would continued to take action against them.
"Our people on the ground there say that the situation in Monrovia is extremely tense", Ms. Foa continued. With the increased number of fighters in the city, the car hijackings, harassment of civilians and banditry had escalated. The United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) at the Riverview compound, where there were 41 United Nations staff members, "is on heightened alert", she said.
There was still no firm date for the resumption of the oil-for-food talks between the United Nations and Iraq, but correspondents would be kept informed, the Spokesman said.
Upcoming events for today in room 226 started with the press conference sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Finland, at 1:30 p.m. with the youth delegates to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, and also two adults, the Director of the North America Office of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Major Groups Focal Point for the Commission on Sustainable Development. At 4 p.m. today, the Canadian Minister for the Environment, Sergio Marchi, would hold a press conference after his statement at the Commission on Sustainable Development. At 5 p.m. today, there would be a signing ceremony of an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program. The ceremony, with United States Under-Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Timothy Wirth, and the British Secretary of State for the Environment, John Gummer, would take place in room 226 and a press conference would follow.
Tomorrow at 10:15 a.m., the Environment Commissioner for the European Union, Ritt Bjerregaard, would hold a press conference on sustainable development at the European Commission delegation, at 305 East 47 St., 12th floor. Also tomorrow at the UNCA Club, the outgoing president of the Security Council, Juan Somavia (Chile), would brief correspondents at 3 p.m. Ms. Foa reminded correspondents that China had taken over the presidency of the Security Council for the month of May.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 1 May 1996
Had contact been established with General Jacques Paul Klein -- Transitional Administrator of the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) -- in Vukovar, and would she ask if the Serbian exodus from Eastern Slavonia was proceeding well and how many Serbian exoduses were enough for the international community? a correspondent asked. "We're waiting for information from there", Ms. Foa said.
On the United Nations financial crisis, the Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, Joseph Connor, said that yesterday the United Nations had "zero cash". Had the combined contributions from China and the rabbit changed that situation? Did they cover expenses for even one day, or perhaps a few hours? a correspondent asked. "We didn't know about the rabbit", Ms. Foa replied, but China's contribution had been forecast. Basically, the money had been spent before the ink on the cheques had had a chance to dry. "At the United Nations, the cupboard is definitely bare" and its bank account balance was a series of zeroes. She added she would check on how much it cost to keep the United Nations running, per day or perhaps even per hour.
How much does China contribute to the United Nations? a correspondent asked. The amount paid today was China's assessment, just for the regular budget, Ms. Foa said. The amount for peace-keeping paid for by the five Permanent Members was much higher; the whole issue was of course related to the reform of the process of assessments. "The formula for assessments covers a long period of time, and there are countries that complain, saying they're assessed at too low a level. We're always glad to hear from those people, but it's up to the General Assembly to set up a new system."
Which of the Permanent Members of the Security Council had not paid its assessment to the United Nations? a correspondent asked. The United States, Ms. Foa replied.
What was the status of the jobs being vacated at the United Nations, mentioned by Mr. Connor at his briefing last Monday? a correspondent asked. "Because of the decrease in the programme budget, a total of about 1,000 jobs had to go. About 200 of them were left vacant in 1995, because we did get some early warning signs", Ms. Foa noted; this year, some 700 jobs have already been vacated, mostly through attrition or early retirement, and there were still about another 100 jobs to go.
Did the United Nations have a view, given its current financial crisis, on the Committee of the 24 (Special Committee on decolonization) spending $150,000 on a get-together in Papua New Guinea on decolonization, given that the people there are quite happy with their current status? a correspondent asked. The Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, who was present at the noon briefing, said that the "Committee of 24" had regularly carried out activities in areas where there were remaining dependent territories, like the
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 1 May 1996
Caribbean and the Western Pacific. These activities, he continued, were authorized by the General Assembly. The Committee made out a report to the General Assembly every year, setting out its programme of work for the following year; almost invariably the General Assembly said "fine, go ahead and do those things", and the necessary appropriations for the activities were included in the regular budget. There was a case last year, he noted, when the Committee held one of these regional seminars in Trinidad and Tobago, which attracted some attention from the media.
In the case of Papua New Guinea, he continued, "we in the Secretariat discussed with the Committee of 24 whether in the present financial circumstances it made sense for them to have a meeting in Papua New Guinea, to which they would fly a number of experts on decolonization matters, and whether members of the Committee and the Secretariat would themselves go, and the bureau considered this point of view but decided that the activity had been mandated by the General Assembly, that there budgetary provision for it in the 1996-1997 budget, and that they would therefore go ahead. This was public, there was a report by the Committee to the General Assembly, which recorded that some members of the Committee asked questions about the legitimacy of the Secretariat suggesting to them that they should not carry out mandated activities because of the financial crisis".
That sounded like a very elegant way of saying that the Secretariat thought that in the current financial crisis it was a bit stupid to spend $150,000 on going there, the correspondent said. "You know that the Secretariat would never use such language", Mr. Goulding replied.
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