DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960528
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that there was good news since the sixty-fourth and the sixty-fifth Member States had paid in full their 1996 budget assessments. The first was Andorra which had paid $108,770. The second, Japan, had paid $167,886,832. Ms. Foa took her hat off to both, and said that for the first time since she became the Secretary-General's Spokesman, "what is owed to the regular budget has hit the nice round figure of $1 billion". However, since $1.7 billion was still owed to peace-keeping, the total owed was $2.7 billion.
The Secretary-General had left New York this morning to go to Geneva, Ms. Foa announced. On Thursday, 30 May, he would open the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Conference. Ministers from 12 CIS countries as well as about 48 from other countries would be represented at the Conference. They would discuss migration problems caused by the disintegration of the former Soviet Union. The Conference was expected to adopt a set of principles guaranteeing freedom of movement, respect for minorities, a humanitarian code and respect for human rights.
In the CIS countries, displaced persons already numbered 9 million, Ms. Foa said. They were not people looking for better lives but people who had been forced from their homes with the break-up of the former Soviet Union. The Conference was being organized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
After Geneva, the Secretary-General would pay an official visit to Turkey, Ms. Foa announced. He would also be speaking at the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), which would start in Istanbul on 3 June.
On Friday, 24 May, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 661 (1990), which is monitoring the sanctions against Iraq began working on the draft procedures put together by the Secretariat for the implementation of Council resolution 986 (1995), Ms. Foa said. The Head of the Sanctions Branch of the Secretariat had been called in and had given a lot of background information. He had also explained certain provisions of the draft procedures. The Committee's Acting Chairman had expressed the hope that the Committee would take prompt action in adopting procedures. It was meeting informally today and tomorrow, and would hold a formal meeting on Thursday, she added.
The implementation of resolution 986 (1995) had four steps, Ms. Foa said. In the first, the Sanctions Committee, or 661 Committee, would produce the procedures. In the second, the monitors would be identified and put into place while in the third, the escrow account would be established. Finally, the distribution plan would be approved. "We are on step one of the four steps", the Spokesman said.
There was some more good news, Ms. Foa said. A Memorandum of Understanding on new stand-by arrangements for peace-keeping operations would be signed tomorrow, 29 May, at noon between the United Nations and the Government of Ghana. The signing would take place at the office of the Under- Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations, Kofi Annan. Ghana's Permanent Representative, Jacob B. Wilmot, would be signing for Ghana and Mr. Annan for the United Nations.
"This is the third Memorandum of Understanding signed between a Member State and the United Nations", Ms. Foa said. Jordan had been the first to do so in January 1995, while Denmark had signed in May 1995. Such Memorandums identified, in advance, the resources that a Member State would provide to United Nations peace-keeping operations. "The idea behind these stand-by arrangements is to enhance the planning and flexibility of the operations and to help them achieve cost-effectiveness." Stand-by arrangements had already been used in planning the peace-keeping missions in Eastern Slavonia and in Angola. "They work. And they save us a lot of time and money." As of today, 55 countries had officially expressed their willingness to participate in such arrangements. It would be wonderful if 55 countries were ready to provide the United Nations with the logistics, engineering knowledge, artillery, helicopters and mechanized units, Ms. Foa said.
The Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Mahmoud Mestiri, had resigned for health reasons, Ms. Foa said. The Secretary-General would be writing shortly to President Burhanuddin Rabbani of Afghanistan about the appointment of a new special envoy. Mr. Mestiri had planned to leave the region today. In the meantime, the staff of the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan, based in Jalalabad, were continuing the work of the Mission.
Today, the Security Council was expected to take up the Secretary- General's report recommending the extension of the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), which would expire at the end of this month, Ms. Foa said. According to reports from the field, Liberian factions were withdrawing their troops from central Monrovia in compliance with an ultimatum from the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG). The ECOMOG forces were continuing redeployment over most of Monrovia and were dismantling barricades and setting up checkpoints. Some shops had reopened thanks to the new security established by ECOMOG.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 28 May 1996
The Council would also take up the Secretary-General's report recommending a further extension of the mandate of the United Nations Preventive Deployment Force (UNPREDEP), Ms. Foa said. The Secretary-General was recommending an extension of six months at the current configuration of troops, she added.
Ms. Foa said the Secretary-General had written to the Security Council regarding the mission concerning the Bakassi Peninsula by his Special Envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi. In his letter, the Secretary-General stated that President Paul Biya of Cameroon would abide by any decision of the International Court of Justice and that Cameroon would welcome action by the United Nations, including a fact-finding mission to the region. "They are also suggesting military observers in the area", Ms. Foa added. At the same time, Nigeria's Head of State, General Sani Abacha, had recognized that a United Nations mission could help to calm the situation down. General Abacha had indicated that he would soon respond, in writing, on the situation in the Bakassi Peninsula. Furthermore, he had indicated his wish to find an amicable solution to the conflict in that Peninsula.
Less than one year after its establishment in Arusha, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda was going to hold its initial appearances, Ms. Foa announced. On 30 and 31 May, three accused, who had been detained in Zambia and then transferred to the Arusha detention facility, would appear before the Court. "Each one of the accused is indigent and therefore a defence counsel has been assigned by the Tribunal", Ms. Foa said.
On housekeeping matters, at 2 p.m. today at the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Club, the author of the Frozen Republic, Daniel Lazare would speak on whether "the United States Constitution allows the United States to have a coherent foreign policy or a coherent policy towards the United Nations". Tomorrow, 29 May, at 2 p.m., also at the UNCA Club, Yogesh Varhade of the AmbedKar Centre for Justice and Peace, would speak about "the 250 million poor untouched by the Commission for Social Development".
A correspondent asked what was the major difference between the existing stand-by forces, such as those in Nordic countries and the new arrangement. Ms. Foa said the existing stand-by arrangements were normally humanitarian. Some specified the number of nutritionists, water engineers, sanitation specialists, logistics experts, and so on, that the United Nations could call upon in 24 hours, or within 72 hours, in case of a humanitarian emergency. The new arrangement dealt solely with equipment and personnel for peace- keeping matters.
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