DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960531
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by telling correspondents that the United Nations Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, Jacques Klein, was still briefing the Security Council. "If he comes out we will immediately bring him here, otherwise he has promised to meet you at the stakeout position, outside the Security Council", she said.
The Secretary-General was in Ankara meeting with Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, Ms. Foa said. "We do not have a read-out of that meeting yet but one of the items on the agenda was thanking Turkey for its contributions to the United Nations system, particularly to peace-keeping operations", she said. Turkey was a founding Member of the United Nations and it currently had troops or observers in five operations: in Georgia, The former Republic of Macedonia, Eastern Slavonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and at the Iraq-Kuwait border. "Other topics that we expect to come up are Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia", Ms. Foa added.
The Secretary-General would meet with the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community, Rauf Denktash in Istanbul on 5 June, Ms. Foa announced. In addition, he would meet with Glafcos Clerides, Cypriot President, in Geneva on 11 June. At both meetings he would be accompanied by his new Special Envoy Han Sung-Joo.
Yesterday, the Secretary-General had held a meeting with Turkish President Suleyman Demirel, Ms. Foa said. He had expressed his hope that the "oil-for-food" agreement, signed between the United Nations and Iraq, last week would help "overcome the crisis of confidence between Iraq and members of the Security Council". The President had said that his country was urging Iraq to implement the other relevant Security Council resolutions so that it might rejoin the international community. He had also called the "oil-for- food" deal "a step in the right direction" because it was aimed at alleviating the suffering of the Iraqi people.
The Secretary-General was sending cables to both, Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel's Prime Minister Shimon Peres, Ms. Foa announced. The cable for Mr. Netanyahu was for his electoral victory. The cable for Mr. Peres was "one of friendship". "I do not yet have these cables", she added.
The Security Council had voted on Liberia today, Ms. Foa said. "We will keep a token force in place", she said adding that there were currently six United Nations military observers in Monrovia, another nine on stand-by in Freetown, and 10 support staff. The current staffing level was 25. Today, people on the ground had said that the cease-fire was holding. The Economic
Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) had continued to strengthen its presence throughout Monrovia and the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) was reporting that "over the last few days, between 1,200 and 1,400 NPFL fighters and about 400 to 500 [United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy] ULIMO-J fighters had withdrawn from Monrovia", Ms. Foa said, adding that "we are afraid that they have left many of their weapons behind in the city".
The situation in Monrovia appeared to be more stable, Ms. Foa said. People were returning to their homes. However, there were new markets around the city. Those markets were of looted goods which were run by what people there were calling "a new breed of fighter businessmen", she said. There were also reports of fighting in Greenville and Tubmanburg. "We still have a long way to go there", she added.
Ms. Foa announced that Eritrea had become the sixty-sixth Member State to pay in full its 1996 regular budget assessment with a check for $108,770. On a related issue, Ms. Foa said, her office had received a very nice letter from London by the Medical Mission Sisters. They had sent a check for $500 as a "token of our appreciation for the work of the United Nations especially in regards to health and the well-being of people and the planet", Ms. Foa said.
On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, "Dreamworks SKG" and "Peacemaker Productions" would be filming several segments on Tudor City and on First Avenue between 42nd and 49th Streets, Ms. Foa said. It would be an action film, currently entitled, "The Peacemaker". The flags of the United Nations Member States would be hoisted along First Avenue throughout the weekend. The production company was paying for the overtime costs. United Nations staff and tourists could cross First Avenue in between active filming while vehicles could enter on 49th Street. The movie was directed by Mimi Leader who was the award-winning dramatic television director of E.R., L.A. Law and China Beach. The movie was produced by Branko Lustic of Schindlers List. "It stars George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, and is the first full-length motion picture released by Dreamworks, the studio headed by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen", Ms. Foa said.
In response to inquiries made yesterday on the matter, Ms. Foa said that according to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as of today, there were 101 human rights field officers on the ground in Rwanda. "It is a high number for us", she added. Forty-six had come from the Centre for Human Rights, 44 were United Nations Volunteers and 11 had been provided by the European Union. As of Monday, the number of staff would be 110 because an additional nine European monitors from the European Union would be arriving. The United Nations had always felt that the absolute minimum human rights field officers should be 120. However, "We have never had a secure and predictable source of funding and this has seriously impeded the work of the human rights operations in Rwanda", Ms. Foa said. The operation was funded by voluntary contributions
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 31 May 1996
of this year's estimated operating costs of $8.5 million, $5 million was still to be collected in order to keep 120 monitors on the ground.
There was a consolidated inter-agency appeal from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) for $101 million for humanitarian assistance programmes in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, Ms. Foa said. "They need these funds desperately for projects to address the most urgent humanitarian needs of refugees, internally displaced and other vulnerable groups", she said. Only 60 per cent of the total needs for the Caucasus had been met last year and they were hoping to get enough money to run the programme which would go through May 1997. (See Press Release IHA/597.)
Ms. Foa announced that new stamps had been issued on the theme "City Summit" for Habitat II. They came in denominations of 32 cents, 70 Swiss centimes and 6 shillings. Those interested in buying the first issues should go to the General Assembly building since, due to the financial crisis, there would be no United Nations Postal Administration sales counters in the Secretariat building until further notice.
Today, it was "World No-Tobacco Day", Ms. Foa announced. "Please keep it in mind throughout the day", she added. Kits by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the matter were available on the racks on the third floor of the Secretariat building.
A correspondent asked for more information on the alleged fraud by a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) staff member. Ms. Foa said about $200,000 had been identified already, but the figure could go up to as much a $500,000. "The investigation is just beginning at the moment and the staff member has been on sick leave for several weeks", she said. Under United Nations rules, a staff member on sick leave could not be suspended until that leave was over. Karl T. Paschke, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, had arrived last night in Geneva to look into the problem. It was being referred to as "a case of presumptive fraud in the form of forgery and embezzlement of funds", the Spokesman continued. The UNCTAD had already made it very clear that it intended to seek the return of those funds and it was going to the authorities in Switzerland to make a complaint. The staff member, alleged to be responsible for the fraud, was a United States citizen.
Was there any agreement between the Government of Rwanda and the United Nations in regards to the human rights monitors? a correspondent asked. Ms. Foa replied that there was an agreement which mandated the United Nations to monitor the human rights situation there. "These people will be given support by the new United Nations office in Rwanda called UNOR", she continued.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 31 May 1996
A correspondent asked about the United Nations mission heading to Zaire and on the situation of the 3,000 surrounded Tutsis there. Ms. Foa replied, "We heard this morning that the mission had arrived in Kinshasa but we have had no communications with them yet." She added that they would call home as soon as possible since they knew the United Nations was interested in hearing from them.
In response to the many questions posed on the Sanctions Committee, Ms. Foa said, "They are still working informally on the draft procedures and we do not expect to have a formal meeting because of the complexity and the technical nature of the draft procedures that they are going over." The earliest a formal meeting would take place was at the end of next week. "It is a daunting task", she added.
When did she expect to receive the cables sent by the Secretary-General to Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Peres? a correspondent asked. Since the Secretary- General was in Turkey, and was holding several meetings, "things were very slow", Ms. Foa replied.
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