DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960607
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by informing correspondents that spokesmen from different ministries in the Netherlands were attending the briefing as visitors. "They are here to see what a hard time you give me. But I bet they get a much harder time", she said.
Soon after his arrival in Geneva, the Secretary-General had gone into a meeting with Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office In Geneva, to discuss the Conference on Disarmament, Ms. Foa said. He had heard about the progress made and had agreed that negotiations were at a critical stage. The Secretary-General had stated that there was an urgent need for Member States to demonstrate that they had the political will and the diplomatic skill, flexibility and determination to make the necessary compromises to achieve this historic treaty. "So, we are at a real critical stage with that treaty and everyone should show some flexibility", she said, adding "I have very little about his [the Secretary-General's] schedule today. He has not called home. Secretary-General, call home! But I understand he has a number of internal meetings."
Ms. Foa said a number of reports, including those on Cyprus, Haiti and Tajikistan "were coming up. Hopefully, we will have them by next week. They are all being finalized, I haven't gotten my hands on them yet." The report on Cyprus was due to the Security Council next week and related to the mandate of the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) which was to expire on 30 June. The report would also include an assessment of the Secretary-General's efforts towards reaching settlement of the situation in Cyprus. The report on Haiti had to do with the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH), which was also due to expire on 30 June. That report was due to the Council by 15 June, and would include information on activities by the United Nations system as a whole in the country. The report on Tajikistan concerned the mandate of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT), which was due to expire on 15 June. It would review UNMOT's operations and the progress being made towards reaching a comprehensive political settlement. As the correspondents were aware, the new Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Gerd Merrem, had taken up residence in Dushanbe "and having got a new cease-fire in Tajikistan, maybe he will even be able to make them stop shooting", she said.
The United Nations reconnaissance mission led by Raymond Sommereyns, a Director in the Department of Political Affairs, had arrived in Baghdad and had begun its work, Ms. Foa said. It was expected to return on the weekend of
15 June. The new Special Representative for Cyprus, Han Sung-Joo, would conclude his consultations at Headquarters today and would head to Geneva to join the Secretary-General for his meeting with Mr. Glafcos Clerides on 11 June.
Ms. Foa said that on 25 June the Secretary-General would address the Conference on Disarmament which is working to agree on a comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty.
Speaking on the reported death of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot, Ms. Foa said so far there had been no confirmation. However, "we have been asking. I had about 5,276 phone calls last night."
Stating that she had received several queries on a letter from the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the Secretary-General, Ms. Foa said the Secretary-General had indeed received a letter from him relating to the recent elections which had been undertaken by India in Kashmir. The letter had criticized the elections and had reiterated Pakistan's support for the Secretary-General's offer of good offices.
"Not such good news from Bosnia", Ms. Foa said, adding that Bogdan Jovanovic, a prominent member of the Serb Sarajevo Democratic Initiative which had been formed to encourage the Serbs of Sarajevo to stay in their homes or to return to the city, had been arrested yesterday by the Federation police on the suspicion of having committed war crimes. He had not been officially charged for those crimes yet and he was not among those who had been charged by the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia. "We feel that this arrest contravenes earlier understanding that such persons should not be detained. If they have not been charged by the Tribunal, they should not be arrested." The Deputy Police Commissioner of the International Police Task Force (IPTF) had been informed by the Federation police today that Mr. Jovanovic would be released. However, there was no confirmation yet that he had been released.
Ms. Foa informed correspondents that a very useful update on the use of sanctions under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter was now available as an informal note. "It will give you a bird's eye view of where we stand with the resolutions on sanctions. There had been nine such resolutions. The Security Council had invoked Chapter VII of the Charter nine times. The report gives you details of where the we stands with each of the nine and explains the 60-day and the 120-day reviews."
A monthly survey of troop contributions to peace-keeping operations was available, Ms. Foa said. Also available was the "itinerary" of the General Assembly. "Let me tell you, they are earning their living today. They were going to be doing a lot of work", she said. In addition, an update on the funding crisis operations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 7 June 1996
(UNHCR) in the Caucasus region could be found in the Spokesman's office. The UNHCR had been assisting about 250,000 refugees and displaced persons in Georgia and Azerbaijan and over 80,000 displaced persons from Chechnya, in the Russian Federation. The UNHCR was down to less than $10,000 for the operation in Azerbaijan and less than $20,000 for Georgia. "So they had got an appeal out. Pay your dues please."
Referring to the report of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) entitled The Progress of Nations, which records what is happening to the health, nutrition and education of children all over the world. Ms. Foa said "I know there has been some controversy over this. We apologize. This is available." The 1996 report specifically related to the death of 600,000 women each year in pregnancy and childbirth. "That means that 1,600 women, some in their teens, die every day during pregnancy or childbirth and most of these deaths are readily preventable."
At 2:45 p.m. today, in Conference Room 7, there would be a meeting on sustainable development in the Andean region in Latin America, Ms. Foa said. Juan Carlos Brandt, of the Spokesman's office, added that a group of senior Latin American officials would be participating in the meeting and would address the press.
When was the report on Haiti due? a correspondents asked. Ms. Foa said the report was due to the Council next week, but hopefully she would be able to get it earlier. "We have asked for some more information on this report because there are a lot of people who are interested."
A correspondent wanted to know why the Secretary-General had not addressed the Disarmament Conference now instead of going back to Geneva to do that on 25 June? "I think he has a pretty full schedule, this is the date they have given him", Ms. Foa said. Moreover, the Secretary-General had to be in the area for the "Group of Seven" summit meeting in Lyon, France.
The new Special Representative for Cyprus, Han Sung-Joo, would leave for Geneva tomorrow, Ms. Foa said in response to another question. A correspondent asked about a Security Council's planned visit to Haiti. Ms. Foa said she did not know. Mr. Brandt added that there were no plans for a mission by the Council for the time being, although some Member States might visit the country soon on a bilateral basis.
Another correspondent asked if there was a move afoot for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to move out of New York. Ms. Foa replied that "there are a lot of countries out there that would like to host the United Nations. I know, for instance, that the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) is now moving to Bonn. There were a lot of invitations out. But I haven't heard anything specific or anything final." There had been a lot of talk and a lot of United Nations agencies had been invited to set up their
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 7 June 1996
headquarters in other places. "As a cost measure that might be interesting", she said. Addressing the spokesmen from Netherlands, Ms. Foa asked "are you guys going to invite the United Nations to set up any of their agencies? It's about time. I don't remember seeing any invitations from the Netherlands. We are pretty popular, we are such nice people." She added "you already have the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the War Crimes Tribunal. So you have a couple, but we are popular people".
Responding to a question on the police in Sarajevo forcing Serbs out of their homes, Ms. Foa said there were a lot of reports coming out of Sarajevo. She said she did not have anything new. There seemed to be quite a bit of lawlessness and people were ignoring the agreements that they had signed.
A correspondent asked if Mr. Han, the new Special Representative for Cyprus, had met any of the Permanent Representatives so far. Ms. Foa said he had seen some Permanent Representatives yesterday and he was scheduled to see quite a few people from the Security Council today. According to his schedule, he was to have met the Permanent Representative of the United States yesterday, and today he would be meeting with the representatives of the United Kingdom, Russian Federation, France and China.
"You won't have me to kick around for two weeks", Ms. Foa said as she concluded the briefing, adding "we are back into the 'while the cat's away department'. I will be gone. Will fly to any beach -- that's where I will be. I will call home every day, maybe. Don't let Ahmad [Fawzi, the Deputy Spokesman] off the hook".
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