In progress at UNHQ

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

18 June 1996



Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

19960618 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

At today's noon briefing, Ahmad Fawzi, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, updated correspondents on the injuries received by two United Nations peace-keepers and one Angolan civilian as a result of a mine accident in Malange, Angola, yesterday. One of the peace-keepers, Captain Poladura Fernandez from Uruguay, suffered multiple fractures and lacerations on the lower part of his legs. The other peace-keeper, Captain Ishtiaq Aslam, from Pakistan, suffered fragment injuries on his lower legs. The patients were evacuated yesterday to Luanda and then on to Pretoria, South Africa.

A programme officer from the United Nations central mine action office was investigating the incident, which occurred when a mine was accidentally hit during a demining school, Mr. Fawzi said. The danger of mines strewn all over the world was perhaps one of the most serious consequences of war in this century, he added.

The Secretary-General, who was still in Geneva, met today with the Permanent Representative of Nigeria, Ejoh Abuah, Mr. Fawzi said. Mr. Abuah invited the Secretary-General to participate in the 20 June meeting in Kara, Togo, between the Presidents of Nigeria and Cameroon to discuss the Bakassi peninsula problem. The Secretary-General would send Assistant Secretary- General for Political Affairs Lansana Kouyate to the meeting, he added. (It later transpired that the meeting had been cancelled.)

The Secretary-General had also met today with the President of the State Council and Canton of Geneva, Guy-Olivier Segond, Mr. Fawzi said. They had discussed the activities of various international organizations which were based in Geneva and the Secretary-General's 25 June meeting with the non- governmental organization ATD Fourth World. Later today (Geneva time), the Secretary-General had met with the Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Hazem El-Beblawi, who headed the team sent to Lebanon to assess human and material damages as a result of recent hostilities.

Mr. Fawzi said General Assembly resolution 50/22C of 25 April had requested the Secretary-General to study and prepare, in cooperation with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), a report on the losses and damages at Qana. The mission, which visited Lebanon from 27 May to 6 June, was made up of representatives from ESCWA; the Department for Development Support and Management Services; the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO);

the International Labour Organisation (ILO); the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF); and the World Health Organization (WHO). The Secretary-General would report to the Assembly on the implementation of that resolution, including the outcome of the study prepared by the technical mission.

The Deputy Spokesman then went on to give an overview of the Secretary- General's activities during the coming weeks. Tomorrow, he would start a three-day official visit to Germany, where he would meet senior government officials and open the new headquarters in Bonn of the United Nations Volunteers and of the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Next Monday, 24 June, he would meet, in Geneva, with the President of Kazakstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The Secretary-General's meeting next Tuesday, 25 June, with a delegation of ATD Fourth World was part of the observance in 1996 of the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty, Mr. Fawzi continued. That non- governmental organization worked throughout the world with people who lived in extreme poverty. The meeting would be attended by 35 people living in extreme poverty in communities in the United States, Europe, Philippines, Thailand, Peru, Haiti, Burkina Faso and Rwanda. The event had been organized at the request of ATD Fourth World to forge a partnership between the United Nations and the 1.3 billion people around the world who live in extreme poverty. (A press release on the forthcoming meeting was available in the Spokesman's office.)

The Deputy Spokesman said that on Wednesday, 27 June, the Secretary- General would chair the eighth series of talks on East Timor between the Foreign Minister of Portugal, Jaime Gama, and the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas. Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, Ismat Kittani would also participate in the talks. At the end of next week, the Secretary-General would travel to Lyon, France, to attend the Group of Seven summit meeting. He would participate in some of the summit sessions, including the one on development, which he would address on 29 June.

The Security Council held consultations on Somalia this morning, Mr. Fawzi continued. Council members were briefed by the Secretary-General's Special Political Adviser, Chinmaya Gharekhan, as part of his monthly report on conditions in that country. He addressed the question of the United Nations political office in Somalia, currently based in Nairobi, from where it continued to monitor the situation in Somalia. Efforts were being made to coordinate the peacemaking activities of the United Nations and regional organizations, such as the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the League of Arab States.

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Mogadishu seaport and airport remained closed and there had been fighting south of the capital with many casualties, Mr. Fawzi said. Two major towns, Baidoa and Kismayo, remained tense. However, Bosasso and the northern regions, as well as Hargeisa and Boroma, remained relatively calm. There were continuing problems with hostage taking, he said, adding that just before the briefing he was informed of an incident involving the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which yet again highlighted the dangers of working in areas of tension. Hostages were mainly taken for extortion and as a result of banditry.

The Deputy Spokesman said that despite the dangerous conditions, humanitarian assistance was continuing and 30 United Nations international staff were working in a number of cities throughout Somalia, except in Baidoa and Kismayo, which were off-limits for the time being. In those areas, aid was being provided by national staff with help from partner non-governmental organizations.

The Council had began discussing two letters, dated 13 and 17 June, received by the Secretary-General from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Mr. Fawzi said. The letters included the agreement on the limitation of armaments, which was reached in Florence, Italy, on 14 June, by the partners to the Dayton Agreement. The Council also had other matters to consider.

The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) had reached an important pledge yesterday by registering 50,165 soldiers in the quartering areas, Mr. Fawzi said. The UNITA had originally promised to quarter 50,000 troops by 15 June. The Angolan Government had fulfilled its promise to quarter its rapid reaction police by 11 June. Mr. Fawzi described yesterday's talks between the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, and UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi as "quite constructive". Mr. Beye said he was pleased with the progress in disarming the UNITA troops in 14 United Nations-supervised quartering areas.

The Secretary-General was pleased to announce that Cyprus had offered to make voluntary contributions to peace-keeping operations equivalent to one third of its assessed contributions for such operations from 1 January 1996, until the next adjustment to the regular budget scale of assessments, Mr. Fawzi said. Those voluntary contributions would amount to 0.002 per cent of assessments for the period. The Secretary-General had convened his sincere appreciation to the President of Cyprus for such a concrete gesture of support for the United Nations, he added.

On that note, beside a few trickles, here and there, for peace-keeping, there had been no new payments today to the regular budget, Mr. Fawzi continued. The United Nations debt was still $2.6 billion -- $.9 billion for the regular budget and $1.7 billion for peace-keeping operations.

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According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), food in the Liberian capital of Monrovia was becoming very scarce and very expensive, Mr. Fawzi said. A bag of rice which sold for $20 two months ago was now going for as high as $75. The UNHCR was very concerned that if the situation did not improve there would be an even greater exodus of people from Liberia.

A provisional list was available in the Spokesman's office of contributors to the United Nations inter-agency appeal for humanitarian aid for flood victims in the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea, he said. To date, contributions totalled $15.6 million. The appeal, which was launched on 6 June by the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, had requested $43.6 million to cover the country's most urgent needs from 1 July to end of March 1997. A formal meeting would be held on 24 June in Geneva to brief Member States on the status of the appeal and it was hoped that by then more would have announced their decision to join the appeal.

The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Yemen in Geneva had asked the Department of Humanitarian Affairs and other United Nations agencies to provide relief assistance for the recent flood in Yemen, the Deputy Spokesman said. The situation was being monitored carefully and the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Sana'a was in close contact with the Government and with the Department to identify the first emergency needs and distribute relief assistance to the flood victims.

The UNHCR had issued an appeal for $12.9 million to repatriate refugees from Mali and Niger, he added.

The World Economic and Social Survey 1996 was now available, Mr. Fawzi announced. It would be officially released on 24 June during the high-level segment of the substantive session of the Economic and Social Council in New York. For review copies or contacts for interviews, correspondents should contact Tim Wall in the Department of Public Information (DPI), tel: 963-5851 or fax: 963-1186. A one-page press release and an eight-page press kit, which included the first chapter of the Survey were available.

The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) would have two prominent guests on Thursday, 20 June, Mr. Fawzi said. At 11 a.m. the UNDP Administrator, James Gustave Speth, would speak to correspondents, and at 2 p.m. the President of the Security Council for the month of June, Nabil Elaraby (Egypt), would give an informal briefing on the Council's work during the month.

In response to a question on when the Secretary-General's report on Cyprus would be available, Mr. Fawzi said he did not have a definite date as yet. In reply to another question on when the Council would discuss the report, Mr. Fawzi suggested the correspondent should ask the Council

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President, Mr. Elaraby (Egypt) on Thursday, when he briefed UNCA. He added that the Council did not announce their agenda in advance but he would check if the Cyprus report was on the agenda.

A correspondent asked about the status of a report to the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 661 (1990), which is monitoring the sanctions against Iraq, regarding the sale of a limited amount of Iraqi oil. Mr. Fawzi replied that the report was being finalized and would be submitted to the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Marrack Goulding, who would then submit it to the Sanctions Committee. In response to a question on whether the team preparing the report was back from its visit to Iraq, Mr. Fawzi said that it had returned and had met with the Committee.

The report to the Sanctions Committee was part of the preparations to implement the 20 May memorandum of understanding between the United Nations and Iraq on the sale of limited amounts of Iraqi oil, Mr. Fawzi continued. The report was "just one spoke in the wheel" and piecemeal announcements would not be made about bits and pieces of the procedure until everything was completed, including the distribution plan, the bank, the deployment of monitors, and the procedures for purchasing and selling. Until all that was in place there would be no announcements. When the report was finished, the Sanctions Committee would report to the Secretary-General who in turn would report to the Security Council that "we are ready to roll".

Referring to the two new United Nations facilities which the Secretary- General would open in Bonn, a correspondent asked whether the premises were rent free. Mr. Fawzi said he believed they were rent free but he would have to check the contract to see for how long.

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For information media. Not an official record.