In progress at UNHQ

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

24 June 1996



Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

19960624 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

At the start of today's noon briefing, Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, introduced the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission, Rolf Ekeus, to correspondents. (Mr. Ekeus' briefing will be issued separately.)

Ms. Foa told correspondents that Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was in Geneva today where he had met with the President of Kazakstan, Nursultan A. Nazarbaev. He had also met with the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) regarding the food security component of the recently-launched United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on Africa. He had also met with the Foreign Minister of Congo, Destin-Arsene Tsaty- Boungou.

Tomorrow, Ms. Foa said, the Secretary-General would travel to London where he would meet with the British Prime Minister, John Major, and the British Foreign Secretary, Malcolm Rifkind. Following his return to Geneva on Wednesday, the Secretary-General was scheduled to attend the "Group of Seven" summit meeting which would take place in Lyon, France, from 27 to 29 June.

On the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), Ms. Foa said that the Transitional Administrator, Jacques Klein, had announced on Friday the completion of the demilitarization process and the withdrawal of the heavy weapons from Eastern Slavonia. The troops of UNTAES were now inspecting military barracks and other facilities. After the completion of the inspection, a final document was expected to be signed on Friday, 28 June by all parties, confirming the demilitarization.

Ms. Foa informed correspondents that a group of journalists from a number of countries were visiting Headquarters today and she was happy that they were at the briefing on a day on which there was a "typical wooden- tongued United Nations bureaucrat" talking to correspondents. The joking reference was made to Mr. Ekeus.

In other announcements, Ms. Foa said that she had received hundreds of questions this morning on whether Iraq had submitted a plan for the distribution of humanitarian supplies under Security Council resolution 986 (1995). The Secretariat expected to receive the distribution plan soon, but it had not yet received a date. Therefore there was nothing further to report today.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 24 June 1996

Referring to the President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, Antonio Cassese, as another "wooden-tongued shrinking- violet bureaucrat", Ms. Foa said he would be visiting Headquarters on Wednesday to address the Security Council. The President is expected to draw the Council's attention to the decision by the Republika Srpska not to surrender the war criminals indicted by the Tribunal and to set up a special tribunal to prosecute them. Correspondents agreed that the President should be invited to the noon briefing.

Ms. Foa informed correspondents that a statement by the Secretary- General on the sad death of the former Prime Minister of Greece, Andreas Papandreas, was available in the Spokesman's office.

Mexico became the seventy-second Member State to pay its 1996 regular budget assessment dues in full -- $8,565,655 Ms. Foa said. The latest summary of outstanding contributions, dated 16 June was also available in the Spokesman's office.

Ms Foa then announced that a photo exhibit on the theme "Sports against Drugs" would open at Headquarters in the General Assembly lobby, at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, 25 June. The exhibit, sponsored by the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), would be opened by a number of sports personalities, including a member of the United States Olympics fencing team, Cliff Bayer; former football player Al Dixon; and the British national champion figure skater Charlene Von Saher.

Correspondents were also informed that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Peace Academy would hold a two-day conference entitled "Healing the Wounds, Reconstruction and Reconciliation", on Sunday, 30 June and Monday, 1 July at Princeton University. The conference would focus on the transition from conflict to peace and the processes of rehabilitation and reconciliation that facilitate the return of refugees as well as the lessons to be learned from the refugee crises in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. Speakers and participants will include the High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, the President of the International Peace Academy Olara Otunnu, and the Chairman of the electoral Commission for Sierra Leone, James Jonah.

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For information media. Not an official record.