In progress at UNHQ

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

3 July 1996



Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

19960703 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that on a day that was expected to be quiet, three major reports had been issued.

The first was the Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) (document S/1996/503, of 27 June) which covered major developments since the previous report, dated 30 April, Ms. Foa said, adding that there was both "good news and bad news".

On the positive side, there were several developments, she continued. The framework agreement on military matters had been adopted. An amnesty law had been put into place; and the process of incorporating soldiers from the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) into the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) had begun. Also, the Government's rapid reaction police had been quartered.

"However, on the problem side, the time-frame that President Jose Eduardo dos Santos and the UNITA leader, Jonas Savimbi, agreed to at Libreville on 1 March has not been fulfilled", Ms. Foa said. The UNITA was supposed to have completed the quartering of its 62,500 troops by the end of June, but there had been continuing delays. Towards the middle of June, when the number of soldiers quartered reached 50,000, the pace had slowed down considerably. Yesterday, only 57 UNITA soldiers had been quartered. The total registration number, as of yesterday, stood at 52,127 soldiers.

Also, there was "a big problem" with the quality and quantity of weapons that the UNITA soldiers had been handing in, Ms. Foa continued, up to now only 26,000 personal weapons and about 3,300 "crew-served" weapons. Around 18,000 soldiers had arrived at the quartering compounds carrying no weapons whatsoever, "and we haven't seen any heavy weapons at all. No rocket launchers, anti-aircraft artillery, armoured personnel carriers or tanks have come in".

There was also a large number of desertions, Ms. Foa said. As of yesterday a total of 6,265 soldiers had left the quartering compounds, "so some are coming in but a lot are going out", she added. The Secretary-General also said in his report that the withdrawal of Government forces from forward positions was incomplete. Fourteen of the 47 redeployments were determined by UNAVEM to have been "unsatisfactory" and the Secretary-General urged that corrective steps be taken.

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"We also have a problem with money", the Spokesman said. "We put up a bill for $42 million to deal with the demobilization and reintegration of former combatants in the first year, and we only got $10 million." The UNAVEM III was still the United Nations largest peace-keeping operation. As of 25 June, its total strength was 7,282 including both military and civilian police components.

Ms. Foa said the Secretary-General, despite the "bad news" described above, was recommending that the mandate of UNAVEM III be extended for three months, until 11 October. Also, as the February 1997 target for the completion of that operation was fast approaching, the Secretary-General said that he had initiated contingency planning for the downsizing phase of UNAVEM's military component, as soon as the quartering process was successfully concluded and the incorporation of UNITA troops into the Angolan Armed Forces and the formation of a unified armed force had reached an advanced level.

There was also a report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia, and the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), Ms. Foa said. The political process in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict was at a standstill and the key issue -- defining the political status of Abkhazia in a way that was acceptable to both sides -- had not been resolved, the report stated.

According to the report, that current lack of progress "calls into question how serious the parties are about their search for peace", Ms. Foa continued. The Secretary-General pointed out that the present financial situation of the Organization -- "i.e., we are broke", Ms. Foa commented -- was such that he could not continue to request resources for peacemaking or peace-keeping in situations where there was little prospect of making progress. However, he hoped that the parties could still be persuaded to help reactivate the peace process and was recommending that the Security Council extend the mandate of UNOMIG, which would expire on 12 July, until 31 January 1997.

"Right now, UNOMIG is authorized to have 136 military observers. Currently they're all on deck and they come from 23 different countries", Ms. Foa noted. The Secretary-General also addressed the threat posed by the land mines in the Gali sector and was asking all parties to stop planting the mines because they jeopardized the lives of both the local population and United Nations personnel.

The third major report issued today was the Secretary-General's report pursuant to the Security Council resolution 1038 (1996) concerning the United Nations Mission of Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP) (document S/1996/502), Ms. Foa continued. The UNMOP, established in February to monitor the demilitarization of the Prevlaka peninsula, had 28 military observers. The Secretary-General's report indicated that there had been some improvement in

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the situation but that none the less many problems remained. In particular, field defence fortifications manned by the Croatian police in the "yellow zone" remained unchanged; Yugoslav military units were still deployed along the border. Land mines laid by both sides in the area had not been cleared and heavy weapons deployed in the area adjacent to the demilitarized zone created the risk of an escalation of tension in the area.

Ms. Foa said the report stated that because there had been some positive developments which reduced tension in the region, and based on the success of UNMOP in that area and at the request of both governments, the Secretary- General's recommendation was that the Mission's mandate should be extended for an additional three months, until 15 October. The Secretary-General also asked the parties to accelerate their negotiations and fully normalize their bilateral relations.

The report of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on the shooting down by the Cuban air force of two civil aircraft would not reach the Security Council before 17 July, due to the time it would take to translate the whole document, Ms. Foa told correspondents.

On Monday in room 226 at 11:15 a.m. there would be a press conference on the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the legality of the use, or the threat of use, of nuclear weapons, the Spokesman said, reminding correspondents that the Court had decided to give its advisory opinion on that issue in a public sitting on Monday, 8 July, at The Hague. According to a report from The Hague, the Court had asked for opinions from individuals and different countries.

A total of 45 countries, 700 organizations and 4 million individuals had sent in their opinions on the legality of the use of nuclear weapons, Ms. Foa continued. The press conference would be given by representatives from Malaysia and Egypt and several non-governmental organizations, including the Centre for Defence Information, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, New York Lawyers Alliance for World Security, and Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy.

The United Nations Headquarters would be closed tomorrow, 4 July, Ms. Foa said. However, the Spokesman's office would be manned; after consultation with correspondents it was decided that Friday's noon briefing would be replaced by an informal conversation and coffee in the Spokesman's office on the third floor unless something big breaks.

Bowing to popular demand, especially from the news media -- not to mention demands from the thirty-eighth, thirty-seventh, thirty-first and twenty-seventh floors -- the Spokesman's office had managed to get some of its "Boutras Boutras Garlic" in time for July 4 barbecues, Ms. Foa said. Although independent sources of financing were a very sensitive issue around the United Nations, the "305th committee", which met in Ms. Foa's office every morning,

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had agreed that it would be allowed to make a little money on the garlic. There were 100 bottles. In the interest of transparency, she announced that those bottles had cost the committee $4.10 each, and it was selling them for $5. The profits would be earmarked to "a very worthy cause" within the United Nations. The committee would seek the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA)'s help in deciding exactly which one.

A correspondent asked about the World Food Programme (WFP) stuffed horse with sacks of food on his back -- "Pegasus" -- which was also available in the Spokesman's office. "The Spokesman's office is becoming a bit of a bazaar", Ms. Foa noted, adding that "any other United Nations agency that would like to bring their goods in, we'd be very happy to push them".

Were there going to be any other United Nations food products? "Definitely, depending on the success of this one. We had hardly opened the carton when we had a line of people wanting to buy. It depends on the success, you can never tell."

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For information media. Not an official record.