DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960708
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, began today's noon briefing by saying that the Secretary-General was in Yaoundé, Cameroon, attending the thirty-second Summit of Heads of State of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
Yesterday, the Secretary-General had bilateral meetings with the Presidents of Mozambique, Algeria, Zambia, Togo and Congo, Ms. Foa said. He also met with the Foreign Minister of Egypt, who was heading the Egyptian delegation to the Summit, and had a long meeting with Salim Ahmed Salim, Secretary-General of the OAU. Most of the discussions centred on the United Nations System-wide Initiative on Africa, conflict resolution on the continent, and other matters on the Summit's agenda.
Although the start of the Summit today had been delayed, the Secretary- General's speech was out, Ms. Foa said. "The Secretary-General says that Africa, more than any other continent, has suffered from the post-cold-war tendencies of ethnic separatism. He talks about the importance of a simultaneous approach to the problems facing Africa, the importance of cooperation between the OAU and the United Nations, and then goes into quite a bit of detail on why he decided to launch the United Nations System-wide Initiative on Africa -- a 10-year initiative that is expected to cost about $25 billion." The Secretary-General's speech was available in the Spokesman's Office.
"For those of you who have been keeping my phone ringing all morning", she said, "yes, I can confirm that Under-Secretary-General Chinmaya Gharekhan, who is Chairman of the Steering Committee, will be meeting with Ambassador Al-Anbari at 3 p.m. today. This begins the process of reviewing the draft distribution plan. Mr. Gharekhan will give Ambassador Al-Anbari our comments on the distribution plan and we expect a representative from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs and a representative from the Legal Office to be present. I understand also that 661 has scheduled a formal meeting for Tuesday."
Turning to money issues, Ms. Foa said there were two bits of good news. One was that Algeria had become the seventy-sixth Member State to pay its 1996 regular budget assessment in full, with $1,740,324. "Thank you very much Algeria."
"Another little bit of good news is a partial payment, which we don't normally announce. But we will, because it is a significant amount of money. We have a partial payment for a prior year from the United States of America
for $68,139,853. So hopefully, we'll get out stationery bills paid and maybe buy some pencils, and maybe they will repair the escalator now with that $68 million."
"Unfortunately, the bottom line, however, is that the debt of the United Nations has gone up despite Algeria and the United States coming through with some money", Ms. Foa added. "That is because some peace-keeping dues have come due. The United Nations is now owed $3.1 billion, of which $0.9 billion is for the regular budget, but $2.2 billion is for peace-keeping. So we are still opening the mail very fast." A summary of outstanding contributions to the United Nations as at 30 June was available in her office, and it "has the usual suspects up at the top".
"Speaking of money again, I would like to thank you all for your contributions to Boutras Boutras Garlic, and I will tell you that the sale of the first 105 bottles brought in a profit of $95.52", Ms. Foa said. In consultation with important members of the 305th Committee, it was decided that this money should go to a special United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) project, and UNICEF has asked us to buy them a weighing scale for use in the Masisi area of Zaire. So this money would now go to buying a weighing scale."
In the former Yugoslavia, the Finnish Forensic team, which had been trying for several weeks to remove bodies from a hillside in the Kravica area, had finally received a security assurance from Republika Srepska, Ms. Foa said. That matter was expected to be resolved at a meeting in Pale today. "We are waiting for the final word, but we expect to get the security assurance we've been looking for. The team has managed already to collect 55 human remains, and those were transported to Tuzla before they were halted by Bosnian-Serb police authorities."
"Meanwhile, investigators of the International Criminal Tribunal began exhuming the first suspected mass grave sites at Ceska, near Srebrenica", she added. "They removed mines yesterday and began exhuming bodies today. The exhumations and excavations of all the identified sites are expected to take approximately three months. So I'll have more on that later."
Ms. Foa also said the Security Council had begun consultations on Angola, specifically on the Secretary-General's report on the mandate of the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III). The Secretary- General had suggested a three-month extension, until 11 October. "I understand that today, a draft resolution was being discussed. We expect more consultations Wednesday and a public meeting Thursday."
She then drew attention to a press release from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization of Migration on the launching of a $7.6 million joint appeal for a private programme linked to the mass involuntary migratory movement taking place in
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 8 July 1996
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The projects were primarily aimed at helping local authorities and non-governmental agencies integrate vulnerable and often destitute refugees, as well as internally displaced, formerly deported people, and people forced to return to their ancestral homelands by conflicts in other CIS countries.
At present, many of those people were living extremely precariously in a social and legal vacuum, with nowhere to go and no one to turn to, Ms. Foa said. It was estimated that since the late 1980s, at least 9 million people had moved to, within or between CIS countries as a result of conflict, environmental disasters or a range of fears and complications arising from the sudden and unprecedented disintegration of the former Soviet Union into 15 separate States. The press release was available in the Spokesman's Office.
Ms. Foa also drew attention to the decision of the International Court of Justice. "Basically, the Court voted that the threat or use of nuclear weapons would generally be contrary to the rules of international law applicable in armed conflict. However, the Court cannot conclude definitively whether the threat or use of nuclear weapons would be lawful or unlawful in an extreme circumstance of self-defence in which the very survival of a State would be at stake." She added that 45 countries, 700 organizations and 4 million individuals had written to the Court offering their opinions on the matter.
Ms. Foa then announced that Appan Mennon, who worked in New York as a United Nations correspondent, died on 27 June in New Delhi. There would be memorial service at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday, 10 July, at Lancers Restaurant, located at 230 East 44 Street, between Second and Third Avenues.
A correspondent asked if the United States payment was towards the regular or the peace-keeping budget. How had that payment affected the country's debt to the United Nations? Ms. Foa said the payment was towards a prior year's contribution to the regular budget. The United States debt was still about the same. It might be a little bit more, but not much more.
To a question on the talks between Mr. Gharekhan and Mr. Al-Anbari, Ms. Foa said they represented the beginning of a process where "we sit down together and look at it (the distribution plan). Our people have now studied it. They have some questions. They have some comments. These would be passed to Mr. Al-Anbari. I am sure that they will come back and we'll go back. It will take a while". The United Nations had had a chance to look at the distribution plan, and it was a pretty big document. "We are giving Mr. Al-Anbari our initial comments."
Asked about the possibility of a photo opportunity during that meeting, she said a request had been made. "We are waiting for a reply."
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 8 July 1996
A correspondent said there had been two elections last week, and that the Secretary-General had sent a complimentary note to the Russian President. Had he sent a similar note to the new President of the Dominican Republic? Ms. Foa said that one of the problems with the Secretary-General travelling was that her office seemed to get his congratulatory notes quite late. "I don't know if I have seen it. Some stuff may have come in over the weekend. I will check on it."
A correspondent asked if his current trip was the longest that the Secretary-General had been away from Headquarters during his first term in office. Ms. Foa said that she would have to check on that.
Regarding the suggestion that future Secretaries-General serve for only one term, Ms. Foa said the idea was being bounced around in various United Nations Committees. It was a very old suggestion, and everybody heard different sides of it. There were pros and cons.
A correspondent asked if the topic of the Secretary-General's term had come up when he met with the President of the "Group of Seven" industrialized countries. Ms. Foa said it had not. "They talked only about business." Asked whether his candidacy for a second term would be taken up at the OAU Summit, she said she understood from wire reports that it was being discussed. So far, however, the meetings had been closed.
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