DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960722
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by stating that the Secretary-General had learned with the utmost dismay of the latest massacre of civilians in Burundi. As correspondents knew, she said, more than 300 women, children and elderly men were killed over the weekend in a manner all too reminiscent of the genocide experienced in Rwanda two years ago. The slaughter of Bugendana (central Burundi) was just the most recent of a long line of incidents that underlined the urgent need for regional and international efforts to restore peace and stability in Burundi.
She said the Secretary-General condemned in the strongest possible terms those wanton killings and those who carried them out. He called on the parties to the conflict in Burundi to cease immediately their acts of violence and to cooperate fully with all those who were seeking to bring an end to the vicious cycle of atrocity and counter-atrocity.
The Secretary-General conveyed his deepest condolences to the families of the victims, she continued. He urged all parties to show restraint and expressed the hope that a proper investigation would be carried out by the Burundi authorities. (See Press Release SG/SM/6025 issued today.)
The Spokesman said the Secretary-General had in the morning met with the Permanent Representative of Belarus, Alyaksandr Sychou. The Ambassador carried a personal letter from the President of Belarus that informed the Secretary-General of the initiative of Belarus to give up its nuclear missiles and to try to create a zone free of nuclear weapons in central and eastern Europe. The letter sought the views and advice of the Secretary-General on the proposal. The Secretary-General had, obviously, promised all the help the United Nations could give. Hopefully that would succeed, she said, noting that there were already nuclear-weapon-free zones in Africa, the South Pacific, Latin America and in Antarctica.
Later in the morning, the Secretary-General had met with the Foreign Minister of Romania, Teodor Viorel Melescanu, she continued. They discussed Romania's willingness to help with stand-by arrangements for United Nations peace-keeping operations. They were talking about keeping on stand-by a battalion that had been specially trained for peace-keeping operations, she said. At the time of the briefing, the Secretary-General was seeing a member of the British Parliament, David Howell. Later, the Secretary-General was to receive a delegation of Yokohama students who were "Peace Messengers".
The Secretary-General's last official appointment would be in the afternoon with the Rector of the United Nations University, Gurgulino de Souza.
The Spokesman said she had a press release from the World Food Programme (WFP) announcing that it had resumed its C-130 airdrops in southern Sudan today. It had managed to drop 32 tons of food reaching at least 30,000 people. "It was a good beginning", she said, adding that it was the first time in 10 months that the WFP had been able to carry out C-130 airdrops in southern Sudan where between 500,000 and 700,000 people were in desperate need. The WFP had been given assurances by the Sudanese authorities that the airdrops would not have a time-limit and that it could be continued. "Let's hope that continues", she observed.
She announced that today was the start of a ministerial meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at Abuja, to be followed by an ECOWAS summit. She said that due to a heavy schedule the Secretary- General, unhappily, would not able to attend the event, which he considered to be absolutely very important. He had designated James Jonah as his Special Envoy to head the United Nations delegation. The delegation would also include Professor Reginald Austen from the Commonwealth Secretariat. Mr. Austen had previously been involved in electoral assistance in Cambodia and South Africa, and his services had been generously offered to the United Nations by the Commonwealth Secretariat. (See Press Release SG/SM/6024 issued today.)
The Spokesman said she had been asked by the Secretary-General to take the opportunity to wish ECOWAS every success in promoting peace, stability and economic development in west Africa. She observed that Liberia would be very high on the agenda.
The Spokesman said word had been received from Moscow of a new round of consultations on a settlement of the conflict in Abkhazia, Georgia. The meeting took place from 16 to 19 July under the auspices of the United Nations, with the Russian Federation as the facilitator and in the presence of a representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Edouard Brunner, and his Deputy, Liviu Bota, held bilateral talks with delegations of the two sides to the conflict and participated in the consultations. The parties agreed that the consultations would continue shortly, the Spokesman said.
Recalling a question she had previously been asked about the situation in Liberia, she said her office had been able to contact the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). The situation was calm there; supermarkets and drug stores were open. Prices were sky high but the shops seemed to be "pretty well stocked". Meanwhile, factional violence was still being reported in Bomi and Grand Cape Mount counties and in lower Lofa. She
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 22 July 1996
said UNOMIL and representatives of the international community had issued a statement on Saturday, 20 July, calling on the Council of State to observe the "Olympic Truce" and on the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) leadership to declare a cease-fire publicly so that the humanitarian agencies could deliver humanitarian assistance to civilians who had been trapped by factional violence and were in desperate need. The mission did not know yet whether the Olympic Truce was being observed, she said.
Drawing attention to another note for the correspondents' files, should they need it, the Spokesman said that during the recent fighting in Liberia, the United Nations and its agencies lost a total of 250 motor vehicles and 72 motor bikes. "You didn't know that United Nations bureaucrats drove around in motor bikes", she said, and added that many actually did. The total cost of the motor vehicles and the bikes had been estimated at $4,991,571. Of the number, only seven motor vehicles had been recovered.
For interested correspondents, she said she had a copy of a letter which seemed to be a response to an article in the Diplomatic World paper concerning air quality at the United Nations Secretariat building, including the presence of asbestos. She said the "bottom line of the letter" from the Assistant- Secretary-General for Conference and Support Services, Benon Sevan, was that "we're fine". No health hazards had been revealed. The air quality had always been evaluated as good for buildings of that type. Interested correspondents were welcome to copies of the letter, she added.
A correspondent asked whether there was documentation on the proposed stand-by arrangements for peace-keeping operations. The Spokesman said she would dig up notes she had last Thursday on the proposal. The correspondent also could contact the group known as "friends of rapid reaction". In any case, efforts would be made to provide the information. "There is an interesting story in there", she commented.
A correspondent asked whether the Secretary-General would review his views on globalization in the light of the conclusions of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) Human Development Report that developing countries were better off 10 years ago than today. The Spokesman said policies on globalization were constantly under review, but she would ask the Secretary-General what impact the UNDP report had had on his thinking on development issues.
A correspondent said there were reports that some people in Bosnia did not want to talk to United Nations officials because they saw no solutions to the conflict in the region. The correspondent quoted a line in one of today's newspapers which said people from all sides of the ethnic divide in an area of Bosnia had come together as friends. They did not want to talk politics and indicated that it was their leaders who created divisions. "Is there any
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 22 July 1996
sense that this kind of thing spins off a United Nations Charter that provides for what you could call a war system?" the correspondent asked.
The Spokesman replied, "Another interesting question. Obviously all of us have agreed for many years that it is the politicians or warlords who create problems and that people generally know how to live in peace together. Bosnia, probably, was the most perfect example of that; people living in peace, inter-marrying, not having any problem, not even knowing the ethnic group their neighbours were from, until someone decided to take up the issue of ethnicity to actually create the problems". That was not done for ethnic reasons, but because of greed; ethnic wars should properly be described as greed wars.
She took an advisement on the question relating to the Charter. "Mr. Fawzi, you've memorized the Charter back and forth. Does the Charter take up this issue?" she asked. Mr. Fawzi, the Deputy Spokesman, said he could respond in writing at a later date. "That's my trick", the Spokesman said.
A correspondent asked whether it was proper for the Secretariat to send the Director of the United Nations Information Centre in Washington, D.C., to represent the Organization at the official opening ceremonies of the Olympics when those were attended by the President of the United States. The Spokesman said the Director's mandate at that particular visit to Atlanta was to open a United Nations stamp exhibit. "It had nothing to do with the presence of (United States) President Clinton". She said the United Nations sent representatives to events based, not on who else would be there, but on its own interests. "Of course, we do have a great interest in the Olympics, but we also are very, very financially strapped and it is quite difficult for us to send a huge delegation to events. I think Joe Sills would do a very good job. He's a good speaker. He's somebody everybody knows and respects."
Asked whether the Sudanese Government would allow the WFP to fly C-130 planes to the south of the country, the Spokesman said evidently assurances had been given last Friday by the Government to the WFP that there would be no time-limit on the flights. "So we're hoping and keeping our fingers crossed that they will be allowed to continue and we will be watching it from here very, very closely." She said the first flights took off today, ahead of schedule. The WFP did not at first think they could get them going until next week, but found a C-130 plane that was immediately available and began the first two sorties today. Thirty-two tons of food had been shipped, and if that was done every day for the next three or four months, "we'll be in good shape".
On Burundi, she told a questioner that the Secretary-General had issued a "very strong message" on the reported massacre there and that correspondents would find that he would be communicating with the Security Council on the subject.
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