DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960805
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, began today's briefing by announcing that the Security Council had agreed to the Secretary-General's proposals that the military component of the United Nations Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH) should be made up of contingents from Bangladesh, Canada, Pakistan, and Trinidad and Tobago. The Council had also agreed that Algeria, Canada, Djibouti, France, India, Mali, Russian Federation and Togo should contribute to the Mission's police component. All the Member States mentioned had made the relevant personnel available to the Mission.
Ms. Foa reminded correspondents that, under resolution 1063 (1996), UNSMIH was allowed 600 troops and 300 civilian police. Due to expire on 30 November, the Mission had been mandated to assist the Haitian Government in the professionalization of the police force and in the maintenance of a stable environment for establishing and training an effective national police force. It had replaced the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH), whose mandate expired on 30 June.
Turning to Eastern Slavonia, the Spokesman said that on Friday the Secretary-General had sent a letter to the President of the Security Council concerning the difficulties faced by the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) in securing funds for the local administration.
Ms. Foa explained that the present situation was primarily due to the closure of the Djeletovci oilfields in mid-May. The oilfields had been the main source of revenue for the region financing health, education, police and a range of other administrative expenses. Since that time, funds had become limited. Salaries for the month of June had been paid only at the end of July. Payments for July had only been possible by utilizing the last local reserves that were being held in banks in Belgrade, plus a one-time payment by the Croatian Government of about $1.2 million. However, even with that payment, the Eastern Slavonian authorities would have very little funds to pay for operational costs and would even be subjected to electricity cuts.
The Secretary-General's letter also stated that the Croatian Government has not yet been sufficiently forthcoming in providing the necessary funds, despite its obligation to cooperate fully with UNTAES and its evident responsibility to financially support the orderly administration within the area, Ms. Foa continued. The United Nations needed about $2 million per month to finance the local administration -- about $10 million to cover the next five months. The Secretary-General had stated that none of the alternative
solutions he had explored had proved feasible. He was, therefore, gravely concerned that the deteriorating situation would jeopardize the viability of what had so far been a successful mission. Ms. Foa added that the letter should be available today.
Asked for an update on attempts to resolve the recent problems that had arisen between the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, Ms. Foa said talks were still being held with the Permanent Representatives of the two Member States. Contrary to reports, a proposal had not been made. A number of proposals was still being discussed, and no formal proposal would be made until both sides agreed to it.
A correspondent asked if the Secretary-General had responded to a letter from Iran which complained about the United States. Ms. Foa said she was unsure that such a letter had been formally received.
When asked if the Secretary-General was in the Secretariat today and where his vacation retreat was located, Ms. Foa said "he was up-country" and she would find out if his mailing address could be released. She also said that the Secretary-General was not in the building today, but was expected to be here on and off during the coming days.
Responding to a question about a Washington Times report today on the state of the United Nations security, Ms. Foa said that staffing of all sections of the Organization had been cut because of the budget crisis. The reduction of security personnel by about 10 per cent meant less overtime and fewer patrols. Memorandums referred to in the newspaper report had been written by security personnel and reflected their concerns about how the cuts had adversely affected the provision of security for the Secretariat. Unfortunately, she continued, nothing much could be done about the situation "barring a big chunk of change coming into this place. You can't take away from one department and not another". "Everybody wants to do the best job they can. Doing it with 10 per cent less resources is just hard", she added.
A correspondent asked about the availability of a 56-page report on human rights in Haiti. Ms. Foa said a summary of the report and a press release in French had been made available to the Secretariat. The press release had stated that there had been a greater number of reports of human rights abuses by the Haitian police. That was due to the fact that Haitians were becoming more aware of their rights and because the police were young and untrained. However, it stated that the incidents of very serious human rights abuses were rare -- not the norm. In response to another question, Ms. Foa said that she would try to obtain the report and would inform correspondents accordingly.
Asked about the availability of a report on massacres in Burundi, which was supposedly leaked from Geneva during the weekend, Ms. Foa said it was an internal interim report from the five-person human rights observer mission in
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 5 August 1996
Burundi. It was not an official final report, but it had apparently been available to a large number of people. It was different from the Commission of Inquiry's report into the death of a former President of Burundi, which was now in the hands of the Security Council.
Another correspondent asked if the Secretariat had rethought the decision to issue the report of the Commission in the light of the leaks of the Geneva report which informed about human rights abuses. Ms. Foa said the Council had commissioned the report from the Commission of Inquiry and would determine what would be done with it. Regarding the other report, she said, it had been "making the rounds since last Friday". It was "quite strong" and was based on the reports of five human rights observers.
Asked what the human rights observers had concluded, Ms. Foa said she had not yet received the entire report, which was in French. It covered the period mid-April to mid-July and documented different sites of massacres that the observers had been able to investigate, including interviews with witnesses. In general, it concluded that thousands of people had been killed in Burundi.
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