DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960806
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, began today's noon briefing by announcing that the Secretary-General had asked Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lansana Kouyate to travel to Nigeria today. The purpose of the mission would be to follow up on the fact- finding mission that had been dispatched to that country in April and a subsequent mission that had been undertaken by the Secretary-General's Special Envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi.
The fact-finding mission's report, which had been submitted to the General Assembly, contained a number of recommendations concerning the trial and execution of the Nigerian environmentalist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and others, and the Nigerian Government's plans to restore democratic rule, Ms. Foa continued. Following the submission of that report, the Secretary-General had received a letter informing him of a number of interim steps and measures taken in Nigeria to implement the mission's recommendations. While in Nigeria, Mr. Kouyate would also be following up on the dispute between that country and Cameroon regarding the Bakassi peninsula. He was expected to meet with senior government officials, including the country's Head of State, General Sani Abacha.
Today, the Security Council was taking up issues related to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, Ms. Foa said. Council members were consulting on a draft presidential statement. The Senior Adviser to the Secretary-General, Under-Secretary-General Chinmaya Gharekhan, was also expected to brief the Council today on the latest developments in Somalia following the death of the Somali clan leader, General Mohammed Farah Aidid. Mogadishu was reported to be quiet since General Aidid's death had been announced.
The United Nations Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS) was following the situation in close consultation with a number of actively involved regional organizations, including the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the League of Arab States, Ms. Foa said. United Nations personnel in Somalia included several hundred national staff in Mogadishu, as well as 32 international staff stationed throughout the rest of the country, mostly from humanitarian agencies such as the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Ms. Foa then informed correspondents that two letters -- one from Turkey and the other from Iran -- had arrived at the Secretariat yesterday. The letter from the Turkish Government was addressed to the Chairman of the
Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 661 (1990) which is monitoring the implementation of sanctions against Iraq. It requested United Nations permission for limited trade with Iraq, to partly compensate for its losses due to the disruption of commerce after the Persian Gulf war. The Committee was expected to discuss the letter next week. The letter from Iran addressed to the Secretary-General asked that it be circulated as an official document of the Security Council and the General Assembly. It referred to the threatening behaviour of the United States Government and drew the international community's attention to the potentially dangerous repercussions of such behaviour to international peace and security.
Ms. Foa said the Secretary-General's monthly progress report on the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) would be issued today. In that report, the Secretary-General raised the issue of financing the administration in Eastern Slavonia, but also addressed another important question pertaining to the mission's mandate. He noted that the basic agreement reached by the Croatian Government and the Croatian Serbs in Eastern Slavonia last November had established a transitional period of 12 months which might be extended to another 12-month period, if one of the parties so requested.
However, Ms. Foa continued, in public statements during the past month, senior Croatian officials had stated that their Government would not agree to an extension of the UNTAES mandate which is due to expire on 15 January 1997. They might contemplate an extension of a few months with a revised mandate, under certain conditions -- including the holding of elections this year. On the other hand, the local Serb regional assembly in Eastern Slavonia had decided on 6 June to request the Security Council to extend the UNTAES mandate for another 12 months. They had already sent a formal request.
Ms. Foa reminded correspondents that the mission's mandate included economic rehabilitation; the establishment of a fully operational multi-ethnic transitional police force; the facilitation of the return of displaced persons; housing construction for the returnees; the issuance of Croatian citizenship documents to the region's residents; the organization of the elections; and the establishment of a joint council of municipalities. In his report, the Secretary-General stated that, although UNTAES was making progress in all of those areas, he believed that the tasks might not be completed in the current mandate period. The Security Council might wish to consider the possibility of indicating now that it intended to extend the mission's mandate by up to 12 months to enable it to accomplish its tasks.
Turning to the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM), the Spokesman reported that, as part of "our general streamlining, i.e., budget slashing of United Nations peace-keeping missions", the number of the Mission's military observers would be reduced by 20 per cent -- from 245 to 195. The reduction meant that "the remaining military observers would be expected to work harder, faster and longer". The reduction would be achieved
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 6 August 1996
gradually, at the time of the rotation of officers. The present number of 220 "on deck" would be decreased to 195 by April 1997. The UNIKOM's mandate was to monitor the border between Iraq and Kuwait and to ensure that no military activity occurred in the demilitarized zone.
A note from the Department of Humanitarian Affairs informed that the Department had sent a five-person mission to Burundi to look at the consequences of regional sanctions against that country, particularly in terms of the delivery of humanitarian assistance, Ms. Foa continued. Both the UNHCR and the WFP had experienced problems with the movement of their flights and their personnel in and out of Bujumbura. They were asking for clarification from the countries concerned regarding exemptions for humanitarian commodities. Today, the members of the Department's mission had experienced travel problems related to the sanctions when their WFP flight was not allowed to land in Nairobi and had to be rerouted to Kigali.
Ms. Foa announced that a report on human rights in Haiti was now available in the Spokesman's Office. Copies of the 56-page document would only be made if requested by correspondents. "Remember, we are broke", she added.
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