In progress at UNHQ

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

9 August 1996



Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

19960809 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that the Security Council had not scheduled meetings either today or on Monday. "So, everybody gets a nice, long weekend." However, Ms. Foa continued, the Council would hold informal consultations on the situation in Afghanistan on Tuesday, 13 August. Then, on Thursday, 15 August, it would meet formally on the question of demining in the context of United Nations peace-keeping operations. In preparation for that, correspondents would be briefed by the Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Peace-Keeping Operations, Lieutenant-General Manfred Eisele, and the Chief of the Department's Demining Unit, Tore Skedsmo. "I have been told that mines will be brought as part of the briefing, and if there are nasty questions ... So, be careful!", she said. Turning to the situation in Burundi, Ms. Foa said she had received updates from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) indicating that some 17,000 Rwandan refugees had voluntarily returned home from the Magara camp in northern Burundi since 1 August. About 8,600 Rwandan refugees had done so yesterday, Thursday, 8 August. And, as of 4:30 p.m. local time, today, about 5,200 people had crossed the border, and a total of 7,000 were expected to cross into Rwanda today. She cited the UNHCR as estimating that the camp would be emptied in three or four days if that rate was maintained. Turning to Eastern Slavonia, she told reporters that an agreement had been signed in Zagreb late yesterday afternoon between the Croatian Government and the Head of the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), Jacques Klein, on the financing of Eastern Slavonia's local administration. Under its terms, the Croatian Government would pay about $900,000 monthly for the next six months to pay civil servants and administrative and operational costs. "The initial payment is already in the pipeline", she said. With the previous amounts the Government had paid and the provision of diesel fuel and gasoline, the local administration's needs for August were expected to be met. "So, we are OK in Eastern Slavonia through the month of August." She cited UNTAES as having said: "This is a step in the right direction." Ms. Foa then presented the Secretary-General's Special Envoy for Liberia, Ambassador James Jonah, to the media. (Ambassador Jonah's briefing will be issued separately.)

* *** *

For information media. Not an official record.