DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960812
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
"I've been waiting all week to use this line", Sylvana Foa, the Spokesman for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, said at the opening of today's noon briefing. "The Secretary-General is out of the woods." He was back at Headquarters, receiving the credentials of two new Permanent Representatives: Paul Bamela Engo of Cameroon and Alfredo Lopes Cabral of Guinea-Bissau. Later today he would be meeting with Crown Prince Dipendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev of the Kingdom of Nepal; the Secretary-General would also hold a luncheon in the Crown Prince's honour.
Yesterday, the Spokesman said, a demonstration by a Cypriot motorcycle association in Cyprus turned violent when the demonstrators entered the United Nations buffer zone and confronted Turkish troops and Turkish Cypriot counter- demonstrators on the Turkish forces' cease-fire line. The Government had persuaded the demonstrators to desist from their original plan to break through the cease-fire lines en masse. However, the Cyprus police acted slowly when groups of demonstrators breached the United Nations buffer zone in several places.
At the same time, Ms. Foa continued, the Turkish forces allowed Turkish Cypriot civilians armed with sticks and pipes to enter a military zone where access is normally restricted and to pass through into the United Nations buffer zone where they clashed with the demonstrators. Despite the efforts of the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) to control the situation in the buffer zone, an estimated 70 civilians from both sides were injured and one Greek Cypriot demonstrator was beaten so severely that he died of his injuries. At great personal risk, two Irish United Nations civilian police came to his aid; unfortunately, they were too late. Twelve United Nations personnel also sustained injuries. (Two of them were Irish Civilian Police, one was from the Hungarian contingent and nine were from the Austrian contingent.) UNFICYP is pursuing its investigations of the various clashes that took place.
The Spokesman said it is not the task of the United Nations to control demonstrations. The Organization's limited resources were stretched to the fullest, trying to control the fast-moving disparate groups of demonstrators on both sides. Some of the demonstrators were armed, and groups entered the buffer zone simultaneously in several areas. It was the responsibility of the authorities on the island to control demonstrations. Needless to say, it would have been better to prevent this kind of event, which does nothing to further efforts to find a durable solution to the Cyprus problem.
"They're very angry about this upstairs in Peace-keeping", Ms. Foa added.
The Secretary-General's report on the establishment of a human rights office in Abkhazia, Georgia, was expected to be issued tomorrow. The Security Council was expected to take up the report on Thursday, 15 August. The Council's resolution 1065 (1996) of 12 July reaffirmed the necessity for the parties to the Georgian Abkhaz conflict to strictly respect human rights and expressed the Council's support for the Secretary-General's efforts to find ways to improve their observance as an integral part of the efforts to reach a comprehensive political settlement. In his report to the Council, the Secretary-General envisages that the High Commissioner on Human Rights, Jose Ayala Lasso, would deploy one professional officer to Abkhazia, with the understanding that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) would also deploy one qualified person. For reasons of efficiency and security, the human rights office would be located together with the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) office in Sukhumi. The Secretary-General's report also sets out the modalities of the proposed human rights programme, as well as options for its financing.
No Security Council meeting was planned for today. Tomorrow, the Council was expected to hold informal consultations on the situation in Afghanistan. Those consultations would be preceded by a briefing from Under- Secretary-General Chinmaya R. Gharekhan, Senior Advisor to the Secretary- General, on the current efforts of the new Head of the United Nations Special Mission for Afghanistan, Norbert Holl -- "who seems to be a very fast-moving guy", the Spokesman said.
The report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council on the situation in Burundi was being finalized, Ms. Foa continued. The Security Council was expected to continue informal consultations on a possible draft resolution based on a Chilean proposal currently being considered by the Non- Aligned Movement caucus. There were currently 151 United Nations staff inside Burundi at the moment. The Organization was considering relocating about 35 of them. At the moment the situation was reported calm in Bujumbura and throughout the country.
The latest update of who owes what to the United Nations was available in the Spokesman's Office, she said. As of 31 July, outstanding assessed contributions totalled $3 billion: $800 for regular budget, $2.2 billion for peace-keeping. An additional $24 million was owed to the international tribunals.
The United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) was very happy to be undertaking a new operation, which was a little more fun than their regular mine-clearance work, the Spokesman said. The Mission and the World Health Organization (WHO) had kicked off a campaign to vaccinate all Angolan children against polio. The campaign was inaugurated in downtown Luanda by Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos. UNAVEM was giving WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) helicopter, fuel, land
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 12 August 1996
transportation and communications support. Within the next few days, United Nations soldiers would themselves be vaccinating Angolan children throughout the country. The goal was to rid all of Angola of polio by the year 2000. It was part of a global strategy to eradicate the disease.
Asked if there was information on shortages in Burundi, the Spokesman said that to date there was not anything new.
Asked when the United Nations might decide to relocate the 35 staff in Burundi, she said, "It depends on les evenements". For the moment no one was going anywhere.
A correspondent asked for further information on the Solomon Islands, following up on reports that the Secretary-General had received a June letter from Prime Minister Solomon S. Mamaloni requesting assistance with respect to problems that had arisen between his country and Papua New Guinea. Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General Ahmad Fawzi recalled that on 1 July the Secretary-General had responded to Prime Minister Mamaloni, stating he would study the matter and conduct talks with the parties. The Department of Political Affairs had done so and was now in the process of analyzing the information it had received and preparing a substantial response.
Asked if the incidents in the buffer zone would be a setback to the peace process in Cyprus, the Spokesman said people were concerned, "but sometimes a tragedy like this can bring people quickly to their senses and they might just now sit down and start these talks".
Asked to say more about the Department of Peace-Keeping Operations' anger about the incidents, Ms. Foa said, "When you have people storming into the buffer zone -- despite pleas from the Government and the Secretary- General, despite everybody knowing that such an action could lead to tragedy - -and these guys go into that buffer zone and go after each other with rocks and sticks and God only knows what else: this is not on."
Asked for a reaction to the United States Republican Party's platform, which mentions the United Nations, the Spokesman said, "They didn't send me a copy." She would look into the matter.
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