DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960820
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Ahmad Fawzi, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, opened today's noon briefing by welcoming the report, released yesterday, of the Council on Foreign Relations' independent task force on United Nations reform. "We welcome the report and any such report that objectively looks at what the United Nations can do and makes recommendations to strengthen it and show that Member States are indeed interested in keeping the Organization going." For interested journalists who had not received their own copy of the report, he said a two-page news release was available which advised that they contact Michael Holtzman at (212) 734-0400 for a copy. Also available in the Spokesman's Office were two reference copies of the report.
The Deputy Spokesman said the Secretary-General was today attending the monthly Security Council luncheon hosted by its President, Ambassador Tono Eitel (Germany). In the afternoon, he would meet the Permanent Representative of India, Ambassador Prakash Shah. He was also scheduled to meet Sultan Burhanudin, Leader of the Bohra Community in India, and later in the evening, he would receive the Permanent Representative of Chile, Ambassador Juan Somavia.
As correspondents knew, the Security Council had met informally this morning on two matters: Georgia, including the establishment of a human rights office there; and Rwanda, including arms exports to that country. The Deputy Spokesman said Under-Secretary-General Ismat Kittani was expected to brief Council members on the Yemen-Eritrea question, which had been diffused last weekend with the intervention of the French, Egyptian and Ethiopian Governments and the Secretariat. The Secretary-General was also expected to discuss the Yemen-Eritrea issue today during the luncheon meeting with members of the Security Council, among other topics.
The Deputy Spokesman said the Secretary-General's report on the situation in Burundi (document S/1996/660) had been released yesterday. In the report, he reviewed the political and security situation in the country before and after the coup of last month. The most important item he had underlined at the end of the report was his appeal to the countries which had the military and logistic capability to undertake the necessary contingency planning and to go ahead with that planning to help deal rapidly with any potential disaster in Burundi.
The Secretary-General said the United Nations was ready to help within its limited capacity, but it was a delusion to think that such an operation could be planned, deployed and commanded by the United Nations as if it were a peace-keeping operation, Mr. Fawzi continued. "In other words, it was an
operation that needs a lot of muscle." At the same time, the Secretary- General said that the sanctions which had been imposed by neighbouring States should not be seen as a punishment, nor should they be allowed to add to the hardship of the people of Burundi who were already suffering so much. Sanctions were, as always, a means to an end and, in the case of Burundi, they were aimed at the opening of serious negotiations for a political settlement. The Secretary-General underlined that the international community should allow for the possibility that the worst might happen and that genocide could occur in Burundi. "In that case, whatever governments may think now, military intervention to save lives might become an inescapable imperative", the Deputy Spokesman added.
He went on to say that he had a copy of the Summary of Requirements and Contributions by Affected Country/Region, a chart prepared by the Department of Humanitarian Affairs on what the Organization required and what Member States had provided to countries in need as at 15 August. It was quite a useful chart, as it divided the world into regions, providing figures for whatever disaster a country faced, how much had been made available, what the shortfall was, and the percentage of the needs covered. For the Great Lakes region, for example, the chart showed that its requirements were $685,069,151; the shortfall, $272,332,871; and that 60 per cent of the needs had been covered. The chart also gave the number of the target beneficiaries which, in the case of the Great Lakes region, was 2.4 million.
He announced that, by the courtesy of Parliamentarians for Global Action, Burundian opposition Members of Parliament would brief correspondents at the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Club tomorrow, Wednesday, 21 August at 1:30 p.m.
In the subsequent question and answer session, the Deputy Spokesman said the Secretary-General had no comment on an article about the United Nations appearing in one of the local newspapers. "Sadly, once again, the article is loaded with inaccuracies about the United Nations, despite all the cost- cutting and reforms that we have been implementing over the past three years, and which all of you here in this room are aware of."
He quoted the writer of the article as saying that the United Nations bureaucracy was proliferating and that its costs were spiralling. He said the statement was totally inaccurate and added: "I'm sorry to say that once again he [the writer] has not done his homework."
Asked what his own version was of recent events in Haiti reported in the press, the Deputy Spokesman recalled that he had been asked that question yesterday, and said that he thought that all the details available to the Spokesman's Office were in the press, so he had nothing to add.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 20 August 1996
The correspondent said there were reports that United States troops would be arriving in Haiti today. Noting that the issue had been raised a few weeks ago, the Deputy Spokesman said that the dispatch of 50 more United States troops to Haiti fell within the context of bilateral cooperation between the two countries. The United Nations therefore had no comment. The correspondent said that the United Nations had a mission in Haiti, to which the Deputy Spokesman replied that the United Nations did not run Haiti's foreign policy. It did not involve itself in the internal affairs of a Member State. The United Nations mandate in Haiti was a restricted one. "So if they choose to have military exercises with one country or the other, that is perfectly within their right to do so. They don't need to tell us about it."
Asked whether the Secretary-General had a comment on the fighting in Chechnya, the Deputy Spokesman said the events there were indeed tragic and the Secretary-General had been following them closely. However, it was at present considered an internal matter of the Russian Federation. The Russian Federation had not requested assistance from the international community, and until it did so, the United Nations could not get involved.
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Correction: Yesterday's press briefing notes incorrectly named Leonardo Franco as the Head of the United Nations Human Rights Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) in the second line of the fifth paragraph on the first page. The Head of MINUGUA is David Stephen.