DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960822
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Ahmad Fawzi, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by informing correspondents that Assistant Secretary-General Lansana Kouyate of the Department of Political Affairs was briefing the Security Council on the situation in Angola. Anticipating that correspondents might wonder why, the Deputy Spokesman said the Council had requested the Secretary-General to report to it by the third week of August on developments in Angola, particularly whether the two parties -- the Government of Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) -- had fulfilled the task of forming a government of national unity and reconciliation.
The Deputy Spokesman said Mr. Kouyate would also tell the Security Council that UNITA, at its current congress which began on 20 August, was expected to make significant decisions, hopefully, regarding its participation in the government, in particular the role its leader, Jonas Savimbi, would play. The Secretariat had been told that, generally speaking, the cease-fire continued to hold throughout Angola. There had been some few minor violations and some instances of banditry in a number of provinces, but "things are moving along, albeit at a slow pace". The situation had been such that the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, had today told a press conference in Luanda that the slowness of the peace process demanded the right response from everybody involved. The challenge now, he had said, was to move the process forward once the UNITA congress was over.
The Deputy Spokesman said that at present there were only two quartering areas open for the induction of UNITA troops. As of 20 August, a total of 59,185 UNITA troops had been quartered. The disarmament of civilians was also continuing and 1,035 firearms had been collected from various groups.
Another issue to be discussed informally by the Security Council was Cambodia, he went on. It had been nearly two years since the subject came up, he said, adding that there had been "a lot of developments" since then. He said another Assistant Secretary-General in the Department of Political Affairs, Alvaro de Soto, would brief the Council on developments in Cambodia. There had been a series of positive developments there: Cambodia was now a pluralistic society; the maintenance of the governing coalition was a positive factor and there had been a steady economic growth in the country.
United Nations presence in Cambodia had diminished considerably from the 22,000 United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) troops two years ago to one representative of the Secretary-General, Benny Widyono, who was being
Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 22 August 1996
assisted by a military adviser. There was also a United Nations centre on human rights in Phnom Penh which was established a year ago with the approval of the Government to provide technical assistance and advisory services in the field of human rights in Cambodia. The Deputy Spokesman said that most recently, the United Nations had been requested to assist Cambodia in coordinating technical assistance being provided by donor countries and organizations for its forthcoming elections. The first would be held at district level in 1997 followed by a national vote in 1998. In response to the request, a "needs assessment" mission from the Electoral Division of the Department of Political Affairs had been sent to Cambodia to evaluate the situation on the ground. The mission would confer with the Cambodian authorities and with electoral experts from donor countries.
A third topic on the Council's agenda today which should be of interest to correspondents, the Deputy Spokesman said, was Iraq. It was expected to consider a draft presidential statement expressing support for the work of the United Nations Special Commission and repeating Iraq's obligations to cooperate with the Commission. Anticipating reporters' questions, he said a team from the Commission, headed by its Executive Chairman, Rolf Ekeus, would visit Iraq on Friday, 23 August, at the invitation of the country's Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz. Mr. Ekeus would be in Baghdad from 25 to 27 August and was expected to return to New York on 29 August. Mr. Ekeus would hold talks with Mr. Aziz and other Iraqi officials on the question of unrestricted access for the Commission to arms sites in Iraq.
Another briefer of the Council today under its agenda item, "other matters", would be the Under-Secretary-General of Humanitarian Affairs, Yasushi Akashi. He would brief on the United Nations humanitarian presence in Iraq.
The Deputy Spokesman said the Spokesman's Office had an update from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on its airlift of supplies as more Chechens flee Grozny. It had a plane leaving Belgium at midnight tonight carrying emergency relief supplies for an influx of more than 23,000 Chechens into Ingushetia and Dagestan. Interested correspondents could pick up copies at the Spokesman's Office. He also announced that the United Nations Association of the United States had a new president, Alvin Adams, Jr., whom he wished well.
Responding to questions, the Deputy Spokesman reiterated his statement of yesterday that it would be inappropriate for the Secretary-General to comment on any movement that a Member State or a group of States might make to bring the draft text of the nuclear test-ban treaty to the attention of the General Assembly. It was unfortunate that the adoption of the treaty had been blocked at the United Nations Conference on Disarmament in Geneva earlier in the week. The Secretary-General hoped the international community would come up with some formula "to save the day". He could, however, only repeat that the Secretary- General had been consistently concerned about the proliferation of arms -- nuclear and conventional -- and had spoken on numerous occasions on the necessity for both macro- and micro-disarmament. On his behalf, he appealed to Member States to agree on a formula by which to save the world from such weapons of mass destruction. * *** *