DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960823
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Ahmad Fawzi, Deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General, announced at today's noon briefing that the Permanent Representative of Australia, Richard Butler, had sent letters to the Secretary-General and General Assembly President Diego Freitas do Amaral (Portugal) requesting that a meeting of the Assembly be held on 9 September to consider and take action on a comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty pursuant to Assembly resolution 50/65 of 12 December 1995.
The Deputy spokesman said the Assembly President was now in the process of consulting with the various regional groups on the Australian request. While on the Assembly, he informed correspondents that it would hold a plenary meeting on Thursday, 29 August to consider a number of items. One concerned emergency assistance to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. A draft resolution (document A/50/L.76) presented by a group of States would have the Assembly express its deep concern about the tragic events that were caused by hurricane Cesar last July, including the tremendous damage to the infrastructure and economies of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. The Assembly would call on the international community, as a matter of urgency, to contribute generously to the extent that they were able, to relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction operations in the affected countries. The Secretary-General would be requested, in cooperation with international financial institutions, to assist the Governments of Costa Rica and Nicaragua in identifying their short-, medium- and long-term needs and also to collaborate in the reconstruction efforts undertaken by the two Governments.
The other item to be taken up by the Assembly on 29 August was the extension of the mandate of the International Civilian Mission to Haiti (MICIVIH). Notice of the Assembly's plenary meeting was on the first page of today's Journal, he stated.
As correspondents were aware, he said a presidential statement had been read out at a formal meeting of the Security Council in the morning, supporting the work of the United Nations Special Commission. As he had mentioned yesterday, the Commission's Executive Chairman, Rolf Ekeus, was scheduled to lead a team to Iraq on 25 August for talks with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz and other senior Iraqi officials on the question of the Commission's unrestricted access to arms sites in Iraq. He said the Security Council had also briefly discussed Burundi in private consultations. He believed the Council would soon have before it a proposal from the Government of Chile, on behalf of the Non-Aligned group caucus, regarding the situation in Burundi.
Two reports of the Secretary-General had been issued today: one on Liberia (document S/1996/684) and the other on Western Sahara (document S/1996/674). The Western Sahara document was a progress report which did not deal with the question of the extension of the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) which would expire on 30 November. The Secretary-General still said there had not been much progress and appealed to the parties -- the Government of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) -- to demonstrate flexibility and to cooperate with his Acting Special Representative there, Erik Jensen, in his efforts to help them find a solution to their differences. The Deputy Spokesman reminded correspondents that in his last report, the Secretary-General had recommended that the identification process be suspended until the two parties provided convincing evidence that they were committed to resuming and completing it without further obstacles. In his latest report, the Secretary-General said that given their current positions, it was unlikely that the identification process would be resumed any time soon. He also appealed to Member States that had influence with the parties to lend their support to the efforts of the United Nations.
The document on Liberia was also a progress report in which the Secretary-General noted that the Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAS) had renewed its commitment to remain engaged in Liberia until a new Government was installed on 15 June 1997 according to the revised timetable. Should the factions demonstrate their full commitment to the peace process, the Secretary-General said he intended to provide the Security Council by mid- October with recommendations on an enhanced role for the United Nations which might be needed to support the efforts of ECOWAS. In the meantime, he intended to deploy to Liberia an additional 24 monitoring observers and a few more essential civilian personnel in the fields of disarmament, elections, human rights, etc. Administrative personnel would also be sent to assist the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) to respond to developments on the ground. Finally on Liberia, the Secretary-General urged the faction leaders to remember the precedent of Somalia. The Deputy Spokesman said the international community could pull out if it did not see any progress. The Secretary-General hoped the faction leaders would seize the opportunity to restore peace in their country. If they did not, "the international community may have no choice but to disengage from Liberia", the report added.
The Deputy Spokesman said the mid-monthly summary of outstanding contributions to the United Nations regular budget was available in the Spokesman's Office. As of 15 August, outstanding assessed contributions to the United Nations totalled $2.1 billion. Of the amount, $776.6 million was for the regular budget and $2.1 billion, for peace-keeping operations. He said an additional $21.7 million was owed for the International Tribunals. Included in the figure for peace-keeping were assessments within the 30-day due period.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 23 August 1996
On Cyprus, he said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sung-Joo Han, was due on the island on 10 September, to be followed by visits to Athens and Ankara.
In the subsequent question-and-answer session, a correspondent asked whether the United Nations Legal Counsel had issued any legal advice on the election of a Secretary-General. "To whom would he have presented the advice?" the Deputy Spokesman asked the correspondent. The correspondent had assumed, he said, that the Legal Counsel had been requested to do so. The correspondent said he merely wondered whether such advice had been requested, to which the Deputy Spokesman said as far as he was aware, it had not.
Asked what majority would be required for the approval of the draft nuclear test-ban treaty, he said he did not, and would not like to get into those details until the General Assembly had acted on the Australian letter. Asked whether the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Cyprus would visit Headquarters before or after his trip to the island, he said that to his knowledge, as announced in Nicosia, Mr. Han was expected there on 10 September. It had not been stated that he would stop at Headquarters on his way there. Mr. Han had been in New York a few weeks ago and the Deputy Spokesman did not think there was a need for him to do so again.
Was the General Assembly meeting on Haiti a pledging conference? a correspondent asked. It was a meeting on agenda item 38 (the situation of democracy and human rights in Haiti) to consider a draft resolution which would recommend the extension of the mandate of MICIVIH. Responding to further questions on the item, he said there had been a problem with the financing of that and other missions. In the meantime, the General Assembly had told the Secretary-General to continue to finance MICIVIH from the regular budget.
Mr. Fawzi told correspondents, in response to a question, that he saw no reason why any Secretariat official should be present in Chicago next week. To a follow-up question he added: "We always stand ready, as good soldiers of this Organization, to defend it against any inaccuracies". He did not, however, anticipate "anything controversial" about the United Nations coming out of Chicago.
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Correction: In the last line of the second page and the first line of the third page of the briefing notes of 21 August, references to the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH) should have read United Nations Special Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH).