In progress at UNHQ

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

28 August 1996



Press Briefing

DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL

19960828 FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY

Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by saying that there was good news on the Bakassi Peninsula dispute. Yesterday the Secretary-General had received a letter from General Sani Abacha of Nigeria, which said that after meeting with the Secretary-General's special envoys, Ambassador Lakhdar Brahimi and Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lansana Kouyate, General Abacha would be willing to receive the proposed United Nations goodwill mission. So now both Cameroon and Nigeria had agreed to cooperate with the United Nations mission, and it was hoped that it would be possible to get it moving quite soon. The Department of Political Affairs was working out the terms of reference and would be consulting with the two Governments on the timing of the mission.

There was also some good news from Lesser Hanish island, Ms. Foa said. In the morning, Mr. Kouyate had spoken with the charge d'affaires of Eritrea and was given verbal assurances that Eritrea had withdrawn from the island as promised. The Deputy Permanent Representative of France had also reported that France saw no "visible presence" on the island. The Secretary-General was informing the Security Council and Yemen accordingly. "We're very, very happy to see that this has been defused."

On the subject of Burundi, the Council was in the process of hearing from 25 speakers. "You can see the importance that countries attach to what is going on in that country", Ms. Foa said.

She said that at 3:30 p.m. in Conference Room 7 there would be a meeting of the Committee established pursuant to Council resolution 661 (1990) to monitor the sanctions against Iraq. The Committee had quite a full agenda. Some experts would be coming in to testify.

There was a draft resolution on Liberia, the Spokesman continued. It agreed to the three-month extension of the mandate of United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), as requested by the Secretary-General in his latest report on Liberia. The draft resolution also supported the Secretary- General's request to add 24 military observers to the mission. Ten were currently deployed.

In the morning in Baghdad, Rolf Ekeus, Executive Chairman of the Special Commission established by Security Council resolution 687 (1991) to investigate Iraq's biological, chemical and missile capabilities, had met with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, the Spokesman said. It was their fourth meeting during Mr. Ekeus's current visit to Iraq. He later flew to Bahrain. He was expected back in New York tomorrow. It was not known when he would be briefing the Security Council, but the Spokesman's Office would try to keep correspondents informed.

Daily Press Briefing - 2 - 28 August 1996

Ms. Foa confirmed that a Finnish peace-keeper had been slightly injured in southern Lebanon at 11 a.m. local time today when a mortar broke glass in his observation tower. He was cut on the face. He was treated at the Finnish battalion headquarters. No hospitalization was required. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) had immediately lodged a protest with the Israeli Defense Forces and the South Lebanon Army. "Even though the injury was minor, we consider the incident to be quite serious. This is the first shelling incident since we were given assurances that there would be no shelling in UNIFIL areas.

"And that's really it, kids, sorry. We scrounged and scrounged and scrounged and scrounged. We're even trying to find out how many parking tickets people at the United Nations have not paid. Anything", she said.

A correspondent asked what the Security Council was going to do about the issue of demining in the context of peace-keeping operations. The Spokesman said a presidential statement on the subject was expected tomorrow.

Another correspondent asked when a copy would be made available of the draft resolution and the draft comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty that Australian Ambassador Richard Butler had submitted to General Assembly President Diogo Freitas do Amaral (Portugal).

Associate Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt said that the heads of the regional groups of the General Assembly were going to report to Mr. do Amaral some time today, at which point it would be possible to know what action the Assembly was going to take. The text of the treaty was expected to be released either Friday or Tuesday.

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For information media. Not an official record.