DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960904
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at the outset of today's noon briefing that the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission monitoring the disarmament of Iraq, Rolf Ekeus, would presently address them. "I will get through my part as quickly as possible, that is if you let me", Ms. Foa said, as she introduced Mr. Ekeus. (Mr. Ekeus' briefing is being issued separately.)
The Secretary-General's first official meeting of the morning had been with the Permanent Representative of Ireland John H.F. Campbell, Ms. Foa said. As correspondents were aware, Ireland had currently the Presidency of the European Union. The Ambassador would be discussing with the Secretary-General the priorities of the European Union for the fifty-first regular session of the General Assembly. They would also discuss the current situation with United Nations reform and the comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty.
Later in the morning, the Secretary-General would be receiving "a whole bunch of new good sources for all of us", Ms. Foa said. He was scheduled to receive the new Permanent Representatives of Venezuela, the Kyrgyz Republic, New Zealand, Namibia and Argentina, she said, adding "we will be sending notes to them telling them that obviously the press needs to know everything first".
In the afternoon, the Secretary-General would meet with the Permanent Representatives of Brazil and Gambia, Ms. Foa said. She added that she did not have a read-out of those meeting yet. In addition, the Secretary-General would meet with Dame Margaret Anstee, who had just written a report on the United Nations role in post-conflict peace-building. The Secretary-General had found the report very interesting and wanted to discuss it with her.
"His last big meeting of the day is with Luis Ayala, the Secretary- General of the Socialist International. The Socialist International, a group of democratic and socialist parties from more than a 100 countries, was scheduled to hold a big meeting at the United Nations", Ms. Foa said, adding "we have a lot of VIPs coming in. We are trying to get you a list in case you want to corner any of them". At least 51 of the parties currently in power would be coming to the meeting. Her office was trying to get Mr. Ayala to come and talk to the press at some point, because "I have had an awful lot of questions about it", she said.
Yesterday the Secretary-General had met with Mohamed Osman Al-Mirghany, the leader of the National Democratic Alliance of the Sudan, Ms. Foa said. The National Democratic Alliance of the Sudan was an umbrella organization for an array of Sudanese opposition parties and movements. Mr. Al-Mirghany had requested the meeting to apprise the Secretary-General of the deteriorating
situation in his country. He had emphasized that the ongoing situation constituted a serious violation of the basic human rights of the Sudanese people and that the international community should lend its attention to the suffering people of the Sudan.
Ms. Foa added that the Secretary-General had referred to the report he had submitted to the Security Council under resolution 1054 (1996), as well as to the replies received from Member States on their compliance with that resolution. He had reviewed with Mr. Al-Mirghany the various peace initiatives to reach a peaceful solution to the civil war in the Sudan. He had reaffirmed the role that the United Nations continued to play in alleviating the humanitarian situation in that country through operation lifeline sudan (OLS). A statement on the meeting was available in the Spokesman's office.
"Boy! its been a long time since I have been able to say thank you to anybody, I don't know how long", Ms. Foa said, as she declared that an eighty- seventh Member State had paid its 1996 regular budget dues in full to the United Nations. "Only 98 bottles left on the wall", she said, adding "are you going to be surprised when I tell you who the latest Member State to pay is. Cambodia. Thank you Cambodia for a $108,770. And if Cambodia can afford to pay its dues, excuse me the rest can." The United Nations was still owed $2.9 billion, she said and added that it "never seems to go down".
The Secretary-General's monthly report on the United Nations Transitional Administration Force for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) (document S/1996/705) had been issued, Ms. Foa said. The Secretary-General had noted that several positive developments over the past month had occurred. The Croatian Government had decided to provide 4.5 million kunas ($860,000) per month to finance local administration and public services in Eastern Slavonia. Another positive development had been the agreement between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia to normalize relations and to declare general amnesty for all acts committed in connection with armed conflict, except war crimes.
"On the not-so-positive side, the Secretary-General points out the unhelpful attitude of some hard-line elements in the local Serb leadership and the continuing uncertainty over the duration of UNTAES' mandate", Ms. Foa said. Questions still existed about the timing of elections and assurances from the Croatian Government for the preservation of a multi-ethnic society once the UNTAES mission ended. Concerning elections, it now appeared that the Croatian Government was coming to realize that the elections would not be practicable before late February or March 1997. But, overall the UNTAES mission was on track.
The Security Council would be meeting at 3:30 p.m. for consultations of the whole, she said. It had before it two very different documents, one was a draft resolution on Iraq and the other a draft presidential statement.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 4 September 1996
"Yesterday, they ended up by saying that they were going to go talk to their capitals and we will see what happens today", she added.
There was a good press release from the United Nations Humanitarian Assistance Office in Liberia (UN-HACO) in her office, Ms. Foa said. The new Chairperson of the Council of State, Madam Ruth Sando Perry, had said that "enough is enough.". She was demanding that the children of Liberia be allowed to lay down their arms and come back to their homes, schools and families. In Liberia today and estimated 15,000 child soldiers were serving in all the factions. Twenty-five per cent of the 321 bodies that had been buried in May alone, after the violence in Monrovia, were those of children under 10 years of age.
At 3 p.m. today, the Permanent Representative of Australia, Richard Butler, would give an update on the comprehensive nuclear test-ban treaty in room 226, Ms. Foa said. She also announced a free lunch tomorrow, 5 September, at 1 p.m. in the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) lounge. The completion of the nuclear test-ban treaty would be discussed and the speakers would include Ambassador James Leonard, who was a former disarmament negotiator, Daryl Kimball, the Director of the Security Programmes for Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Dan Plesch, the Director of the British-American Security Information Council.
Responding to a question raised in the morning about the three-man oil inspector advance team that had gone to Iraq over the weekend, Ms. Foa said, it had completed its talks. The team had some useful meetings and would be leaving tomorrow to go back to Rotterdam.
A correspondent wanted to know whether the United Nations had authorized the no-fly zone in Iraq. Ms. Foa replied that in April 1991, the Security Council had passed resolution 688 which had become rather famous in the last few days. That resolution condemned the repression of minorities in Iraq, specifically of the Kurdish minorities. Sometime, shortly thereafter, the United States, United Kingdom and France had used resolution 688 as the basis for creating the no-fly zone in the north, above the 36th parallel. About a year later, they had used the same resolution as the basis for creating the no-fly zone in the south.
Ms. Foa added that the question was totally within the competence of the Security Council. There were Member States which felt that resolution 688 provided a basis for what was going on right now and there were other Member States which clearly did not share that interpretation. However, the question was totally within the competence of the Security Council and seemed to be one of the matters that it was discussing.
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Correction: In the summary of the 30 August press conference by the Permanent Representative of India, the fourth line should quote the Ambassador as saying, " ...and we will vote against the [Australian] draft resolution".