DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19960918
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
The Spokesman for the Secretary-General Sylvana Foa began today's noon briefing by announcing that the Secretary-General had called Switzerland to speak with Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko to inquire about his health following recent medical treatment. The President assured the Secretary- General that he was in excellent health and intended to return "very, very quickly" to Zaire. The Secretary-General offered his best wishes and they had a good talk.
At 10 a.m. the Secretary-General had attended a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate the thirty-fifth anniversary of the death of former Secretary- General Dag Hammarskjold. He then attended the opening of the commemorative exhibit "Dag Hammarskjold: Markings and Milestones" in the Visitors' Lobby. A copy of the Secretary-General's remarks was available in the Spokesman's office.
The Secretary-General was meeting at 12 p.m. today with the Force Commander of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), Major General Stanislaw F. Wozniak, on events in southern Lebanon. At 12:30 p.m. he was scheduled to meet Dr. Adel Safty, Professor, British Columbia University and Director of the Leadership Academy at United Nations University.
Ms. Foa said the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Tajikistan (document S/1996/754) was out. The Secretary-General stated that the situation had deteriorated in the last three months. The agreements reached in Ashgabat last July, which provided a real opportunity to stop fighting, have not been implemented. On the contrary, military confrontations have intensified in the Garm district. A tense situation exists on the Tajik-Afghan border.
The Secretary-General states in his report that the freedom of movement of military observers has been restricted, she continued. Those developments were a cause of serious concern; hostilities must cease immediately. It was imperative to resume political dialogue, according to the Secretary-General. He had taken note of the recent statements of President Rakhmonov and Mr. Nuri on their readiness to resume their direct contacts. He had instructed his Special Representative, Gerd Merrem, to provide any assistance in the preparation of such a meeting.
In view of the tragic humanitarian crisis in Tajikistan, the Secretary- General had asked the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs to arrange for an inter-agency mission to Tajikistan to help determine how the United Nations system may respond most effectively to the situation, Ms. Foa said.
The Security Council was today considering that report, she added. Also, Chinmaya R. Gharekhan, Under-Secretary-General and Senior Adviser to the Secretary-General was briefing the Council on the situations in Liberia and in Georgia.
"Now for the good news", Ms. Foa said. "Remember the Chemical Weapons Convention? The sixty-fourth country has ratified ... Cameroon." The Convention would enter into force 180 days after the deposit of the sixty- fifth ratification, she said. "There must be a sixty-fifth country out there somewhere."
Ms. Foa then said, "I have to admit that yesterday I inadvertently misled you, lied to you and gave you wrong information. I apologize. There was a call about this donation from Taiwan. Yesterday morning we called up everyone and their brother to find out if anybody had received a call about this donation from Taiwan. We made a mistake; we called everybody except the people who answer the phone. Those are the people you should ask first, not their bosses."
Late on Monday, someone, without saying who it was, had called the Treasury Department asking how it could make a donation to the Organization. When told "write a cheque to the United Nations and send it to UN Plaza, and we'll be very happy", the caller said that the cheque was for a considerable sum of money, and that it was being offered by more than 40,000 people. "The call was passed to the Contributions Section", she continued. "Unfortunately the Contributions Section Chief has been out sick for the last two days, so we don't know the rest of the conversation, if there was a rest of the conversation."
Under the financial regulations of the United Nations, she said, voluntary contributions, gifts or donations could be accepted provided that the purposes for which the contributions were being made were consistent with the policies, aims and activities of the Organization. The United Nations Office of Legal Affairs had determined that that was not a bona fide private donation but was being made by the authorities in Taiwan as part of an attempt to publicize the United Nations membership aims of Taiwan. In light of General Assembly resolution 2758 (XXVI) of 25 October 1971, which recognized the Government of the People's Republic of China as the only lawful representative of China to the Organization, the United Nations was not in a position to accept the donation.
Ms. Foa said that Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Alvaro de Soto was travelling to El Salvador to meet with President Armando Calderon Sol regarding progress in the implementation of the 1992 peace accords. Mr. De Soto's mission was in the context of the responsibilities undertaken by the United Nations to verify the implementation of all peace accords, she added. "We hope he has a good mission. We've had El Salvador around for a long time."
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 18 September 1996
At 4 p.m. Thursday, 19 September, in the Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, the United Nations would be unveiling its new Internet home page, she said. Delegations and press were invited. The new features and information resources of that page would be explained at that time.
Ms. Foa then announced the following press conferences, to take place in room 226, tomorrow, 19 September. At 11 a.m. the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia), would brief correspondents; at 3:15 p.m., the Permanent Representative of Bulgaria, Slavi Pashovski, would discuss the opening of the Assembly's fifty-first session and also the situation in his country.
Ms. Foa said she had received a note from a senior official of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs (DHA) saying that a senior official of the Department in northern Iraq had met yesterday with Mr. Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) who gave the United Nations assurances that it would be able to deliver humanitarian assistance without impediment. He had also urged the United Nations and non-governmental organizations to stay in the region. Some 80 representatives of non-governmental organizations had also received similar assurances from local authorities. According to the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, tensions in that region had decreased, and the number of internally-displaced persons was now well below 20,000.
The new edition of the United Nations Handbook, a publication of the Government of New Zealand, was now available, Ms. Foa said. That book could answer many of the types of queries that the Spokesman's office received on a daily basis. It had been published annually for 34 years and was available for $25 from the Permanent Mission of New Zealand.
When asked for a list of the 64 countries which had ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, Ms. Foa said that the list was available in her office.
Following up to a query at yesterday's noon briefing regarding comments by Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management Joseph E. Connor, she said that if every meeting of the United Nations in New York began 10 minutes late, it would cost the Organization some $875,000 per annum.
Given that the United Nations had received assurances regarding the delivery of humanitarian assistance in northern Iraq, a correspondent said, what were the implications for the deployment of observers in accordance with Security Council resolution 986 (1995)?
Ms. Foa said that the Secretary-General would not move forward with observers until the "dust settled" regarding the security situation. Also, two technical, administrative issues had to be resolved before staff could be put on the ground, she said. First, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 661 (1990), which is monitoring the
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 18 September 1996
sanctions against Iraq, needed to give its okay on the oil pricing formula. Second, the United States Treasury Department needed to grant a sanctions exception to the Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP) so it could open an escrow account in the United States.
Asked for information on the meeting yesterday between the Secretary- General and Nizar Hamdoon, Permanent Representative of Iraq, Ahmad Fawzi, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, said that they had discussed the implementation of Security Council resolution 986 -- on the "oil-for-food formula" -- and the memorandum of understanding. The Secretary-General had informed Mr. Hamdoon that the Secretariat was proceeding on implementation at a "reasonable pace".
To a question on the lifting of sanctions on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) following the elections, Mr. Fawzi said that economic sanctions had been suspended, while the arms embargo had been terminated. The Security Council would have to make a determination regarding the definitive termination of economic sanctions.
The correspondent stated that by the terms of Security Council resolution 1022 (1995), sanctions were to be automatically lifted 10 days after the conclusion of free and fair elections. Mr. Fawzi stated that while that was true, the elections did have to be certified as free and fair. Council members were now consulting on whether sanctions should be lifted 10 days after the elections -- on 24 September -- or upon the certification of the elections. If the elections were not declared free and fair, the lifting of sanctions may be delayed.
To a question on the expiry of the contract of the United Nations' sound engineers, Ms. Foa said that last July, an interim, seven-month contract had been signed between the United Nations and EJ Electric. So as to not wait until the last minute, the United Nations had requested EJ Electric to proceed with the development of that new contract. That process was now under way.
To a question on additional co-sponsors in the General Assembly's General Committee for the inclusion of the item on "Consideration of the exceptional situation of the inability, resulting from General Assembly resolution 2758 (XXVI), of the 21.3 million people on Taiwan, Republic of China, to participate in the activities of the United Nations", the spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly, Samsiah Abdul-Majid, said she would provide the additional list if there was one. There would be 47 speakers in the General Committee.
To a question regarding whether or not the Secretary-General had asked President Mobutu of Zaire about the situation of staff members of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in his country, Ms. Foa said that the conversation had been confined to Mr. Mobutu's health. Discussions were under way between United Nations agencies in Zaire and that Government,
Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 18 September 1996
she added. The incidents in question were being taken very seriously. She had heard of several minor incidents recently, including incidents with staff of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) riding in a vehicle of the World Food Programme (WFP). As the incidents had taken place in a very remote region, information was taking up to five days to reach Headquarters.
Ms. Abdul-Majid then told correspondents that her new telephone number would be 963-4884. She had in her possession the statements made in the General Committee by the representatives of China and of Solomon Islands. Copies would be made available at the document's counter on the third floor.
When would the General Committee consider the request by Libya for the inclusion of an agenda item concerning coercive economic measures? a correspondent asked.
Ms. Abdul-Majid said items were considered according to the order of their listing in the provisional agenda. Consideration of the items relating to coercive economic measures and the recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, which appeared later in the provisional agenda, would depend on how long the Committee would take to consider the item relating to the inability of the "21.3 million people in Taiwan, Republic of China, to participate in the activities of the United Nations".
* *** *