DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961001
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that he had met this morning with the President of the Security Council for the month of October, Gerardo Martinez Blanco (Honduras), and they talked about the Council's work this month. "In that regard and throwing tradition to the winds, the Security Council will meet today at 3:30 p.m for consultations on the former Yugoslavia", she added, referring to the tradition of no Security Council meetings on the first day of a new presidency.
Ms. Foa then introduced United Nations Transitional Administrator for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, Jacques Klein, who was present at today's briefing. (Mr. Klein's briefing is being issued separately.)
The Secretary-General's other appointments this morning, she said, included the Foreign Minister of Namibia, Theo Ben-Gurirab; Albert, Crown Prince of Monaco; and the Prime Minister of Mongolia, Mendsaikhany Enkhsaikhan.
This afternoon, he would meet with the Vice-Foreign Minister of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Su Hon Choe, and the Foreign Ministers of Australia, Alexander Downer; Benin, Pierre Osho; Uruguay, Alvaro Ramos; United Arab Emirates, Rashid Abdullah Al-Noaimi; Lebanon, Fares Boueiz; Lao People's Democratic Republic, Somsavat Lengavad; and Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al- Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. "Another busy day around here. We have a lot of visitors", she added.
"My phone only rang 27,000 times this morning, with people looking for a time-frame on resolution 986", Ms. Foa said, referring to the implementation of Security Council resolution 986 (1995) which authorizes Iraq to sell a limited amount of oil in exchange for medicine and food. There were a lot of rumours circulating on implementation of the resolution but she could not give correspondents "a time-frame" because it was a process that was moving. The United States Treasury Department approval for the opening of an escrow account had been sent to the United Nations and the Banque National de Paris last Friday. "Why it didn't reach my office? We won't even bring that up", she added.
On the question of security, the United Nations wanted to make sure "the dust is settled" and things were stable before it deployed in Iraq, she continued. It did not want to have to pull people back. United Nations people throughout Iraq had been asked to give an assessment of the situation. "We want to make sure the conditions are right... obviously we want to get moving, but there is no time-frame", she added.
A correspondent asked if there was information on the pricing formula. Ms. Foa replied that the formula had not yet been approved, but she understood that the resolution of the pricing formula was not indispensable to the implementation of resolution 986. The Secretary-General could send his report to the Security Council without agreement on the formula. It would just mean that each oil deal would have to be approved individually.
A report dated 13 September (document A/51/304) on the improved status of women in the Secretariat had been released today, Ms. Foa said. It included a lot of useful statistics and information on women's advancement. She reminded correspondents that the Secretary-General had set a target of 50/50 gender parity at the United Nations by the year 2000. According to the report, that goal appears "elusive".
The good news was that as of 30 June, women professionals made up 35.1 per cent of the Secretariat staff, up from 23.1 per cent in 1985, Ms. Foa continued.
Ms. Foa said the bad news was that women in policy decision-making levels -- D-1 level and above -- accounted for only 17.9 per cent of the Secretariat staff, while the Secretary-General's goal was to have 25 per cent of women at those levels by the end of the century. "So he has to hire a lot of very high-ranking women very quickly or promote all of us", she added. According to the report, the current financial crisis had an effect on the hiring and promotion of women and ongoing creative measures must be found to protect the gains achieved and fulfil the equality objectives, Ms. Foa said, adding that it was an interesting report worth keeping in the files.
"Yes, I can confirm that the fiftieth State to either ratify, accept, approve or accede to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was Chad, which did so on 27 September", Ms. Foa said. That meant the Convention could come into force on 26 December 1996 for the States which had ratified, accepted or approved it. The Convention was an environmental treaty that was born at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and was adopted in June 1994. It basically commits States to implementing solid, national commitments to combat erosion and soil degradation. Some 70 per cent of the 5.2 billion hectares of drylands used for agriculture around the world were already degraded and desertification affected 30 per cent of the earth's total area.
This morning, Mongolia, Cape Verde and Monaco signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), bringing to 97 the number of States which had signed, Ms. Foa said. Another country was expected to sign this afternoon. Yesterday, four countries -- Kazakstan, Lesotho, Slovakia and Yemen -- signed the Treaty.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 1 October 1996
The Secretary-General's report on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, dated 23 August (document A/51/305) had also been released today, Ms. Foa said. It was a review of the management structure in the civilian staff component of the United Nations Peace Forces in the former Yugoslavia (UNPF), the problems and what the United Nations did right and what it did wrong.
Continuing, she said, "There are some interesting things here on what we did wrong and I bring it to your attention or else the Michigan militia will probably get it before you do. For instance, the report says that almost 900 generators were purchased by the UNPF, at a cost of approximately $6 million, that were never used. Well it's not their fault that the power didn't go off, but anyway they were ready."
Ms. Foa reminded correspondents that today, Judge Louise Arbour (Canada) would succeed Justice Richard Goldstone as Prosecutor for both the International Criminal Tribunal, for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Ms. Foa said she would try and get Judge Arbour to speak at the noon briefing next week.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) had signed an agreement to provide technical assistance to the Government of Saudi Arabia to help it meet the requirements for membership in the World Trade Organization, Ms. Foa continued. Evidently, joining the Organization was very complex and required all sorts of technical documentation, she added. Once Saudi Arabia was a member, its business community would be able to promote investment and foreign trade. If correspondents wanted more information, they should contact UNDP, she said.
Ms. Foa then announced the following press conferences for tomorrow, 2 October, in room 226: the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Representative of Belarus at 10:15 a.m.; the Bulgarian Minister for Foreign Affairs at 3 p.m., regarding the current Assembly session and Bulgaria's initiatives for regional stability and cooperation in south-eastern Europe.
The Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) on developments and activities in the region from 1 April to 23 September, was out today Ms. Foa said. The report described the general situation in the demilitarized zone as calm and said there had been no major violations or serious incidents. However, there had been 32 complaints -- 19 from Kuwait, 12 from Iraq and one common to both -- and 23 complaints had been verified during the period. A limited number of the report was available in the Spokesman's office, which would make copies if needed, she added.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 1 October 1996
Referring to the report on the status of women, a correspondent asked if the 35.1 per cent women staff levels had been achieved by hiring beautiful women or firing ugly men? Ms. Foa said that the women's focal points might have to be invited to the noon briefing. "I would like to know how you achieved .1 per cent of a person", she added.
A correspondent asked how many people had been fired? Were they men or women? Ms. Foa replied that the United Nations had lost 1,000 staff through downsizing and she would get a gender breakdown of that figure. She recommended an article in this week's The Economist on what was happening to men.
A correspondent asked for information on reports that the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, would be coming to the United Nations on Thursday. Ms. Foa said she had not heard that report, but she would check. Obviously, the Secretary-General had been watching the progress of the talks in Washington, D.C. and hoped they would help defuse the situation and restart the peace process, she added.
Were there statistics on the numbers of people seconded by governments to work at the United Nations without pay? a correspondent asked. Ms. Foa said that governments regularly helped the United Nations by seconding people to work for the Organization, but she assured the correspondent that the governments paid the salaries. She would get a gender breakdown of the number of people working under that arrangement.
Samsiah Abdul Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), said a statement by the President at the annual ministerial meeting of the least developed countries yesterday afternoon had been released last night (Press Release GA/9109). His meetings today included those with the Foreign Ministers of Lebanon, Romania, Bangladesh, Costa Rica and the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States. At the time of the briefing, the President was meeting with the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh.
Speakers in the general debate today were the Crown Prince of Monaco; Prime Minister of Mongolia; Foreign Ministers of Romania, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Côte d'Ivoire, and Armenia; Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Francophonie of Congo; Minister for External Affairs and Cooperation of Burundi; Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mauritania; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica; Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia; and Secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation of Libya.
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