DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961008
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, would shortly be outlining the latest developments in Angola for them.
Today's Headquarters schedule was relatively quiet, said Ms. Foa. This morning the Secretary-General had received the delegation of the United Nations goodwill mission on the Bakassi Peninsula, a region where fighting had been going on between Cameroon and Nigeria since 1994. The Secretary-General had sent a goodwill mission there in mid-September, led by Omar Halim of Indonesia, and the delegation had submitted the mission's report to the Secretary-General this morning. The Secretary-General's first impression was that the mission had been very, very positive. However, said the Spokesman, the mission "obviously forgot" to make a copy of its report for her, so she would not have anything to tell correspondents on that score until later.
At 11 a.m., the Secretary-General had met the Foreign Minister of Libya. The Secretary-General was at the moment meeting in private with Bechir Mustapha of the Polisario Front, and she did not expect there would be anything to report on that for a while. Later today, he would be seeing the Minister of External Relations of Sudan, the Foreign Ministers of Chad, Kyrgyzstan, and Bangladesh, and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Jordan. So, today's schedule was not as jampacked as yesterday's.
Jamaica had become the ninety-second Member State to pay its 1996 United Nations budget dues in full, she went on, with a check for $108,770. It was the first such payment in full since 26 September, meaning that payments were getting fewer and further between. "Thank you, Jamaica", she said. Meanwhile, United Nations arrears still stood at $2.5 billion (of which $0.7 billion was owed to the regular budget). Arrears were thus down -- but there were not so many days left in the year to pay.
On the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, said the Spokesman, this morning had seen two more signatories, Kyrgyzstan and Nepal, bringing the total to date to 117 signatures, following yesterday's signings by Gabon, Lithuania, Tajikistan, and San Marino.
The Spokesman went on to announce that the third annual report of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia had been released today, covering the period July 1995 to July 1996, and should now be on the racks. The Tribunal said that since its last report it had become increasingly active. It had started its first trial (the Tadic trial) and had
two other cases before it in the pre-trial stage. The Tribunal expected those other two trials to begin later in the year. The judges had confirmed 10 public indictments against a total of 35 individuals, and had issued arrest warrants against all of those accused. The Tribunal currently had seven people in custody.
In its report, she continued, the Tribunal stated that its field work had been enhanced as a result of the Dayton accords, which gave its staff greater freedom of movement to carry out investigations. However, in spite of progress made so far, the Tribunal remained heavily dependent on State cooperation to fulfil its mandate. It called on States for full cooperation and support; otherwise, the aims pursued in establishment of the Tribunal would be defeated. The Spokesman added that Justice Louise Arbour would be in room 226 at 2 p.m., and it might be a good idea for correspondents to get hold of a copy of the Tribunal's report before they talked with her.
Also available today was the new monthly summary of troop contributions to peace-keeping operations as of 30 September, said Ms. Foa. The United Nations had 16 peace-keeping operations around the world, with a grand total of 25,488 troops in those operations. The list gave their countries of origin and where they were currently deployed.
Yesterday, said the Spokesman, the 20 October Central Park walk to benefit breast cancer research had been discussed. So far, some 50 United Nations staff members had signed up for the event. Sponsors for the walk were still being sought. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali had himself called yesterday to express willingness to become a sponsor for Secretariat members who decided to participate. The media would probably be in on the event, which "needed all the help it could get".
A correspondent said that a Taliban spokesman had asserted at a news conference in Afghanistan this morning that 1,400 years of Islam would not be changed, and had disputed what the United Nations and the United States had said about current attitudes towards women in Afghanistan. Did that mean that the United Nations was now ready to cut off aid to that country? he asked.
There had never been a threat to cut off aid, the Spokesman said. What the Organization was saying was that continuation of the Taliban's policies could have serious repercussions on the United Nations ability to deliver aid. For example, many donors had already queried the viability of aid programmes that would be of benefit only to men. Many of the United Nations agencies in Afghanistan ran their programmes through women. In addition, there were feeding programmes that encouraged women to visit pre-natal clinics, or education programmes aimed at increasing female literacy -- obviously such programmes were now going to be in big trouble. Continuing, Ms Foa said she believed that there had been some encouraging signs -- "we've been told to let the dust settle here a little bit" and then see what happened. But the United Nations sought to make it very clear that Organization policy was involved --
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 8 October 1996
and that policy was to treat the sexes equally. Clearly, it could not run school feeding-programmes that benefited boys only. They had to benefit girls as well. Nor could the United Nations only fit male victims of land-mines with artificial limbs; the aid had to be offered to women as well. The fact that the international community was speaking with one voice on the issue (all eight agencies had gone to the Taliban today to express their concerns) had possibly been a surprise to the Taliban. No one was asking that Islam be changed, but women were educated and allowed to work in many Islamic countries.
Asked whether it would be possible to circumvent the Taliban's announced moves by aiming all United Nations programmes at women, the Spokesman answered that since all girls' schools had been closed, such an initiative would be hard to implement.
Asked whether the United Nations had any contact at all with the Rabbani group, Ms. Foa replied that she was not sure of the date of the last contact. It had been a difficult contact to make over the last 10 days, but she would check on the precise date. Obviously, the United Nations was talking to people belonging to all of the groups in Afghanistan.
The correspondent asked what the United Nations now considered to be the Government of Afghanistan. The Spokesman said that the Credentials Committee would not be meeting until 11 October, so that as far as she knew "the situation is still status quo". But the question was one for the Credentials Committee.
A correspondent referred to charges made in the General Assembly by the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan that the Taliban had used chemical weapons in their recent offensive on Kabul and that Pakistan had probably supplied those weapons. Did the United Nations have any comment on those charges, and on reports of requests for an international committee of inquiry to investigate the charges? he asked. Ms. Foa said that, as far as the Organization was able to determine from a thorough review of past cables, there had been no reports indicating that chemical weapons had been used. If there had been any such reports from any source whatever, the United Nations would now be shouting them from the rooftops very loudly and very clearly. The United Nations had asked its people in the field to comment on the charges, but so far nothing had been reported.
A correspondent asked whether it was true that there was only one woman on the United Nations international staff in all eight agencies in Afghanistan. The Spokesman replied that the problem was that all international employees were listed by family name, so that a check via security yesterday had failed to answer that question. At least one of them was a woman and possibly two others were women, but it was not certain. The agencies had been asked to provide a clearer breakdown. However, all the agencies had considerable numbers of women on their national staffs.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 8 October 1996
Obviously, agencies such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) worked mainly with women who spoke the language and knew the culture.
Another correspondent asked whether "the dust has settled" and the situation was clearer in areas where the Taliban has been in control for considerable periods. The Spokesman said that the problems that had emerged in Kabul -- concerning education for girls and women and the employment of women -- had existed in Kandahar and Herat a year ago. Things had improved very little, and that was another reason the United Nations had decided to speak with one voice to make its policy known. The Organization did not know how long donors could be persuaded to continue programmes -- and those programmes were desperately needed. Winter was coming, and there were up to 30,000 households in Kabul alone headed by widows. They needed help.
Asked whether the Secretary-General had had a reaction to last Sunday's televised United States presidential debate, the Spokesman replied that she understood that the Secretary-General "did catch some parts of it, between constant incoming phone calls". He had been quite impressed, and was happy that the record had finally been set straight on the Somalia issue -- "which made us all feel pretty darned good".
A correspondent quoted an unidentified United States official who had reportedly said that the new Secretary-General should be more of a media presence, and be able to sell the United Nations and its programmes more effectively. What was the Secretary-General's reaction to such observations? he asked. And was he still determined not to wage any campaign on his own behalf? Ms. Foa told the correspondent that anyone who had followed the Secretary-General over the last four and three quarter years would know that Mr. Boutros-Ghali had a definite style. It was a style based on his belief in the effectiveness of quiet diplomacy. He was not a podium-thumper. He was not a politician in the traditional sense. And, he had decided to go about his work dealing quietly with the parties involved, rather than getting up and making public scandals about every issue. Occasionally he had raised his voice -- as a voice for the voiceless -- but he tried to do things behind the scenes because he had found that to be the most effective approach. Other people had other styles, but that happened to be his, and if you looked at the world today you realized that it had been effective.
A correspondent asked when a read-out of the Bakassi report might be expected. Ms. Foa said she hoped it would be available at some point in the afternoon. The Secretary-General would get the first shot at it, but she thought correspondents should definitely get the second. She would also ask the mission delegation if they would be willing to come to room 226 and discuss the report with correspondents.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), said that the General Committee had met this morning and
Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 8 October 1996
decided to recommend to the Assembly the inclusion of an additional agenda item, on the observer status of the International Seabed Authority in the General Assembly. The Committee's report to that effect would be taken up in the Assembly on Friday. If the plenary decides to include the item, the number of agenda items would increase to 160. During the General Committee meeting a question had been raised as to the timing of the Credentials Committee's meetings and the Assembly President's role. The President had indicated that the Committee would meet on Friday, and that it was not responsible to the Assembly President, although it was to assist in the running of the Assembly. The Committee members were not selected by him. It moved into action if there was a challenge to the credentials of a particular Member State. The President had no general supervisory role over the Committee.
As to his efforts outside the Committee, she continued, the President sought to avoid serious controversy during the general debate, particularly regarding questions of credentials and points of order. The President had sought the cooperation of the delegation of Afghanistan and some other countries to ensure that those two possibilities did not arise. He was also interested in bringing his concerns to members of the Credentials Committee -- but could not do so because he could not convene the Committee. It was not under his supervision, nor were its members nominated or selected by him for approval by the Assembly. However, he was happy that the possibilities he had feared had not occurred yesterday. All parties had taken the desired steps during yesterday's general debate.
Ms. Abdul-Majid went on to say that the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) met this morning on the financing of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), the United Nations Support Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH) and the United Nations Mission in Haiti (UNMIH).
The Assembly was continuing its general debate with 12 speakers -- Djibouti, Bangladesh, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, Comoros, Palau, Gabon, Haiti, Chad, Maldives, Grenada and Lesotho.
* *** *