DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961011
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by introducing to correspondents Greek athlete Ioannis Melissanidis, gymnastics gold medallist in floor exercises at last summer's Olympic Games. Mr. Melissanidis -- "our own gold medallist" -- was in New York to join the Ronald McDonald House Walkathon in Central Park in support of children fighting cancer. As with most other people in the room, pressure of work had prevented her from going to Atlanta for the Games, said the Spokesman, so Mr. Melissanidis was doubly welcome at Headquarters.
Today was another busy day. The Secretary-General had presented his report on the work of the Organization (document A/51/1) to the General Assembly and Member States had since been discussing the report. So far, the Assembly had heard from the United States, Russia, Brazil, Colombia (on behalf of the Non-Aligned group of countries), Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Austria, Nicaragua and Germany. There were, of course, many more speakers on the Assembly's list.
A number of Member States had welcomed the Secretary-General's report as most comprehensive and useful in analysing the activities of the United Nations and charting the course ahead, the Spokesman said. Several had said they agreed that the three pillars of future work were peace, development and democratization. They had noted that while much had been accomplished in the past year in the areas of reform, there could be no real reform without a sound financial basis. They had also welcomed the Secretary-General's emphasis on the importance of economic and social development in the work of the Organization. The Secretary-General was therefore watching the debate to find out "whether or not they agree with where we're going".
"There's more happiness around here", Ms. Foa went on -- "Today we have the Nobel Peace Prize winners". The Secretary-General, she said, welcomed the award of the 1996 prize to Monsignor Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo and to Jose Ramos-Horta, and congratulated the two recipients. Since 1983, the Secretary- General had been exercising his good offices to find a just, comprehensive and internationally acceptable solution to the issue of East Timor. In that capacity, he had consulted on various occasions with Bishop Belo, whose wisdom and commitment to peace and human rights had won him the respect of his people and of the international community. Both Bishop Belo and Mr. Ramos-Horta had participated actively in the All-Inclusive Intra-East Timorese Dialogue facilitated by the Secretary-General. The Secretary-General hoped that today's award would positively affect the continuing negotiations in the search for a lasting settlement. As correspondents knew, there had so far been two rounds of the All-Inclusive Intra-East Timorese Dialogue, both of
them in Austria. When the Secretary-General was in Geneva earlier in the year, he had gotten agreement that there would be a third round. No date had been set, but it was hoped that the Nobel award would highlight the importance of the issue, especially for the 800,000 people of East Timor. (See Press Release SG/SM/6075 issued today).
"Now for the bad news -- which is most of our day", said the Spokesman. The Secretary-General was watching the situation in eastern Zaire with great concern, particularly events in south Kivu. There had apparently been a serious deterioration in that region, with fighting reported between the Zairean authorities and groups of Banyamulenge. The Secretary-General urged all sides to show restraint and to exercise the utmost caution in protecting the civilian population of the affected areas. He was also concerned at press reports that a senior Zairean military official, General Eluki Monga Aundu, had accused the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) of being actively involved in what he was said to have called "aggression against Zaire".
Correspondents might remember similar accusations levelled in the second half of September, the Spokesman continued. Those charges had led the Secretary-General to send his Special Envoy, Ibrahima Fall, to the region. Following Mr. Fall's mission, the Government of Zaire had admitted that the UNHCR had not been involved in any such activities. Given the grave threat such accusations could pose to the security of United Nations staff in the area, the Secretary-General called on the Zairean authorities to withdraw unequivocally those baseless and outdated allegations (the Secretary-General's statement was issued today as Press Release SG/SM/6076).
At present there were 46 international staff -- in non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies -- working in the Uvira area, where there were hundreds of thousands of refugees. That figure was, however, down from about 85 international staff in place on 3 September. "We talked to them this morning, and they said that they are carrying out all essential services", said the Spokesman. However, the situation was very tense. There had been a lot of threats against United Nations staff. There had been much harassment, and cars had been taken at gunpoint. "It's not good down there", said the Spokesman, "so we're watching events very, very carefully".
In his other appointments today, the Secretary-General was seeing the Vice-President of the African Commission for Health and Human Rights Promoters, Dr. Fawzia Aboobaker, and the Secretary-General of the Asian- African Legal Consultative Committee, Tang Chengyuan. This afternoon he would see the Permanent Representative of Germany, Tono Eitel, and the Permanent Representative of Mali, Moctar Ouane.
The Credentials Committee had met today as scheduled, said the Spokesman, but had agreed to defer consideration of the credential question
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for Afghanistan. It had not set any date for reconsideration of the question. However, the Committee had received a note verbale from Taliban, as well as from the Rabbani authorities.
Next Monday, 14 October, the Secretary-General would address the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) at 10 a.m. He would be the first speaker at the Committee's morning meeting, Ms. Foa told correspondents.
She added that Zaire had today become the ninety-third Member State to pay its 1996 regular United Nations budget assessment in full, with a cheque for $108,770. "Thank you very much, Zaire, although that doesn't mean everything is hunky-dory here at the United Nations. The Organization was still owed $2.5 billion, and cheques were most welcome. However, with 93 Member States having now paid in full, that meant that only 92 remained. "We're past half-way."
As for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), Grenada had signed yesterday, bringing the total signatories up to 123. But there was another piece of news -- Fiji had become the first country to actually ratify the CTBT. So while other people were coming in to sign, Fiji -- "no grass growing under Fiji's feet" -- had ratified. She added that Fiji also happened to be the country where the first newspaper was printed every day. "So if you want to know what's going on in the world, check the Fijian press."
The Security Council was still considering the draft resolution on the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Verification Mission to Angola (UNAVEM III), the Spokesman told correspondents. At about 11:30 this morning it had decided to suspend its consultations until 12:15 p.m.
On Monday at 4 p.m., the Secretary of State and First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Poland would give a press conference in room 226. Monday would be a full working day, she added, in response to a correspondent's question.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), told correspondents that the Credentials Committee had approved the credentials of the representatives of 123 Member States. The effect of the Committee's decision to defer consideration of the credentials of Afghanistan to a later date was that Afghanistan, as currently represented, would continue to take part provisionally in the work of the Assembly.
The Assembly President had announced changes in the plenary's programme of work: On Monday, the Assembly would take up the Secretary-General's report on the progress at mid-decade in the implementation of the recommendations of the World Summit for Children. It would hear a statement by the Secretary- General. On Monday, 11 November, it would consider the items on cooperation between the United Nations and the Caribbean Community and the Economic
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Cooperation Organization. The item on international assistance for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of Nicaragua scheduled for Monday, 14 October, would be postponed to a later date.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) had met this morning and approved three draft resolutions on the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG), the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) and the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL). For MINURSO, the Committee had decided to recommend to the Assembly an appropriation of about $18 million for the maintenance of the Mission from 1 December 1996 to 30 June 1997, subject to extension of the Mission's mandate by the Security Council. For UNOMIL it had decided to recommend an appropriation of about $14 million for the period 1 July 1996 to 30 June 1997, subject to the Council's decision to extend the Mission's mandate.
Ms. Abdul-Majid said correspondents might also have seen reports of the Secretary-General on the traffic in women and girls (A/51/309) and on violence against women and migrant workers (A/51/325). Both reports would be taken up by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) in the week of 21- 25 October. Those documents were available to correspondents.
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