DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY GENERAL
19961016
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at the noon briefing that today was World Food Day. In his message on the occasion, the Secretary-General had said that World Food Day was dedicated to the global challenge of "fighting hunger and malnutrition". "In a world of plenty, no one should have to face the evil of famine and starvation", he said. "Today, almost 800 million people are chronically undernourished", he said, stressing that "this is simply unacceptable". It was now 22 years since the World Food Conference had established the goal of "eradicating hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition within a decade". The Secretary-General had stated that "without new initiatives and a redoubling of efforts, the global fight against hunger and malnutrition will never be won".
The Secretary-General was currently on his way to Hamburg, Germany, Ms. Foa announced. He would be there for the swearing in of the 21 judges of the United Nations Law of the Sea Tribunal. Before that, he would travel to Lubeck to deliver a speech at the "Malente" Symposium. This morning, the Secretary-General had met for an hour with French President Jacques Chirac. The meeting had dealt with the development of the situation in the Middle East, the new difficulties raised in the implementation of Security Council resolution 986 (1995) -- on the "oil-for-food" formula concerning Iraq -- and the situation in Africa, particularly in the region of Kivu in Zaire. The Secretary-General had also briefed the French President on the situations in Burundi, Angola and Rwanda.
The Security Council was holding a formal meeting on the situation in Afghanistan for which there were already 27 speakers listed, Ms. Foa said. "Tomorrow we expect that there will be a Security Council briefing by Rolf Ekeus, who is the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (UNSCOM)", she said. Mr. Ekeus would be leaving for Baghdad tomorrow evening. Traditionally, he liked to keep the Council informed before, during, and after his trips.
The United States had paid $43 million towards its peace-keeping dues, Ms. Foa said. "This brings America's debt to the United Nations down to $1.4 billion", she said, including $904 million owed to peace-keeping and $528 million to the regular budget. The $43 million is very welcomed and thank you United States of America", she said. However, outstanding contributions to the United Nations still totalled $2.5 billion.
Yesterday, the General Assembly had adopted, without a vote, a draft resolution granting observer status to the International Criminal Police Organization-Interpol, Ms. Foa announced. That meant that Interpol could now participate in the sessions and work of the Assembly in an observer capacity.
The resolution was introduced by Sweden, on behalf of other sponsors. Other organizations with observer status include the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
"Before I do housekeeping for tomorrow, I would like to bring to your attention something really serious", Ms. Foa said. The mad faxer had struck again. "For those of you whose feelings are probably hurt because the mad faxer does not consider you important enough to be included on his or her list, I will give you the lowdown", she continued. "For the past week, anonymous faxes had been appearing on the fax machines of newsrooms and diplomatic missions across the country, and perhaps around the world. Those faxes carried no identification, they had no name of organization, no fax number or even the time of day, at the top. They consisted of news stories, either wire service reports or newspaper articles with passages about the Secretary-General underlined. The underlined passages all praised the Secretary-General, how wonderful he is, how much just about everybody in the whole world loves him, what a great job he is doing, etc.", she continued.
When the mad faxer matter was first brought to the correspondents' attention by a news agency which "was somewhat irate at having its fax machine clogged up by stories that had been written by its own correspondents, we launched a full investigation", she said. "For their assistance in putting together a profile of the mad faxer, I would like to thank the CIA, the KGB, MI5, France's DST, the FBI, Interpol (which yesterday was granted observer status at the United Nations) and Rosie the psychic, whose office is over on 43rd St", Ms. Foa said.
Since at the United Nations differing viewpoints needed to be taken into consideration, there were two profiles of the mad faxer, Ms. Foa said. The first described a "devious, sneaky, Machiavellian character obsessed with undermining the very foundations of the United Nations", she said. That twisted but brilliant mind believed that by inundating journalists with old news, they would become so fed up with the United Nations that they would never write another story about it again. "This person, we are told, should be considered just plain nasty", she added.
The second profile of the mad faxer described a well-intentioned, seriously underemployed individual with a single-digit IQ, Ms. Foa said. That person believed himself or herself to be the only person on earth who read The New York Times and should be considered just plain dumb. The Secretary- General had asked her to clarify some of the points which had been raised by the mad faxer's actions. The first was that Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali was an Egyptian and did not come from the planet Krypton. Second, he had never claimed to have X-Ray vision; and third, the Secretary- General could not leap tall buildings in a single bound. "And he cannot turn used soda cans into solid gold by simply touching them; if he could, we would not have the current financial crisis", Ms. Foa added.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 16 October 1996
There would be a reward for the capture of the mad faxer, Ms. Foa said. "We were thinking of offering a pegasus, one of the World Food Programme's pegasus which as you know are on sale at the Spokesman's office for $10", she said. Anybody with information leading to the capture of the mad faxer should please contact Interpol, the new observer, Ms. Foa added.
"Tomorrow is a very big day because it is International Day for the Eradication of Poverty", Ms. Foa announced. The Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), James Gustave Speth, would be present at the briefing. There would be many events in commemoration of that day. The big one was the inauguration of a commemorative stone in honour of the victims of extreme poverty which would be laid during a ceremony between 1 and 2 p.m. in the gardens of the United Nations. The stone was given by France to the United Nations and it was a replica of one laid in Paris in 1987 which bared the inscription "whenever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty". The event was sponsored by the United Nations, the Permanent Mission of France, and the International Movement A.T.D. Fourth World. A message by the Secretary-General would be read out at the ceremony by Under-Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Sustainable Development, Nitin Desai.
Tomorrow, at 9:15 a.m. at the Tillman Chapel, the Church Centre for the United Nations at 777 United Nations Plaza, the UNDP, the World Conference on Religion and Peace and the Task Force of the United Nations would hold a multi-religious service, Ms. Foa announced. Then, at 10 a.m. there would be a special non-governmental organization briefing in the Dag Hammarskjold Library Auditorium featuring the General Assembly President, Razali Ismail (Malaysia) as well as Mr. Speth. That briefing would be preceded by a film. In addition a press kit, produced by the Mission of France, would be available. Meanwhile, "today at 2:30 p.m. -- on in-house channels -- Mr. Speth will be speaking about this subject", Ms. Foa added.
Today, at 4 p.m. in room 226 there would be a press conference by Minister Louis Farrakhan sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Libya, Ms. Foa announced. "I take it that such conference has superseded the UNCA Club one since that location was probably considered too small to hold it", she said.
Asked about the effect of last week's resignation of the Military Chief of Staff of the Canadian Armed Forces, due to allegations of racism, on peace- keeping operations, Ms. Foa replied that the United Nations was always concerned with any allegations of racism. "We are always looking for peace- keepers who understand cultural diversity and the principles of the United Nations and that should always be part of the training for peace-keeping missions", she added. However, sometimes in emergency missions, people did not get as much training as they should.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 16 October 1996
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), said he had been informed by the Secretary-General that Sao Tome and Principe had made the necessary payments to reduce its arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the United Nations Charter. "So now we only have five countries left with arrears equal to or greater than the amount of contributions due from them for the preceding years", she added.
The Assembly had begun its discussion on the implementation of the outcome of the World Summit for Social Development, Ms. Abdul-Majid said. Forty delegations were listed to speak on the item.
For the item on the effects of atomic radiation, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) would have before it today the report of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (document A/51/46). The Scientific Committee's annual report with the scientific annex on the effects of radiation on the environment would be issued separately as a sales publication. It was part of a series of publications on the Sources and Effects of Ionizing Radiation.
There were a number of documents available for the meeting of the Third Committee's (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) on Friday, 18 October, relating to drug abuse control and crime prevention, Ms. Abdul-Majid announced. Apart from the documents on the item concerning a draft convention against organized transnational crime -- already introduced by Poland in the Committee earlier this week -- the report of the Secretary-General on the preparation for and possible outcome of the special session of the Assembly on international drug control, was available (document A/51/469). The Economic and Social Council was proposing that the special session be held in 1998.
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