DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961029
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
At today's noon briefing Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary- General, joking about the "ticker tape" parade for the World Series baseball champion New York Yankees, said there must be "some kind of international environment conference going on" down on Wall Street in New York. "The interns, who do all the work in our office, rushed out of the building at 10:30 a.m. carrying sacks of shredded paper. They said they had an important meeting on Wall Street. I'm not sure what it is, but the Secretary-General could not attend."
Ms. Foa went on to announce that the Secretary-General met this morning with Najma Heptullah, Deputy Chairman in the Senate of India, and later with Anthony Nyaki, his Special Representative for Liberia. At 12:30 p.m., the Secretary-General was accepting the credentials of Mikael Wehbe, Permanent Representative of Syria, and Adam Fassassi Yacoubou, Permanent Representative of Benin.
At 4:15 p.m., Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ibrahima Fall would present a report to the Secretary-General on his most recent mission to Zaire. At 5 p.m., the Secretary-General would give a speech at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)/United States Committee for UNIFEM Achievement Award Ceremony. In his remarks, he would recognize the work of UNIFEM, an organization that he would say was at the "centre of the struggle for mainstreaming gender issues and for the advancement of women in all realms of life". He would say that the United Nations family stood firm in its commitment to incorporating gender concerns into all of its policies and programmes.
The award ceremony would honour three grass-roots women's organizations from India, Peru and Somalia, Ms. Foa said. The ceremony, to be held at 5 p.m. in the Economic and Social Council Chamber, would feature comments by: General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia); the Secretary-General; Noeleen Heyzer from UNIFEM; James Gustave Speth, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Rosario Green, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Gender Issues; and videotaped remarks by Hillary Rodham Clinton, First Lady of the United States. Poet Maya Angelou would moderate the ceremony, and UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador Julie Andrews would present the awards.
Reading from a statement attributable to the Secretary-General Ms. Foa then said:
"The Secretary-General is greatly concerned by the kidnapping in Guatemala City on 19 October in which a senior member of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) was involved. The Government of Guatemala has issued a statement yesterday about it.
"The Secretary-General deplores this incident and its damaging consequences for the peace negotiations, under the auspices of the United Nations, which are very close to a successful conclusion. He calls upon the URNG to take all actions necessary to restore conditions in which a final peace agreement can promptly be reached in Guatemala." A press communique from the United Nations Human Rights Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA), dated 28 October, was available in the Spokesman's Office, she said.
The report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) would be available this afternoon, Ms. Foa said. Members of the Security Council were now considering that report. The Secretary-General recommends that the Mission be extended for six months beyond its scheduled termination date of 15 January 1997, until 15 July 1997.
The Secretary-General states that, "provided full cooperation by the Croatian Government and local Serbs is forthcoming, UNTAES should be able to complete its primary tasks by July 1997". At the same time, the Secretary- General suggests that the Security Council may "wish to give consideration, at this time, to the need to make appropriate arrangements for a six-month presence until the end of a two-year transition period", in order to monitor the parties' compliance with their commitments, as outlined in the basic agreement, and to promote an atmosphere of confidence among the local residents. The Secretary-General was making those recommendations way ahead of the expiry of the UNTAES mandate in order to avoid unnecessary political pressure and manipulation of UNTAES by hardliners on both sides.
On the situation in Zaire, Ms. Foa said the United Nations still had no way to reach some 743,000 refugees, including 600,000 Rwandans and 143,000 Burundians forced to flee as a result of fighting in the eastern part of the country. It was known that 330,000 refugees were concentrated in refugee camps in Kahindo and Katale, north of Goma. The others were "scattered in the hills". The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had asked Western countries to provide satellite photography of the area to help locate the nearly 500,000 missing refugees.
The only refugees with whom the United Nations was in contact were the 400,000 located in Lac Vert and Mugunga. Mugunga held some 350,000 refugees,
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 29 October 1996
including the 200,000 refugees who had fled Kibumba, plus 10,000 Zairians that had fled to the area. Lac Vert held some 50,000 refugees. The 330,000 in Katale and Kahindo were cut off from United Nations except for radio contact, Ms. Foa went on to say. All roads from Uganda and from Goma had been closed since the weekend. Local staff in the Kahindo camp had been asked to empty the warehouses. The World Food Programme (WFP), the UNHCR and various non- governmental organizations had decided to distribute all the foodstocks there immediately, in order to forestall the possibility of looting should the area be attacked. There was no food in Katale. Refugees in Katale would have to go to Kahindo for food, which would require their crossing confrontation lines. The United Nations was trying to assemble teams to move the food to Katale.
In both Lac Vert and Mugunga, the United Nations had also decided to distribute all the food supplies in their warehouses, but only one week's worth was available, Ms. Foa said. United Nations teams were going into the hills north of Goma looking for wounded and elderly persons. They were also making lists of separated families. The UNHCR had 40 teams digging latrines in Mugunga. However, the prevalence of volcanic rock could make the sanitation situation very desperate, very quickly.
Some 4,400 Zairian refugees had fled to Rwanda and 1,500 refugees from Burundi had returned to that country, Ms. Foa said. Reports from Bukavu told of widespread looting under way and "bodies in the streets."
A letter dated 24 October from the Secretary-General to the President of the Security Council (document S/1996/880), transmitting the eleventh report to the Council on the operations of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Implementation Force (IFOR) was available, Ms. Foa said. According to the report, IFOR's overall capability will be maintained until December, when its mandate comes to an end. Options for supporting the secure environment needed to consolidate peace in Bosnia after 1996 were currently under study.
Also available was a report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Office of Internal Oversight Services, covering the period from 1 July 1995 to 30 June 1996 (document A/51/432), Ms. Foa said. According to that report, the Office was performing its duties well, although it had been hampered by limited resources and had some "acceptance difficulties" in the Organization. "I can't imagine", Ms. Foa said.
Karl-Theodore Paschke, Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, would attend the noon briefing tomorrow, Ms. Foa said. "Get all of your good hard questions ready. Let's not give him an easy time. Let's not let him brush us off."
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At 3:30 p.m., there would be a briefing in room 226 regarding the UNIFEM awards ceremony, Ms. Foa announced. Maya Angelou, Noeleen Heyzer and the recipients of the UNIFEM Achievement Awards would be in attendance.
Ms. Foa then announced that Catherine Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), would appear on the World Chronicle television programme on in-house channels 6, 23 and 38 at 2:30 p.m.
A correspondent asked whether, among the recommendations of the Secretary-General concerning UNTAES, there was a "secret plan" to force the evacuation of the 130,000 Serbs resident in the territory. Ms. Foa said the United Nations always developed contingency planning, but there was no secret plan for the UNTAES mission area. "Have you ever found anything secret in this house?" she joked.
Asked whether the United Nations had any hard evidence of intervention by the armies of Rwanda and Burundi in eastern Zaire, Ms. Foa said that the United Nations had no confirmation of those reports.
To a question on the UNHCR request for satellite imagery, Ms. Foa said there had been a positive response from some governments. The United Nations could not travel easily in the region, so if satellite imagery could help locate refugees, it would be easier to reach them with humanitarian assistance.
On the situation in Guatemala, a correspondent asked whether the United Nations Moderator for the Peace Process, Jean Arnault, would meet with the commanders of the URNG. Ms. Foa suggested that he check with Associate Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), said the Assembly this morning had approved the first report of the Credentials Committee. It was not known when it would meet next. At the time of the briefing, the plenary was still meeting on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In that regard, there was a revised text of the draft introduced yesterday. It was expected that the Assembly would hold three votes: on a proposal by Iraq on operative paragraph 7; on the third preambular paragraph; and on the draft resolution as a whole. Some 60 speakers had inscribed to participate in this afternoon's discussion of Security Council reform.
The Assembly's Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met briefly this morning for the introduction of two draft resolutions -- on the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Committee would this afternoon would meet on human settlemens and would have before it the report of the United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II), as well as a
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related report of the Secretary-General to identify arrangements for the United Nations to respond to the outcome of Habitat II. In his report, the Secretary-General recommended that the Assembly call upon the United Nations system to provide full support for governments in the implementation of the recommendations of the Conference. He also recommended that the Assembly invite local authorities and the civil society, including the private sector, to contribute actively to the Habitat agenda.
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) this afternoon would consider a draft resolution sponsored by Burundi on the United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders. The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) yesterday approved five drafts -- information from Non-Self-Governing Territories, training, New Caledonia, Tokelau and Western Sahara.
This afternoon, Assembly President Razali would take part in the UNIFEM ceremony to honour the three grass-roots women's organizations.
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