DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961105
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 had breathed a big, happy sigh of relief this morning when he heard that President Boris Yeltsin's open heart surgery had gone well. He was sending Mr. Yeltsin a message with lots of warm wishes for a very speedy recovery.
Eastern Zaire, yet again, "dominated our lives this morning", Ms. Foa said. The Secretary-General had spent most of the morning with the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), James Gustave Speth, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Carol Bellamy, and the Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under- Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Yasushi Akashi. They reviewed the humanitarian situation in eastern Zaire, looking again at steps needed to continue close coordination among United Nations programmes and agencies on the ground.
Both the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, and the Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WPF), Catherine Bertini, had to get back to their respective headquarters, but the Secretary- General had been in contact with them, also, Ms. Foa said. He was keeping very close to the situation, because it was not a happy one.
The Secretary-General was presently being briefed by the Special Representative and Coordinator of United Nations Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syed Iqbal Riza. She had put in dibs for Mr. Riza at the noon briefing on Thursday. He would first brief the Security Council, and she hoped he would be available for the noon briefing.
Reports from the field were not all that great, Ms. Foa said. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and other United Nations agencies had had no radio contact whatsoever with the camps in the Goma area since Saturday. They were basically off the radar screens. There were reports from refugees coming into other areas, who said that there was movement out of the Mugunga and Lac Vert camps. It was not known how big these movements were, but evidently the camps had not been attacked. People were beginning to head west, deeper into Zaire, not east into Rwanda. They were evidently moving along with very large numbers of displaced Zaireans.
Ms. Foa said that of the 1.2 million refugees who were in eastern Zaire two weeks ago -- 1.1 million Rwandans and some 145,000 Burundi refugees -- about 11,000 Burundi refugees mainly from the Uvira region had returned to Burundi. That flow had stopped over the past few days and she did not know
why. The number of Rwandans returning to their country was still a trickle, totalling 2,116 out of 1.1 million refugees. Also in Rwanda were another 4,000 Zairean refugees. More Zairean refugees had taken refuge in Rwanda than Rwandans had returned, she added.
In Zambia, there were at least 1,000 Rwandan refugees who had arrived there by boat on Lake Tanganyika. In the United Republic of Tanzania, 2,000 refugees had arrived, mostly Zairean, but including some Burundi refugees -- also by boat along Lake Tanganyika. In the Congo, there were reportedly 600 Zairean refugees. Many of them were arriving in dugout canoes. In Uganda, the number was still about the same -- 11,200, mostly Zairean refugees, in the southern part of the country.
The Security Council took up the report of the Secretary-General on Burundi (S/1996/887/Add.1/Corr.1) this morning, she said. The Council President would speak to the press later. The Council was now taking up the situation in the Great Lakes region. This afternoon, procedures for the election of five members of the International Court of Justice would be discussed.
The United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs had come up with a supplemental appeal for emergency relief aid in Afghanistan, she said. They sought $11.2 million to cover emergency winter relief needs there, for the period from 1 October to 31 December. Evidently, winter had arrived early in Kabul, and the residents were facing rising food and fuel prices. The Department said that nearly 80 per cent of Kabul's population depended on humanitarian assistance for their survival. The appeal would cover the areas of food, fuel, medicine, demining and operational costs as winter continued.
On Friday at 3 p.m. in Conference Room 4, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) would take up the report prepared by Graca Machel on The Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. The Secretary-General would address the meeting, which was open to all.
Referring to a morning story on Reuters regarding a Mission of Inquiry report on arms smuggling to Rwandan refugees, a correspondent asked if Ms. Foa could confirm the reference that refugees were financing arms purchases by reselling humanitarian relief. Ms. Foa said she had sent a note to the UNHCR asking if they had any such information. What sometimes happened with relief assistance was that since people made their own decisions about what they were going to eat, a refugee might take some relief food to the market and barter it for fruits and vegetables, or milk. She agreed that fruits and vegetables were different than arms.
At yesterday's noon briefing, there had been a question about the cost and source of financing for the World Food Summit, she said. An answer by the Secretariat of the World Food Summit in Rome said that the Summit was convened
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 5 November 1996
by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and apart from the cost of the participation from the United Nations at the meeting, there was no cost to the Organization. That was not a full answer, and she would ask for clarification.
Would the Secretary-General attend the World Food Summit in Rome? a correspondent asked. Ms. Foa said nothing had been confirmed yet. There were a lot of problems, including the threatening situation in eastern Zaire, and the Secretary-General's schedule depended on developments.
Asked if there was any reaction from the United Nations on the Vatican's refusal to give its $2,000 contribution to UNICEF, saying that UNICEF supported birth control measures, Ms. Foa said she had not heard that and would call UNICEF.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), said she would present some information on the International Court of Justice elections scheduled for tomorrow. The General Assembly, together with the Security Council, would elect five judges whose term of office of nine years would begin on 6 February 1997. They would replace those whose terms of office expired on 5 February 1997. The elections were held every three years.
There were 11 candidates, four of whom were seeking re-election, she said. The candidates were as follows: Azimov Murat (Uzbekistan), Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Economical Court; Mohamed Bedjaoui (Algeria), current President of the World Court; Mehmet Guney (Turkey), Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Pieter Kooijmans (Netherlands), Professor of Public International Law, University of Leiden; Francisco Orrego Vicuna (Chile), Member of the Commission for the Settlement of Disputes between Chile and the United States, and Judge of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal; Jose Antonio Pastor Ridruejo (Spain), head of the International Legal Department of the Spanish Foreign Ministry and Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; Jose Francisco Rezek (Brazil), Justice of the Supreme Court and Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; Patrick Robinson (Jamaica), Deputy Solicitor General; Stephen Schwebel (United States), Vice President of the World Court; Mohamed Shahabuddeen (Guyana), current member of the World Court; and Vladlen Vereshchetin (Russian Federation), current member of the Court.
Ms. Abdul-Majid said copies of the background material she had prepared on the election and candidates, as well as on the current composition of the International Court were available.
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today was taking up racial discrimination, and the right to self-determination. The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) would consider a draft resolution relating to sustainable development (document A/C.2/51/L.11).
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