DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961106
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that the Secretary-General had sent a congratulatory cable to United States President, William J. Clinton, on his re-election. The Secretary-General had expressed his sincere hope that the United States and the United Nations would work together in the period ahead to further world peace and prosperity.
The Secretary-General's first meeting today was with the Secretary- General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, Chief Emeke Anyaoku, Ms. Foa said. They had discussed the situations in Sierra Leone, Liberia and the dispute between Nigeria and Cameroon over the Bakassi Peninsula. At 11:30 a.m, the Secretary-General had met with a member of the European Parliament and a former Minister for Humanitarian Affairs of France, Bernard Kouchner. At the time of the briefing, the Secretary-General was meeting with Iran's Permanent Representative, Kamal Kharrazi.
This afternoon, the Secretary-General would meet with a delegation of members of the Indian Parliament, Ms. Foa continued. At 1 p.m., he would meet with his Personal Representative in support of preventive and peacemaking efforts and Special Envoy to the Sudan, Lakhdar Brahimi.
The Spokesman then informed correspondents of developments under Security Council resolution 986 (1995) -- on the "oil-for-food" formula. There would be a meeting of the steering committee responsible for implementing the resolution at 3:30 p.m. today. The Secretariat had received responses from all four overseers regarding the latest oil pricing formula. This afternoon, their assessment would be presented to the members of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 661 (1990) which is monitoring the sanctions against Iraq. That Committee would then have two working days -- until Friday afternoon -- to respond.
In the interest of ensuring an effective response by the United Nations to the rapidly deteriorating situation in eastern Zaire, and in consultation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Sadako Ogata, the Secretary-General had decided to appoint Sergio Vieira de Mello, as the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Great Lakes region. Mr. Vieira de Mello was the Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees. Mr. Vieira de Mello would be assisted by the Director of the Office of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva, Martin Griffiths. Both officials were already in Zaire. Their mission arrangements would be reviewed on the completion of the mission currently being undertaken by the Secretary-General's Special
Envoy to the Great Lakes region, Raymond Chretien. No information was available on Mr. Chretien's mission, Ms. Foa added.
The Secretary-General had said that the immediate need was to secure access to those affected by the current conflict and establish safe corridors and temporary sanctuaries, Ms. Foa said. There was also need to ensure that relief agencies had everything they needed to provide emergency humanitarian assistance and support for repatriation programmes.
The UNHCR had sent an evaluation team from Kinshasa to the Lubumbashi area in eastern Zaire to determine the status of the refugee population in the Uvira-Bukavu area, she said. The team had left Kinshasa early this morning, local time. Reports were expected from them as soon as they had information to communicate.
The Spokesman told correspondents that another 1,000 Burundian refugees had returned to Burundi. Over 11,000 Burundian refugees, out of an estimated 145,000 Burundians who were in eastern Zaire, had now returned to Burundi. Apparently, more would like to return but the main crossing points between Zaire and Burundi had been closed. Another 7,500 refugees from Zaire had arrived by boat at the Tanzanian lake town of Kigoma. It was also reported that people were fleeing the Zairean towns of Baraka and Fizi because of their fear that fighting would spread there. Eighty per cent of the new arrivals were Zairean.
Turning to Afghanistan, the Spokesman said recent developments on the ground had demonstrated yet again that the differences between the various parties could not be resolved by military means. In view of both the dangers and the opportunities that had been created by recent military and political developments, the Secretary-General had decided that the time was opportune to hold a meeting of regional States and other States with influence in Afghanistan, as well as the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
The meeting, which would take place on Monday, 18 November, at Headquarters under the Secretary-General's chairmanship, Ms. Foa said, would discuss how a better coordinated international effort could be made to implement General Assembly resolution 50/88 -- on emergency international assistance for peace, normalcy and reconstruction in war-stricken Afghanistan. The Head of the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan, Norbert Holl, was expected to participate in the meeting. At the meeting, the United Nations would present a detailed account of the actions it is taking and would indicate the type of support it would be grateful to receive from Member States.
The Security Council was busy today with the election of five members of the International Court of Justice, Ms. Foa said.
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She then announced that a new summary on the status of Member States' contributions to the United Nations, as of 31 October, was now available in the Spokesman's office. Stating that the situation had not changed very much, Ms. Foa said outstanding contributions totalled $2.5 billion, of which $706 million was owed to the regular budget and $1.77 billion was owed to the peace-keeping budgets. Member States also owed $18.6 million for the International Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.
There would be a police contributors' meeting on Thursday, 7 November, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Conference Room 6, she said. It would be chaired by Lieutenant-General Manfred Eisele. The Secretary-General's Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iqbal Riza, would provide an update on the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH). Mr. Riza would also brief correspondents at tomorrow's noon briefing.
Ms. Foa also announced that Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, Karl Theodore Paschke, would be on the World Chronicle television programme on channels 6, 23 and 38 at 2:30 p.m.
A correspondent asked if an investigation had been launched to determine who had leaked a Commission of Inquiry report on the supply of arms to the Hutus in Zaire to the news agency Reuters yesterday. Ms. Foa said that if the United Nations investigated every leak it would have time for nothing else. "This place is leak city", she added.
Stating that the summit meeting of the countries in the Great Lakes region, held on 5 November in Nairobi, had called for a neutral force for eastern Zaire under the auspices of the United Nations, a correspondent asked if the leaders concerned had made a formal request to the Secretary-General or to the Security Council. Ms. Foa said that would be a matter for the Council, but she had not seen any formal communication from the summit. The Secretary- General's Special Representative for Burundi, Marc Faguy, had attended the meeting and there had been a great deal of communication between him and the Secretariat.
Asked for details on the meeting on Afghanistan, Ms. Foa said it would take place at the level of senior officials. The following countries had been invited: China, France, Germany, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, United States and Uzbekistan. The Secretary- General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference was also invited.
Ms. Foa was asked to comment on an article in the New York Times today which had analysed the crisis in eastern Zaire as a political insurrection against the Zairean Government -- not an ethnic conflict. Ms. Foa said that she did not believe that anyone thought it was just an ethnic conflict.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 6 November 1996
The correspondent noted that reports from the United Nations Secretariat and the UNHCR had characterized the conflict as one between the Banyamulenge and the Zairean army, while the New York Times story had indicated that it was a political struggle against the Zairean Government. Ms. Foa said that the root causes of ethnic conflicts were usually political or economic, as was the cases of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda. "There is always someone pulling the strings of ethnic conflicts. Ethnic conflicts do not explode by themselves", she said.
Questioned about the requests by the UNHCR for satellite photographs of the region to determine the location of refugees who were fleeing the fighting, Ms. Foa said she would try to obtain that information but it seemed the UNHCR had a better idea now of where some of the refugees were.
Asked if there had been any more cross-border firing between Zaire and Rwanda, Ms. Foa said there had been no reports of any incidents.
A correspondent asked if the President of the South Pacific Forum was visiting Headquarters. Ms. Foa said she would inquire.
Asked if the Secretary-General had any indication of a shift in the United States' position on his re-election, Ms. Foa referred the correspondent to the United States Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
When asked about the developments in Haiti regarding the action taken by that country's President, Rene Preval, on the conditions of the country's jails, Ms. Foa said that the Haitian jails were overcrowded and the judicial process was very slow. The President had visited the jails and decided to take some action to deal with the situation. Deputy Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt added that President Preval had decided to appoint a panel to study the situation and ways to accelerate the judicial process. He had requested the assistance of the International Civilian Mission to Haiti (MICIVIH) which had agreed to provide technical assistance to the panel.
Asked whether the Secretary-General was reconsidering seeking re- appointment following the results of the United States elections, Ms. Foa said at the moment the situation in eastern Zaire was dominating the Secretary- General's thoughts.
Asked for more details on the diplomatic initiatives to address the situation in eastern Zaire, Ms. Foa said the Secretariat was awaiting some feedback from Ambassador Chretien following his consultations with Zaire's President, Mobutu Sese Seko.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President, Razali Ismail (Malaysia), said the Assembly President had congratulated the winners of yesterday's elections in the United States. He looked forward to that
Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 6 November 1996
country's leadership, with its renewed mandate to help the Organization overcome its problems, stressing that clear and sustained commitment from the United States was necessary to enhance multilateralism.
The General Assembly was still in the process of electing five new judges of the International Court of Justice, Ms. Abdul-Majid said. The election process was complicated because it required a meeting of the minds of both the Assembly and the Security Council. Only those candidates who received an absolute majority of votes in both bodies would be considered as elected. The absolute majority required in the Assembly for those elections was 94. That was so because, in addition to the 185 Member States in the Assembly, the electors included two non-member States which were parties to the statute of the Court. Those countries were Nauru and Switzerland.
Having received the required absolute majority in the Assembly and the Security Council, the following were elected members of the International Court of Justice for nine-year terms beginning 6 February 1997: Mohammed Bedjaoui (Algeria), Pieter Kooijmans (Netherlands), Jose Francisco Rezek (Brazil), Stephen Schwebel (United States) and Vladen Vereshchetin (Russian Federation). Of the five, three were re-elected -- Messrs. Bedjaoui, Schwebel and Vereshchetin.
Reporting on the work of the Assembly's Main Committee's, Ms. Abdul- Majid said the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) was continuing its consideration of a number of draft resolutions before it. A draft resolution on industrial development cooperation (document A/C.2/51/L.12) would be introduced in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial). The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) would consider a draft resolution on a United Nations declaration on crime and public security. That draft (A/C.3/51/L.11) was submitted by the Chairman on the basis of consultations held on an earlier draft (A/C.3/51/L.3). The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) would begin its general debate on questions relating to information this afternoon.
Asked when the First Committee would decide on the draft resolution on land-mines, Ms. Abdul-Majid said she would find out.
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