DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961107
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary General, told correspondents at today's daily briefing that her phone had been ringing all morning because of the story on page 27 in The Washington Post. It stated that United States Administration officials had said that a leading contender for the post of Secretary of State was the United Nations Secretary-General.
"I am authorized to tell you that despite these rumours, the Secretary- General is not a contender for the post of United States Secretary of State", Ms. Foa assured correspondents. "Now, the question of the identity of the United Nations Secretary-General as stated in The Washington Post is not my business, and I would ask you to call the United States Mission and ask them if they have any comment on this", she added.
"The story states: 'Administration officials said leading contenders to replace [Secretary of State Warren] Christopher include United Nations Secretary-General Madeleine Albright'", Ms. Foa said. "Anyway, it did create a lot of phone calls to me this morning. Nothing has changed. As of 12:02 p.m., the Secretary-General is Boutros Boutros-Ghali."
The Secretary-General's first appointment today was with the Special Representative of the World Bank to the United Nations, Alfredo Sfeir-Younis, Ms. Foa said. Mr. Sfeir-Younis, who was newly appointed to the post, had come to greet the Secretary-General. His next meeting had been with Major-General Johan Kosters, Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) on the Golan. That mission comprises 1,042 troops from Austria, Canada, Japan and Poland, and its mandate was due to expire on 30 November 1996. Major-General Kosters is from the Netherlands, she added.
At the time of the briefing, the Secretary-General was meeting with a Deputy from the National Assembly of France, Alain Rocquet, Ms. Foa said. Afterwards, he was to meet with the Permanent Representative of Zambia, Peter L. Kasanda, and thereafter with the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Vladimir Petrovsky.
The Secretary-General's Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, Ambassador Raymond Chrétien (Canada), met with Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko in Nice, France, and then flew on to Nairobi, Ms. Foa said. From there, he would catch a flight to Kigali, thus, changing his original plan of going straight to Kinshasa. Mr. Chrétien's talks with President Mobutu had been "very, very positive", she said, adding that President Mobutu said he would do everything possible to maintain this period of calm, so the multinational force discussed in Nairobi might be able to help get food to the refugees
rapidly and help them return to their home countries. "So, that meeting was extremely positive."
Reports from the field in eastern Zaire were "not that positive", Ms. Foa went on to say. Noting "about 2,115 refugees out of the total of 1.1 million Rwandan refugees have gone back to Rwanda", she said Rwandan refugees arriving in Rwanda had reported that the refugees who abandoned the camps of Katale and Kahindo, near Goma, were beginning to die from lack of food and water. "They are telling us also that one of the reasons that they have come back to Rwanda is that things are so bad out in the jungle."
She said reports had confirmed that about 27,000 Burundi refugees out of the 145,000 in eastern Zaire were now back in Burundi. Of those, around 11,000 were in the Bujumbura area, with another 16,000 in the Cibitoke region.
"One of the non-governmental organizations got into Goma yesterday [Wednesday]", Ms. Foa told correspondents. "They said that thousands of refugees were in Goma, searching for food. The hospital was full of the war- wounded, and there are no medical supplies. We are getting reports that there is a stench of decaying bodies, both in Goma and in the region between Uvira and the Burundi border. They say that Uvira is now in the control of fighters, some of them barely 12 years old, who are armed with Kalashnikovs."
"In Bukavu, we're getting reports that looting is continuing", Ms. Foa said. "Expatriates were being allowed to leave, but they're being asked to leave all their belongings behind. Expatriates in Goma are also being told that they could leave, but they also have to leave all their possessions behind, including their shoes and socks."
"We also have reports of fighting near Mugunga camp, where we believe there are still about 200,000 refugees left, out of the 400,000 that were in the Mugunga-Lac Vert area", Ms. Foa went on to say. "We have reports that explosions ripped through Sake, wounding about 30 people. Many of the refugees from Mugunga seemed to be moving west towards Sake, a town about five kilometres west of Mugunga. There were also reports of fighting in southern Kivu province, around Fizi, but nothing very firm yet. This was from Zairian refugees arriving in the Tanzanian town of Kigoma."
"In numbers: 27,000 Burundians were back in Burundi; 13,561 refugees, mostly Zairian refugees, were in southern Uganda; about 2,115 Rwandan refugees had returned to Rwanda, plus 4,500 Zairian refugees", Ms. Foa said. "In Tanzania, the number of refugees is now about 8,500. The airport of Bukavu, according to reports, as well as the road from Bukavu to Goma, appeared to be mined, so we are being warned to be very careful."
With respect to Western Sahara and the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), Ms. Foa said the Secretary-General had submitted his latest report on that issue to the Security Council. In it, he
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 7 November 1996
says the positions of the Government of Morocco and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) regarding further identification of individuals for the proposed referendum remained irreconcilable. Nevertheless, the Government of Morocco and POLISARIO had repeated their commitment to the settlement plan, she continued. They continued to respect the cease-fire and were hopeful that ways might be found to permit resumption of the identification process and full implementation of the plan. The Secretary-General also said that the release of 66 POLISARIO prisoners-of-war on 31 October by the Government of Morocco had been particularly welcomed and should help promote confidence.
"In view of the recent indications that the parties are moving forward, and in order to allow time for further progress, the Secretary-General recommends that the Security Council extend MINURSO's mandate for a further period of six months, till 31 May 1997, while making it clear that the international community cannot be expected to support the extension of the mandate indefinitely unless there was tangible progress towards the settlement of the question of Western Sahara", Ms. Foa said.
The current mandate of MINURSO was due to expire on 30 November, she said. "As you know, we have considerably downsized that mission. Out of, for instance, the authorized 410 posts for the identification process, 240 have been withdrawn. We only have 170 people on the ground. There has also been a reduction in the civilian police component, from 91 officers to nine."
Ms. Foa said the Security Council was now hearing a briefing from the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Hans Blix, who had been speaking on the situations in Iraq and in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, and was still taking questions from the Council. The next briefing was to be given by Iqbal Riza, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Bosnia and Herzegovina, "who was supposed to be ours [afterwards], but it looks like we are going have to reschedule it. If Hans Blix gets out in time, we'll bring him in here, but I'm not sure he will". The Council would then take up the situation in the Great Lakes region -- "I don't have to tell you what they will be talking about."
Today, Uganda signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), "which brings the total number of signatory countries up to 130", Ms. Foa announced, adding that Fiji was still the only country to have ratified the Treaty. "Of the 44 core countries who must sign, we still have three who have not signed: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, India and Pakistan."
Tomorrow at 11:15 a.m. in room 226, Graça Machel, expert on the impact of armed conflict on children, and Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), would brief correspondents on a report to be presented subsequently to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) at 3 p.m.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 7 November 1996
A correspondent said it was increasingly clear, now that the Clinton Administration had been re-elected, that it was not going to do a flip-flop on the issue of the Secretary-General's second term. Was he equally determined to stay on until they got rid of him?
"I haven't seen anything that makes it clear", Ms. Foa said. "I have seen a few smear stories and some disinformation being passed on out there, but the Secretary-General has made it very, very clear, since last June, that he is available for a second term should Member States decide it. He is not campaigning, he is not electioneering. He doesn't want the post of Secretary of State -- he is very happy where he is. Nothing has changed."
Although all Member States were equal, some were more equal than others, the correspondent added. With the United Nations largest financial contributor and possibly one of its most influential Members making it pretty obvious that it doesn't want him to stay on, what was the point of the Secretary-General continuing to make himself available?
"This is a question for the Security Council to decide", Ms. Foa said. "I believe they have decided they will begin consultations on this in mid- November, and I think we should let the Security Council do its job."
Was The New York Times story accurate, in the sense that the Secretary- General had been calling members of Congress? a correspondent asked.
"The Secretary-General has lots of friends in Congress", Ms. Foa said. "He's been on the world scene a lot longer than most of you have been around, and he has lots of friends. He gets phone calls from them. Obviously, in the last few months he has had a lot of phone calls expressing solidarity. I don't think there is any law against taking phone calls from your friends. Sometimes, when he gets a phone call, or when he sees something that is of concern to him, he might initiate a phone call. I know that he has telephoned [Senator] Paul Simon to thank him for an article that he thought was quite interesting. But the Secretary-General is not campaigning. This man does not have time to have a decent breakfast -- he does not have time to mess around with frivolous phone calls."
Would the Secretary-General drop out after the first veto? a correspondent asked, adding that he was trying to establish whether the Secretary-General was going to fight to the end, as he has been quoted as saying. "We are certainly too early to even begin talking about something so hypothetical", Ms. Foa said.
Was Iqbal Riza's briefing to the Security Council something routine, or did he have something special to say? a correspondent asked. "We are reaching a time when people are talking about mandates being extended, and I imagine he is making his pitch for the problems he sees", Ms. Foa said. "You might try to catch him at the stake-out position." She then asked whether correspondents
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preferred the stake-out or having him come in for the noon briefing on Monday. "Both", was the reply.
"A popular man", Ms. Foa laughed. "He is very good -- I have heard him give his briefing, and he's excellent."
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), was unable to attend the noon briefing today, Ms. Foa said. She would be in her office and available to take questions from correspondents in the afternoon.
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