DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961108
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, said the Secretary-General was briefing the Security Council on the situation on the Great Lakes region of Africa.
She then read the following statement: "The Secretary-General has been profoundly disturbed and gravely concerned at the most serious humanitarian situation that had been evolving in eastern Zaire for the past few weeks. He wrote three letters to the President of the Security Council on 14, 24 and 29 October drawing the attention of the members of the Security Council to these alarming developments. He has since appointed a Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region who is in the region now, and a United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Great Lakes Region who is also in the region. The Secretary-General is also in constant touch with the leaders of the region. He has telephoned and written letters to the Presidents of Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, United Republic of Tanzania, Cameroon, Burundi and Rwanda, as well as the Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). "Yesterday, 7 November, the Secretary-General addressed another letter to the President of the Security Council. This letter focused on the dramatic deterioration in the situation in eastern Zaire and the very real threat to the lives of tens of thousands of men, women and children. The fighting in eastern Zaire has caused massive displacement. More than 1.2 million Burundian and Rwandan refugees have been displaced, as well as tens of thousands of Zairians. More than 1 million of these people have moved west of Goma into very, very inhospitable and inaccessible areas of Zaire, and their lives were literally at stake. There were reports of refugees returning to Rwanda indicating that people are dying of thirst. "The Secretary-General said that the situation in eastern Zaire calls for determined, effective and immediate action by the international community. It is imperative to stabilize the situation and establish safe conditions for the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the refugees and displaced persons. The Secretary-General welcomes the initiative of the seven African leaders who convened a summit on the situation in eastern Zaire in Nairobi on 5 November. That summit, to which the Organization of African Unity was associated, has called for the immediate setting up of safe corridors and temporary sanctuaries inside Zaire to facilitate humanitarian assistance and the repatriation of refugees. For this purpose, airfields and border-crossing would have to be secured and logistics bases in eastern Zaire protected. "The Nairobi summit requested the Security Council to take urgent measures to deploy the required force to ensure these objectives. Under
normal circumstances, the Secretary-General would obviously prefer that the Council should decide to deploy a United Nations peace-keeping force, under the control and command of the United Nations. However, in this situation, time is of the essence. We do not have the luxury of time. Every passing day literally costs thousands of lives. It normally takes from three to six months to set up a United Nations peace-keeping force. Consequently, in his letter of 7 November, the Secretary-General has conveyed to the Security Council his considered judgement that the best option available at this stage is for a group of Member States to decide to establish a multinational force under the authority of the Security Council.
"The Secretary-General noted that the Council already has under active consideration a proposal whereby it would authorize Member States to make necessary arrangements to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance to the needy population. The momentum seems to exist for a concerted action by the international community. The Secretary-General strongly appeals to Member States, which are in a position to do so, to contribute to this force. Needless to say that any action mandated by the Security Council would be implemented in close consultation with the OAU and the countries of the region, and such consultation is ongoing.
"The Secretary-General said the world has been watching on television screens the unimaginable sufferings to which the populations in eastern Zaire have been and continue to be subjected. The fact that a fairly large-scale movement of people from Zaire has taken place towards the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi emphasizes the regional dimension of the crisis. The Secretary-General is confident that the international community will not fail to discharge its moral obligation to rescue these most unfortunate populations and to take immediate action to put an end to the hostilities in the region. We don't have any more time."
The Spokesman went on to say that the reports from the field on eastern Zaire were very, very sketchy. "We are mainly getting the reports from the very few Rwandan refugees who have made it back to Rwanda", she said. As of this morning, 2,345 of the 1.1 million Rwandan refugees in eastern Zaire had actually arrived back in Rwanda.
She said the story being heard from every one of them was, "We were told if we returned to Rwanda, we would be murdered immediately. We believed it. Now we are getting food, we are getting water, we are being taken care of."
Ms. Foa said, "They are so brainwashed in their camps by Hutu extremists, and are being told that they will be tortured and murdered if they return." As a result, the refugees were terrified. "We have to find ways to let them know that they will be safe when they get back."
Describing other accounts being received from returning refugees, Ms. Foa said some had travelled in circles for days, trying to find food and water. They had said that the worst situation had been for people caught in
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the lava fields, where "there was absolutely nothing". When they got to the forests, it was little better. However, refugees had spoken of many dead bodies in the forests. Mothers who had come across the border described losing their children in the stampedes to get out of the camps. "It's really awful out there", Ms. Foa added. There was not a lot of information coming in, but many sad stories. One group of refugees from the Kahindo camp said they had come across people who were selling water and charging $10 for a jerrycan of water. The refugees did not have the money to purchase the water.
On stand-by arrangements to fill the three-to-six month gap required to set up a peace-keeping operation, Ms. Foa said that Austria would become the fifth United Nations Member State to sign the memorandum of understanding on the stand-by arrangements for peace-keeping operations. That ceremony would take place at 3:30 p.m. in the office of the Under-Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations, Kofi A. Annan. The agreement would be signed by Mr. Annan and by the Permanent Representative of Austria, Ernst Sucharipa. Four other countries -- Jordan, Denmark, Ghana and Malaysia -- had signed a memorandum of understanding. Sixty-two others had expressed their willingness to participate in such stand-by arrangements.
The Spokesman said that the stand-by arrangements were created in 1994, as a means to fill the three-to-six month gap between authorization of a peace-keeping mission by the Security Council, and full deployment by standard recruitment methods. "In other words, we would like to have them standing by so that when we have a situation as we do in eastern Zaire, we are ready to go", she said.
This morning the Secretary-General met with Ieremia Tabai, Secretary- General of the South Pacific Forum, Ms. Foa said. At 1 p.m., he would meet with Graça Machel, the Secretary-General's Expert on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.
This afternoon, the Secretary-General would address the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) which was receiving Ms. Machel's report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.
Ms. Foa said that the Secretary-General would state:
"The study has been prepared under the outstanding leadership of Graça Machel. The international community now has before it a comprehensive appraisal of the plight of children caught in armed conflict. Between the lines of this detailed and serious document, we can hear the cries of the 2 million children killed, and the 15 million disabled or traumatized in conflicts over the past decade, calling out to us for urgent redress."
Addressing the situation in the Great Lakes region and the suffering being seen there, the Secretary-General would say:
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"Immediate application of the wide-ranging recommendations of the Machel report would go a long way towards alleviating the suffering of the children in eastern Zaire."
He appeals to Member States to "carefully consider every one of its recommendations, and to ensure their effective implementation", Ms. Foa added. The recommendations were "very, very numerous". They included a call by Ms. Machel for a global campaign to stop the recruitment of children under the age of 18 into the armed forces, as well as for new ways of monitoring the impact of sanctions on children.
Ms. Machel also looks for studies of the special threats posed to girls during conflict, and specifically the increasing use of rape and gender-based violence as weapons of war, the Spokesman said. She also wants all military personnel to receive instructions on the responsibility to women and children in particular as part of their training. She wants all peace agreements to include specific measures to demobilize and reintegrate children into society. Regarding land-mines, she asked governments to support the world-wide ban at least on anti-personnel land-mines. About 6 million children had been seriously or permanently disabled, most of them by land-mines, the Spokesman added.
Ms. Foa said there was a press release available in the Spokesman's office on the resumption of the Guatemalan peace talks in Mexico City tomorrow. Those talks would be held for three days, and were welcomed by the Secretary-General.
"There is more sadness in the world", Ms. Foa said. The Secretary- General had sent a message of condolence to the Prime Minister of India over the enormous number of deaths and the devastation caused by the cyclone that had struck Andhra Pradesh. The Secretary-General said:
"At this time of sorrow I would like to offer my most sincere condolences and heartfelt sympathy to you, to the Government and people of India, and particularly to those who have suffered personal losses in this tragedy."
The Security Council was still discussing the situation in the Great Lakes region, Ms. Foa said. It had a draft resolution before it. It was not known if the matter would be concluded today or would go into the weekend.
Ms. Foa said another press release was available in the office of the Spokesman from the Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on violence against women, expressing concern about the situation in Afghanistan. That statement said:
"Since the capture of Kabul by the Taliban movement, an instituted policy of banning women from the workplace, ordering women to stay at home and denying girls access to schools had been implemented. The Special Rapporteur
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was receiving continuing reports that women were being attacked in the streets and severely beaten."
The World Chronicle television programme today would feature Hans Blix, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Ms. Foa said.
A correspondent asked why the Secretary-General's statement on eastern Zaire differed from his letter to the Security Council, in that it omitted all mention of repatriation of refugees. Secondly, how did the Secretary-General see an international force achieving that goal?
Ms. Foa said there never was any doubt that the way to resolve the crisis in the Great Lakes region was through the resolution of the refugee problem, preferably through the repatriation of the 1.2 million refugees. They had been there for two years. "They don't have a life." They cause political problems that can only be solved if they are repatriated. It was up to the United Nations to find ways to provide them with the confidence to go home. "That means we will have to find ways to go home with them", she said. The Organization would have to have staff to go back with them to their communes to make sure they were well settled.
If the statement omitted the question of repatriation, that was because the most immediate need was to stabilize the situation in the area and get food and medicine to those people, she said. "Repatriation is the next step", she added. That would probably require a lot of international pressure and a regional conference to achieve.
Would not the same thing happen as in the last two years, that the aid would fuel the strength of the armed Hutu extremists in the camps? the correspondent asked. That was always a problem that would have to be addressed, Ms. Foa said. But right now people were dying of hunger and thirst and the United Nations could not tell them that they would not receive food and water if they were unprepared to return home immediately.
The Council was discussing many ideas, she said. The agencies on the ground were looking at the situation. However, it was not possible to quibble about whether people would be fed if they did not go home. "You cannot force people to go home, you have to give them confidence."
Was that not a short-term proposal to return to the status quo? the correspondent asked. Ms. Foa said proposals being put forward included a multinational force capable of stopping the terrorization of the refugees by extremists in the camps.
Was that mentioned either in the Secretary-General's letter to the Security Council or in his statement? the correspondent asked. The question of repatriation was gone into in great length, Ms. Foa stated.
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Was the separation of the Hutu extremists mentioned and did the Secretary-General support that as an element of the multinational force? the correspondent continued. The mandate of such a force would be decided by the Security Council, Ms. Foa said. The feasibility of such efforts was under discussion, and was one of the things being examined by Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Great Lakes Region.
Continuing, she said people were now scattered and no longer so much under the control of the Hutu extremists. They were formed in smaller groups and were moving around. If it were possible to get them food and medicine, it would also be possible to begin speaking seriously to them about going home. That might be done now, without having "some thug standing behind us saying 'hey, get away' or telling the refugees 'if you listen to that United Nations official you are dead meat', which was what had been the problem during the last two years".
The Secretary-General referred in his letter to the Security Council to creating "accessible areas" into which refugees would be concentrated. Would that give the Hutu extremists the opportunity to regain control of the camps? he asked. Ms. Foa said, "It is up to us to make sure that they don't." Now that the problem was known, and if a viable force existed to protect the refugees from the Hutu extremists, there would be a "hell of a better chance than before". The people who were threatening to kill people, and who had killed and terrorized people, should certainly be separated. How feasible was that? That would be found out very soon.
To a question on the size of the international force, Ms. Foa said that was a matter that the Security Council would have to decide. That would be a multinational force authorized by the Council, but under the command of the Member States which were taking part in the force. Everything -- their deployment, financing, command structure, control arrangements -- would be done as it was done in the classic example of "Desert Storm", referring to the 1990 multinational coalition that forced Iraq out of Kuwait. Those issues would be up to contributing Members.
Why had the third report of the Commission of Inquiry on the supply of arms to the Hutus in Zaire not been published? the correspondent asked. It was commissioned by the Security Council, Ms. Foa said. It was then passed to the President of the Council. Her understanding was that the President had informally distributed it to members of the Council. The Council would decide whether to publish it.
Asked for the Secretary-General's view of that matter, she said he felt that with his Special Envoy Raymond Chrétien in the area and with the rapidly evolving situation on the ground, it might be wise to wait until some help was gotten to the refugees "before we start pointing fingers", Ms. Foa said. It was felt that the report should be released after the end of Ambassador Chrétien's mission.
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Asked why that was felt, Ms. Foa said that the situation on the ground had changed drastically, since people had fled the camps and were now separated from the extremists.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), said this morning the President chaired the Ad Hoc Committee of the General Assembly for the Announcement of Voluntary Contributions to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) programmes in 1997. The President's statement had been made available to correspondents this morning. (See Press Release GA/9160.) He urged countries that had not contributed in a significant way to the UNHCR to do so in support of the 1997 programmes. An estimated $200 million was pledged at the Committee's meeting today.
This afternoon, the President would meet with the President of the forty-sixth session of the General Assembly, Samir Shihabi (Saudi Arabia), Ms. Abdul-Majid said. He would also address the Third Committee at the presentation of the report on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children.
She said that the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) next week would be acting on a series of resolutions that had been introduced. They would be taken up in 10 clusters -- nuclear weapons; other weapons of mass destruction; conventional weapons; regional disarmament and security; confidence-building measures, including transparency in armaments; disarmament aspects of outer space; disarmament machinery; other disarmament measures; related matters of disarmament and international security; and international security. The Committee might act on the draft resolution on an international agreement to ban anti-personnel land-mines on Monday afternoon or Tuesday.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) had a draft resolution on international trade and development (document A/C.2/51/L.16), and the Third Committee would consider a series of draft resolutions including those relating to a new international humanitarian order, the UNHCR office, follow-up to the regional conference addressing the problems of refugees held in May in Geneva, assistance to unaccompanied minors, and status of women in the Secretariat.
Ms. Abdul-Majid said the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning recommended the appointment of members of several bodies, including the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), which was responsible for the expert examination of the programme budget of the United Nations. The five recommended to the Assembly for appointment to the ACABQ were Denise Almao of New Zealand, Ammar Amari of Tunisia, Leonid E. Bidny of the Russian Federation, Gerard Biraud of France, and Norma Goicochea Estenoz of Cuba. Melinda Kimble of the United States was not recommended by the Committee.
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Daily Press Briefing - 8 - 8 November 1996