DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961111
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's daily briefing that the Secretary-General had flown to Rome yesterday. He had been on the telephone "non-stop", she said. He had spoken to Zairian Prime Minister Kengo Wa Dondo, in Zaire, who had declared his willingness to cooperate with the United Nations to facilitate the provision of humanitarian assistance. The Secretary-General had also spoken with Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Great Lakes Region. Mr. Vieira de Mello was in Kinshasa, meeting with senior Zairian officials to arrange details for delivering humanitarian assistance to eastern Zaire. The need to assist refugees and other displaced persons was urgent, she said.
Two United Nations assessment teams were now headed to Goma and to Bukavu, Ms. Foa said. One team had already arrived in Goma; the other was at the border negotiating their transit to Bukavu. Both teams had representatives of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme (WFP), Department for Humanitarian Affairs, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Their mission was to look into gaining access to the affected Zairian population, refugees and displaced people, the security situation, and relief requirements, and to lay the groundwork for the immediate resumption of relief activities. The Secretary-General was convinced that these exclusively humanitarian missions were necessary in the light of the most urgent needs of all affected populations. Some 1.2 million people were in need of immediate assistance.
The Secretary-General's Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, Ambassador Raymond Chrétien (Canada) was now in Kigali, Ms. Foa continued. Both he and Mr. Vieira de Mello continued to negotiate with all parties over access to refugees, internally displaced people and other affected populations. The Secretary-General hoped that those efforts would bring about immediate results. He also recognized that, given the extreme security situation of the region, a multinational force was required to ensure security and help defend refugees from those who would deny them their right to freely decide whether or not to return to their countries of origin.
"What are we doing down there?" Ms. Foa asked. She said that in Goma, the mission had brought in 5 trucks of relief -- three trucks of non-food items and two trucks of food. An NGO mission into Goma had brought in medical supplies for hospitals. Those trucks were now unloading in Goma stadium.
Preparations were under way for an airlift of food and non-food supplies to the Zairian city of Kisangani, some 500 kilometres west of Goma. Kisangani would serve as the "jumping off point" for assistance for those people heading west out of the Goma area camps. That would not be a perfect solution, she noted. Roads in the area were in poor condition, which would complicate the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Airlifts were also planned into the Zairian towns of Kindu and Beni, to provide humanitarian assistance for refugees moving west from the Bukavu and Uvira areas.
The UNHCR had also undertaken a mission to Kalemi, a town on the western shore of Lake Tanganyika. At that town they had found some 6,000 displaced persons and some 300 Burundi refugees. The United Nations had received reports that refugees from Uvira had moved to the town of Fizi, but the mission could not reach the town due to security problems. A mission was also being organized in Bujumbura to go into Uvira. "They're trying to do this from all directions" Ms. Foa said. "We need the cooperation of everybody involved."
It had been one month since the 13 October attack on Runingo camp in the Uvira region, Ms. Foa recalled. That attack had triggered the whole string of events that had resulted in the displacement of 1.2 million refugees and tens of thousands of Zairians. Those people had been left completely without food, water or medicine since 2 November.
In Rome, the Secretary-General was also meeting with Catherine Ann Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme. The Secretary-General was also meeting with Benjamino Andreatta, Defence Minister of Italy, presumably to discuss the formation of a multinational force for the Great Lakes region.
An International Police Task Force Monitor from the Netherlands was shot and wounded in Koraj, in the Republika Srpska area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ms. Foa then said. He was "medevac-ed" to Tuzla, and it was not yet clear who had shot him. The inter-entity boundary line in Bosnia and Herzegovina was a tense area. The United Nations was investigating the incident.
Ms. Foa then said that a UNHCR press release was available in the Spokesman's Office regarding the fleeing of tens of thousands of refugees from heavy fighting in western Afghanistan. According to the release, some 45,000 people from small towns and villages in the front-line areas of Badghis Province had fled south towards the city of Qala-i-Nau. Another 2,000 to 3,000 had travelled further south, towards Herat.
A correspondent then asked for an update on progress regarding the implementation of Security Council resolutions 986 and 661. Ahmad Fawzi, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, responded that the pricing formula process had been "put on hold" at the request of a Member State.
Had the level of private contributions to international humanitarian organizations fallen in light of reports that many recipients of that aid had been connected to genocide in Rwanda? a correspondent asked.
Ms. Foa responded that in the early days, when international humanitarian agencies, particularly Médecins sans Frontières, began encountering the "terrorism and thuggism" of the Hutu extremists in the camps, they saw some aid funding evaporate. At that time there had been discussions regarding the deployment of peace-keepers to protect refugees from those extremists. When that international force failed to materialize, the UNHCR had contracted a force of Zairians to police the camps. That effort had not been entirely successful, but things had become much calmer than they had been before. At present, money was not the problem. International humanitarian aid agencies had stocks of supplies in the region which could take care of everyone through mid-January. The problem now was access to the refugees.
If someone wanted to contribute funds, the correspondent continued, what would the Uited Nations Spokesman tell them to do?
Ms. Foa responded that it would be more effective if they contacted their legislators and urged them to contribute to the deployment of a multinational force in the region. "Call your parliamentarians, congressional representatives and deputies", she said.
Asked for information regarding press reports that two United States lawmakers had visited Haiti over the weekend, Ms. Foa suggested that the correspondent contact the United States Mission.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), told correspondents that the Assembly plenary was in the process of electing members of the International Law Commission. The Commission had been established in 1947 to promote the progressive development of international law and its codification. Its 34 members served for five years. The present election was for all the 34 members, with the term of office beginning 1 January 1997. The following would be elected from among 50 candidates: eight from African States, seven from Asian States, four from Eastern European States, seven from Latin American and Caribbean States and eight from Western European and Other States. A consolidated list of candidates could be found in document A/51/653.
[The results of the elections, held by secret ballots, were made available to correspondents following the briefing. The successful candidates were: Emmanuel Akwei Addo (Ghana); Husain Al-Baharna (Bahrain); Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh (Jordan); Joao Clemente Baena Soares (Brazil); Mohamed Bennouna (Morocco); Ian Brownlie (United Kingdom); Enrique J.A. Candioti (Argentina); James Richard Crawford (Australia); Christopher John Robert Dugard (South Africa); Constantin P. Economides (Greece); Nabil Elaraby (Egypt); Luigi Ferrari Bravo (Italy); Zdzislaw Galicki (Poland); Raul I. Goco (Philippines); Gerhard Hafner (Austria); He Qizhi (China); and Mauricio Herdocia Sacasa (Nicaragua). Also elected were: Jorge E. Illueca (Panama); Peter C.R. Kabatsi (Uganda); James Lutabanzibwa Kateka (United Republic of Tanzania); Mochtar Kusuma-Atmadja (Indonesia); Igor Ivanovich Lukashuk (Russian Federation); Teodor Viorel Melescanu (Romania); Vaclav Mikulka (Czech Republic); Didier Opertti Badan (Uruguay); Guillaume Pambou-Tchivounda (Gabon); Alain Pellet (France); Pemmaraju Sreenivasa Rao (India); Victor Rodriguez-Cedeno (Venezuela); Robert Rosenstock (United States); Bernardo Sepulveda (Mexico); Bruno Simma (Germany); Doudou Thiam (Senegal) and Chusei Yamada (Japan).]
Also today, the Assembly was scheduled to consider the item on cooperation between the United Nations and the Caribbean Community. A draft resolution on the item could be found in document A/51/L.14/Rev.1.
Tomorrow, the plenary would take up the item on the necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States against Cuba. The Secretary-General's report on that topic, containing replies from Member States, could be found in document A/51/355 and Add.1. A draft resolution, contained in document A/51/L.15, would be introduced by Cuba; a recorded vote was expected. Eight delegations had inscribed to speak. (Subsequent to the briefing, copies of a revised expanded list of 20 speakers were provided to correspondents.)
She then announced the availability of a tentative schedule for the plenary and Main Committees, through 29 November.
The First Committee was considering a cluster of drafts on nuclear weapons.
The Second Committee was considering two draft resolutions -- on the integration of the economies in transition into the world economy and on the United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty.
The Third Committee had a series of resolutions on assistance to refugees, returnees and displaced persons in Africa, on expansion of the Executive Committee of the UNHCR, and on international action to combat drug abuse, illicit production and trafficking. A statement of programme budget implications for that draft relating to action to combat drug abuse could be found in document A/C.3/51/L.22.
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