DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961113
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's briefing by telling correspondents that "most of yesterday's euphoric wind has been knocked out of our sails" due to yesterday's events. She continued: "All our ducks are not yet in a row for the multinational force for eastern Zaire. However, hopefully today we will have reason for optimism again. We are on pins and needles once again. Our eyes are glued to CNN and our ears to the BBC, and we're hoping that something will happen today, that we'll be able to get this force moving and that we'll be able to go to the Security Council with a letter from them".
This morning, she added, "we had some journalists asking, what does the Secretary-General want for his birthday? Tomorrow is his birthday. I think it's his twenty-ninth. And what does he want? Well, what he really wants is Security Council authorization for a multinational force to get in there and help the more than 1 million people who are terrified -- people who are cold, hungry and very very thirsty".
The meeting previously scheduled for yesterday between Under Secretary- General for Peace-keeping Operations, Kofi Annan, and [Canadian] Lieutenant General Maurice Baril was expected to take place this afternoon at 4 p.m., Ms. Foa told correspondents. General Baril [expected to lead the proposed multinational force] was still in Washington; "but if things go as we hope, he will fly up [to New York] today".
Ms. Foa went on to say that "The New York Times -- which is always right, we know that -- had an editorial this morning saying, 'the U.N.'s unfortunate habit of dealing only with the short-term manifestations of the Rwanda crisis and not the underlying problems is no longer tenable'. The editorial also said that the United Nations 'made no effort to separate the 100,000 or so Hutu fanatics responsible for the massacres from the much larger numbers who are not'", Ms. Foa ended her quotation from today's New York Times editorial.
"As I just said" -- Ms. Foa continued -- "The New York Times is always right. However, excuse me, the United Nations, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in particular, have been repeatedly pointing out that the underlying problem of the current crisis is the need to separate the extremists from the refugees. I would like to remind you that back in November of 1994 the Secretary-General, in his report to the Security Council on security in the Rwandese refugee camps, gave three military options for tackling the problem. Those options were, first, a peace-keeping operation under Chapter VI of the Charter, to establish security progressively in the
camps, area by area, over a period of time. Option two was a United Nations force under Chapter VII, to separate the former political leaders, military personnel and militia from the ordinary refugee population of the camps, thereby ensuring the security of the ordinary refugees -- who were about 99 per cent of them. Option three was a multinational force under Chapter VII, not under United Nations command, to carry out those [same] functions".
Unfortunately, she continued, the Security Council did not act on those options. "And, as you may remember, the UNHCR was then forced to hire members of the Zairian military to try and keep some order in the camps. It was not a perfect solution, [though] it has prevented many deaths. But to say that we never want to deal with the underlying problems is really not very correct."
The Secretary-General was on his way home and was expected back in New York tonight. This morning he addressed the Food Summit in Rome -- copies of his speech had been made available -- "and as you know he made quite a passionate plea to all people and all nations to help save the lives of the victims of genocide by starvation in eastern Zaire". (See Press Release SG/SM/6107-FAO/3642 of 12 November.)
Referring to the Food Summit itself, Ms. Foa said that 194 countries were represented there "and we expect them to adopt a Rome declaration and plan of action on the theme 'Food for All'".
After addressing the Food Summit, the Secretary-General held three bilateral meetings. The first of those was with the Prime Minister of Morocco, Abdellatif Filali. The second was with the Foreign Minister of Italy, Lamberto Dini, and the third with the Prime Minister of Dominica, Edison James. The Secretary-General had reviewed the issues of the Food Summit with all of them. Specifically, with the Prime Minister of Morocco he discussed Western Sahara, an issue "which is high on all our lists". With the Foreign Minister of Italy, he discussed the situation in the Middle East and the consolidated efforts of the United Nations system to assist the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza. With the Prime Minster of Dominica, talks also covered some of the problems specific to small island States and the follow-up to the 1994 Barbados Conference on Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States. "We expect him back in the office, bright and early, tomorrow morning."
The Security Council had approved this morning its report to the General Assembly and was now discussing the report on the United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), Ms. Foa said.
On Western Sahara, Ms. Foa informed correspondents that the Secretary- General had appointed Major-General Jorge Barroso de Moura (Portugal) as new Force Commander of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western
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Sahara (MINURSO). General Barroso de Moura would replace the current Force Commander, Major-General Jose Leandro, also a Portuguese national, and the appointment would take effect on 1 December. His biography was available in the Spokesman's office. Ms. Foa recalled that the Secretary-General had recommended a six-month extension of that "very much down-sized" mission. The mandate of MINURSO was due to expire at the end of November.
"Thailand did sign the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty yesterday, thank you very much", Ms. Foa said. "It brings up the total of signatory States to 133. Otherwise, everything else remains the same".
On the situation in Eastern Zaire, a note received [today] from the UNHCR said that "they had been able to do a quick survey of what they and the non-governmental organizations had lost through looting: 405 vehicles, including trucks, buses, water tankers; 122,000 blankets, 23,000 plastic sheets used to keep out the rain, almost 30,000 kitchen sets, 38,000 jerrycans and 540 metric tons of soap, in case anyone was wondering what the capacity for looting was. It's quite good", Ms. Foa said.
The United Nations Correspondents Association had a briefing tomorrow at 2 p.m. with the Nobel Peace Prize winner from East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta. "That was quite a coup", she remarked. "Congratulations."
Opening the questions session, a correspondent asked if there was any readout on the Security Council lunch yesterday? "They didn't invite me", Ms. Foa laughed, adding that she understood that a [draft] resolution was being talked about, but did not have any further details.
A correspondent asked if the Secretary-General would resort to a procedure used in the past and reappoint his top-level staff for short periods [at the end of the year], or had he reappointed them for longer periods. "No one has said anything to me about it. I can tell you, though, my contract is up on 31 December." She then inquired, what was the normal procedure?
The correspondent said that normally there was a slight overlap, so that if a new Secretary-General came in, that person would be able to make changes. "One of the first questions you ask people you meet in the corridor [at the United Nations] is, when is your contract up. It seems to me that a lot of them are telling me, February [1997]", she replied.
It was important, the correspondent continued, because if people had been reappointed to longer terms, it would mean that "something was in the works". The Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Ahmad Fawzi, confirmed that he had also heard that many of those people had contracts until next February. Commenting that it seemed to be a tradition that had been going on for quite some time, she said that "many of the high-level people have contracts that end in February, so that would resolve the problem. But I
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will check to see if anybody has had their contract renewed recently, or is expecting to".
A correspondent said there were reports coming out of Washington that the United States was on the verge of announcing that it would supply several thousand troops [for the multinational force for eastern Zaire]. Did the Spokesman know anything about it? "We are keeping our fingers crossed. The Canadians have said several times that they would think that United States participation is vital to the success of the mission. We have no reason to believe that there won't be some participation by the United Stats, in transport or something. But we have not heard from them ourselves. Since Canada has offered to command a force, most of those contacts will now be done through Canada. So, we're waiting", Ms. Foa said.
The correspondent said the ambassadors who were at the "famous" Security Council luncheon had said that there could well be a vote next Monday, and many of them expected that there would be a vote specifically on Boutros- Ghali's attempts to get a second term as Secretary-General. Others at the lunch also were saying that it still seemed that the United States would veto him, in such a vote, so the key question, the correspondent continued, was what the Secretary-General would do if there were a veto against him on Monday. Would he step down or would he continue to stand? Ms. Foa replied, "We're going to have to watch this one play itself out".
How old was the Secretary-General? "On the record, he's going to turn 74. A very young 74", Ms. Foa said.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail, told correspondents that the President had met in the morning with Members of the British Parliament and they had discussed a number of issues before the General Assembly. Around noon, the President had also concluded a meeting with members of the European Parliament and European Commission.
Tomorrow, she continued, the Assembly plenary would meet to consider the item on cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Conference; there was a related draft resolution (A/51/L.17). The plenary would also take up the reports of the Fifth Committee on the appointments to fill vacancies on several bodies, including the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).
This morning, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) approved two draft resolutions without a vote, on assistance to States for curbing illicit traffic in small arms and on the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
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Also, the "much-awaited" draft resolution on an international agreement to ban anti-personnel land-mines had been voted on -- 140 in favour of the resolution to none against, with 10 abstentions.
The last preambular paragraph of that draft "recognizes the need to conclude an international agreement to ban all anti-personnel land-mines as soon as possible". By the terms of the draft resolution, the Assembly would urge States to pursue vigorously an effective, legally binding international agreement to ban the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel land-mines, with a view to completing the negotiation as soon as possible. It would also welcome the various bans, moratoriums or other restrictions already declared by States on anti-personnel land-mines. It would call upon States that had not yet done so to declare and implement such bans, moratoriums or other restrictions -- particularly on operational use and transfer -- at the earliest date possible.
Cuba had proposed amendments to that text, so as to include in the draft text references to the rights of States to self-defence. However, the representative of the Netherlands introduced a motion to take no action on the Cuban proposal, and it was approved, by 95 in favour to 26 against, with 14 abstentions, Ms. Abdul-Majid said.
The Third Committee (Social, Cultural, Humanitarian) had a number of draft resolutions for introduction. Two of them referred to the advancement of women, three were on racism and racial discrimination, and three related to the right to self-determination. It was also expected to act on a number of drafts on international drug control, the outcome of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the UNHCR.
The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) approved two drafts on outer space this morning, she concluded.
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