DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19961213
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Sylvana Foa, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that, regarding Security Council resolution 986 (1995) on Iraqi oil sales, a total of five contracts had been approved as of this morning. There were no contracts pending.
Turning to a question from yesterday on dates of previous Secretary- General elections, Ms. Foa said that, unfortunately, her records only showed the General Assembly vote. It looked like the record was held by former Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim of Austria in his first term. The vote was on 22 December 1971. The dates were available in her office.
Yesterday, a United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) worker was murdered by bandits north of Luanda in Angola, Ms. Foa said. A press release from the WFP was available in her office.
Ms. Foa said she had spoken with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) just before the briefing. So far, 1,470 Rwandan refugees from the United Republic of Tanzania had actually crossed the border into Rwanda. About two thirds of the 320,000 Rwandan refugees who had fled their camps yesterday were back in their camps around Ngara. They had been moving away from the camps saying they intended to trek to Malawi and Kenya, but Tanzanian military roadblocks had caused them to turn around. So, of the 320,000 on the move, some two thirds were back in the camps. The rest were still on the road.
Yesterday afternoon, the Comoros signed the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- Ban Treaty (CTBT), bringing the total number of signatories to 138, she said. Ratifications, one. "Guess who? Fiji. You guys know it better than me by now", she said, adding that none of the three holdouts of the 44 core countries had signed yet.
Turning to this morning's action on Tajikistan, she said the Security Council had adopted a resolution extending the mandate of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) until 15 March 1997. The extension was subject to the proviso that the 1994 Teheran Agreement remains in force, and that the parties demonstrate their commitment to an effective cease-fire, to national reconciliation, and to the promotion of democracy. The extension would remain in effect unless the Secretary-General reported the stated conditions had not been met.
On the ground, the cease-fire was generally being observed, she said. There was still some fighting around the Garm airport, but UNMOT was getting ready to redeploy observer teams to Garm and some other outposts. The Tajik Government was guaranteeing security to the UNMOT teams. "So, a little bit of progress. Not enough, but a little bit", she added.
Ms. Foa said that at 1:15 p.m. today, Giancarlo Aragona, Secretary- General of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), would brief correspondents in room 226 to discuss cooperation between the United Nations and the OSCE. He had seen the Secretary-General this morning. [It was subsequently announced that the press conference had been cancelled.] Also, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Division for the Advancement of Women, and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) would sponsor a dialogue on children's rights and women's rights today, from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. in Conference Room 6. Everybody was invited.
The World Chronicle television programme with Ngoni Francis Sengwe (Zimbabwe), the Chairman of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), would be shown on channels 6, 23 and 38 at 2:30 p.m., she said. The United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) had asked her to announce that, in conjunction with the Committee to Protect Journalists, Veran Matic, the editor of B-92, Belgrade's independent radio station "when it's not jammed or shut", would brief correspondents in the UNCA Club on Tuesday, 17 December, at 1:30 p.m.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for General Assembly President Razali Ismail (Malaysia), said that the Assembly this morning adopted all 26 draft resolutions and five decisions of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization). Seventeen of those drafts were adopted by a vote. Of those voted upon, six were under the item on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Five drafts related to the report of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, one each on peace-keeping operations, United Nations public information policies and activities, information on Non-Self-Governing Territories, implementation of the Declaration on decolonization by specialized agencies, and two on the activities of foreign, economic and other interests. The voting results were available in her office.
Of those adopted texts, Ms. Abdul-Majid drew attention to the resolution on assistance to Palestine refugees. The text reiterated the Assembly's concern regarding the continuing seriousness of the financial position of UNRWA, and called upon all governments, as a matter of urgency, to make the most generous efforts possible to meet anticipated needs of the Agency. It was adopted by a vote of 159 in favour to 1 against, with 2 abstentions. The vote on the resolution relating to persons displaced as a result of the June 1967 hostilities was 157 in favour to 2 against, with 1 abstention. By that resolution, the Assembly reaffirmed the right of all persons displaced as a result of those and subsequent hostilities to return to their homes.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 13 December 1996
Other drafts included one on the work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices, she said. By that text, adopted by a vote of 79 in favour to 2 against, with 76 abstentions, the Assembly deplored the policies and practices of Israel which violated the human rights of the Palestinian people. It requested the Special Committee, pending complete termination of Israeli occupation, to continue to investigate Israeli policies and practices in the occupied Palestine territory and other Arab territories occupied by Israel since 1967.
She said that by another resolution, the Assembly called on Israel to desist from changing the physical character and demographic composition, institutional structure and legal status of the occupied Syrian Golan. It further called upon Israel to desist from imposing Israeli citizenship and Israeli identity cards on the Syrian citizenship in that area.
This afternoon, the plenary would consider cooperation between the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), she continued. The two organizations had signed a cooperation agreement in June. By the terms of the text, the Assembly would invite the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Director General of the IOM, to ensure the needed, effective cooperation between the two organizations in order to ensure complementary actions between them.
By a text on mine clearance, also under consideration this afternoon, the Assembly would invite Member States to develop national programmes, in cooperation with the relevant bodies of the United Nations system, to promote awareness of land-mines, especially among children, she said. It would encourage all relevant multilateral and national programmes and bodies to include mine-clearance activities in their humanitarian, social and economic assistance activities. Member States would be called upon to provide the necessary information and technical and material assistance to locate, remove, destroy or otherwise render ineffective minefields, mines, booby-traps, and other devices, in accordance with international law.
By further terms of that text, the Assembly would urge Member States, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations and foundations to provide technological assistance to mine-inflicted countries, and to promote scientific research and development on humanitarian mine-clearance techniques, she said. She recalled that the Secretary-General, in his report, had indicated that there were 110 million land-mines in some 70 countries. Assuming that no new mines were laid, removal costs ranged between $50 billion and $100 billion. At the current clearance pace, it would take many decades to overcome the international land-mine crisis.
The plenary had adopted yesterday all the drafts contained in the reports of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural). The voting results had been made available to correspondents yesterday on the third floor.
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