DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970219
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, told correspondents at today's noon briefing that the Secretary-General welcomed the efforts of President Nelson Mandela of South Africa and other regional leaders to try to bring together representatives of the Zairian Government and the rebels from eastern Zaire. At present, no details were available on who exactly would attend the meeting and when it would take place, if indeed it occurred.
Meanwhile, sources in Bukavu had reconfirmed this morning that there were no further bombing attacks on Bukavu after the initial one on Monday, during which four bombs had been dropped, Mr. Eckhard said. Two wire services had been reporting bombing deaths and injuries in Bukavu, although those were filed from locations out of Bukavu. However, the United Nations sources in Bukavu had said there had been no bombing raids since Monday.
He announced that the Security Council would not be meeting today.
Turning to developments relating to Iraq, Mr. Eckhard said the Spokesman's Office had received its first phone call from the new United Nations Spokesman there, Eric Falt, whom the correspondents knew from Haiti and Cambodia. He had stated that, so far, 37 out of 151 international distribution observers had arrived in Baghdad. The agreement that the Secretary-General had reached with the Permanent Representative of Iraq, Nizar Hamdoon, was that the Ambassador would take back to Baghdad the Secretary- General's request that the Habbaniya airport outside of Baghdad be opened for the work of the oil-for-food monitors. That had not happened for the latest arrivals, who had to travel 14 hours overland from Amman. However, he had been told that Iraq had lifted its objections to the use of the airport and that the rest of the observers and other personnel would fly in directly.
Mr. Eckhard said that there were now 70 civilian staff in Baghdad. Eventually, there would be a total of 228 international civilian staff involved in the implementation of Security Council resolution 986 (oil-for- food agreement). Currently, 150 United Nations guards were stationed in northern Iraq and approximately 1,000 local staff were being recruited to assist in the international observer mission. So, altogether, there would be 1,400 people working on the operation by the end of March.
The Iraqi Sanctions Committee would be meeting at 3:30 p.m. on Friday in Conference Room 7, he said. As for contracts-of-sale for humanitarian supplies, the Committee had so far approved eight out of the 20 that had been submitted. At the time of the last announcement, four contracts out of 10 submitted had been approved. In addition to the four contracts that had
previously been mentioned, the new ones consisted of: infant formula from Tunisia worth $4.3 million; infant formula from France worth $1.6 million; medical supplies from the United Kingdom worth $900,000; and wheat from France worth $21 million. So far, the United Nations Secretariat had received 187 sales applications. An update of proceeds from oil sales was still being awaited, along with an update on the status of disbursements, he added.
Today, the thirty-sixth contribution in full to the 1997 United Nations regular budget had been received, Mr. Eckhard said. The contributor was Namibia and it had paid in full its assessment of $106,508. At this date last year, only 31 Member States had paid in full.
A press release concerning reform had been issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome and was available at the Spokesman's Office, he said. The FAO had announced today that ongoing reforms of that United Nations agency had resulted in a radically changed organization, one that was significantly slimmed down and refocused. The details were available in the release.
Also available in the Spokesman's Office was a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) daily hand-out, which reported that Rwandan refugee arrivals from eastern Zaire into Rwanda had slowed to just over 100 per day so far this month, Mr. Eckhard said. During the period 1 to 16 February 1997, a total of 2,187 refugees arrived through the Rwandan entry points of Gisenyi and Bukavu. In January, more than 56,000 refugees had returned to Rwanda from Zaire. Commenting on the Secretary-General's appointments for the day, Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had met with his Deputy Special Representative to Cyprus, Gustave Feissel, at 10:30 a.m. At 11 a.m., he was scheduled to meet the former Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuellar. At 3:30 p.m., he would address the opening of the 1997 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. He would meet the Foreign Minister of Nigeria, Tom Ikimi, and the Foreign Minister of Mexico, José Angel Gurria Trevino, in the late afternoon.
Mr. Eckhard announced that the 1997 Special Report on the World Social Situation would be presented at a press conference at 11:15 a.m. Thursday, in room 226. The publication was the only comprehensive assessment of social conditions in countries, regions and the world. It was prepared every four years by the Department for Economic and Social Information and Policy Analysis. The briefing would be by the head of the Department's Microeconomic and Social Analysis Division, Albrecht Horn.
Making an announcement for the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), he said that at 1:30 p.m. today there would be a briefing by the Non- Governmental Organizations Coalition for the International Criminal Court in the UNCA club. The purpose of the briefing was to update correspondents on developments.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 19 February 1997
Press briefings scheduled for tomorrow included a briefing at 11:45 a.m. by the Minister of Information of the Republic of Serbia, Radmila Milentijevic, on the current situation in his country. At 11:15 a.m on Friday, a briefing would be given by the Co-Chairmen of the Intergovernmental Panel on Forests, Martin Hodgate of the United Kingdom and Manuel Rodriguez of Colombia. They would speak on the outcome of the panel's current session concerning a possible world convention on forests.
A correspondent elicited Mr. Eckhard's comments on Kris Janowski's statement that Brcko was a model for the return of refugees in Bosnia. Mr. Eckhard responded that he had no comments. He had not seen Mr. Janowski's statement and he did not know enough about it to comment on it. It was a matter for the UNHCR.
Was President Mandela leading a track of negotiations separate from the one being led by the United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said there had been a lot of communication and interaction among the African leaders themselves and between the Secretary-General and the African leaders by phone. The issue was receiving a lot of high-level attention in Africa, and his sense was that the African leaders were working very closely together, among themselves and with the United Nations.
Asked further if the efforts of Mr. Sahnoun and President Mandela were related, he said Mr. Sahnoun had put together the elements of a peace agreement, which the Security Council had endorsed unanimously yesterday. Despite some negative comments made by both the sides in today's press, that was the framework that he thought could be built upon. President Mandela was proceeding from that point forward.
A correspondent wanted to know if the anticipated opening of the Baghdad airport for international observers and other personnel would be the first time that the airport had been opened to international flights since the Gulf war. Mr. Eckhard said he would check for the correspondent. The airport had effectively been closed for six years, but his impression was that there had been a limited international use. However, he would check. (Mr. Eckhard later announced that it was Habbaniya airport, which also had been used by the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq.)
Another correspondent inquired if there was a read-out of the meeting between the Secretary-General and Mr. Feissel. Mr. Eckhard said he did not have a read-out yet. However, if correspondents were interested in talking to Mr. Feissel while he was here, they should let him know.
The new Permanent Representative of the United States had strongly suggested to his former colleagues in the Congress that they should start sending some money to the United Nations while the reforms took place, a
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 19 February 1997
correspondent said. Did the Secretary-General like that idea? Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General was committed to the reform effort, with or without pressure from any Member State. His position on payment, as a matter of principle, had to be that it was a legal obligation of every Member State to pay what it was assessed. There was an orderly procedure for establishing the rate of assessment, and there was an orderly procedure for amending that rate of assessment. The Secretary-General would like to see governments follow the rules.
Mr. Eckhard said the United States internally -- between the Administration and the Congress -- was looking at the question of conditionality for its payment. Again, the Secretary-General felt that there should be no conditions on payment. That was because dues were assessed for the work of the Organization, the entire Organization set the agenda and there should not be any reason for conditionalities. The Secretary-General had suggested that if the United States wanted to accept his reform package, which he would unveil in July and which would be a quantifiable package and his timetable, then that was fine with him.
However, the staff members from the United States Congress who were here yesterday had explained that their intention was to draft legislation in the next month or two, Mr. Eckhard said. They could not wait until July. "So the ball is in their court", he said, adding "they are going to have to make a decision on whether to go with conditionality or not." They had given a strong impression that they would write conditions into the legislation. "We could not offer them benchmarks and they are not prepared to talk at this time about what their conditions would be", he said. However, he added, "a very healthy dialogue had continued between the United Nations and Washington yesterday. We are grateful that they are asking so many basic questions about how the system works and what the Secretary-General's plans for reform are. We think that this is just good for the process that will take place through this year, as the United States budget goes forward to culmination in the end of September".
Were the guards stationed in northern Iraq foreigners or Iraqi nationals? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said he believed they were foreigners, but he would have to check. (He later announced that there were no Iraqi nationals among the United Nations guards.)
Asked for details of the United Nations Special Conference on Liberia, he said it was a ministerial-level meeting. He had been trying to gather information on it this morning. However, that information had not come together in time. If the correspondent would check with him after the briefing, he would provide the details. He added that the Secretary-General was expected to address that Conference.
Daily Press Briefing - 5 - 19 February 1997
(Later in the afternoon, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General Juan-Carlos Brandt announced that the United Nations Special Conference on Liberia would be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the Trusteeship Council. Participants in the Conference would include ministers from the Netherlands, Nigeria and France. The Conference would be opened by the Secretary-General and its purpose was to advance the peace process in Liberia, the elections there and the financing of the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG).)
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