DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970303
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Juan Carlos Brandt, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by informing correspondents that the Security Council had begun consultations at around 11 a.m. to hear a briefing from the Executive Chairman of the United Nations Special Commission set up under Security Council resolution 687 (1991) in connection with the disposal of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, Rolf Ekeus. After that, it would review United Nations sanctions against Iraq. Poland's Permanent Representative, Zbigniew M. Wlosowicz, was the President of the Security Council this month, he added.
Meanwhile, at 3 p.m. today the high-level open-ended working group of the General Assembly on the financial situation of the United Nations would meet. It would hear a presentation on the Organization's cash-flow situation by the Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, Joseph Connor. During tomorrow's noon briefing, Mr. Connor would brief the media on his discussions with the Assembly working group.
Today was D-Day, the Associate Spokesman said in relation to the Military Observer Group attached to the United Nations United Nations Human Rights Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA). Ex-combatants of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) were scheduled to start gathering at designated Assembly points. While some of those locations were not yet ready, they would all be completed in one week. Since it now had 149 of the 155 military observers authorized on 20 January by the Security Council, the United Nations was ready to verify the implementation of the 4 December 1996 definitive cease-fire agreement signed in Oslo by the Guatemalan Government and the URNG. Details of the agreement's transition programme, expected to last two months, were contained in the Secretary- General's report on Central America concerning efforts towards peace (document S/1996/1045 and Adds.1 and 2).
Turning to Zaire, the Associate Spokesman said the humanitarian situation in the country's eastern provinces continued to be very serious. Flights by the World Food Programme (WFP) over the Tingi-Tingi refugee camp, which had housed some 170,000 refugees, showed that it was empty, with its inhabitants heading westwards. Some of them had reached the town of Kisangani, 230 kilometres to the west. Large groups of refugees from the towns of Kalima and Kindu were arriving at Punia, to which the WFP had airlifted some six metric tonnes of food. Security concerns regarding the dangers of the encroaching fighting had led to last Saturday's evacuation from Kisangani to Kinshasa of 57 personnel of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), other United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations. Meanwhile, the High Commissioner for Refugees, Sadako Ogata, had expressed distress that the aid workers had been forced out of Tingi-Tingi camp when they had just completed arrangements to fly out the first group of 60 orphans to Rwanda, an action that was made impossible by the fighting in the area and the forced evacuation of United Nations personnel. More than 5,000 children who had been separated from their families had been in the camps.
Mr. Brandt said that the Secretary-General Kofi Annan was in The Hague where he started his day with a meeting with the Preparatory Commission for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Convention is due to go into effect on 29 April, but three of the five permanent members of the Security Council -- the United States, Russian Federation and China -- had not ratified it. Talking to the Preparatory Commission's staff after the meeting, the Secretary-General expressed optimism that the three States would ratify the Convention before 29 April. A press release from the Preparatory Commission was available in the Spokesman's office.
Later, Mr. Brandt continued, the Secretary-General met with the Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation, Jan Pronk. They discussed how to integrate peace-keeping and peace-building and the possibility of setting up peace-keeping trust funds which could be used for peace-building-type work, from demobilization to good governance. Examples of such activities included the efforts in Mozambique to help the transition of the National Resistance Movement (RENAMO) into a political party and in Somalia, where the Baidoa- based Indian contingent of the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) had engaged in humanitarian work.
The Secretary-General then paid a courtesy call on Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and attended a lunch in his honour, according to Mr. Brandt. He later met with the judges of the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and for the Former Yugoslavia, the President of the Tribunals, Antonio Cassese, and other members of the Tribunals. The officials discussed the work and financial problems of the Tribunals and appealed for greater understanding from Headquarters in New York. Unfortunately, Mr. Brandt continued, the current financial crisis had forced Headquarters to cut the number of translators and clerical support staff, thereby slowing down documentation and the preparation of cases. Mr. Annan was expected to meet later with the Tribunals' Chief Prosecutor, Justice Louise Arbour, and her staff.
Briefing reporters on the Secretary-General's weekend activities, Mr. Brandt said Mr. Annan left Paris for The Hague on Sunday. He was the guest of honour at a dinner held for him by the President of the International Court of Justice, Justice Stephen M. Schwebel. A day earlier, he had met in Paris with the joint United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun. After the meeting, Mr. Sahnoun had told the media that he had guarded optimism that
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 3 March 1997
negotiations on the situation in eastern Zaire could lead to a cease-fire, even if it might take some time. The Special Representative would again meet with the Secretary-General in New York on Wednesday and brief the Security Council on the latest developments and his meetings of the last few weeks.
Continuing with his briefing on the Secretary-General's visit to France, Mr. Brandt said Mr. Annan met with President Jacques Chirac and discussed many issues, the main one being the situation in Zaire. Other topics included United Nations reform, the Middle East, the Great Lakes region of Africa, drug problems and the implementation of Security Council resolution 986 (1995), on the "oil-for-food" formula, particularly the distribution of goods in Iraq. Mr. Annan had explained that, while he had earlier expected the distribution of goods to start on 1 March, the process will begin at a later date due to technical delays. On the question of whether he would be meeting this week with the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq, Tarik Aziz, Mr. Annan had indicated that it was not yet clear whether he would meet with Mr. Aziz or another Iraqi government official. A transcript of the Secretary-General's statement to the media was available in the French in the Spokesman's office.
The Associate Spokesman informed reporters that the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the staff of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH) had given a send-off to five children from Sarajevo who were going to Euro-Disney, in France. Three of them were from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina while the other two were from the Republika Srpska. They were travelling as part of a series of activities involving the children of Bosnia and Herzegovina, stemming from UNMIBH's 1996 United Nations Day celebrations. Staff of the United Nations had donated more than 60,000 deutsche marks in October, which allowed UNMIBH to sponsor a film festival and live performances by local actors. The UNMIBH would seek more funds to improve the five orphanages and children's hospitals in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), he said, was trying to improve two situations in Ecuador and Uruguay that had caused great concern. In the first -- where a prolonged period of low rainfall had led to acute drought in the south-western provinces of Loja and El Oro, affecting 34,000 -- the UNDP was working to increase food production, improve access to water, sanitation and irrigation. In a joint effort with the WFP and the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education, the UNDP was providing food to more than 7,000 children and 370 teachers in the Loja province.
The second situation, Mr. Brandt said, was caused by an oil spill off the Uruguayan coast earlier in February. In response, the UNDP had allocated $200,000 to assess the damages and to support clean-up efforts. The spill was caused when an oil tanker struck a reef near Isla de Lobos, the largest habitat of seals and sea lions in the world. The spill also affected about 28 miles of beaches in the Maldonado region, a crucial area for Uruguay's tourism.
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 3 March 1997
Mr. Brandt reminded reporters that a press conference would be held at 11:15 a.m. tomorrow in room 226 on the release of the report of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). A teleconference between Vienna and New York would take place. He then announced that a two-day conference on "Technology and Communications in the Twenty-First Century: the Impact on Society" would be held in the General Assembly Hall from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., on 6 and 7 March.
In a subsequent question-and-answer session, the Associate Spokesman was asked for further details on the scheduled visit to the United Nations by the President of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat. In response, he said that, while he did not have details, he understood that Mr. Arafat would come to Headquarters tomorrow for an official reception and would meet with the Secretary-General on Wednesday at the request of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations. The Secretary-General would be in his office on that day.
Pressed for more details on the talks on reform between Mr. Annan and President Chirac, Mr. Brandt said he did not have more to add other than to say that their meeting had focused on the situation in Zaire.
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