DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970311
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan, began today's noon briefing by informing correspondents that the Secretary-General's first appointment of the day was with Archbishop Renato Raffaele Martino, Permanent Observer for the Holy See, who had presented a letter from Pope John Paul II. It concerned the situation in eastern Zaire and said, in part: "The news reaching me from the dioceses affected by the military operations in progress witnesses to the state of violence and abandonment in which thousands of people are forced to live. I cannot remain indifferent to the situation of these my brothers and sisters within humanity, and I encourage you in every effort being employed, both on the ground and at the international level, to secure an immediate cease-fire." The text would be made available to correspondents in English and French, he said.
Relief agencies and programmes were going back to east central Zaire now, he continued. The first flight carrying relief supplies to Tingi-Tingi was scheduled for tomorrow. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was taking 12 tonnes of non-food items, such as plastic sheeting, jerrycans, blankets and medicines, today to Ubundu from Kisangani by rail. The refugee group in Ubundu was swelling rapidly. Aid supplies would be ferried by barges from Ubundu to where the refugees actually were; the river at that point was about 300 metres wide.
Mr. Eckhard said that in Kingulube, 140 kilometres west of Bukavu, refugees were coming out of the forest, moving towards Rwanda. About 30 people had already been driven to Bukavu for repatriation to Rwanda. According to the UNHCR, the people emerging from the forests were in alarming shape. The refugees were malnourished, with their feet swollen and covered with festering sores. Because of the humid weather, the sores were slow to heal, the people were weak and in pain, and could only walk one or two kilometres a day. "And those are the stronger ones", he added, "those who made it out of the forest." Now that the rainy season had started, the weather conditions were worsening.
He said that the United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region, Mohamed Sahnoun, had resumed his mission in the field after briefing the Security Council last Friday. He was in Kampala today and was scheduled to meet with President Yoweri Museveni tomorrow morning. He would then go on to Kigali on Friday.
The Spokesman said that the Security Council had the same three-part programme for closed consultations today that he had announced yesterday: on Tajikistan, a Secretary-General's report for a three-month extension of the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT); on Bosnia and Herzegovina, an exchange of letters over the situation in West Mostar; and a draft presidential statement submitted by the Russian Federation on safety and security of United Nations personnel.
Mr. Eckhard said that Jose Ramos-Horta, representative of the East Timor Independence Movement and co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, would meet with the Secretary-General at 4:30 p.m. Mr. Ramos-Horta would be available to talk to the media at the stake-out area after the meeting. Tomorrow, he would address non-governmental organizations at 10:30 a.m., and the media were invited to participate.
He told correspondents that the Secretary-General's 90-day report on the implementation of resolution 986 (1995) on the "oil-for-food" formula for
Iraq would be submitted to the Security Council as soon as translation to all official languages was completed, probably later today. As no consignment of humanitarian goods authorized by the resolution had reached Iraq yet, the report focused on the status of preparations for the observation process and for the implementation of activities in the three northern governorates. It also provided information on the sale of Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products, the purchase of supplies for essential civilian needs, and the status of funds received and disbursed from the United Nations/Iraq "escrow account". He added that the Security Council committee which monitored the sanctions against Iraq was also finalizing the report on its work to the Security Council, but no date had yet been set for its next meeting.
Mr. Eckhard said the United Nations yesterday had provided Iraq with its third weekly report on the implementation of 986. As of Friday, 37 oil contracts had been approved, with the total volume reaching 104 million barrels. In addition, 290 sales applications had been received as of that date, of which 37 were submitted to the committee. The number of applications approved so far stood at 15. The total oil proceeds were $634 million as of midday Friday; of that figure, $418 million had been allotted to the purchase of humanitarian goods, $190 million to the United Nations Compensation Fund, and the rest to other programme elements. Ninety-nine international distribution observers had arrived in Iraq, 60 of them from the United Nations, and 39 from its agencies.
Mr. Eckhard said that the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva had issued a press release today which was available to correspondents in the Spokesman's Office. The statement said that the Commission had today made available over $144 million to 63 governments and one international organization, for distribution to over 57,000 successful claimants whose claims had been resolved in the first instalment of Category "A" (departure from Iraq or Kuwait), and Category "C" (individual losses up to $100,000). That press release and the list of the claims paid were also available in the Spokesman's Office -- with an embargo until 0001 hours GMT, Wednesday, 12 March.
He then told correspondents that the World Health Organization (WHO) had gone on record today on the subject of cloning. In a statement, also available in the Spokesman's Office, the Director-General of WHO, Hiroshi Nakajima said: "The WHO considered the use of cloning for the replication of human individuals to be ethically unacceptable as it would violate some of the basic principles which governed medically assisted pro-creation. This include respect for the dignity for the human being, and protection for the security of human genetic material."
Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had this morning spoken briefly to the United Nations interns. The tape of his "brief but sweet" comments was available to correspondents. The Secretary-General told them: "You represent the future, and I am sure that somewhere down the line I will be seeing you again." He described to them how he had started at the United Nations as a P-1/step I staff member and worked his way to the top, quickly adding, however, that there were now no openings at the P-1 level, if they were interested.
At the instance of the Israeli Mission, Mr. Eckhard announced that tomorrow at 11 a.m., Ambassador David Peleg, Israel's Charge d'affaires, would speak in the General Assembly. Following his statement, a stake-out for the media would be held at the Delegates Entrance at 11:30 a.m.
He said that the monthly summary of troop-contributing countries to peace-keeping operations as of the end of February was available to correspondents upstairs.
Mr. Eckhard was asked by a correspondent how close the United Nations was to finalizing any proposals, in writing, concerning eastern Zaire, and what those proposals were likely to be. The Spokesman said he could not answer
that question. The Secretary-General's concern was exclusively humanitarian; he was looking for Member States to act in order to meet the humanitarian challenge of those people who were wandering around in the forest, people whose very existence had been denied as recently as last December.
Further asked if it would be fair to characterize the situation as "slightly rowing back" from the idea of deploying some kind of force in eastern Zaire, the Spokesman replied that it was not up to the SecretaryGeneral to authorize a force; he had "floated the idea, tried to light a fire under a few governments, he did what he could". That did not, at the moment, look like the likely solution to the problem, Mr. Eckhard said, but the Secretary-General continued to emphasize the need to take some kind of humanitarian action, and he was pleased that some agencies were getting in there now to deal with the people who were coming out of the forests by the tens of thousands.
A correspondent asked about the position of the Secretary-General regarding the parking violations situation in New York City, as the signatory to the Headquarters Agreement of 1947 between the United States and the United Nations. Mr. Eckhard said that the Secretary-General was mandated by the General Assembly to remain actively engaged in all aspects of relations between the United Nations and the host country. His Legal Adviser had been following the matter closely, and had been asked to give a legal opinion on the action now being taken by the City of New York. "We would just have to wait for the Legal Adviser's advice", he added.
Did that mean that when there was a disagreement between Headquarters and the host country, the issue had to be submitted to arbitration? the Spokesman was asked. He answered that the current matter was between the host country and delegations. The role of the Secretary-General could not be denied, but what he hoped for was that the problem could be resolved in a satisfactory way for everyone concerned.
Asked how many interns were involved in the current programme, Mr. Eckhard said they were about 80, explaining that the programme was the official United Nations-sponsored internship programme managed by the Office of Human Resources Management.
A correspondent, on the subject of eastern Zaire asked whether, despite the "apparent lack of enthusiasm from some leading troop-contributing nations", the Department of Peace-keeping Operations contingency planning continued none the less.
"Yes, it is", Mr. Eckhard answered, "including ways of observing a cease- fire, should one be achieved, using mechanical means as well as troops." In a post-script to the briefing, the Spokesman said that Egypt had today paid its regular budget assessment, with a cheque for "over $852,000"; it was the forty-first country to pay its assessment in full for the year. Last year, at this time, he recalled, 37 Member States had paid. The outstanding debt was now $2.9 billion, of which $1.1 billion was for the regular budget and over $1.8 was for peace-keeping. Again, that was better than this date last year, when the total owed was $3.1 billion.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail (Malaysia), updating correspondents on the meeting of the Assembly tomorrow, said that as of noon today, 20 speakers had been inscribed on the provisional list. The meeting would begin with a minute of silence in memory of Deng Xiaoping, the deceased Chinese leader; and President Cheddi Jagan of Guyana who died on 6 march.
She added that the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was meeting this morning. Among the items on its programme were gratis personnel and the financing of the United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL).
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