DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970401
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 had briefed the Security Council this morning on the Great Lakes region of Africa, specifically on discussions that he had had at the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit in Lome, Togo. He hoped to be able to release the Secretary-General's briefing points to the press, shortly.
A report of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called the situation in eastern Zaire "extremely worrying", the Spokesman said. Field officers of the UNHCR described the situation as "catastrophic" and called for immediate action to help stabilize it. Yesterday afternoon, while workers were cleaning up Lula, just outside Kisangani, they found 50 bodies in the remains of makeshift huts. The field officers reported that there were very few children under five years of age among the refugees, since most of them had not survived the ordeal of the long march of the last five months.
Spokesman Eckhard noted that UNHCR declared in its report that it was racing against time to prevent deaths among the survivors. As such, it was asking the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) to allow it to stabilize the health situation, lest there be very few refugees left to return to Rwanda. The UNHCR was awaiting a reply from the leader of the ADFL, Laurent Kabila, for clearance for a repatriation plan that included an air bridge from Kisangani as well as road routes. The UNHCR had stressed the need for full humanitarian access to all refugee sites in order to assist and safely repatriate them.
On the "oil-for-food" contracts, Mr. Eckhard said that the S.S. Virtue carrying 37,240 tons of Australian wheat arrived in Umm Qasr yesterday afternoon. The S.S. Gunay, carrying 29,162 tons of French wheat, docked alongside it at 10:30 p.m. last night. Both ships started unloading immediately, and the dispatch to government warehouses had begun. A third ship, the S.S. Lima, carrying 35,450 tons of Australian wheat, was due to arrive sometime tomorrow morning, and awaited a free berth. Soap was starting to come in from Jordan today. As of 30 March, 90,000 tons of food supplies out of an anticipated 2,272 million tons had reached Iraq.
The Minister for Trade of Iraq had informed the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator there that a supplement of two kilograms of flour would be added immediately to the seven kilograms the Iraqis normally received on a monthly basis, the Spokesman said. The additional 40,000 tons of Argentine wheat flour would be taken from existing government stocks and distributed as early as tomorrow. The 15 central and southern governorates of
Iraq would receive the distribution, and for the first time since 1993, so would the three northern governorates of Irbil, Dahuk and Sulaymaniyah.
According to the weekly report by the Secretariat on the implementation of Security Council resolution 986 (1995) on the "oil-for-food" formula released yesterday, 41 oil contracts had been approved as of last Friday, with the total volume reaching 113.2 million barrels, Mr. Eckhard said. Total proceeds from the oil sales reached $824 million as of last Friday. Of that amount, $544 million had been allotted to humanitarian supplies; and $247 million to the United Nations Compensation Fund, with the rest going to other programme elements. A total of 391 applications for the sale of humanitarian supplies had been received by the United Nations Secretariat. Of those, 96 applications had been submitted to the Security Council Committee monitoring the sanctions against Iraq, with 62 approved, 20 put on hold and 14 applications pending "no objection" deadlines.
Mr. Eckhard said that Qatar, in its capacity as the current Chairman of the Arab Group of States, had last night delivered a letter to the Secretary- General requesting an emergency session of the General Assembly on the subject of illegal Israeli actions in occupied East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Arab territories. The emergency session would be called within 24 hours of the Secretary-General determining that a majority of members of the Assembly supported the request. The Secretariat had estimated that the session could take place next week.
The Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM) had been issued today, the Spokesman said, covering the period from 24 September to 26 March. The Secretary-General said that UNIKOM continued to monitor the demilitarized zone and had contributed to stability and calm along the Iraq-Kuwait border. He recommended, therefore, that the Mission be continued. As of February, UNIKOM's strength was 1,329, including 197 Military Observers.
The Spokesman said that the Department of Humanitarian Affairs today appealed for $68.2 million to address the humanitarian needs in Sierra Leone, following five years of civil conflict. The humanitarian programme reflected in the appeal, covering the period from March 1997 to February 1998, was designed to promote the consolidation of peace and to assist the affected population in attaining higher levels of self-sufficiency. A press release was available on the racks, along with a limited number of copies of a document on the appeal.
The Secretary-General would participate in a live world-wide radio broadcast tomorrow to discuss international developments and global issues with journalists from radio networks on five continents, Mr. Eckhard said, adding that it would be the first ever live international radio broadcast with
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a United Nations Secretary-General. The Department of Public Information (DPI) had put a lot of work into it. A note to correspondents on the event was available on the third floor.
Turning to questions, the Spokesman was asked whether a date had been set for the arrival of multinational troops in Albania. He said that according to the Security Council formula authorizing interested Member States to take such an initiative, it was in the hands of Member States to raise the observers and deploy them. The resolution contained no specific date. To a follow-up question about whether the United Nations was having "second thoughts" in light of an allegation that the Albanian Parliament had rejected the notion of multinational troops and threatened retaliations against the Italians, Mr. Eckhard said he had not heard that the Albanian Parliament had rejected the offer.
Asked if the Secretary-General's radio broadcast would become a regular event if it succeeded, the Spokesman said it would depend on the Secretary- General's availability, adding that it was a "pioneer effort" for DPI which, if successful, could lead to more.
Another correspondent, noting that today was the day that New York City instituted its tougher diplomatic parking procedures, asked for the latest position of the United Nations and the Secretary-General, news from the Committee on Relations with the Host Country, a response to the French speculation that the issue would go to the General Assembly with a resolution -- "give me something?". Mr. Eckhard said that the Secretary- General was concerned about the level of the discussion and the intensity of the debate over the issue. He would like to "calm it down". For the moment, it was in the hands of the New York City Police who were carrying out their orders despite the reservations of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs over whether the city's policy was consistent with international law. Of course, there were repercussions in capital cities around the world, where other governments faced similar problems, but had not taken such Draconian measures in response. He concluded that the issue was not yet resolved, adding that "we have not heard the last of the debate. We will just see how it plays out".
In a follow-up question, the reporter asked how that played on the "image front" for the United Nations, especially in a major city like New York. The Spokesman said he did not know how the public felt about the issue, or whether it had had the time to examine the legalities of it. The United Nations, itself, had a fleet of vehicles with diplomatic license plates, and Assistant and Under-Secretaries-General also qualified for diplomatic plates. As far as those vehicles went, there was not problem. So, the issue was really between the delegations here in New York of a certain number of governments that seemed to have a greater problem than other delegations. Asked if the Secretary-General had received any parking tickets as Under- Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations, Mr. Eckhard said, "I am sure
Daily Press Briefing - 4 - 1 April 1997
he had none. But, I can check for you", adding that he was not even sure he took the license plates, since not everybody does.
To another question about whether there had been any discussion about moving Headquarters to Vienna, Mr. Eckhard said that such talk comes up every once in a while. However, he did not think the City of New York was interested in losing the $3 billion a year which the presence of the diplomatic community generated for the local economy. In addition, it would be very expensive to make a move, and there probably was no facility in existence that could absorb the Organization, adding "we are not there, yet".
Asked about the "end result" of the meeting yesterday between the United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and the Secretary-General, the Spokesman said that issues of reform had been discussed, along with the United States Administration's targets for the 1998-1999 budget year. The Secretary of State had said that the Secretary-General's reform agenda was relatively well-received in Washington and continued to have credibility there. She told the Secretary-General that United States Permanent Representative Bill Richardson was chairing a bipartisan group aimed at developing a package on the subject. There was still some discrepancy concerning what was owed, which had to be resolved.
Mr. Eckhard added that Mrs. Albright briefed the Secretary-General on the summit meeting between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and President William Clinton of the United States, and in turn, asked the Secretary-General for a briefing on Angola and Zaire based on his recent visit to Africa. The situation in the Middle East was also discussed. Asked in a follow-up question whether the Secretary-General said "no to benchmarks again" in his meeting with Mrs. Albright, Mr. Eckhard said that "benchmarks" were something that the United States Congress was threatening, and he was not sure that had been discussed in any detail yesterday.
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