DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970502
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, started today's noon briefing by recalling the Secretary-General's address at the World Press Freedom Day ceremony, held this morning at the General Assembly Hall.
The Secretary-General, speaking once again on the theme of "preventive journalism", a concept he likened to the notion of preventive diplomacy, asked journalists "not to wait for the blood to start flowing" to find dramatic stories and images. He praised reporters for exercising preventive journalism by not leaving conflict zones once cease-fire agreements had been signed, and urged them "to stay with their stories" over the long-term. Citing a statement made originally by Thomas Jefferson, the Secretary-General said that the basis of government was the opinion of the people, and he quoted: "were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter".
At the World Press Freedom Day celebration, speakers also included the President of the General Assembly, Razali Ismail; the President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Raghida Dergham; the anchor of CBS Evening News, Dan Rather; and Chilean playwright and poet Ariel Dorfman. The Spokesman noted that their statements were available in room 378.
Turning to Zaire, Mr. Eckhard said that the leader of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo/Zaire (ADFL), Laurent Kabila, at the time of the briefing was proceeding towards Soyo, in north-western Angola, from where he would be transported aboard the South African ship Outenikua by helicopter, once the vessel had reached international waters. Zairian President Mobutu Sese Seko had reached Pointe Noire, Congo, where he was due to board the vessel to meet with Mr. Kabila. Several other personalities were already on board: the United Nations/Organization of African Unity Special Envoy, Mohamed Sahnoun; South African President Nelson Mandela; President Pascal Lissouba from Congo; and President Etienne Eyadema from Togo. The Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, Bill Richardson, had been on board the ship this morning, "but we don't know if he's still there", Mr. Eckhard said, adding that members of the press had also boarded the ship.
Today, 781 refugees were airlifted to Kigali and Gisenyi, Mr. Eckhard said, 29 of whom were in critical condition. The Biaro camp, located south of Kisangani, had now more than 30,000 refugees. Conditions there remain bad, he said, although access to the camp had been facilitated by the Alliance in the last few days and cooperation between local authorities and the humanitarian agencies were said to have improved. The Alliance, however, was still
insisting that all humanitarian staff going to Biaro must be accompanied by military escort and it was also enforcing a 4 p.m. curfew for security reasons. In Geneva, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) announced this morning that the 52 children abducted from a pediatric hospital in Bukavu on 26 April, along with 10 adults, had been released. The children reported that they had been kept in a van container for three days, without food or water. They were taken to a hospital in Bukavu and then transported to Cyangugu, in Rwanda, yesterday. [It was later announced that on 30 April, the Security Council had been informed that the Alliance had told the Rwandan Government that they had the children, and that they were planning to return them.] Also in Geneva, the members of the Joint Investigative Mission into human rights violations in eastern Zaire gave a press conference today, Mr. Eckhard said, and a summary of their statements was available in room 378. The group was expected to travel tomorrow, 3 May, to the region, but a complete agreement with the Alliance and the Government of Rwanda on the modalities of their mission, or even on its composition, had not yet been reached, he added. The Secretary-General's report on Western Sahara was due next Monday, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary-General's Special Envoy, James Baker III, who had visited the region recently, was reviewing the draft before its presentation to the Security Council on Monday. On 6 May, the Secretary-General would open the first session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, Mr. Eckhard said. The Prime Minister of the Netherlands would deliver the keynote address and Her Majesty, Queen Beatrix, would be present. The session would last three weeks. The Conference, he noted, was composed of the 87 States parties that ratified the Convention before its entry into force last Tuesday. A press release from the Preparatory Committee was available. In Guatemala today, a ceremony would mark the completion of the third and final phase of demobilization of the approximately 2,900 ex-combatants of the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG), the Spokesman said. He recalled that the first phase had begun on 16 April and the second on 26 April. "The peace process is making good progress in Guatemala", he said. In Brcko, a northern enclave in Bosnia and Herzegovina, several incidents which had occurred over the last few days were causing concern, Mr. Eckhard said. The latest incident involved two buses carrying Bosnian Muslims who yesterday were visiting the Office of the High Representative. The buses were stoned by a group of mostly young Serbs as they were leaving the office. A number of passengers suffered minor injuries, the Spokesman noted, adding that the incident seemed to have been staged. The United Nations, the High Representative and others involved in the peace process had all condemned the act.
Daily Press Briefing - 3 - 2 May 1997
The Security Council was not meeting today, Mr. Eckhard said, as was usual at the beginning of the month when a new President took over. The new President would be holding bilateral consultations during the day. The Commission on Sustainable Development, which met for two weeks on intensive negotiations during April, issued today a draft document containing an assessment of the situation five years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio, Mr. Eckhard said. The document suggested a broad set of recommendations for the areas requiring urgent action. A significant portion of the text remained bracketed, he noted, which meant that that particular part had not yet been agreed upon. The draft text issued today would be the basis of negotiations during the Special Session of the General Assembly, scheduled for 23 to 27 June. The Secretary-General, Mr. Eckhard said, extended his thanks to all those staff members who participated in the United Nations most recent Blood Drive at Headquarters this past March. A total of 113 units of blood were donated by the United Nations community, which supplied approximately 565 patients in hospitals in the New York area. A special salute went to Jacqueline Le Nestour, of Conference Services, whose lifetime donations of blood through the United Nations Blood Drives had reached the 50-unit mark. "So, we not only pump $3 billion, but we give them our blood, too", Mr. Eckhard smiled. Upcoming press conferences included Georg Kell, Officer-in-Charge of the New York office of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) at 11:15 a.m. on Tuesday, 6 May, in room 226. Mr. Kell would launch a new UNCTAD report on "a subject dear to the heart of the Secretary-General", Mr. Eckhard said, foreign direct investment in Africa. Also on Tuesday, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, Catherine Bertini, would join correspondents for the noon briefing to speak on the food situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. A correspondent asked who had been responsible for the return of the children abducted from Bukavu? "They were returned by the Alliance, so that implies who might have taken them", Mr. Eckhard said. He added that the correspondent could refer to the Spokesman's office for more specific information on that incident. Who had requested the meeting between the Secretary-General and Ambassador Diego Arria, the former Permanent Representative of Venezuela? a correspondent asked. Mr.Eckhard said he believed it had been Ambassador Arria, but he would check. Mr. Eckhard said he would leave with the Secretary-General on Sunday. During his absence, Associate Spokesman Juan Carlos Brandt, would be in charge.
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