DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970505
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Juan Carlos Brandt, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, reminded correspondents at the start of today's briefing that the Spokesman's Office had issued the following statement over the weekend:
"The Secretary-General is gratified that President Mobutu Sese Seko and Laurent Kabila have begun a dialogue on a peaceful transition of power in Zaire.
"He is grateful to President Nelson Mandela, Ambassador Bill Richardson and the other heads of State for helping launch this dialogue. He also wishes to thank Mohamed Sahnoun, the joint United Nations/Organization of African Unity (OAU) Special Representative for the Great Lakes Region, who worked tirelessly over the past three months to lay the groundwork for the talks.
"But the work of managing this process of change has just begun. The Secretary-General calls on all the principal players in Zaire, as well as on all interested States, to continue to work together to assure a successful completion of the process, leading to peace, democracy and prosperity in Zaire."
Mr. Brandt then said that the communiqué read by Mr. Sahnoun at the conclusion of those talks was available in the Spokesman's Office in English and in French.
He then announced that a total of 2,606 Rwandan refugees had been repatriated today. Some 10 planes had left Kisangani to Rwanda. A total of 7,500 persons had been repatriated to Kigali, Cyangugu and Gisenyi. After the tragic incident that lead to 91 refugees being crushed to death in the train and some 50 wounded yesterday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had decided not to send the train back to Biaro.
However, Mr. Brandt continued, the rebels of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (ADFL) were sending trucks loaded with refugees without any control by UNHCR staff. Trucks capable of carrying a maximum of 50 passengers were being loaded with 100 or more. The UNHCR had no control over how and where the trucks were being loaded. Living people were being dumped near corpses off the trucks. The situation was getting "worse by the minute", he said. Some 6,000 refugees had been brought to the Kisangani transit centre overnight; between 30,000 and 40,000 refugees were concentrated in Biaro, and additional refugees were emerging from the surrounding forest bearing "fresh wounds", he said. An atmosphere of panic was prevailing in Biaro, leading to stampedes and chaos when food was distributed.
The UNHCR needed access to the refugees, but that access was largely being denied by the forces of the Alliance, Mr. Brandt said. The UNHCR was not being allowed to enter Biaro today, and the agency had no control over how repatriation was being carried out. "They need access to those refugees if they are to perform this daunting task", he said. "If we don't want to see more people dead, we need to get to them. We need to be given the means, the access and the permission to organize repatriation." The present situation was "totally unacceptable", he stressed.
Mr. Brandt then announced that a press release on the United Nations Joint Investigative Mission for Eastern Zaire was available in the Spokesman's Office. The release stated that human rights investigators had arrived in Kigali and were ready to begin their work, pending clearance from the Alliance. In a presidential statement on 24 April, and again on 30 April, the Security Council had called on the Alliance and other concerned parties to cooperate fully with the Mission, he recalled.
The Mission was established by a resolution of the Commission on Human Rights on 17 April, he said. It comprised the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Zaire, Roberto Garretón; the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions, Bacre Waly Ndiaye; and a member of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Jonas Foli. The Mission is supported by human rights, information and security officers from the United Nations Secretariat and by a five-member team of forensic experts from Argentina. Concerning the announcement of last Friday regarding the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Western Sahara, Mr. Brandt said the report was still being drafted and would be submitted to the Secretary-General for his approval, prior to its presentation to the Security Council on Friday, 9 May.
Mr. Brandt then announced that the Secretary-General was on his way to The Hague where, at 10:30 a.m. local time tomorrow, in the Netherlands Congress Centre, he would inaugurate the first session of the Conference of the States Parties of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Prime Minister of the Netherlands would deliver the keynote address and Queen Beatrix would also be present. The first session would last three weeks. The Secretary-General's opening remarks at that event would be released later in the Spokesman's Office, under embargo and subject to a "check against delivery" proviso.
Just prior to his departure, the Secretary-General had met with his entire team of advisers on United Nations reform, Mr. Brandt announced. The Secretary-General had been able to hear different points of view and formulas for inclusion in the "second track" of organizational reforms, which were to be presented in July. At that meeting, the Secretary-General had provided guidance as to the different areas towards which work should advance.
Mr. Brandt then announced that Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Yasushi Akashi had arrived in Baghdad on 3 May. He had been met by Staffan de Mistura, United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, and by Yohannes Mengesha, Director of the Iraq Programme of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs in New York. Following a briefing on the implementation of Security Council resolution 986 (1995), on the "oil-for-food" formula, he met on Sunday morning with Mohammed Mehdi Salih, Minister for Trade of Iraq.
Mr. Akashi then visited two hospitals for children, in the company of Sawq Murkus, Under-Secretary for Health of Iraq, he continued. Also on Sunday, he had met with representatives of United Nations specialized agencies and had addressed staff involved in the implementation of resolution 986. This morning, Mr. Akashi had travelled to Mosul and Irbil, where he would meet with senior officials and with local authorities.
Also regarding Iraq, Mr. Brandt announced that as of today, more than 500,000 tonnes of 986-commodities had arrived in Iraq, representing a quarter of all food items to be imported into Iraq (2.2 million metric tonnes). More than half of all food contracts approved by the Security Council Committee which monitors the sanctions against Iraq were now "active" (32 contracts out of 59 food contracts). As announced last week, the enhanced food basket for the month of May had started to be distributed throughout Iraq, improving the quality, as well as the quantity, of rations received by the Iraqi population. A new update, containing ship arrival information, was available in the Spokesman's Office, he added. Mr. Brandt then announced the availability of a press release from the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat) concerning a revitalization plan for that organization.
Turning to press conferences to be held in room 226, Mr. Brandt said that at 11:15 a.m. Georg Kell, Officer-in-Charge, New York Office of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), would brief correspondents on a new UNCTAD report on foreign direct investment in Africa. Also, Catherine A. Bertini, Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), would attend the noon briefing tomorrow to discuss the food situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Regarding the Security Council, Mr. Brandt announced that the Council President was holding bilateral consultations today. Tomorrow, Under- Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast would brief the Council on the situation in the Great Lakes region.
Regarding Guatemala, Mr. Brandt announced that with the last group of 669 Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG) ex-combatants demobilized at the Verification Centres in Sacol, Tzalbal, Mayalan and Las Abejas last Friday, 2 May, all of the 2,928 URNG combatants had been demobilized as planned. Some tension had been reported in the village of Pueblo Nuevo, near Mayalan, as local residents resisted some of the URNG ex-combatants returning to resettle in the village. Tension had been defused with the intervention of the United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) and others, and the ex-combatants returned to the Verification Centre. Efforts were being made to facilitate the return of ex-soldiers to civilian life, he added.
To a series of questions on the repatriation of refugees in eastern Zaire, Mr. Brandt said that he was not sure to whom the trucks carrying the refugees belonged. The United Nations understood that six trucks had arrived and that five more were expected, but the Organization had not been provided precise information.
The expertise of the UNHCR in refugee repatriation must be brought to bear in that situation, Mr. Brandt stressed. "Even cattle are not treated like that. Certain expertise is required for the transport of animals, needless to say with human beings." The panic that had ensued in the train over the weekend was no reason to pack 100 people into a truck designed to carry only 50, he said.
Asked about whether the difficulties with repatriation had been caused by the 60-day deadline imposed by the Alliance, Mr. Brandt responded that the "so-called deadline" might have been acceptable once refugees were being cared for and given food and medical assistance at a repatriation centre. If the deadline had been established under such circumstances, the United Nations might have been ready to accept the deadline. But a 60-day deadline beginning upon announcement of the deadline was unacceptable. "We will see more human beings slowly and systematically slaughtered. That is not acceptable."
Asked for clarification regarding the "second track" of United Nations reform proposals, Mr. Brandt said that the next set of reform measures would follow up those made public by the Secretary-General on 17 March.
Asked whether United States Ambassador Richardson had received a letter from Zairian President Mobutu, Mr. Brandt directed the correspondent to the United States Mission.
United States President William Clinton was beginning a trip to Latin America as part of what seemed to be a new regional policy, a correspondent noted. Would the United Nations be involved? Mr. Brandt responded that the present trip was a purely bilateral effort by the Head of State of the United States. The United Nations was very interested in the Latin American and Caribbean region and was very involved with economic and social development programmes managed by its specialized agencies. The Secretary-General was planning a visit to the region soon, he added.
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