DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970506
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Juan Carlos Brandt, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, informed correspondents at the start of today's briefing of the death of author, journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Murray Kempton. "He was and will remain a model for all journalists", Mr. Brandt said. "Murray Kempton worked as a correspondent at the United Nations for a very long time, especially at the time of the Bosnian crisis. He will be forever remembered here and elsewhere for his dry wit and impeccable journalistic and political instincts."
Regarding the situation in eastern Zaire, Mr. Brandt announced that a total of 1,971 refugees were repatriated today from Kisangani to Rwanda on nine World Food Programme (WFP) flights. A train carrying 1,000 persons from Biaro was due to arrive today in Kisangani. The boarding of refugees onto the trains had been overseen by the WFP, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Médecins sans frontières and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In addition, five trucks carrying people who required medical evacuation had left Biaro for Kisangani; two of the trucks carried unaccompanied minors. The WFP, the UNHCR and Médecins sans frontières had accompanied refugees on board the train for the first time, he added.
Also regarding Zaire, Mr. Brandt announced that a joint WFP-UNHCR mission was going to Mbandaka, in Equateur province, where 50,000 refugees had reportedly arrived last week. The mission was expected to leave in the next few days. The latest "Briefing Notes" from the UNHCR in Geneva was available in the Spokesman's Office.
The Security Council this morning was undertaking consultations of the whole on its programme of work for the month, Mr. Brandt said. It would also hear a briefing on the situation in the Great Lakes region by Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Kieran Prendergast.
The Secretary-General this morning inaugurated the first session of the Conference of the States Parties of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons at 10:30 a.m. in The Hague, Mr. Brandt said. The press had been provided with the Secretary-General's speech under embargo since 4 p.m. yesterday and his remarks were being widely covered in the media, he added. In his speech, he had said that the Chemical Weapons Convention and the establishment of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was a "momentous act of peace". He highlighted that "one of the most monstrous tools of warfare has been ruled intolerable by all States Parties". The Secretary-General stated that "the Convention establishes an international norm against the development of chemical weapons for all time, and provides the legal and political basis for firm action against those who violate its rules". The Secretary-General urged that "all the signatories finish the job that has begun and join the community of ratifying States".
Passing along information from Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, Mr. Brandt announced that following the Conference the Secretary-General had visited the Technical University of Delft, and spent time in a water laboratory. That laboratory was the size of a football field and comprised wave-makers, pools and measuring devices. The Secretary-General, who was very interested in water engineering, told a group of some 30 faculty and students that the next major war could be fought not over oil, but over water. The Secretary-General would leave for Beijing tonight, he said.
Mr. Brandt then said that Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly, had requested him to announce that the Assembly's General Committee would meet tomorrow morning, 7 May, to consider a request by the Netherlands to include in the Assembly agenda an item on cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Alvaro de Soto would visit Myanmar from 7 to 10 May as the Secretary-General's Envoy, Mr. Brandt then announced. Mr. de Soto would travel as part of the ongoing dialogue between the Secretary-General and the Government of Myanmar in the framework of resolutions of the General Assembly and of the Commission on Human Rights.
Regarding Iraq, Mr. Brandt announced that the total oil proceeds to finance the humanitarian programme under Security Council resolution 986 (1995) on the "oil-for-food" formula had reached $1.3 billion as of last Friday, 2 May, according to the eleventh "Weekly Report" provided to Iraq yesterday. Of that amount, $866 million had been allotted to humanitarian supplies, $394 million to the United Nations Compensation Fund, and the rest to others.
Over the last week, 59 additional sales contracts for humanitarian supplies were submitted to the Security Council Committee monitoring the implementation of sanctions against Iraq, he said. The total number of contracts submitted to the Committee by the end of last week reached 285, which was more than half of the total received by the Secretariat (528). Of those applications submitted, 138 had been approved. That represented an approximate approval rate of 50 per cent. No sales contracts were blocked last week. The total number of blocked contracts remained at seven. Twenty-six contracts were put on hold last week, resulting in 101 total. Thirty-seven applications were pending.
The situation regarding oil contracts remained the same, he said. Of the 51 contracts submitted, 50 had been approved, with the total volume of 121.2 million barrels. One contract was still pending. Oil sales were close to the $2 billion limit; should the price of oil go down, that might create room for additional contracts.
Turning to the status of contributions, Mr. Brandt announced that as at 30 April, outstanding assessed contributions totalled $2,639,069,312. Of that amount, $984,704,463 was for the regular budget, $9,849,435 was for the International Tribunals and $1,644,515,414 was for peace-keeping operations. Last year at the same date, outstanding assessed contributions to the United Nations reached $2.8 billion; of that amount, $1.1 billion had been for the regular budget and $1.7 billion had been for peace-keeping operations.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia would hand down its judgement on the Dusan Tadic case tomorrow, Mr. Brandt announced. The Tribunal held its first hearings in the Tadic case on 8 November 1994. Mr. Tadic had been charged in February 1995 with the collection and mistreatment, including killing and rape, of civilians within and outside the Omarska camp. The judgement would be made available on-line within minutes of the pronouncement. In fact, the Tribunal would launch its home page with that announcement. The Internet address was http://www.un.org/icty. More details of the Tadic case were available in a copy of the "Tribunal Bulletin" in the Spokesman's Office, he added.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, voter registration for the September municipal elections had begun yesterday in 420 registration centres across the country, as well as in 25 centres in Croatia, and 35 in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The municipal elections had been postponed several times since last year; they were now scheduled to be held on 12 and 13 September. The current voter registration drive was expected to continue for 40 days, until 16 June.
Regarding the situation in eastern Zaire, a correspondent asked Mr. Brandt whether the United Nations was concerned that Rwandan authorities might be undertaking a campaign to discredit the Organization. Mr. Brandt responded that the fate of the refugees was the important thing. The United Nations would continue to work to ensure that they safely reached their destinations as soon as possible without any further complication.
A correspondent then noted that on 25 April, 12 non-governmental organizations had written a memorandum to the Secretary-General regarding the issue of the optical disk documents retrieval system. Would they have to pay over $1,000 per year to access documents? he asked. Mr. Brandt said that the question had been put to the Working Group on Informatics. The matter was still being looked at, and he hoped that it would be resolved to the satisfaction of both the non-governmental organizations and the Organization. There were some costs involved and concern over whether those costs could be reduced. It was all being done in the hope that the issue would be settled to everyone's satisfaction.
Asked why the Secretary-General was visiting China, Mr. Brandt said that he was visiting because he had been invited. The Secretary-General felt it was important to accept some of the invitations he received. He hoped that, by doing so, he was helping to promote the cause of the United Nations with Member States.
* *** *