DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970508
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Juan Carlos Brandt, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing by saying "Thank you Japan!". Japan had become the fifty-fifth Member State to pay in full its regular budget assessed contribution for the current year, with a check for $125,013,628. He said that he hoped Japan would serve as a "model for other States to come rushing to the contributions section with their cheques".
Last year at this date, 57 Member States had paid their contributions in full, he said. The outstanding contributions level was now over $2.5 billion, of which just under $900 million was for the regular budget and over $1.6 billion for peace-keeping. And last year at this date, outstanding contributions to the United Nations stood at over $2.8 billion -- $1.1 billion for the regular budget and $1.7 billion for peace-keeping.
Also concerning United Nations finances, Mr. Brandt announced that the status of contributions as at 30 April had been published under the symbol ST/ADM/SER.5/510 and was available on the racks. He added that as at 30 April, contributions of $637 million had been received for the regular budget. Of that amount, $481.2 million constituted payments against the current year's assessment, representing 43.3 per cent of that assessment. At the same time last year, 46.7 per cent of the current year's assessment had been received.
Turning to the situation in Zaire, Mr. Brandt announced that 1,115 refugees had been flown from Kisangani to Rwanda today. Some 880 refugees remained at the Kisangani transit centre today. That group constituted refugees who were too weak to travel, together with their families to avoid separating families. At the transit centre, refugees were provided with food and medical support until such time as they could travel. Humanitarian agencies were still being denied access to the region south of Biaro, he said, expressing the hope that the situation would soon be remedied so that aid workers could gain access.
The city of Kinshasa was "quite tense", Mr. Brandt said. Still, United Nations personnel stationed in the city remained in place. Contrary to some press reports, the United Nations had not evacuated staff, although some movements had taken place as part of regular staff rotations. There were 19 United Nations international staff in Kinshasa, he said -- six from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), three each from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), two from the World Food Programme (WFP), one each from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Centre for Human Rights.
Also on Zaire, Mr. Brandt announced that 10 staff of the Zaire Red Cross had been killed at 6 p.m. yesterday, local time, in the town of Kenge, some 200 kilometres east of Kinshasa. No information was available on the circumstances of their death. Fighting was still continuing in that city. "It is regrettable that those doing jobs for the good of others lose their lives", Mr. Brandt said.
Turning to Security Council activities, he said this morning it had held consultations centring on the 29 April letter of the Secretary-General to the Council President concerning Croatia (document S/1997/343) and on the latest report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Abkhazia, Georgia (document S/1997/340). The Council was discussing draft presidential statements on both topics, and might meet today to take action on those statements. [The Council later held two meetings to read presidential statements on Georgia and Croatia.]
The report of the Secretary-General on the situation in Western Sahara had been given to the Security Council, Mr. Brandt said, adding that advance copies were available in the Spokesman's Office. In the report, the Secretary-General described the mission of his Personal Envoy James Baker III to the region in late April. He states that Mr. Baker intended to undertake another round of in-depth consultations in June. Following those consultations, the Secretary-General intended to submit a comprehensive report on all aspects of the issue. Meanwhile, he was recommending that the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) be extended by four months. The mandate was scheduled to expire at the end of May, he said.
Mr. Brandt then told correspondents that Hedi Annabi, Assistant Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations, had briefed the Security Council yesterday on recent progress in the United Nations verification mission in Guatemala. The withdrawal of military observers was scheduled to begin on 17 May, and was expected to be completed by the end of the month. Upon the completion of the United Nations mandate in Guatemala, the Secretary-General would report to the Security Council. Following the successful completion of demobilization, military observers would complete additional duties related to weapons caches.
A monthly summary of troop contributions as at 30 April was available in the Spokesman's Office, Mr. Brandt then announced.
Regarding the visit of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the People's Republic of China, Mr. Brandt said that the Secretary-General had met this morning with Chinese Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister Qian Qichen. In discussions that lasted more than an hour and a half, and then continued over lunch, they touched on a wide range of foreign policy issues, from post-cold- war security to United Nations reform. The Secretary-General welcomed the agreement between China and the Russian Federation to reduce the number of troops along their common border. He reaffirmed the General Assembly's "One China" policy and praised China for conscientiously following up on United Nations conferences dealing with topics which included population, women and sustainable development. "This is a story that should be told", the Secretary-General commented to the Vice-Premier.
Continuing, Mr. Brandt said in the afternoon the Secretary-General had met with President Jiang Zemin, who assured him of a smooth transition in the integration of Hong Kong with China next month. China's policy of "One Nation, two systems", the Chinese President said, would provide assurance to those worried about the survival of Hong Kong's democracy. Later in the day, the Secretary-General had met with, and then had dinner with, Vice-Premier Zhu Rongji, with whom he had discussed how to apply lessons of the Chinese economy -- the Chinese economic miracle -- to other developing countries.
The Secretary-General's afternoon press conference had been widely cited in the international press, Mr. Brandt said. Regarding Hong Kong, the Secretary-General had said "China could have disrupted activities in Hong Kong if it had chosen to, but realizes that a prosperous and free Hong Kong is in the interest of Hong Kong and the people of China. I was assured that concerns expressed by foreigners were misplaced and indeed time will prove that to be the case".
Regarding human rights, the Secretary-General said "I think human rights are an essential element of the world today. When we look around us, we see an incredible desire for democracy from peoples everywhere. In fact I'll give you an example from the United Nations. In 1992, we had six or seven requests for electoral assistance. Last year we had 120 requests. People are concerned about good governance, the right to express themselves and the right to be able to release their energies and carry on with them. And I think human rights are very much a part of good governance".
On Taiwan Province of China, the Secretary-General said "I know that Taiwan has attempted to gain recognition from many countries and eventually to join some agencies or other, but it is not a Member of the United Nations and our policy, as enunciated by the General Assembly, by the membership at large, is clear that we accept and recognize 'one China'".
Concerning the visit to Iraq by Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Yasushi Akashi, Mr. Brandt recalled that Mr. Akashi had arrived in Baghdad last Saturday, 3 May, and had met with officials and United Nations staff there and in Irbil and As-Sulaymaniyah. He witnessed first hand the implementation of Security Council resolution 986 (1995), on the "oil-for-food" formula.
Mr. Akashi held a press conference in Baghdad, Mr. Brandt said, prior to which he had met with the Vice-President of Iraq, Taha Yassin Ramadan, and with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf. Their discussions covered relations with the Security Council Committee which monitors the sanctions against Iraq and the implementation on the ground of resolution 986.
At his press conference in Baghdad, Mr. Akashi had released a statement regarding the death in Sierra Leone of John Reignat, a staff member of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, who had died of wounds sustained in an ambush that occurred in the vicinity of Makeni, Sierra Leone, on 6 May.
Mr. Brandt then said that the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) would host a screen of the film "Calling the Ghosts" -- an HBO production on rape, war and women, at 1 p.m. tomorrow. A briefing would take place at 2 p.m., and HBO would provide a luncheon.
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