DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970513
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Juan Carlos Brandt, Associate Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon press briefing by reading out a press release from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Geneva, concerning an incident which took place in Goma, in eastern Zaire, yesterday.
According to the release, he continued, shortly after 7 a.m. yesterday, 12 May, five armed men dressed in military uniforms had entered a house in Goma where two UNICEF international staff were living. The armed men threatened them and three domestic staff in the house at the time. The men said they were searching for weapons, but later demanded money, which they stole along with a few portable valuables. One UNICEF staff member and one domestic staff were beaten. "Both the UNICEF staff and the domestic staff were then tied up and gagged", the release stated, adding that the assailants left the house shortly after 8 a.m. For reasons of confidentiality, the identities of the staff members involved in the incident had not been disclosed, the press release said.
The Executive Director of UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, had condemned the attack, which followed two other security incidents involving United Nations staff and vehicles in the area over the weekend, Mr. Brandt continued. The statement said the authorities of the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo/Zaire (ADFL) in Goma had been informed of the attack and their officials had said it was possible that the assailants were trying to discredit the Alliance by wearing its style of uniforms. Copies of the UNICEF press release were available in the Spokesman's Office, he said.
"It goes without saying that the Secretary-General condemns this incident in the strongest possible terms and has given instructions to look into ways to strengthen our security procedures in order to better protect our international and locally-recruited staff who work under very difficult conditions", Mr. Brandt said.
Mr. Brandt also quoted Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Yasushi Akashi as expressing dismay of the vicious attack. Mr. Akashi said it was inexcusable for humanitarian workers who had devoted their lives to assisting the vulnerable and the needy to be subjected to terror. He called upon all the parties in the area to desist from acts contrary to the principles of humanitarianism.
Mr. Brandt said a team from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had gone on a cross-border mission from Angola into Zaire to look for thousands of Rwandan refugees reported to be around the border region near the town of Dundo. They found 500 refugees who had apparently been pushed back into Zaire after crossing into Angola. The UNHCR had asked the Government of Angola to open up a humanitarian corridor to allow humanitarian workers to assist refugees still in the country. The UNHCR had proposed to airlift the refugees directly from Dundo to Rwanda. The Angolan Government was today considering the proposal, Mr. Brandt said, adding that the proposal followed what had been said during the noon briefing last week regarding the movement of refugees from Angola into Zaire.
Turning to the refugee situation in the Congo, he said some 2,500 to 3,000 refugees were in Liranga, 500 kilometres from Brazzaville. Some of them were believed to be members of the former Rwandan Armed Forces (ex-FAR). The number of refugees was now larger than the regular Liranga population of 1,000. More details on refugee movements in the Central African Republic and the Congo were available in a UNHCR press release issued this morning in Geneva. The release was also available in the Spokesman's Office.
Mr. Brandt said there were reports of an estimated 16,000 to 17,000 internally displaced persons in Kinshasa. In Biaro, Zaire, it had also been reported that the mortality rate at the Biaro refugee camp was 15.5 to 20 per 10,000. Doctors Without Borders, a non-governmental organization, had now six local staff in the camp on 24-hour surveillance. The organization had also established a rehydration clinic in the camp. Five flights with a total of 1,400 refugees were scheduled to depart today for Rwanda from Kisangani, he added.
Mr. Brandt drew correspondents' attention to a note with the latest information on the recent earthquake in Iran. According to the latest official report issued by the Disaster Task Force of the Iranian Ministry of the Interior, the death toll was 1,560 with 2,180 reported injured. About 148 villages had been destroyed rendering 10,000 families or about 50,000 persons homeless. Six helicopters, seven C-130 transport planes, 300 vehicles and 110 ambulances plus 5,000 relief workers from the Red Crescent Society, the armed forces and the Ministries of Jihad, Health, Road and Transport and Agriculture were involved in the relief operation. Some 11,000 tents, 35,000 blankets and 100 metric tonnes of food had been distributed. Twenty medical teams were working in the area. In view of the magnitude of the damages, the note said that more assistance was urgently required, particularly such items as food, jerrycans, medicine and medical supplies, heater/cookers, blankets, lanterns, tents, electricity generators, floor covering, footwear and clothing. The Department of Humanitarian Affairs was airlifting relief supplies from its Pisa warehouse, including medicines from the Government of Italy and other goods such as blankets from the Norwegian Government. The plane had been provided by the Government of the Netherlands. A list of contributions by the various United Nations agencies as well as other related information was available in the Spokesman's Office.
Also available, Mr. Brandt said, was a press release announcing that the States parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention at their current first session at The Hague, today elected by acclamation members of the Executive Council which would oversee the day-to-day functioning of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). According to the press release, the States parties also approved, after intensive discussions, the rules of procedure of the Conference.
Mr. Brandt said the Security Council was holding consultations on Albania with a briefing by a representative of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs. It followed a letter (document S/1997/362) from the Secretary-General to the President of the Council which had been released yesterday. The Council would also be briefed by an official of the Department of Political Affairs on Afghanistan and Sierra Leone.
Regarding Iraq, Mr. Brandt said 31 sales contracts for humanitarian supplies had been approved, according to the twelfth weekly update on the "oil-for-food" plan provided by the United Nations to Iraq yesterday. A cumulative total of 169 humanitarian sales contracts out of 322 had now been submitted to the Security Council Committee monitoring the sanctions against Iraq, up to Friday, 9 May. No contracts were blocked last week, and the number so far affected remained at seven. Twenty-six contracts were put on hold bringing the total held to 120. Sixteen applications were pending. One oil sales contract was approved earlier last week, bringing the total submitted and approved to 51. The total oil proceeds reached $1.37 billion by last week, and it was expected that it would rise to nearly $1.5 billion by the end of the week.
Mr. Brandt said that as part of the continuing dialogue between the Tajik parties, President Emomali Rakhmonov and Dr. Said Abdullo Nuri of the United Tajik Opposition would meet in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on 17 May. They were expected to discuss matters impeding further progress in inter-Tajik talks, especially the detention of Tajik Opposition members and their release. The next round of inter-Tajik talks, initially scheduled for 16 May in Tehran, had therefore been postponed to 20 May.
Italy would be the sixth country to sign the memorandum of understanding on the stand-by arrangements for peace-keeping operations, Mr. Brandt announced. The signing ceremony would take place tomorrow, 14 May, at 3:15 p.m. in the office of the Under-Secretary-General for Peace-keeping Operations. The Permanent Representative of Italy, Francesco Paolo Fulci, would sign for his country, while Under-Secretary-General Bernard Miyet would sign on behalf of the United Nations. To date, five countries -- Jordan, Denmark, Ghana, Malaysia and Austria -- had signed the memorandum. Singapore and Bolivia were now expected to follow suit on 21 and 22 May, respectively. A total of 65 countries had expressed their willingness to participate in the arrangements which were created in 1994 to fill the three-to-six month gap between authorization of a peace-keeping mission by the Security Council and full deployment by standard recruitment methods. Copies of the status report on the memorandum were available, Mr. Brandt said.
Continuing his official visit to Japan, the Secretary-General on Tuesday, according to Mr. Brandt, had met over dinner with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto. The Secretary-General thanked the Prime Minister, in particular, for Japan's support for the humanitarian and development work of the United Nations. The Prime Minister indicated that Japan would continue its contributions to the United Nations and its work. The two exchanged views on the situation in various parts of Africa, with eastern Zaire, the refugee crisis there and Zaire as a whole, undoubtedly, among them, Mr. Brandt said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Secretary-General had met with a delegation of the Inter-party Parliamentary League for support of the United Nations, he said. The delegation, led by former Finance Minister Yoshiro Hayashi, included the leaders of three major political parties. The Secretary-General also met with the Parliamentary Group for Japan's contribution to the United Nations. Led by former Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama, the 25-strong delegation was largely composed of new members of the Diet (Parliament). The Secretary-General exchanged views on United Nations reform with each of those parliamentary groups. Once again, the Secretary-General commended Japan's example in extending concrete support to economic and social development in developing countries, especially, Africa. He then met with Ichiro Ozawa, President of the New Shinshinto (New Frontier) Party. They discussed United Nations reform and Mr. Ozawa indicated that he would actively support the continuation of Japan's effective commitment to economic and social development in developing countries.
Mr. Brandt said the Secretary-General was the guest of honour at a luncheon hosted by the United Nations Association of Japan. Among the several hundred distinguished invitees were three former Prime Ministers of Japan. Mr. Brandt reminded correspondents that copies of the Secretary-General's speech had been made available yesterday afternoon. The Secretary-General had given a press conference Tuesday afternoon at the Japan National Press Club. Copies of his speech were also available. The Secretary-General, underlining the already urgent requirement for an adequate international response to humanitarian needs of the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, told the press conference that he hoped in the near future to dispatch to that country his Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs, Yasushi Akashi. The Secretary-General was scheduled to conclude his official visit to Japan on Wednesday, 14 May, and travel to Moscow.
Mr. Brandt drew attention to the latest "Flash" news release of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and highlighted one of the items covered, relating to assistance the Programme was providing China. It said that UNDP was providing $861,000 in technical assistance to support the second phase of China's tax policy and administration reform project, which was started by the Government of China and the UNDP in 1992. Mr. Brandt also said that the World Health Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO), currently meeting in Geneva, had adopted a resolution on the sale of medical products through the Internet. A WHO press release on the subject was available in the Spokesman's Office.
He then announced that President Vaclav Havel of the Czech Republic would brief correspondents tomorrow, 14 May, in room 226 at 1:10 p.m. after his meeting with the Executive Coordinator for United Nations Reform, Maurice Strong, and the Under-Secretary-General for Administration and Management, Joseph Connor. On behalf of the informal Carlsson Group of Sixteen Heads of State or Government, as well as on his own, President Havel would present to them ideas and opinions on the United Nations reform process and promotion of multilateralism in general. A press release from the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic on the President's visit was available.
Asked what was the United Nations official position on the use of "food as a tool for political negotiations", as was the case of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mr. Brandt said it was the view of the Organization that in a tragedy such as the one unfolding in that country, everything should be done to prevent starvation. He said the World Food Programme (WFP) had taken the lead, on behalf of United Nations agencies, to provide food for the people. He further said that the United Nations position was to try to alleviate the suffering of the people and to try to avert a further deterioration of the situation.
Responding to a question about a visit of Under-Secretary-General Kieran Prendergast of the Department of Political Affairs to Cyprus, Mr. Brandt confirmed that he would indeed go to the region and that he would meet all the parties concerned, including the leaders of the Greek and Turkish communities. He would also travel to Athens and Ankara. He was scheduled to leave today and return to Headquarters on 22 May. Mr. Brandt said Mr. Prendergast's trip was aimed at facilitating the projected inter-communal talks. He told the correspondent that he did not know when and where those talks would take place.
Asked for a comment on a formal request reportedly made by Haitian President Rene Preval to United States President William Clinton for an extension of the mandate of the United Nations mission in Haiti, Mr. Brandt said he was not aware of what had transpired at their meeting last week other than what he had read in news reports. The meeting was a bilateral one between the two Presidents in the context of the summit of Caribbean leaders in Barbados, Mr. Brandt said.
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