DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970606
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, said at today's press briefing that the Secretary-General had given the commencement address at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this morning. (See Press Release SG/SM/6247.)
The beginning of the Secretary-General's speech had a personal flavour, Mr. Eckhard said, when he talked about how, as a student at MIT, he had walked along the Charles river and wondered how he could survive, let alone thrive, among the group of over-achievers. The answer that came to him was not to play by their rules. "Follow your inner compass", he said to himself. "Listen to your own inner drummer. To live is to choose. But to choose well you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there. My anxieties slowly dissolved."
Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had ended his speech with an observation about market forces. "As you enter this new world", he told the students, "I call on you to remember this: as powerful and as progressive a bond that market rationality constitutes, it is not a sufficient basis for human solidarity. It must be coupled with an ethic of caring for those whom the market disadvantages, an ethic of responsibility for the collective goods that the market underproduces, an ethic of tolerance for those whom the market pits as your adversary." The Secretary-General's address echoed his words about those whom the market passed over in his acceptance speech to the General Assembly, Mr. Eckhard added.
After the MIT commencement ceremonies, the Secretary-General would visit the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum and attend a luncheon hosted by the Library trustees, Mr. Eckhard said. He would then fly to Washington, D.C., to address the National Convention of the United Nations Association of the United States (UNA-USA). Later in the afternoon, the Secretary-General would meet with United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and would have a private dinner with her tonight. An embargoed copy of his UNA-USA speech was available in the Spokesman's Office. (See Press Release SG/SM/6250.)
Mr. Eckhard then read the following statement:
"The Secretary-General has been following with concern reports of recent violent incidents in East Timor, which have resulted in the loss of life and are causing considerable human suffering.
"The Secretary-General has called on all parties concerned to exercise restraint. It may be recalled that the Secretary-General is scheduled to hold
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meetings with the Foreign Secretaries of Indonesia and Portugal on 19 and 20 June 1997 in New York on the question of East Timor." (See Press Release SG/SM/6248.)
On Angola, Mr. Eckhard said that with the mandate of the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III) due to expire at the end of June, the Secretary-General had recommended a follow-on mission, to be known as the United Nations Observer Mission in Angola. It would be established for a period of seven months beginning on 1 July.
According to the Secretary-General's report, the mission would help the Angolan parties consolidate peace and national reconciliation, enhance confidence-building and create an environment conducive to long-term stability, democratic development and rehabilitation of the country, Mr. Eckhard said. The mission's headquarters would be in Luanda, and it would be headed by the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola, who would continue to chair the Joint Commission composed of representatives from the Angolan Government and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
The mission would have a political division and civilian police, human rights, military and administrative components, as well as interpretation and information sections, he continued. Its military component would be headed by a Chief Military Observer and have 86 military observers, a reduced military helicopter company and two small medical units. The Secretary- General had also recommended the retention of one infantry company until November, to ensure proper protection of United Nations property.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) announced in Geneva today that it might be forced to suspend the repatriation of Angolan refugees because of a lack of funds, Mr. Eckhard said. So far, the donor response to the humanitarian appeal launched last February had been less than enthusiastic.
Nearly 300,000 Angolan refugees were scattered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia, Congo-Brazzaville, Namibia and 32 other countries, he said. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has observer status with the United Nations, after the Secretary-General's letter on 16 May calling for more funds for their Angolan demobilization effort, donors had indicated they would contribute $3.6 million. Those contributions would allow the IOM operation to continue until the end of June, but more funding was needed if it was to continue beyond that date, Mr. Eckhard added.
On the Great Lakes region of Africa, Mr. Eckhard said an inter-agency mission flew from Kisangani to Ikela to assess the humanitarian situation there. In Angola, an inter-agency mission, comprised of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Food Programme (WFP), UNAVEM III, and the
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Lutheran World Federation, a non-governmental organization, had travelled recently from Luanda to N'zaji and Dundo in Lunda Norte, a province bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It found 2,000 internally displaced people but no refugees in Dundo. The local population told the team that local police had returned the entire group of refugees, which agencies had assessed at 17,000, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
United Nations staff in Brazzaville were still reporting shooting there, Mr. Eckhard said. Although the city was in Security Phase II, implying restricted movement, all United Nations programmes were still in operation. The situation was preventing access to the Bilolo camp and jeopardizing a scheduled UNHCR airlift operation at the weekend to repatriate some of the most vulnerable refugees to Rwanda. The Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, Sergio Vieira de Mello, would go to the region next week to look into the situation, Mr. Eckhard added.
The Security Council yesterday had discussed the United Nations Mission of Observers in Tajikistan (UNMOT) and decided to hold a formal meeting next Thursday, 12 June, to extend its mandate, Mr. Eckhard said. The Secretary- General had recommended a three-month extension, and troop contributors would meet next Monday.
The head of the Asian section of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Omawale Omawale, had just returned from a 10-day mission to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Mr. Eckhard said. Mr. Omawale and the Deputy Director of UNICEF's Emergency Programmes, Peter McDermott, visited nurseries, kindergartens, hospitals and other health centres in various locations, including Wonsan, on the east coast, where some 25 children were said to have died in recent months. Mr. Omawale would be available for interviews in New York from Monday, 9 June, and interested correspondents should contact UNICEF's Media Section at (212) 326-7259 or the Spokesman's Office.
Mr. Eckhard announced that the 1997 Human Development Report, published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), was available at the document's counter and was embargoed until Tuesday, 12 June, when it would be officially launched.
The Department of Public Information (DPI) had issued a media advisory that, in connection with the special session of the General Assembly to review implementation of Agenda 21, from Monday, 9 June, the Media Accreditation Centre would be temporarily relocated to room 6057 on the sixth floor of the Alcoa Building at 866 UN Plaza on the corner of 48th Street.
A correspondent asked for an update on reports of troop build-ups in Lunda, northern Angola, by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. Were they having an impact on the repatriation of refugees? he asked.
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Mr. Eckhard said reports of fighting, which he had given correspondents in recent weeks, were not first-hand observations because United Nations access to the area was restricted. That subject had been discussed by the Secretary- General and Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos during the recent Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit, in Harare, Zimbabwe.
Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General would brief the Security Council Tuesday morning, 10 June, on the OAU summit, and the Spokesman's Office was trying to arrange for him to also brief correspondents on problems in the region. The Secretary-General saw the Rwandan refugee situation as still very much a regional problem, being pushed around into Congo-Brazzaville and into Angola. He had asked the joint United Nations/OAU Special Representative for the Great Lakes region of Africa, Mohamed Sahnoun, to deal with it. Mr. Eckhard said he hoped that correspondents would be able to get more information on the subject from the Secretary-General next week.
What about reports that the junta in Freetown, Sierra Leone, had asked the United Nations to help solve the problem there peacefully? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said both the Secretary-General and the OAU's first preference was for the situation to be settled peacefully and for the problem to be solved short of military confrontation. There had already been some fighting and bloodshed and everyone wanted to avoid any more. However, the unanimous position of the OAU was that the coup d'état in Sierra Leone should not stand -- and that was also the position of the Secretary-General. The coup plotters should agree to step down from power peacefully and hand back the reigns of power to the duly elected president.
When was the Secretary-General's report on the mandate of the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) due and when would the invitations for talks in New York on Cyprus be sent to the community leaders? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said the invitations had not been sent out and the United Nations was still searching for a suitable location for the talks. He would check on the date the Secretary-General's report on UNFICYP was due to be released.
Mr. Eckhard told a correspondent to contact his office for exact amounts of donations for the repatriation of Angolan refugees. A UNHCR update and a press release from IOM on donations for the Angola humanitarian appeal were available in the Spokesman's Office, he added.
What was the status of the reconciliation process in Angola? a correspondent asked. Mr. Eckhard said the peace process continued to move along at a relatively slow pace, but it was going in the right direction. The United Nations effort was now focusing more on reconstruction, although events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had created a refugee situation which caused the mobilization of Angolan Government troops and fighting in northern Angola. During that time, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, had spoken to both sides and they had assured
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him they would not let events in the north disrupt the peace process. President dos Santos had given the Secretary-General further assurances during the OAU summit. The United Nations was watching the situation closely, but "it was not blowing the whistle yet".
What did the leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, say to the Secretary- General? a correspondent asked, adding that there were reports that he was pulling out. Mr. Eckhard said he had not heard those reports. Mr. Beye had contact with Mr. Savimbi when events first developed and he had given the same assurances as the Government that he would not let those events scuttle the peace process. The parties were in the middle of negotiating the terms of the transition of administrative authority to the entire country by the new Government of National Unity and Reconciliation. Mr. Beye was expected to report some time today on further developments on those negotiations. The parties were still talking about the issues, and it seemed the talks were on track.
Samsiah Abdul-Majid, spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly, said that the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) would conclude its second resumed session this evening. It would meet at 8 p.m. to take action on about two dozen draft texts. The Committee was currently holding informal consultations on a list of items which still had to be negotiated.
Ms. Abdul-Majid drew correspondents' attention to an omnibus text on administrative and budgetary aspects of the financing of peace-keeping operations. The text included a section on death and disability benefits -- an issue which had been under discussion for about two years. By its terms, the Assembly would decide to establish uniform and standardized rates for payments of awards for death or disability sustained by troops in the service of United Nations peace-keeping operations. It provided for a one-time lump- sum award of $50,000 for service-incurred death and a one-time lump-sum award for service-incurred disability, based on the schedule listed for different kinds of disabilities contained in the Secretary-General's report on the subject (document A/49/906). A copy of the list was available for correspondents. The uniform and standardized rates would apply to death and disability sustained by troops after 30 June 1997.
The purpose of the draft resolution was to ensure equal treatment of all contingent troops, Ms. Abdul-Majid said. The Secretary-General would be asked to seek assurances from Member States that payments to beneficiaries should not be less than the amount specified in the draft resolution.
Referring to draft resolutions on various peace-keeping operations, she said since negotiations were still continuing, the amount of appropriations for each operation would be provided as the texts were taken up during the meeting tonight. The same situation applied to the draft text on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
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Mr. Eckhard said the matter of compensation for death had been debated for some time. In the past, the United Nations had compensated each case according to costs in different countries, which meant in some cases payments were for a few thousand dollars and in other cases they were tens of thousands of dollars. The draft resolution would mean every casualty received equal benefits.
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