DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19970610
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's press briefing by announcing that the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye, had met today with the President of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Jonas Savimbi, in Bailundo. Mr. Savimbi had given Mr. Beye renewed assurance of cooperation which had become necessary because of the recent events in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the disputes over the diamond-producing areas. Those events had contributed to a serious escalation of tensions in the Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul provinces on the Angola-Congo border.
The Secretary-General had seen Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos during the recent Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit in Harare, Mr. Eckhard said. United Nations efforts were now focused on keeping the peace process active and in preventing the tensions in the north from escalating into serious military conflict.
Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General was in the process of briefing the Security Council on his attendance at the OAU summit and also on developments in Africa.
In his briefing on Angola, Mr. Eckhard said, the Secretary-General should mention that the Force Commander of the United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM III), Major-General Philip V. Sibanda, had visited Andrada, which was about 50 kilometres from the Congo border in the Lunda Norte province, on 6 June. The Force Commander's observations confirmed that heavy fighting had occurred in the area. He had received witnesses' accounts of casualties and the types of forces that were in the area. On 8 June, United Nations military observers had received reports of continued hostilities around Andrada and heard the sound of artillery fire. Fighting was continuing in the area.
At the end of the Secretary-General's briefing of the Security Council, he would respond to questions from correspondents at the stake-out position outside the Security Council Chamber, Mr. Eckhard said.
Providing an update on the United Nations reform process, Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had asked his Executive Coordinator on Reform, Maurice Strong, to begin a broad process of consultations -- a process which had been in progress for a number of weeks. A second stage of that consultation process began yesterday and would include meetings of the Secretary-General and Mr. Strong with the executive committees. The first meeting was held with the Steering Group on Reform which comprised certain department heads of the Secretariat, the Administrator of the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), the Executive Director of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Subsequently, he added, the Secretary-General, Mr. Strong and the members of the Steering Group would begin a series of meetings with each of the four executive committees which had coordinating responsibilities in the following areas: economic and social affairs (Thursday, 12 June); development operations (Friday, 13 June); humanitarian affairs (Monday, 16 June); and peace and security (Tuesday, 17 June). Mr. Eckhard said that Mr. Strong had not yet made firm recommendations. In his briefings he had been presenting the general thrust of his thinking -- a range of options that he had been considering and getting feedback on them. The Secretary-General was now joining the process.
On the Great Lakes region of Africa, Mr. Eckhard said the UNHCR had reported in Geneva today that the Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees, Sergio Vieira de Mello, would be returning to that region today, his second mission in less than a month. He would be visiting Kinshasa, where he expected to meet with President Laurent Kabila. He would also go to the Central African Republic and to Congo (Brazzaville), if security permitted. Mr. de Mello would raise several issues with the authorities in those countries, including access to, and treatment of, refugee populations, security of humanitarian staff and the screening of refugees who did not wish to return to their countries.
The UNHCR had also announced today that it had stopped its activities in the Cibitoke region in the far north-west of Burundi, around the town of Buganda, after an ambush of a humanitarian convoy yesterday afternoon, he said. Unidentified men had attacked three vehicles of UNHCR's non- governmental organization partner, African Humanitarian Initiative. A grenade was reportedly thrown at a vehicle carrying soldiers escorting the convoy. No injuries had been reported. Mr. Eckhard said the UNHCR briefing notes were available in the Spokesman's Office.
He went on to say that his Office had belatedly received information on developments regarding Iraq. The memorandum of understanding between the United Nations and Iraq on the implementation of resolution 986 (1995), the "oil-for-food" plan, had been extended on Saturday, 7 June, when the first 180-day period ended at midnight. The same memorandum had been "rolled over" for an additional 180 days. An exchange of letters had taken place between the Office of Legal Affairs and the Permanent Mission of Iraq to the United Nations.
Mr. Eckhard then informed correspondents that the weekly report -- Number 16 -- on the implementation of resolution 986 had been provided to Iraq yesterday. Last week, the Security Council Committee monitoring sanctions against Iraq had approved 45 contracts for the sale of humanitarian supplies
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and put on hold 19 applications. The total proceeds deposited so far had reached $1.78 billion by the end of last week.
The Secretary-General's report on the United Nations Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) had been issued today, Mr. Eckhard said. It recommended a six-month extension of the Force's mandate. Regarding his good offices mission, the Secretary-General said he planned to inform the Security Council on preparations for direct talks between the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus. His report on that subject would be ready about 20 June, Mr. Eckhard added.
Correspondents were informed that the Secretary-General had sent a letter of condolences to the Foreign Minister of Denmark on the death of that country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Benny Kimberg, who had died of cancer. The Secretary-General said of Mr. Kimberg that the United Nations had lost a leading figure and that he had lost a personal friend. "Benny Kimberg embodied with pride and purpose Denmark's long tradition of commitment to the United Nations and to the cause of peace and development around the world", the letter said.
Mr. Eckhard announced that the Secretary-General would attend the afternoon meeting of the Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters today in Conference Room 8, where he would deliver a statement at 3:30 p.m. The text was available in the Spokesman's Office but was embargoed until that time. The Advisory Board was holding a four-day session ending on 13 June.
Later this afternoon the Secretary-General would attend the ceremony for the 1997 United Nations Population Award, which would take place at 5 p.m. in the Trusteeship Council Chamber, he said. The three winners announced by the Award Committee last February were Elizabeth Aguirre Calderon Sol, First Lady of El Salvador and Director of the National Family Secretariat of El Salvador; Professor Toshio Kuroda, Director Emeritus, Nihon University Population Research Institute, Tokyo; and Senator Mechai Veravaidya, Director of the Population Development Association of Thailand. Each of the awardees would receive a diploma, a gold medal and an equal share of the monetary prize of $25,000. Mr. Eckhard added that the text of the Secretary-General's comments for the ceremony was available in the Spokesman's Office with an embargo.
Mr. Eckhard announced that the Philippines had became the sixty-fifth Member State to pay its 1997 dues in full to the Organization, in the amount of $639,047. On the same date last year, 70 Member States had paid their dues, which meant that payment was falling behind.
A press release from the World Food Programme (WFP) was available in the Spokesman's Office, Mr. Eckhard said. It was an appeal for $2 million to launch emergency relief food distribution in southern Somalia.
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Mr. Eckhard also announced a press conference to be held in room 226 at 11 a.m on Thursday, 12 June, by Rafeeuddin Ahmed, UNDP's Associate Administrator, which would launch the 1997 Human Development Report. Embargoed copies of the report had been made available to correspondents.
In another announcement, he said the Board of the United Nations Child Care Centre would hold a small ceremony at 6 p.m. today in which the Secretary-General's wife, Nane Annan, would open the newly renovated United Nations Child Care Centre on the second floor of the DC-2 Building. The Centre had an enrolment of 64 children, ages six months to five years. Correspondents were invited to attend.
Mr. Eckhard also announced that the Staff Council's Committee on Women's Issues and the Group on Equal Rights for Women in the United Nations would begin a series of "Focus on Women" seminars today. The first seminar, entitled "The ABCs of Approaching a Problem", would take place from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. in Conference Room A. Information on the other seminars was available in the Spokesman's Office.
He also announced today's briefing in the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA) Club by Joan Quigley, the astrologer to the Reagan White House. The briefing, which would take place at 2 p.m., is entitled "Star Wars, the United Nations future".
At the start of the question-and-answer session, Mr. Eckhard was asked for an update on the invitation to be delivered to the community leaders in Cyprus and if he had a firm date for those talks. He said he did not but he would have more information in due course and perhaps the date of the talks when he confirmed the release of the invitations.
Asked if the newly appointed United States envoy for Cyprus, Richard Holbrooke, would attend the talks, Mr. Eckhard said he would, in his new capacity, but he was unsure whether the United States had announced his availability to attend the first round of talks. The Secretariat did not have confirmation at this time. The correspondent was asked to check with the Permanent Mission of the United States.
A correspondent asked how did he think Mr. Holbrooke's appointment would help the negotiations. Mr. Eckhard said the Secretary-General had taken the approach that the level of the United Nations involvement must be raised to address the increased level of tensions. The high level of representatives from the United States and the United Kingdom, and the Secretary-General's newly appointed Special Adviser on Cyprus, Diego Cordovez, represented a triumvirate of high-powered negotiators. They were an indication that the international community "would give it its best shot".
Mr. Eckhard was asked whether there was a precedent for the action taken by the General Assembly's Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on
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Saturday morning, which asks Israel to pay for the damages caused by the Qana incident on 18 April 1996, and if the Assembly approved the draft resolution in question, what would be the consequences if Israel did not pay. He said the Assembly's resolutions were not binding and he was unaware of any precedents. One could only wait to see how Member States dealt with the resolution.
Asked if the resignation of Haiti's Prime Minister, Rene Preval, would influence the forthcoming elections in that country, Mr. Eckhard said he understood that the elections would take place on Sunday, 15 June, as planned. As far as he knew no replacement had been named for the Prime Minister.
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