DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
Press Briefing
DAILY PRESS BRIEFING OF OFFICE OF SPOKESMAN FOR SECRETARY-GENERAL
19971229
Fred Eckhard, the Spokesman for the Secretary-General, began today's noon briefing with three announcements. First, he said, on Saturday, 27 December, Iraq had submitted all the annexes to the draft distribution plan for phase III of the "oil-for-food" programme to the office of the Humanitarian Coordinator in Baghdad. The next step was a review in New York of the complete draft with the annexes. Should the annexes be received in New York by tomorrow, they could be sent to the Secretary-General, with a recommendation for his action, by late Wednesday, 31 December. He hoped the package, if received by tomorrow, could be approved by the Secretary-General by the end of the week.
Second, the Spokesman said that the Secretary-General had written to the Security Council - in fact the letter was sent on Friday, 26 December -- informing it of his intention to appoint Charles F. Dunbar of the United States as his Special Representative for Western Sahara. It was his understanding that, under the Council's "no objection" procedure, if no objections were received by noon tomorrow, 30 December, it would be assumed that the Council had given its assent to the appointment. A biographical note on Mr. Dunbar was available in room 378, he added.
Third, Mr. Eckhard announced that a partial payment had been received from the Ukraine against its regular budget assessment. Noting that partial payments were not normally announced, he said the amount involved was $21.2 million and represented more than half of Ukraine's outstanding contributions, which until the current payment had been received, totalled $38.8 million for the regular budget. He said 100 Member States had paid their assessed contributions to the regular budget in full for 1997.
A correspondent commented that Haiti had been without a government for the past seven months. What were the legal ramifications of that situation for the establishment of the United Nations mission there? Recalling that the correspondent had asked the question before, the Spokesman said the Secretary-General had expressed his concern about that situation in Haiti. He added that the Security Council had not seen the absence of a government in Haiti as a problem to the actions it had taken concerning a United Nations mission. He, therefore, had nothing further to say on the matter.
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