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UN / KENYA TROOP WITHDRAWAL WRAP
STORY: UN / KENYA TROOP WITHDRAWAL WRAP
TRT: 3:41
SOURCE: UNIFEED / FILE
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 03 NOVEMBER 2016, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN flag
03 NOVEMBER 2016, NEW YORK CITY
2. Pan left, Ladsous approaching stakeout
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations:
“There is of course a system-wide accountability. We all have a degree of responsibility. Look, in the matter of the force commander, I don’t want to add salt to the wound. I think conclusions were irrefutable and that’s it; let’s leave it at that.”
4. Wide shot, Ladsous at stakeout
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations:
“It is their sovereign decision, I respect that, but of course I regret it and we are assessing what consequences this has on the regional protection force that was decided upon by the Security Council recently and we are trying to bring into existence as quickly as possible.”
6. Wide shot, Lasdoud at stakeout
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations:
“Over the last two years I have had this policy of performance, and that in cases where performance was not there, either from a professional point of view or from a conduct point of view, all together almost 1,000 people that I have sent back home. So this policy stands.”
FILE - UNMISS - 03 AUGUST 2016, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
8. Wide shot, Lt-Gen Johnson Mogoa Kimani Ondieki by UN tanks
9. Med shot, Ondieki speaking with Chinese peacekeepers
10. Med shot, Ondieki speaking with IDPs
FILE - UNMISS - 30 JULY 2016, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
11. Wide shot, omen walking while Chinese patrol passes
FILE - UNMISS - 02 AUGUST 2016, JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN
12. Wide shot, UN tank driving away
13. Med shot, UN vehicles arriving at protection of civilians site
03 NOVEMBER 2016, NEW YORK CITY
14. Wide shot, press room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations:
“The investigation, we have come to conclude, is shameful, unfair, and an exercise in scapegoating; and has totally disregarded in its conclusion decades of commitment and contribution of Kenya to the South Sudan peace process and to South Sudan’s development.”
16. Med shot, reporter asking question
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations:
“The idea that an individual can be singled out for personal culpability and responsibility for what was in fact, as I said earlier, a collective systemic failure that has its roots in the deep dysfunction of the United Nations peacekeeping operations, a fact that has been chronicled by you, members of the press, in DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo), Darfur, Haiti, and the CAR (Central African Republic) among other places with horrific outcomes is simply untenable.”
18. Wide shot, Kenyan ambassadors
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Macharia Kamau, Permanent Representative of Kenya to the United Nations:
“The Secretary-General, in his lame duck season, seems to have found the courage that has eluded him throughout his tenure by choosing to ignore Kenya’s plea. In conclusion, we are aware that other countries keen to join the business of the United Nations peacekeeping lay in wait to deploy their own troops should Kenya stand down. We have no difficulty with this and we wish them all the very best of luck.”
20. Wide shot, press room
United Nations peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said he did not want to “add salt to the wound” but the conclusions of the report which recommended the removal of Kenyan Lt-Gen Johnson Ondieki from his position as Force Commander in South Sudan were “irrefutable.”
Speaking to reporters today (03 Nov), Ladsous said there was a degree of “responsibility” on his department as a whole for peacekeepers' actions as violence took place in Juba this July. He regretted the Kenyan government’s decision to withdraw its troops from the peacekeeping mission adding that assessments were being made for the “consequences this has on the regional protection force that was decided upon by the Security Council recently and we are trying to bring into existence as quickly as possible.”
Ladsous said over the past two years, he had repatriated some 1,000 personnel “where performance was not there” adding that “this policy stands.”
A report released on Tuesday by the Independent Special Investigation into UN peacekeepers’ response to violence in Juba this July found that the UN mission “did not respond effectively to the violence due to an overall lack of leadership, preparedness and integration among the various components of the mission.” The Special Investigation also found that command and control arrangements were “inadequate, while peacekeepers maintained a risk-averse posture” which contributed to the mission’s failure to respond to the attack “by Government soldiers on the Terrain camp on 11 July and protect civilians under threat.”
Speaking to the press earlier today, Kenyan ambassador Macharia Kamau said the investigation into the events was carried out with a “preordained outcome in mind.” He said the investigation was “shameful, unfair, and an exercise in scapegoating” which did not take into account the “decades of commitment and contribution of Kenya to the South Sudan peace process and to South Sudan’s development.”
Kamau said the investigation “could not and should not” focus solely on the Force Commander who had been in his position for only three weeks at the time. He said the idea that an individual can be singled out for what was in fact “a collective systemic failure that has its roots in the deep dysfunction of the United Nations peacekeeping operations” was “simply untenable.”
The Kenyan ambassador said his government’s decision to withdraw its troops from the UN mission in South Sudan was “a stance based on national dignity” adding that bilateral relations with South Sudan would remain intact. He said the exact timing of the withdrawal would be negotiated with the UN peacekeeping department.
Kamau said his government went to “great lengths” to implore Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon not to “single out an individual”, however it seemed that he had “found the courage that has eluded him throughout his tenure by choosing to ignore Kenya’s plea.” He said his government was aware that other countries “keen to join the business of the United Nations peacekeeping lay in wait to deploy their own troops should Kenya stand down” adding that they “wish them all the very best of luck.”
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