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UN / SOUTH SUDAN ARMS VOTE
STORY: UN / SOUTH SUDAN ARMS VOTE
TRT: 02:33
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: SPANISH / ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 DECEMBER 2016, NEW YORK CITY
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
23 DECEMBER 2016, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, Security Council vote
3. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Román Oyarzun Marchesi, Permanent Representative of Spain to the United Nations:
“The draft resolution has not been adopted as it did not obtain the required number of votes.”
4. Med shot, delegates
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“The United States proposed a resolution meant to show that the architects of mass atrocities and those who defy the demands of the Security Council day in and day out will face consequences. We urged members of this Council to stand with South Sudan’s people, who are suffering immensely due to the actions of their leaders. And we urged that we use an arms embargo and targeted sanctions to help end the culture of impunity and reduce, at least, the violence.”
6. Med shot, delegates
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Samantha Power, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“We engaged every single abstainer. So let nobody say in retrospect that, oh, if the Americans had only put forward half of what they put in that resolution we would have been fine. That is false.”
8. Med shot, delegates
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Koro Bessho, Permanent Representative of Japan to the United Nations:
“Japan believes that it will be counterproductive to introduce additional sanctions and measures at a time when the transitional government is making some positive moves. The Council must continue to engage with the transitional government. Japan views that there is still room for diplomatic efforts in order to urge the transitional government to make further steps ahead.”
10. Med shot, delegates
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Ismael Abraão Gaspar Martins, Permanent Representative of Angola to the United Nations:
“Sanctions on South Sudan, in our view, must not be the priority of the United Nations, but the UN engagement in South Sudan should be focused more in supporting the political dialogue aiming to implement the peace agreement in line with the International Intergovernmental Authority for Development, IGAD, which underscored that an arms embargo or sanctions on South Sudan will not provide the solution being sought for permanent peace and stability in the country.”
12. Wide shot, Council
The Security Council today (23 Dec) failed to pass a resolution that would have imposed an arms embargo and targeted sanctions on the government of South Sudan.
Seven council members voted in favour of the resolution and eight abstained.
Ambassador Samantha Power of the United States, which sponsored the resolution, told the Council that text was “meant to show that the architects of mass atrocities and those who defy the demands of the Security Council day in and day out will face consequences.”
Power said the United States had “urged members of this Council to stand with South Sudan’s people, who are suffering immensely due to the actions of their leaders.”
She said the proposed arms embargo and targeted sanctions were aimed “to help end the culture of impunity and reduce, at least, the violence.”
The US Ambassador rejected the argument that “if the Americans had only put forward half of what they put in that resolution we would have been fine.” She said such reasoning “is false.”
Ambassador Koro Bessho of Japan, which voted to abstained, told the Council that “Japan believes that it will be counterproductive to introduce additional sanctions and measures at a time when the transitional government is making some positive moves.”
Bessho said “there is still room for diplomatic efforts in order to urge the transitional government to make further steps ahead.”
Ambassador Ismael Abraão Gaspar Martins of Angola, which also abstained, said sanctions on South Sudan “must not be the priority of the United Nations, but the UN engagement in South Sudan should be focused more in supporting the political dialogue aiming to implement the peace agreement”
In December of 2013 the country fell into a civil war which pitted tribe against tribe in what seemed to be a politically motivated struggle. Since then a peace agreement was signed in August 2015 between the two warring parties to end the violence. Then in July 2016, the country descended back into violence in the capital of Juba with the ethnic lines being drawn once again.
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