UN / COTE D’IVOIRE VOTE

The Security Council today (13 May) unanimously voted to extend the temporary redeployment of troops and assets from the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to the UN Operation in Côte d'Ivoire (ONUCI) until the end of July.
UNTV

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:15
• Production Date: 13 May 2011
• Asset Language: Original
• Subject Topical: INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; PEACE AND SECURITY
• Geographic Subject: COTE D'IVOIRE
• MAMS Id: U110513c

Description

STORY: UN / COTE D’IVOIRE VOTE
SOURCE: UNTV
TRT: 1.15
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/ NATS

DATELINE: 13 MAY 2011, NEW YORK CITY/ FILE

Shotlist

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior UN building

13 MAY 2011, NEW YORK CITY

2.Wide shot, Security Council
3.Med shot, delegates
4.SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Rice, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“The aviation assets on loan to the UN Mission in Côte d'Ivoire will be returned to the UN Mission in Liberia no later that June 30th pursuant to this resolution to avoid destabilising Liberia. We applaud the efforts of UNMIL’s peacekeepers to continue to fulfil their duties despite having fewer assets, a sacrifice they generously made and which we all deemed necessary to assist UNOCI in a time of need.”
5.Med shot, delegates
6.SOUNDBITE (English) Gérard Araud, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations:
“The Council has always supported UNMIL, which should continue to have the resources it needs in the context of the democratic transition which begun four years ago after the emergence of a crisis that lasted 10 years. In that context the Security Council as of 15 June should review the modalities of the agreement between UNMIL and ONUCI.”
7. Pan left vote

Storyline

The Security Council today (13 May) unanimously voted to extend the temporary redeployment of troops and assets from the UN Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to the UN Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (ONUCI) until the end of July.

Before the vote United States Ambassador Susan Rice pointed out that the resolution states that an aviation unit, comprised of two military utility helicopters and three armed helicopters with crews, on loan to ONUCI will be returned to UNMIL no later that 30 June in order “to avoid destabilising Liberia.”

Rice said that the Security Council should not loose focus on Liberia as it enters its own electoral season, with a referendum slated for August and presidential elections in the fall, and stressed that this is the last extension of the loan of UNMIL assets that the United States will support.

For his part, French Ambassador Gérard Araud said that UNMIL “should continue to have the resources it needs” and the Council should “review the modalities of the agreement between UNMIL and ONUCI” by 15 June.

The redeployment was originally authorized in February as violence mounted in Côte d’Ivoire after former president Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down despite losing an internationally recognized election to Alassane Ouattara in November last year.