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UN / SUDAN
STORY: UN / SUDAN
TRT: 2.09
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 APRIL 2012, NEW YORK / FILE
FILE – 2011, UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
26 APRIL 2012, NEW YORK
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. Cutaway, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
“While the fighting has since subsided, the potential for additional clashes remain. UNAMID assesses the incidents are related to hostilities between South Sudan and Sudan and of course remains vigilant within its capacity in monitoring the situation along the border between South Darfur and South Sudan. Attempts by UNAMID and humanitarian agencies to access these areas and other areas affected by fighting, including Jebel Marra, have been repeatedly obstructed by government authorities.”
5. Cutaway, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
“On the political front, progress has been affected by the internal problems in Sudan as a whole and the hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan. Nevertheless, I call on the signatory parties to live up to their commitment to implement the Doha Document on Peace in Darfur for the sake of the long suffering people of Darfur.”
7. Wide shot, end of meeting
8. Pan right, Ambassador Rice approaching the microphone
9. Cutaway, hands taking notes
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Susan Rice, Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations:
“From the United States point of view, and I think from the point of view of many Council members, I think this is extremely urgent, and the Council ought to act with the speed that it’s capable of in urgent situations.”
11. Pan left, journalists to Sudanese Ambassador at stakeout
12. Cutaway, hand taking notes
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, Permanent Representative of Sudan:
“We have been the victim during this last aggression. Any measure to be related to Chapter 7, our understanding and analysis to that is to be directed to the culprit, to the aggressor, not to the victim.”
14. Cutaway, typing on laptop
15. Pan right, Ambassadore Ali Osman leaving the stakeout area
The head of United Nations (UN) peacekeeping today (26 April) said that security in Darfur had improved enough to reduce the number of peacekeepers deployed there, but warned that hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan are affecting political progress.
Briefing the Security Council this morning, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous proposed cuts to the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) that would save $76 million in the 2012-2013 budget and $135 million per year thereafter.
He said that more than 5,500 military and civilian personnel were no longer needed thanks to various factors including improved security along the Chad-Darfur border and far northern Darfur following rapprochements between Sudan and Chad and between Sudan and Libya.
Reporting on UNAMID’s protection mandate, Ladsous said that while last week’s fighting in southern Darfur had subsided, the potential for additional clashes remained. UNAMID assessed the incidents as related to hostilities between South Sudan and Sudan, and Ladsous said the mission would monitor the situation along the border between South Darfur and South Sudan “within its capacity”.
However, attempts by UNAMID and humanitarian agencies to access these areas and other areas affected by fighting, including Jebel Marra near North Darfur’s capital of El Fasher had “been repeatedly obstructed by government authorities”.
Last week, the head of UNAMID, Ibrahim Gambari had expressed serious concern over developments in the region’s south, following attacks by armed movements on three towns on 17 April.
Under-Secretary-General Ladsous told the Security Council that the current hostilities between Sudan and South Sudan were also affecting political progress on Darfur, but called on the signatory parties to “live up to their commitment to implement the Doha Document on Peace in Darfur for the sake of the long suffering people of Darfur.”
The briefing was followed by closed consultations, after which United States (US) Ambassador Susan Rice addressed journalists outside the Security Council chambers.
She announced that the US had just tabled a draft resolution supporting yesterday’s African Union Peace and Security Council communiqué demanding that Sudan and South Sudan stop hostilities and withdraw troops from disputed areas. She said the intention of the text was to provide “swift and substantive support to the decisions of the African Union in the form that the African Union requested”.
Rice said that her country saw this as “extremely urgent, and the Council ought to act with the speed that it’s capable of in urgent situations”.
The African Union had asked for a Security Council endorsement under Chapter 7, which would be legally binding on Sudan and South Sudan.
Also speaking to reporters outside the Security Council was the Sudanese Ambassador Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman. Asked about his government’s position regarding the AU’s Chapter 7 request, he insisted that Sudan had been “the victim during this last aggression” and that any measure related to Chapter 7 should only be directed at South Sudan, which he identified as “the culprit”.
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