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UN / GUINEA-BISSAU
STORY: UN / GUINEA-BISSAU
TRT: 1.48
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 18 MAY 2012, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters
18 MAY 2012, NEW YORK CITY
2. Pan left, Security Council vote
3. Med shot, delegates
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations:
“This resolution imposes targeted sanctions on the authors of the coup and those that support this illegal act. Today, the Council has yet again sent a strong message of condemnation and reiterated its policy of zero tolerance towards unconstitutional seizures of power. Coups-d’état against legitimate democratic authorities are simply unacceptable, as is the illegal disruption of an electoral process internationally regarded to have been free and fair. Political solutions that exclude and exile those with the greatest democratic electoral support while empowering individuals that were electorally defeated are equally unacceptable. This is a fundamental principle in any democratic state based on the rule of law.”
5. Med shot, delegates
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. Wide shot, Moraes Cabral walking up to the stakeout position
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
8. Close up, reporter’s notepad
18 MAY 2012, NEW YORK CITY
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral, Permanent Representative of Portugal to the United Nations:
“Let me say of our increased worry concerning the situation in Guinea-Bissau where food and medicine, money, is lacking; our concern about generalized looting in the country; and our concern about violations of human rights. And I think and I hope that this resolution will also help in overcoming this very dire situation in these three areas.”
FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
10. Close up, reporter’s laptop computer
18 MAY 2012, NEW YORK CITY
11. Zoom out, Moraes Cabral walking away from the stakeout position
The Security Council today (18 May) unanimously approved a resolution imposing a travel ban and targeted sanctions on General Antonio Injai, and other military leaders of the 12 April coup-d’état in Guinea-Bissau.
Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral of Portugal, the main sponsor of the resolution, noted that the Council has “yet again sent a strong message of condemnation and reiterated its policy of zero tolerance towards unconstitutional seizures of power.”
Coups-d’état against legitimate democratic authorities, he said, “are simply unacceptable, as is the illegal disruption of an electoral process internationally regarded to have been free and fair.”
He added that “political solutions that exclude and exile those with the greatest democratic electoral support while empowering individuals that were electorally defeated are equally unacceptable.”
Soldiers in Guinea-Bissau – a West African country with a history of coups, misrule and political instability since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974 – seized power on 12 April.
The move came ahead of the presidential run-off election that was slated for 22 April between former Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior and ex-president Kumba Yala.
Calls by the international community for the return to civilian rule and the restoration of constitutional order have so far gone unheeded.
Outside the Council, speaking to reporters, Moraes Cabral expressed concern over the situation in the country “where food and medicine, money, is lacking” and over “generalized looting” and “violations of human rights.”
He said he hoped that today’s resolution “will also help in overcoming this very dire situation in these three areas.”
As part of the United Nations’ ongoing efforts to ensure the full restoration of constitutional rule in Mali and Guinea-Bissau, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for West Africa, Said Djinnit, will participate in an upcoming regional meeting on the political crises in the two countries.
The upcoming meeting – the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council on Mali and Guinea-Bissau – will be held in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, on 19 May.
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