Unifeed

UN / SOUTH SUDAN

 

Commenting on deployment of troops to the UN mission in South Sudan, head of peacekeeping Herve Ladsous said he expects “total cooperation” from the government “we will not be pleased” if limitations are imposed on the nationalities of additional peacekeepers. “When your house is on fire you don’t choose the nationality of the firemen.” UNTV
U131230a
Video Length
00:02:43
Production Date
Asset Language
Geographic Subject
MAMS Id
U131230a
Description

STORY: UN / SOUTH SUDAN
TRT: 2.43
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 30 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY

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Shotlist

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

30 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, French Ambassador Hervé Ladsous walks up to the stakeout position

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

3. Close up, reporter’s laptop

30 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK CITY

4. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
“We would expect total cooperation from the Government of South Sudan, that is to say that we will not be pleased at all if there were to be, as there seems to have been, some caveats on the choice of certain nationalities. As I said in front of the Council, when the house is on fire you do not care about the nationalities, whatever else, of the firemen.”

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

5. Close up, camera

30 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK CITY

6. SOUNDBITE (English) Hervé Ladsous, Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations:
“With all these thousands more people in the mission, we need Level 2 hospital which we cannot relocate at short notice. We need more tactical helicopters, that are a vey scarce commodity throughout all the peacekeeping operations, and we need also a few more soldiers.”

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

7. Close up, reporter’s notepad

30 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK CITY

8. Wide shot, French Ambassador Gérard Araud walks up to the stakeout position

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

9. Close up, reporter’s laptop

30 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK CITY

10. SOUNDBITE (English) Gérard Araud, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations:
“Resolution 2132 was saying that it should be by inter-mission cooperation, but the Secretary-General says that it actually can’t do it only through inter-mission cooperation; so, that’s the reason he has asked us to be allowed to bring 500 supplementary soldiers not from another mission.”

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

11. Close up, reporter’s notepad

30 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK CITY

12. SOUNDBITE (English) Gérard Araud, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations:
“It’s a situation which is really tragic. It’s a situation, it’s impossible to asses the number of casualties, but it’s pretty high, really pretty high. You remember that the first day, already in the first day, the Secretariat told us that they had a few hundred casualties the first day, so you may imagine now what it should be.”

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

13. Close up, reporter’s device

30 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK CITY

14. SOUNDBITE (English) Gérard Araud, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations:
“We have to remember we are not facing two parties. There is a legitimate government, which is the Government of President Kiir, and there are the rebels. And in legal, in international law, the Security Council doesn’t have any say into the fact that a legitimate government is trying to restore its authority on its territory.”

FILE – RECENT, NEW YORK CITY

15. Close up, camera

30 DECEMBER 2013, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK CITY

16. Wide shot, Araud walks away

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Storyline

The head of UN peacekeeping said today (30 December) he expects “total cooperation” from the Government of South Sudan and said “we will not be pleased” if limitations are imposed on the nationalities of additional peacekeepers.

Hervé Ladsous, who is the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, said “when the house is on fire you do not care about the nationalities, whatever else, of the firemen.”

The Security Council last week authorized almost doubling the United Nations peacekeeping force in strife-torn South Sudan to nearly 14,000 in the face of a rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian crisis that has left hundreds of civilians dead and tens of thousands of others driven from their homes.

The temporary increase in the strength of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) will be mainly through the transfer of units from other UN forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Darfur, Abyei, Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia.

Ladsous told reporters outside the Council that the increase will carry some logistical challenges. He said “with all these thousands more people in the mission, we need Level 2 hospital which we cannot relocate at short notice. We need more tactical helicopters, that are a vey scarce commodity throughout all the peacekeeping operations, and we need also a few more soldiers.”

Also talking to reporters, French Ambassador Gérard Araud said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that the increase in troop levels cannot be attained by inter-mission cooperation alone, and for that reason “he has asked us to be allowed to bring 500 supplementary soldiers not from another mission.”

Araud stressed that the situation in South Sudan “is really tragic.”

He said “it’s impossible to asses the number of casualties, but it’s pretty high, really pretty high.”

Tensions within South Sudan, the world’s youngest country which only gained independence in 2011 after seceding from Sudan, burst out into open conflict on 15 December when President Salva Kiir's Government said soldiers loyal to former deputy president Riek Machar, dismissed in July, launched an attempted coup. Kiir belongs to the Dinka ethnic group and Machar to the Lou Nuer.

The French Ambassador, who is Council President for the month of December, said “we have to remember we are not facing two parties.”

He noted that “there is a legitimate government, which is the Government of President Kiir, and there are the rebels.”

Araud added that “in international law, the Security Council doesn’t have any say into the fact that a legitimate government is trying to restore its authority on its territory.”

In the latest developments, there are reports of large numbers of armed youths moving towards the Jonglei state capital of Bor and called on all those with influence to convince them to immediately halt their advance and avoid a further escalation of the current crisis.

UNMISS said Sunday in a news release that the youths have been reportedly moving across the state for some time, with a possible intention of attacking communities. It is conducting aerial reconnaissance over Jonglei to get a clearer idea of the numbers of armed youths and the direction in which they are headed.

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