YouSaid · the spoken record

Balladur

lines on the record
16
first
1994-07-11
most recent
1994-07-11
sittings or episodes
1
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un-security-council

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  1. “It is imperative now that its effort should be assumed by the international community as a whole. A few years ago, President Senghor spoke out in favour of a universal civilization. It is that civilization that must inspire our Organization and lead us to act to help a given country not on the basis of its size, its wealth or its culture, but quite simply because it is equal in law to all others and because it is in need. This is the case of Rwanda today - who could deny it? - a devastated country with a riven and uprooted population. If we can respond to its appeal to us for justice and solidarity, our international community will have taken a further step towards an international society in which the rule of law is respected - towards a more just society.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  2. “The United Nations bodies with competence in the field of human rights should follow through on the procedures that have been started. France was a sponsor of Security Council resolution 935 (1994), which set up a Commission to inquire into the massacres in Rwanda. It will make available to this Commission all the information it has been able to gather. The perpetrators of the massacres will be held liable for their acts before the international community. The fate of a people and a country depends on our ability to act to ensure that the peace-keeping mission of the United Nations is successfully carried out. That is the reason for my presence here today. France, which is linked to Africa by longstanding ties of friendship and solidarity, had to act to help a martyred people.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  3. “It is urgent that the international community mobilize to provide this. The Secretary-General, whose support France has been able to count on, can rest assured that my Government will endorse his efforts to this end. Finally, it is up to the United Nations, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the States of the Great Lakes region to use their influence to bring about a stable political solution that will allow this divided and shattered country to find reconciliation, and, in the spirit of the Arusha Agreement, the social and political consensus without which nothing solid can be built in the future. I know what efforts the Secretary-General and his Special Representative are making to this end. The entire Security Council should continue to support them.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  4. “That is not their mission, nor is it the intention of the French Government, which indicated at the very start of Operation Turquoise that it intended to withdraw its troops at the end of July. Only the presence of a sizeable United Nations force on Rwandan territory will make it possible to begin the country's recovery by promoting a return to stability and the expansion of humanitarian action. For this reason, my country is making an urgent appeal to the international community to do everything possible to enable the strengthened UNAMIR to be deployed quickly. Many countries have stated their willingness to make sizeable numbers of personnel available to UNAMIR. These would be sufficient for the task that has been assigned the force if they possess the requisite equipment and logistical support.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  5. “Everyone also knows the needs of the large numbers of people that have taken refuge in the countries bordering on Rwanda. It is essential to move swiftly to respond to immediate needs. But we would be running the risk of allowing a serious zone of tension to persist in this region if the international community does not concern itself now with the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons. Parallel with the humanitarian aid effort that France is fervently seeking, reinforcements for UNAMIR should be deployed as soon as possible. The French and Senegalese forces in Rwanda cannot of themselves take the place of an operation established by the Security Council.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  6. “These needs exceed the capacity of France and the few countries working with it in this operation. Experts have estimated, for example, that about 500 tons of food per day are needed to meet the needs of the people in the humanitarian safe area alone. At this point, the action of the entire international community should be pursued in three directions. That is what I am here to tell the Council. First, at the humanitarian level, in view of the flow of refugees into the humanitarian safe area set up in south-west Rwanda and the desperate situation of the country as a whole, only firm action by States, United Nations humanitarian agencies and non-governmental organizations can prevent hunger and sickness from following upon the massacres.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  7. “Since the start of the operation, almost 1,300 people whose lives were directly threatened have been evacuated to safe areas, either by helicopter or by road in protected convoys. By the middle of this week, more than 400 tons of humanitarian aid will have been delivered. With regard to medical assistance, an emergency hospital is operating at Cyangugu in the south- west of the country. These initial results in the strictly humanitarian domain assigned to the operation show that one key result has been achieved: the massacres have almost completely stopped in places where France is present, and a large volume of humanitarian aid has been delivered. However, one can immediately see the vast extent of the needs, which are growing daily, especially with the increasing number of displaced persons.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  8. “My Government set out very clear principles for its action. I specified what they were in the French National Assembly on 22 June 1994. The operation had to be placed under the mandate of the Security Council and to have a strictly humanitarian purpose. It had to be undertaken together with other partners and, lastly, its duration had to be limited to the end of July. What progress can be reported on France's operation in the three weeks since the adoption of resolution 929 (1994)? Its humanitarian goal has been largely attained. Almost a million refugees are now gathered under the protection of French and Senegalese forces in an area where, for the most part, the massacres have been stopped and refugees are safe. That, at least, is the situation as it stands.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  9. “France is grateful to the Security Council for having supported its assessment of the situation and thanks it for adopting resolution 929 (1994). My Government would also like to thank the Secretary-General for all his efforts in the exercise of his functions to enable this humanitarian operation to be mounted. Should we have refrained from taking action, since no economic or strategic interest appeared to warrant such intervention, thereby justifying those who criticize the international community for acting only when powerful interests are at issue? France and the Security Council, which supported its initiative, rejected the path of resignation. The same was true for our partners in the Western European Union and for the very many African countries which expressed support for the French Government's action.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  10. “Is it necessary to recall the circumstances that led to this decision? Hundreds of thousands of people dead, more than two million displaced and terrorized - an unprecedented humanitarian disaster that could destabilize the entire Great Lakes region. Was the entire international community to watch helplessly as such a tragedy unfolded? France did not think so and believed it had a moral duty to act without delay to stop the genocide and provide immediate assistance to the threatened populations. It resolved to intervene before it was too late for reinforcements of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) to be deployed in Rwanda. Everyone could see that, without swift action, the survival of an entire country was at stake and the stability of a region seriously compromised.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  11. “It has also demonstrated that belief in the various theatres of intervention where 7,000 French soldiers are serving under the United Nations flag, and where French forces are the largest or second-largest contingent, depending on the year. The devotion and courage of those French troops attest to my country's commitment, along with the United Nations, to seeing the principles of the San Francisco Charter increasingly affirmed in international life. It is in this spirit - which I wished to recall here today - that the French Government decided to react to the tragedy in Rwanda and appealed to the Security Council to authorize an emergency humanitarian intervention in that country, an intervention which was the only way of ending the massacres and the exodus of people on a scale never before seen on the continent of Africa.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  12. “No one could fail to recognize the progress our Organization has made in helping to resolve humanitarian crises in which a restrictive interpretation of the principles of the Charter and, above all, political obstacles did not permit it to intervene. Here again, France made a major contribution to a change that now makes it possible - with due respect for the essential principle of the sovereignty of States - to respond to humanitarian crises that represent a clear threat to peace. France believes in the United Nations and in its mission. It has demonstrated that belief here in the Security Council by taking many initiatives - I am thinking particularly of the situations in Bosnia and Cambodia.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  13. “Our concerted efforts were long limited by the uncompromising ambition of some countries and by the division of the world into two blocs. For the past four years, the international community has been at a turning- point in its history. For the first time, the United Nations is in a position to act when world peace and stability are threatened or when civilian populations are affected by war. The recent period has certainly demonstrated the limits of this ability to act, which result from the fact that the United Nations cannot take the place of States or parties to a conflict that themselves lack the necessary political resolve. But, to take just a few examples, no one can deny the role our Organization has played in restoring peace in Cambodia and El Salvador or in saving so many human lives in Somalia and Bosnia.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  14. “My country has always wanted these international organizations to possess the necessary means, including military means, to enable the rule of law to prevail. To organize international life around a few principles and seek to introduce a state of law into an international community which, despite appearances, still remains so diverse and unequal requires that firm political resolve be demonstrated by the States comprising that community, particularly those to which the Charter has entrusted special responsibilities. I should like to say here today that as a permanent member of the Security Council France intends to abide, in its words and its actions, by its unfailing commitment to a more orderly and more interdependent global community.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  15. “I should like, as well, to draw certain conclusions from this intolerable tragedy, which for a time seemed to leave the international community without a reaction. Today, the international community as a whole must mobilize for a cause that concerns us all. France has always wanted the international community to be better organized and to possess the necessary resources to command respect for the principles from which the community takes its inspiration: equality of rights and obligations of States, respect for their sovereignty, respect for human rights and the peaceful settlement of disputes. France's leading jurists made a _ fundamental contribution to the founding of the League of Nations and the United Nations.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source

  16. “Mr. Balladur (France) (interpretation from French): I have come to New York today to address the United Nations Security Council because France is engaged in an important and difficult humanitarian operation in Rwanda, pursuant to a Security Council resolution. Under the circumstances, it seemed essential to come before the highest body of the United Nations in order to recall all that France expects from this great institution and the constant efforts my country has made to expand its action for the common good of mankind and make it more efficient. I also wanted to inform you as precisely as possible on the conditions in which the humanitarian operation is being carried out in Rwanda by my country along with a few other States.”

    1994-07-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3402 (1994) · source