YouSaid · the spoken record

Holbrooke

lines on the record: 676
first: 1999-09-11
most recent: 2001-01-19
sittings or episodes: 43
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“The achievements of the OAU under Secretary-General Salim Salim and the current Chairman in Algeria in promoting peace and stability throughout the region are vital, and we take note of these important efforts. Because the list of speakers is long and the subject vastly important, and much of what I will say has already been said by previous speakers - and I am sure will be repeated by others - and because the people in this room need less than anyone else in the world to be reminded of the importance of these issues, I would like to summarize my remarks and submit the full remarks in written form in order to enable more speakers to speak before lunch. Throughout this decade, the United States, under the personal leadership of President Clinton, has worked to revitalize and energize American engagement in Africa.”
1999-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4049 (1999) · source
“I am deeply honoured to speak before the Council today on Africa, an area that I have pledged will be one of my highest priorities as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations. I thank Prime Minister Kok for his leadership, and I appreciate all the hard work done by his strong delegation to make this meeting possible. I compliment the Secretary-General on his statement and thank him for all of his efforts on these important issues. His personal leadership - indeed, his personal advice to me - his inspiration in these areas has been enduring, and I look to him for so much in this area. We also appreciate the statements of the Secretary- General of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the representative of the Chair of the OAU.”
1999-09-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4049 (1999) · source
“Finally, we are deeply grateful to the ICRC for convening its third Humanitarian Forum last May, a gathering that focused on this topic. Such efforts are indispensable in complementing the actions of the Security Council. Once again, the United States welcomes the Security Council's attention to this topic and is grateful for the Secretary-General's hard work on it. As a personal observer for most of my career of the consequences of the issue we have talked about, I cannot tell you how strongly I feel personally on this and, representing my Government on this subject for the first time, I want to stress how much we look forward to hearing what all the speakers here think and working with them to turn rhetoric into reality.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“This would result in strengthening the Statute and ensuring full support by all States, including the United States. Again, for the second time, I wish to draw everyone's attention to what the Secretary-General and Mary Robinson have said regarding East Timor on this subject. In closing, it is important to recognize all of the hard work of Canada in focusing the attention of the Security Council on this issue and to thank the Secretary-General for his excellent report. I commend our friends in Canada for their sustained effort on this and so many other issues and look forward to working closely with Ambassador Fowler and his colleagues. I hope the Council's focus will strengthen international interest in this issue.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“Regarding the International Criminal Court, the United States has supported such a concept. We have been in the forefront of international efforts to hold accountable those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity. We have worked hard to strengthen the international war crimes Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. I personally have worked closely with both Richard Goldstone and Louise Arbour on these issues and have stood firmly, as has Secretary of State Albright, for maximum support of these specific war crimes Tribunals in the absence of anything more global. However, My Government believes that the Rome Treaty contains flaws that require correction. Working together, we need to correct such flaws and broaden the effectiveness and acceptance of such a treaty.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“Similarly, we also support the amended Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices to the 1980 Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects as an important initiative to provide humanitarian protection for civilians and protected people. Regarding the acute tragedy of children in armed conflict, the United States firmly supports the principles contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The International Labour Organization Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour and the recently adopted Security Council resolution on children and armed conflict both contain the right standard for addressing the issue of child soldiers.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“I would also like to reiterate the position of my Government on the following issues addressed by the Secretary-General. Regarding anti-personnel landmines, the United States is committed to ending once and for all the worldwide scourge caused by these terrible devices and their like. Too many innocent people fall victim to these indiscriminate killers, which are often left behind after the wars end and the soldiers go home. My Government will therefore continue to support worldwide humanitarian demining efforts and work towards a global ban on anti-personnel landmines in the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“T hirdly, my Government also supports the consideration of arms embargoes in situations where civilians and protected persons are targeted by the parties to the conflict or where the parties are known to commit systematic and widespread violations of international law. Finally, my Government supports the recommendation that the Council act to strengthen the United Nations capacity to plan and deploy more rapidly military and civilian police personnel, as well as to consider deployment in certain cases of a preventive peacekeeping operation. This includes steps to improve the security situation in camps for refugees and internally displaced persons and to help ensure the demilitarization and depoliticization of these camps.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“It is imperative for concerned parties to cooperate fully with the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in providing access. This must be done in accordance with the principles of humanity, neutrality and impartiality. We believe that failure to comply should result in the imposition of targeted sanctions. Secondly, the United States also supports using sanctions as a possible method to deter and contain those who commit violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, as well as those parties to conflicts which continually defy Security Council resolutions. The sanctions committees should convene periodic meetings and the Council should monitor the humanitarian impact of sanctions on vulnerable groups and make required adjustments of the exemption mechanisms to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“Fourthly, individuals, who commit grave offences under international humanitarian and human rights law should be brought to justice - a point that I am very pleased the Secretary- General and Mary Robinson both raised in regard to the current crisis in East Timor. We should pay very close attention, as we proceed, to what substance we give to that very brave and early warning. I congratulate the Secretary- General for being the first public official, to my knowledge, to raise this issue. The Secretary-General has made some wise and far-ranging recommendations. Let me briefly address them. We concur that, at the outset of any conflict, the Council should underscore the importance of humanitarian assistance to civilian populations.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“All of us must work together to find ways to halt these trends. This meeting is an important but wholly inadequate step towards this goal. We in the United States support the Council's desire to respond, in accordance with the United Nations Charter, to these situations. Let me reaffirm the four principles we believe the Council should focus on. First, all States must comply strictly with their obligations under international law. Secondly, the international community needs to assist and protect civilian populations affected by armed conflict. Thirdly, all parties concerned must ensure the safety of civilians and guarantee the unimpeded and safe access of United Nations and other humanitarian personnel to those in need.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“The percentage of civilians casualties as a percentage of total casualties in war has risen from 10 per cent to 90 per cent from the First World War to today. It is our duty to confront this reality and do everything we can to prevent or minimize it. Increasingly, civilians - including humanitarian workers - are not just random, incidental victims of conflict, but targets of it, as we have seen in Chechnya, in Rwanda, in Bosnia and in Cambodia. The Secretary- General has noted that women and children are disproportionately represented among civilians affected by conflict, and he is so right. We have seen this graphically in the former Yugoslavia, where rape became a tactic of war. I have talked to the victims and to their husbands and wives and sons and fathers. It is terrible to see.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“For nearly two centuries, individuals have tried to design institutions and support principles to temper the effects of warfare on civilians - from Jean Henri Dunant, the visionary Genevan who was instrumental in creating the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 1863 after he had seen the horrors of the Crimean war, to my friend, Fred Cuny, who lost his life in Chechnya in pursuit of his lifelong goals. There can be no denying that war is hell. It always will be hell, but even war has had a code. There is a terrible sense that, during this terrible century, that code, such as it was, has almost completely disappeared and that, to many people today, civilians are no different than professional combatants. The statistics are dramatic.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“I have personally witnessed the price civilians pay in conflicts on three continents over my career in government over the last 37 years. In Viet Nam, Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo and Africa, I have seen the impact warfare has on innocent civilians. I have seen bicycles in Cambodia manufactured specifically for people with only one limb, as well as other unspeakable consequences of warfare on civilians. The deliberate terrorizing of civilians - a phenomenon that is not new in history, but has been perfected in this terrible century - has added a new and invidious phrase to our vernacular: ethnic cleansing.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“In the light of what you have just announced, Mr. President, and in order to allow the maximum number of speakers today, I will shorten my statement so that more representatives can speak, because of the enormous importance of this subject. In a certain ironic sense, it is a pleasure - or, to be more precise, at least a privilege - to represent my nation before this body on this terrible issue. It is fitting that we discuss it on a day when over 7,000 United Nations peacekeepers are on their way to East Timor. With the Security Council's swift and decisive action, the Council, this historic body in this historic room, has shown the important role the United Nations can and must play to help protect civilians. Unfortunately, East Timor is only the most recent example, and it certainly will not be the last.”
1999-09-16 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4046 (1999) · source
“But I share the hope of the Secretary-General and of the Ambassadors from Portugal and Brazil that this meeting will convey to the authorities in Jakarta that they face international isolation and enduring damage to their economic and political aspirations if necessary actions do not take place. In less than two weeks, the long-held dreams of the people of East Timor - to have the power to decide their own fate, asserting their influence democratically - were both realized and then shattered. We have an obligation to see that they gain the ability to shape their future in peace, in accordance with their own wishes.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“But our ability to do so will be severely constrained if the situation in East Timor continues to escalate out of control. We have worked tirelessly - including President Clinton and Secretary Albright, who are as we speak in New Zealand, talking to their counterparts about this crisis - to seek a solution to it. Today, together, we should renew our call on the President of Indonesia and his Government, including the military leadership, to allow immediate introduction of a multinational force into East Timor. The meeting we are having today will not solve the problem which we are here to discuss. We all know that.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“I want to reiterate the importance our Government attaches to the immediate actions that we have supported. Already the United States has suspended all bilateral military cooperation with Jakarta and all military sales and deliveries. Let me point out in addition that the situation in East Timor has already had an enormously damaging effect on the confidence that is essential for economic stability. If the crisis is not speedily, swiftly and peacefully resolved, the problem will not be contained in East Timor and will do irreparable damage to the economy, the political process and the people of this entire nation. The United States wants to work hand in hand with the Government of Indonesia in its quest for democracy, prosperity and territorial integrity.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“They are back in Jakarta; they have landed just a few minutes ago, and it is my understanding, indirectly from people who have talked to them, that they are preparing for their next round of talks at a high level with the Indonesian authorities. Those talks will be of critical importance to the process, and I hope that they will result in what we are seeking. There are reports that the Indonesian Government may be prepared to accept such a force. The distinguished Ambassador from Portugal and the equally distinguished Ambassador from Brazil have mentioned those. We urge Indonesia to turn those hints and rumours into a reality immediately. We are discussing with other delegations what actions the Security Council will take next and are awaiting a full report from the mission under Ambassador Andjaba that has just returned from Dili.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“How can the people of East Timor, the United Nations and the international community now be expected to entrust their security to these very same soldiers under the same leadership? It is imperative that the international community speak with a clear and single voice. And our message must be clear: Indonesia's Government must allow an international security presence, as proposed repeatedly by the Secretary- General - and I endorse fully his comments made yesterday in that regard and again this morning - and as proposed by the Security Council team so ably led by Ambassador Andj aba of Namibia, who deserves the praise and admiration of this entire body. They have proposed to enter immediately into discussions that will lead to conditions necessary for the United Nations process to move forward.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“We have a responsibility to stand up for the moral principles that this institution articulates and seeks to advance. The Government of Indonesia should understand that unless it reverses course immediately it faces the point of no return in its international relations. No one wants to see Indonesia, a great nation, become isolated in the world community. But its actions are driving it in a direction that is against the interests of it and the people of the vast and varied archipelago. There are clear indications that the troops under the leadership and command of General Wiranto have backed, encouraged, directed and perhaps, in many cases, participated in the atrocities on the ground.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“Almost immediately after the voting ended last month, militia - clearly backed by elements of the military of Indonesia - took to the streets and began a murderous rampage. In recent days the pace of destruction has been appalling. Thousands of innocents have been driven from their homes - including the heroic bishop, Bishop Belo, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize along with Jose Ramos-Horta - and driven to take refuge in Australia. Hundreds have been killed - perhaps more. I suspect more. And United Nations personnel have come under attack in an unconscionable way. What is happening in East Timor is against everything this institution stands for. It challenges the spirit and content that all of us in this room, all of us who have the honour to be accredited to the United Nations, have worked for. It violates all we represent.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“The international community responded to this challenge. With the indispensable leadership of the Secretary-General and the steadfast support of the Security Council, the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) worked successfully to allow the people of East Timor to express their will. When given the opportunity to vote, the people of East Timor made their choice clear. In one act, on 30 August, over 400,000 East Timorese demonstrated dignity and courage, reminding us again about the vital, central place of the ballot box and the essential role of the United Nations in supporting and supervising elections. But on a day when we should be celebrating the vision of the Government of Indonesia and the dreams of the people of East Timor, we are consumed with images of brutality, violence and mayhem.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“I also commend the previous two speakers, from Portugal and Brazil, for their eloquent summations of the situation, which will allow me not to repeat the facts - I could not match their eloquence or their precision - but simply state the Views of my Government. Indonesia is a country of immediate and enormous importance to us all. Its fragile, multiethnic balance has been tested before, most notably and tragically a generation ago. Today it is being severely tested once again. On 5 May, the Government of Indonesia made a courageous decision to resolve the problem of East Timor - which has been a concern, a legitimate concern, of this body for over a quarter century - in a manner consistent with the best traditions of the United Nations Charter: popular consultation with the people of East Timor.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“And they highlight the even greater difficulties and challenges we face today in East Timor, where the crisis is even deeper, the need for action even greater and the dangers at this point larger. Our responsibility is similarly profound. The United Nations system is being challenged simultaneously in Kosovo and Timor, each of which is arguably as great a challenge as this great institution has ever faced. The Government I am proud to represent is deeply committed to this institution, in whose creation it played such a central role, and we wish to work with all of you to deal with this problem within the United Nations framework. Again, I express my personal commitment and appreciation for the enormously difficult actions the Secretary-General has undertaken to deal with this.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source
“I want to express my deep gratitude to the President of the Security Council and to the Secretary-General for calling this meeting today under difficult and controversial circumstances. I had hoped that my first opportunity to speak publicly before this great and historic body, in this room in which so much history has been cast, would be on a less grave and sombre occasion. Yesterday, the Security Council heard from Mr. Bernard Kouchner, the Secretary-General' s superb Special Representative in Kosovo, about the challenges the United Nations faces in that part of the world. Those challenges are immense, but the United Nations is undertaking them and dealing with them.”
1999-09-11 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4043 (1999) · source