YouSaid · the spoken record

Jeremy Greenstock

lines on the record: 1,478
first: 1998-07-30
most recent: 2003-07-25
sittings or episodes: 194
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 holding of those elections is closely connected with the full implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement, and it was very good to have the full understanding of President Gbagbo in Abidjan about that when we were there. Since meeting that deadline is going to require very careful preparation for the elections themselves, we would be very glad to have confirmation from the Prime Minister as to whether the Government will ask for United Nations and international assistance in that, because I think that that would be a very positive sign. We are grateful to France for the draft of the presidential statement which I hope we can adopt later. It forms an important element of the Council's follow- up to our missions this summer to Africa.”
2003-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4793 (2003) · source
“The United kingdom will fully support the Prime Minister's efforts to make progress in this and in the other areas, and, as he will know from this meeting this morning, the Council will be following up assiduously to make sure that implementation proceeds. The United Kingdom recognizes the importance of continuing international support to C6te d'Ivoire in this period. We have promised an additional 1 million pounds sterling to ECOMICI, and we strongly encourage other potential donors to do the same. As the Prime Minister has underlined to us, the long-term target for C6te d'Ivoire remains successful elections in 2005.”
2003-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4793 (2003) · source
“We would like to see a very early date for the adoption by the National Assembly of the amnesty law. We would like to see, finally, the appointment of fully responsible ministers of defence and interior security. We would like to see also the further extension of Government services throughout the country. We have had an important briefing on the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programme - and we also had a foretaste of the excellent dinner which the Prime Minister gave us in Abidjan. This is a good programme. In some ways it can form the elements of a model for the United Nations in taking forward a DDR programme, but it needs to be implemented, and those time lines need to be adhered to.”
2003-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4793 (2003) · source
“I join with Ambassador De la Sabliere in congratulating the Prime Minister on the progress his Government has made, including the presentation to the National Assembly of a comprehensive programme of work to implement the Linas-Marcoussis Agreement. We warmly welcome the joint declaration of 4 July ending the hostilities on the ground, and we note with approval that the security situation on the ground in Cote d'Ivoire has improved. I think that the work that is being done on the implementation of the Agreement owes a great deal to the personal input and dedicated response of the Prime Minister personally. But as he has indicated to us, we all have to be aware that progress on some important issues identified by the mission has been mixed. There is a lot more still to do.”
2003-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4793 (2003) · source
“It is a great pleasure to see Prime Minister Diarra among us. I should like to thank him for the hospitality which the Government of C6te d'Ivoire showed the Security Council mission during our visit there at the end of last month, for the trouble he is taking to follow up that mission and the resolutions of the Council on C6te d'Ivoire, and for his briefing this morning. It is also a great pleasure to see Special Representative Tevoedjre with us this morning. It is very valuable to have him on the ground during this crucial period of the development of a new stability and reconciliation in Cote d'Ivoire. We need to continue to work closely with him as we take our own business forward on this important country.”
2003-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4793 (2003) · source
“The other organs of this great body expect that of us, and sometimes we respond to that. But I believe that we can work in this body with greater responsiveness and transparency to serve the interest of all Members. I hope that, there again, I have tried to show that that is an important feature of our work, because I believe that we are still underestimating the degree to which we can all serve our national interests, without exception, around this table, in the long term, by investing in the collective potential more consistently on specific issues. As I move into other business - to which you, Mr. President, have referred - I shall try to remember that the strength of this body lies in its collective input into the international effort to bring peace and security more consistently to the world.”
2003-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4793 (2003) · source
“I thank you, Mr. President, for those words. I thank you for the expression in them of the Council's friendship with me over five years, and I thank all members for their part in that. You are all aware - because you are around this table - what a privilege it is to sit at it. The United Kingdom sits here more consistently than the majority, but it is our view that we have to earn that position of permanence on the Council. My delegation and I have tried to work with you to demonstrate that, in its search for results and improvements with regard to the world's peace and security, we are there to help you achieve those results, and I hope that I have played a small part in demonstrating that. We in the Council - being only 15 among 191 - have to remember that we represent the whole of the United Nations.”
2003-07-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4793 (2003) · source
“Essential to that partnership is the role of the United Nations in the areas mapped out in resolution 1483 - a role which the Special Representative is judiciously constructing as the weeks go by. As I come to terms with the inexplicable postponement of my retirement, I look forward to working with him and the whole United Nations team in the months ahead, conscious as I am from my experience on this Council that the regeneration of a free and stable Iraq is in all respects a collective enterprise of the international community.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“That is why the United Nations contribution at this time is so valuable and so welcome. The fundamental criterion guiding our work in Iraq over the coming period - the cornerstone, as Sergio Vieira de Mello has said - is the need to bring Iraq back into the hands of Iraqis as soon as this can be done in a framework of stability and security through a constitutional reform process owned by the Iraqi people. I hope that the broad international community will continue to increase its involvement in helping to build a better Iraq. Resolution 1483 (2003) called for a genuine international partnership, asking Member States and other organizations to assist the people of Iraq to reform their institutions, rebuild their country and contribute to stability and security.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“As the interim administration gets to grips with these and other issues in the months ahead, it and the Iraqi people may look to the international community for support and practical assistance, the potential range of which has been well expressed by the Secretary- General and the Special Representative today. The creation of the Governing Council marked a pivotal moment for Iraq. For the first time in decades, Iraq now has an administration - a powerful voice which we have heard today - broadly representative of its diversity and in a position to serve the interests of the Iraqi people as a whole. Iraqis can at last sense the prospect of realizing their full potential and creating a brighter future, but they need immediate international support for this.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“We have encouraged the leaders of Iraqi political and other groups to include women representatives at both the national and regional levels and we hope that these leaders will view this as an important part of the reintroduction of democracy in their country. The United Kingdom is also helping to set up an independent media commission to support the development of a robust and professional independent media sector, and we welcome the United Nations willingness to consider where and how it can add value to building the institutions of a civil society in Iraq; electoral processes; constitutional, judicial and legal reform; and reform of the public administration and the security sector. Dismantling the previous regime's infrastructure of oppression was a necessary first step, but not a sufficient one.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“We fully support the comments of the Secretary- General on the inclusion of Iraqi women in the transitional, constitutional and political processes now under way in Iraq. They were, above all, the silent victims of the former regime. Now we should help them to find their voice. We supported at the ministerial level the women's conference in Baghdad on 9 July, at which a wide range of issues was discussed. This was a good start, but more needs to be done to encourage Iraqi women to organize and express themselves. We would urge the United Nations Development Fund for Women to continue its work in Iraq and hope that it will be able to go ahead with its plans to host a national conference in the coming weeks.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“We welcome the decision of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to send human rights monitors to Iraq. The United Kingdom has allocated $650,000 towards funding these monitors, thus providing 60 per cent of the immediate start-up costs of deploying them and supporting their work. In both these areas the Authority has been aiming to lay some of the groundwork for the development of sound judicial and human rights structures. It is a long- term and vital task in which the United Nations has a key role to play. But it is important that the Organization and the Authority work together effectively and in a coordinated way so that we can give the Iraqis the support that they need. Sergio Vieira de Mello's dual role is especially significant in this respect.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“We are about to send a second team to help coordinate what will need to be an international effort, and we hope that other Member States can send forensic teams to Iraq to assist. But in the longer term this will be a task for the Iraqi authorities. They will need training and technical advice, and that is a further area in which the international community has much to offer. On the promotion of human rights, we again welcome and support the recommendations made by the Secretary-General, including on the provision of advice and assistance on capacity-building and training. The development of a strong civil society will be an important part of a new democracy. The United Nations Development Programme will have a valuable role to play.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“Regrettably, there is no shortage of recent international experience in this field. The Authority has set up an office of human rights and transitional justice to help this process. It is working on collecting witness testimony, identifying missing persons, addressing property disputes and dealing with the examination of mass graves and the preservation of evidence. There is a huge task ahead. New mass graves are being identified in Iraq practically every day. We have so far received reports of 115; more will be discovered. It has been estimated that they contain the bodies of over 300,000 victims of the Saddam regime. Helping Iraq deal with that grim legacy will take many years. A United Kingdom team of forensic experts has produced recommendations for the exhumation of mass graves and the preservation of evidence.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“Much of our effort is focused on the practical issues of repairing courts, assessing which judges and prosecutors were too deeply implicated in the crimes of the Ba'ath party to be allowed to continue in office and setting up training for those that remain. It will be for the Iraqis to decide how they want to continue this work in the longer term. But there is much expertise in the United Nations and other international organizations in this area on which they can call and which we should be ready to provide. One of the most difficult issues faced by any country which has suffered oppression and abuse is how to deal with the legacy of past crimes. Again, this will be a matter for the Iraqis themselves to decide. We look forward to seeing the product of the special group of the Governing Council mentioned by Mr. Pachachi this morning.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“Iraq suffered decades of brutality and political coercion during which its justice system was severely corrupted and distorted. We welcome the proposals to increase the United Nations role in aiding reform of the justice system and the protection of human rights. The international community has a key role to play in assisting Iraqis to re-establish a fair and transparent system of justice under which the rights of its citizens are properly protected. At the same time, we can help the development of a new culture in which human rights are always respected, rather than systematically abused. The Coalition Provisional Authority is already fully engaged in the process of helping the Iraqis to re- structure their justice system.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“We need to be clear that the minority of Iraqis who, with some outside assistance, are attempting to sabotage this prospect, are, as Mr. Pachachi has said, undermining the interests of the civilian population of Iraq. They will not succeed. We also have to improve essential services and set the economy on a path of sustainable growth. We have been taking concerted and effective action in these areas in ways which Ambassador Negroponte has already set out. We will go into more detail when, with the United States, we present our own comprehensive update to the Council within the next month, as requested in resolution 1483 (2003). I want, however, to say a word today about the importance we attach to urgent progress on justice and human rights and on improving the role of women in society, both at national and local levels.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“We hope that the Governing Council will soon come forward with ideas on that, and that the Coalition Provisional Authority will work closely with it in developing those ideas. Our function is to create conditions under which the Iraqi people can determine their own future, not to impose a blueprint or a timetable of our own. The role of the neighbouring countries and the region is especially important. The United Kingdom will encourage the fullest possible consultation and cooperation in this respect. The British Government recognizes the special obligations on us as a Power in the Coalition Provisional Authority. We take the current security situation very seriously. Iraqis want and must have the rule of law established.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“The Governing Council is the key element in the Iraqi interim administration, and the first step in a process that will lead back to an internationally recognized representative Government and an Iraq run by Iraqis in the interests of all Iraqis. The Secretary-General's report welcomes the creation of the Governing Council and highlights the real powers it will have from the outset. The report also makes clear that the Governing Council will provide a broadly representative Iraqi partner with which the United Nations and the international community at large can engage. We agree that the subsequent process of constitutional reform should be owned by the Iraqis and that there should be a clear sequence of events leading to a fully representative Government as soon as possible.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“European ministers yesterday expressed their confidence that the United Nations will continue to make an important contribution in Iraq, and reiterated their readiness to support the efforts of the Special Representative. The United Kingdom believes in an increasingly important United Nations role, and wishes to see that role extended along the lines proposed in the Secretary-General's report. I warmly welcome the presence here this morning of Mr. Adnan Pachachi, Mr. Ahmad Chalabi and Ms. Aqeela al-Hashemi - members of the Governing Council - and I thank all three of them for their presentation through the experienced voice of Mr. Pachachi. In line with resolution 1483 (2003), we need to ensure that the day the Iraqis govern themselves comes quickly.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“I, too, warmly welcome you back, Madam, and congratulate Spain, our European partner, on its handling of the presidency so far this month. I want first to commend the very interesting and widely welcomed report presented to us last week by the Secretary-General, and to thank him for his brief but telling statement this morning. The United Kingdom is grateful, too, for today's presentation by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Sergio Vieira de Mello, whose work so far in Iraq has shown how valuable the input of the United Nations can be. We are witnessing an already impressive United Nations effort across a range of activity on the ground in Iraq.”
2003-07-22 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4791 (2003) · source
“But I think that the Security Council as a whole intends to maintain its active interest and should take some credit for its persistence in insisting that the Lusaka accord be implemented in full - it is now being implemented through many resolutions and our four missions to the region. I hope that the focus that we have put on this region through our activity will indeed be maintained into the future.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“We have been here before, but we have never implemented the thought that a regional conference is very necessary to construct the framework for an economic regeneration of the region, which should include structures for maintaining political and security stability. It does need the coherence of the regional leaderships. I am sorry that, up to now, they have not all agreed that a conference would be a good thing. We now think that it would be. I hope that the United Nations will put its weight behind that thought. Finally, we have heard this morning that what is needed in the Congo is the maintenance of active interest. That certainly goes for the United Kingdom.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“It should help to deter violence, but only if it is credibly embodied on the ground - hence the importance of careful military planning. Like Germany and others, we support the arms embargo in the draft resolution and would like to see a monitoring panel established to help the Council oversee its implementation. We have all put our finger on the humanitarian situation. I agree with Mr. Ngongi that the conditions are now more favourable for major relief operations, but they need to be organized by the international community with the support of the United Nations. Beyond that, I very much agree with the High Representative.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“Do they wish to start a reconciliation process that involves justice for the victims and therefore prosecution of the worst abuses? Or, if they want to pass it to the international community, are we going to be ready to support the International Criminal Court or any other mechanism, to make sure that those responsible, some of whose names we already know, understand from this meeting - if they have not understood it any earlier - that they will be examined, investigated and brought to a court for their actions during this conflict if they are shown to have abused humanitarian law and human rights norms? We look forward to adopting soon a draft resolution that increases MONUC's ceiling. The Chapter VII authorization is important.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“He and they will test MONUC, especially if they believe it to be a vulnerable force. We look forward to discussing further with the Department of Peacekeeping Operations how MONUC is to be configured to deter and deal with a UPC challenge. That is connected with the wider question raised by Mr. Guehenno and Mr. Ngongi, of what Jean- Marie Guehenno called the need to end the pervasive culture of war and impunity, which, as Mr. Ngongi said, needs additional action. We have to make sure that those who have committed crimes against the Congolese people are brought to account. If Ambassador Konuzin had not done so, I would have asked the question - an open question because the Congolese people and Government need our support.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“But we must not allow this intervention to undertake a task that is then jeopardized by allowing a security vacuum to open up after its departure. We need the full deployment of an increased MONUC brigade force, but we need it on time and with the capability to ensure that the gap between the two forces is negligible and that MONUC is visibly as strong as possible from day one. We all understand the threats to both the present and the future force. The Security Council itself has to take the responsibility that that is the case, even if it is the Secretariat that carries out the task. I hope that in the coming days we shall ensure that that happens. The Union of Congolese Patriots (UPC) under Mr. Lubanga has tested the Interim Emergency Multinational Force.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“I hope that, if this new Government's officials take up their responsibilities with political will, with honour and with honesty, they will repay the Congolese people the time that they have had to wait for peace. I think that that is something that should come out of this meeting, because those 50 million or so Africans who have suffered so much over the past few years will still deserve our help in the coming period. Ituri and Bunia, of course, are a particular part of that. The Multinational Force has made a significant contribution towards improving the security situation in Bunia. I am proud to be a European Union (EU) member in praising the EU for what it has done, and I pay particular tribute to France for its leadership of that.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“The swearing-in of the four Vice-Presidents of the new national coalition Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo exemplifies what we have been trying to achieve with the implementation of the Lusaka Accord, and the United Kingdom would like to congratulate all those involved. But primarily, I think, congratulations go to the Congolese people. Those of us who have been on missions to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to its neighbours have always - in each of the four years that we have been there, and in all the cities beyond Kinshasa and the towns and the villages that we have visited - been struck by the appeal for peace in the eyes of the Congolese people, an appeal to the United Nations and to the international community.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“But he has overseen that transformation on the ground with a team for the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) that, again, deserves tribute in a way which the Security Council should acknowledge and is, I think, acknowledging this morning. So I thank you, Amos. That effort by the United Nations is seamless and depends very much on the work of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the Headquarters team. Before he leaves the room, I should like to thank the Under-Secretary-General for what he has done in that respect, and to say that that applies to his whole team as well as to him personally. You may now go, Sir. The analysis we have heard this morning has, I think, rightly focused on the move in the political context.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“We had a telling series of briefings this morning from a very high-grade team, and I should like to thank them for that. It is a great pleasure to see the High Representative for the European Union with us again, giving us an analysis of the situation on the ground on the basis of his recent visit. I think we all have to agree with that analysis; I certainly do. But, in my introduction, I particularly want to thank Amos Ngongi for the work that he has done in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in an incredibly difficult period over the past two years or more. We have had the same experience in Sierra Leone, where the Security Council and the executive of the United Nations have been involved in turning a country around from a dreadful and - in humanitarian terms - deeply distressing conflict. The path has never been smooth or easy.”
2003-07-18 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4790 (2003) · source
“But I think that our serious dedication to the objectives of the mission - and to the development of West Africa - came through, and I think that that was the primary success of the mission. My warm thanks go also to the Secretariat. In addition, we express our thanks for all the support that we had on this mission from the United Nations family and from Governments and our own embassies on the ground. It was a huge team effort. It went almost without a hitch, and I apologize again to the representative of Bulgaria for that hitch.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“We need to be careful about numbers on these missions; the Council has heard me speak to this theme. I think it is excellent when the whole Council is represented, but sometimes we need to break down into smaller numbers so that we can engage in genuine confidential negotiation with very senior people and deliver frank and direct messages. I hope that the Council will always retain flexibility in that respect, and understanding for those members who are not always included in certain meetings. On this mission, all its members played their part in making it a success, and I would like to thank them all. It was hard work; I was unrelenting in that respect.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“It was right and good to have angles of that Council properly integrated with the message of our Council's mission, highlighting the link that exists between security and development - a link which both Councils need to work on further. I believe that our missions have a real impact. I was particularly pleased that, in June, the two missions to Africa - to the Great Lakes region and to West Africa - were led by France and by the United Kingdom. I believe that our cooperation is right and good for Africa. Ambassador De La Sabliere and I are very pleased that, in a week's time, our Foreign Ministers will be visiting the Great Lakes region jointly and will be taking forward Anglo-French cooperation on the continent. I believe that our meetings with African Presidents are appreciated and have an effect.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“We made a good start when the Secretary-General appointed a Deputy Special Representative in Sierra Leone, Alan Doss, to combine the role of Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Governance and Stabilization and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme. But that lesson needs to be spread more widely, and communication between United Nations missions and the West Africa Office needs to be improved to produce a coherent approach to subregional problems. Our report brings out a number of recommendations in that respect, and I hope that they will be followed up. Finally, since this was my seventh and last mission, a word about Security Council missions. On this mission, we were again very pleased to be working closely with the Economic and Social Council with respect to our leg in Guinea-Bissau.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“Likewise, if we want ECOWAS to develop its capacity and become a more effective institution for dealing with subregional problems - many of which, such as the problems of disarmament, mercenaries and small arms and light weapons, require primary leadership from the subregion even if it has United Nations backup - we need to give them more support: funding for the ECOWAS secretariat, better liaison and coordination with the United Nations offices, particularly the Office of the Special Representative for West Africa, closer links with the Security Council and regular information exchanges. The mission has suggested that Special Representative Ould-Abdallah should do a study to identify precisely what support is needed in those areas. We believe that United Nations coordination in the region is steadily improving.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“In the View of the mission, the international community has to do better at helping them. We cannot ask West Africa to take the lead in sorting out its own problems and then expect them to pay for it all. For instance, if there were a United Nations peacekeeping operation in C6te d'Ivoire, as opposed to the efforts being made by Ivorians themselves, we would all be paying for it. No one is obliged to pay for the ECOWAS Mission in C6te d'Ivoire (ECOMICI) but if there are no voluntary contributions made to it, it will run out of funding by the end of September. Similar difficulties could affect any ECOWAS force in Liberia.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“There is work to do in the areas of diamonds and the training and deployment of new police and military forces. The Council will need to take careful decisions on the drawdown of UNAMSIL and calibrate that with the progress being made by the Sierra Leoneans themselves on developing their own institutions and making their own progress. With regard to the West African region as a whole, which I hope will receive sustained attention from the Council and from other parts of the United Nations as a result of our mission and our report, the subregional problems are huge, and we have listed them in our report. We saw considerable resolve among Governments and in ECOWAS to tackle those problems. But their ability to do so is undoubtedly constrained by the shortage of resources.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“President Obasanjo told us of his intention to offer to receive President Taylor in Nigeria, but we made it clear that it was not for the mission - and probably not for the Security Council - to get involved in specific political decisions in the region. When we went to Sierra Leone, we congratulated President Kabbah and members of his Government on the progress that had been made since we last visited as a mission, in October 2000. But we all noted, and we were so briefed by the excellent United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) team under the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Adeniji, that there was a long way to go in Sierra Leone before there could be self-sustained stability, peace and a basis for new development in that country.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“But, clearly, ceasefire implementation and the basics of a peace agreement between the parties are going to be necessary prerequisites for successful deployment of an international force. We hope that progress is made swiftly in those areas. Of course, we were frequently questioned about President Taylor himself, after the indictment by the Special Court. The mission made clear its basic approach in that respect: that we supported the Court and that we unequivocally supported the principle of no impunity for those indicted for gross abuses of human rights law and humanitarian law. We also made that clear when we visited the Special Court in Sierra Leone.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“Akufo-Addo, were certainly very appreciative of the work we did to encourage momentum between the parties and support for General Abubakar's facilitation. I think we were particularly struck by the unity and fervour of the call from civil society groups and political parties present in Accra for international involvement in Liberia. I also think that all members of the mission came away hoping that the United Nations system and interested Member States, not least ECOWAS, can respond rapidly to that call. We hope that that will include help to any ECOWAS force that is now decided upon by West African leaders, and we hope that there will be broader international support as well.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“There are questions here - of human rights, humanitarian law, humanitarian access, refugees and displaced persons, women and children and of the recruitment of child soldiers - that we asked every party to address with urgency, because the condition of Liberian civilians is one of the worst in any conflict situation in the world today. We hope that those messages will have had some impact. The talks between the parties resumed in Accra on 7 July, and they are continuing at a level lower than head of delegation because some senior people have been called to Maputo to talk to African heads of State or Government at the African Union summit. But there is movement there. General Abubakar himself, the facilitator, has gone to Maputo. He and the Ghanaian Foreign Minister, Mr.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“All members of the Council will have noted the significant event in Abidjan over the weekend, where the President led a gathering that gave further impetus to the implementation of that Agreement. As for Liberia, the mission was careful not to get involved in any of the details of the negotiations led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). We consulted closely with ECOWAS leaders in Abuja and in Accra before we met with all the Liberian parties and with members of civil society in two visits to Accra. In those meetings, we put across very strongly to the parties that they must all respect the ceasefire, negotiate in good faith, respect the rights of the Liberian people and, for once, put the condition of the Liberian people ahead of any factional priority.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“Their ministers stayed in Abidjan and met the mission, as did their military leaders. Since our visit, President Gbagbo has speeded up the steps to pass the amnesty law. It went through the Cabinet on 4 July, and we hope it will go through the Assembly this week. We succeeded in encouraging closer dialogue between the Forces armees nationals de Cote d'Ivoire (FANCI) and the Forces nouvelles. Military leaders of FANCI and the Forces nouvelles continued their dialogue after they met the mission together on 1 July. It is very welcome news that FANCI and the Forces nouvelles have issued a declaration of a permanent end to hostilities and a pledge to implement the Linas- Marcoussis Agreement.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“On C6te d'Ivoire, we delivered an unmistakable message that the implementation of the Linas- Marcoussis Agreement has got to be the basis of the next stage of national conciliation and new impetus for development in that country. Both the Government and the Forces nouvelles, I think, understood that we had that simple, forceful message and it was delivered by a united mission in all our meetings with the players in Cote d'Ivoire. We arrived at a time of some disturbance, particularly in Abidjan. The Forces nouvelles had issued a communique the day before the mission arrived calling off their participation in disarmament and recalling Forces nouvelles ministers to base, but they did not carry out those threats. They met with us and they continued their discussions with representatives of the Government.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“The momentum generated by what we did and what we are reporting - and especially by the significance of that American presidential visit - I hope will combine, as the African Union summit also takes place in Maputo, to deliver a new stage of effective action on African development which will pay dividends in the months and years to come. On Guinea-Bissau, I have pleasure in passing that particular buck to my friend and colleague, Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, whose constructive support and whose firm, clear messages in the meetings we had in West Africa were a considerable asset to the mission. We will wait and hear his report on our conclusions on Guinea-Bissau.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“I regret that it was necessary, but I do not think - and I do not think any other members of the mission felt - that the changed timing had an effect on what we were able to achieve. On the contrary, I think that, in coinciding with the beginnings of the climax of the Liberia story and with developments, especially, in Guinea-Bissau and Cote d'Ivoire, we were able to have an effect on the revised timing that may have been a bit greater than the effect we would have had on the late-May timing. Not least, we have come back to New York as the President of the United States is paying an historic visit to Africa.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“We are issuing today a detailed report on our visit, with a number of recommendations across these five themes. I hope that this report and its recommendations will be taken very seriously by the Security Council, by the United Nations as a whole and by the international community, because there are recommendations that have implications that go beyond the United Nations family itself. The report is in its final stages of preparation. There are one or two editorial changes to be made, so the version we have in document 5/2003/688 is virtually the final report but for a few letters to be changed. Members can certainly work on that basis. Members will recall that the timing of the mission changed from late May to the end of June. That postponement was discussed at the time and we knew the reasons for it.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source
“Sir Jeremy Greenstock: It was a great privilege to lead the Security Council mission to West Africa. All 15 members of the Council came. I think we had an extremely interesting experience. All members of the mission contributed to that experience. We worked on five principal themes: the specific issues of Guinea-Bissau, Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia; and we also had a very close look at the progress of the post-conflict situation in Sierra Leone. But throughout the trip we were following a fifth theme: the condition of West Africa as a whole and the need for the international community and the whole family of United Nations institutions, funds, agencies and programmes to generate a new momentum of support, assistance and partnership with West Africa to begin now to bring it up from the lowest levels of the human development list.”
2003-07-09 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4785 (2003) · source