YouSaid · the spoken record

Matthews

lines on the record
22
first
1992-11-19
most recent
1993-08-10
sittings or episodes
3
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “We appeal to the Council to give timely consideration to this request from ECOWAS so that those countries which have declared, in principle, a willingness to commit their troops can secure the funding which will facilitate their deployment. The peace process in Liberia is at a delicate stage. For three and a half years, war, death and desolation were visited upon the Liberian people. Today peace is within our reach, and every effort should be exerted to have the Cotonou Agreement implemented free from the threatening effect of delays. We therefore appeal to all members of the Council to lend us their empathy and support to help the people of Liberia, who, with one accord, are now ready and willing to march together to a peaceful and democratic future.”

    1993-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3263 (1993) · source

  2. “Another crucial concern at this time is whether the United Nations will find it possible to help us in our resolve to have the Transitional Government installed within the next 30 days, concomitant, as the Agreement requires, with the beginning of a process of comprehensive disarmament of combatants. It will be observed, from the Secretary-General's report (S/26200), that there is an allusion to a request from ECOWAS for funds to enable some African countries to provide reinforcement for the ECOWAS Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). These additional troops, together with the United Nations observers, are urgently needed for the commencement of the disarmament process.”

    1993-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3263 (1993) · source

  3. “It is important to note that the parties are taking the steps decided upon by which they would, together, transform themselves, through a welcome metamorphosis, into a Liberian National Transitional Government. For a change, things are beginning to look bright on the Liberian side, and there is now cause for optimism. The adoption of the draft resolution before the Council today, and its implementation, will prove a significant milestone on the road to peace. The establishment of a United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), as envisaged by the Peace Agreement, constitutes an important confidence-building measure in an effort to end this war among brothers. We wish to associate all Liberians with the draft resolution before the Council, and we commend it for unanimous adoption.”

    1993-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3263 (1993) · source

  4. “Therefore, we wish to express thanks to the Secretary-General for his previous reports, and we register our appreciation to the Security Council for resolutions 788 (1992) and 813 (1993), which helped to create the enabling conditions that made the Cotonou Agreement possible. Indeed, the successful implementation of the Cotonou Agreement will herald a new chapter in the international cooperation for peace between the United Nations and a regional and a subregional organization - the OAU and ECOWAS, respectively. We are pleased to inform members of the Council that since the signing of the Cotonou Agreement all of the parties are acting in a manner that is most constructive. The guns are silent; the cease-fire is being fully observed.”

    1993-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3263 (1993) · source

  5. “After more than 24 meetings in the search for a negotiated settlement, the Cotonou Agreement is a victory for the Liberian people, derived from patience and perseverance. By agreeing on a process beginning with the cessation of hostilities and leading to disarmament and free and fair elections, we Liberians have decided how political change will be brought about in our country. The Agreement is also a victory for the leaders and peoples of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), who took a bold initiative to resolve a security question in the subregion, with the active support and cooperation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU). The United Nations must also share in this victory.”

    1993-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3263 (1993) · source

  6. “The delegation of Liberia is particularly pleased to see you, Ambassador Albright, serve as President of the Security Council at a time when the Secretary-General's report on Liberia, document §/26200 of 4 August 1993, is being considered by the Council. My delegation congratulates Ambassador David Hannay, Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, on his effective leadership of the Council during the preceding month. As the Secretary-General has informed the Council, the Cotonou Agreement was signed by the Interim Government of National Unity, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia and the United Liberation Movement for Democracy on 25 July 1993. The Agreement represents a significant breakthrough in the quest for durable peace in Liberia.”

    1993-08-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3263 (1993) · source

  7. “We pledge our continuing support for and full cooperation with ECOWAS and the United Nations in their manifold endeavours to assist the people of Liberia in our hour of crisis. From our vantage point, we will continue to encourage Liberians to find common ground on the basis of which we can rescue our country from the scourge of war.”

    1993-03-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3187 (1993) · source

  8. “The Secretary-General's observations, to the effect that the United Nations should continue to play a role supportive of the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), are viewed as practical and prudent. United Nations support for the subregional initiative will enable all Liberians, working with ECOWAS, to restore peace, security and stability to our country. We note with appreciation the call of the Council for increased humanitarian assistance to our country. While we thank all Member States that have contributed to helping us during this critical hour, we appeal to others for even more generous assistance so that the funding shortfall of $57 million referred to in the Secretary-General's report can be covered.”

    1993-03-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3187 (1993) · source

  9. “We wish to thank members of the Security Council for the resolution just adopted unanimously, which reinforces resolution 788 (1992) of 19 November 1992. We are pleased to note that since its adoption resolution 788 (1992) has had a positive impact on the prospects for peace in Liberia. Our thanks go also to the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his appointment and dispatch of Mr. Trevor Gordon-Somers as his Special Representative to Liberia. We welcome the Secretary-General's report and wish to thank him for his painstaking effort in developing an appreciable understanding of the complexity of the Liberian conflict.”

    1993-03-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3187 (1993) · source

  10. “We alao avail ourselves of this opportunity to call the Council's attention to the recent Special Emergency Appeal for Displaced Persons in Liber/+ saunched by the Secretary-General. The empathy and support of the international community would be most appreciated.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  11. “The Liberian situation has ali the makings of one that could degenerate into a wider confiagration in West Africa. Sy its spill-over effects, it is already a clear and present danger to neighbouring Sierra Leone: it is slowly transforming West Africa into an arms market, As the West African subregion responds to this subregional problem, a request to the Security Council to support the measures ECOWAS has taken should not be viewed as a m@re appeal: it must be perceived in the context of the Council's responsibility to maintain international peace end security. We therefore commend the draft resolution to members for unanimous adoption. We wish to thank the Council once more for its continu'ng interest in the Liberian crisis.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  12. “This is the reality of our situation, The sanctions which we in ECOWAS deciared at the Abuja Summit are binding on all ECOWAS member States. We call here for the Council's support of these measures so as to ensure broad international compliance. These sanctions are not an end in themselves: their imposition has relevance for the objective of compelling the belligerent parties to abandon their military agenda in favour of a political one. These forces must be compelled to realize that military victory is neither an option sor a possibility in Liberia. The Security Council must act decisively to buttress, support and sustain the leaders in West Africa, who are continuing to pay a heavy price so that the people of Liberia may have a democratic option.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  13. “On 15 October 1992, they declared open, unprovoked warfare against ECOMOG, with an assault that attempted to seize the sate haven of Monrovia, tne capital, and bombarded the civilian population with rocket fire. With the failure of NPFL and ULIMO to effect a cease-fire and end hostilities, the sanctions, which were threatened by the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS in Dakar in July 1992 and decided upon in Cotonou in October 1992, were finally imposed, in Abuja this month. That is the crux of what brings us here today. We are here because peace is not possible in Liberia unless these belligerent parties are divested of the prospect of acquiring additional arms. Peace is not achievable unless their capacity to wage war is curtailed.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  14. “The United Liberation Movement for Democracy in Liberia (ULIMO), consisting largely of Liberian refugees, complained about the Slow pace of the peace process. It announced that, by force of arms, it would compel the NPFL to comply with the Yamoussoukro IV Accord. ULIMO has since been engaging NPFL forces and wresting territory from them. Despite these setbacks, the ECOWAS countries continued their efforts to find a solution to the Liberian crisis. Additional meetings were held: in Geneva, in April 1992; Dakar, in July 19923 and in Cotonou, in August and October 1992. Unfortunately, it would appear that the uncocperative stance of the NPFL forces increased in diract proportion to the number of meatinas. Their actions became bolder. They murdered some of the peace-keepers; they disarmed others and held several hundred hostage.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  15. “In order to enhance the NPFL's willingness to cooperate, the Interim Government pursued a number of positive steps: we secured firm commitments from some countries to assist with funding for demobilizing and rehabiliting combatants; we declared an amnesty, to enhance the prospects for reconciliation; we secured food, to assist the NPFL in the prospective encampment of its troops. To give confidence to the KPFL with respect to the pending elections, we offered it the position of Chairman as well as majority seating on the Electoral Commission. These overtures did not soften the NPFL's intransigence, and, as if our problems were not enough, its posture had the net effect of provoking the emergence of s fourth force.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  16. “It provides, inter alis, for the encampment and disarmament of the combatants under the supervision of ECOMOG, the establishment of an Electoral Commission and an Ad Hoc Supreme the conduct of free and fair elections under international supervision and monitoring. It was agreed that the process would be completed in six months - that is, by April 1992. But all of this was mere wishful thinking, since events have proven that the National Patriotic Front has never abandondoned its military agenda or its quest to secure power by force of arms.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  17. “With the Liberian problem as its priacipal preoccupation and its overriding distraction from development issues over the past two and half years, ECOWAS has exerted every effort to ensure a peaceful resolution of the Liberian crisis. Indeed, Liberians will arrive at peace only through negotiations. But that is precisely what ECOWAS has been pursuing. Liberians have negotiated, and agreements have been concluded. The problem has been the lack of will by the National Patriotic Front to implement the decisions reached. The conclusions of the negotiations among the Liberians are outlined in the Yamoussoukro IV Agreement of 30 October 1991.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  18. “However, these hopeful prospects for elections have been consistently undermined and subvarted by the main rebel faction, the National Patriot: - Front of Liberia (NPFL), which has proved to have a different agenda. And the differences between that group and all other Liberians are over questions of power, State power; not who would wield it, but how it is to be acquired. To resolve these differences, ECOWAS has convened several meetings: from Bamako, Mali, in November 1990, to Lome, Togo, in February and March 1991; to Monrovia, im March and April 1991: and then four meetings in Yamoussoukro, Cete d'Ivoire, between June and October 1991, which culminated in the Yamoussoukro IV Agreement of 30 October 1991.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  19. “The Peace Plan, formulated in consultations with Liberians, conceived the Interim Government to be an inclusive framework embodying all the warring parties, the political parties and the diverse interest groups of the country. All of these elememts and tendencies, except for the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, found common ground and formed an interim administration for the governance of the country. The mandate given the Interim Government by a national conference was to restore civil authority, organize the repatriation of Liberian refugees and prepare the country for free and fair internationally supervised elections within a year.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  20. “fo the membex States of ECS their wisdom and humanity, took the bold and courageous decision to deploy in Liberia the ECOWAS Cease-fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). In a decisive way, ECOMOG secured a cease-fire in a three-way war of attrition. It saved the Liberian people from conducting themselves to extinction. For this, we remain eternally grateful to all the member States of ECOWAS, particularly the Governments andi peoples of Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and Mali, which are participating in ECOMOG. Apart from ECOMOG, which has security responsibility, the ECOWAS Peace Plan called for the formation of an Interim Government of National Unity.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  21. “Qn behalf of the people of Liberia, it is my duty to advance the sad commentary that these two statements proved to be the most that Liberia, a founding Member of the United Nations and a nation that has always risen to the clarion call of its international duty, could elicit from the Security Council during the most critical hour of its history. Of course, the redeeming feature for the United Nations is the humanitarian assistance that has been given in response to the emergency, for which we have no less than enduring praise. In 1990, at the height of the Liberian civil conflict, international opinion on Liberia was divided between the imperatives for humanitarian intervention, on the one hand, and the value of reaffirming classical conceptions of sovereignty, however anachronistic, on the other.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source

  22. “We wish to register our appreciation for the convening of the Council to discuss Liberia. Please accept my thanks, Mr. President, for the honour and privilege you have a:forded me to address the Council on the situation in Liberia and to advance some comments on the draft resolution the Council has before it today. I wish to commend the Council for its earlier support given to the peace initiatives of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Liberia as evidenced by the statements of 22 January 1991 and 7 May 1992. These statements signal the Council's awareness of the threat that the ongoing crisis in Libaria poses to the peace and security of the West African subregion.”

    1992-11-19 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.3138 (1992) · source