YouSaid · the spoken record

Mugabe

lines on the record
21
first
2000-01-24
most recent
2000-01-24
sittings or episodes
1
sources
un-security-council

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  1. “Let us agree to send this message of hope to the Congolese people. I want to assure the Council of my nation's commitment to playing its part in affording them the opportunity to work for their destiny free from aggression and interference in their domestic affairs.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  2. “They yearn for the unity of their country so they can banish the hatred that is the handmaiden of civil strife. They look forward to using their independence and freedom in pursuit of the socio-economic goals and ideals of democracy essential for the development of their nation. What the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo now require from this meeting of the Security Council, and what we of the region also require, is not more talk of sending observers to their country, but the invoking of Chapter VII of the Charter and the urgent dispatch of peacekeepers to keep the peace. This Council has been observing the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from afar for too long; it should now go into the country and try to keep the peace. The message is, peacekeepers now.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  3. “Let us remind ourselves of the betrayal of the Congo in the 1960s, when the Congolese nationalist leader, Patrice Lumumba, met his tragic death, and the opportunity for peace and nationhood was dashed because the Security Council, then, as now, had abdicated its responsibilities. I call upon this body to heed the heartbeats of the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Let us help them emerge from the great suffering that has afflicted them. Our presence here as African leaders has indeed raised their hopes, and dashing those hopes will do them irreparable damage. The people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo await our bold decision eagerly so that they can drive from their midst the spectre of national disintegration.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  4. “We noted these points, but we now say the time has come for prompt action if the Security Council genuinely desires to buttress the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Any further delays can only be detrimental to the achievement of the objectives of peace in that country. While we are well advised to heed the lessons of history, we should not allow ourselves to be paralysed by them. The Security Council still has a unique opportunity to redeem itself and restore faith in the United Nations, among the people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular and of Africa in general.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  5. “With respect to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we pointed out that because of the magnitude of the human tragedy in that country, none of us could afford to appear on the stage wearing only the mask of commitment; we said that a credible performance was essential. We told him that some members of the Security Council appeared to be aligned against the sovereign independence and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or at least to be in favour of those who would deny it. However, we were assured that your great country, the United States, would never countenance acts that violated international agreements. We were told that your concern was that the United Nations had got it wrong twice in Africa, namely in Somalia and in Rwanda, and, hence that it had to exercise caution.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  6. “9) We say, "Good intention, yes, but no good action to follow the good intention". A review of the Security Council's decisions and actions so far yields the depressing impression that there has been too much time spent on the diagnosis of the situation when the prescription that ought to be administered is already known. In these circumstances, considering the alacrity with which the questions of Kosovo and Bosnia were handled, Africa feels marginalized, neglected and, dare I say it, segregated. Madam President, when Ambassador Holbrooke visited Zimbabwe, we raised the question of what we perceived as double standards in the Security Council's handling of Africa's problems.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  7. “As partners involved in the search for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we, the countries of the region, are disappointed and frustrated by what we perceive as the lethargic manner in which the Security Council has responded to our call for assistance and urgent action. To date, after months of procrastination and foot-dragging, we do not seem to be any closer to any action by the Council on the deployment of the much-needed and long-awaited peacekeeping force in the Congo. The closest thing we have to the much-desired action programme is the recent Security Council decision authorizing the Secretary-General "to take the administrative steps necessary for the equipping of up to 500 United Nations military observers with a view to facilitating future United Nations deployments". (resolution 1279 (1999), para.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  8. “Besides those institutions, we have the recent appointment of our brother, His Excellency Sir Ketumile Masire, former President of Botswana, as the Facilitator to promote the Congolese national dialogue, a crucial aspect of the Lusaka Peace Agreement. These and many other key elements have now been accomplished. Much that has been achieved has been done largely using the resources of the belligerents and of donors. Some donors have pledged support for these efforts, and we say "thank you" to them. We now wish to urge those that have made pledges and have not yet honoured them to do so, and those that have not yet pledged to consider doing so.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  9. “Secondly, it solemnly recommitted all the parties to the Lusaka Agreement and to the faithful observance of the provisions of that Agreement. Thirdly, it designated 18 January 2000 as the date on which parties to the Agreement restated - that is, renewed - their commitment to the Agreement. The effect of that decision is to make "R-Day" - Restatement Day - replace the "D-Day" of earlier arrangements for all the remaining tasks under the agreement. This was an important decision in view of the difficulties that had arisen to establish a "D-Day" in the Lusaka peace process, since the various parties had signed the Ceasefire Agreement on different dates.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  10. “It has developed programmes on such key tasks as the withdrawal of foreign troops, the disarming of armed groups, disengagement of forces, release of prisoners, and the provision of humanitarian corridors. The Political Committee of ministers, another institution envisaged in the Lusaka Agreement, has been established and has been meeting often to carry out its important responsibilities of guiding the peace process. At its last sitting, held in Harare last week, on 17 and 18 January, the Committee took some quite important decisions with a view to promoting the peace process. First it, inter alia, reaffirmed the fundamental nature of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement as a basis for solving the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  11. “While this is regrettable, we, as parties to the Agreement, have exercised maximal restraint despite the number of violations that have occurred in the context of the unsupervised and unmonitored Ceasefire Agreement. Indeed, full-scale war has not resumed, and the Agreement has continued to remain broadly in place, as important elements of the Agreement have, in spite of the problem of resources, continued to be implemented by the parties. The Joint Military Commission established as envisaged by the Agreement has been functioning despite resource constraints. The Commission is present in four regions, as President Chiluba has said, with headquarters in three of them: Kabinda, Boende and Lisala.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  12. “In a situation without observers and monitors, for months on end, troops and their commanders on the ground were expected to rely on the good faith of their erstwhile opponents, whom they suspect of being cunning and skilful, as all practitioners of the art of war are trained to be. In such a situation, it is inevitable that the commanders will always try their utmost to ensure that their men are not exposed to sudden attack, or somehow encircled or outmanoeuvred by the other side. Any troop movements by one side are read and interpreted as threats by the other and have, on occasion, led to violations of the Ceasefire Agreement.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  13. “Some members of the region indeed made a serious mistake by initiating the conflict in the first place. But today, all members have shown courage, vision and wisdom in negotiating an end to the conflict. We are here, therefore, to call upon the Council, as the custodian of peace and security in the world, to assume its role and responsibility by immediately sending both observers and peacekeepers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To date, the Security Council has, to our disappointment, been slow and hesitant in welcoming and strengthening our regional peace agreement. The months that have elapsed since the signing of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement have been most frustrating, as they have exposed the dangers inherent in delayed action by the Council in supporting the peace process in the Congo.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  14. “To advance that peace objective, several summits were held, beginning with that held at Victoria Falls on 7 and 8 August 1998, and followed by several others held respectively at Pretoria on 23 August 1998, at Durban in September 1998, and again at Victoria Falls on 7 and 8 September 1998, culminating in the ceremony for the signing of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement on 10 July 1999. Even as we fought each other in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we never believed that the conflict could be settled by force of arms alone. It was always clear to us that negotiations, in the end, were the logical and sensible way of resolving the conflict. The Lusaka Peace Agreement is a vindication of the collective wisdom of the parties to the conflict in choosing dialogue over arms as the best way to end the conflict.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  15. “It is these same fundamental principles of the Charter that, in its resolution 1234 (1999), the Council acknowledged and committed itself to uphold and protect in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But alas, little has been done since then to implement them. As we have said on many occasions, the SADC allied States are committed to peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and in the subregion as a whole. The war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a terrible tragedy for all of us in the region. It is a war that should never have taken place. We acknowledge that if there had been sufficient consultations in our region we could have avoided it. Lessons have been learned from this tragedy. That is why from the very onset of the conflict the SADC allied States advocated dialogue as a means of settling the conflict.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  16. “We are in the Congo at the invitation of the sovereign Government of that country and in accordance with SADC decisions on collective security. Indeed, our defense objective - that is, the defense objective of the allies - is code-named "Sovereign Legitimacy". We are there to uphold one of the most fundamental principles of the Charter of the United Nations, namely, respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States and non-interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign country. The Council need not be reminded that it was in pursuit of those same fundamental principles that the international community readily went to war in the Gulf only a few years ago. It is common knowledge that it was my country that held the presidency of this body when that momentous decision was taken.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  17. “We, the African leaders from the region, key actors in a conflict that has affected not only the Great Lakes region, but also the countries of southern Africa - a conflict that arises from the violation of sacred tenets of the United Nations Charter and has pitted brother against brother, resulting in the death and untold suffering of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, especially women and children - are here today to demonstrate our commitment to a peaceful resolution of the crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to urge the Security Council to help us bring peace to that country. Madam President, let me at the outset emphatically and categorically state that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) allied forces have no territorial or other hidden ambitions or agendas in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  18. “Furthermore, we note that the Council has already addressed the pressing problems of Angola and Burundi. However, today the Council is holding a special meeting devoted to the preservation of the territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as enshrined in Chapter 1, Article 2, of the United Nations Charter.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  19. “I am advised that the Security Council, together with other international agencies, such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Bank and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), agreed that an effective strategy must be worked out to fight these scourges that are devastating the African continent. We join you, Madam President, in this crusade. We appeal to one and all to accept this challenge in the interest of humanity. Our mutual interests must make all of us acknowledge human interdependence and force us to embark on the task to mobilize international support against HIV/AIDS and in alleviation of the condition of African refugees, including internally displaced persons.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  20. “Kofi Annan, deserves our gratitude for the several reports and recommendations he has made to the Security Council on the need for peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Finally we all acknowledge that it is the drive and energy of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke which have brought us to this session on Africa. We thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for all the efforts you have exerted to bring this session about. Madam President, as part of your "month of Africa" platform, the Security Council has deliberated on the scourge of HIV/AIDS in Africa, which you quite rightly identified as constituting a threat to the security of African States. You have also discussed the pathetic plight of refugees and displaced persons.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source

  21. “Mr. Mugabe: Madam President, we are pleased to see you chairing this special series of meetings of the Security Council on Africa devoted to the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We recall with satisfaction the special meeting of the Security Council also dealing with Africa, held in 1997 under the presidency of your country, which you also chaired. We welcome the interest your country has thus continued to demonstrate with regard to the problems facing the African continent. We also wish to thank all the members of the Security Council who have actively supported the holding of this particular session, devoted exclusively to the pursuit of peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Secretary- General, Mr.”

    2000-01-24 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.4092 (2000) · source