YouSaid · the spoken record

Power

lines on the record: 1,841
first: 2013-08-06
most recent: 2019-07-09
sittings or episodes: 165
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 United States worked with Russia for eight painstaking months to develop an arrangement that included a renewed commitment to the cessation of hostilities. Just last week, the United States sponsored two ministerial meetings of the International Syria Support Group aimed at halting the violence and returning to a cessation of hostilities. We did so not because we think Russia has acted in good faith in Syria; we know as well as anyone that Russia has consistently said one thing and done the opposite. We did so because we know that there can be no peace in Syria if Russia is determined to keep fighting this war. We believe that we must do everything in our power to find a way to halt the violence and get on the path to a political transition, which is the only way to end this conflict.”
2016-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7777 (2016) · source
“Look at the photos that people in eastern Aleppo posted online in the past two days: Syrians slumped in blood-spattered hallways; men, women and children covered in rags and lying in pools of blood in makeshift hospitals; unconscious babies who need someone to pump oxygen into their lungs manually when generators fail. And ifthose victims need specialist treatment, they cannot get it. Even worse, they cannot leave eastern Aleppo. They are trapped - savagely, medievally. The United Nations assembled a convoy of trucks to deliver aid to eastern Aleppo more than a week ago, but it remains blocked by the fighting, unable to drive into that inferno. Russia, of course, has long had the power to stop this suffering.”
2016-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7777 (2016) · source
“The combined impact on civilians of relentless airstrikes and blockades is crushing. Fuel for diesel generators, the main source of electricity, is running out. Within a week, there may not be enough power to keep producing bread. Hospitals, which have already relocated emergency rooms to basements and bunkers in an attempt to protect their patients from routine airstrikes, can barely keep the lights on. Because the electricity is so often knocked out, doctors have learned to conduct operations by the light of their cell phones. Yet each new airstrike brings them more and more maimed civilians, who they are forced to treat with fewer and fewer supplies.”
2016-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7777 (2016) · source
“As a result, two months after the Al-Assad regime cut off eastern Aleppo from deliveries of food, medicine and humanitarian aid, residents will now be at risk ofdisease and infection as they drink whatever dirty, untreated water they can find. I would note that an opposition group also turned off a nearby pumping station that supplies water to some of the more than 1.5 million people in western Aleppo, which we condemn. Water should never be used as a weapon of war, and Aleppo's residents should not be forced to drink water that makes them sick, wherever they live. This is obscene. Eastern Aleppo remains under siege as we convene here today. It seems the only items making it into eastern Aleppo these days are barrel bombs and incendiaries, which witnesses report seeing dropped by Al-Assad's forces and Russian forces.”
2016-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7777 (2016) · source
“The White Helmets continue to do that even though they know that the regime routinely carries out now-infamous double-tap airstrikes - in which they strike a target, wait for first responders to arrive and then strike again. A month ago, the world was shocked by the dazed stare of 5-year-old Omran Daqneesh as he sat in the back of an ambulance after his home was bombed. He was rescued by White Helmets. But because of Russia and Al-Assad's attacks these past few days, fewer kids like Omran are going to be rescued. Those buried alive in rubble in eastern Aleppo are much more likely to die in rubble. Another target that the latest Russia/Al-Assad offensive struck at its outset was the Bab Al-Nairab pumping station, as we have heard, which supplies drinking water to the people in eastern Aleppo.”
2016-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7777 (2016) · source
“In the first 24 hours of their assault on eastern Aleppo - an assault, I would note, whose first strikes were carried out in the middle of meetings here in New York in which Russia was saying it wanted to recommit to a cessation of hostilities - Russia and the regime struck not one, not two, but three of the four bases used by the White Helmet volunteers in eastern Aleppo. The White Helmets are first responders who bravely rush to the scene of bombings to dig through the rubble for survivors. Every day, they save lives by driving ambulances and fire trucks and, where there are no roads left, running on foot to the homes, schools, hospitals and markets that Russia and Al-Assad have attacked.”
2016-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7777 (2016) · source
“And it does not care what is left of Syria in pursuing that military solution. Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Al-Assad make war. Instead of helping get lifesaving aid to civilians, Russia and Al-Assad are bombing humanitarian convoys, hospitals and first responders, who are trying desperately to keep people alive. Russia will argue today, no doubt, that those attacks are meant to fight terrorism and that the people killed in this offensive are terrorists or terrorist sympathizers. That is absurd. Look at the facts.”
2016-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7777 (2016) · source
“I thank Special Envoy De Mistura for being here and for his refusal to give up. We have convened the Security Council today because the Russian Federation and the Al-Assad regime have launched an all-out air and ground offensive against eastern Aleppo and its 275,000 civilians. Russia and Al-Assad have reportedly launched more than 150 airstrikes over the past 72 hours, killing at least 139 people and injuring hundreds more and laying waste to what is left of an iconic Middle Eastern city. These are people who have suffered horribly in the five and a half years of war, yet they call the attacks from the air "unprecedented in quantity and quality." The Al-Assad regime is explicit: it believes only in a military solution. It says it is going to conquer militarily every last square inch of Syria.”
2016-09-25 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7777 (2016) · source
“Yet we are clear-eyed about the many challenges still to be tackled before we can reach that phase of the deal. And many new challenges will arise to implement it successfully, given the regime's track record of breaking its commitments and flouting its obligations, including obligations determined by the Security Council. If all parties live up to their obligations, we have a chance - a chance to make progress towards a political solution. A civil defence volunteer in eastern Aleppo, Mohammed Omar, told a reporter that, for the first time in far too long, "people are going about their business and children are even playing in the street". Children playing outside should not be an aberration, should not be worthy of comment in the Council. All of us must do everything possible to ensure that this relative calm can be sustained.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“We all must intensify our actions against terrorists, and Russia must ensure that Al-Assad's forces are no longer in bombing in any opposition or Al-Nusra areas - meaning that the regime would no longer be able to use the excuse that it is targeting Al-Nusra in order to go after its own people. To stress: if and when the joint centre is stood up and sets into motion action against terrorist targets, Al-Assad's military aircraft must simultaneously stop flying any combat missions over eastern Aleppo, the Damascus suburbs, Latakia, Idlib, Dar'a and any other areas where opposition forces or Jabhat Al-Nusra are present. It is noteworthy and important that Russia agreed to that, as well as to the role of the joint centre in monitoring the Syrian regime's compliance. That contributed significantly to our pursuit of the deal.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“Those are terrorist groups that pose a direct threat to our collective security and whose toxic ideologies are incompatible with the moderate opposition and the aspirations of the Syrian people. Any party to the conflict that seeks to maintain its legitimacy should distance itself in every way possible from terrorist organizations. Targeting Jabhat Al-Nusra and ISIL, however, cannot be a pretext for the Al-Assad regime's indiscriminate attacks and besiegement tactics, which only increase the suffering of innocents and generates new recruits for these violent extremist groups. That is why the United States insisted in our negotiation with Russia that two things had to happen in parallel if we are to achieve our goals.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“United Nations convoys have to be able to reach the nearly 600,000 Syrians living in besieged areas, where people are almost entirely dependent upon aid deliveries to survive - not in a few weeks or months. The convoys need to roll today. That means Damascus must grant swift, final approvals and provide facilitation letters for assistance to reach all besieged and hard-to-reach locations. It also means that the opposition must provide assurances that assistance will not be impeded in the areas that it controls. Only after we have seen improved humanitarian access and a sustained period of reduced violence will the United States and Russia take steps to establish a joint centre to facilitate the targeting of Jabhat Al-Nusra, Al-Qaida's affiliate in Syria, and ISIL.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“But violence has not completely stopped. Progress towards a political solution will depend upon all parties adhering to the cessation of hostilities and all relevant Governments using their influence to promote sustained calm. I want to stress that the cessation of hostilities is only one part of the agreement. Humanitarian assistance also needs to flow. That ought to be straightforward, but the Al-Assad regime has employed every possible tactic to disrupt aid deliveries. Those include the regime removing medical supplies from convoys and withholding approvals for the United Nations to reach certain areas. As we all know, the consequences are direct and immediate. Blocking aid kills people. Those tactics have to stop.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“We therefore look to Russia to deliver on its commitment to use its leverage to stop the Al-Assad regime from employing the barbaric tactics it has long used in the conflict. That means a halt to the barrel bombs, a halt to the chemical-weapon attacks, a halt to indiscriminate assaults on civilian areas and a halt to the starve-get-bombed-or-surrender tactics that have characterized the Al-Assad regime's approach to conflict. The plan starts with a nationwide cessation of hostilities that excludes Jabhat Al-Nusra and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). We urge all parties, regime and opposition, to adhere to the cessation ofhostilities by stopping aerial bombardments and stopping attempts to take new territory. So far, early reports indicate that violence has decreased significantly, which is encouraging.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“Furthermore, we support the efforts of Special Coordinator Mladenov and his team, who continue to work tirelessly to promote peace and to keep us apprised of developments on issues that reflect the concerns of all members of the Security Council. Turning to Syria, as all members are aware, after months of negotiations, the United States and Russia reached an agreement on a series of steps aimed at reducing the violence and alleviating the suffering of the Syrian people. The goal is also to create an environment conducive to negotiations on a political transition for Syria, which is the only way to end this horrific conflict. That agreement is not one based on trust and promises. It is an agreement based on reciprocal actions, halting attacks and allowing for deliveries of assistance.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“Those actions appear to be the latest examples of a steady acceleration of settlement activity and demolitions, which is systematically undermining prospects for a two-State solution. Those concerns were addressed specifically in the Quartet report (S/2016/595, annex), and have been raised repeatedly by the other Quartet members and the international community. We call on the parties to take significant steps urgently to stabilize the situation and to reverse current trends. We will continue to urge both sides to demonstrate, through policies and actions, a genuine commitment to preserving prospects for the two-State solution. As a member of the Quartet, the United States co-authored the Quartet report, and we stand behind its recommendations in their entirety.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“There are also reports that the Israeli Government has begun the process to take over or lease land privately owned by Palestinians so as to relocate the illegal Amona outpost, as well as to consider building homes for Israeli settlers in a military compound in Hebron. These cases represent unprecedented and troubling steps that are inconsistent with prior Israeli legal opinions. The cases also run counter to longstanding Israeli official policy not to seize privately owned land or use land originally seized for military purposes for settlements. The situation in Susiya, which remains under threat of demolition, is also troubling. If the Israeli Government proceeds with demolitions,it would have a very damaging impact on the lives of the area's Palestinian inhabitants, who were already displaced on other, previous occasions.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“We share the deep concern expressed by the Secretary-General and other Council members about reports in July that the Israeli Government published tenders for hundreds of settlement units in East Jerusalem and advanced other settlement plans. We also share concerns regarding the Israeli Government's attempts to retroactively legalize outposts that are illegal under Israeli law. Most recently, Ministry of Justice officials questioned the 1 September order from the High Court of Justice to demolish 17 houses in the Netiv Ha'avot settlement outpost within 18 months. The Court determined that these settlements were built on private Palestinian lands.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“A suspension of UNRWA core services could further destabilize an already volatile region. The United States has contributed an additional $12 million to fund UNRWA, bringing our total this year to nearly $329 million. Sweden and Switzerland have also stepped up with new contributions and pledges. We urge other Governments to join this effort to avert a potential humanitarian crisis, which would have long- term effects. The United States strongly opposes continued Israeli settlement activity, which is corrosive to the cause of peace. As we have said repeatedly, such actions are not consistent with Israel's stated desire to achieve a two- State solution.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“Both reconstruction efforts in Gaza and programmes run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) are facing critical funding shortfalls. For Gaza, out of $3.5 billion pledged for reconstruction at the 2014 Cairo conference, just $1.6 billion have been disbursed so far. Even with limited funding, there has been some progress. Fifty per cent of damaged homes have been repaired and more than 30 per cent of fully destroyed homes have been rebuilt. But Gaza needs more support. For an economy with 41 per cent unemployment, further disbursements of aid to Gaza will have a significant impact. The UNRWA financial shortfall of $74 million could leave more than 500,000 students out of school and 30,000 employees without paychecks next month.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“In addition, there have been recent reports of incitement on social media, including on accounts allegedly linked to Fatah. We are also deeply concerned about allegations of the use of excessive force by Israeli security forces against Palestinian civilians. This includes the killing and wounding of two Palestinian men inside their car in the Shuafat refugee camp near East Jerusalem on 5 September. The Israeli Ministry of Justice has opened an investigation, and we look forward to seeing the full results. At the same time, we remain deeply concerned about attacks on the Israel Defense Forces, including the stabbing of an Israeli soldier near Jenin on 24 August. The international community can make a tangible investment in that region's stability.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“I thank Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his briefing and Foreign Minister McCully for presiding over this meeting. Allow me also, on behalf of the United States, to wish former Israeli President Shimon Peres a speedy recovery. I last had the chance to meet President Peres at his office in Israel in February, and greatly admire his ongoing work to promote peace and closer ties between Israelis and Palestinians. The United States shares the Secretary-General's views about rising tensions on ground, and we continue to condemn all terrorist attacks. All sides must exercise restraint and refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric. In the Golan Heights, we are alarmed by the increasing number of rockets and shells fired from Syria, as well as rockets launched from Gaza.”
2016-09-15 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7772 (2016) · source
“When we met, Nujeen told me that if one thing made her sad, it was that people found her optimism so rare. When did being positive become so unusual, she asked. But Nujeen also recognize how exceedingly fortunate she was to have made it out of Syria and to have survived her journey in her wheelchair. People are dying every day for a normal daily routine, she told me, for the chance to get up and brush their teeth in the morning and go to school. It can be easy to forget that for millions of children living in conflicts around the world, that simple routine is a dream, a routine every kid deserves, something countless children would risk their lives for. No child should be put in that position. We must do everything we can to ensure that they do not end up in that position.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“Let me conclude by saying that in June I travelled to Germany, where had the opportunity to meet with thousands of refugees. One was a l6-year-old Syrian girl named Nujeen Mustafa, who has cerebral palsy and relies on a wheelchair to get around. Nujeen and her family used to live in Kobani, which was taken over by ISIL in 2014. When ISIL arrived, Nujeen told me that one of two fates awaited her. Either she would be killed for being a Kurd or she would be thrown into a mental institution, because that is how ISIL treats people with disabilities. So, together with her older sister, Nujeen fled, first across northern Syria and Turkey and then Greece, Croatia and Slovenia. She travelled by train, taxi, inflatable dinghy and on her own two wheels before arriving in Germany, where she was reunited with her older brother.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“To help address this problem, President Obama is convening a refugee summit in September on the margins of the General Assembly to try to get Member States to take on more of their share. Together with Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Jordan, Mexico and Sweden, we are asking Governments to make a deeper commitment to funding United Nations and humanitarian organizations and appeals and to welcome more refugees into their countries. And we are asking front-line countries, which are already doing way more than their fair share, to take additional steps to facilitate refugee education and employment. To that end, we hope that all members of the Council that have not yet made new commitments will send word back to their capitals about the need to step up. The lives of millions of children depend on it.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“We also call on Russia to stop its air strikes on civilian targets, as well as to halt its support for the regime's encirclement of the city. In addition to protecting children in conflict, we must address the mass displacement of children caused by conflict. As we all know, at the end of 2015 more than 65 million people were displaced worldwide, and more than half were children. Not only are more children displaced than at any time since the Second World War, but - and it is worth pausing on this - it is increasingly common for kids uprooted by war to spend their entire childhoods as refugees. Yet the world is not doing nearly enough to provide for child refugees - or for refugees in general, for that matter.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“An infant who had been alive for just two days reportedly died when he was taken from the room 4 a 2-day-old infant. This is the world that the children in Aleppo and so many other Syrian cities and towns are growing up in day after day. For children younger than 5 years old, it is all they have ever known. So once again, we call on the Al-Assad regime to lift its deadly siege of all the other Syrian cities and towns where it is using these barbaric starve-or- surrender tactics 4 or perhaps more accurately: starve, get bombed or surrender. In Aleppo, the regime and allied militias must immediately allow all non-military traffic, including humanitarian and commercial suppliers, to move along Castello Road in order to address the tremendous needs exacerbated by the deadly siege.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“The boy was holding his amputated left arm in his right hand and shouting, "Sir, please put my arm back." Wounded children like that little boy arrive at the few hospitals that are still standing only to find there are no doctors or nurses to treat them because they are so overwhelmed by patients. Or they find medical professionals who cannot help them because they lack basic equipment or have run out of medicine due to the Siege. Often, as we all know, hospitals themselves are bombed. On 23 July, a paediatric hospital in Aleppo was hit by air strikes, not once but twice in a single night. The second blast shut down the oxygen supply to the room where newborns were being held, forcing the staff to evacuate the babies to a bomb shelter in the basement.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“For a sense of the horrors children are enduring in real time, just look at the Al-Assad regime's current siege of Aleppo. Of the 300,000 civilians trapped in the city, an estimated 100,000 are children, the overwhelming majority of whom do not have clean water to drink. When kids hear the sound of a helicopter or fighterjet overhead, one medical worker said, "They start screaming, hugging you and crying." It is not hard to understand why. A non-governmental organization that runs an ambulance network said that approximately one third of the casualties in Aleppo are children. One relief worker described arriving at the scene of an air strike to help dig through rubble for survivors and seeing a small boy, who could not have been older than 10 years, walking towards him.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“In Yemen, the United Nations verified a five-fold increase in the number of children recruited during 2015, and a six-fold increase in the number of children killed and maimed during 2015, as compared to the previous year. In Afghanistan, 2015 saw the highest number of child casualties since the United Nations began systematically documenting them in 2009, with an average of more than 50 kids killed or injured every week. In Syria, the Secretary-General's report highlighted the massive recruitment of children by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), including child foreign fighters as young as 7 years old. Seven - that is the age of my son, who is about to start the second grade. The report also documents the detention, and in some instances the torture, of children by the Al-Assad regime.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“That means Member States and the United Nations working together in good faith to share information and to address concerns, ascertain the facts and look for ways to improve. Even if we Governments do not ultimately agree with certain United Nations findings or conclusions, we must maintain support for the United Nations, such a vital organization that is aiming, as we have heard today, to help children everywhere. The Secretary-General's report (S/2016/360) provides a bleak yet unsurprising picture of the human rights violations committed against children in conflicts, many of which are actually worsening. The examples are myriad.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“Yet to continue to be effective, adequate measures must be put in place to ensure sound methodology and to protect sources. The methodological approach needs to be continually strengthened to meet the highest standards, and victims. United Nations agencies and others must be able to provide information without fear of their identity being revealed or fear of reprisals. Member States, all of us, have a responsibility to cooperate with the Secretary-General's reporting on this issue. We do not expect Governments to agree with everything in the Secretary-General's report. In fact, we encourage Member States to engage with the United Nations early and often and to challenge findings they deem inaccurate or unjustified, as well as to present evidence to support their views.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“Letmebeginwithwhat shouldbeanon-controversial point, which is that two decades after Graca Machel's groundbreaking report (see A/51/306) highlighted the disproportionate and devastating impact of armed conflict on children, the Secretary-General's annual report continues to be a valuable tool for documenting abuses and for identifying those responsible. The Security Council's mandate on children and armed conflict, which includes monitoring, reporting and listing of parties for violations, is crucial and must be maintained. The monitoring and reporting mechanism must play a central role in this process, including subjecting incoming reports to what needs to be a transparent, independent, impartial and thorough review.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“I thank you so much, Mr. President, for presiding over this meeting and for all the work you and your team have done to shine a light on how children are faring around the world in your time on the Security Council. I thank the Secretary-General for his briefing and for consistently giving the issue of children in armed conflict the attention it so clearly deserves. We are grateful to Special Representative Zerrougui and her team for their determined efforts to bring to light the plight of affected children. We also thank UNICEF Executive Director Lake for his lifelong dedication to supporting and protecting children. I also want to single out for thanks the diverse range of ambassadors and other diplomats who have turned out today. I think this turnout reflects how important the broader membership of the United Nations deems this issue.”
2016-08-02 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7753 (2016) · source
“I do not wish to try people's patience on a Friday evening, so I shall be brief. The point I wished to make in my explanation of vote was that when the African Union (AU) came together, as it did usefully to propose the deployment of 200 monitors a year and two months prior to the negotiation of a resolution by the Security Council, and when only 36 of those 200 monitors have been deployed and none has been able to exercise the mandate that was given to them by the African Union, that is worthy of comment here at the United Nations as we seek to support our African brothers and sisters. A reference to the AU, without making note of what that AU mission has become, would have seemed to be divorced from reality.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“This is not a resolution that the United States thought was a great resolution, and I know abstentions can feel as if one canjust stay on the sidelines and make one's principled position clear, but we have to unite on Burundi. Those same Burundian people that were just invoked are, I think, counting on us to be able to unite on something as modest as this.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“I thank the representative of China for his response, which is probably to my comments. I think that one of the things that the Chinese Ambassador appealed for was a cautious approach, and Ijust want to say that I think that it is very safe to say, a year and a halfinto the crisis, that the Council has succeeded in taking a cautious approach. We have yet to do anything to materially affect the trajectory of the conflict. We have a very modest resolution before us today, resolution 2303 (2016), that luckily did go through but that we really need to unite behind. With our divisions, we are worse. We are worse at preserving international peace and security.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“These abstentions will be solace to a Government that relishes our division; it has always made that clear. It is not at all clear to me that a Council that says repeatedly that it has learned the lessons of Rwanda has in fact done so. It is not at all clear to me either that, for all the talk at yesterday's Africa peacebuilding meeting (see S/PV.7750) about the importance of prevention, we in the Security Council are serious about prevention. This is a prevention moment, and yet this is where we are. What is clear is that we believe in the prevention of atrocities by non-State actors, but when a Government is implicated, we cannot even unite to send a robust monitoring presence. Today's resolution is a step forward, but it is a much smaller one than this crisis and the people of Burundi deserve.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“It must stop lashing out at civil society and the opposition, and the opposition, those who have engaged in violence, must renounce it and must itself refrain from setting these onerous preconditions for dialogue. No one will get anywhere if things continue as they are. The United States has settled for much less than what it wanted with this resolution. Others have spoken about good-faith proposals. I assure the Council that lots of good-faith proposals do not appear in the text of the resolution. But, as someone who has looked at the issues of mass atrocities over many years and studied it on many continents, I have to say that we worry that our inability to unite even on this sends precisely the wrong message to parties that already feel a great sense of impunity.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“Instead, police are effectively being asked to be human rights monitors. That is the most that we as a Council were able to agree upon, and we could not even secure consensus on this. This really raises questions about the Council's will when it comes to preventing atrocities, especially when a Government is implicated in atrocities. What the people of Bunrundi deserve and what the Council needs to continue to insist on is serious engagement by the Government in a process of dialogue with all stakeholders in order to reach agreement on a peaceful way forward. The games have to stop; the preconditions have to stop. The Government is still insisting on sitting down only with those it already agrees with.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“Meanwhile, it has to be stressed that some of those who oppose the Government continue also to resort to violence and to commit abuses. The United States strongly condemns violence perpetrated by all sides in Burundi. We hope that this presence, as it evolves, will document those abuses and empower us to come to agreement on what further steps might be taken. The authorization of a United Nations police component will put additional eyes and ears on the ground, who will be able report directly to the Security Council. That is valuable. But we should not harbour any illusions that this will fix Burundi's problems. It will only at best observe those problems. Police are not being deployed to protect civilians, even though civilians are in dire need of protection. That should embarrass us.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“We have got to merge the reality that we live in, in this beautiful Chamber, with the reality that is playing out on the ground every day. Today was an occasion when we could have sent a clear, unified message to the Government of Burundi that we will not allow similar tactics to delay the police deployment authorized today, and that continued obstruction of the AU mission must stop. If the African Members of the Council cannot stand for this, I do not know what we are doing here. This is a Government that is blocking their people from deploying. The African Council Members are trying to help. We are trying to help them help. The Government of Burundi has remained closed, unwilling to listen to its neighbours, partners and the international community, and resistant to following through on the commitments it has made.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“Yet today, only 36 monitors are in Burundi. I want to stress that this is the Government of Burundi with which many members of the Council have insisted we coordinate the United Nations deployment. Of course, the deployment must be coordinated with the Government of Burundi. In order for anybody to deploy, you have to coordinate with the Government that provides Visas and landing rights at the airport, and that allows people to move around. But, honestly, listening to speakers today, I feel as if we are living in a parallel universe. Council are members speaking, in many cases, with no regard for what the Government is doing to Africa's own monitors. It is especially disappointing not to hear the two abstainers from Africa even acknowledge the fate of Africa's own monitors.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“Meanwhile, the African Union (AU) authorized the deployment of 200 human rights and military monitors, dispatched a delegation of five Heads of State to help address the evolving crisis, and authorized, initially, a 5,000-strong peacekeeping force to stem the violence. The AU began the deployment of human rights observers and military experts to Burundi on 22 July 2015 - more than a year ago - after the AU Peace and Security Council agreed to deploy monitors in May 2015. But rather than facilitating the deployment of AU monitors, the Government of Burundi spent months delaying the implementation of a memorandum of understanding that would have allowed the monitors to do their job. After rejecting a peacekeeping force, the Government promised AU Heads of State in February of this year that 200 monitors would be allowed to deploy.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“Absent serious, concerted international engagement and pressure, the situation is all but certain to deteriorate further. The Council is not alone in its grave concern regarding these crimes or in its efforts to stop them and bring the perpetrators tojustice. The United Nations has established an office in Burundi, drawn up contingency plans, sent the Secretary-General to Bujumbura and opened a Human Rights Council independent investigation into the situation. And, as we all know, in January the Security Council travelled to Burundi, where we urged President Nkurunziza to change course and pursue a path to peace. None of the steps that we asked the President to take has he embarked upon.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“We are profoundly concerned about the dramatic deterioration of the situation in Burundi over the past year and a half. During this period, as we all know, some 270,000 people have been displaced; at least 348 people have reportedly been the victims of extrajudicial killings; and 651 reported cases of torture have been documented. These arejust the crimes that we know about. All are worrying signs that the country's brutal past may be repeating itself. This week, appalling new reports emerged of sexual Violence by members of the ruling party's youth militia, which we and other Council members have been warning about for several years. Women have said that they were raped simply because of their political party affiliations. This is sickening.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7752 (2016) · source
“Let us be motivated by the pain of South Sudanese civilians and by the initiative shown by the region, and let us work with a tremendous sense of urgency and will to protect civilians and create the conditions critical to bringing an end to this ghastly conflict in South Sudan. The draft resolution before us offers additional time for the regional leaders to meet and engage the Government of South Sudan, and it offers us additional time to find a way forward before we proceed with mandating this new force within UNMISS.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7751 (2016) · source
“She said, "I could choose the one who would rape me, or they all would". The woman said, "I begged them to kill me instead". Unfortunataely, she told the reporter, the men dragged her to the side of the road and raped her in broad daylight. UNMISS as it is currently configured, has proven unable - and in some cases unwilling - to prevent horrors like this. We must work together urgently to fix that. No one has more of a stake in finding a way out of this conflict and in bringing justice than the people of South Sudan, who have already endured such tremendous suffering in the short history of their nation, and of course their neighbours, who have been clear about what this situation requires.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7751 (2016) · source
“Events in recent weeks have demonstrated how quickly violence can reignite and how devastating are the human consequences when it does. I want to stress this also for Council members here today - we have just received very disturbing reports of significant violence in the Equatorias in South Sudan, and all of us need to be on alert, I think, this weekend, because events could spiral rapidly out of control yet again. Every report of a spike in violence, of course, costs human lives and leaves an indelible and searing mark on those affected by it. Just to give one example, on 18 July a young woman was reportedly grabbed only meters away from the gate to the United Nations camp in Juba where she had taken shelter after being displaced by the violence. She told a reporter from The Guardian that the five men in uniform gave her a choice.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7751 (2016) · source
“The United States believes that the region's proposal offers a basis for re-establishing a secure environment in Juba, which is critical if the parties are to make progress on implementing the peace agreement they signed onto almost a year ago, as well as to ensure the unfettered delivery of humanitarian aid to those who are at grave risk of famine. Of course, the proposal - as many Council members have noted - merits thorough review, and translating its purpose into a mandate for UNMISS must be done with great care and in consultation with the troop-contributing countries and all members of the Council. We have to get this right. But it also must be done with great urgency. Let us not be fooled into believing that time is on our side. It is not.”
2016-07-29 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.7751 (2016) · source