Visit of Security Council Delegation to Africa
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3 June 2011 No. 1 VISIT OF SECURITY COUNCIL DELEGATION TO AFRICA EXPECTED COUNCIL ACTION The visit to Nairobi was designed Côte d’Ivoire On Monday 6 June the Council is ex- to enable members to reiterate the Somalia pecting a briefing on the visit to Africa Council’s grave concern about the Sudan which Council members took from 19 continued inability of the Somali 2. Strengthening of Methods of Work to 26 May. The trip consisted of the fol- Transitional Federal Institutions (TFI) and Cooperation lowing segments, and their respective components to work constructively 3. Consideration and Adoption of the leaders or co-leaders will be the brief- with each other or the UN. A related Draft Joint Statement ers: AU headquarters in Addis Ababa part of the message was reaffirm- (led by Council President Ambassador ing support for the work of Special The discussions on Libya took the Gerard Araud of France); Sudan (co- Representative of the Secretary- longest and lasted over two hours. led by Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of General Augustine Mahiga, and Several of the PSC members were Russia and Ambassador Susan Rice urging the TFIs to engage fully, con- sharply critical of the Council’s ap- of the US) and a Somalia-focused structively and without further delay in proach and of what they considered visit to Nairobi (co-led by Ambassador the consultative process facilitated by a misinterpretation of the language Baso Sangqu of South Africa and the Special Representative. of resolutions 1970 and 1973. A Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant of the particularly sensitive issue was the UK). In addition, members of the Council leadership role of UN envoy Abdel- also met with the top leaders of Elah Al-Khatib versus that of the AU BACKGROUND Ethiopia and Kenya. High Level Ad Hoc Committee. (The The annual consultations with the 5 May meeting of the Contact Group AU’s Peace and Security Council on Libya had previously agreed that (PSC) was the main focus of the 20- ADDIS Ababa Khatib should be the focal point for all 21 May visit to Addis Ababa. The meeting with the PSC was the mediation efforts and the AU side ex- fifth such annual consultation be- pressed serious concerns that this ap- The visit to Sudan (from 21 to 23 May tween the two bodies. (They started proach could side-line the AU’s role.) in the north part of the country and in 2007 and have been alternating from 23 to 24 May in the south part between the two organisations’ head- The discussion of Côte d’Ivoire took of the country) was supposed to fo- quarters, in Addis Ababa and New place on the day of the inauguration cus on a range of issues, including: York.) Of the five, this was the longest of President Alassane Ouattara in the upcoming independence of South meeting, lasting from 10:30 am to 5 Yamoussoukro, and it appears that Sudan; the implementation of the pm (with a very short lunch break in this part of the meeting reflected par- Comprehensive Peace Agreement; the middle) and the first one in which ticipants’ relief that the protracted cri- the work of the two Council-mandated country-specific situations took up the sis had ended and expressed hope for operations in Sudan, the UN Mission bulk of the agenda. In previous years, the country’s future. in Sudan (UNMIS) and the AU/UN process issues dominated the meet- Hybrid Mission in Darfur (UNAMID); ings, with relatively little time devoted On Sudan, members spoke about and the situation in Abyei. The events to substance. The agreed agenda for the aftermath of the referendum, related to the takeover of Abyei by the the 21 May meeting was as follows: the upcoming independence of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on 21 South and of their concerns about in- May considerably shifted the focus of 1. Crisis Situations: creased violence in Darfur and Abyei. the visit. Libya On that last issue, members of both Security Council Report One Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, 885 Second Avenue, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10017 T:1 212 759 9429 F:1 212 759 4038 www.securitycouncilreport.org 1 Visit of Security Council Delegation to Africa councils stressed the importance of late in the day on 21 May, the itiner- could have meant a 24 hour delay, it the July 2009 ruling by The Hague’s ary included an evening and a day was decided that a press statement Permanent Court of Arbitration. An of meetings in Khartoum, followed which could be quickly turned around area of some tension appears to by a visit to Abyei on 23 May, and a was the better option. have been the approach to the Darfur trip to Juba for 23-24 May. However, Peace Process (DPP), which the PSC in the evening of 21 May, Abyei was The statement condemned the “es- has fully embraced, but the Security attacked and subsequently taken over calatory military operations” being Council has not with some members by SAF, turning the disputed area into undertaken by SAF in and around distinctly reluctant to do so. (The cre- the key focus of most of Council meet- Abyei town, including the shelling of ation of a better enabling environment ings in Sudan. the UNMIS compound in Abyei. In for the DPP is seen by those mem- addition, the statement deplored the bers as essential, including: civil and Members received their first briefing unilateral dissolution of the Abyei political rights of participants such that about the unfolding events in Abyei administration and called for its re- they can exercise their views without from the Special Representative and establishment and for the Sudan gov- fear of retribution; freedom of speech head of UNMIS, Haile Menkerios, on ernment to halt its military operations and assembly to allow for open con- the evening of their arrival and were and withdraw immediately from Abyei. sultations; freedom of movement for kept abreast of events through subse- It also condemned the southern forc- participants and UNAMID; propor- quent briefings during their visit. es’ attack on the UNMIS convoy on tional participation among Darfurians; 19 May and referred to the attack as a freedom from harassment, arbitrary The next day, Sunday, 22 May, the breach of agreements and a criminal arrest and intimidation; and freedom Council delegation had been sched- act. from interference by the government uled to meet with Foreign Minister Ali or armed movements.) These for- Karti and Vice President Ali Osman Several elements of the Sudan pro- mulations were included in the final Taha. These meetings were cancelled gramme of the trip had to be revised communiqué despite initial resistance only shortly before they were expect- due to the cancelation of the Abyei from some of the PSC members to ed to take place. While it seems that part of the trip. Originally, the Council this language. there was already interest in reacting was supposed to meet, separately, speedily and firmly to the events in with representatives of the two main On Somalia, the key issue was the fi- Abyei, the sudden cancellation of the ethnic groups in the disputed area, the nancing for the AU Mission in Somalia high-level meetings may have rein- Misseriya and the Dinka. With Abyei (AMISOM) which the African side forced the need in Council members’ being overtaken and emptied of civil- would like to be fully covered through minds for a swift reaction. ian population, alternative locations UN assessed contributions and which needed to be found for the meetings several members of the Security The Council members took a proce- with the representatives of the two Council oppose on the grounds that durally unusual step of issuing a press groups, one in a north-controlled lo- the UN should not be fully funding an statement while away from New York. cation and one in the south, due to operation unless it has command over Briefly, there was also some discus- the tribes’ respective alliances. This it. Members of the PSC argued for the sion of having a presidential state- meeting with the Misseriya took place need of predictable, reliable and time- ment rather than a press statement. in Khartoum whereas representatives ly resources for AMISOM, including But this would have to be adopted in of the Dinka travelled to Wau in the reimbursement for contingent-owned a formal session of the Council and western part of the south, a location equipment. Members of the Security there is a complex Council procedure added to Council itinerary mainly for Council, while noting the recommen- for agreeing to meet away from head- the purpose of that meeting. dations in this respect of the PSC of quarters. (While article 28, paragraph 15 October 2010, stopped short of 3 of the UN Charter states that “the In Khartoum, other meetings included: willing to include any new commit- Security Council may hold meetings • a visit by some members to the ments in the communiqué. at such places other than the seat of Mayo camp near Khartoum for the Organization as in its judgment displaced Southerners whose in- The communiqué issued at the end of will best facilitate its work”, in practice habitants, mostly Dinka, shared the meeting was considerably longer there have only been a dozen or so their concerns related to the 9 July than the final documents from the pre- such meetings since 1946, with the secession of the south and the di- vious consultations and, also unlike last one held in Nairobi in 2004 and lemmas they face when deciding the previous documents, was mainly these meetings require consideration whether to stay up north or return focused on the four situation-specific by Council’s Standing Committee on to the south; issues.