{"id":59746,"date":"2015-12-15T00:12:08","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T22:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/remarks-at-the-security-council-stakeout-following-a-meeting-on-burundi\/"},"modified":"2015-12-15T00:12:08","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T22:12:08","slug":"remarks-at-the-security-council-stakeout-following-a-meeting-on-burundi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/remarks-at-the-security-council-stakeout-following-a-meeting-on-burundi\/","title":{"rendered":"Remarks at the Security Council Stakeout Following a Meeting on Burundi"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America, December 14, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — <\/span><\/p>\n

Ambassador Samantha Power<\/p>\n

\n

U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations<\/p>\n

U.S. Mission to the United Nations<\/p>\n

New York City<\/p>\n

December 11, 2015<\/p>\n

AS DELIVERED<\/p>\n

Good evening, everybody. Thanks for your patience. I\u2019ve already given you the press elements from the Security Council\u2019s session on Libya a while ago. Just now we discussed the recent very, very worrying developments in Burundi.<\/p>\n

The Council heard a briefing from the Secretary-General\u2019s Special Advisor on Burundi Jamal Benomar and we agreed on the following press elements:<\/p>\n

The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the recent attacks by unidentified assailants in Bujumbura, and urged all involved actors to refrain from violence.<\/p>\n

The members of the Security Council, as expressed in the UN Security Council resolution 2248 adopted on November 12th, reiterated their deep concern regarding the protection of civilians and stressed the urgent need to end impunity in Burundi. They also expressed their readiness to consider further steps as necessary.<\/p>\n

The members of the Security Council demand that all armed groups put aside their arms and cease all forms of destabilizing activities in order to end the cycle of violence and retaliation.<\/p>\n

The members of the Security Council appealed to the government of Burundi, as well as all political actors, to resume an inclusive dialogue without delay, to prevent further violence in Bujumbura and throughout the country.<\/p>\n

To this end, the Security Council reaffirmed their support for international engagement, particularly by the East African Community, the African Union, and the UN, in calling for restraint and in pursuit of a political resolution to the crisis.<\/p>\n

The Security Council expressed its support for the special session on Burundi being called in the Human Rights Council. The Security Council reaffirmed the critical importance of AU and UN contingency planning.<\/p>\n

And the Security Council reaffirmed their intention to consider additional measures against all Burundian actors whose actions and statements contribute to the perpetration of violence and impede the search for a political solution.<\/p>\n

And I can only take, unfortunately, a couple of questions because I\u2019m racing. But I do want to say, in my national capacity, that we call on the EAC and President Museveni to immediately convene the government and the opposition for a high-level political dialogue. Without this dialogue it\u2019s going to be very, very challenging to defuse the situation, and it has to be defused or it really risks evolving into mass violence. If that process cannot immediately move forward, the international community \u2013 including the UN \u2013 must itself look into alternative options to get the parties to the negotiating table, lest the situation continue to deteriorate. To be clear, those who fail to act in the midst of a deteriorating situation are also at fault. Similarly, the situation on the ground compels us to focus squarely on how the international community can protect civilians from mass violence, including planning for the possible deployment of a regionally-led peace support operation.<\/p>\n

Finally, one update on our Program of Work for the month: a thematic debate on human trafficking in situations of conflict \u2013 you may have seen this written about, we\u2019ve just announced this. This will be the first time the Council will hold a Council debate dedicated to this very painful issue that has affected so many individuals and families around the world. The meeting will look critically at how human trafficking manifests itself in conflict situations and it will seek to identify actions that the Security Council, the UN system, and Member States can take to combat this crime. We look forward to your attention to this groundbreaking event.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019ll take a few questions. And I\u2019ll try to keep my answers \u2013 if you can keep your questions very brief, we\u2019d appreciate it. Thank you.<\/p>\n

Reporter: Thanks. On Burundi, Madam Ambassador, you\u2019ve spoken from this podium for the need for a return to political dialogue. Has the time come \u2013 given the attacks we witnessed this morning \u2013 for the Council to institute some measures?<\/p>\n

Ambassador Power: Well, as you know, the United States itself has sanctioned four individuals that we deemed responsible for this escalating situation. We certainly believe accountability for anybody involved is essential. As you know, not all Council members have that view. But they did just now express readiness to look at additional measures and it is very clear that the set of steps that we have taken over these many months, really, because this is a chronicle foretold, right \u2013 a slowly escalating, violent situation \u2013 have not been sufficient. Because you\u2019re not seeing things getting calmed, you\u2019re not seeing people exercise more restraint. If anything it\u2019s getting worse. It seems as though the proliferation of arms around the country is becoming even more of a problem. And so these contingency planning discussions are really important. You heard my statement in my national capacity about our belief of what is increasingly needed, and we think sending a signal to those individuals associated with attacks like the ones that occurred overnight or attacks by the government against civilians, that kind of accountability is essential intrinsically and it\u2019s essential because of the way that it can have the effect of deterring others.<\/p>\n

Reporter: I have a question off topic. We saw the Iraqi ambassador go in to visit you. Did he deliver a letter or request a meeting regarding the Turkish troops?<\/p>\n

Ambassador Power: He did deliver a letter, the letter was in Arabic, and I was chairing the Burundi meeting at the same time, so I ducked out to receive the letter. So I can\u2019t give you details on that. But in my capacity as President of the Security Council he has asked me to circulate that letter, which I will very quickly do. And in terms of a meeting, I don\u2019t have anything to report. He didn\u2019t make any specific requests. But it is very clear that the situation has not been resolved. He expressed, I\u2019m sure what he\u2019s expressed to all of you, which is growing alarm \u2013 his government\u2019s growing alarm \u2013 at the situation. We reiterated our position which is that any troops deployments in Iraq need to be with the consent of the sovereign Iraqi government. And I reassured him that that was America\u2019s very strong position and urged that the dialogue continue between the Iraqi and Turkish governments to find an amicable way out of this difficult situation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON D.C., United States of America, December 14, 2015\/APO (African Press Organization)\/ — Ambassador Samantha Power U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations U.S. Mission to the United Nations New York City December 11, 2015 AS DELIVERED Good evening, everybody. Thanks for your patience. I\u2019ve already given you the press elements from the Security Council\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4584],"tags":[428,4585,830],"class_list":{"0":"post-59746","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-africa-news-2","7":"tag-africa","8":"tag-apo","9":"tag-news","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59746"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59746\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}