S/PV.6745 Security Council

I thank you, Sir, for giving me the floor at this meeting. As you know, my country, Mali, is currently undergoing one of the direst moments of its history. Our people today is suffering deeply, reeling and lost, but we have not lost all hope. I am certain that my people will be able to join forces across the nation to overcome the challenges we face. Mali has never been in a worse situation. Not even in our worst nightmares could we have imagined our current suffering. The situation is indescribable and unprecedented. We have never experienced its like. Nowhere in the world has such a situation been seen; even a precedent might have helped us to overcome the depths of despair. Even as I speak, our people is divided and our country threatened with partition. Northern Mali is today occupied by Tuareg rebels and Salafists. Hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced persons are living in unimaginable conditions. As the adage says, bad luck never arrives alone. Mali is today ostracized by the international community. This is the first time we have found ourselves in this position. We have never experienced such a situation before. How did our country get to this point? Only a few weeks ago, we were known and held up as a beacon and a country where the democratic model had taken root, and were often cited as an exemplar for the African continent. How is it that today our country finds itself ostracized by the international community, torn apart, having lost its status and even subject to embargo? I do not wish here to go into the profound causes of this situation; to do so would take too much time. I believe that I will have the opportunity to retrace that history on another occasion. I commend you, Sir, and the Council for having provided us with this opportunity to speak and for having adopted today’s presidential statement (S/PRST/2012/9) on the painful situation, the institutional and security crises and the humanitarian challenges in my country. Today, as I said, the people of Mali is divided, occupied and beset by serious institutional problems that have led us to be ostracized by the international community. We ask the Security Council to help Mali find a way out of the current crisis. It is a critical time, and the challenges are both numerous and complex. Today, it is a matter of survival. I think that, today, the international community is speaking in a single voice with regard to a return to constitutional order, the elections and the condemnation of the coup, but the reality on the ground is indescribable. What we seek today is to help Mali to get back on its feet. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has imposed sanctions on Mali, and we understand that. We are full- fledged members of ECOWAS and the African Union. However, I have to say that it is the first time that we have seen such sanctions imposed on a member State under particularly difficult conditions. At a time when we have hundreds of thousands of refugees and displaced persons; when our territorial integrity is severely threatened; when the north is occupied; when there are all kinds of threats; when the populations in the occupied north are in complete distress, and when, in the southern part of the country, there has been a schism since the 22 March coup; and when there is all kinds of scheming by young politicians, is this the time to close our country’s borders and to leave the people further thirsty and hungry? I believe that ECOWAS and the African Union should not exacerbate the situation that we are currently experiencing. To the contrary, at this time they should help us find a way forward. The military officers who undertook the coup have asked to sit down with essential national forces — all our country’s stakeholders, political parties and civil society — in order to seek a national consensus that could lead to the country finding its footing and accepting the minimal solution to emerge from this situation. I would therefore appeal to the Council to help Mali to emerge from the situation.

There are no more names on the list of speakers. The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda.