S/PV.6798 Security Council

As this is the first meeting of the Council for the month of July 2012, I should like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Council, to pay tribute and express gratitude to His Excellency Ambassador Li Baodong, Permanent Representative of China, as well as his entire delegation, for the serious, efficient and wise manner in which they conducted the Council’s business last month. Adoption of the agenda

In accordance with rule 39 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite His Excellency Mr. Kadré Désiré Ouédraogo, President of the Commission of the Economic Community of West African States, to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2012/512, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by France, Germany, Morocco, South Africa, Togo, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. It is my understanding that the Council is ready to proceed to the vote on the draft resolution before it. I shall put the draft resolution to the vote now.

There were 15 votes in favour. The draft resolution has been adopted unanimously as resolution 2056 (2012). I now give the floor to Mr. Ouédraogo.

Allow me, first of all, on behalf of Mr. Alassane Ouattara, current Chairman of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), to express our gratitude to the Security Council for the opportunity given to us to once again address the Council. Twenty days ago, on 15 June, the Council afforded me and the high-level delegation accompanying me an opportunity to participate in an interactive meeting with the members of the Council on the request made by ECOWAS for the authorization of the deployment of an ECOWAS stabilization force in Mali under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations. In the course of that constructive exchange, we shared the same perspective on the challenges to be overcome. Above all, there was general consensus that we need to provide an adequate collective response to the stalemate in the situation in Mali and to the suffering of the people affected by a crisis whose direct implications on regional and international security are now quite clear. I should like to commend the strong political support shown by the members of the Council for the request made by ECOWAS, which today has resulted in the adoption of a resolution aimed at supporting the efforts of ECOWAS — which are also supported by the African Union — to resolve the crisis in Mali. Every passing hour brings obvious risks for a worsening of the political, humanitarian and security situation in Mali. Things are getting worse by the day, with a continuation of the Constitutional crisis in Bamako and a standstill in the humanitarian and security situation in the north of the country, marked by serious violations of human rights and basic freedoms, the desecration of holy places, the destruction of cultural heritage, the proliferation of weapons and the increasing entrenchment of terrorist networks and jihadist movements, which have pushed out the Mouvement national pour la libération de l’Azawad from territories it occupied. Faced with this serious situation, ECOWAS heads of State and Government meeting at a summit in Yamoussoukro on 29 June reaffirmed their determination to resolve the dual crisis in Mali and reiterated their previous decisions on the matter. The heads of State and Government also decided to strengthen the political transition under way in Mali and to ensure greater inclusiveness by expanding the governance base and by having all the parties involved urgently adopt a road map that should produce concrete actions and a fixed calendar for carrying them out. In that regard, I should like to inform the members of the Council that framework consultations involving all major stakeholders are scheduled to take place in Ouagadougou on 7 July, including the participation of the mediator and the heads of State of the follow-up group on Mali. Moreover, the heads of State and Government meeting in Yamoussoukro decided to speed up the deployment to Mali of the ECOWAS stand-by force, in line with the provisions of article 25 of the Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security. In that connection, a technical assessment mission made up of ECOWAS, African Union and United Nations experts will go to Mali on 6 July to make preparations for the imminent deployment of troops. That will be done in collaboration with the transition authorities, which have formally agreed to a request to begin this process. I should now like to refer to several aspects underpinning the ECOWAS approach, which I also transmitted to the Secretary-General on the Council’s request following our interactive meeting on 15 June. In accordance with the mandate adopted by the ECOWAS Mediation and Security Council and approved by the current Chairman of ECOWAS on 16 April, the goal of the various regional initiatives aims at, first, securing the transition; secondly, establishing an environment conducive to promoting human rights and facilitating humanitarian assistance; and, thirdly, helping Mali’s army to re-establish the country’s unity and territorial integrity. The ECOWAS strategy therefore entails stepping up mediation efforts vis-à-vis all the parties involved and, at the same time, ensuring a phased deployment process. The first stage will be the immediate deployment of a force to secure the transition and the country’s institutions. The second will involve training and restructuring Mali’s army. And the third, which may not be necessary if mediation succeeds, will consist of helping Mali’s armed forces to restore the country’s territorial integrity. The success of those initiatives will no doubt require a great deal of coordination of effort, as well as the involvement of the entire international community. It is for that reason that in our current approach we have emphasized close coordination with the African Union, the United Nations, countries of the region and other development partners. That is also the reason that our partners are closely involved in the technical assessment mission that will arrive in Mali tomorrow. The conclusions of the mission will be considered in the same spirit of coordination at a general planning meeting of ECOWAS military chiefs of staff. That will make it possible to fine-tune the parameters for the deployment — that is to say, modalities, options, costs, roles, required technical support and so on — as well as detailed operational plans for the ECOWAS mission in Mali, which will then transmitted to the Security Council. ECOWAS takes note of resolution 2056 (2012), which has just been adopted unanimously by the Security Council. It represents an important first phase in the political involvement of the international community in support of the efforts of ECOWAS to resolve the crisis in Mali. In its various elements, it will strengthen the positions upheld by ECOWAS, particularly in terms of restoring the constitutional order and territorial integrity of Mali, fighting terrorism, and identifying a comprehensive strategy for the Sahel region. In that regard, I welcome the consensus that has emerged concerning these issues, and reiterate, on behalf of the current Chairman of ECOWAS, the gratitude of the 15 members of our subregion to all Council members for the completion of this process. I commend in particular the facilitation role played by the permanent representation of France in this respect. Given the gravity of the situation in Mali and the need to maintain regional and international security, we must ensure above all that the process evolves sequentially and progressively towards more robust mobilization of the international community to dismantle the criminal and terrorist networks in northern Mali. The magnitude of the operations being planned clearly calls for significant financial, technical and logistical resources. That is why, in accordance with the decision taken at the Yamoussoukro summit, I reiterate the ECOWAS request that the Security Council accelerate the process of adopting a new resolution that, on the basis of the additional information to be provided by the technical assessment mission, will support the deployment of an operational ECOWAS force in Mali in order to secure the transition and to work with a restructured Malian army to restore the country’s unity and to fight the terrorism inexorably growing in the region. In conclusion, Sir, I commend your leadership of the Security Council, and reiterate my gratitude to all Council members for their ongoing support to Mali and for their assistance in building peace and security in West Africa.

I thank Mr. Ouédraogo for his statement. The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda.