S/PV.6817 Security Council

Under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of Côte d’Ivoire 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/2012/581, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by the France, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America. I should like to draw the attention of the members of the Council to document S/2012/506, which contains the thirtieth progress report of the Secretary-General on the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire. 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 2062 (2012). I now give the floor to the representative of Côte d’Ivoire.

Last weekend, the western part of Côte d’Ivoire once again experienced violent events. At approximately 4 o’clock in the morning of 20 July, four individuals armed with kalashnikovs struck down four persons in the Kokoman neighbourhood of the city of Duékoué. A fifth person, critically injured by gunfire, later succumbed to those injuries. The criminals, who were pursued by local residents, took refugee in the Nahibly camp for internally displaced persons, located between Duékoué and Giglo. On learning of the presence of the assailants in the camp, local civilians exasperated by repeated criminality descended on the camp. Units from the Forces républicaines de Côte d’Ivoire (FRCI), the national police and the Duékoué police department were deployed around the camp. However, neither that first deployment nor a second by a battalion from the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), which was guarding the camp, was successful in stopping the enraged mob that had entered the camp. A total of 11 persons lost their lives in the barbaric acts of 20 July in Duékoué. As soon as he learned of the events, President Alassane Ouattara, who was abroad at the time, condemned those criminal acts. My delegation would like to reiterate here before the Security Council its resolute condemnation of those acts, for which there is no justification. Our country’s Prosecutor has taken up the case and opened an investigation to determine who was responsible. My delegation would like to assure the Council that those responsible for these crimes and those who supported them will be pursued and brought to justice to answer for their actions. However, urgent measures have already been put in place to stabilize the situation. Those measures include UNOCI support to ensure the security of city hall; a further security deployment made up of FRCI troops and national and local police; joint Ivorian-ONUCI patrols to re-establish and maintain order in all the neighborhouds of Duékoué; and the deployment of a battalion to strengthen the existing security system. In the coming days, governmental delegations will be sent to Duékoué and neighbouring areas in order to, first, gain a clear perspective on the humanitarian and security situations; secondly, provide assistance to the local population by helping displaced persons return to their villages and by setting up an office to distribute information and hear complaints; and, thirdly, disseminate information about new steps taken by the Government. Those measures will remain in place until further notice as we await a definite solution to the issue of displaced people in Duékoué. It is against that backdrop that the Security Council has just unanimously adopted resolution 2062 (2012), which renews the mandate of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire until 31 July 2013. The text of the resolution was the outcome of intensive consultations among the members of the Council, who were at all times motivated solely by the goal of contributing to the return of security, stability and lasting peace in Côte d’Ivoire. My delegation would therefore like to thank the members of the Council and express the gratitude of the people and Government of Côte d’Ivoire for their ongoing commitment and invaluable support for peace and democracy in our country. I should like to make the following comments in connection with the resolution. On the security front, we welcome the Council’s determination to put the protection of civilians at the centre of ONUCI’s mandate. However, we regret that the Council did not grant our request to maintain ONUCI’s original troop strength, which has now been reduced by one battalion. Nevertheless, given the progress that has taken place around Abidjan and the country’s other major cities, we continue to be confident that UNOCI’s reconfiguration will take place in a way that reducing the number of troops will in no way create a security vacuum. In any event, it is worth noting that the total number of troops under this resolution is greater than it was during the post-electoral crisis. Moreover, my delegation would like to express its full satisfaction with the Council’s decision to immediately authorize the transfer to ONUCI of three attack helicopters that are currently deployed to the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). As we pointed out during the briefing held on 18 July (see S/PV.6808), such a step had been urgently needed in order to strengthen ONUCI’s capacity to deter, foresee and react to destabilizing threats. We also welcome the fact that the resolution acknowledges and encourages the importance of cooperation between ONUCI and Côte d’Ivoire forces; between Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia; between ONUCI and UNMIL; and among the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Mano River Union and the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA). With regard to security sector reform (SSR) and disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR), the resolution just adopted sends a clear message about the urgent need to develop, put in place and implement a national SSR and DDR strategy. That is a concern of my delegation as well. We would like to point out that, like the resolution, President Ouattara also attaches the highest attention to SSR and DDR. The working group he has set up on the matter is to submit its conclusions on 31 July. I will certainly inform the Council about those conclusions, and I would like in advance to thank the international community for its support for the implementation thereof. In the area of national reconciliation and transitional justice, my delegation also shares the views of the Council. In the light of the recent violence in the internally displaced persons’ camp, today’s resolution encourages the Dialogue, Truth and Reconciliation Commission to adopt a broad-based programme and increase its activities throughout the country. We also agree with the Council, which stresses in the resolution the links between reconciliation and justice in order to establish a broad national consensus. We believe that a greater emphasis on individual responsibility and judicial impartiality, on the one hand, and more thorough investigation of issues related to identity and land disputes, on the other, will help prevent intercommunal violence and produce the right responses to it. In this way, in accordance with decisions adopted at the Government seminar in June, which have made it possible to identify the nature of the conflicts, the State is committed to reaching a definitive settlement of rural and urban land disputes. As to political dialogue and support for local elections, the resolution rightly welcomes the initiatives the Government has undertaken to promote political dialogue with the opposition, including political parties not represented in the National Assembly. The political dialogue that the Government has initiated with the opposition parties has enabled us to establish a framework for ongoing dialogue, designed to ensure that all views and attitudes on issues of common interest are considered. Implementing the set of actions resulting from the political conclave held in Grand-Bassam on 27 and 28 April should promote this ongoing inclusive and inter-Ivorian dialogue on the major issues relating to our country’s development. One of the dialogue’s immediate goals is to encourage the political opposition’s participation in the next local elections. In that regard, my delegation welcomes the resolution’s recognition of the Government’s request to the Council for electoral assistance, and hopes that the expected United Nations support will allow for the local elections to be conducted under the best possible conditions. With regard to human rights and combating impunity, the resolution puts particular emphasis on the importance of bringing to justice all those responsible for serious abuse or violations of human rights and international humanitarian law, regardless of their status or political affiliation. It outlines the importance of providing the forces of law and order with adequate training on human rights, international humanitarian law and the rights of refugees, including issues relating to the protection of children and gender-based violence. And the resolution urges the Ivorian Government to continue its cooperation with the International Criminal Court. My delegation is in complete agreement with the views the Council expresses in the resolution and in that connection reaffirms President Ouattara’s commitment to zero tolerance of impunity. Because of the regional considerations stemming from the security situation in the west of Côte d’Ivoire, the resolution encourages ECOWAS and the Mano River Union, in cooperation with UNOWA, to develop a subregional strategy for dealing with transnational threats, including the activities of trans-border armed groups, the trade in light weapons and all types of illicit trafficking. In that regard, my delegation would like to stress President Ouattara’s commitment, in his capacity as the current Chair of ECOWAS and also as Chair of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union for the month of July, to making every effort to resolve the crises roiling our subregion and continent, as he demonstrated recently in Addis Ababa. In conclusion, my delegation would like to reiterate the thanks of the people and Government of Côte d’Ivoire for the concern the Council has always shown for peace and stability in our country. I would therefore like to assure the Council of the total willingness of the Government of Côte d’Ivoire to continue to cooperate fully in the efforts to reach the goals as set out in the resolution just adopted.

The Security Council has thus concluded the present stage of its consideration of the item on its agenda. The Council will remain seized of the matter.