S/PV.7111 Security Council

In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of the Sudan to participate in this meeting. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on the agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2014/93, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by the United States of America. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2014/87, which contains a letter dated 7 February 2014 from the Chair of the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005) concerning the Sudan addressed to the President of the Security Council. 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 2138 (2014). I now give the floor to the representative of the Sudan.

I wish to thank you, Madam President, for giving us the opportunity to comment briefly on the draft resolution just adopted on the situation in Darfur and the extension of the mandate of the Panel of Experts as per resolution 1591 (2005). I should like at the outset to thank the States members of the Council that have worked hard with us in continuous attempts to elaborate a balanced text that takes into consideration the positive developments in Darfur. Unfortunately, the draft resolution just adopted does not list the positive developments that have taken place in Darfur since the adoption of the previous resolution that extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts last February (resolution 2091 (2013)). In addition, much progress has been made with regard to the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur, and we are working on its implementation with our partners from the Liberation and Justice Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement-Mohamed Bashar. It is true that there are some shortcomings, but the Security Council needed to be aware of those. The most important issue is that the Sudan, for the sake of peace and security, has sacrificed one third of its territory and a great deal of its resources and has acknowledged the separation of the South. It had expected the international community to appreciate the resulting economic repercussions in terms of loss of resources. Despite the economic difficulties that we are experiencing because of this courageous decision on the part of my country, we are implementing the Doha Document and honouring our obligations with regard to the implementation of that agreement. We are providing all of the wire transfers to the Darfur Regional Authority, so that we can expedite the implementation and thereby comply with the timelines. Hence, if the implementation is behind schedule, the Security Council should have been aware of this. However, that fact was not included in the draft resolution just adopted. Many of the provisions of the draft resolution refer to tribal violence in Darfur and to violations of international humanitarian law. Perhaps we have brought to the attention of the Council the fact that conflict in Darfur has deep roots in history. We had therefore expected that we would find in the resolution some paragraphs that commended and welcomed the efforts of the Government of the Sudan to achieve reconciliation in many of the tribal conflicts in Darfur, because the Government was able to reach many agreements that ended numerous tribal conflicts. On the contrary, however, many of the paragraphs of the resolution state the opposite of the truth. Some of the paragraphs refer to hurdles being placed in the way of the Panel of Experts; it comes as a surprise to us that the Government of the Sudan should be putting such hurdles in the way of the Panel. Here the Council is referring to one person who has not received an entry visa; he is the finance expert, and his name is Ghassan Schbley. The Security Council is well aware that the same issue existed with regard to the Committee established pursuant to resolution 1591 (2005). That person was not allowed to enter the Sudan and was listed as a persona non grata before he was appointed to the Panel of Experts. Before that, we had communicated to the Committee and the Council that he was on the persona non grata list, and we had asked that he be replaced — as if the United Nations cannot find a replacement expert. Every single time, the United Nations comes up with the same request as with regard to Ghassan Schbley. That is why there are so many paragraphs on our lack of cooperation. That individual was not allowed because he crossed a line, which should not be tolerated. We are a sovereign country. He used to work for the United Nations on Somalia and Eritrea, and at the time of that mandate made mistakes that infringed on our national security. This is the reason, and it is well known to the Council. The resolution should not have referred to hurdles imposed by the Government due only to a single individual who could easily have been replaced by another expert. Furthermore, with regard to the monitoring of the arms embargo, we have many reservations concerning references that impinge upon our legitimate rights. As a sovereign nation we are committed to defending our territory. With regard to our commitments under resolution 1591 (2005), there should be no contradiction of our rights pursuant to the Charter of the United Nations to defend our sovereignty and protect our citizens. In addition, as all members of the Council are no doubt aware, one of the reasons for the delay in the implementation of the Doha Document has been the action of movements that reject peace, especially the wing of the Justice and Equality Movement led by Jibril Ibrahim, which assassinated the head of another faction, Mr. Mohamed Bashar, and 10 of his team just because they joined the Doha peace agreement. We expected the resolution to contain a paragraph very clearly condemning that crime in strict terms. The head of a factional movement was assassinated because he joined the peace process! Instead we find very vague language, which is a great source of disappointment, as we had other expectations of the resolution. In conclusion, I do not wish to go on much longer, but we need to set the record straight. The Government of the Sudan has taken the unique step of appointing a senior official, General Mohammad Mustafa Al-Dabi, to lead a committee established precisely to implement resolution 1591 (2005). The committee is tasked with coordinating the implementation of resolution 1591 (2005) and includes all of the relevant officials from various Ministries, such as the Ministry of the Interior, to complete that task. We challenge the Council to refer to a single case where we have obstructed the Panel of Experts or refused any of its members an entry visa, except for the person I already mentioned for the reasons I outlined. We strongly object to the reference to obstacles because we have been very cooperative with the Panel of Experts. Our cooperation has even included the establishment of a high-level committee headed by a senior official to facilitate the implementation of resolution 1591 (2005). I therefore hope that the Council will review and reconsider the wording regarding our cooperation or lack thereof. I also hope that the Council will exert pressure on those movements opposing peace. As I already said, those movements are not only fighting in Darfur. The Darfur rebel movements that oppose peace have moved from Darfur to South Kordofan and North Kordofan states. They are now in the heart of the Sudan. Council members heard Mr. Hervé Ladsous state from this very seat in previous deliberations on the Sudan that the movements opposing peace in Darfur were now participating in the fighting in South Sudan. I ask the Council to clarify its position vis-à-vis that situation.

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