S/PV.7153 Security Council

In accordance with rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure, I invite the representative of the Central African Republic to participate in this meeting. On behalf of the Council, I welcome His Excellency Mr. Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, Minister for Foreign Affairs, African Integration, Francophonie and Central Africans Abroad of the Central African Republic. The Security Council will now begin its consideration of the item on its agenda. Members of the Council have before them document S/2014/252, which contains the text of a draft resolution submitted by Australia, France, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Nigeria, the Republic of Korea, Rwanda, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America. I wish to draw the attention of Council members to document S/2014/142, which contains the report of the Secretary-General on the Central African Republic submitted pursuant to paragraph 48 of Security Council resolution 2127 (2013). 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 2149 (2014). I shall now give the floor to the member of the Council who wishes to make a statement following the voting.

I would first like to warmly welcome His Excellency Mr. Toussaint Kongo-Doudou, Minister for Foreign Affairs, African Integration and Francophonie of the Central African Republic, and his presence here in the Council. Chad is pleased that resolution 2149 (2014)) was adopted unanimously. We voted in favour of it in the hope of seeing the international community mobilize all the resources necessary to help the Central African Republic emerge from the serious and unprecedented crisis it is undergoing. Chad has had a presence in the Central African Republic since 1994, in the various missions that have been deployed there on the initiative of the subregion, in the framework of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community or the Economic Community of Central African States. The Chadian contingent has thus been part of successive missions, including the Force multinationale de l’Afrique centrale, the Force multinationale en Centrafrique, the Mission for the Consolidation of Peace in the Central African Republic (MICOPAX), in its incarnations as MICOPAX 1 and MICOPAX 2, and, finally, the African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic (MISCA). By participating in all those missions alongside the other nations of Central Africa, Chad has hoped to make a modest contribution within the strong collective will of the international community, with the aim of stabilizing the Central African Republic and helping it avoid a crisis with regional ramifications. In assisting it we are also hoping to contribute to our own security and that of the entire subregion. As the Council is aware, in the wake of the serious accusations that have been made against our contingent within MISCA by the spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concerning the incident that occurred on Saturday, 29 March in Bangui, Chad has decided to withdraw its contingent from MISCA. For months, and well before the accusations were made, Chad, whose presence is probably bothersome to the agendas of some, was a target of a particularly malicious media campaign. Though my vote, Chad reaffirms that its withdrawal from MISCA in no way diminishes its commitment and firm willingness to provide all possible support both to the Central African actors and to the efforts of the African Union and the entire international community in its quest for a way out of the crisis in the Central African Republic. Despite the undeniable progress that has been made on the ground, thanks to the work of MISCA and the French forces of Operation Sangaris, whose courage and efforts we must commend, we should not forget that the situation remains serious and attacks on civilians continue. It is imperative that the international community demand that all those responsible, including the various militias, bring all the attacks on the peaceful civilian population to an immediate halt and refrain from any other action that might compromise efforts to restore peace, security and stability and promote national reconciliation. While awaiting for MINUSCA to effectively deploy, it is absolutely crucial that the international community take adequate measures to put an end to the massacres and the horrible scenes of lynching that have been perpetrated against the civilian population as a whole and Muslims in particular. From this viewpoint, considering the seriousness of the situation, we believe the international community should increase its logistical and financial support to MISCA and speed up the deployment of police and gendarme units in every urban centre. It should also be remembered that the humanitarian situation remains extremely worrying, with hundreds of thousands of displaced persons and refugees. We appeal urgently to the international community to strengthen its humanitarian aid to the victims of violence, those displaced in Bangui and the other cities Central African Republic, as well as to the refugees in other countries of the subregion. In conclusion, re-establishing trust among all the elements of Central African society and promoting a spirit of citizenship that transcends ethnic and religious differences are essential conditions for a return to lasting peace, tolerance and peaceful coexistence among the various communities of Central Africa.

I now give the floor to the Foreign Minister of the Central African Republic.

I would first like to congratulate you, Madam President, on your assumption of the presidency of the Security Council for the month of April. On behalf of my Government, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the Security Council for their unanimous adoption of resolution 2149 (2014), which paves the way for a solution that can end the crisis that the Central African Republic has undergone for more than a year. Speaking in this Chamber on 6 March (see S/PV.7128), I urged the Security Council to endorse the report of the Secretary-General on the situation in the Central African Republic (S/2014/142), as it took into account the various sensitivities and views of the national and international actors involved in settling the crisis. One month later, I am happy to say that my appeal has been heard. Today’s resolution, which authorizes the deployment of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), marks a decisive stage in the process of restoring security and peace, and thus of stabilizing the country. This is the moment to once again reiterate the gratitude of the Central African people to the members of the Security Council and the Secretary-General and to convey how much the hope of an entire nation rests on this resolution. We also commend the remarkable efforts of the African-led International Support Mission in the Central African Republic (MISCA) and of Operation Sangaris, which have enabled the worst possible scenario to be averted in Bangui and in the hinterland. In giving its political backing to the Secretary- General’s report and the need to deploy a peacekeeping operation, my Government sized up the extent and complexity of the crisis in the light of the limited capacity of the human and material resources that had been committed to it up until then. Following the adoption of the resolution, I would like here to reaffirm the Government’s wish to reinforce MISCA prior to the deployment of the peacekeeping operation with the increase of 3,000 men, in accordance with the Secretary- General’s proposal. I therefore urge the international community to continue to support the security sector in the Central African Republic by providing troops and other necessary resources as MINUSCA is set up. In referring to the resolution just adopted, we are aware of the fact that the transitional authorities have the heavy responsibility of protecting the Central African people. However, how can we play that role effectively without defence and security forces — even if they are being re-established? Moreover, we cannot equip them with weapons, which are under embargo. In that regard, I reiterate the wish of the Central African Government to lighten the sanctions on the weapons embargo in order to be able to equip our defence and security forces, which will be trained, supervised and correctly identified in cooperation with the international community. Beyond the security aspect, with the support of the international community we are committed to alleviating the humanitarian suffering of our people. To that end, we welcome the appeal made to donor countries in the resolution to make their pledges and follow through on them. On the political front, the Council may rest assured that we have already started the process of national dialogue and reconciliation by establishing the key architecture to that end. I can assure the Council of the full determination of the transitional authorities to combat impunity by restoring the penal chain and by re-establishing administration throughout the country. That is an essential precondition for the proper holding of the elections required to restore democracy in the Central African Republic. While noting the recommendations in the resolution, we will spare no effort to ensure our full readiness and cooperation in order to facilitate the establishemnt of the MINUSCA operations. The Government, led by Her Excellency Ms. Catherine Samba-Panza and Prime Minister André Nzapayeke, is perfectly aware of the fact that it is not up to the international community to solve the problems in place of the Central Africans themselves. On the contrary, the United Nations is going to help us to establish the necessary framework to facilitate dialogue among the various political actors, civil society and others, since it is up to the Central Africans to sit down together and engage in dialogue so as to find lasting solutions to the many crises affecting the country. The adoption of the resolution has been the conclusion of a lengthy process. We would like to thank the mediator for the Central African crisis, President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo, the current Chairman of the Economic Community of Central African States, President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad, the African Union, France, the United States of America, the European Union, our bilateral and multilateral partners, and international non-governmental organizations and other national and international civil society actors, to whom we owe our gratitude for the efforts in the pursuit of peace and security. In conclusion, I would like to to reaffirm the recommendations in my last statement to the Council that the Mission’s leadership and Force Commander be African and that the linguistic criterion and the gender aspect be taken into account during the deployment of MINUSCA (see S/PV.7128).

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