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Africa: UN Security Council 1996
Africa: UN Security Council 1996
Date distributed (ymd): 970203
Document reposted by APIC
Press Release SC/6313 -- 14 January 1997 -- excerpts
Note: the full version of this press release is available on
the UN web site (http://www.un.org).
SECURITY COUNCIL IN 1996 RECOMMENDS KOFI ANNAN AS
SECRETARY-GENERAL, FACES MULTITUDE OF CRISES IN BALKANS,
MIDDLE EAST, AFRICA
The Security Council, on 13 December, recommended Kofi Annan
to the General Assembly for appointment as the seventh
Secretary-General of the United Nations for a term of office
from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2001, the culmination of a
year in which the Council faced crises ranging from the
Balkans and the Caucasus to the Great Lakes region of Africa ...
Mr. Annan was appointed and sworn in by the Assembly on 17
December. The first sub-Saharan African to become
Secretary-General, he is a native of the first sub-Saharan
country to gain its independence from colonialism, Ghana. He
begins his term of office in the year in which Ghana will
commemorate the fortieth anniversary of its independence in
1957. ...
Following are regional summaries of Council activity:
Great Lakes Region
As the refugee crisis in eastern Zaire intensified, the
Council adopted resolution 1080 (1996) on 15 November,
authorizing a Canadian initiative to lead the deployment of a
temporary multinational force to facilitate the safe delivery
of humanitarian help to the Rwandan refugees and civilians
caught in the fighting between rebel and government forces in
Zaire. Shortly after, however, a majority of the Rwandan
refugees returned to their country in a massive exodus,
preempting the need for the deployment of such a force, and
the Council then accepted, in a letter dated 23 December,
another Canadian proposal: to terminate the force's mandate
effective 31 December, since its raison d'etre had ceased to
exist. ...
In an orientation debate on 28 August, speakers condemned the
25 July coup d'etat that deposed President Sylvestre
Ntibantunganya and returned Major Pierre Buyoya to power in
Burundi, and called it an obstacle to the progress that was
being made in a regional search for a comprehensive solution
to the problems in that country. Speakers at the Council
meeting supported the sanctions imposed on Burundi by
countries of the Great Lakes region after their 31 July summit
at Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania. The representative of
Burundi, however, said that the United Nations Charter had
been violated by the imposition of sanctions, which he
described as economic aggression. The new Government had
stepped in to prevent the repetition of the Rwandan disaster
in Burundi, he stressed.
Two days later, the Council unanimously adopted resolution
1072 (1996), which condemned the removal of Burundi's
legitimate Government and called on Major Buyoya to restore
the previous order and lift the ban on political parties. It
demanded that all sides cease hostilities and initiate
negotiations towards a political settlement.
The Council closely followed events in Burundi throughout the
year seeking restraint, an end to violence and international
efforts to prevent genocide. On 5 January, the Council issued
a presidential statement condemning those responsible for
daily killings, massacres, torture and arbitrary detentions.
It called on all sides to respect and implement the 10
September 1994 Convention of Government, which constituted the
institutional framework for national reconciliation.
Then, on 29 January, the Council adopted resolution 1040
(1996), in which it declared its readiness to consider banning
the supply of arms and related materiel to Burundi and imposed
restrictions against leaders who encouraged violence. Later
on, it adopted resolution 1049 (1996) on 5 March encouraging
the Secretary-General to continue consultations with concerned
Member States and the OAU on a contingency planning to support
a comprehensive dialogue and for a rapid response to
widespread violence or a serious deterioration of the
situation in Burundi.
In a report to the Council, the Secretary-General had urged
the international community to consider establishing a
stand-by multinational intervention force that would be sent
to Burundi should large-scale ethnic violence erupt. The
representative of Burundi said his country's army would
confront any foreign expeditionary force, regardless of its
humanitarian intent.
Further, noting the widespread use of weapons in Burundi and
various statements calling for the arming of civilians, the
Council issued a presidential statement on 25 April, calling
on all Burundians to renounce violence and show the political
will to settle their differences peacefully. In another
statement on 15 May, it asked the Secretary-General and Member
States to urgently facilitate contingency planning for a rapid
humanitarian response, should the situation deteriorate.
The day before the 25 July coup d'etat, the Council, in a
presidential statement, strongly condemned any attempt to
overthrow the legitimate Government by force. It also
condemned the massacre of civilians, including over 300 women,
children and old men, in the Bugendana commune in Gitega
province and asked Burundi's authorities to investigate the
matter. Four days after the coup, in another presidential
statement, the Council condemned the change in government.
In Rwanda, the withdrawal of UNAMIR was completed on 19 April.
Prior to its completion, the Council adopted resolution 1050
(1996) on 8 March to encourage the Secretary-General to
maintain a United Nations office to help promote national
reconciliation, strengthen the judicial system, assist the
return of refugees and rehabilitate the infrastructure. The
office would be headed by the Secretary-General's Special
Representative for that country. The Rwandan Government
accepted establishment of the office on 23 April.
Also on 23 April, the Council met on the report of the
International Commission of Inquiry, which investigated
reports on the supply of arms and related materiel to former
Rwandan government forces, and called upon States in the Great
Lakes region to ensure that their territories were not used as
bases for armed groups to launch incursions against any
country. By adopting resolution 1053 (1996), the Council asked
the Secretary-General to maintain the Commission. It also
urged the States in the Great Lakes region to intensify their
efforts to prevent military training and the supply of weapons
to militias or former Rwandan government forces and to
effectively implement the arms embargo imposed by resolution
1011 (1995).
The Security Council also asked the Secretary-General to
consult with States neighbouring Rwanda, in particular Zaire,
on appropriate measures to improve the implementation of the
arms embargo. The measures could include the deployment of
United Nations observers at airfields and border crossing
points. However, the arms restrictions placed on the
Government of Rwanda by resolution 918 (1994) were ended by
the Council, effective 1 September. They were lifted in
accordance with resolution 1011 (1995), said the Chairman of
the related sanctions committee. Restrictions on the supply of
arms and related materiel to non-governmental forces remained.
Angola and Liberia
On 6 February, 25 speakers addressed the situation in Angola.
During the debate, the representative of the United States
said that the United Nations Angola Verification Mission
(UNAVEM III), which cost about $1 million daily, must not be
undermined by the failure of Angolan leaders to seek peace.
The representative of the Russian Federation asked the
international community to stop accepting the endless
manoeuvres of the National Union for the Total Independence of
Angola (UNITA).
The UNITA was again criticized during another exchange of
views on Angola held on 10 October. The Minister for Foreign
Affairs of Zimbabwe, speaking as Chairman of the ministerial
delegation of the Summit of the Southern African Development
Community (SADC), told the Council that it was time to say
"enough is enough" to the "scheming, selfishness, greed and
self-aggrandizement" which had stymied Angola's peace process.
As the first of 35 speakers at that meeting, he proposed that,
if UNITA failed to comply with the Lusaka Protocol, which was
signed by UNITA and the Government of Angola in November 1994,
its bank accounts should be frozen, its offices closed and its
leaders and personnel denied visas.
Regarding UNAVEM, whose mandate was to expire on 11 October,
some speakers agreed with the Secretary-General's
recommendation that the Council consider only a short
extension, until 11 December. On 11 October, the Council
adopted resolution 1075 (1996), expressing its readiness to
consider enacting trade measures against UNITA and restricting
the travel of its personnel unless it made "substantial and
genuine progress" in its peace efforts by 20 November.
During the year, the Council extended the mandate of UNAVEM
through resolutions 1045 (1996), 1055 (1996), 1064 (1996),
1075 (1996) and 1087 (1996). The latter, adopted on 11
December 1996, extended the Mission's mandate until the end of
February 1997 and approved the Secretary-General's
recommendation of a resumption of the withdrawal of the
military units of UNAVEM at a pace commensurate with progress
made in the Angolan peace process. The Council asked the
Secretary-General to report, no later than 10 February, on a
plan for a limited follow-on United Nations presence in
Angola.
During a 25 January debate on the situation in Liberia, which
was addressed by 26 speakers, the international community was
asked not to yield to the prevailing mood of "Afro-pessimism"
and make that country an orphan in the quest for peace. The
representative of Ghana recalled a statement by his President
that, while the international community was ready to spend $5
million a day on peace-keeping in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it
fell silent when asked to help Liberia.
When factional fighting broke out in Monrovia on 6 April 1996,
the Council issued a presidential statement on 9 April calling
on the Liberian National Transitional Government and other
parties to separate their forces and re-establish law and
order in the country. At another Council debate on 28 May,
speakers said the deteriorating situation in Liberia showed
the faction leaders' lack of commitment to peace and
jeopardized international support for peace efforts. The
factional leaders were urged to put the need of the Liberian
people before their own personal ends in order to avoid the
sort of situation which prevailed in Somalia. Council members
supported the renewal of the mandate of the United Nations
Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), to enable the parties to
fulfil their agreements under the Abuja accords of August
1995, seen as the foundation for a political settlement in
Liberia.
Three days later, the Council demanded, in resolution 1059
(1996), that the Liberian parties restore the cease-fire in
their nation, withdraw all fighters and arms from Monrovia and
restore that city as a safe haven. It also demanded that they
allow the deployment of the Economic Community of West African
States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG). The Council action
was informed by a report of the Secretary-General which stated
that, since the fighting broke out on 6 April, the Liberian
leaders had shown disrespect for the United Nations, the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the
international community, forcing most of their personnel to
move to other countries.
The Council extended UNOMIL's mandate twice, but the
extensions were granted with some conditions attached. For
example, resolution 1071 (1996) of 30 August, which extended
UNOMIL until 30 November, stressed that the continued support
of the international community for Liberia's peace process
depended on the factions' commitment to resolve their
differences peacefully.
Resolution 1083 (1996), of 27 November 1996, which extended
UNOMIL through 28 February 1997, strongly condemned the
deployment of children for combat and demanded that the
parties stop it immediately and demobilize all child soldiers.
Somalia, Sudan, Sierra Leone
In an orientation debate held on 15 March regarding the
situation in Somalia, several delegations stressed that the
international community had not abandoned that country. Some
representatives spoke of the hardships in Somalia, with the
rise in malnutrition and fears of the outbreaks of diseases.
The observer for the OAU noted that, some months before the
Council's meeting, 600,000 Somalis had fled to other
countries, with another 500,000 internally displaced. In a 20
December statement, in response to renewed fighting in
Mogadishu, the Council called on all Somali factions to cease
hostilities and to restore an effective cease-fire.
Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter on 16
August, the Council decided to impose sanctions on the Sudan
in relation to the attempted assassination of President
Mubarak at an OAU summit in Addis Ababa. It also decided to
specify in 90 days when those sanctions, which affected
Sudanese aircraft, would go into effect, if the Sudan did not
comply with earlier Council resolutions 1044 (1996) and 1054
(1996), which had demanded that it extradite to Ethiopia three
suspects wanted for the attempt on President Mubarak's life.
Voting 13 in favour to none against, with 2 abstentions
(China, Russian Federation), the Council adopted resolution
1070 (1996), which decided that all States shall deny Sudanese
aircraft permission to take off from, land in or overfly their
territories. To inform its decision as to when to put the
sanctions into effect, the Council asked the Secretary-General
to report by 15 November on the Sudan's compliance with its
resolutions.
Regarding the West African country of Sierra Leone, a Council
statement on 4 December welcomed the Peace Agreement between
the Government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
reached in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire on 30 November. It was
signed by Sierra Leone's President, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, and
the RUF leader, Foday Saybana Sankoh.
The conflict in Sierra Leone began in March 1991. At the
request of the then National Provisional Ruling Council in
November 1994, then Secretary- General Boutros-Ghali
established good offices to encourage talks between the
Government and the RUF. Multi-party legislative and
presidential elections were held on 26 and 27 February in
Sierra Leone, and President Kabbah was inaugurated President
on 29 March.
Western Sahara
Action on the situation in Western Sahara, the Council
extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission for the
Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) until 31 May 1997. By
resolution 1084 (1996), it asked the Secretary-General to
continue his efforts with the parties to the conflict in the
territory to implement the Settlement Plan. In a report to the
Council, the Secretary-General warned that the international
community would not indefinitely extend the Mission unless
tangible progress was made towards settling the Western Sahara
question.
In resolution 1056 (1996) of 29 May, the Council reduced the
Mission's military component by 20 per cent, from 288 to 239,
on the understanding that it would not impair effective
monitoring of the cease-fire in the territory. By the terms of
the resolution, the Council suspended the identification
process aimed at listing those eligible for the planned
referendum. The suspension would remain in effect until the
Moroccan Government and the Frente Popular para la Liberacion
de Saguia el-Hamra y Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) showed their
commitment to resuming and completing the process without
further obstacles. The Council then called on the parties to
show political will and flexibility to permit the resumption
and early completion of the identification process.
An earlier resolution, 1042 (1996) of 31 January, had
expressed the Council's support for the Secretary-General's
intention to withdraw MINURSO in the absence of meaningful
progress to complete the Settlement Plan. The Plan, accepted
by the two parties on 30 August 1988 and approved by the
Council on 27 June 1990 in resolution 658 (1990), entails the
holding of a referendum to enable Western Saharans to choose
between independence from or integration with Morocco. ...
Other Matters
On 15 August, the Security Council held an orientation debate
on demining in the context of peace-keeping operations,
calling on the international community to take urgent steps to
ban the production and use of anti-personnel land-mines.
According to information presented during the debate, by some
estimates about 64 countries were affected by the devices,
with more than 110 million of them uncleared, and mines killed
500 people weekly. The International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) was cited as having estimated that it would cost
about $33 billion to clear the mines currently in place across
the globe.
As a follow-up, the Council approved a presidential statement
on 30 August which said that operational demining should be,
wherever appropriate, an integral part of peace-keeping
mandates. It, however, stressed the difference between
operational mine clearance in peace-keeping, which was the
responsibility of the Department of Peace-keeping Operations,
and longer-term humanitarian mine-clearance, which was the
responsibility of the Department of Humanitarian Affairs.
Regarding Libya, the Council adopted a statement on 18 April,
which called the flight, two days earlier, of a
Libyan-registered aircraft from Tripoli to Jeddah, Saudi
Arabia, a violation of resolution 748 (1992). It called on
Libya to refrain from any more violations. Resolution 748
(1992) imposed aerial, arms and diplomatic sanctions against
Libya, until the Government complied with requests to
cooperate fully in establishing responsibility for terrorist
acts against Pan Am flight 103 and the UTA flight 772.
In a statement on 12 April, the Council praised the previous
day's signing by over 40 States in Cairo of the African
Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (the Treaty of Pelindaba) as
an important contribution to international peace and security.
It stated that the "historic event" formalized a 32-year
commitment by the OAU, which had declared the continent a
denuclearized zone. ...
In addition, on 29 February, the Council appointed Canadian
Justice Louise Arbour as Prosecutor of the International
Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda.
She succeeded Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa, who
resigned effective 1 October.
Council Membership
The Security Council has 15 members. The permanent five are
China, France, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the
United States. The 10 rotating members in 1996 were Botswana,
Chile, Egypt, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Indonesia,
Italy, Republic of Korea and Poland.
On 1 January 1997, Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya, Portugal and
Sweden replaced Botswana, Germany, Italy, Honduras and
Indonesia, whose two-year terms expired on 31 December 1996.
This material is being reposted for wider distribution by the
Africa Policy Information Center (APIC), the educational
affiliate of the Washington Office on Africa. APIC's primary
objective is to widen the policy debate in the United States
around African issues and the U.S. role in Africa, by
concentrating on providing accessible policy-relevant
information and analysis usable by a wide range of groups and
individuals.
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