Statement by Mr.Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, at the Security Council on the Reports of the Secretary-General on the Sudan and South Sudan
We thank Under-Secretary-General JeanPierre Lacroix, Mr. Smaїl Chergui, the African Union Commissioner for Peace and Security, and Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Executive Director of UN-Women, for their detailed information about their joint visit to South Sudan.
The Russian Federation has consistently held the view that the situation of women, like that of the country’s entire civilian population, will significantly improve as the South Sudanese peace process advances. The key to stabilizing the Republic of South Sudan lies in a sustainable ceasefire and the start of an inclusive national reconciliation process. In that regard, we attach great importance to the signing by the parties on 12 September of the revitalized peace Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan.
Needless to say, the agreements reached will still require a significant clarification of the details, but that makes them no less important. The main thing is that the South Sudanese parties have shown their willingness to reach a compromise and their desire to settle their existing disputes by peaceful means. I would like to once again pay tribute to the coordinated mediation efforts of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which made it possible to reach a successful conclusion to the revitalization process for South Sudan’s peace Agreement.
The countries of the region have essentially achieved the impossible by restarting the negotiation process from scratch and for more than a year patiently helping the parties to find points of convergence. IGAD kept the initiative to revitalize the Agreement moving forward even when many of us had lost hope. We note that today the parties in the region continue to demonstrate the same united approach to the settlement in South Sudan as before, which is extremely important for further support to the peace process.
Considering the South Sudanese people’s sentiments and their increasing hopes for peace and welfare that the Ambassador of Sweden shared with us, we would like to urge all our Security Council colleagues to genuinely and practically continue to support the Sudanese peace process and the relevant efforts of regional organizations.
We also welcome the desire of the guarantors of the Agreement to assist with the implementation of the peace Agreement by providing national troops from the Sudan, Uganda, Djibouti and Somalia to the Regional Protection Force. That represents a practical embodiment of the principle of African solutions to African problems, as well as an opportunity for effective cooperation between the United Nations, the Security Council and regional organizations. We are aware of the regular contacts between the General Chiefs of Staff of the IGAD countries on issues relating to the implementation of the Agreement, and we are ready to consider substantive proposals for the organization of the Regional Protection Force.
We have noted the first efforts of the South Sudanese to implement the revitalized Agreement, and we urge the country’s politicians to demonstrate goodwill in ensuring full compliance with its provisions. Ultimately, the welfare of ordinary South Sudanese depends on them.
We realize that the timetables agreed on by the parties are fairly ambitious, but the fact is that only complete and comprehensive fulfilment of their commitments will help to foster mutual trust among the parties and spare them a recurrence of the mistakes made in the efforts to achieve a South Sudanese settlement in the past.
