Explanation of vote by Chargé d'Affaires of the Russian Federation Dmitry Polyanskiy after UNSC vote on a draft resolution on renewal of the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti
Mr. President,
We must say that again, endorsement of this draft resolution did not come easy to UNSC members. We believe the problem is that words do not correspond to actions.
Everyone says how important prompt political settlement in Haiti is, because without this settlement there can be no solutions to other problems, including the most urgent of them – improvement of security situation. At the same time, neither Secretary-General’s reports, nor positions of some Council members indicate any readiness to take concrete steps to encourage Haitian stakeholders to establish dialogue as soon as possible.
Same can be said about countering the uncontrolled influx of arms to the country, which then ends up in the hands of ravaging gangs. Everyone seems to realize that this problem has gone completely off scale, however there is no eagerness to take targeted measures to address it.
Against this backdrop, when it comes to such countries as Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, you desperately cling to preserving sanctions regimes, even though they impede efforts that seek to ensure that national enforcement bodies in those countries are properly equipped and provided for. What is it then if not double standards?
Even the duration of the mandate of the special political mission in Haiti was a stumbling block. I remind that Security Council also has on its agenda such country as Cyprus, where the situation is far not as alarming as in Haiti. Nevertheless, the mandate of UNFICYP is renewed once every six months, which lets us keep an ear to the ground. But when it comes to Haiti, some of us believe that the less often we set eyes on the rapidly deteriorating situation in that country the better.
We are convinced that with such an approach, we can hardly speak of effective assistance to Haitians in addressing their problems.
What else makes us think whether the Council has taken the right course is the fact that increasingly more Haitians now say that BINUH has come to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
One thing we can say for sure. Without an urgent and broad dialogue that should define ways out of the crisis and related terms acceptable for all Haitians, all the other knots cannot be untied. That is why we believe the main task of BINUH is promoting political dialogue. Whereas the Security Council must make sure that in the long run, its decisions should grant the Haitians an opportunity to solve their problems by themselves and without external patronage. We will help this process through all available means.
Proceeding from this, we decided to not object to the adoption of this resolution. We hope that the reinforced text of this document will let the United Nations be more effective on the ground in Haiti.
Thank you.