Statement by Deputy Permanent Representative Anna Evstigneeva at an open VTC of UNSC members on South Sudan
Mme. President,
At the outset, let me congratulate the delegation of the United Kingdom on completion of its Presidency in the Security Council I February. We welcome Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield and wish to her a successful UNSC Presidency in the month of March.
We thank Special Representative of the Secretary-General David Shearer for his briefing on the situation in South Sudan.
We also listened carefully to the remarks of Ms. Jackline Nasiwa.
We would like to thank you, Mr.Shearer, for the tireless work that you have been doing these years for the benefit of the people of South Sudan. We wish to you every success in your future activities. Rest assured that Russia would keep supporting the Blue Helmets as an integral component of global efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation in South Sudan. We thank the countries that contribute troop and police contingents to the UN mission in this country.
We specifically highlight that the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS), upon authorization of the Security Council, promptly dispatched two company units and two helicopters to foster UN peacekeeping presence in the neighboring Central African Republic, which needed urgent assistance in the framework of the electoral process.
Mme. President,
Establishment of transition government of national unity and termination of “pretransitional” period have created the conditions necessary for moving towards political stability and national reconciliation. This has already led to a significant drop in violence and gradual improvement of the situation with humanitarian access.
We see that authorities in Juba gave the right response to the signals coming from the international community and regional mediators that called to speed up political settlement and state-building process. Therefore, we welcome decisions by the presidium of the republic on a number of key issues, among them finalization of the process that builds executive authorities at the states’ and counties’ level, endorsement of the composition of the new national transitional legislative assembly, formation of the first manpower unit of the joint armed forces that are being created at the moment. We expect soonest practical implementation of all these decisions.
We welcome that the South Sudanese sides were able to agree on a candidate for the office of governor of Upper Nile state. This should create a window of opportunity to overcome inter-communal disputes in the region.
Once the agreements are fully implemented, it will enhance mutual trust, avoid recurrence of the past mistakes. The sides should not lose the political will to find the common ground. We call on all non-signatories of the Revitalised Peace Agreement to join the state-building process with no delay.
We have concerns over reported inter-communal clashes in some parts of the country. We strongly condemn any violations of the ceasefire, acts of violence against civilians and the staff of humanitarian organizations deployed in South Sudan.
We welcome mediator efforts of the African Union, and Member States of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) that promote implementation of concrete provisions contained in the peace agreements. There needs to be unity of approaches, which will allow for observing the principle “African solutions – to the African problems”.
We call not to over-pressurize South Sudan with sanctions. We are convinced that while the situation normalizes, it will require us to review the sanctions regime in order to have it adapted to the reality on the ground. As envisaged by UNSC resolution 2521, we expect the Council to soon elaborate clear “target indicators”, which will allow for such a review of effective restrictions.
In general, we share the conclusions of the latest Secretary-General’s report regarding the developments in South Sudan. We are committed to constructive work aimed at ensuring UNMISS mandate renewed. At the same time, we believe the activity of peacekeepers in this country should focus on promotion of political settlement and creating conditions for providing humanitarian assistance to those in need.
Thank you.
