Speech: We do not advance peace by ignoring atrocities

Thank you very much Mr President. I’d like to join colleagues in welcoming our new colleague from Cote d’Ivoire. We look forward to working with you and thank Ambassador Alcide for his excellent cooperation in the interim.

Mr. President, we voted for the Resolution but listening to some of the Explanations of Vote round the chamber, an outside observer could be forgiven for thinking the Resolution was about the peace process. It is not a Resolution about the peace process. It’s a Resolution designed to protect the people of South Sudan. It imposes a long-needed arms embargo that will limit the flow of weapons that fuel the conflict in South Sudan and it imposes further targeted sanctions against two individuals whose acts have expanded and extended the conflict and caused immeasurable suffering to the people of South Sudan, both targets and military officials and there is decisive evidence of responsibility by them for human rights abuses.

It would be a very sad commentary on the prospects for peace if these two measures, designed to help the people of South Sudan, were allowed to get in the way and complicate the peace process. One cannot, one does not, advance peace by ignoring atrocities and in my experience if people are looking for a reason to resile from a peace process they will find one, regardless of whether or not the Council takes action to protect the people of that country.

So I would just like to set out very clearly that we expect the peace process to continue. We support the efforts of IGAD and the African Union and regional organisations to that end and we urge all the leaders in South Sudan to work with them to advance the peace process. Thank you.