Statement delivered by Ambassador Inigo Lambertini, Deputy Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations and President of the Security Council, at the Security Council briefing on UNMISS and the situation in South Sudan —
I wish to thank ASG Keita for her briefing. We reiterate our appreciation and support to UNMISS and its leadership in their efforts to increase the protection of civilians and contribute to restoring peace and stability in South Sudan.
I will focus my statement on three aspects: the humanitarian situation; UNMISS and the Regional Protection Force; and the political process.
As the fighting continues, the humanitarian situation remains tragic. The people of South Sudan is paying the highest price for four years of inconclusive, man-made conflict. Every day, displacement and hunger are condemning the youth of South Sudan to see their hopes for waning and disappearing.
Tomorrow’s women and men of South Sudan are doomed to die or escape the country, instead of being allowed to study or work for improving their country. This was not the promise the new-born South Sudan made to them just six years ago. This is completely the opposite.
We continue to receive multiple reports on attacks on humanitarian workers and violations of the SOFA . We have also learnt that President Kiir has ordered to remove all restrictions to the humanitarian access. We urge all parties, especially the Government, to be consistent with that order and fulfill their international commitments too.
UNMISS must be allowed to enforce its presence where the civilians need it most: Upper Nile, Bahr-el-Ghazal, Unity State, Equatoria. In this regard the full deployment of the Regional Protection Force cannot be postponed indefinitely. Despite some recent progress, one year after its establishment the RPF has still to be allowed to fully operate in Juba.
Turning to the political process, we have been fully supporting the efforts made by IGAD to revitalize the Peace Agreement. Indeed, the crisis in South Sudan needs to be contextualized in the regional dimension. It can be genuinely solved by regional guidance only.
The outcome of the IGAD preliminary consultations is a promising starting point for the upcoming High-level Forum. The exercise has so far been led inclusively, to the extent that all the stakeholders have agreed to participate to the Forum. We commend the regional actors for their efforts. We also encourage the South Sudanese stakeholders to invest in the IGAD process in the most serious manner.
We appreciate the recent endorsement by the Transitional Government of South Sudan to incorporate the draft amendment bill on the Agreement into the 2011 Transitional Constitution. We hope that the Transitional National Legislative Assembly will responsibly approve the bill by mid-December, as expected.
The Peace and Security Council of the African Union made it clear the potential further course of action, if the IGAD exercise will fail or be postponed due to the unwillingness to find peaceful solutions to this situation that gravely affects regional stability.
As co-Chair of the IGAD Partners Forum, Italy will continue to do its part for the success of the High-level Forum and to help restore peace in the country.
