Notes following briefing to media on South Africa’s Tenure on the Uinted Nations Security Council by Chief Director Xolisa Mabhongo Media Centre, Union Buildings, Pretoria hursday 24 January 2008

Remarks by Chief Director Xolisa Mabhongo

South African completed its first year of our two year tenure as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) at the end of December 2007.

We have just concluded a review of the work we had done in the first year of our membership of the UNSC as well as to begin preparations for the second year of our membership.

In the review we assessed the work we had done against the background of some of the objectives and priorities we had set ourselves. We also identified some of the issues we feel we may want to follow up during this second and last year of our membership.

We also looked at some of the issues that are currently on the agenda of the UNSC – maybe we can talk about this later on.

Ladies and gentlemen, overall, our assessment indicates that South Africa has been actively involved in a wide range of issues that are on the agenda of the UNSC. We have been able to make inputs and participate in all the discussions that have been on the agenda of the UNSC. This may seem to be a straightforward matter but it is not always a given that a non-permanent member of the UNSC will be able to effectively participate and engage on all the agenda items. This is because, primarily and as you will be aware, non-permanent members serve on the UNSC for two years and at irregular intervals. This was the first time that South Africa served as a non-permanent member of the UNSC. Non-permanent members usually lack the institutional memory regarding agenda items of the UNSC. Secondly, the traditions of the UNSC themselves sometimes do not allow for non-permanent members to be effective on the range of procedural, technical and political issues that are on the agenda of the UNSC. However, we do therefore believe that it has been important and significant that South Africa has been able, during this first year, to participate actively and effectively on the wide array of the UNSC’s agenda.

But we also did this consciously, as part of our strategy, because we were informed by our understanding that the UNSC membership obviously confers global responsibilities on all its members. As you know, members of the UNSC serve on the Council on behalf of the 191 members of the United Nations. So we understood this to be our responsibility: we should be able to, as a country, participate effectively on every agenda item on the UNSC.

Now, in relation to some of the African issues that are on the agenda of the UNSC, we have also noted in our review that our involvement and the work we had done in the Council complemented some of the direct foreign policy priorities of South Africa – viz. when we dealt with some of the African conflict situations such as Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo – this was complementary to the work we were already doing as a country.

As you are aware, even before South Africa became a member of the UNSC and even after the expiry of our tenure in the UNSC, we will continue to be engaged on the range of these African issues.

So, our assessment has been that we have been able to complement our foreign policy objectives through this work that we have undertaken in the UNSC.

Another area that I can perhaps highlight – one that has been important for us – is that we have again been instrumental as a country in revitalising the discussion within the UNSC on how to enhance the relationship between the UN and the African Union in particular the UNSC and the African Union Peace and Security Council. As you know, the AU Peace and Security Council and the UNSC have overlapping mandates. The same issues that are dealt with in the context of the AU Peace and Security Council are some of the issues dealt with in the UNSC. As South Africa, we therefore took this initiative to see how the relationship between the UN and the AU could be enhanced.

During South Africa’s presidency in March 2007 of the UNSC, we chose to focus on the theme of enhancing this relationship between the UN and the AU.

Another area that I could highlight: we also during 2007 undertook an initiative, together with the government of Slovakia, who are also non-permanent members of the UNSC, to try to promote African perspectives on Security Sector Reform (SSR). As you know, SSR is something that is happening in many African countries. Most of the experiments on SSR – the positive and the negative – have been taking place in Africa. However, when we go to international meetings on SSR – at the UN or in other fora – we discover that there is a lack of the appreciation of African concerns, there is a lack of an African voice and input in the discussions on SSR.

We then worked with Slovakia on this area to ensure that whatever global discussions take place on SSR also informed by the African perspective and the views of African countries. This is an ongoing process, we are going to continue working on this during the second year of our presidency.

Maybe just to highlight, following the review we had undertaken, some of the areas we considered to be achievements by South Africa in the UNSC: in June 2007 we had the honour of co-leading, together with the United Kingdom who is a permanent member of the UNSC, a UNSC to three African countries – Sudan, to the AU and to Ghana in its capacity as Chair of the African Union. We will come back to this when I talk about our preparations for South Africa’s 2008 presidency of the UNSC. You will see the significance of South Africa co-leading this visit of the UNSC to these three countries.

You will also be aware, that during our presidency of the UNSC, the UNSC for the first time managed to adopt a Presidential statement on the role of women in peace and security. Again, South Africa has always considered the role of women in peace and security as a very important one. We have always maintained that women should not just be seen as victims whenever a conflict occurs. There is a very determined and proactive role that women can play in this area. So, we count this as one of the achievements of our first year on the UNSC – to ensure that the UNSC recognises in a proactive way the important role of women in peace and security.

We also had an opportunity, as a country during the first year of our tenure, to be the UNSC leader on Timor L’este. As you know, there is usually a country nominated to take care of each of the agenda items on the UNSC. In 2007, South Africa had the opportunity to be the UNSC leader on Timor L’este. What this meant was that any Security Council resolution and discussion on Timor L’este was informed by our own initiatives. We lead the UNSC on any statement and/or resolution that had to be adopted on Timor L’este in 2007. We prepared and drafted those.

Timor L’este is a very important country to South Africa for many historical reasons so from a bilateral perspective, it was important that South Africa be the one who was given this responsibility in 2007. We also used this to ensure that during the elections held in Timor L’este in 2007, from a bilateral perspective, South Africa was represented in the monitoring of those elections.

Another concrete achievement that can be highlighted for South Africa is that for a long time the UNSC was not able to take action on the issue of small arms. Under the South African presidency we managed to ensure the UNSC adopts a proactive and forward looking declaration on small arms. Small arms and light weapons are causing a lot of havoc, in Africa, in particular so it is an important and fundamental issue for South Africa with regard to Africa, multilaterally and bilaterally. It was significant that we were able to use our membership of the UNSC to again highlight and profile the issue of small arms.

Now, looking towards 2008 I will highlight the following: we will continue to be actively engaged on the issues that are on the agenda of the UNSC. As I have said, this is also a strategic issue for South Africa. It is important that we should fulfil our obligations in this regard.

So we will continue to be actively engaged in the whole spectrum of issues on the agenda of the UNSC as our own contribution to the maintenance of international peace and security. We will also continue to use the UNSC seat to complement our own foreign policy objectives especially on those issues that are closer to us in Africa. Some of the issues that will continue to be discussed are Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan – the two tracks which include the Darfur situation and the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), Somalia, Western Sahara, Guinea Bissau.

Beyond Africa, South Africa will continue to engage on the other issues – Middle East, Asia, Timor L’este, the Balkans, Kosovo, Iran and others.

It is our determination we should continue to make a constructive and visible mark in assisting the work of the UNSC.

The other point I could make is that we commit ourselves to continue engaging with the media and other sectors of South African civil society to enhance the understanding of some of the positions South Africa has been taking and those will be taking in the year ahead.

The Presidency of the Security Council: we had our first Presidency of the UNSC in March 2007. Our second Presidency will be in April 2008. What we are planning to do in our presidency is to again develop on the work we have done in 2007 – viz. to look into what we can further do to enhance this relationship between the UNSC and regional organisations, particularly the African Union.

Just to again recall: what we did in our 2007 presidency under the Chairmanship of Minister Dlamini Zuma – the UNSC called for the UN Secretary-General to produce a report that would make concrete proposals on how this relationship between the UN and the AU in particular can be enhanced. This report is currently being finalised so what we are therefore thinking is that it would be opportune that during our second presidency in April 2008 that we try to get the UNSC to consider some of those recommendations that would be made in the report on the UNSG and perhaps take some action.

When we began this in 2007 our idea was to come up with concrete ideas, not just to get into a theoretical debate about the UN and regional organisations and particularly the AU. We hope this report of the UNSG is going to help us articulate some of our ideas and therefore our idea is that in the April presidency we can assess if any action needs to be taken on these issues.

The second issue that is relevant for our presidency in April: you will remember that during the visit to of the visit South Africa co-led of the UNSC to Africa in 2007, one of the decisions taken was that there will be an annual meeting of the UNSC and the AU Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa and New York alternately. The meeting in Addis Ababa as the first of these interactions between the UNSC and the AU Peace and Security Council. We are deliberating internally but it would be our intention to consult with members of the AU Peace and Security Council and members of the UNSC to see if we can again bring these two councils together in a common meeting. We think there is much to benefit from a dynamic engagement between the UNSC and the AU Peace and Security Council.

In 2008 South Africa will be involved in leadership of the following subsidiary bodies of the UNSC: we are going to chair the UNSC Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention in Africa. If you look at the work of this working group you will notice it again dovetails with some of the work and issues we are beginning to identify as areas of focus in 2008.

We will be the vice-chair of the subsidiary bodies dealing with Côte d’Ivoire as well as the one dealing with Liberia. As you know, both Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia have been very prominent in the work of the UNSC with the UNSC constantly looking at ways in which the international community can accompany these two countries as they undergo the transitions.

Some of the areas that are going to be on the agenda of the UNSC: the DRC continues to be an important agenda item. The issue of Somalia continues to be a very important agenda item of the UNSC. Sudan, the two tracks which include the Darfur situation and the implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the North and the South. These are some of the items on the agenda.

Off course, the issue of Kosovo is an issue that was discussed in December and there will be another discussion on this issue in February 2008.

As you know there was an issue in the UNSC last week on the next visit of Professor Gambari to Myanmar – so those are some of the issues ladies and gentlemen that will be on the agenda.

The other important issue for South Africa in 2008 will be the visit to South Africa by the UNSC’s Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate. What they do is to bring to a country a multi-disciplinary team of officials who are going to assess the country’s capacities and compliance with UNSC counter terrorism resolutions as well as to assess our systems broadly, as a country, to see whether we have systems that are adequate to the fight against terrorism. This team normally consists of organisations like the international civil aviation authority to look at our systems around airports, etc; it will include organisations like global organisations dealing with customs; it will include regional organisations like the EU, SADC. This is a comprehensive assessment of whether South Africa has the correct and adequate systems to fight terrorism and once they come to a country they present a report to the UNSC on what they have observed. So we are working with the UN on this to ascertain when it would be appropriate for them to visit. But obviously this is a very important visit for any country because a visit of this type and report of this nature can have reputational risks for any country that gets visited so it is important that we prepare well for it and we ensure our systems are in place. For instance, the country’s 2010 preparations include an anti-terrorism plan so it is important that we should get a good report from this visit.

Thank you

Questions and answers

Question At the beginning of our tenure, the South African government said that Zimbabwe would not come before the UNSC – are you still confident that this is the case?

Answer The position of the South African government in this regard remains the same as last year, viz. that the UNSC must concern itself with matters related to the preservation of international peace and security.

Question What is happening regarding Kenya – will it come before the UNSC?

Answer This was addressed quite extensively by Deputy Minister Pahad in his media briefing last week. We reiterate what he said in that South Africa is following developments in the country including the ongoing mediation efforts and I think it may be too early to say if it will come before the UNSC. All indications at the moment suggest that this is something that is being discussed by the parties together with the various international mediators. The latest as I understand it is that the former UNSG Kofi Anna is in Kenya seeking to have talks with all parties.

Question Regarding the visit by the UNSC’s Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate – for how long has this been going on and which other countries have been visited?

Answer Most of the work of the UNSC on counter-terrorism has been given impetus by the events of 09/11 – therefore most of the work of the UNSC in this regard follows 09/11. The CTED has been visiting a number of countries. They have visited Nigeria, India, Indonesia to name a few. They are therefore visiting a wide spectrum of countries but obviously for South Africa, we would like the visits to be more representative and not just developing countries. We would want to see balance because if you are talking about global terrorism, it is not a matter for developing countries only. A perception can be created that developing countries are the weak link in global counter-terrorism efforts. This is disputable if you look at the situation in the world. So, we would want to see the CTED doing visits to all parts of the world.

Question What is the recommendation you are looking from the report by the UNSG regarding synergies between the UN and regional organizations?

Answer Regarding the matter of synergies between the UN and regional organizations – in January 2007, the AU Summit deliberated upon this matter and they came up with a very concrete idea around, for example, the financing of peacekeeping operations. As you know, the AU had initiated peacekeeping missions – AMIS in Darfur and AMISOM in Somalia or the peacekeeping mission in Burundi lead by South Africa.

One of the weaknesses identified in the AU’s operations is the limitation in terms of resources. So what the AU suggested is that the UNSC and the UN in general should consider financing the AU peacekeeping missions from the regular budget of the UN. So this was a proposal from the AU and off course, as AU members within the UNSC, we thought to advance this objective.

What we then foresee is that perhaps the report on the UNSG might present options regarding how the UN could consider financing peace operations of regional organizations.

This is with regard to funding.

On other areas where we think that the report of the UNSG might comment on is on how to complement mediation efforts. As you know, the UN at the moment is trying to enhance its capacity for mediation, conflict prevention, etc.

The AU is doing the same thing – so we think there may be proposals on how the two organizations can complement their efforts.

So these are the areas we think there may be proposals. We as member states will then assess these proposals and determine how to proceed.

Question Regarding Iran – is another round of sanctions being proposed? What is South Africa’s view on another round of sanctions?

Answer I believe there were news reports yesterday indicating that the P5 + Germany had agreed on a draft text that would be presented to the UNSC. Our position is that we cannot make many comments until we assess the nature of the text presented to the UNSC. We must await the contents of this draft text.

Question South Africa’s first year in the UNSC was characterized by criticism of its positions and the perception that South Africa favoured the positions of countries associated with human rights abuses like Zimbabwe and Myanmar. What view did your review take on this matter?

Answer It is important to note that, going backwards, that what is currently happening in the UNSC with regard to, for instance, Myanmar is what South Africa had recommended.

If you recall, we had said it was important that the Special Envoy of the UNSG, Prof Ibrahim Gambari engage on this issue. We did not think it was appropriate for the UNSC to be the lead on this matter. What we have seen in the last few months is that the little progress that has occurred with regard to Myanmar has been the result of the work of Prof Gambari and his engagement with the parties in Myanmar.

Secondly, South Africa has made this point very clearly – even bilaterally – you will remember that when there was the rioting in Myanmar, Deputy Minister van der Merwe called in the Ambassador of Myanmar to make South Africa’s deep misgivings about the situation.

What I am trying to say is that South Africa’s position on Myanmar, considering what is now happening in the country, is almost vindicated in the way that the major activities in the country are taking place around the work of the UNSG’s Special Envoy.

In terms of whether we can do better to clarify our positions, yes I think we can do more in this regard. Our review to make this point.

Issued by Department of Foreign Affairs
Private Bag X152
Pretoria
0001

24 January 2008