New York:
Question: On behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association, thank you very much for holding this briefing and also we thank you for the sentiment expressed for our colleagues. My first question to you is, given the harrowing situation that exists in Egypt right now and that you were in that Middle East area, don’t you think if you could have gone to Egypt, your high moral authority could have somehow helped abate the situation in Egypt and could have avoided the killing of so many people. And that is one thing that people have been wanting, for you to exert your moral authority to end what is happening in Egypt. Thank you.
Secretary-General: I agree with your point. While we have really been exerting all our diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to support the people in Syria and to resolve the Syrian crisis by peaceful means through dialogue, at the same time our attention had to be focussed on the current situation in Egypt. So many people have been killed by violent protest and use of excessive force by the current authorities. I have strongly condemned such violent actions, and before this unacceptable situation had happened, I had been speaking to all the leaders of the Egyptian interim authorities and also leaders around the region. And, after that, I have been also speaking a lot with world leaders, even though I have not been releasing each and every telephone call of all diplomatic efforts. I have been doing all that I have had to do and finally, I decided to dispatch Under-Secretary-General [Jeffrey] Feltman to Egypt. I have been urging them that this not a time for retribution, this is a time for reconciliation. And whatever grievances might be there, these grievances and complaints by both sides should be resolved through dialogue. For that, I have been urging that political space for the Muslim Brotherhood should be expanded, because their political space has been very limited; by allowing Morsy to be freed, released and, if not, a transparent legal process should be taken. And all these efforts will have to continue. And I urge again the leadership of the current authorities and also leaders of political parties and all other society leaders, they should engage in dialogue. This is an Egyptian problem and the Egyptian people, they have the right, the responsibility to resolve by themselves for their better future. And I will continue to focus on that. As you know, finally, the Security Council last week took up this matter and I appreciate the Security Council for [putting] such good attention on that.
Question: Mr. Secretary-General, you mentioned that anyone who used chemical weapons, or found responsible for chemical weapons, must be held accountable. How do you intend to hold them accountable, since the mandate of the Ake Sellstrom mission is to find out whether chemical weapons have been used or not, but not to find out who used them. So do you intend to enlarge the mandate of this mission, to include finding out the identity of the culprit who used the chemical weapons? Otherwise, how can you implement accountability? Thank you.
Secretary-General: As you said, it is right that the current mandate of this expert team to investigate chemical weapons use does not have the authority to determine who has used against whom. They will have to determine, through their investigation, whether the chemical weapons were used. Then on the basis of their final and scientific and expert level investigation report, then it is up to, again, the international community to determine what course of action should be taken to prove this, first of all, accountability and what needs to be done. Under any circumstances, whatever the reasons may be, use of chemical weapons is a violation of international law and international human rights law. Thus those whoever might have used should be accountable. That is a firm principle.
Question: On Friday, you said to students that, at the United Nations, Israelis suffered from bias and discrimination sometimes. What do you, as Secretary-General, intend to do about it and can you elaborate - what did you mean by that?
Secretary-General: During my visit to Palestine and Israel, I had quite moving experiences of meeting young students. In Ramallah, I had a videoconference with students joining from Gaza and there were many students from the West Bank. And in Jerusalem I had quite a number of young students who came to Government House. Discussing and exchanging views with the young people was quite inspiring and moving and I was able to learn what their aspirations and what their challenges and their frustrations were. Later, I found that, in one case, what had happened was that incitement against Israelis and Jews by a certain group of people at the summer camp. This was raised and reported. And this investigation is going on. But the United Nations doesn’t have any role in that. It was simply a summer camp conducted in UNRWA [UN Relief and Works Agency] facilities. The investigation is going on.
Now, incitement against any group of people or any religion or tradition and disrespect against any traditions and region and people, ethnic group is unacceptable.
We are living in an interconnected world, a very diversified society. You are coming from all different countries, Member States. They have all their own different unique traditions and understandings and history - so all these traditions should be fully respected. That is why the United Nations has launched the Alliance of Civilizations. Through this initiative, we have been really trying to promote mutual understanding, better understanding and respect for others. When we have experienced many conflicts here and there, I think it is all the more important at this time to fully appreciate and respect other traditions and understandings and history.
Question: But you said that at the UN there was discrimination against Israel according to quotes that I saw.
Secretary-General: No, I don’t think there is discrimination against Israel at the United Nations. There may be some what I can say… the Israeli Government in fact, you know, raised this issue that [there’s] some bias against Israel. But Israel is one of the 193 Member States, thus Israel should have equal rights and opportunities without having any bias, any discrimination. That’s a fundamental principle of the United Nations Charter and thus Israel should be fully given such rights.
Question: Thank you Mr. Secretary-General. A different topic completely - Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe will be inaugurated for the seventh time this coming Thursday. I wonder if you sent him your warm congratulations. What are your thoughts on whether it was a free and fair election in Zimbabwe and what do you make of SADC’s [South African Development Community] call this weekend for sanctions against Mugabe and some of his senior officials that those sanctions be lifted?
Secretary-General: For any sanctions imposed upon Zimbabwe is something which needs to be discussed and done by the Member States, by, you know, intergovernmental bodies. For the democratic process in Zimbabwe, I had been urging the Government of Zimbabwe and President Mugabe himself, on many occasions, that there should be fair and credible elections, there should be full respect for human rights and they should accelerate more to improve the well-being of their people. That has been my consistent message. I have taken note of the election which was held recently. I know that there have been some assessments by different groups of monitors and I hope that all these controversies or current assessments should fully reflect the will of the people, in line with international democratic principles.
United
Nations is alarmed by ongoing developments and the widespread outbreak of
violent protests and excessive use of force in Egypt and has strongly condemned
attacks on churches, hospitals and other public facilities in the country.
Addressing
a press conference at New York, UN Secretary general Ban Ki-moon said that there
is no justification for targeting civilians or destroying infrastructure and
property so important for Egypt's future.
”Preventing further loss of life should be the highest priority. I urge all Egyptians to exercise maximum restraint and resolve differences peacefully. With such sharp polarization in Egyptian society, both the authorities and the political leaders share the responsibility for ending the current violence. They should spare no effort to swiftly adopt a credible plan to contain the violence and revive the political process hijacked by violence,” he said.
The United Nations stands ready to support Egyptian-led approaches to resolving the current crisis. “I have asked the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeff Feltman, to hold wide-ranging discussions in Cairo starting from tomorrow with a focus on how the United Nations can best support initiatives to restore peace and forge reconciliation in Egypt,” he said.
”Preventing further loss of life should be the highest priority. I urge all Egyptians to exercise maximum restraint and resolve differences peacefully. With such sharp polarization in Egyptian society, both the authorities and the political leaders share the responsibility for ending the current violence. They should spare no effort to swiftly adopt a credible plan to contain the violence and revive the political process hijacked by violence,” he said.
The United Nations stands ready to support Egyptian-led approaches to resolving the current crisis. “I have asked the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Jeff Feltman, to hold wide-ranging discussions in Cairo starting from tomorrow with a focus on how the United Nations can best support initiatives to restore peace and forge reconciliation in Egypt,” he said.
He
also said that United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of
Chemical Weapons in the Syria began its work on Tuesday. As agreed with the
Government, the team will conduct its activities in the country for up to 14
days. That period can be extended by mutual consent, he added.
The Mission will contemporaneously investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons reported by the Government of Syria at Khan al-Asal as well as two other allegations of the use of chemical weapons reported by member states.
”In order to credibly establish the facts, the Mission must have full access to the sites of the alleged incidents. This includes access to the reported sites to undertake the necessary analyses and to collect samples. It also includes interviews and examination of witnesses, victims, attending medical personnel as well as the conduct of post-mortem examinations,” he added.
”The serious security situation inside the country will undoubtedly affect the Mission’s activities in Syria. Despite these circumstances, I have full confidence in the professionalism of Dr. Sellström and his expert team,” the UN secretary general said.
”This is the first probe of allegations of the use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century. I firmly believe that an effective mechanism to investigate allegations of the possible use of chemical weapons will help deter their future use,” he added.
The use of chemical weapons by any side under any circumstances must be held accountable and would constitute an international crime. Anyone responsible must be held accountable, he said.
Q&A:
The Mission will contemporaneously investigate the alleged use of chemical weapons reported by the Government of Syria at Khan al-Asal as well as two other allegations of the use of chemical weapons reported by member states.
”In order to credibly establish the facts, the Mission must have full access to the sites of the alleged incidents. This includes access to the reported sites to undertake the necessary analyses and to collect samples. It also includes interviews and examination of witnesses, victims, attending medical personnel as well as the conduct of post-mortem examinations,” he added.
”The serious security situation inside the country will undoubtedly affect the Mission’s activities in Syria. Despite these circumstances, I have full confidence in the professionalism of Dr. Sellström and his expert team,” the UN secretary general said.
”This is the first probe of allegations of the use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century. I firmly believe that an effective mechanism to investigate allegations of the possible use of chemical weapons will help deter their future use,” he added.
The use of chemical weapons by any side under any circumstances must be held accountable and would constitute an international crime. Anyone responsible must be held accountable, he said.
Q&A:
Question: On behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association, thank you very much for holding this briefing and also we thank you for the sentiment expressed for our colleagues. My first question to you is, given the harrowing situation that exists in Egypt right now and that you were in that Middle East area, don’t you think if you could have gone to Egypt, your high moral authority could have somehow helped abate the situation in Egypt and could have avoided the killing of so many people. And that is one thing that people have been wanting, for you to exert your moral authority to end what is happening in Egypt. Thank you.
Secretary-General: I agree with your point. While we have really been exerting all our diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to support the people in Syria and to resolve the Syrian crisis by peaceful means through dialogue, at the same time our attention had to be focussed on the current situation in Egypt. So many people have been killed by violent protest and use of excessive force by the current authorities. I have strongly condemned such violent actions, and before this unacceptable situation had happened, I had been speaking to all the leaders of the Egyptian interim authorities and also leaders around the region. And, after that, I have been also speaking a lot with world leaders, even though I have not been releasing each and every telephone call of all diplomatic efforts. I have been doing all that I have had to do and finally, I decided to dispatch Under-Secretary-General [Jeffrey] Feltman to Egypt. I have been urging them that this not a time for retribution, this is a time for reconciliation. And whatever grievances might be there, these grievances and complaints by both sides should be resolved through dialogue. For that, I have been urging that political space for the Muslim Brotherhood should be expanded, because their political space has been very limited; by allowing Morsy to be freed, released and, if not, a transparent legal process should be taken. And all these efforts will have to continue. And I urge again the leadership of the current authorities and also leaders of political parties and all other society leaders, they should engage in dialogue. This is an Egyptian problem and the Egyptian people, they have the right, the responsibility to resolve by themselves for their better future. And I will continue to focus on that. As you know, finally, the Security Council last week took up this matter and I appreciate the Security Council for [putting] such good attention on that.
Question: Mr. Secretary-General, you mentioned that anyone who used chemical weapons, or found responsible for chemical weapons, must be held accountable. How do you intend to hold them accountable, since the mandate of the Ake Sellstrom mission is to find out whether chemical weapons have been used or not, but not to find out who used them. So do you intend to enlarge the mandate of this mission, to include finding out the identity of the culprit who used the chemical weapons? Otherwise, how can you implement accountability? Thank you.
Secretary-General: As you said, it is right that the current mandate of this expert team to investigate chemical weapons use does not have the authority to determine who has used against whom. They will have to determine, through their investigation, whether the chemical weapons were used. Then on the basis of their final and scientific and expert level investigation report, then it is up to, again, the international community to determine what course of action should be taken to prove this, first of all, accountability and what needs to be done. Under any circumstances, whatever the reasons may be, use of chemical weapons is a violation of international law and international human rights law. Thus those whoever might have used should be accountable. That is a firm principle.
Question: On Friday, you said to students that, at the United Nations, Israelis suffered from bias and discrimination sometimes. What do you, as Secretary-General, intend to do about it and can you elaborate - what did you mean by that?
Secretary-General: During my visit to Palestine and Israel, I had quite moving experiences of meeting young students. In Ramallah, I had a videoconference with students joining from Gaza and there were many students from the West Bank. And in Jerusalem I had quite a number of young students who came to Government House. Discussing and exchanging views with the young people was quite inspiring and moving and I was able to learn what their aspirations and what their challenges and their frustrations were. Later, I found that, in one case, what had happened was that incitement against Israelis and Jews by a certain group of people at the summer camp. This was raised and reported. And this investigation is going on. But the United Nations doesn’t have any role in that. It was simply a summer camp conducted in UNRWA [UN Relief and Works Agency] facilities. The investigation is going on.
Now, incitement against any group of people or any religion or tradition and disrespect against any traditions and region and people, ethnic group is unacceptable.
We are living in an interconnected world, a very diversified society. You are coming from all different countries, Member States. They have all their own different unique traditions and understandings and history - so all these traditions should be fully respected. That is why the United Nations has launched the Alliance of Civilizations. Through this initiative, we have been really trying to promote mutual understanding, better understanding and respect for others. When we have experienced many conflicts here and there, I think it is all the more important at this time to fully appreciate and respect other traditions and understandings and history.
Question: But you said that at the UN there was discrimination against Israel according to quotes that I saw.
Secretary-General: No, I don’t think there is discrimination against Israel at the United Nations. There may be some what I can say… the Israeli Government in fact, you know, raised this issue that [there’s] some bias against Israel. But Israel is one of the 193 Member States, thus Israel should have equal rights and opportunities without having any bias, any discrimination. That’s a fundamental principle of the United Nations Charter and thus Israel should be fully given such rights.
Question: Thank you Mr. Secretary-General. A different topic completely - Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe will be inaugurated for the seventh time this coming Thursday. I wonder if you sent him your warm congratulations. What are your thoughts on whether it was a free and fair election in Zimbabwe and what do you make of SADC’s [South African Development Community] call this weekend for sanctions against Mugabe and some of his senior officials that those sanctions be lifted?
Secretary-General: For any sanctions imposed upon Zimbabwe is something which needs to be discussed and done by the Member States, by, you know, intergovernmental bodies. For the democratic process in Zimbabwe, I had been urging the Government of Zimbabwe and President Mugabe himself, on many occasions, that there should be fair and credible elections, there should be full respect for human rights and they should accelerate more to improve the well-being of their people. That has been my consistent message. I have taken note of the election which was held recently. I know that there have been some assessments by different groups of monitors and I hope that all these controversies or current assessments should fully reflect the will of the people, in line with international democratic principles.
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