GUIDANCE: PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS DEBATE, JUNE 26

UNCLAS STATE 066557

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PHUM UNSC
SUBJECT: GUIDANCE: PROTECTION OF CIVILIANS DEBATE, JUNE 26


1. (U) This is an action request. USUN should draw from the
building blocks in para 2 during the open debate on the
protection of civilians in the Security Council on June 26.


2. (SBU) Begin building blocks:

Thank you, Mr. Holmes, for your briefing. I would also
like to thank the Secretary General for his comprehensive
report.

As the Secretary General's report notes, this year is the
tenth anniversary of the first debate on protection of
civilians in the Security Council. His report cites
actions that the Council has taken since then, but also
lays out the many challenges still ahead for the
international community to take the steps necessary to
protect civilians, in particular in translating the
Council's actions into "concrete improvements on the
ground."



The Secretary General has made a number of recommendations
in his report which this Council should review carefully
to be better able to promote protection of civilians in
armed conflict worldwide.

Civilian protection must be a core objective in all
military operations. The U.S. Government understands that
protection of civilians is a vital priority.

In Afghanistan, while Taliban and al Qaeda forces
deliberately employ tactics designed to increase the
number of innocent civilian deaths, the international
coalition continues to fight those Taliban and al Qaeda
forces with as few civilian casualties as possible. We
deeply regret every innocent civilian life that is lost.
U.S. forces serving in Afghanistan operate under rules and
orders designed to minimize civilian casualties, and we
will continue to review them to improve their
effectiveness. As U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates
said recently, we are making reduction of civilian
casualties in Afghanistan a priority. The new ISAF
commander in Afghanistan has made it clear he will move
quickly to implement this priority.

The United States believes that all nations must abide by
international humanitarian law. We are determined to act
to prevent violations of international humanitarian law
and committed to working with the international community
to defeat violence in a manner consistent with our values,
legal obligations, and ideals.

At the 2005 World Summit UN member states reached a mutual
understanding that all nations have the responsibility to
protect their civilian populations and that the
international community has a responsibility to protect
civilians when states are unwilling and unable to do so.
The Security Council reaffirmed this commitment in
Resolution 1674 and the Council has taken this principle
into account in its actions on Sudan and the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC).

Resolution 1674 also reaffirmed that ending impunity for
such violations of international humanitarian law is
essential for a society to come to terms with its past,
prevent future abuses, establish accountability, and
promote reconciliation. The United Nations is involved
in a number of efforts to promote accountability and end
impunity.

The war crimes tribunals for the Former Yugoslavia and
Rwanda, and the hybrid tribunals in Sierra Leone and
Cambodia, are actively prosecuting crimes involving
violations of international humanitarian law. As the
Secretary-General has rightly pointed out in his report,
to truly end impunity, we must help to establish
functioning judicial systems so that criminals may be
tried locally, and senior leadership can be held
responsible for atrocities committed in their respective
countries.

Mr. President, we must take special note of the most
vulnerable populations in conflict - including women and
children. In the Democratic Republic of Congo a decade of
fighting and hardship has left more than 5 million people
dead, and countless women and girls the victims of rape
and sexual exploitation. Sexual violence in this instance
is a weapon. This inexcusable sexual violence has been -
and continues to be - highly prevalent in a wide area in
the east of the country. It must be stopped. We are
redoubling our efforts to address the issue in all of its
aspects - from prevention measures, including efforts to
change attitudes about the status of women, to treatment
of victims, to better accountability for perpetrators.

We also welcome the steps taken to eliminate any
exploitation of vulnerable populations by peacekeeping
forces and relief organizations meant to assist and
protect them, but note that there are still unacceptably
frequent allegations of such abuse. In this regard, we
look forward to the Secretary General?s report on the
implementation of resolution 1820 on the issue of women,
peace and security. The Council must ensure that
provisions of this resolution, especially those related to
sexual violence, are implemented and that there are
clearly understood consequences if peacekeepers or relief
workers are themselves found guilty of such crimes.

Compulsory recruitment of child soldiers is, sadly, still a
reality, and we continue to see exploitation of children in
this way by armed groups in the Congo, Sudan, and elsewhere.
And now that the fighting has ended in Sri Lanka, we are
beginning to identify children who were forcibly recruited
into the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

We have witnessed too many instances in recent months
where governments and armed groups have not allowed
sufficient access to vulnerable populations. The
Secretary General's report rightly stresses the
fundamental nature of such access, and makes 15 specific
recommendations for Security Council action which we
should consider carefully. Some of these recommendations
state what should be obvious and agreed to by everyone,
such as the need to condemn all acts of violence against
humanitarian workers, allow safe passage for civilians
trying to flee conflict zones, and create conditions
conducive to safe humanitarian action. The United States
welcomes the report's annex detailing constraints on
humanitarian access, and we are certain that it will
become a useful tool in helping to ensure civilian
well-being.

In several instances, peacekeeping operations have been
asked to take on more robust mandates, with protection of
civilians as a priority. But peacekeepers must have
properly defined and realistic mandates and the
appropriate skills to fulfill their missions. The
Secretary General's report says that "the protection of
civilians" mandate in peacekeeping missions remains
largely undefined as both a military task and as a
mission-wide task.? Given this conclusion, we look
forward to the upcoming study by the Office for the
Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the
Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) - which we
understand will be released in July - on how best to put
guidelines for protection of civilians into actual
practice. We hope this will also provide guidance that
will help the Security Council when we consider renewing
the mandates of specific missions.

Peacekeepers must also receive adequate resources to do
the job. For example, the Secretary General's report
states that the African Union/UN Mission Hybrid Operation
in Darfur (UNAMID) is only at 67 percent of its military
strength, and excluding support units, the police
personnel are at only 38 percent of authorized strength.
That is unacceptable, given the magnitude of the
humanitarian crisis in Darfur and the urgent need to
protect innocent civilians trapped in the middle of the
warring parties.

Finally, I want to thank the Secretary-General for his
recommendations, which we will review carefully, and I
want to extend the United States' thanks and commendation
to the men and women of those UN agencies and NGOs whose
dedication and work on protection of civilians in the
context of humanitarian crises is critical to our ultimate
success.

End building blocks.
CLINTON