S/PV.5924
5924th meeting
Tuesday, 24 June 2008, 3.30 p.m.
New York
Peace and security in Africa
Mr. Ettalhi (Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) (spoke in Arabic): I should like to join those who spoke before me in welcoming to the Council His Excellency Mr. Dileita Mohamed Dileita, Prime Minister of the State of Djibouti. I take this opportunity to thank him for the warm welcome and generosity with which he received the Security Council mission in Djibouti earlier this month, as well as for the facilities offered to the mission for its meetings with the Somali parties. We thank His Excellency the Prime Minister for his statement to the Council today, and we also express our gratitude to the representative of Eritrea for his statement. Our thanks also go to Mr. Honwana for his briefing.
The Libyan Arab Jamahiriya expresses its deep sorrow and concern over the military confrontations that have recently taken place between two neighbouring countries that not only have ties of geographic proximity but also numerous other ties, so numerous that it is difficult to imagine any recourse to arms or force in order to resolve even the most profound differences.
Africa in general and the Horn of Africa in particular have long been paying a high price as a result of armed conflicts. That price has been paid in the lives of its men and women, in human suffering and in lost development opportunities. It is also unfortunate that while armed conflicts are receding everywhere else in the world, even in Africa, armed conflicts in Eastern Africa are only spreading and growing more intense.
Libya hopes that the Security Council, in cooperation with regional and subregional organizations, as the organ with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, will work towards putting an end to these conflicts and preventing their escalation by assisting the conflicting parties to reach a peaceful solution. I do not wish to say that the Council’s inability to settle the dispute between Ethiopia and Eritrea or to put an end to the instability and insecurity in Somalia might be among the reasons for the threat posed to peace along the border between Eritrea and Djibouti.
My country strongly condemns the use of force and the resort to arms. My country calls on the two friendly countries Djibouti and Eritrea to turn to dialogue, and we ask them to heed the call at the 136th meeting of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, as well as the Arab League resolution dated 12 June 2008 and the presidential statement (S/PRST/2008/20) issued by the Security Council at its 5908th meeting. We call upon both parties to return to the status quo on the borders before the crisis erupted.
My country reaffirms the principle of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States and stresses that any attempt to undermine that concept constitutes a threat to peace and security. My delegation reaffirms and recalls the need for African States to respect the borders inherited from the days of colonialism, which they voluntarily agreed to do within the framework of the Organization of African Unity, now the African Union.
We hope that the Council will look into resolving this issue by helping both parties to reach a political settlement.
In closing, we thank the French delegation for preparing the main elements of a verbal presidential briefing to the press, and we support them.
