Central African Republic, 2013

The theme chosen for the sixty-eighth

session of the General Assembly is “The post-2015

development agenda: setting the stage”. The attainment

of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in the

Central African Republic has been compromised as a

result of the crisis that we are going through. I shall

therefore devote my statement entirely to the situation

that prevails in my country.

As national leaders gather here in New York to share

their concerns in a world where violence, hate, extreme

poverty and armed conflict are ever more present and

a miserable generation lives in indescribable suffering,

I have the onerous duty of taking the floor as Prime

Minister and Head of the Transitional Government

of National Unity of the Central African Republic to

address, from this lofty rostrum at the United Nations,

the human tragedy afflicting the people of my country,

whose suffering seems to have been forgotten by the

international community.

At the outset, I and my delegation would like to

convey to Mr. John W. Ashe our heartfelt congratulations

on his election to serve as President of the General

Assembly at its sixty-eighth session. I also wish to

acknowledge the remarkable work carried out under

the leadership of Mr. Vuk Jeremi., his predecessor.

In addition, I wish to express my utmost gratitude to

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for his energy and

pragmatism and, in particular, for the special attention

that he continually pays to my country and its people.

I must also pay well-deserved tribute to the Heads

of State of the Economic Community of West African

States and of the Central African Economic and

Monetary Community, who unfailingly come to my

country’s aid as it suffers from multiple crises, and to the

United Nations, the European Union, the International

Organization of la Francophonie and France for their

unflagging support to the Central African Republic

in these very trying times. Our thanks go, too, to the

United States Government, which has been fighting

with us side by side against the Lord’s Resistance Army

(LRA) of Joseph Kony.

The terrible news of the terrorist attack in Nairobi

reached us as we gathered here in New York. My

country condemns that and other senseless attacks and

expresses its condolences to the afflicted families and

to the Kenyan people.

The tragedy affecting the Syrian people for more

than two years demands action from the international

community. The use of chemical weapons against the

civilian population must be strongly condemned. That

is why my country supports the actions under way to

dismantle the chemical arsenal in Syria, with emphasis

on a diplomatic resolution of that crisis.

While Africa has the dubious honour of

distinguishing itself by the acts of violence of all sorts

that occur there, the continent still gives us grounds

for hope. Only a few days ago, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita

was elected President of Mali, a country in the throes

of a crisis that has undermined its national unity. We

convey to him our warmest congratulations and our

inexhaustible encouragement in his efforts to restore

peace and sow the seeds of democracy in his country.

In the half-century of its independence, the

Central African Republic has experienced a series

of cyclical political and military crises, which have

led to a succession of political regimes. The decades

of recurrent crisis have created constant instability,

which has led to the disintegration of the State. The

home-grown causes of this situation derive from the

fragility of the State, a lack of political dialogue, a

failure to abide by commitments in the management of

public affairs, a refusal to let go of power, tribalism,

nepotism and the politics of exclusion. In addition,

there are now phenomena previously unheard of in the

Central African Republic — impassioned inter-ethnic

and interreligious tensions that remind us of the

tragedies suffered by other African countries.

The external causes are due to the collateral effects

of the crises in Darfur and Libya, as well as the long

conflict in the Sudan, which led to the independence of

South Sudan; the conflict in the Democratic Republic

of the Congo; the actions of residual groups of former

Chadian rebels; and the terrorist activities of Joseph

Kony’s LRA in the south-east of the country. The

various disturbances have led to the circulation of

a large quantity of military weapons of all calibres

throughout our country. Those weapons have gravely

impaired the security and the humanitarian situation in

the Central African Republic and led to serious human

rights violations; massacres of civilian populations;

kidnappings; summary executions; mass rapes;

large-scale pillaging and arson, including the burning

of private houses, public buildings and grain silos; the

desecration of places of worship; and the degradation of

natural resources and wildlife.

The Central African Republic is thus faced

with multifaceted challenges that require immediate

action to restore the security of people and property

throughout the territory. There must be protection of

and humanitarian assistance to vulnerable sectors of the

population, including internally displaced persons and

refugees. State administration must be re-established

throughout our territory. We also need to restore social

cohesion and national harmony. We must revive our

economy, manage public finances and organize general

elections. In accordance with the commitments made

to the Heads of State and Government of the Economic

Community of Central African States (ECCAS), the

Government plans to establish conditions for a return

to security, peace and constitutional order by 2015.

The goal at the end of the period of peaceful

transition, which every citizen in the Central African

Republic longs for, is a country where peace and security

are guaranteed in all sectors of political, economic and

social life, where disarmament, demobilization and

reintegration are successfully managed and where free,

transparent and credible elections are held, thereby

ensuring the designation of legitimate authorities in the

contry.

In compliance with the commitments made in the

11 January 2013 Libreville Agreement and the 18 April

2013 N’Djamena Declaration, under the auspices of

the Heads of State of ECCAS, we have established

transitional institutions, including the Government

of National Unity, in which due regard is paid to

geographical and political balance; and the National

Transitional Council, a legislative and constituent

transitional body. We have adopted a constitutional

transitional charter and an organization act relating

to the transitional constitutional court. We have also

appointed and sworn in the members of the court, and

the Head of State of the transition has now taken his

oath of office. The last institution, namely, the high

communications council, will soon be established.

The next elections will be organized by our national

authority for elections, which will be established in the

days to come.

We are trying to re-establish our defence forces

with help from the international community, but that

will be possible only if some basic conditions are met.

The Head of State and the Government of National

Unity are tackling that extremely difficult task.

Following the violence, killings and looting in the

Boyrabe and Boeing neighbourhoods in the city of

Bangui, measures have been taken to ban former Séléka

elements from maintaining order. Now the mission rests

solely with the gendarmerie and the police. A ceremony

of reconciliation took place between the officers of

the Central African Armed Forces and those of the

former Séléka rebellion. The Séléka coalition has been

dissolved, and we are trying to create a dynamic fusion

of the latter with the Central African Armed Forces.

With regard to the encampment of the former

Séléka coalition, 15 sites have been established in the

provinces in order to bring together the former Séléka

rebels for identification and disarmament and to select

those who could possibly join the army. While efforts

were under way to do that, new outbreaks of violence

erupted in certain prefectures of the Central African

Republic, at Bossangoa and Bouca, involving armed

clashes between former Séléka elements and organized

self-defence groups, who claimed to be supporters of the

former President and wanted to regain power. Muslim

families were massacred, which led to extremely

cruel reprisals by the former Séléka elements against

Christian populations and innocent civilians.

Accordingly, the Head of State, in agreement with

the Government of National Unity, took 10 measures

to strengthen security: the appointment of a Minister

of Security from civil society to head the Ministry

of Public Security; the arrest and arraignment of

persons suspected of crimes, violence and looting in

the areas of Bangui concerned and the sentencing of

16 former Séléka members to eight years in prison,

by which the Government demonstrated its resolve

to combat impunity; the entrusting of all operations

to the police and the gendarmerie alone; the placing

of the gendarmerie and police under the Ministry

of Public Security so that manpower and material

resources could be shared to ensure effective security

throughout the territory; the dismantling of the former

Séléka coalition and the Convention of Patriots for

Justice and Peace; the removal of Séléka elements

from police stations, private houses and administrative

buildings to restore security throughout the territory;

the resumption of police service in areas long occupied

by former Séléka elements as a corollary to the release

of persons arrested by them; the launch of operations

to disarm former Séléka elements who refused to be

quartered in the barracks assigned to them; the transfer

of approximately 1,200 former Séléka members to two

sites in the provinces of Sibut and Bossembélé, pending

the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration

programme; and the initiation by the Head of State of a

social dialogue through meetings with various sectors

of the population, notably victims of former Séléka

elements.

The 5 August 2013 report of the Secretary-General

(S/2013/470) on the situation in the Central African

Republic paints a very dark and chaotic picture of the

humanitarian and security situation that reveals the

reality of the daily lives of the Central African people.

Moreover, since early August, armed confrontations in

the north-west have led to a considerably deteriorated

humanitarian situation in that region, where clashes

have occurred between former Séléka elements and

self-defence groups and groups that support the

former President. It is important to note that at present

the humanitarian situation is utterly catastrophic.

Approximately 4.6 million Central Africans are

affected by the crisis, that is, every single person in our

country. There are approximately 1.6 million internally

displaced persons who are in dire need of assistance,

and approximately 60,000 children are at risk of

dying of malnutrition.Approximately 62,000 people

sought refuge in neighbouring countries, including

and principally 40,500 in the Democratic Republic

of the Congo. At least 650,000 children are unable

to go to school. More than 484,000, or 10.6 per cent

of our population, are facing a very serious situation

of food insecurity. Around 3,500 children have been

recruited by armed groups. More than 13,700 people

on antiretroviral medications are at risk of not being

able to follow their treatments because of possible

interruption of the supply chain. Less than 20 per cent

of the country’s health-care facilities are working. That

is the humanitarian situation caused by insecurity.

Given that backdrop, the international community

has now undertaken to rush to the assistance of the

Central African Republic. Accordingly, 3,652 military

and civilian personnel will make up the African-led

International Support Mission in the Central African

Republic. It will take over from the Mission for the

Consolidation of Peace in the Central African Republic,

which has been in the country for several years under

different designations.

On behalf of my country, I would like to extend

my appreciation and thanks to Cameroon, the Congo,

Gabon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and

Chad, which, for the time being, are the only countries

contributing troops to the force. It is our hope that

other African countries will follow their example;

I understand that Burundi is getting ready to send a

battalion with 450 troops.

I hope to see the international community step up

its efforts and continue to be supportive of the Central

African Republic as it seeks lasting peace. In that

respect, I would note the urgent appeal issued by many

States for the greater involvement of the United Nations

in resolving the crisis in the Central African Republic.

Keeping in mind that the Central African Republic is

a crumbling State, that appeal is for us a request for

assistance for a people who are at risk and for a gesture

of strong solidarity. It is therefore a matter of urgency

that the International Support Mission should become

operational quickly under the auspices of the African

Union, taking over from the former Multinational

Force of the Central African Economic and Monetary

Community.

Given the degree of the violence and the extent of

devastation, the new multinational force needs a clear

and robust mandate from the Security Council in order

to provide security, bring peace to the country and

protect civilians. It is also the duty of the international

community, however, to provide the financial, material

and logistic resources needed to meet the many

challenges that my country is facing. The challenges

are self-evident and enormous. Apart from providing

security in the country, organizing elections, restoring

the administration, providing judicial, economic and

social reform are all part of the road map that was

drawn up in Libreville.

Those imperatives are especially topical right

now as the rainy season is approaching and our

people are in a state of total destitution. The already

critical humanitarian situation is worsening, as

demonstrated by the vast number of internally displaced

persons — between 1.5 million and 1.6 million. The

proliferation of arms in Bangui and the deterioration of

the humanitarian situation and social atmosphere are

likely to jeopardize the success of the transition. Given

that avalanche of problems, the Government of National

Unity has to set security, humanitarian, budgetary and

policy priorities.

If we are to be successful in stabilizing the

country and bringing peace, we have to reinvent a

new programme of disarmament, demobilization and

reintegration and we have to rethink how to reform

the security sector, for security is the keystone of the

transition and the need for innovative approaches is

greater now than ever before. We will not be able to meet

those challenges unless we get four kinds of assistance:

financial, technical, material and humanitarian.

Our partners need to be supportive of our transition,

provide urgent budgetary support and help us with their

expertise.

The current session of the General Assembly offers

me once again an opportunity to beg the international

institutions to commit to providing strong support and

high-quality expertise in a coordinated, complementary,

coherent and transparent way. A failure to carry out the

transition will make our country impossible to govern,

which would inevitably lead to a gray area at the heart

of the African continent.

There are already several foreign armed groups in

our country. The Lord’s Resistance Army, which has

been present in the south-east of the country since

2008, has killed several hundreds people, raped dozens

of women, abducted thousands of children and burned

entire villages. The Vakaga region has been penetrated

by traffickers and poachers from neighbouring

countries, including the Sudan. If the Central African

State collapses, new criminal and terrorist networks

could settle in the country and destabilize the entire

region. While stability in Central Africa is a major

concern of the international community, that concern

must go beyond the minimal reactions and half-hearted

commitments that are too often features of international

support for political transition.

I recall that Ms. Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-

General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency

Relief Coordinator, and Ms. Kristalina Georgieva,

European Commissioner for International Cooperation,

Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, came to

my country in July 2013 and visited the devastated

population of the city of Kaga Bandoro. When they

returned to Bangui, they told me about the heart-

rending scenes they had witnessed. They had met a

woman who had lost all hope and who asked why the

world had abandoned her country. This survivor cried

out in distress, saying, “Do not abandon us.” And her

voice is that of millions of others in the Central African

Republic who are calling for help.

The crisis in my country may be a national crisis,

but the solution, in its four dimensions — military,

security, humanitarian and financial — has to be

international. There is no short-term alternative to the

full involvement of the international community to

save the Central African Republic. On 19 September in

Bamako, French President François Hollande said that

“when the law is trampled upon, when women

and children are being massacred, it is then that

the international community must rise up and

demonstrate solidarity”.

The time has come for the international community to

rise up and save the Central African Republic. It did so

for Mali; there is no reason why it should not do so for

my country.

The Central African people do not understand this

kind of international solidarity, with one rule for one

country and another rule for another. Now more than

ever, action is needed to help a people in danger. Now

more than ever, every means that has already been

used elsewhere must be mobilized to avert irreparable

harm. The cry of distress from that poor woman from

Kaga Bandoro addressed to Ms. Valerie Amos and

Ms. Kristalina Georgieva is the same cry of 4.6 million

Central Africans to the international community, and it

resonates like a last request to our universal conscience.

A human tragedy that calls for urgent action is playing

out before our eyes. Every day that passes brings its

share of bloodshed, women raped, children kidnapped

and millions displaced or exiled.

Now more than ever, therefore, action is needed

for my country’s civilian population. If nothing is

done now, tomorrow will be too late. And in the face

of history, the international community can no longer

abjure its political and moral responsibilities.