Security Council: Meetings Coverage

Welcoming progress made so far in “fully fledged negotiations” between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders, the Security Council this morning called on them to intensify the momentum of the talks as it extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) until 15 December 2011.

The Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the Panel of Experts helping monitor sanctions on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for an additional year, until 12 June 2012. Acting under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, the Council unanimously adopted resolution 1985 (2011) maintaining the current mandate of the group that it established in June 2009.

Urging all States to cooperate fully with the sanctions imposed on Iran over concern about the nature of its nuclear activities, the Security Council today extended for one year the mandate of the Panel of Experts created last year to help monitor the measures’ implementation.

The holding of peaceful, credible elections, protection of civilians, regional stabilization, control of mineral resources and security-sector reform presented the major challenges in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the coming year, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this morning.

Genocide and crimes against humanity continued unabated in Darfur because the President of Sudan had learned to defy the Security Council’s authority, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told Council members today. Luis Moreno-Ocampo said during his briefing on Sudan that the crimes in question included air attacks on civilians as well as the direct killing of members of the Fur, Massalit and Zaghawa ethnic groups.

Reaffirming its previous commitment to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic as a threat to international peace and security, the Security Council this morning encouraged the incorporation of HIV prevention, treatment, care and support in the implementation of peacekeeping mandates. Resolution 1983 (2011), building on the first Council action on HIV/AIDS, resolution 1308 (2000), was adopted unanimously in a meeting presided by Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba.

It was critical for the parties in both North and South Sudan to reach accord on all outstanding issues under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement before the South declared independence on 9 July, the Security Council heard today, as the leaders of its recent mission to Africa briefed members on the visit.

Top officials from the United Nations war crimes Tribunals investigating atrocities committed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the Balkan wars of the 1990s today hailed the recent arrests of high-profile fugitives, but warned the Security Council that the work — and legacies — of their courts was imperilled by persistent staffing woes, challenges in enforcing sentences, and the failure to set up a trust fund for the victims.

Demanding an immediate withdrawal of the Sudanese Government and of all military elements from the contested Abyei area, the Security Council today strongly condemned the Sudanese Government’s military seizure of the town and the resulting displacement of tens of thousands of residents, through a statement read out by Nelson Messone of Gabon, the Council’s President for June.

With several vexing issues needing resolution before a peaceful separation could occur in Sudan, senior United Nations officials briefed the Security Council today on the necessity of avoiding “an acrimonious divorce with lasting consequences” as they discussed the fate of the world body’s six-year-old mission in the country, whose mandate was set to expire on 9 July, the day on which the Government of South Sudan was poised officially to declare independence from Khartoum.