Security Council

Noting that the transitional period in Somalia would end in August, the Security Council today urged the East African nation’s Transitional Federal Institutions to reach agreement as soon as possible on the holding of elections for the President and the Speaker of Parliament. In a statement read out by Gérard Araud (France), its President for May, the Council expressed concern about the discord between the Institutions and its impact on the country’s political processes and security situation.

The unprecedented crises in the Middle East and parts of North and sub-Saharan Africa over the last six months drove home the need for the Security Council to implement its five resolutions intended to protect civilians trapped in the crossfire of armed conflict, the top United Nations humanitarian official said today.

Beset by an upsurge in nationalist rhetoric and calls for further division, and still no prospect of forming a State-level Government seven months after holding general elections, Bosnia and Herzegovina faced a deteriorating political situation that could — if the current crisis deepened — have negative consequences for the entire region, Valentin Inzko, the High Representative, told the Security Council this morning.

The United Nations top humanitarian official this afternoon pressed for a temporary end to hostilities in Misrata and other areas in Libya in order to allow civilians in the strife-torn North African nation to leave and international relief workers to deliver vital humanitarian aid and assess the humanitarian situation on the ground. “Civilians are still coming under fire in these conflict areas. This has to stop,” said Valerie Amos, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.

The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the Security Council today that he planned to seek arrest warrants in the coming weeks against three Libyans who appeared to bear “the greatest criminal responsibility” for crimes against humanity committed during Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi’s brutal, months-long crackdown against the anti-Government uprising in the North African country.

On 4 May 2011, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the changes specified with strike-through and underline in the entry below to its Consolidated List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1904 (2009) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

Libyan authorities and opposition forces were “ready and willing” to implement a ceasefire but on different terms, the Secretary-General’s Envoy to Libya told the Security Council today, with the Government insisting that a ceasefire must be accompanied by a halt to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) aerialattacks and the Transitional National Council asserting that any ceasefire would not end the conflict if not directly linked to the departure of Muammar Al-Qadhafi.

The Security Council would take advantage of a slightly lighter workload during May to take a week-long mission to the African continent, Gérard Araud, Permanent Representative of France, and Council President for the month, told reporters today at Headquarters.

Recalling the “heinous” terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, as well as the numerous attacks perpetrated by the Al-Qaida network around the world, the Security Council welcomed today the news that Osama bin Laden would never again be able to perpetrate such acts of terrorism.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Néstor Osorio (Colombia):