Security Council

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) at current levels until 31 December and endorsed its phased drawdown in accordance with the Government’s wishes, conditions on the ground and following the successful completion of the 2012 electoral process.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Kodjo Menan (Togo):

On 23 February 2012, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) enacted the amendments specified with strikethrough and underline in the entries below on its Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1989 (2011) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

Fuelled by more than $150 million in ransom payments last year, Somali-based pirates were extending their deadly reach farther out into the Indian Ocean, senior United Nations officials said today, as they urged the Security Council to consider a full range of legal, judicial and preventive measures to thwart their brazen attacks.

The following Security Council press statement was issued on 22 February by Council President Kodjo Menan ( Togo):

The Security Council today, welcoming the relocation of the Secretary-General’s Special Representative to Somalia and the United Nations Political Office (UNPOS) to its capital and commending the contribution of the African Union Mission (AMISOM) to lasting peace and stability in the country, requested that operation to increase, by more than 5,000, its troops and formed police units.

Timor-Leste’s capital of Dili was a bustling city where peace was palpable and the people were committed to ensuring it in 2012 and beyond, the country’s President, José Ramos-Horta, told the Security Council this afternoon, adding that building peace must be block by block, community by community.

On 17 February 2012, the Security Council Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee decided to remove the names of the one individual and seventeen entities below from the Al-Qaida Sanctions List after concluding its consideration of a de-listing request submitted through the Ombudsperson established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1904 (2009), and after considering the Comprehensive Report of the Ombudsperson on this de-listing request.

Strongly concerned by the impact of transnational organized crime on West Africa and the Sahel region, including the corruption and indiscriminate violence often associated with it, the Security Council today called for system-wide United Nations action to help combat the spread of illicit weapons and drug trafficking, piracy and terrorist activity in a cross-section of fragile countries already struggling to overcome the consequences of years of civil war and instability.

Expressing regret that individuals affiliated with the Government of Sudan and armed groups continued to perpetrate violence against civilians in Darfur, the Security Council today decided to extend until 17 February 2013 the mandate of the Panel of Experts that monitors the arms embargo and sanctions imposed on those impeding peace in Sudan, while tightening the measures involved.