FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
U.S. Mission to the United Nations: Remarks at the Security Council Stakeout on UNMIL
09/09/2014 04:35 PM EDT
AS DELIVERED
Hi, good afternoon. Before I go into today’s consultation, I have one quick Presidency-related scheduling update. The President’s—President Obama’s-- Foreign Terrorist Fighter Summit is now scheduled for Wednesday, September 24 at 3:00 p.m.
Now, let me briefly summarize what transpired in the Security Council this morning. You’ve all seen this morning’s briefing in the open chamber, so I’ll start with a readout of consultations.
The Special Representative Karin Landgren updated the Council on the efforts of UNMIL to support the Liberian and international response to the Ebola outbreak. Council members expressed support for the Secretary-General’s recommended three-month technical roll-over of UNMIL’s mandate.
Regarding the Ebola outbreak itself, The Special Representative discussed how the outbreak has put some of UNMIL’s tasks on hold, but she stressed that UNMIL’s presence and its operations remain critical, especially as the international community surges health care personnel into Liberia. She also discussed UNMIL's engagement with the region, including with NGOs, to coordinate support for the response.
Special Representative Landgren reviewed UN efforts to step up protection of UNMIL staff, noting the very low risk of transmission to UN personnel, and their efforts to provide education about the disease, which is preventable and controllable.
Council members then discussed the ways in which the Security Council might do more to support the international mobilization effort.
Speaking in my national capacity, I want to reiterate the United States’ strong support for the work of the men and women of UNMIL and to express our deep appreciation for the troops, police, and civilians who are serving in the Mission.
The United States takes very seriously the concerns that some countries have expressed about the safety of their peacekeepers in UNMIL. At the same time, we have to avoid panic and fear. I would like to reiterate that this disease is preventable, and this outbreak is controllable.
The United States has reviewed the safety protocols UNMIL is taking and we believe that they are appropriate and that they are being followed. We feel confident in the safety of our own troops and police working in the mission. And our Embassy in Liberia remains open.
We are working closely with the UN, including with the World Health Organization, the Senior UN System Ebola Coordinator, David Nabarro, and others on further steps that we, and the broader international community, can take to address this crisis.
Today, the United States has more than 100 specialists in disease-control, planning, logistics, and operations drawn from across our governments working on the ground in the affected countries. More are on their way. In fact, by the end of next week, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, alone, will have more than 100 disease experts in West Africa to battle Ebola.
To date, the U.S. Government has spent more than $100 million to address the Ebola outbreak and USAID has announced plans to make available up to $75 million in additional funding. We’ve announced financial support to the African Union for the urgent deployment of trained and equipped medical workers to West Africa, which will represent the single largest injection of critical personnel to the region to help combat the Ebola outbreak. And yesterday our Department of Defense announced that it would deploy a field hospital to Liberia.
There is much work to be done and a full global response will require our collective resources and conviction that we can stop this outbreak as we have done with previous ones. But no one national government, no single UN office or no NGO can manage this alone.
It is imperative that we, as an international community, get serious about addressing the public health, humanitarian and security effects of this outbreak, and I believe we need to have a conversation about what role the Security Council should play in that.
There is a way forward, but it’s one that we have to take together.
Thank you. And with that, I’m happy to take a few questions.
Reporter: Ambassador, in your capacity – in your international capacity, sorry - and as host country for UNGA , what measures is the United States going to be taking to make sure that there’s no transmission of the virus here at headquarters during ministerial week when people come from 193 countries around the world? Port Authority, Health Homeland Security, who’s involved?
Ambassador Power: Well, first let me say that we have, in August, gone through something analogous in the sense that the United States hosted the African Leaders Summit in Washington and we had large delegations coming from many of the countries where infections have been noted. We have state, local, and federal cooperation on this, coordination with the United Nations. The Center for Disease Control has been in touch, again, with the Homeland Security and the other parts of the U.S. government that are responsible for monitoring the flow in and out of the United States as well as in touch, of course, with us here at the Mission and the staff working at the UN itself around procedures and protocols. And I think we feel very confident that we have the necessary safeguards in place.
Reporter: Ambassador, you just mentioned that a conversation in the security council maybe needs to happen. What role do you think the security council can play in tackling this outbreak?
Ambassador Power: Well, I think, without getting ahead of the Council itself, because we really are I think now in very intensive and urgent conversations, the Security Council is responsible with dealing with threats to peace and security. The fact that we just had a, you know, nearly 3-hour discussion of the – not only the Ebola crisis itself, but the knock-on effects of the Ebola crisis on the Liberian economy, on the fragile political situation in the country, and on security and the outbreak of violence, I think already indicates that the Security Council is embracing that responsibility. But this is a regional crisis, and so I think we need to look at the ways in which we can bring all of the relevant stakeholders together to discuss the necessary coordination, to raise the profile of the issue. I don’t think anybody can say right now that the response – the international response – to the Ebola outbreak is sufficient. None of us would say that that is the case. And given the threat, again, posed by the Ebola outbreak, if the response is not yet sufficient, then we in the Security Council, just as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the African Union, every organization and every single member state in the international community needs to be looking at how we up our game.
Reporter: On terrorism, we witnessed in Lebanon the beheading of two soldiers – Lebanese soldiers – by terrorists. To what extent you think can Lebanon and other countries in the region can play a role in this fight against terrorism?
Ambassador Power: Well, first, let me state the obvious, which is how monstrous and horrific the beheadings have been. As you know the United States has seen two of our own also killed by these vile terrorists who call themselves, again, a part of this terrorist organization. Their crimes have spread from Syria, in the first instance, into Iraq; and now we are seeing what they are capable of, of course, in Lebanon. I think what we have seen in the wake of the United States’ involvement in this effort, as the President has put it, to destroy – to degrade and destroy ISIL is overwhelming support from the international community for that effort. And without getting into the specifics of what every country has offered, whether it’s in the realm of humanitarian assistance, or air strikes, or military support for the Iraqis and the Kurds, in the first instance, or for the Lebanese armed forces, we are seeing, again, an overwhelming show of support for this idea of the international community coming together in a coalition to degrade and destroy a movement that carries out beheadings and that terrorizes everybody who they come in contact with.
I would just take this occasion to commend the government in Lebanon because Lebanon is also sheltering more than a million Syrians who have fled from that crisis. And the fact that Lebanon, notwithstanding its own history, notwithstanding the delicate balance – political and security balance that exists within the country – the fact that the Lebanese people and the Lebanese government have embraced their role as a safe haven for truly vulnerable people who are fleeing either the Assad regime or a terrorist like those from ISIL, I think is a real tribute to the solidarity the Lebanese have shown. And it’s our responsibility as an international community to join in solidarity with Lebanon as it now deals with, you know, one of now what are becoming innumerable manifestations of the terror inflicted by ISIL.
Reporter: Thank you, Madame Ambassador. Stephane Dujarric, the UN Spokesman, just said that the Secretary General spoke to President Obama yesterday and the Secretary General told him that he plans to hold a high-level meeting on Ebola on the sidelines of the General Assembly. Is this something that President Obama will attend and is this something that in light of what you just said about what the Security Council is discussing could actually help put a global spotlight on what’s needed to combat this disease?
Ambassador Power: Thank you, Edi. Let me say a couple things. First, President Obama from the beginning of this outbreak has made clear that this is – that we view this as a national security priority in addition to a grave threat to human life. And President Obama, I think, over the weekend, made very clear our intention to do everything we can to help mobilize the international community. The Secretary General has himself come out and said we need a surge. The resources that UN member states are providing and that private donors are providing are not sufficient. So, I think that what you are seeing is the Secretary General and the President of the United States seeing this crisis in very, very similar terms. President Obama has said he will lend whatever support he can to the Secretary General’s efforts to mobilize resources around a UN appeal.
We also, as a government – the United States government has reached out to many of the troop contributing countries and police contributing countries to UNMIL, to offer our assurances that the protocols we have – we have looked at the protocols and the procedures UNMIL has put in places as I mentioned and to offer our view that these are sufficient and that UNMIL is being very careful in terms of the welfare of its personnel. And again, we have kept our people within UNMIL, notwithstanding the outbreak of this crisis. So, I’m not going to speak to, you know – I think we don’t yet have the details about what the Secretary General’s event is going to entail. But I can tell you on the basis of the conversation we just had in the Council, that everyone in that Council acting in their national capacities – and I’m quite confident us as a collective will be interested in thinking how we can do everything in our power between today and whenever that event occurs to optimize the outcome, and to ensure that the contributions made whether in terms of logistic support, whether in terms of transportation of medical workers into the country, whether in terms of money to pay for medication, to pay for health salaries – we just heard about how many Liberian health workers are risking their lives to deal with the Ebola outbreak have not been paid in 3-5 months – so, we need a division of labor. No one country is going to be able to manage the Ebola crisis response. The Secretary General’s leadership is invaluable, and the United States stands ready to support him in any way we can.
Thank you.
