VOA标准英语2008年-UN Security Council: African Visit Very Product

By Margaret Besheer
United Nations
18 June 2008

U.N. Security Council ambassadors back from a mission to five African countries say their trip was productive and gave them an opportunity to personally see the situation in several troubled regions. VOA's Margaret Besheer has more on their trip from U.N. headquarters in New York.
　

The UN Delegation1 arrives in Southern Sudan

Envoys² representing all 15-members of the council traveled to Africa for 10 days earlier this month. They visited Djibouti, Sudan, Chad, Congo and Ivory Coast, logging more than 21,000 kilometers across the continent.

The council had hoped to go to Somalia to meet with members of the Transitional Federal Government and the opposition³, but security concerns made that impossible. Instead, they traveled to Djibouti, where the second round of U.N.-sponsored talks between the Somali parties were going on.

South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, who co-led that part of the trip with Britain's U.N. Ambassador, said the council came away with a clear understanding of the main issue among all the parties, which is the presence of Ethiopian troops in their country.

"This was made very clear by the president of transitional government, who had invited the Ethiopian troops, that the Ethiopian troops are playing an important role of maintaining security in Somalia," he said. "However, both government and opposition parties foresaw a time when these troops would leave after the security situation in Somalia had improved."

Kumalo said that if the parties come to a political agreement and security improves, the council would consider authorizing⁴ a U.N. peacekeeping mission to take over from the small force of African Union troops in Somalia.

From Djibouti, the council went to Sudan, stopping first in the southern capital, Juba, where they met with regional president Salva Kiir. They continued to Khartoum for a closed-door meeting with President Omar al-Bashir.

British Ambassador John Sawers said the council came away convinced they have to do all they can to support the parties in implementing⁵ the fragile north-south peace agreement that ended Sudan's 20 year civil war in 2005.

The delegation also pressed President Bashir to be more helpful in facilitating the deployment⁶ of 26,000 U.N. peacekeepers (known as UNAMID) to Darfur. Sawers said they won some concessions⁷ from Khartoum, but more needs to be done.

"I can say some progress has been made on UNAMID, but much more needs to be done," he said. "The political process is badly in need of new energy. The humanitarian⁸ and security situations continue to worsen."
　

Chadian IDPs gave first-hand accounts to the UN envoys

The delegation briefly⁹ visited a camp for displaced persons in Darfur, before moving on to neighboring Chad.

There the envoys also visited camps in the eastern part of the country, along the border with Darfur. One camp housed displaced Chadians and the other sheltered Darfurian refugees who fled across the border to escape militias¹⁰ and the Sudanese army in their villages.

French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert led that part of the mission and described his encounter with some of the camp residents. He is heard here through a translator:
　

Ambassadors Ripert and Wolf tour a camp for Darfurian refugees in Chad

"I spoke¹¹ with numerous people and they said villages had been victims of aerial bombardment," he said. "Refugees as well as IDPs [internally displaced persons] had said acts of violence had taken place regularly in the camps - there were rapes¹², recruitment of child soldiers, and so on. There were groups of women who complained of a very large number of sexual violence acts."

He said the camp residents did not say where the armed militias had come from, but they asked the council to improve their security.

A meeting scheduled with Chadian President Idriss Deby was canceled at the last minute when he did not turn up. Ambassador Ripert said Mr. Deby offered to meet the council the following day, but they had to refuse because they had an appointment with President Joseph Kabila in the Congo.

Ripert said the meeting in Kinshasa with President Kabila and other officials was very positive. The delegation also traveled to the town of Goma in eastern Congo to visit a U.N.-run camp for internally displaced persons.

The final stop on the council's tour was Ivory Coast, where the ambassadors met President Laurent Gbagbo. They discussed various aspects of the implementation¹³ of the Ougadougou peace agreement, including logistical preparations for the planned November 30 presidential election. President Gbagbo assured the Security Council that his government plans to hold the election on schedule.

1 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

2 envoys   

使节( envoy的名词复数 )； 公使； 谈判代表； 使节身份

参考例句：

• the routine tit for tat when countries expel each other's envoys 国家相互驱逐对方使节这种惯常的报复行动
• Marco Polo's travelogue mentions that Kublai Khan sent envoys to Malgache. 马可波罗游记中提到忽必烈曾派使节到马尔加什。

3 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

4 authorizing   

授权，批准，委托( authorize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Letters of Marque: Take letters from a warning friendly power authorizing privateering. 私掠许可证：从某一个国家获得合法抢劫的证书。
• Formal phavee completion does not include authorizing the subsequent phavee. 阶段的正式完成不包括核准随后的阶段。

5 implementing   

v.实现( implement的现在分词 )；执行；贯彻；使生效

参考例句：

• -- Implementing a comprehensive drug control strategy. ――实行综合治理的禁毒战略。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• He was in no hurry about implementing his unshakable principle. 他并不急于实行他那不可动摇的原则。 来自辞典例句

6 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

7 concessions   

n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权

参考例句：

• The firm will be forced to make concessions if it wants to avoid a strike. 要想避免罢工，公司将不得不作出一些让步。
• The concessions did little to placate the students. 让步根本未能平息学生的愤怒。

8 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

9 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

10 militias   

n.民兵组织，民兵( militia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The troops will not attempt to disarm the warring militias. 部队并不打算解除战斗中的民兵武装。 来自辞典例句
• The neighborhood was a battleground for Shiite and Sunni militias. 那里曾是什叶派和逊尼派武装分子的战场。 来自互联网

11 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

12 rapes   

n.芸苔( rape的名词复数 )；强奸罪；强奸案；肆意损坏v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的第三人称单数 )；强奸

参考例句：

• The man who had committed several rapes was arrested. 那个犯了多起强奸案的男人被抓起来了。 来自辞典例句
• The incidence of reported rapes rose 0.8 percent. 美国联邦调查局还发布了两份特别报告。 来自互联网

13 implementation   

n.实施，贯彻

参考例句：

• Implementation of the program is now well underway.这一项目的实施现在行情看好。