Vietnam continues to support the role played by UN agencies, the AU, the ECOWAS, the Facilitator, President Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, and the international community in helping Cote d’Ivoire advance its nationally-owned agenda of post-conflict stabilisation and reconstruction.

The statement was made by Ambassador Bui The Giang, Vietnamese Deputy Representative to the UN Security Council at a council debate on the situation in Cote d’Ivoire in New York on December 7.

The Vietnamese diplomat expressed concern about the postponement of the first round of the presidential election scheduled for November 29 to late February or early March 2010. He said this delay, if continuously repeated, may exert complicated impacts on the political process in Cote d’Ivoire .

Recognising the importance of overcoming technical and financial constraints and fulfilling the remaining electoral tasks, Ambassador Giang urged all parties in Cote d’Ivoire to renew commitments to and redouble efforts of dialogue and reconciliation towards open, free, fair and transparent presidential elections in accordance with the agreed timeframe.

“The long-term peace, stability and development of Cote d’Ivoire is also dependent on the balanced and comprehensive settlement of many other security, socio-economic and cross-border challenges,” he noted.

Speaking at the UNSC’s urgent consultative meeting on the Darfur situation and UN and African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on the same day, the Vietnamese representative strongly condemned the recent attacks targeting UNAMID peacekeepers in Darfur .

“We denounce all acts of violence against United Nations personnel. We wish to express our deep condolences to the families of the fallen peacekeepers, the Rwandan Government and UNAMID staff,” he said.

The ambassador expressed his support for an early and full investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice and recognised the efforts of the Sudan Government which have led to the swift identification and arrest of a number of suspected perpetrators.

He said he hoped that the cooperation between the Government of Sudan and UNAMID will be further promoted to ensure better safety and security for peacekeepers and prevent similar incidents in the future./.