UNITED NATIONS, January 31. /TASS/. The United Nations Security Council on Friday passed a resolution extending on the Central African Republic (CAR).
Russia abstained during the voting, saying this measure hampers rearming of that country’s national army.
Under the document, all member states shall, through July 31, 2020 "continue to take the necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to the CAR <…> of arms and related materiel of all types, including weapons and ammunition, military vehicles and equipment, paramilitary equipment, and spare parts for the aforementioned, and technical assistance, training, financial or other assistance, related to military activities."
Russia did not vote in support to the resolution, since, according to Russia’s First Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanky, its arguments were not taken into account while wording the text. "We called for a more serious easing of the weapons embargo," he said. "Regrettably, neither the official request from the CAR nor our position were duly reckoned with."
The existing weapons embargo against the Central African Republic "probably, played a positive role at the initial stage, but now it actually hamper rearming of the national army and security forces, i.e. the institutions that are responsible for peace and security of the republic’s citizens," he said. "On the other hand, saboteurs of the peace process and armed groups are free to replenish their weapons arsenals by means of contraband."
The United Nations Security Council imposed economic sanctions against the Central African Republic in January 2014, along with the decision to approve deployment of EU forces in that country. Individual sanctions were imposed on the CAR’s former president, Francois Bozize, who was toppled in 2013 in a military coup, and the leaders of Moslem and Christian militias.