UN General Assembly
2005

strong way. The real victory over violence and disorder is achieved when extreme poverty, which is the prime cause of the frustrations that lead to confrontation, is rolled back. Successful elections and democratic institutions that begin to function and cope with the country’s problems are certainly an important advance along the lengthy and difficult path toward peace and stability. But all this remains basically precarious, as long as the legitimate expectations of the population are not satisfied and their hope to benefit from the dividends of peace is not realized. How can this be done in a country that has been bled white, that does not even have the minimum required for life, and on which donors impose the same conditions as they do on countries that are functioning normally? How, when a country is painfully emerging from a long period of chaos, can it find the resources to repay the debt so that it can hope to benefit from additional economic assistance? These issues and others face the international community as part of its responsibility for managing