UN General Assembly
2004

Allow me at the outset warmly to congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session and to assure you and the other members of the Bureau, whom I also congratulate, of the full support of the delegation of Mali as you carry out your mission. I also wish to pay tribute to the dedication of Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to thank him for his tireless efforts in the service of the United Nations. Six days ago, Mali commemorated in its own way the forty-fourth anniversary of its independence. From this high rostrum, the most symbolic of all, I wish to recall the efforts of my country to build, under the leadership of Mr. Amadou Toumani Touré, President of the Republic and Head of State, a democratic, stable and prosperous Mali asserting its place in the concert of nations. For several weeks now, our country and others of the North and West African regions, have been stricken by an unprecedented locust infestation. As President Amadou Toumani Touré stressed in his message to the