It gives me great pleasure to convey to you,
Sir, and to your friendly country, Saint Lucia, our
congratulations on your election as President of the
General Assembly. I would like to express my
appreciation to you personally and my full confidence
in your ability to effectively conduct the work of the
Assembly at this session.
I would also like to express our gratitude to your
predecessor, Mr. Jan Kavan, who led the work of the
Assembly at its last session with wisdom and expertise.
I also wish to take this opportunity to pay tribute
to the Secretary-General and to express the gratitude of
the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for his continuous and
tireless efforts to establish peace and security in the
world, strengthen the role of the Organization, increase
its efficiency, preserve its credibility and enhance its
effectiveness.
It is saddening and distressful that this session is
convening while the echo of the horrendous attack
against the United Nations offices in Baghdad that took
the life, among others, of one of its prominent and
towering figures, Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello is still
resonating in our hearts. I avail myself of this
opportunity to convey to the Secretary-General, to the
staff of the Secretariat and to the families of the
victims of this tragic incident my sincere and deepest
condolences. I would also like to express the hope that
neither this incident nor the most recent one that took
place a few days ago will impede the efforts aimed at
promoting the role of the United Nations in
consolidating stability and prosperity in Iraq.
The hideous attack on the United Nations offices
in Baghdad represents a challenge that can be dealt
with and contained, and the necessary security
conditions to minimize such occurrences in the future
can be established. However, our Organization is, at
this juncture, facing other challenges that are more
serious than what happened in Baghdad, challenges
related to its raison d''tre and to the principles and
foundations stipulated in its Charter. These principles
were not heeded and the responsibility for this is ours.
This has in many instances impeded its effectiveness
and credibility.
Nevertheless, its ability to exist and perform and
the contributions it has provided and continues to
provide in various humanitarian, cultural and social
fields through its specialized agencies are sufficient to
encourage support for the Organization and provide it
with every assistance it needs.
In the comprehensive speech he gave at the outset
of this session, the Secretary-General referred with
clarity and transparency to the growing trend towards
unilateral action outside the realm of international
legitimacy in dealing with current problems such as
terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction. This expanding trend to resort to unilateral
action on the basis of the right to self-defence could
undermine the principle of collective security on which
the Charter was founded. We stressed this in the
Millennium Declaration that was issued by the General
Assembly three years ago.
Nevertheless, we have to admit that not
confronting such actions effectively and with
seriousness and steadfastness when faced with dangers
and threats such as those that emanated from the
21

regime of Saddam Hussein, have led, it seems, to
confusion. This confusion has provided the advocates
of collective action and the defenders of unilateral
action with parallel arguments that each group is now
using against the other. Whoever wants to criticize the
policy of unilateral action will find no difficulty
proving that such a policy could only exacerbate and
increase problems.
On the other hand, those who criticize the
international community for being lax in acting
collectively to confront such problems that threaten
security and stability will also come up with arguments
to prove that such reluctance and negligence in facing
challenges is behind the eruption of the major crises of
our contemporary history.
It was therefore natural that, due to such
divergence in views, a situation was reached wherein
the focus turned to debate and theorization rather than
to dealing directly with current problems and deciding
on practical measures to resolve them. This is exactly
what happened with respect to Iraq immediately before
the war.
International terrorism, in all its manifestations
and forms, represents a very dangerous challenge to
our international Organization and to the international
community at large. It deserves our condemnation
which must be resolute, categorical and unequivocal.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has expressed this
position at different forums and international
gatherings.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which has
suffered and continues to suffer from acts of terror, has
launched a relentless war against terrorism, enacted
regulations that punish perpetrators, inciters and
sympathizers with terrorist activities and has
introduced counter-terrorism as one of the main
subjects in the curricula of its schools. It has also taken
a series of measures to close any loopholes in the way
charities collect money, in order to prevent funds from
being diverted for unlawful purposes.
However, regardless of its effectiveness, the
international effort directed against terrorism will not
eradicate this phenomenon without addressing its root
causes and the reasons for its spread.
The Palestinian issue, which has become a
constant item on the agenda of all the sessions of the
General Assembly over the past five decades, continues
to be a cause of instability and turmoil in the Middle
East region, whose nations yearn for peace, prosperity
and development. I don't think I need to go into the
details of this issue, of which you are completely
aware, but we should remember Israel's persistence in
its provocative policies and practices, which focus on
repression, persecution, political assassinations,
settlers' issues and the ominous fence. This is an
approach that has subverted all initiatives and
proposals aimed at solving the Palestinian issue,
including the Arab peace initiative and the road map.
The solutions that were presented on the
Palestinian issue were harmed mostly by the Security
Council's contradictions, especially among its
permanent members, in dealing with resolutions in this
regard. We see resolutions being adopted but remaining
mere ink on paper, and when the time comes for their
resolutions on implementation, the veto power is
invoked to abort implementation.
The only way out of this vicious circle, from our
perspective, is for the permanent members to pledge
not to use the veto power when dealing with
resolutions or measures aimed at implementing the
substance of resolutions previously adopted. This
matter may be one of the issues that the reform team
proposed by the Secretary-General should consider in
order to invigorate the role of the United Nations in
handling current issues and challenges.
The people of Iraq look to our Organization to
end the confusion, anarchy and chaos that resulted
from the collapse of the previous regime. The major
problem facing Iraq now is the absence of a clear
vision as for the future of Iraq and the fact that Iraq
cannot control its own destiny. Iraq faces a grave and
complicated internal situation, coupled with a delicate
and sensitive geographical location.
It is therefore of utmost necessity that we set a
clear timetable that would assure the Iraqis that they
are close to restoring their sovereignty and
independence through an accelerated political process
linked to specific commitments, whether with regard to
consolidating the power of the transitional Iraqi
Government or drafting a new Iraqi constitution that
would pave the way for the formation of a legitimate
national Iraqi Government under which all citizens
would enjoy equal rights and responsibilities.
Based on this premise, my country views the
Transitional Governing Council in Iraq as representing
22

a positive step paving the way towards this goal. While
we give utmost importance to the role of the United
Nations in Iraq, we are hopeful that any debate on Iraq
will focus on determining its needs and finding
effective means to respond to them, including
contributions by all Member States to this noble effort,
namely the stability of Iraq.
That must be done speedily, efficiently and in a
way that would conform with the needs of Iraq. Iraq is
a country of pivotal importance, geographically and
historically, in our region. It possesses natural and
human resources that qualify it to take a prominent role
in the international community. All it needs from us is
an initial push to allow it to regain its sovereignty,
stability and growth.
The manifestations of the proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction are a cause of great
concern and tension in the Middle East. This means
that we must declare the Middle East and the Arab Gulf
region a zone free from weapons of mass destruction.
With regard to the need to increase the
effectiveness and universality of the Treaty on the Non-
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its system of
safeguards, monitoring and inspection, we also believe
that certain standards and controls must be put in place
to assure progress in all fields of the elimination of
weapons of mass destruction. Based on this, we call
upon all countries that have yet to join the Non-
Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to take the necessary steps
to do so, especially Israel, and to submit their nuclear
sites and installations to the international safeguards
regime.
The international situation looks again as it used
to be during the time of polarisation, including
increasing tensions, crises and divisions that have
paralyzed the Security Council. Despite the fact that
we have entered the third millennium, we still lack the
needed commitment and collective political will to
translate our commitments into reality. International
peace and security are still but a hope and an aspiration
for many people and countries. Comprehensive
development is still a dream for many and a distant
objective we all hope to achieve.
In the Middle East, where countries suffer from
these symptoms, we see in the ideas presented by
President Bush, for the promotion of development in
the Middle East many positive signs, which
collectively present a model for fruitful cooperation
between rich nations and developing countries.
In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, His Royal
Highness the Crown Prince presented an initiative
aimed at reforming the situation in the Arab region in
the economic sphere, with structural reforms as well as
expansion of political participation at its core. If the
region succeeds in benefiting from these two
initiatives, its future will be promising.
The fact that there are still chronic issues on the
agenda of our Organization, like the Palestinian
problem, issues of comprehensive development and the
emergence of issues like Iraq makes it incumbent upon
us to embark on two parallel tracks: credibility in
upholding the principles of the Charter, and seriousness
in implementing United Nations resolutions. We must
not substitute futile and senseless arguments which
would be useless to us all for practical solutions.
Our deeply rooted belief in of the important role
that the United Nations can play in dealing with crises
and its efforts to avoid the horrors of war and to
provide means for international cooperation make us
more determined than ever to support this Organization
and consolidate its constructive role. We want the
United Nations to take a greater role in handling crises
before they occur through the implementation of what
is known as preventive diplomacy rather than through
pre-emptive wars, in order to preserve stability and
maintain international peace and security.


I have the honour to make
the following statement on behalf of His Excellency
Mr. Erkki Tuomioja, Minister for Foreign Affairs of
Finland.
Multilateralism and the United Nations have gone
through a trying time since the last session of the
General Assembly began. At the same time that
multilateralism has been challenged by unilateral
actions, it has been proved that multilateralism and
multilateral cooperation — as well as the United
Nations — are needed, perhaps more than ever before.
The discussions at the World Trade Organization
Ministerial Meeting in Cancún also point to the need
for open and broad discussions on preserving a
multilateral trading system based on mutually agreed
rules.
International cooperation is needed in crisis
management and prevention, in disarmament and arms
control, in promoting human rights and international
law in general, in enhancing sustainable development,
in strengthening global governance with regard to
environmental issues and in creating coherence and
cooperation on economic and social issues, among
other things. In order to do this, a more efficient and
effective United Nations is needed. The United Nations
system must deliver solutions to increasingly
complicated challenges, be it Iraq, the Middle East,
coherence between trade and development, or financing
for development. Through their political will, Member
States should give the United Nations the support it
requires in order for it to be a true actor in world
affairs. We need to be more efficient and more result-
oriented.
The development and strengthening of the United
Nations pose a major challenge at this particular
juncture. United Nations structures — the Security
Council included — require reform, and the whole
Organization requires better resources. This is a
prerequisite also for a comprehensive implementation
of the Millennium Declaration, which forms a
demanding agenda for the United Nations for years to
come.
Despite different emphases and definitions given
to freedom of action or joint actions, all the
prerequisites exist for strengthening multilateral
cooperation. As a member of the European Union,
Finland is involved in the discussion on the
significance of multilateralism and on the terms for
promoting global security. This, too, should be one of
the main topics in this session of the Assembly.
In addition to what was said in the Italy’s
statement on behalf of the European Union, I should
like to focus on two issues that require multilateral
cooperation in particular: the issue of harnessing
globalization and that of weapons of mass destruction.
The biggest challenges in the future will be those
to international peace and security, which become
broader and broader in their scope, and the
globalization process, as well as managing these two
together through multilateral cooperation.
Globalization affects everyone. Some can benefit
from it. Some become more marginalized by it.
Globalization stems from a countless number of
decisions made in the private sector and beneath or
outside public institutions. But we must be able to
influence, through the United Nations and other
international organizations, corporate and public sector
decisions that direct globalization. There are many
ongoing processes that try to make globalization more
inclusive and allow everybody to share its benefits.
The Finnish Government, together with the
Tanzanian Government, is launching the Helsinki
Process on globalization and democracy. Ultimately,
the global governance pursued by the Helsinki Process
is characterized by the democratization of international
20

relations, by the way that globalization and its by-
products can be managed through more equal
participation in deciding on international rules and
norms. One of the key tasks of the process will be to
devise and develop new solutions for global problems.
We will also focus on the global economic agenda and
on human security.
The international players in globalization include,
in addition to States and multinational companies, the
continually growing network of non-governmental
organizations. Many of those organizations take a
critical or negative stand on globalization, but do not
hesitate to adopt procedures that are characteristic of
globalization or to build networks across national
borders. Out of a vast array of organizations, I could
name two that are perceived as opposite: the World
Economic Forum and the World Social Forum. Both,
however, are concerned with the same challenges in the
same world. One of the aims of the Helsinki Process is
to bring these two processes closer to each other.
A global approach to international peace and
security and a multilateral security system based on
cooperation are largely axiomatic principles for
Finland and for our partners in the European Union.
But security problems linked to globalization, and
solutions to them, threaten to divide the international
community. Peace is much more than the absence of
war nowadays. Development and peace are inseparably
intertwined, and both of them are being affected by
globalization.
Another major issue that requires multilateral
cooperation is weapons of mass destruction and
prevention of their proliferation.
Effective global governance requires universally
agreed norms and rules setting standards for behaviour
to be followed by all States as well as by non-State
actors. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction
and their means of delivery is clearly an issue that
affects the international community as a whole. No
State can ignore these dangers. Today more than ever,
we need to step up our collective efforts to halt the
proliferation worldwide. The most effective way to
address global security threats is the multilateral
system of binding international agreements. The
existing system of treaties, built over the decades,
needs to be strengthened, not weakened. We need to
reinforce our commitment to the prohibition of
chemical and biological weapons and to the prevention
of the spread of nuclear weapons, with the objective of
their total elimination.
Promoting adherence to multilateral treaties and
obligations is not enough. It is equally important to
ensure that commitments are fully implemented. The
international community cannot tolerate precedents of
non-compliance with the legal undertakings, which
would put at stake the whole non-proliferation regime.
In cases where States have difficulties in
implementing treaty obligations due to lack of legal or
technical verification expertise, appropriate support
and assistance should be offered by the relevant
organizations and participating States.
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty remains the
cornerstone of our efforts to curb the spread of nuclear
weapons. In our view, the Comprehensive Nuclear-
Test-Ban Treaty constitutes an essential and
irreplaceable building block for containing the
proliferation of nuclear weapons, thus contributing to
nuclear disarmament. Finland attaches great
importance to its entry into force. We urge all States
that have not yet done so to sign and ratify it as soon as
possible.
In combating the spread of weapons of mass
destruction, new initiatives and new approaches are
called for. In order to complement international
instruments, we need fresh perspectives on how to
confront the problem of weapons of mass destruction.
Finland welcomes new efforts, open to all, such as the
G-8 Global Partnership against the Spread of Weapons
and Materials of Mass Destruction.
The United Nations and in particular the Security
Council have the primary responsibility for
maintaining international peace and security. Finland is
in favour of enhancing the role of the United Nations in
issues related to the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction. We agree with the Secretary-General that
the United Nations and the Security Council should
look at the enforcement of regimes against weapons of
mass destruction. The United Nations has valuable
expertise and experience in verification. Finland
believes that this verification and inspection
competence should be maintained.
By focusing on weapons of mass destruction, I do
not want to suggest that small arms are any less
dangerous. They need due and growing attention by the
international community. In some countries and in
21

some crises small arms are a means of massive
destruction and a major cause of loss of life, mostly of
civilians.
The multilateral institutions should respond to
new challenges. Being multilateral is not sufficient in
itself. In the work of the General Assembly Finland
underlines the importance of setting clear priorities,
tackling the issues that are most relevant in today’s
security environment. People throughout the world
might find it difficult to understand the Organization’s
trying to resolve the problems of yesterday’s world.
Before concluding, let me express my
Government’s deep satisfaction with the fact that the
International Criminal Court (ICC) has become a
reality and is operational. The ICC is the cornerstone of
efforts to enhance respect for international
humanitarian law and human rights. We remain
committed to ensuring the Court’s success and appeal
to States which have not yet ratified the Rome Statute
to become parties to it.


Allow me, Sir, to
express my confidence that, under your able leadership,
the general debate of the General Assembly at its fifty-
eighth session will be successful and fruitful.
At the turn of the millennium, the international
community is living through changes of epic
proportions. The process of transition to a new world
order is facing unprecedented global threats: inter-
ethnic and inter-confessional conflicts; international
terrorism and organized crime; natural, man-made and
humanitarian disasters; diseases and epidemics; and
energy and environmental problems.
These threats are in addition to globalization
processes. All States now share in not only economic,
technological, information and management issues, but
also must face the numerous problems looming over
humankind like a dark cloud.
We in Kazakhstan believe that the time has come
for the entire international community to join together
to ensure broad and effective cooperation to address
global threats. Today, it is becoming increasingly evident
that States' involvement in globalization processes is an
important factor in their economic prosperity.
It is our conviction that there is no alternative to
Kazakhstan's political and economic openness. In the
past four years, our country has had one of the fastest
economic growth rates in the world. Kazakhstan is
leading the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS) in main economic indicators. As a country with a
market economy, Kazakhstan is an integral part of the
global economy and an active participant in the
globalization process. Its early admission to the World
Trade Organization (WTO) is a top priority for
Kazakhstan.
Our country's efforts to create a comprehensive
security system in Asia are well known. The process of
the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building
Measures in Asia, initiated by President Nursultan
Nazarbaev, serves this purpose and also provides for
active cooperation between regional States in such an
important area as the combating of international
terrorism. Further support for this process by the
United Nations and all of our partners will undoubtedly
go a long way towards creating a climate of trust and
good-neighbourly relations on the Asian continent.
We are firmly committed to strengthening
regional integration. Kazakhstan is actively involved in
work within the Eurasian Economic Community. We
have great expectations regarding the creation of a
single economic space in the territories of four CIS
countries. A significant contribution to counter-
terrorism efforts and trade and economic cooperation in
the Eurasian region could be made by the Shanghai
Cooperation Organization. We are taking steps to
develop cooperation with the Central Asian States. We
intend to further promote the activities of the Economic
Cooperation Organization.
Kazakhstan backs United Nations action to
strengthen the efforts of the international community in
support of the dialogue between civilizations and
religions. Kazakhstan, a unique State in terms of
religious tolerance and inter-ethnic harmony, convened
a congress of representatives of world religions and
confessions, which, in the unanimous opinion of its
participants, revealed a considerable peacemaking
capacity of our country.
An unprecedented attack against the United
Nations office in Baghdad in August was the cruellest
and largest-scale terrorist act in the entire history of
our Organization. Together with the rest of the
international community, Kazakhstan pays a special
tribute to the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for
Iraq, and his colleagues.
In our view, it is imperative to ensure that efforts
to restore peace and stability in Iraq are carried out
within the legal framework of the United Nations. The
post-war reconstruction of the country and assistance
to the Iraqi population should be provided only under
the umbrella of the United Nations. Kazakhstan has
already made a practical contribution to this process by
deploying in Iraq a group of its military officers.
The Iraqi crisis has become a serious test for the
United Nations and has highlighted the urgent need to
carry out the institutional reform of the Organization.
26

Kazakhstan reaffirms its commitment to the
concept of a multipolar world as a political philosophy
of modern international relations. At the same time, we
do not reject unipolarity if its means joining together
the efforts of all States in the world in a bid to avert
global threats.
Given its authority, universal character and
unique experience, the United Nations continues to
play an indispensable coordinating role in all global
affairs. Its effectiveness, however, is dependent on our
will, and we should, through joint efforts, reform the
Organization with a view to democratizing international
relations. In this context, it is essential to strengthen the
role of the Security Council in the settlement of crisis
situations and to provide it with appropriate mandates
and means for conflict-prevention. We call for making
it a more representative body by co-opting five new
members, including Germany and Japan, as well as, on
the basis of rotation, African, Asian and Latin American
States. In order to facilitate consensus, which is greatly
needed, new Security Council members might exercise
the veto power, with certain exceptions, subject to
further discussion in the high-level panel which the
Secretary-General intends to establish. We believe that
it will also be necessary to increase the number of non-
permanent members, with due account being taken of
the interests of the Asian region.
In our view, coordination between the United
Nations and regional organizations should be
reinvigorated. In this context, Kazakhstan proposes to
establish a permanent council of regional organizations
under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary-
General.
It is time to combine, in practical terms, the
efforts of the United Nations, the Bretton Woods
institutions, the WTO and other leading economic and
financial organizations to address poverty and social
development. Kazakhstan believes that close attention
should be paid to the proposal to establish an economic
and social security council.
Kazakhstan supports the Secretary-General's
proposal   to which I referred earlier   to establish a
high-level panel to examine current challenges to peace
and security and to strengthen the United Nations system.
We believe that issues of environmental
protection in the framework of sustainable
development should be considered as a key item on the
United Nations agenda. In this context, President
Nazarbaev's proposal, made last year in Johannesburg,
to create a United Nations register of global
environmental problems is especially relevant. Such a
register would provide an opportunity to ensure a
continuous exchange of information among United
Nations Member States about trends in the global
environmental situation, which is extremely important
for the prevention of natural disasters. With regard to
environmental issues, I would like, from this rostrum,
once again to urge the international community to pay
due attention to the search for practical solutions to the
problems of the Aral Sea and the Semipalatinsk region.
The current surge of terrorist acts throughout the
world has made clear the transnational nature of
terrorism. We must recognize that terrorism is well
organized, financially self-sufficient and bolstered by
powerful ideological dictums that are poisoning the
consciousness of an ever-greater number of people.
Against that background, the strengthening of the
international legal framework of counter-terrorist
cooperation is especially relevant. Kazakhstan supports
the adoption, without further delay, of a comprehensive
convention against international terrorism.
Kazakhstan, which has drug routes running
through its territory, calls for joint efforts by States to
eliminate the evil of drug trafficking, which seriously
erodes international security. Increasing drug production
in Afghanistan demands special attention. In order to
effectively counter the existing drug threat, it is
necessary to apply an integrated approach on the basis
of an agreed international strategy with the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime playing a
coordinating role.
Kazakhstan has put forward an initiative
regarding the establishment in Almaty of a Central
Asian preventive diplomacy and conflict management
centre and calls for its support. Such an institution
would strengthen the United Nations activities in the
region, which should be in the interests of all countries
concerned.
As a State that has voluntarily renounced its
nuclear heritage, Kazakhstan is concerned about the
continued proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
The desire of a number of countries and some extremist
organizations to possess nuclear weapons and other
types of weapons of mass destruction poses a serious
threat to global security. The well-known British writer
Aldous Huxley was prophetic when he said:
27

Technological progress has merely provided us
with more efficient means of going backwards.'
Let us face the facts: today, the Nuclear Non-
Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Nuclear-
Test-Ban Treaty do not work in practice. The main
reason for this state of affairs is weakened international
control.
There are already 39 States in the world capable
of producing a nuclear bomb or a nuclear device and at
least 8 countries with significant nuclear capacity. In
addition, there are at least another 4 countries whose
non-nuclear status is highly questionable.
The United Nations and its institutions should
have the last word in solving the problem of nuclear
non-proliferation. There is actually one way out:
tighten control and improve transparency with regard
to weapons development and testing.
Existing international agreements in this area
should be adapted to new realities. We can no longer
accept the fact that the international community lacks
effective means to discipline States violating non-
proliferation regimes. Here we witness the absence of a
single standard: some countries are punished by
military force, while others are simply urged to give up
their nuclear programmes.
Kazakhstan has welcomed the initiative of the
Group of Eight regarding a global partnership against
the proliferation of nuclear materials and weapons of
mass destruction, and it hopes for fruitful cooperation
on the issue with that group of States.
Our country considers it important to implement
the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and
Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light
Weapons in All Its Aspects.
The International Ministerial Conference on
Transit Transport Cooperation, held in August in
Almaty, has become a turning point in the efforts to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The
Almaty Declaration and the Programme of Action
adopted as an outcome of the Conference have laid a
solid foundation for global partnership designed to put
in place effective transit transport systems. Occupying
a vast stretch of land in Eurasia, Kazakhstan is keenly
interested in the practical implementation of the goals
in these documents so that it can better tap its own
transport potential.
In conclusion, I would like to reiterate
Kazakhstan's commitment to the United Nations
reform process in order to ensure a safer and more just
world order. I fully share the Secretary-General's sense
of urgency when it comes to structural changes within
the United Nations. Indeed, history would be
unforgiving to us if we were to squander an
opportunity to reform our Organization.


Please allow me to convey
my delegation’s warmest congratulations to
Mr. Julian Hunte on his election to the high office of
President of the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth
session. I am sure that his vast experience on the
international scene will be brought to bear on the work
of this session, and help direct it with ease to a
successful conclusion. The fifty-eighth session
promises to be rich in substance, and may also prove to
be a watershed in our bid to make the United Nations
responsive to the needs of the peoples of the world in
the new millennium. I wish to assure the President of
my delegation’s fullest cooperation in the discharge of
his onerous responsibilities.
In the same vein, let me also congratulate the out-
going President, Mr. Jan Kavan, for his laudable efforts
during the fifty-seventh session. The dynamic
Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, also deserves
commendation for another productive year of service to
the Organization, a year that was fraught with
difficulties and incredible challenges. Thanks to his
leadership, we have, by and large, been able to weather
the storm.
We were all devastated, however, by the bombing
of the offices of the United Nations in Baghdad, which
claimed the lives of so many people. May it never
recur — please God — but it shows that we must
remain united in our resolve to fight terrorism. Let me
seize this opportunity to express once again to
Mr. Kofi Annan and his staff, as well as to the relatives
of the victims, the heartfelt condolences of the
people of The Gambia. We pay homage to
Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello and his colleagues, who lost
their lives, and we mourn the tragic loss of a highly-
acclaimed international civil servant at the hands of
terrorists. In wishing the injured a speedy recovery, we
pray that the souls of all those who died rest in perfect
peace. My delegation strongly urges that that cowardly
act should in no way weaken the resolve of the United
Nations in fulfilling its obligations to the people of
Iraq.
Resolution 1373 (2001) was adopted unanimously
by the Security Council following the attacks of
11 September, and the majority of Member States,
including my own, have embarked on implementing its
salient provisions. We have ratified the major
international instruments on terrorism and,
furthermore, have enacted domestic legislation to
implement them. Let me state that, in spite of our
modest achievements in that regard, international
cooperation and technical assistance remain critical to
the success of our future implementation efforts.
The Counter-Terrorism Committee’s assistance
unit must strengthen the coordination of its technical
assistance portfolio in order to have greater impact. In
that regard, we welcome the commitment of the G-8 to
provide capacity-building and technical assistance to
priority countries. The translation of declarations of
commitment into concrete action is the only guarantee
of making meaningful headway to counter terrorism.
Apart from the recent terrorist attacks against the
United Nations in Baghdad, other such incidents in
Indonesia, Kenya, the Russian Federation, Morocco
and Saudi Arabia, coming in the wake of the attacks of
11 September, are reminders of the enormity of the
tasks ahead.
The fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly
has been convened at a time when our approaches to
the management of global issues have come under
sharp scrutiny. Those issues are the unfinished business
of the preceding millennium. The United Nations —
the premier, overarching venue for multilateralism —
cannot but be the only vehicle through which the
world’s peace and security problems can be solved.
The recent events in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere
only serve to underscore the need for the nations of the
world to strengthen, not weaken, multilateralism. We
shall never achieve global peace, security and
prosperity without working together in a forum such as
the one provided by the United Nations, a forum that is
all-inclusive and which permits each and every
nation — big or small, rich or poor — to expound on
matters of concern to them. The ideals and principles
that were the basis of the founding of the Organization
are as relevant today as they were 58 years ago. Let us
therefore demonstrate our commitment to
multilateralism by always turning to the United
33

Nations. My delegation therefore urges all Member
States to maintain confidence in the United Nations
and to have recourse to the Organization for the
peaceful resolution of conflicts and the settlement of
disputes.
While terrorism poses a real threat to
international peace and security, other violent conflicts
continue to rage around the world, leaving death,
destruction and desolation in their wake. The situation
in the Mano River Union region remains volatile as I
speak. Even though former President Charles Taylor of
Liberia has left the scene, as was required of him, and
there appears to be some laudable progress towards
reinvigorating the democratic process in that country,
we should be under no illusion as to the extreme
fragility of the situation in Liberia, and indeed within
the West African subregion. We commend all the
parties that recently signed the Peace Agreement in
Accra, Ghana, for their determination and patience, and
urge them to do all in their power to stay the course.
That would also have a salutary effect on the situation
in neighbouring Sierra Leone, where we note with
satisfaction the consolidation of the peace process.
However, the problem of conflicts in West Africa
continues to be compounded by the illicit flow of small
arms and light weapons, as well as by roving bands of
mercenaries. International efforts could serve the
region best by developing comprehensive disarmament,
demobilization and rehabilitation programmes that
target militias and that are region-specific rather than
country-specific. We must endeavour to address the
issue of the illicit trade in small arms and light
weapons with greater determination. An arrangement
similar to the Kimberley Process in blood diamonds is
what is urgently required to effectively stem the illicit
flow of small arms and light weapons. My Government
strongly supports any measure that would treat as
accomplices to war crimes and crimes against
humanity illegal brokers who knowingly supply arms
and weapons to militias and other insurgents in West
Africa. Conflict zones elsewhere in Africa that tell a
similar story should also be assisted in that manner.
We warmly congratulate our brothers in Sudan on
the recent signing of the Naivasha peace accord, which
promises to bring the long-drawn fratricidal conflict in
that country to an end.
Meanwhile, my Government continues to play its
part in the search for solutions to the problems of peace
and security in Africa. We participate actively within
the context of the initiatives of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to
contribute to the subregion’s collective efforts in that
area. My Government, under the wise leadership of
President Jammeh, has in the past contributed, and will
contribute in the future, to subregional efforts to keep
the peace in West Africa. We have continuously
participated in the United Nations Mission in Sierra
Leone (UNAMSIL) since its inception. We stand ready
to contribute our own modest share to any other United
Nations peacekeeping operations designed for the
West Africa subregion, as we are doing now under the
ECOWAS Military Mission in Liberia (ECOMIL). In
that regard, we welcome the adoption of Security
Council resolution 1509 (2003), establishing the United
Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
I just made mention of the unfinished business of
the preceding millennium. Those are thematic issues of
political exclusion, disenfranchisement, economic
exclusion and abject poverty. All affect the greater
majority of humankind. They also give rise to all the
urgent situations that the world is faced with today —
situations of conflict and civil strife; in short, of the
absence of peace.
A peculiar situation of exclusion was created by
General Assembly resolution 2758 (XXVI) on
25 October 1971, which relates, through its direct
effects, to Taiwan. From 1949 to 1971, the Republic of
China (Taiwan) was a bona fide member of the United
Nations, recognized by the comity of nations. If the
Republic of China (Taiwan) could be a member of the
United Nations then, why could it not be a member
now? The General Assembly adopted resolution 2758
(XXVI), which addressed only the question of the
representation of the People’s Republic of China at the
United Nations and related organizations. It did not
decide that Taiwan was, or should be, a part of the
People’s Republic of China. Nor did it confer on the
People’s Republic of China the right to represent the
Republic of China (Taiwan) or the 23 million
Taiwanese people in the United Nations and related
organizations. Resolution 2758 (XXVI) has since been
misused to justify the exclusion of Taiwan from the
United Nations. That runs counter to the claim by the
Government of the People’s Republic of China that it
represents the interests of all Chinese, not to mention
those Taiwanese who are in the Republic of China
(Taiwan). If we are to comprehensively deal with the
34

problems engendered by exclusion in whatever form it
takes, I call on the international community to revisit
that issue urgently.
My Government appreciates the special attention
that Guinea-Bissau has received from the Security
Council, especially through the Council’s Ad Hoc
Working Group on Conflict Prevention and Resolution
in Africa. We also commend the remarkable efforts of
the Economic and Social Council’s Ad Hoc Advisory
Group on Guinea-Bissau. As Chairperson of the Group
of Friends of Guinea-Bissau, my Government
acknowledges the groundswell of support and good
will that Guinea-Bissau enjoys from the Organization.
Unfortunately, that has not yet been adequately
translated into material and financial forms of
assistance, which the people of that country so
desperately need. The recent developments in Guinea-
Bissau should be seen not so much as a constraint, but
rather as an opportunity to re-engage the international
community, in partnership with the people of Guinea-
Bissau, in the resolution of their problems of
governance and development. Now that concerted
efforts are being made by all the major actors to agree
on transitional arrangements for the preparation of
parliamentary and presidential elections in the not-too-
distant future, we call on the rest of the international
community to provide the support necessary to
stabilize the situation and keep the process on course to
a successful outcome.
Problems of security and peace in my part of the
world have not in any way diminished our concerns
over similar problems elsewhere. The people of Iraq
and Afghanistan need urgent international assistance to
shore up security, re-establish the rule of law and
embark on an effective programme of reconstruction.
My Government welcomes the adoption of resolution
1500 (2003), in the hope that the establishment of the
Governing Council of Iraq will lead towards a real
political transition for the Iraqi people. While a speedy
end to the occupation of Iraq is both desirable and
urgent, as clearly underscored in resolution 1472
(2003), outstanding issues emanating from Iraq’s
occupation of Kuwait should be comprehensively dealt
with once and for all.
We continue to follow closely the situation in the
Middle East, and we deplore yet again the recent spate
of vicious attacks and counter-attacks between Israelis
and Palestinians, thus negating hope for an early
settlement within the framework of the road map. Trust
and confidence-building measures must be reinforced
and made to attend to every stage of the
implementation of the road map, if the peace process is
to endure. Suicide bombings that target innocent
civilians must be stopped. The occupation of Arab
lands must come to an end. In reiterating our position
on the Arab-Israeli conflict, we call for the creation of
an independent Palestinian State living in peace
alongside the State of Israel.
My Government firmly supports the initiatives
being taken to reduce tensions between India and
Pakistan, two great friends of The Gambia. We urge
them both to reduce the arms build-up on their
respective sides of the border and to strive harder to
reach a mutually acceptable solution to their
differences, in particular with regard to the issue of
Kashmir. Similarly, we reiterate our support for a
peaceful reunification on the Korean peninsula.
Human security is not threatened by conflicts
alone. The scourge of HIV/AIDS continues to be
elusive, and now poses a serious threat to the viability
of some societies in Africa. The HIV/AIDS pandemic
has slowly evolved from a health and humanitarian
issue to a development and security problem. The
pandemic has compounded the problems African
countries face in the fight against other scourges, such
as malaria and tuberculosis. It is gratifying to note
however, that the international community is sensitized
to that fact and that initiatives such as the Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria have been put
in place. Consequently, more money, resources and
attention must be given to research and development.
Contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS,
Tuberculosis and Malaria have slackened, and
developing countries are paying a colossal price in
human and material terms. The initiative of the Global
Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization equally
requires adequate funding.
The pursuit of justice and the international rule of
law have never been as pressing as it is today. My
Government strongly supports the International
Criminal Court as it embarks on its crucial mandate of
delivering justice. We hail its progress so far, and I
would like to seize this opportunity to call on all to
cooperate with the Court in order that, together all
around the world, we can say no to the culture of
impunity.
35

While still on the subject of justice, let me
reiterate my Government’s view that the sanctions
being imposed on Cuba should now be lifted. They are
counter-productive anyway. Cuba is a peace-loving
member of the international community whose people
do not deserve the punishment that has been meted out
to them for almost four decades now.
Let me now turn to development issues. In
Africa, our efforts to achieve sustainable development
continue to be seriously undermined by a variety of
factors, prominent among which are conflicts,
structural weaknesses, natural disasters and disease.
For the international system to successfully address
those factors of underdevelopment, more serious
attention must be paid to the implementation of the
Brussels Programme of Action for the Least Developed
Countries for the Decade 2001-2010, and more
attention must be focused on the attainment of the
Millennium Development Goals. We must also give
effect to the commitments made at Doha, Monterrey
and Johannesburg.
There is no shortage of blueprints for
development. What is in short supply, and what needs
to be urgently mobilized, are resources. So far, there is
still a big gap between commitment and action.
Africa’s development partners must make good on their
pledges to support Africa’s development. My
delegation welcomes the Africa Action Plan of the G-8,
the African Growth and Opportunity Act of the United
States of America and the “Everything But Arms”
initiative of the European Union, all of which commit
their sponsors to well-defined forms of support for
Africa’s development.
There are, however, many barriers to the
implementation of those initiatives, which are caused
by certain protectionist policies pursued by our
partners, as well as other policy and structural
constraints. The problem of farm subsidies just will not
go away. Agricultural economies in our part of the
world must be allowed to compete if the global trading
system is to function in favour of the eradication of
poverty. The debt issue is far from being resolved and
the procedures for accessing the benefits of the Highly
Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative (HIPC) are too
cumbersome for many poor countries to follow. The
only realistic approach to the debt problem as a major
impediment to development is to cancel it
unconditionally for HIPC countries and for low-income
countries under stress.
We have just ended at Cancún another attempt at
negotiations on world trade. My delegation deeply
regrets the failure of the talks, as well as the fact that
the developed world could not see eye to eye with the
Group of 21 on the issue of subsidies. It is in our
collective interest to dismantle global trade barriers and
allow markets to expand, for incomes to rise in the
developing world and poverty to be reduced. Stronger
earning power in the developing world would stimulate
world trade in ways that would be most beneficial to
rich countries. My delegation calls on all concerned to
ensure that we return to the negotiating table as soon as
possible, and with greater determination on both sides,
to reach a just and fair agreement on all the issues
involved.
Official development assistance (ODA) still falls
short of the internationally agreed target of 0.7 per cent
of gross domestic product. We commend the countries
whose ODA has risen to that level, in particular
Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands and Sweden.
My delegation urges all of Africa’s development
partners to address those issues with sincerity and
commitment, with a view to meaningfully assisting in
kick-starting the sustainable human development
process in African countries.
It is gratifying to note that the Human
Development Report 2003 is devoted to the Millennium
Development Goals. In that way, the fight against
poverty is kept high on the international community’s
agenda, because we still have a very long way to go.
For instance, as stated in the report,
“Regionally, at the current pace Sub-Saharan
Africa would not reach the Goals for poverty
until 2147 and for child mortality until 2165. And
for HIV/AIDS and hunger, trends in the region
are heading up — not down.” (Human
Development Report 2003, p. 2)
It is indeed true that sub-Saharan Africa is being
left behind. That state of affairs is alarming and, as the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has
rightly stated, the Millennium Development Goals will
not be realized with a business-as-usual approach. The
paradox, in our view, is the fact that, while the means
to attain the Goals are available, it would appear that
the political will to do so is lacking. Let me again
quote from the Human Development Report 2003.
36

“Today’s world has greater resources and
know-how than ever before to tackle the
challenges of infectious disease, low productivity,
lack of clean energy and transport and lack of
basic services such as clean water, sanitation,
schools and health care. The issue is how best to
apply these resources and know-how to benefit
the poorest people.” (ibid, p. 3)
In The Gambia, my Government’s focus is on the
attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. The
strategy we have designed to that end is detailed in our
poverty reduction strategy paper. In a resource-
strapped economy such as The Gambia’s, getting all
the relevant indicators to perform well towards poverty
reduction is a daunting challenge. It is, however, a
challenge my Government is prepared to take up. Our
special focus is on the empowerment of our people, and
we seek to do so by giving priority to our education,
health and agricultural sectors, as well as by building
capacity among our women, who are the architects of
stable and strong nations. That strategy has so far
yielded dividends, as evidenced by my country’s
showing on UNDP’s Human Development Report
2003.
In the education sector our goal is to achieve full
enrolment well before the Millennium Declaration’s
target year of 2015. As of now, we have taken the gross
enrolment rate from 44 per cent, eight years ago, to
over 90 per cent today. We have, at the same time,
increased non-formal, adult and distance education
programmes throughout the country. The net result has
been a dramatic drop in illiteracy nationwide.
Transition rates from primary to secondary levels have
been significantly improved, from 12 per cent, 15 years
ago, to over 77 per cent today. Six years ago there were
hardly any tertiary level institutions to speak of. Today
they abound, and include the new University of The
Gambia. That has been made possible by the visionary
leadership provided by Al Hadji Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh,
President of the Republic of Gambia.
Recognizing the important role women play in
the family, in the community and in the nation, my
Government has sought to pay special attention to the
empowerment of our women through education,
training and special income-generating projects. In
order to increase opportunities for the girl child in the
educational system, we have created a trust fund,
entitled “The President’s Empowerment of Girls
Education Project”, to provide full scholarships to girls
who would otherwise not be able to go to school for
lack of resources. That and other measures geared
towards assisting women have helped to close the
gender gap in education in Gambia.
Empowering the rural dweller is another priority
of my Government. We seek to do so through measures
that lead to an increase in access to resources,
infrastructure and services, as well as to knowledge
and skills. Most villages now have a primary school,
and clusters of villages share secondary education
facilities.
Our efforts have also been geared towards the
improvement of the health of our people. Significantly
improved child health care, especially through an
extensive and comprehensive immunization
programme, has contributed immensely towards a
considerable reduction in infant mortality in the last
few years. Infant mortality rates have been reduced by
one third. Primary health care programmes have been
strengthened across the board. Overall, access to health
facilities and services have equally been greatly
improved, with the construction of hospitals, health
centres, clinics and dispensaries throughout the
country.
For all these achievements, however, we are
humbled by the challenges that still remain. The
prevalence of diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria
and a host of respiratory illnesses, is part of an
unfinished agenda. Malaria, in particular, remains a
major problem. It is the leading cause of mortality and
a major cause of morbidity among pregnant women,
contributing to anaemia and low birth weight. Today,
with the cooperation of a Cuban medical and health
team, The Gambia is number one in Africa as far as its
malaria control programme is concerned, according to
the World Health Organization.
In the area of agriculture, our objective is to
achieve a total transformation of the sector. Our
priority is to reduce the drudgery of production and
increase productivity through a systematic programme
of mechanization. Added to this is our bid to reduce
our dependence on rain-fed methods of production, in
favour of greater irrigation, using the abundant water
resources that the Gambia River and its tributaries
provide. A third plank of our programme of
empowerment in the agriculture sector is to diversify
activities away from the traditional crops by placing
greater emphasis on food production as well as on
37

other non-traditional crops for export. Finally, with all
of these objectives already well on the road to success,
we are beginning to increase market access, both
locally and abroad, for our producers.
Attaining the Millennium Development Goals
will depend to a large extent on how well poor
countries perform in the areas I have just referred to. It
would also depend on how far they themselves are
empowered, and made capable of performing, through
the requisite support measures from the international
community. The United Nations system as a whole can
be mobilized further to broker such support for poor
countries, and especially for those among them that
show promise and positive signs of progress.
My Government has been increasing its efforts to
deepen democracy and strengthening good governance
in The Gambia. To that end, our intent is to
continuously bring improvements to the performance
of all arms of government. Our multiparty democratic
system forms the backbone of our political
dispensation. We continue to conduct free and fair
elections at all levels of popular representation. Our
courts operate independently. We have encouraged the
mass media to grow and expand, with increasingly
higher levels of private participation. The international
community must have been satisfied with our efforts
and achievements in this domain, since the World
Economic Forum, meeting in South Africa, decided to
classify The Gambia third in Africa, for its
performance on good governance. We are indeed
honoured by this recognition, and feel encouraged in
our resolve to do even better.
Advances in information and communication
technology have come to make our world a truly global
village. This is indeed remarkable. However, we must
not lose sight of the fact that even in this area there is a
great deal of catching up to be done by the developing
world. Global initiatives geared towards bridging the
digital divide between the developed and developing
worlds should be pursued with unrelenting vigour.
Scientific and technological research must be
conducted in support of the essence of life. In the
course of this year, we have heard several claims as to
the successful cloning of human embryos. These
claims, whether genuine or not, are indeed a wake-up
call for all of humanity. The international community
must close ranks to address them in a manner that
ensures that no one is allowed, for whatever reason, to
tinker with science and technology in ways that may
upset or threaten nature’s fragile balance.
The phenomenon of illegal, unregulated and
unreported fishing remains a challenge to coastal
African States such as The Gambia. It has generated
enormous concern at the international level, as is
evident from the adoption of various international
instruments to combat it. My delegation would like to
express its gratitude to the Governments of Japan and
Luxembourg and the Food and Agriculture
Organization for the assistance that they provide to our
fisheries sector, and to fully endorse the Secretary-
General’s recommendation that technical and financial
assistance to developing countries for the conservation
and management of fisheries resources should be
provided in a comprehensive manner. We call for
greater assistance and cooperation in our efforts to
promote sustainable practices in the fisheries sector of
our economies.
On the crucial topic of United Nations reform, my
delegation welcomes the efforts aimed at the
revitalization of the General Assembly and the reform
of the Security Council. After more than a decade, little
progress has been made in our attempts to reform the
Security Council so that it is truly reflective of the
realities of the international system in the twenty-first
century. My Government reiterates its stance — indeed
the stance of the entire African region — that the
composition of the Security Council has to be
revamped and democratized. Membership of the
Council must be expanded, with Africa occupying at
least two permanent seats and five non-permanent
seats. We therefore wholeheartedly support the timely
proposal of the Secretary-General to establish a high-
level panel of eminent personalities to make concrete
recommendations, inter alia, on the reforms of the
Organization.
As we move into the business of the fifty-eighth
session of the General Assembly, my delegation prays
that the Almighty Allah crowns our endeavours with
success. We pray that this session proves to be the
turning point in our efforts to render the United
Nations more relevant, more effective and truly all-
inclusive. We pray that at this session, any doubts as to
the utility of the United Nations to each and every one
of us be put to rest once and for all. We pray that by the
close of this session, we shall all have emerged secure
in our conviction that only through fuller recourse to
the United Nations can we expect to have our global
38

problems of conflict, peace and security and, indeed,
development, frontally addressed, fully contained and
completely resolved.


Before addressing the pressing issues before the
international community and expressing our position
on the issues that have been discussed here, I would
like to begin by referring to the concrete example of
my own country.
On 6 January 2003, the people and Government
of El Salvador received an official communication
from the Secretary-General informing us of the
completion of the verification function of the United
Nations vis-à-vis the Peace Agreement that ended 13
years of war in our country. Eleven years have elapsed
since that historic Peace Agreement put an end to an
armed conflict that had been destroying our country for
over a decade.
Before the war we were a poor country. Sixty-per
cent of our fellow citizens lived under the poverty line.
Our country has also been dealt a harsh blow by nature.
Every generation of Salvadorans has had to rebuild
their lives due to the fact that, throughout our history,
there has never been a twenty-five-year period without
the occurrence of a natural disaster of enormous
proportions. We are also an overpopulated country,
with over 6 million inhabitants sharing 21,000 square
kilometres. That makes us one of the most densely
populated countries of the American continent. Being
completely dependant on agriculture, fluctuations in
the prices of coffee and sugar have always determined
our prospects for development.
A little over a decade ago we stood no chance of
meeting our financial commitments. Our debts far
exceeded our ability to pay. Poor, small, overpopulated,
indebted, dependent upon agriculture, afflicted by
natural disasters and immersed in a widespread armed
conflict, El Salvador appeared not to have a future
barely 12 years ago. Violence, coupled with the harsh
realities of underdevelopment, appeared to have
doomed us to a vicious circle devoid of hope.
We are a different country today. We view the
future with confidence, for we have discovered our
capacities. In just 12 years we have reduced poverty by
half, from 60 per cent of our population, in 1991, to 33
per cent today. Over 30 per cent of our population had
been living in extreme poverty. Today only half as
many, 15 per cent, live in that distressing situation. Our
efforts have had a direct impact on the standard of
living of all of our citizens. Twelve years ago 25 per
cent of Salvadorans did not know how to read or write.
That figure is only 13 per cent today. The child
mortality rate, which had been at 45 per thousand
births, stands at 25 per thousand today.
We have accomplished all that by dedicating
ourselves to the most pressing needs of our people. In
order to connect our most isolated towns, we have built
one kilometre of road every day for the last four years.
We have also built three schools every day in the same
period, so as to educate our poorest children. Similarly,
11

we have built 106 houses every day for low-income
families. And every five days we have built a new
health centre.
Having once been completely dependent on
agriculture, today we rank number 3, out of 24 Latin
American countries, in terms of export growth. During
the difficult decade of the 1990s we managed to grow
at a much faster rate than our region at large. We have
now become the second-ranking country in Latin
America in economic growth.
Despite the immense burden posed by
reconstruction after the earthquakes of 2001, year after
year we have reduced our budget deficit, bringing it to
under 1 per cent in 2004. This has allowed us to control
inflation, lowering it from 30 per cent to 2 per cent this
year, and thus to avoid a decline in family income. We
have zero risk of devaluation and today, after having
seen interest rates of 30 per cent, we have the lowest
bank interest rates of our region — 6.8 per cent. For 11
years now, we have had no fluctuation in exchange
rates, allowing us to acquire a rate of investment that is
matched in Latin America only by Chile, Mexico and
my country.
The living conditions of Salvadorans have
changed considerably. Rates of unemployment have
fallen from 13 per cent to 6.8 per cent. Having had
only 250,000 telephone lines in 1992, we now have 1.6
million. It is less expensive to make a telephone call
from El Salvador to United Nations Headquarters than
it is from Headquarters to El Salvador. In just over a
decade, the number of automobiles has grown by a
factor of four. We have managed to increase the supply
of drinking water and electrification in rural areas by
50 per cent. We have achieved peace. We have devoted
our energies to economic development and our
resources to the poorest among us.
I have elaborated on developments in my country
in recent years because it seems to me that we in El
Salvador have discovered an effective way not only of
resolving violent conflict, but also of combating
poverty. Such means, which the international
community is seeking to confront the complexities of
our world, are based on universally valid principles.
Thus, to understand the case of El Salvador is to
understand new possibilities for other nations and
solutions to other problems.
The two most important challenges for a nation
are learning how to live and understanding why we are
alive. The former is an entirely practical matter,
requiring knowledge of the workings of the modern
world — how it works and what opportunities are
available to a poor country in a world that is rapidly
evolving. The second is an entirely abstract matter, but
it is all the more important for that, because only when
we are clear about the meaning of our shared lives can
we develop a sense of purpose that allows us to
channel the energies of a community towards a national
objective.
It is a paradox rich in significance that we
Salvadorans, in order to find our commitment to the
future, had to delve into the traditions that gave us our
identity in the past. When we found ourselves in the
dead end of war, we had to rethink our destiny. In spite
of our suffering, we had all the resources we needed to
move ahead: talent, energy, experience, faith and will.
We had the prudence to avoid future dangers and the
courage to confront present challenges.
The basic principle on which we have built our
country is that every Salvadoran has access to the truth.
In every part of our land, it is possible for every
Salvadoran to speak out, to express himself or herself
without any constraint based on status. It is on the basis
of the views of our compatriots that we have built the
new El Salvador. We decided that, if this were to
become a reality, three principles were needed:
freedom, justice and the inalienable right to life. The
concrete manifestations of these values are democracy,
economic freedom and the rule of law. This applies not
only to El Salvador and Salvadorans, but equally to all
the inhabitants of our world. Every human being has
access to the truth. It is in the human capacity for
reason that we find our moral potential. That is why we
must be free.
At a time when we wonder about the role of the
United Nations, we must recall that the Organization
was born to ensure those fundamental rights. This
forum cannot be paralysed in debates when freeing a
nation from tyranny is at issue. We must all act in the
face of oppression. Terrorism is a negation of all the
values we share. We need a consensus on the values
that unite us and a renewed will for action.
We can debate interminably here the issue of Iraq
and the current circumstances of the Iraqi people, but
what brooks no debate is the fact that this forum has
not acted in a way commensurate with the demands of
an increasingly complex world. The United Nations
12

must be rethought and restructured so that it can meet
the objectives for which it was created.
We Salvadorans speak with the solidity that we
have gained from having fully shouldered our
responsibilities towards the international community.
We are participants in the reconstruction of Iraq. We
speak with the legitimacy of having been ourselves the
battleground of the last conflict of the cold war and we
understand how the mediation of the international
community can help to find a solution to a conflict and
give hope to a desperate nation.
In conclusion, we wish to express our sorrow at
the death of United Nations staff members in Baghdad.
We reaffirm the right of all nations to have a voice in
this forum. The absence of the Republic of China in the
deliberations of this forum represents a rejection of the
legitimate aspirations of a nation that should speak in
its own voice, just as we do, in this body and the
community of nations.
The liberator of the Americas summarized, in
words far more eloquent than mine, the values that
must inspire this forum and our discussions here. He
said:
“Peoples, no one can take possession of
your sovereignty, unless it be violently and
illegitimately. Flee that country where one person
alone seeks to exercise all powers. That will be a
country of slaves.”


Let me begin by
congratulating you, Sir, on your assumption of the
presidency of the fifty-eighth session of the General
Assembly. Allow me also to express our heartfelt
appreciation to Mr. Jan Kavan for his outstanding
leadership during the previous session. I would also
like to pay tribute to Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello and
the United Nations staff members who fell victim to
cowardly and blind rage in Baghdad. The dreadful
terrorist attack perpetrated against those messengers of
peace once again highlighted the danger we face in
many corners of the world.
In recent years, the United Nations and the entire
world community have come up against challenges that
threaten the very basis of the Organization and our
collective efforts towards global peace and security.
International terrorism, a threat with a global
dimension, affects each and every one of us. However,
it has become evident that many of the new
democracies are particularly vulnerable to that threat.
Scarce material resources and the lack of qualified
personnel undermine their efforts, highlighting the
need for further intensified global cooperation.
Georgia is no exception when it comes to threats
posed by international terrorism. However, despite
existing difficulties, and with the active support and
assistance of our partners, especially the United States,
we have made substantial progress. Georgia
successfully completed its anti-criminal and anti-
terrorist operation in the Pankisi Gorge. We have freed
that territory from illegal armed groups and have seized
a considerable number of arms and ammunition. I can
unequivocally state today that the Pankisi Gorge, which
9

has been freed of every illegally armed person, no
longer poses any threat to Georgia or its neighbours.
However, unless the root cause of the Pankisi Gorge
problem is settled, namely, the conflict in Chechnya,
we cannot consider the problem eliminated. The lesson
to be drawn from this experience is that the fight
against terrorism, in all its complexity, will be
successful only if carried out through concerted
international efforts. A single quick-fix operation can
cause the problem to resurface at a later stage.
Many of the speakers who spoke before me
highlighted the importance of tackling the threat of
international terrorism in all its aspects. We cannot but
share that notion. Protracted problems, and in
particular unresolved conflicts that result in the
creation of uncontrolled territories, have become a
breeding ground for terrorism. It is only a matter of
time until we witness greater ties being forged between
separatist leaders and terrorists.
A vivid example of that is the conflict in
Abkhazia, Georgia. That territory, which is under the
control of a separatist regime, has turned into a safe
haven for criminals, traffickers in drugs and human
beings, illegal arms dealers and terrorist groups. The
notorious Shamil Basayev, who was recently included
on the Counter-Terrorism Committee’s terrorist list, has
re-established himself as a friend of the separatist
authorities and is maintaining active links with the
terrorist groups in Abkhazia. In the near future, we will
provide the Counter-Terrorism Committee with
relevant information on individuals involved in
terrorist activities in that region of Georgia.
The record of the United Nations in reaching a
comprehensive settlement of the conflict in Abkhazia,
Georgia, has been less than satisfactory. After more
than 10 years of United Nations involvement, we have
not come even a single step closer to a settlement.
Blatant violations of human rights and ethnic cleansing
of the Georgian population in Abkhazia continue
unabated. Despite numerous calls, we have failed to
correct even the fundamental flaws in the entire United
Nations-led peace process.
We welcome the fact that, since the last session of
the General Assembly, the Geneva process has gained a
new dimension. We are hopeful that that will give new
impetus to the peace process. I would like to stress that
this relatively new development is still fragile and that
it should be aimed at achieving results, and not at the
process itself. We would also like to underline the
importance of the recently held summit of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which
reinforced the previous decisions of CIS heads of
States putting forth restrictive regulations on political
and economic cooperation and contact with Abkhazia,
Georgia.
However, despite those positive steps, very little
has changed on the ground. In that regard, I am
thinking in particular of the illegal unilateral actions
undertaken by representatives of the Russian side, and
especially by leaders of regional authorities, that
significantly damage the peace process. The railway
link between Sochi and Sukhumi is still operating
unhindered. Despite our appeals at the last session of
the General Assembly, the wholesale granting of
Russian citizenship to the Abkhaz population has never
slowed. Russian passports issued to the inhabitants of
the secessionist region have already fallen into hands
of terrorists, who are making the best use of free
passage in and out of Russia through the Abkhaz and
Ossetian sections of the Georgian-Russian border,
where our neighbour unilaterally imposes a visa-free
regime.
The illegal acquisition of property — including
possessions of internally displaced persons — in
Abkhazia, Georgia, by State bodies, legal entities and
individuals continues. Needless to say, such acts are
being carried out in flagrant violation of international
law and represent an infringement of Georgia’s
sovereignty. They run counter to the Georgian law that
declares any transaction with the separatist regime null
and void.
The illegal presence of the Russian military base
in Gudauta is yet another element that is exacerbating
the situation in Abkhazia. Georgia insists that the
commitment undertaken in accordance with the Treaty
on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe concerning
the removal of that base be implemented expeditiously
and transparently.
But there must still be hope — hope that we will
not again fail the 300,000 internally displaced persons
and refugees, whose patience is running thin. Efforts
must be redoubled to persuade the Abkhaz side to
accept the so-called Boden Document, on the
distribution of constitutional competences between
Tbilisi and Sokhumi, as a basis for political
negotiations.
10

We have repeatedly noted the failure of the
peacekeeping forces of the Commonwealth of
Independent States to provide security for returnees. In
fact, those forces — which do not even have a United
Nations mandate — have done no more than sustain the
status quo, virtually functioning as border guards
between Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia. We cannot
hope for any improvement in the situation unless the
United Nations takes upon itself the launching, in an
internationalized format, of a full-scale peacekeeping
operation in Abkhazia. It is through an increased role
on the part of the United Nations and through the will
of the international community that the unheeding
Abkhaz separatists can be forced to compromise.
Failing that, the Government of Georgia will have no
other choice but to request the Security Council to
resort to the measures envisaged under Chapter VII of
the United Nations Charter.
The Secretary-General and many other world
leaders have duly recognized that the United Nations is
passing though one of the most critical phases of its
history. New global realities have made it clear that
immediate measures ought to be undertaken if we want
to ensure the sustainability of the United Nations and
to strengthen the confidence of Member States in the
Organization.
In his statement before the forty-seventh session
of the General Assembly, in 1992, President
Shevardnadze of Georgia stated:
“There is no need to fear reforms when
reforms are so necessary, especially, in our view,
in the two interrelated fields of peacekeeping and
nation-building in the newly independent States.”
(A/47/PV.12, p.36)
Those sentiments have been duly echoed during the
current Assembly session. We should be courageous
enough to recognize that reform of the United Nations
is essential for the interests of each of us, as well as for
our collective good.
It is our belief that Member States can rally
around the Secretary-General in his call for the creation
of a high-level panel of eminent personalities charged
with a multitude of tasks aimed at reforming the United
Nations. I reaffirm Georgia’s support for expansion of
the Security Council. We join the calls to grant
Germany and Japan permanent seats on the Council
and to increase the number of non-permanent members.
Moreover, the decision-making process within the
Council should be made more transparent and
democratic to ensure that the adoption of necessary
resolutions does not fall prey to special, narrow
interests.
As we continue to collectively witness changing
global realities, the Government of Georgia welcomes
the increasing role of regional structures in achieving
the fundamental objectives set forth by the United
Nations. The efforts of European and Euro-Atlantic
structures in the Balkans is just one successful example
in that regard. Another vivid example is Afghanistan,
where NATO has taken a leading role in the peace-
building operation. That organization’s role will
increase further as a result of its recent expansion.
Security issues have become a serious concern for such
regional organizations as the Black Sea Economic
Cooperation Organization and the GUUAM
Participating States — Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Azerbaijan and Republic of Moldova. Here, we should
like to appeal to Member States for support for the
GUUAM’s efforts to be granted observer status in the
General Assembly.
The Millennium Summit and the decisions taken
there remain, in our view, one of the most significant
achievements of the United Nations. The consensus
achieved both at the Monterrey and the Johannesburg
Summits are road maps for the implementation of the
Millennium Development Goals. The Government of
Georgia supports the objectives and strategies set forth
in both outcome documents, considering it imperative
that the international community remain on course.
Globalization is becoming an everyday reality.
Advances in modern technologies are making that
process irreversible. However, it is up to the United
Nations to take a more active role in guaranteeing
equitable distribution of resources among all nations of
the world. It is through increased cooperation, through
the streamlining of actions within the United Nations
and its bodies, and through the establishment of new
partnerships that the Organization must prevail in
achieving global sustainable development.
Despite rapidly changing global realities, one
thing remains constant: there is a greater need and a
greater demand for the United Nations. We remain
hopeful that common sense and a common vision of the
future will prevail in this unique international body.
For our part, we are prepared to do our utmost towards
that end.


My
Government is pleased that the General Assembly’s
presidency at its fifty-eighth regular session is in the
capable hands of my distinguished colleague, the
Foreign Minister of Saint Lucia, Senator Julian Hunte,
whose election bears witness to the importance that this
Organization holds, not just for the Government of
Saint Lucia, but also for the Governments and people
of the Caribbean Community. I trust that as he tackles
the critical United Nations agenda over the coming
year he will incorporate into his work the lessons of
our successes as a Caribbean Community. As with his
predecessor, whose steady leadership was tested during
a year of unprecedented challenges, he, too, can count
on my Government’s continued support.
I take this opportunity to pay tribute to
Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of the
Secretary-General, other staff of the United Nations
and the citizens of Iraq who lost their lives or sustained
injuries in the tragedy of Baghdad last August. We
15

share the sorrow of the Secretary-General and his staff,
and extend our profound condolences to the bereaved
families.
I intend to focus our attention on the critical
importance of strategic partnership. Lest my statement
be misconstrued, I hasten to assure the Assembly from
the outset that my Government is neither oblivious nor
indifferent to the multitude of concerns and problems
that attend and threaten our quest for international
peace and security. I will be pleased to share my
Government’s perspective on them later. But allow me
first to share with the Assembly our national
philosophy and policy as they relate to improving the
human condition.
“How does one do that?” you ask. Improving the
human condition is achieved by working towards
human security. Notwithstanding the recriminations
and blame, at the core of the failed World Trade
Organization round in Mexico earlier this month was
the issue of human security. Clearly, countries want
guarantees as Governments struggle to meet the needs
of their citizens. For my Government, human security
means that each citizen has the right to liberty,
education, employment, an improved standard of living
and economic development. We believe that human
security is a comprehensive and holistic concept that
encompasses all aspects of the human condition.
Obviously, there is much that we in the Caribbean
can and must still learn from the rest of the world. But,
equally, there are many valuable lessons that the rest of
the world can draw from our experiences and successes
in the Caribbean. In many areas, the Caribbean is a
testament to the practicality and efficacy of functional
cooperation, and of how, despite the many issues that
divide us, we continue to work together on matters
common to us. Be it at the subregional level of the
Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) or
within the broader Caribbean Community
(CARICOM), the progress we have made in forging
consensus and in building common institutions to
address our shared problems allows us to be able to
share best practices with the United Nations and
demonstrate how, by working together through
cooperative partnerships, each of us can achieve more.
For nearly four decades, for example, the
University of the West Indies has cultivated many
distinguished academics and other notables. Today, it
stands as a beacon of hope for our young people in
their quest for quality higher education. To its credit,
the University continues to work with several
internationally recognized institutions and agencies in
the areas of peace and security, health care and
scientific research, to name but a few. The Caribbean
Examinations Council has responded adequately and
with requisite standards of excellence to the growing
education needs of the English-speaking Caribbean.
When our students complete their education, they stand
shoulder to shoulder with their counterparts around the
world. It is not my intention to boast, but for us it is a
matter of national and regional pride. Further, as the
Assembly’s President is aware, many of our countries
have adopted policies that allow nationals of other
member States to travel to and work in their countries
without the hassle of visa requirements and work
permits. Although we are divided by the sea, the
bridges of commitment and recognition of our common
challenges and the benefits of shared approaches are
bringing us ever closer together.
The Caribbean Development Bank and the
Eastern Caribbean Central Bank are models of how
financial responsibility and cooperation with and
among member Governments in executing fiscal and
monetary policies can facilitate stability, underpin
accountability and engender progress. For decades, the
Eastern Caribbean dollar, the currency of the countries
of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, has
remained the bedrock of monetary stability. We are
also especially proud of the success of the OECS Court
of Appeal, which has worked effectively and dutifully
in dispensing justice throughout the territories over
which it exercises jurisdiction. Further, the prudent and
positive steps toward a Caribbean Single Market and
Economy (CSME), provide evidence of the
determination of Caribbean Governments to cooperate
in almost all endeavours to advance the human security
of our citizens. These are but a few examples of
functional cooperation. In every case, member
countries are better off because they work together
rather than unilaterally.
We continue to incorporate in our national
policies many of the agreed principles of sustainable
development. Additionally, our regional campaign to
fight the spread of HIV/AIDS and treat its victims has
witnessed encouraging results under the Pan-Caribbean
Partnership against HIV/AIDS. My Government wishes
to commend the World Bank and the William J. Clinton
Presidential Foundation for their pledges of support for
16

our work in this regard. We hope that our cooperation
efforts will be a model for future partnerships in our
region and beyond.
I promised earlier that I would share my
Government’s perspective on some of the decisive
issues that confront us internationally. I preface my
remarks with a reminder that just over a decade earlier
we stood on the threshold of a new era of opportunity.
We celebrated the collapse of major ideological
conflicts, which previously held us captive, even, I
dare say, on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. As one
leader remarked, nations and peoples quietly harboured
dreams that the last decade of the twentieth century and
the advent of the twenty-first century would herald new
opportunities to address and redress asymmetrical
issues that had frustrated our collective aspirations and
individual potential. None of us, I am sure, would
likely admit that we may have squandered such
prospects. However, a little more than a decade later,
ideological rifts seem to have been replaced by
political chasms and new dangers.
Consequently, we must re-evaluate our concept of
security. The Organization of American States, in its
meeting of foreign ministers last year in Barbados,
took the bold and timely step of redefining security
within its hemisphere. Security, the foreign ministers
declared, is diverse in scope and multidimensional in
nature, requiring multifaceted approaches to address
political, economic, social and environmental issues.
This concept clearly recognizes that we cannot separate
national, regional and international security issues from
political, economic and social stability and their
security implications.
We in the Caribbean recognize that, whereas
globalization is a viable instrument of growth and
prosperity for some, it has become the vehicle of ruin
and despair for many of the already poor people around
the world. While countries that prosper praise
globalization and free trade, countries that suffer see
themselves as no more than the guinea pigs, the passive
objects of globalization, with very little hope of
advancing human security for their poor citizens.
How do we encourage our citizens to have faith
in a system that punishes their legitimate efforts? How
can we tell the poor farmers in the developing world,
struggling to eke out an existence, to hold out hope
when farmers in rich countries are subsidized and
rewarded for overproduction? How do we ask our
citizens in small vulnerable economies to sacrifice and
adopt free trade wholesale, while larger, more
developed economies devise new ways to deny them
crucial market access. Unless we address such
inequities, there will always be resentment and
mistrust. We must therefore work together to level
these bumps on the road to development. Also, we
must rob the uncivil forces of the arguments they use to
feed and exploit the anger and despair of the poor and
dispossessed.
I turn now to the United Nations. In our view, the
United Nations remains central to international peace
and human security. The myriad challenges facing us
today require collective action and partnership. I hasten
to add that, although the United Nations still lacks
important elements of transparency and democracy in
the operations of the Security Council, it nevertheless
represents the most practical framework our nations
have to address regional and international concerns in a
holistic manner.
I trust that, when the dust of discontent settles,
we will appreciate that no country can act alone in
pursuit of international peace, development and human
security. My Government calls on the United Nations
membership to embrace a bold vision and commitment
to fighting the pull of isolation and the lure of
economic and financial engineering. Our reality today
encompasses the struggles to find positive and
sustainable methods for advancing our citizens’
development against uncivil forces or rogue ideologies
working relentlessly to undermine them.
My Government calls on the United Nations and
Member Governments to further subscribe to and
promote partnership by fulfilling the Millennium
Development Goals. The Millennium Goals are
essential steps to improving the human condition. They
are also a reliable basis for addressing many of the
inequities of globalization. We urge Member States to
work to meet these goals. We can relent only when the
other half of the world’s population ceases to live in
abject poverty, when larger sectors of the world’s
population can find work, and when all parents are able
to send their children to school.
Despite its exclusion from this international
fraternity of nations, the Republic of China on Taiwan
remains a valuable partner for peace and development
with fullest respect for international law. We trust that
its contributions and its citizens’ right to adequate
17

representation can be guaranteed in the best interest of
brotherhood so that all people can live in peace and
enjoy the fruits of prosperity through partnership.
Saint Kitts and Nevis therefore urges the
United Nations to avail itself of every possibility to
facilitate a sustainable resolution of the impasse that
hampers Taiwan’s efforts to engage in international
dialogue and contribute to the common interests of
mankind.
Let me end by reaffirming my Government’s
commitment to multilateralism and to strategic
partnership.