Mr. President, may I
begin by congratulating you on your assumption of the
presidency and assure you of New Zealand's
cooperation during your term of office.
13

The opening of this, the fifty-seventh session of
the General Assembly, came just one day after the
anniversary of the terrorist attack of 11 September
2001, which shocked this city and the international
community. The premeditated and callous mass murder
of 3,000 people from 79 different countries was a sharp
warning to us of the ongoing threats to peace and
stability in our world. It was to protect humanity
against such threats that the nations of the world came
together in 1945 to establish this Organization in the
belief that collective action was necessary to guarantee
global peace.
Today, in the second year of a new millennium,
the need to act multilaterally is greater than ever
before. Terrorism, weapons of mass destruction,
environmental degradation, people-smuggling, drug-
trafficking, diseases such as HIV/AIDS and the
unsustainable depletion of our natural resources are all
global matters that require a collective response.
We can be proud that a year ago the response by
the United Nations to a new and unprecedented level of
terrorism was immediate, united and effective. The
primary victim of the attack, the United States, sought
and secured international cooperation that achieved the
incapacitation of the Al Qaeda terrorist organization
and the removal of the Taliban regime that had hosted
it. It was a model for international unity of purpose and
multilateral action. It was a lesson that should not be
forgotten as this Organization tackles other problems
confronting humanity.
New Zealand has worked wholeheartedly under
the mandate provided by the United Nations to defeat
terrorism. We have introduced legislation to deny
terrorist organizations funding and resources in line
with Security Council resolution 1373 (2001). We have
sought to assist our neighbours in the Pacific to do the
same. We have committed peacekeeping personnel to
the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and
combat forces under Operation Enduring Freedom in
Afghanistan. But we are also aware that actions to
suppress terrorism must be accompanied by measures
to tackle the causes of terrorism. Injustice, lack of
opportunity, hopelessness, desperation and the failure
of legitimate channels to redress grievances all give
rise to resort to terrorist actions.
The failure to resolve differences between Israeli
and Palestinian people in the Middle East continues to
be a catalyst for recruitment into terrorism. The
Secretary-General, in opening this session, spelled out
the basis for resolving the dispute. He referred to land
for peace, an end to terror and to occupation, and to
two States, Israel and Palestine, with secure and
recognized borders. Both peoples are destined to live
side by side. Both will benefit from an end to violence
and a negotiated settlement. But agreement requires
good faith from each side and a determined effort by
the international community. We fully endorse the
Secretary-General's renewed call for an international
peace conference. Progress on this issue is now more
vital than ever.
The situation in Iraq is also a threat to world
peace, but we must look for solutions that will resolve
and do not exacerbate that threat. No nation can be
exempt from the requirement to comply with the
resolutions passed by this Organization. That is
necessary if the rule of law is to apply internationally.
No nation can be allowed to commit aggression or to
use weapons of mass destruction against its own
people. The requirement to comply with United
Nations resolutions is not the instruction of one
country to Iraq; it is collective instruction that should
have the unanimous endorsement of all Member
countries.
Iraq's non-compliance with Security Council
resolutions is a challenge to the entire United Nations
membership. The United Nations must meet this
challenge. How the situation is resolved matters to us
all, not least the countries of the region itself.
Those who can exercise influence over Iraq
should do so to avoid the need for resort to other
actions. The response chosen by the Security Council
must, however, take into account the need not to
impose further costs on ordinary Iraqi people innocent
of any wrongdoing. The response should not involve
actions that undermine, rather than strengthen, the war
against terrorism.
The United Nations has shown that collective
action can save lives and help rebuild nations. We will
soon welcome the world's newest nation, East Timor,
into the United Nations, and we should celebrate the
success of the United Nations peacekeeping mission
and Transitional Administration in that country. I
congratulate Sergio Vieira de Mello, the Secretary-
General's former Special Representative, on his role,
and I thank those countries that contributed so much to
14

giving hope and opportunity to the people of that small
country.
New Zealand has had a battalion of peacekeepers
deployed in East Timor since September 1999, and also
has peacekeepers serving in 12 other countries. We are
proud that they have performed their role with
professionalism and respect for the people in whose
countries they operate. Notwithstanding the small size
of our population, New Zealand currently is the
twenty-second-largest contributor to the United
Nations peacekeeping personnel.
The promotion of human rights is another area
where multilateral action by the international
community is essential. In the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and in the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, the United Nations has set
out universal standards for the observance of human
rights. There is no justification for any country to
deviate from those human rights standards. It is a mark
of shame that States Members of this Organization
continue to breach basic human rights and a disgrace
that other countries too often act as apologists for the
offending regimes.
An important landmark in the last year has been
the entry into force of the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court. As the culmination of
longstanding efforts by non-governmental
organizations, Governments and the international
community as a whole, it offers the prospect of
bringing justice to the victims of the most horrific
crimes known to humankind and bringing their
perpetrators to justice. It will serve as a deterrent where
none has existed before. We have listened carefully to
those who argue that the Court is not necessary and
that it unduly jeopardizes their peacekeepers, but we
cannot agree. The status quo, relying on domestic
jurisdiction alone, has failed humankind throughout
history and has borne witness to appalling crimes. The
new regime has carefully built-in safeguards to protect
the innocent.
We were dismayed by the actions of the Security
Council in July. At that time, we challenged both the
legitimacy and the substance of the Council's action.
We do not believe that it was consistent with the Rome
Statute or that the Council is able to arrogate to itself
the power to change treaty relationships.
A further issue on which greater progress must be
made is that of disarmament. The fact that humanity
survived the nightmare of potential nuclear destruction
during the cold war cannot be allowed to make us
complacent about ongoing threats from weapons of
mass destruction.
We welcome the Treaty of Moscow and the
agreement between Russia and the United States to cut
the number of strategic nuclear weapons each country
deploys. These reductions, however, are not a
substitute for irreversible cuts in, and the total
elimination of, those weapons.
In some respects even greater danger is posed by
short-range tactical nuclear weapons. There is a real
risk that these could be launched by accident or in
confusion, with no time available for communication
between opposing sides.
Over the last year, two significant events have
made our world a most dangerous place. The first is the
emergence of international terrorist groups that have
shown their willingness to use weapons of mass
destruction — biological, chemical or nuclear —
should they gain access to them.
The second is the situation in South Asia, where
the world recently came close to direct conflict
between two countries with nuclear capability. The
international community has not done enough to reduce
those risks.
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty has
not been brought into effect. Progress towards the
implementation of undertakings made by nuclear-
weapon States at the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review
Conference has stalled. Nations have not taken
sufficient steps to stop the production of fissile
material and to reduce stocks.
In this and in many other areas much more needs
to be done to address growing problems that affect all
of us. The awful toll of HIV/AIDS, slowness in
response to global warming and the growth in the
smuggling and trafficking of people are but three
further examples.
It is essential that we renew our commitment to
multilateralism as the best way to address global
problems. That requires not simply money but, must
importantly, political will. It is not a case of putting
global interests ahead of national interests. Global
15

interests are national interests. The United Nations is
our most valuable international organization, but we
need to do more to enhance its relevance, value and its
unique authority. All of us are stakeholders in its
success.


It
gives me pleasure to begin by congratulating
Mr. Kavan on his election as President of the General
Assembly at its fifty-seventh session. I wish him every
success as he embarks on this task. I would also like to
thank his predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo, who so ably
steered the work of the General Assembly at its fifty-
sixth session, which was convened amidst acute and
grave circumstances.
I would be remiss if I failed to express my
appreciation to Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his
tireless work to enhance the role of our international
Organization.
It is also my pleasure to congratulate the Swiss
Federation on its admission to membership of our
international Organization.
Lebanon considers the United Nations to be the
main body entrusted with the realization of
international peace and security and with upholding
respect for the rules of international law. The United
Nations is a safe haven for States, particularly small
ones, which find in its Charter the reassurances they
need in a turbulent world. Therefore, any departure
from the Charter, circumventing, disregarding, or
overstepping its authority; any selective handling of its
resolutions; or any attempt to impose settlements on
and solutions to conflicts and disputes outside its
framework flagrantly undermines the credibility of the
Organization and its organs, particularly the Security
Council. Such acts are a devastating blow to the pillars
of international order.
Lebanon believes that there is a causal
relationship between security and sustainable
27

development and calls for a renewed effort, under
United Nations auspices, to eliminate poverty and
disease, bridge the gap between the North and the
South, and reduce social disparities. These are the
scourges that are often manipulated by those who
harbour ill intentions towards humanity. In this context,
Lebanon welcomes the establishment of the African
Union and supports the principles on which the New
Partnership for Africa's Development was built.
The work of this session coincides with the first
anniversary of the horrific terrorist attacks and the
terrible tragedy that struck the United States of
America. The world is still suffering from their terrible
repercussions. On behalf of Lebanon, I avail myself of
this opportunity to reiterate our sympathy with the
bereaved families. Like us, they are heartbroken over
the loss of their sons, relatives and loved ones. We also
renew our commitment to cooperating with the
international community to combat international
terrorism in accordance with the provisions of Security
Council resolution 1373 (2001) of 28 September 2001
and other relevant United Nations resolutions.
The events of 11 September 2001 impeded the
convening of the ninth summit of the Francophonie,
scheduled to be held last year under the theme of
“Dialogue among civilizations”. My country is proud
to be hosting the conference in mid-October. There is
no doubt that the choice of theme for the conference
before these dramatic events arose from the foresight
of its members and participants and from their
conviction of the need to interact and to engage in
dialogue, far removed from the logic of confrontation
and hostility.
Lebanon itself was the target of terrorist acts
prior to 11 September 2001 and its army stood up to
the perpetrators and overcame them. Lebanon and its
Arab brothers have been suffering from the State
terrorism continuously practised by Israel without
international deterrence since the Deir Yassin massacre
and the massacres in the Qana and Jenin camps.
Israel has recently begun to manipulate the tragic
events of September 2001 and the international
campaign to combat terrorism, using them shamelessly
as a pretext for persecuting the Palestinian people and
depriving them of their right to self-determination.
Israel has launched a slanderous campaign of threats
against Lebanon and its legitimate resistance, as well
as against Syria, while the origin of the conflict in the
region is the Israeli occupation of Arab territories.
The reality is that Israel has continuously defied
resolutions of international legitimacy. Israel has
disregarded Security Council resolution 425 (1978) for
more than 22 years and has refused to implement the
Security Council resolution calling for the
establishment of a fact-finding mission to investigate
the Jenin camp massacre. It has resorted to terror and
violence to implement expansionist and settlement
policies. It has accumulated weapons of mass
destruction in an arsenal primarily stacked with
nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. It continues
to oppose all attempts to reach a just and
comprehensive peaceful solution to the Middle East
issue, and remains, nonetheless, in total impunity,
never held accountable or punished for its actions. That
situation can only strengthen the impression among
Arab Governments and peoples that there is a double
standard at play in international affairs, and that,
regrettably, Israel is allowed to remain outside and
above the law.
Shimon Peres today accused Hezbollah of
terrorism because it has effectively contributed to the
legitimate resistance against Israeli occupation and to
forcing Israeli forces to withdraw from most occupied
Lebanese territory.
Hezbollah is represented in Lebanese parliament
and participates in the political, economic and social
life of Lebanon.
Mr. Peres is in fact the last person who should
have the right to talk about terrorism. He is the one
responsible directly for the killing of 102 women,
children and elderly at Qana when Israel bombed the
UNIFIL tent where they had sought safety and shelter.
Israel should be held accountable for such crimes.
Israel was founded on terrorism and has used it to
occupy land and establish faits accomplis.
If Israel's perpetration of the massacres of Dair
Yasin, Qana and Jenin is not terrorism, then what is
terrorism?
Is not Israel's daily breaking of the sound barrier
over Lebanese cities and villages a form of terrorism
and intimidation?
28

Is not Israel's kidnapping of Lebanese citizens
from their homes and detaining them in Israeli prisons
as hostages another form of terrorism?
Is not leaving hundreds of thousands of
landmines in south Lebanon to kill civilians a form of
terrorism that should be strongly condemned?
Is not Israel's constant threat of invading
Lebanon and destroying its civil institutions,
infrastructure and development projects a terrible form
of terrorism, devastating to our hopes in reconstruction
and rehabilitation?
As if occupying Arab lands and terrorizing their
civilian populations were not enough, Israeli greed
prompts Israel to usurp our natural wealth and water
resources, contravening international laws and
instruments. The Israeli Prime Minister directly
threatened to attack Lebanon, using the pretext that we
are diverting the course of the Hasbani and Wazzani
rivers. However, the fact is that Lebanon is trying to
draw limited amounts of water for some poor southern
villages that have suffered from the Israeli occupation
for many years, which will lead us to pump a total of
approximately 9 million cubic metres annually. By all
standards, that amount is far below our legitimate
rights, it represents only one tenth of our right.
Lebanon again rejects those Israeli threats and
draws the attention of the Assembly and the Security
Council to the danger those threats represent and to
their direct negative impact on international peace and
security. It is difficult for any human society to strive
for security in the absence of political, economic and
social justice. We, therefore, believe that security
approaches and partial interim solutions alone cannot
possibly succeed in resolving the Middle East conflict.
Therefore, we call for the adoption of an approach that
takes into account the priority of the political
dimension of the conflict and the need to arrive at a
just and comprehensive solution to the conflict in the
region in all its aspects.
In that context, Arab leaders unanimously
adopted an integral, indivisible peace initiative at the
Arab Summit, held in Beirut on 28 and 29 March 2002,
based on the following conditions.
First, Israel must withdraw completely from the
occupied Arab territories, including the occupied
Syrian Golan, to the border of 4 June 1967, and from
the territories it still occupies in southern Lebanon;
secondly, it must reach a just solution to the problem of
the Palestinian refugees, to be agreed upon in
accordance with General Assembly resolution 194
(III); thirdly, it must agree to the establishment of an
independent and sovereign Palestinian State in the
Palestinian territories occupied since 4 June 1967 in the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as
its capital.
Subsequently, the Arab States will consider the
Arab-Israeli conflict ended, will enter into a peace
agreement with Israel, will ensure security for all the
countries of the region and will establish normal
relations with Israel in the context of that just peace. A
central element of the Arab peace initiative is securing
an agreement not to allow any type of resettlement of
Palestinian refugees that is incompatible with the
particularities of the host Arab countries.
It is unfortunate that Israel has responded to that
initiative by increasing its aggression and reoccupying
the West Bank, relentlessly targeting human lives and
property in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Simultaneously, others have chosen to ignore or
override the initiative, despite its comprehensiveness,
unanimous acceptance by Arabs and broad
international support.
The Beirut Summit established a special
committee to implement the Arab peace initiative.
Once formed, the committee requested a meeting with
the Quartet to present the initiative and confirm its
status as a point of reference for the settlement of the
Arab-Israeli conflict. The initiative contains all
previous references dating back to the Madrid Peace
Conference, held in 1991, and is based on resolutions
of international legitimacy. We seek to submit it to the
Security Council for adoption and for the subsequent
establishment of an international mechanism to
implement it.
A meeting was held yesterday between the
Quartet and a delegation of the committee at United
Nations Headquarters. We hope that this will pave the
way for a mechanism of prior consultations and joint
effort based on resolutions of international legitimacy
and the Arab peace initiative.
The Arab peace initiative, which we uphold and
which was adopted unanimously by the Arab countries,
represents a historic opportunity that may not present
itself again. It cannot be replaced by partial or interim
approaches, the futility of which has been proven
29

throughout decades. Instead of leading to the long-
awaited peace, they have led to renewed violence. We,
therefore, call upon the international community to
adopt this initiative and to support it, as it represents an
opportunity for achieving our aspirations — a just and
comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
Submitting disputes before the United Nations
and implementing United Nations resolutions,
particularly those of the Security Council, can
guarantee the peaceful settlement of any given conflict.
By following that course, the parties could be spared
the need to settle their dispute by military means. It
may not be easy to contain the tragic ramifications of
military action in a given region. That is particularly
true of Iraq, which also was the subject of deliberations
at the Beirut Arab Summit. It was also decided there
that the solution to the Iraqi problem must be achieved
through dialogue between Iraq and the United Nations.
Iraq should not once again be a theatre of war, which
would increase the suffering of its people. The Arab
leaders consider an attack against any Arab State a
threat to the national security of all Arab countries.
As president of the Arab Summit, Lebanon hopes
that Iraq's compliance with the will of the international
community and allowing the return of the international
weapons inspectors will lead to the end of the suffering
of its people and to a comprehensive solution that will
lead to the implementation of Security Council
resolutions and to the lifting of sanctions. We also hope
that that will enable the Middle East to rid itself of
weapons of mass destruction and will avert the threat
or use of force against Iraq, thus preserving and
respecting its sovereignty, independence and territorial
integrity.
Lebanon takes pride in its strong and positive
relationship with the United Nations, being one of its
co-founders and having contributed to the drafting of
its Charter as well as to the drafting of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. As members may be
aware, since 1978, the Organization has deployed the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in
the aftermath of the Israeli occupation. In May 2000,
UNIFIL had the opportunity to begin fulfilling its
mandate after Israel had been forced to withdraw from
most of the territories in the south. That withdrawal
was possible thanks to our people's solidarity, their
legitimate resistance to the Israeli occupation and the
fact that our Government embraced their heroic efforts
for liberation, and the international support for their
just cause. The Lebanese Shebaa Farms, at the foot of
Mount Hermon, and other points along the withdrawal
line remained under occupation.
Another important aspect of UNIFIL's mandate
that has yet to be fulfilled is the restoration of
international peace and security. That task remains
hampered by Israel's continued occupation, threats
against Lebanon and provocations, as seen daily in the
repeated violation of Lebanon's sovereignty over its
land, airspace and territorial waters. Israel continues to
occupy the Syrian Golan and to ignore the right of
Palestinian refugees to return to their homes. It has
rejected every initiative to find a just and
comprehensive solution to the Middle East problem. I
should like to take advantage of this opportunity to
commend the efforts of the United Nations and
UNIFIL's important role as it fulfils its mandate.
The liberation of Lebanese territories from Israeli
occupation will remain incomplete unless we address
the heinous legacy of occupation and succeed in
finding a just solution to the problem of Palestinian
refugees, in particular those who live in Lebanon. Such
a solution should be based on their right to return and
on a rejection of their settlement in Lebanon. Failure to
factor the refugees into the equation of a solution based
on the right to return and on the rejection of
resettlement in host countries would create a time
bomb. It would undermine the security that we are all
striving to attain in the Middle East on the basis of a
peaceful, comprehensive and just settlement of the
conflict.
We should like to stress here that a solution to the
question of Palestinian refugees cannot be found
through exclusive bilateral Palestinian-Israeli
negotiations. Guaranteed respect for the rules of
international law and the permanence of any solution
require that host and other concerned countries,
including Lebanon, be involved in the negotiating
process.
With regard to mine clearance, Lebanon is
stepping up its cooperation with the United Nations to
assist in clearing the mines that the Israeli occupying
forces are responsible for laying in our territories. I
will note that Israel failed to hand over complete maps
and records indicating the specific locations of those
mines.
We in Lebanon attach the highest importance to
the release of Lebanese citizens who are unduly
30

detained in Israeli prisons. They were kidnapped by
Israel and incarcerated as hostages, in flagrant defiance
of the rules and instruments of international law.
It is no secret that the Israeli occupation of
southern Lebanon has taxed our endurance. Our
citizens' lives have been tragically shattered, their
properties have been destroyed, their infrastructures
have been decimated and our development has been
hampered. Increased international assistance is
required to revitalize our economy and to increase our
opportunities for growth. Lebanon reserves the right to
demand compensation for the damage caused by Israeli
occupation and acts of aggression, in accordance with
established procedures in international political and
judicial forums.
The reconstruction and rehabilitation of the
liberated Lebanese territories and the revitalization of
Lebanon's economy are among our Government's
highest priorities. Lebanon continues to work for the
recovery of its economy and for the reform of its
taxation system through the adoption of carefully
developed measures and legislation, including the
value-added tax on goods and services and the gradual
reduction of tariffs, in addition to the direct tax levy
and the rationalization of spending. Lebanon's
parliament recently adopted the Privatization Act,
which regulates that aspect of economic activity and
defines its conditions and field of application. Such
legislation, including the two recently adopted acts,
joins a series of laws developed to enhance investors'
confidence in the free-market system, which we are
keen to preserve.
Along the same lines, those in positions of
responsibility in the Lebanese Administration are
subject to strict accountability and liability rules,
including money-laundering and the prohibition of
illegitimate gain. It is worth mentioning here that, over
the years, the Lebanese internal security forces have
destroyed all illegitimate crops, including hashish. But
Lebanon did not receive the assistance, provided to
others, that would have enabled our farmers to live in
dignity.
Lebanon signed a partnership agreement with the
European Union last June after acceding to the Greater
Arab Free Trade Zone, to which most Arab States
currently belong. Preparations are under way for us to
join the World Trade Organization, in which we
currently enjoy observer status.
We gather here under the roof of the United
Nations, our common home, to engage in dialogue on
the best ways to translate into reality the great values
of the Charter. Lebanon takes pride in its firm belief in
those values and in the fact that, in its national unity, it
embodies the plurality of its society. It stands for a rich
human experience, both civilized and pioneering, of
which we are proud and which the international
community is surely keen to preserve.
Lebanon looks forward to cooperating with other
Members to contribute to this session's success and to
finding constructive solutions to the problems and
challenges that we face, while upholding the principles
of liberty, justice and peace around the world,
particularly in the Middle East region. Finding a just
and comprehensive solution to the Middle East conflict
in all its aspects will surely liberate our States and
peoples from the grip of a protracted problem that has
depleted their resources and hampered their
development.


Allow me at the outset to congratulate you, Sir, on your
election to the lofty post of President of this
representative world forum and to wish you every
success in your work. Your election as President of the
fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly is
symbolic not only of the personal respect you hold, but
also of the authority your country enjoys in the world
community. In recent decades, the Czech Republic has
been through some hard times. Because of that, you
well understand the problems of Kyrgyzstan, which is
going through a transition from its authoritarian past to
a democratic future.
I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Han Seung-
soo for his excellent work as the President of the
previous session. The present session is significant in
that the Swiss Confederation and, soon, the Democratic
Republic of East Timor will have become Members of
the United Nations. We warmly welcome the
representatives of those countries, who are
participating in this session of the General Assembly.
This is my first address from the rostrum of the
General Assembly as President of the sovereign
Kyrgyz Republic. 11 years have passed since the State
of Kyrgyzstan declared its independence. What has
brought me to the Assembly is my desire to share with
you my thoughts on the most pressing problems of our
national development.
First, I would like to refer to the International
Year of Mountains, which is being celebrated this year
pursuant to a resolution adopted at the fifty-third
session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
It was proclaimed at the initiative of Kyrgyzstan and
other mountainous countries, for which the problem of
7

the development of mountainous areas is of crucial
importance. We are very grateful for the support given
to that initiative. Thanks to the efforts of the United
Nations, important events have already taken place at
the regional and national levels. The outcome of the
work done will be discussed at the Global Mountain
Summit, to be held in our capital, Bishkek, at the end
of October. We will create the most favourable
conditions for its work, in the best tradition of Kyrgyz
warmth and hospitality.
I believe the delegates present in the Hall will
agree that among the many complex challenges facing
the world community, the most pressing problems are
developing democracy and guaranteeing human rights
and freedoms. Those goals have been made a top
priority in the Kyrgyz Republic since the earliest days
of its establishment.
We are convinced that in modern day conditions,
unless there is consistent democratization and human
emancipation, progress and prosperity cannot be
achieved. However, the remnants of the authoritarian
Soviet heritage still has a tenacious hold on the minds
of our people, especially among the elderly. There is
good reason why former Soviet States are referred to in
international classifications as transitional countries.
Our experience has shown that the process of transition
is particularly difficult not only in the area of the
economy but in the minds of people.
On our road towards democracy, we have
experienced both joyful success and bitter failure.
When we analysed our failures, we came to understand
that their main cause was a lack of democracy. In order
to give the development of democracy a new and
powerful impetus, I as President proclaimed a new
national idea: Kyrgyzstan, a country of human rights.
We intend to elaborate a democratic code and to
establish a council for democratic security. Recently, in
order to further the process of democratization, I took
the decision to reform our Constitution and to convene
a Constitutional Assembly. During my stay in the
United States, the Constitutional Assembly is at the
concluding stage of its work. The difficulty is that
society has different approaches for developing
democracy. Some forces claiming to be ardent
supporters of democracy consider the essence of
democracy to be the destruction of existing structures
and the undertaking of new experiments. That would
cause the transition from authoritarianism to
democracy to take a very long time, indeed, while
people have long awaited stability. On behalf of the
people of Kyrgyzstan, I would like to assure the world
community that we adhere to the principles of
democracy and will confidently follow that path
despite the difficulties and obstacles that we encounter.
I consider the problem of poverty eradication to
be as important as the problem of the development of
democracy. The problem has worsened under present
conditions in the post-Soviet period. We are not the
only poor country in the world. There are many reasons
for this, and I do not intend to analyse them in my
statement. Poverty has a negative impact on people's
morale and creates many obstacles to developing the
democratic process. Moreover, poverty is a breeding
ground for extremism and international terrorism.
The world community has repeatedly declared its
resolve to help countries in need to overcome poverty.
Mr. George Bush, the President of the United States,
promised to substantially increase assistance to poor
countries when he announced the creation of the
Millennium Challenge Account. We are grateful for
every initiative of the United Nations, the United
Nations Development Programme and other
international organizations, as well as of donor
countries, for their assistance to poor countries.
However, those efforts are still not sufficient.
Following the example of my colleagues from
other poor countries, I would like to call upon the
world community not to slacken its efforts in the
campaign against poverty and to find new resources
and new approaches in solving this problem. That
would help reduce pockets of instability, encourage the
development of democracy and have a positive impact
on the world's development as a whole.
I would like to refer to the problem of
international terrorism, which is the main danger to the
world. New York, where the Assembly is now
gathered, was witness to a terrible tragedy which
showed the horrendous, brute face of terrorism. The
Kyrgyz Republic, which in past years experienced
incursions into its territory by international terrorist
groups, has strongly supported the call of the President
of the United States of America, Mr. George Bush, to
create an anti-terrorism coalition. Together with Russia
and our other partners and allies, Kyrgyzstan joined the
campaign against the horrendous, bestial face of
terrorism. We very much appreciate the work of the
Counter-Terrorism Committee of the Security Council,
8

and I assure you that Kyrgyzstan will extend all
possible assistance to the Committee in its work.
At the global, regional and national levels,
Kyrgyzstan is actively participating in the struggle
against international terrorism. We have put our
territory at the disposition of the military forces of the
anti-terrorism coalition. In December of last year, our
capital, Bishkek, hosted an international conference
under the auspices of the United Nations and the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to
strengthen comprehensive efforts to fight international
terrorism. A Declaration and Programme of Action
adopted at that time established a firm foundation for
action at the global level.

Anti-terrorism centres have been established
within the framework of the Shanghai Organization of
Cooperation and the Commonwealth of Independent
States. Within the framework of the Collective Security
Treaty, Collective Rapid Deployment Forces have been
established with headquarters in Bishkek.
However, there are still many unresolved issues
confronting the anti-terrorist coalition in Afghanistan,
where, until recently, the main redoubt of international
terrorism was located. On 23 September I will be
meeting with President George Bush in the White
House. I believe that the question of our cooperation in
the struggle against terrorism will be a top priority. I
intend to assure the President of the United States that
Kyrgyzstan, acting together with Russia and our other
partners, will discharge its responsibility.
One of the most important points of my statement
to the General Assembly is to draw the Assembly's
attention to a major event in the Kyrgyz Republic. I am
referring to the fact that, next year, in 2003, our people
will be celebrating the 2,200th anniversary of Kyrgyz
Statehood. Taking into account the wishes of wide
segments of our society, I, as President, issued an edict
proclaiming 2003 the year of Kyrgyz Statehood.
For the newly independent States that emerged
from the collapse of the Soviet Union, a search for our
historic and ethnic roots has become a vital task. I am
sure that, at the dawn of their independence, many
States that are now represented in the United Nations
experienced the same desire. Research carried out by
our historians and a study of the works of well-known
orientalists have led us to the conclusion the formation
of the first Kyrgyz State took place at the end of the
third century B. C. This has been convincingly borne
out by ancient Chinese chronicles. The famous Chinese
chronicler Sima Qian, who is considered to be the
Chinese Herodotus, drew up a chronicle in verse about
the existence in far-off times of a Kyrgyz State in the
form of a Kyrgyz princedom. That State flourished at
certain periods and at others merely smouldered. But
national Statehood was carried forward by the Kyrgyz
people for many centuries up to the end of the
twentieth century, when it took the form of the Kyrgyz
Republic, which later became a Member of the United
Nations.
I would like to remind the Assembly that, in
1995, the Kyrgyz people celebrated a great event,
namely, the one thousandth anniversary of our great
work of folk literature, the heroic epic Manas. We are
very grateful to the United Nations for the decision it
took at the time to give that event international
resonance. The celebration in Kyrgyzstan of the one
thousandth anniversary of the Manas epic took place
with great enthusiasm. That contributed to an
unprecedented revival of national spirit and to the unity
of our people.
From this rostrum, I wish to address the
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and all the delegations
participating in the work of the current session to ask
them to adopt a decision to recognize as a great historic
event in the life our country the 2,200th anniversary of
Kyrgyz Statehood, and to give it international status.
That would be accepted by my people with profound
gratitude. It would also do much to promote domestic
stability and further consolidate the multi-ethnic nature
of my nation. In cooperation with other delegations,
my delegation will submit an appropriate draft
resolution on this subject that I, as President of
Kyrgyzstan, would ask the Assembly to support.
Kyrgyzstan's cooperation with the United Nations
is multilateral in nature. It encompasses a wide
spectrum of problems of interest to us all. We have
received unwavering support and assistance from the
United Nations and its specialized agencies at every
stage of our development since the proclamation of
State independence. I should like to take this
opportunity to express our sincere gratitude for that
assistance. I also wish to proclaim from this rostrum
that Kyrgyzstan will in the future remain firmly
committed to the purposes and principles of the
9

Organization, and that we will do whatever we can to
make them a reality.


Two years ago I
came to the rostrum of this Assembly with mixed
feelings. On the one hand, my country had just
witnessed an unprovoked attempt to derail the peace
process. The United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone
(UNAMSIL) was still recovering from a brazen affront
to its military capability and the authority of the
Security Council. On the other hand, I was optimistic,
first of all because the people of Sierra Leone had once
again demonstrated their resolve to maintain their
struggle for peace. I was also optimistic because the
Security Council had responded appropriately by
giving UNAMSIL additional responsibilities within its
mandate, and by increasing the troop level of the
mission.
Today, I stand here with only one feeling, an
overwhelming feeling of joy. At long last the rebel war
in Sierra Leone is over. All combatants have been
disarmed and demobilized. Reintegration is well under
way. Over 55,000 ex-combatants are currently engaged
in reintegration programme activities, ranging from
formal education and vocational-skills training to
small-scale trade, agriculture and community
development. While the National Commission on
Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration is
concentrating on the integration of ex-combatants,
another national agency, the National Commission for
Social Action, is actively engaged in programmes that
will benefit all categories of victims of the brutal war,
particularly the most vulnerable population groups.
Most heartening of the recent positive
developments was the affirmation four months ago by
the people of Sierra Leone that they would never forgo
their constitutional right to choose their leaders freely
through the ballot box. They sent a resounding message
to the entire world that, in Africa, it is still possible to
hold free and fair elections.
4

Our objective was not merely to win the rebel
war, but to defend the right of our people to live. We
fought against a brutal attempt by a few who, with the
assistance of forces within and outside the subregion,
were determined to assume power and gain unimpeded
and perpetual access to our mineral resources. My
primary objective as the democratically elected leader
was for us to win the peace. Today, I am pleased to say
here that the people of Sierra Leone are continuing to
work assiduously to win the peace.
We share the view that there cannot be real peace
in Sierra Leone without justice. The support that we
have so far received for the establishment of a special
court to bring to justice those who bear the greatest
responsibility for serious breaches of international
humanitarian law and the national laws of Sierra Leone
should also be regarded as part of the peace dividend.
We are also convinced that we cannot speak about
lasting peace in Sierra Leone without national
reconciliation. Making the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission fully operational after its inauguration in
July 2002 has now become one of our major
preoccupations. Let me add, however, that inadequate
international support for the Commission could
jeopardize prospects for national reconciliation which,
members will agree with me, is one of the prerequisites
of lasting peace and justice.
The victory that the people of Sierra Leone have
so far achieved in the peace process is theirs, but not
theirs alone. It is also a victory for the United Nations,
the Economic Community of West African States
(ECOWAS) and the entire international community.
Indeed, it is a victory for humanity, for all those who
cherish the dignity and worth of the human person.
Therefore, let me take this opportunity, on behalf of
every Sierra Leonean, to express our profound and
sincere gratitude to the United Nations family,
ECOWAS and its Monitoring Group, and other regional
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations
for their support in our prolonged struggle. This was a
partnership for peace and security that we will never
forget.
With your permission, Sir, I am obliged once
again to single out for commendation some special
friendly States that played a crucial role in that effort. I
refer to the United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, the Republics of Guinea, Ghana and Mali, and
the United States of America and China, among others.
We will always remember their place in the great
partnership for peace and security that wrenched Sierra
Leone from the verge of total destruction. This is what
collective responsibility is all about in our
interdependent world.
While we celebrate our mutual success, we
should at the same time be aware of the challenges that
we face not only in Sierra Leone, but also in the Mano
River Union and the West African subregions. Our
success notwithstanding, the situation in our part of the
continent continues to pose a threat to international
peace and security. That threat will remain and could
increase if we fail to consolidate the gains that we have
made in Sierra Leone. I should therefore like to
reiterate my recent appeal to the United Nations and
the international community as a whole to remain
engaged in our national effort to consolidate our hard-
won peace. I was encouraged that, following the May
2002 elections, the Secretary-General and the President
of the Security Council underscored the need to further
consolidate what we have achieved so far.
The people of Sierra Leone and the international
community have made considerable investment in
material and human resources to bring us to the stage at
which we find ourselves today. It would be a terrible
mistake if, by sheer complacency and a failure to adopt
the appropriate course of action, we should allow the
country to slip back into armed conflict. We share the
view of the Secretary-General, expressed in his latest
report on UNAMSIL, that the Organization should
ensure that the next phase of the Mission does not
jeopardize the progress achieved so far in stabilizing
peace in Sierra Leone.
Beyond Sierra Leone, there are ominous signs of
spillover conflicts hovering around the subregion. It
would also be tragic if we should underestimate the
current threat to peace and go on procrastinating about
ways of preventing a spillover.
How then do we go about ensuring, at least in the
short run, that Sierra Leone will sustain its newly-won
peace? How do we contain the current hostilities across
the border with Liberia? The need to address these
questions has become more urgent as we approach the
end of the current mandate of UNAMSIL. While
looking forward to the new phase of that important
instrument of peace, I thought that I should draw the
attention of the Security Council, through the
Secretary-General, to some of the issues that could be
5

taken into consideration and linked to an exit strategy
for UNAMSIL.
Recently, I shared my thoughts on this and related
matters in a letter which I addressed to the Secretary-
General. The letter has since been circulated as
Security Council document S/2002/975 of 29 August
2002. Permit me to highlight some of the issues raised
in that communication. These are issues related to the
capacity of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces and the
Sierra Leone police to perform their respective
functions more effectively throughout the country; the
challenges facing us in the integration of all ex-
combatants; the risks following from the turbulent
situation in neighbouring Liberia, and particularly its
repercussions for peace and stability in Sierra Leone
and the Mano River Union as a whole; the danger of
the apparent absence of a strategic plan of the
international community to address the situation in
Liberia, especially as the country approaches crucial
elections next year; and finally, the delay in responding
to the request for international assistance to ECOWAS
in ensuring security on the borders shared by Guinea,
Liberia and Sierra Leone.
We are pleased that the Secretary-General has
taken these and other issues into account in preparing
his recommendations to the Security Council for a
measured and phased downsizing of UNAMSIL. This
will ensure that we do not provoke any new sense of
insecurity in a population that has been traumatized for
too long. I am also confident that the Security Council
will consider the recommendations carefully, especially
in the light of my Government's and the Secretary-
General's own assessment that the conflict in Liberia
still constitutes the most serious threat to the stability
that now prevails in Sierra Leone. Who will forget that
the 10-year rebel war in Sierra Leone was launched
from the territory of Liberia?
The current state of peace and security in Sierra
Leone and the rest of the Mano River Union subregion
is obviously a matter of constant concern to us.
However, as a member of the global community, we are
also seriously concerned about impediments to
international cooperation for economic and social
development; about threats to international peace and
security, including the nuclear arms race and terrorism
in all its forms and manifestations; and about the rights
of such vulnerable population groups as children and
people with disabilities. All those often require
appropriate multilateral agreements or arrangements to
ensure that they are effectively addressed.
Never since the end of the Second World War has
multilateral cooperation become such a necessary
means for resolving international disputes and for
ensuring the well-being of people everywhere. Sierra
Leone, therefore, attaches the utmost importance to the
strengthening of multilateral cooperation, as reflected
by such recent conferences as the International
Conference on Financing for Development and the
World Summit on Sustainable Development. Those
provide effective platforms for articulating the interests
of all States and for devising common strategies to
address collectively problems that would otherwise
overwhelm the capacities of individual countries or
regions.
It is, therefore, self-evident that we must continue
to pursue the multilateral approach to those and other
international issues. The consequences of diminishing
or bypassing the multilateral approach in matters that
affect the lives of millions of people worldwide could,
I should emphasize, be disastrous for us all.
Two years ago, in the Millennium Declaration,
heads of State and Government, in the spirit of
interdependence, made a commitment to work together
in achieving specific goals in areas such as peace,
security and disarmament, human rights, good
governance and poverty eradication. Those goals are
all underpinned by a strong belief in the principles of
multilateral cooperation and shared interests.
Of special significance to us are the commitments
made by the world leaders in the Millennium
Declaration to meet the special needs of Africa. That is
not only because Africa has the largest number of
countries classified as least developed, and in which
almost half the population lives in abject poverty. It is
also because we have all benefited and stand to benefit
from each other's resources.
In spite of its current level of overall
development, Africa has a lot to offer to the rest of the
world. Of course, we Africans realize our
responsibility, first and foremost, to develop and
implement strategies for improving the quality of life
of our people and for strengthening our capacity to
contribute more effectively to the economies of our
partners in the developed world.
6

In effect, that is what the New Partnership for
Africa's Development (NEPAD) is all about —
partnership among African countries, partnership with
the rest of the world and progress for all mankind. It is
in that context that the conclusions reached at the high-
level meeting of the Assembly earlier this week on
ways and means of supporting NEPAD assume
supreme importance for my country.
In a similar vein, Sierra Leone also welcomes the
commitment of the eight major industrialized countries,
the G-8, at their recent meeting in Canada, to provide
strong support to NEPAD and to establish enhanced
partnerships with African countries whose performance
reflects the NEPAD commitments. Sierra Leone, for its
part, is determined to pursue vigorously the objectives
set out in NEPAD, not just because we need donor
assistance at this time, but more so because we believe
in the soundness of those objectives as a vehicle for the
eradication of extreme poverty, the achievement of
sustainable development and the assumption of greater
responsibility for our own destiny.
I began by assuring the Assembly that I came this
time with one overwhelming feeling, a feeling of joy
over recent developments in my country. Of course, the
search for sustainable peace with justice and national
reconciliation is a continuous process, and we are well
aware of the challenges that we still have to face.
However, I can say with confidence that what we have
so far achieved, with the support of the United Nations
and the international community, has provided the
momentum for us to meet those challenges.


The
preservation of international peace and security, the
fight against terrorism in all its forms, the eradication
of poverty throughout the world, the promotion of
sustainable development and the establishment of a
more just and more human international order are the
challenges that we must strive to meet, primarily
through the irreplaceable framework of the United
Nations. We are meeting once again to find new
perspectives in the light of the evolving international
situation in order to provide new impetus to our actions
by coming together around common objectives.
Before continuing my statement, allow me, on
behalf of the delegation of Togo and on my own behalf,
to address our warmest congratulations to Mr. Kavan
on his election as President of the General Assembly at
its fifty-seventh session. His election to that high post
is a tribute not only to him personally, but also to his
great and beautiful country. I assure him of the fullest
cooperation of my country towards the success of his
mission.
I also take this opportunity to convey to his
predecessor our full gratitude for the effective way in
which he led the work of the previous session.
To Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who works
tirelessly to strengthen peace and security throughout
the world, we reiterate our high appreciation of his
commitment and dedication.
I congratulate Switzerland and Timor-Leste on
their admission into the great United Nations family.
Democracy, respect for fundamental freedoms
and human rights and good governance are factors in
development and peace and values to which Togo has
long adhered and to which we are deeply attached. It is
in the spirit that we must consider the political reforms
that were launched 15 years ago at the initiative of our
Head of State. These reforms seek to build a peaceful
democracy based on the widest possible national
consensus and rooted in the historical and socio-
cultural realities of our country.
Today, our efforts have led to the establishment
and effective operation of almost all the institutions
called for in the Constitution of the Fourth Republic, to
the restoration of State authority and security and to the
revitalization of the national economy. We have
achieved these results despite the difficulties that
hindered the process of democratization as a result of a
poorly begun transition, and despite all kinds of
manoeuvres and obstacles constantly set up by an
unhelpful opposition. Priority has been placed above
all on the continuation of political reforms to ensure
that they are undertaken in a climate of restored calm
and ongoing concertation among all the political forces
of our nation.
It was in this context that, at the initiative of the
Head of State, Mr. Gnassingbé Eyadema, we launched
an inter-Togolese dialogue among all the country's
principal political actors that led to the signing of a
framework agreement in July 1999. The
implementation of that agreement allowed the
establishment of a dialogue between the Government
and the opposition on such essential political questions
as the organizational modalities of early legislative
elections.
It was the will of the Head of State and of the
Government to ensure that these elections, open to all
political groups without exception, should take place in
a climate of peace and security, with the necessary
guarantees of transparency and legality. It is also our
aim that, at the completion of this electoral process, a
new phase should begin in our country's political life
7

with the revitalization of a National Assembly in which
political groups that wish to be represented can be so.
All of these achievements, which strengthen
political pluralism in Togo, deserve the support and
encouragement of our partners, particularly those in
Europe, with a view to normalizing our relations of
cooperation. Unfortunately, that has not been the case.
As I stressed a year ago from this very rostrum, the
people of Togo do not deserve the treatment they have
received. It is now clear that the rash imposition of
sanctions as a means of political pressure entails limits
beyond which such measures become ineffective and
run counter to morality and to the duty of international
solidarity.
I wish once again to launch an urgent appeal for
the resumption of the cooperation that Togo has a right
to expect from the international community as an act of
solidarity, support and encouragement for the
indisputable efforts that have been made by my
Government towards the development of the country
and the consolidation of the bases of our democracy in
a climate of peace, stability and national harmony.
It is well known that we in Togo have made peace
and national security our credo, given that no
undertaking for sustainable development can be
successfully carried out if the recourse to violence
prevails over dialogue, concertation and mutual respect
and if the world continues to face such terrorist acts as
the tragedy of 11 September 2001. Those terrible
events, which are still vivid in our minds, require us,
individually and collectively, to respond appropriately
to the threats represented by terrorism. Togo, which has
been a repeated victim of terrorist aggression,
understands the importance of the challenge and spares
no effort in assuming its share of the responsibility in
this struggle.
We must here welcome the speed with which the
United Nations has reacted to this problem and
contributed to the emergence of an acute awareness of
the phenomenon and the dangers it entails for all
mankind. Today, as was the case a year ago, it is
imperative that we recognize the urgency and need to
pursue this campaign. It is clear that we must seek
together the factors that will contribute to maintaining
peace in all its dimensions.
Yes, crises and armed conflicts still afflict the
world, unfortunately, in Africa and elsewhere. While it
may be true that some glimmers of hope have emerged
in Africa with the resolution of the conflict between
Ethiopia and Eritrea and with respect to the settlement
of other crises, the situation remains alarming. It is
alarming in the Great Lakes region and the Mano River
region, which is again experiencing a genuine security
problem, with major humanitarian consequences.
Whether we are talking about the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, the Mano river region, the
Sudan, Somalia or any other country affected by crises,
we reaffirm that only dialogue and negotiation can lead
to peace and ensure the lasting settlement of disputes.
We therefore urge the parties to such crises and armed
conflicts to be more courageous and demonstrate
greater political will so as to give peace a chance
through negotiating processes already under way and
by respecting and effectively implementing the
provisions of agreements that have already been
signed.
In this respect, we welcome the recent
announcement of the withdrawal, beginning next week,
of Rwandan troops from the eastern part of the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, and we hope that
the implementation of this decision will strengthen the
process under way.
The situation in the Middle East also remains
worrying. We must find a solution to the vicious circle
of violence — violence breeding violence. Togo has
always stressed that violence can lead only to bitterness
and resentment and that it further perpetuates violence.
This cannot be said enough: dialogue and negotiation
are the only means that should be used to settle
disputes. We therefore strongly urge both Palestinians
and Israelis to end the vicious circle of violence and
immediately take up negotiations with a view to
achieving a just, comprehensive and final settlement of
the question of Palestine, which is at the heart of the
conflict in the Middle East. Of course, such a
settlement would require recognition of the legitimate
rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to
a viable Palestinian State. But it would also entail the
recognition of the equally legitimate rights of the
Israeli people to live in peace and complete security
within internationally recognized borders.
This session began just a few days after the
conclusion of the World Summit on Sustainable
8

Development, at which the international community
stressed more than ever before the need to protect
humankind and the natural world. Now more than ever
we must protect humankind in its multifaceted
character and the environment in all of its variety.
I am pleased to note, too, that this session of the
General Assembly is taking place during a historic time
for our continent of Africa. Indeed, two years ago, on
12 July 2000, at Lomé, Togo, African countries laid the
groundwork for a new Africa by adopting, before the
whole world, the Constitutive Act of the African
Union. The African heads of State or Government
solemnly launched the new continent-wide
organization at Durban in July, thereby translating into
reality their determination to shape a new destiny for
Africa.
Some might be tempted to say that, despite the
establishment of the African Union, nothing decisive
will be done and that the continent will still be trying
to find itself while stagnating in underdevelopment. It
is true that, given the current economic and social
situation, such pessimism could be warranted. Indeed,
our continent of Africa is still the principal victim of an
economic order that is out of balance and unfair — one
that all too often deprives it of the fruits of its own
labour.
Unstable commodity prices, yearly increases in
the price of crucial capital goods, debt, limited access
to the markets of industrialized countries for our
finished and semi-finished goods and the competition
with which our products have to contend as a result of
the export subsidy policies of certain rich countries —
policies that benefit their own industries — are
seriously hampering the development of our countries.
Today more than ever it is vital to ask how Africa
can reconcile the repayment of its debt with the
implementation of its economic growth and
development goals. Turning the current situation
around is a task that we must undertake through
reflection and action.
The establishment of a new structure — the
African Union — marks a decisive turning point in the
history of our continent, which, more than ever before,
needs the invaluable support of the international
community in carrying out its development
programmes. We are aware that Africa cannot rise to
the challenge of growth and development unless it
becomes organized to mobilize and make the best use
of its resources using external aid only as a
complement to its own efforts. We earnestly hope that
the consolidation of various subregional organizations
for economic integration, together with the synergistic
implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's
Development, will provide Africa with the means to
achieve its ambitions.
In conclusion, I should like to stress that the new
international context and the multidimensional nature
of the problems to be faced mean that we must work
with greater determination and solidarity within the
United Nations in order to push back insecurity,
poverty and misery. In this regard, we must consider
providing this shared Organization with the
wherewithal and the increased resources to enable it to
achieve peace and economic and social development
for our peoples.
That is the price to be paid for the future of
humankind. I earnestly hope that the United Nations
will, more than ever before, become the ideal tool to
implement our ideals of peace, justice, progress and
liberty for the benefit of our peoples.


The smoke
at ground zero, only a few blocks away from here, has
cleared. But the empty space where the twin towers
once stood continues to send shivers throughout the
world. The unspeakable events that occurred a year ago
have become engraved in our collective memory. What
occurred here was an unprecedented and direct attack
on universal values: values such as mutual respect,
such as tolerance, such as the rule of law — values that
form the very basis of the United Nations.
Over the past year, the world community has
proven its determination to defy terrorism. Today, the
Netherlands not only reiterates its attachment to these
values but also underlines a responsibility, both
individual and collective, for upholding and protecting
them. And that responsibility calls for a real
commitment.
Religions, races and traditions make our world
colourful and diverse. But underneath our different
feathers, we share a common skin: principles we all
adhere to — or should adhere to — regardless of our
religious beliefs or race. Mutual respect, the rule of
law, freedom of speech and religion are among the
most important ones.
We cannot, however, confine ourselves to merely
restating these principles. Without real commitment
they would quickly evaporate and thus become empty
words.
It goes without saying that the Netherlands is
fully committed: it is a dedicated international partner,
both out of choice and out of necessity, in the United
Nations, the European Union, NATO and other
organizations, or in common endeavours such as the
World Summit on Sustainable Development. The
Netherlands will continue to dedicate 0.8 per cent of its
annual gross domestic product to development
cooperation and urges others to do the same.
Behind that commitment is the unshakeable belief
that no country can hope to succeed on its own in
whatever policy area. In this respect we take to heart
the wise words of Secretary-General Kofi Annan:
“Even the most powerful countries know that they need
to work with others, in multilateral institutions, to
achieve their aims” (A/57/PV.2). We therefore also
welcome the United States decision, announced from
this rostrum by President Bush, to return to the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). The Netherlands not only
feels an individual responsibility for the defence of
universal values, but a shared responsibility as well.
Let me elaborate on this today in relation to four key
areas of concern: the development of the African
continent, uncontrolled migration, the continuing threat
of terrorism and the situation in the Middle East.
Africa continues its struggle towards
development and prosperity. It cannot and must not do
so all by itself. We all share a responsibility for
eradicating poverty and enhancing Africa's global
integration.
Too often the African continent is associated only
with misery and instability. In reality the number of
conflicts in or between African countries has
decreased. The creation of the African Union, and the
New Partnership for Africa's Development, testify to
the continent's own commitment. The Netherlands very
15

much welcomes this acknowledgement by African
leaders of their own responsibility for building a
prosperous and peaceful continent. For us, this is
essential for adding our own efforts and resources to
achieve that objective. It also means that African
leaders, like all of us, can be held accountable for their
governance and policies, their performance in the field
of human rights and their respect for the rule of law.
In partnership with African countries the
Netherlands will continue to do its share in providing
the necessary resources. For us, development
cooperation is not just providing money, but also a
policy integrating the promotion of good governance,
security and stability. Is the world to assist in
alleviating the effects of natural disasters when in fact
they are, at least in part, man-made?
Responsibility also extends to the private sector,
particularly when it comes to fighting the disease that
undermines all efforts at development: HIV/AIDS.
However, for the fight against AIDS to be successful, it
needs to be fully endorsed by African Governments.
That means: acknowledgement of the problem and its
causes, an open discussion of possible strategies and
addressing its consequences for society.
Africa concerns us all. Its problems affect us all.
Poverty, conflict and violations of human rights
contribute to an ever-increasing migration. This
phenomenon is, however, by no means unique for the
African continent. We need to deal with it effectively,
regardless of whether we represent countries of origin,
countries of transit or those of destination. Migration is
robbing countries of origin of a vitally important
resource: human capital. For neighbouring countries or
countries of transit it can be a source of instability. For
countries of destination, it often creates problems of
integration.
Here again, common values are at stake.
Governments should do everything in their power to
avoid people having no other choice than fleeing home.
The number one priority is addressing the underlying
causes of uncontrolled migration.
In the meantime, we need to support the Office of
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR), which is stretched to its limits dealing with
a problem for which it was not devised. The
Netherlands welcomes UNHCR's efforts to establish
and implement an integrated policy aimed at the
repatriation of refugees, coupled with their re-
integration, rehabilitation and reconstruction.
Obviously, these efforts have to be dovetailed with
those of other United Nations agencies active in those
areas.
It is precisely through such an integrated
approach that we can hope to achieve results.
UNHCR's mix of policy areas obviously has to be
complemented by that of security. That is one of the
reasons why the Netherlands is involved in
peacekeeping or similar operations in Bosnia, the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM)
and Afghanistan. Security is the quintessential
consideration for those who are to return to their
homes. Without security, resettlement and recovery
remain pious wishes. Money spent on security is
money well spent.
In the year following 11 September 2001 the
international community has effectively taken its
responsibility. Its joint efforts have focussed on
bringing about more security and increased stability in
Afghanistan. Much has been accomplished: a regime
hostile both to the Afghan people and to our commonly
shared values has been ousted. Subsequently, our
collective efforts have helped establish an elected
Government and begin the reconstruction of a
disrupted society.
There can be no leniency towards countries that
reject universal values, because a country that rejects
tolerance, endorses intolerance. A country that does not
guarantee the rule of law invites anarchy and injustice.
The international community must help countries that
are unable to do so themselves. It must try to persuade
those that are uncooperative and it must be ready, if
necessary, to act against those that are unwilling.
The terrorist attacks have also shown that
religion, for some, unfortunately, is a source of
inspiration not for good, but for destructive purposes.
The hijacking of planes should not result in the
hijacking of an entire religion. Proper education,
freedom of opinion and speech, secular or
representative government can help contain religious
extremism. Here again, we have a collective as well as
an individual responsibility for upholding and
protecting common values.
What we need is a dialogue between countries,
civilizations and religions. But we also need action to
go after the sources of religious extremism.
16

That same commitment leaves us no choice but to
continue to work towards peace in the Middle East.
The instability there, the lurking dangers of religious
extremism and weapons of mass destruction require
our joint dedication.
The many different actors in the Middle East
share a duty to restrain violence and curtail extremism.
Stability in the region is an indivisible interest, not
only for the region itself but far beyond. The countries
in the region have prime responsibility for ensuring
that their citizens can live in freedom and an
environment of tolerance and respect. But the
international community has a role to play as well.
Here in particular, we expect the Security Council to
take its responsibilities to end the Iraqi regime's
systematic non-compliance with a range of earlier
resolutions. The inspectors should be allowed to return,
yesterday rather than tomorrow. The credibility of the
United Nations system is at stake.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be dealt
with solely by concentrating on the fight against
terrorism. Terrorism must stop, not only because of the
human suffering it causes, but also because it is utterly
counterproductive. The Palestinian people should ask
themselves where this violence has got them. On the
other hand, Israel cannot defer indefinitely answering
the question as to when and how it is to live side by
side with a Palestinian neighbour. Finding a solution
again requires true commitment from all parties
concerned and a dialogue across regional, religious and
other borders. That involves us all.
In conclusion, since we share values, we share
responsibility for upholding them. That should
determine our commitment to addressing the problems
that I mentioned. Our commonly held values should
guide our dealings with each other — between
individuals as well as between countries. It is only
when we acknowledge what we have in common that
we can find the strength to overcome our differences. If
there is one thing that our presence here, one year after
11 September 2001, makes clear, it is this: our belief in
freedom and tolerance is unshakeable, and so is our
commitment to uphold them.


Let me begin by
congratulating you, Sir, on your election as President
of the General Assembly at its fifty-seventh session. I
am also pleased to welcome Switzerland as a new
Member of the United Nations.

Let me acknowledge also two other significant
developments: the establishment of the African Union,
and the creation of the New Partnership for Africa's
Development. Both raise real hope for a new era of
political stability and economic growth for Africa.
We meet at this General Assembly in the shadow
of the terrorist attacks on this great city one year ago.
Those chilling events were an attack on the values of
the great civilizations represented here today, values
that are central to the United Nations Charter and this
Organization.
We can take some comfort in knowing that the
international community has responded, deliberately
and resolutely, to international terrorism. The coalition
in the war against terrorism  led by the United States
and joined by others, including Australia  has
accomplished a great deal. The Al Qaeda network in
Afghanistan has been disabled. The Taliban regime has
been defeated. Now the world is a safer and more
humane place.
But terrorism cannot be stamped out by military
effort alone. Together we must choke off support
financial and otherwise  for terrorism. We must stop
the patrons and bankrollers of the trade in terror, and
together face this insidious threat. The decisive
response of the United Nations after 11 September,
embodied in Security Council resolution 1373 (2001),
created a framework for Member States to join forces
in suppressing, prosecuting and punishing terrorist acts
and terrorist financing.
All Member States must implement the
commitments made in resolution 1373 (2001).
Australia has strengthened its counter-terrorism
legislative and law enforcement framework. We are
party to 10 of the 12 anti-terrorism instruments and
will ratify another later this month. Australia is also
assisting other countries in the Asia-Pacific region to
implement their obligations.
We face another grave threat to international
peace and security, one that tests the very authority of
the United Nations. For over a decade, Iraq has flouted
legally binding obligations to disclose and eradicate its
programmes for weapons of mass destruction. Iraq has
defied United Nations resolutions, United Nations
inspections and United Nations sanctions, and it has
ignored some 23 of the 27 United Nations obligations
imposed on it under 16 Security Council resolutions.
The Secretary-General has been patient, flexible and
assiduous in his efforts to get Iraq to comply with
Council resolutions. But Iraq has refused to work with
the United Nations in efforts to dismantle its
programmes for weapons of mass destruction.
Until this occurs, Iraq is a grave threat to its
neighbours and to the world. Iraq's well documented
aggression towards its neighbours and its past use of
chemical weapons underline the potency of the threat it
poses. Grave concerns remain about Iraq's present
capabilities.
Up until 1998 United Nations weapons inspectors
did much good work in finding and destroying Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction program. But the work of
the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM)
was never finished, because in 1998 the inspectors
were effectively thrown out of Iraq. Four years later,
there is little doubt that Iraq has been working hard to
rebuild its chemical and biological weapons
programmes. Moreover, serious questions also remain
about Iraq's nuclear weapons programme.
This state of affairs cannot be left unresolved.
Iraq must give immediate, unconditional and
unrestricted access to inspectors to all areas, facilities,
equipment, records and Iraqi officials. In short, Iraq
must fulfil the requirements of all relevant Security
Council resolutions. If Iraq has nothing to hide, then it
has nothing to fear. Indeed, by meeting these demands,
Iraq and its people have everything to gain.
Let us also be very clear: Iraq's flagrant and
persistent defiance is a direct challenge to the United
Nations, to the authority of the Security Council, to
international law, and to the will of the international
community.
We cannot stand by and allow ourselves to be
ignored. Nor must protracted negotiations be allowed
to weaken and eventually paralyse efforts to allay fears
about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. We all must
demonstrate a clear, collective determination to uphold
the authority of the Security Council, and to ensure that
its resolutions on Iraq are implemented in full.
Otherwise, if Iraq's pursuit of these abhorrent weapons
is allowed to continue, we may shortly be asking
ourselves why we failed to act.
The terrorist threat has given new urgency to our
disarmament and non-proliferation goals, and puts
demands on us for a renewed effort to stop the spread
of weapons of mass destruction  both to non-state
25

and state actors. We have to be alive to the willingness
of terrorist groups to develop and use chemical,
biological or nuclear weapons.
Australia, for its part, intends to pursue practical
and effective measures through international non-
proliferation treaty regimes and export-control
arrangements. These regimes and arrangements have
delivered tangible security benefits, and should be
supported strongly.
We also need to deal with other transnational
challenges: not just terrorism but other transnational
crimes, including the smuggling of arms, drugs and
people.
Transnational crimes threaten all countries. They
require us to cooperate further in law enforcement,
intelligence and financial controls  much like the war
on terrorism.
People-smuggling and trafficking, in particular,
are a truly transnational problem. This lucrative
criminal enterprise undermines the international
refugee protection system, and legal migration
programs, that have enabled millions to build new and
prosperous lives in countries like Australia. Combating
people-smuggling and trafficking in persons is
particularly important to Australia and to the Asia-
Pacific region. This year, Australia co-hosted a
regional ministerial conference with Indonesia.
Ministers from thirty-eight countries committed
themselves to stopping the people who deal cold-
heartedly in human cargo. We agreed that, in the first
instance, people-smuggling must be legislated against
as a serious crime. There is much more we need to do,
and Australia welcomes international discussion and
action on the issue, including within the United
Nations system itself.
Australia welcomes the addition of the
International Criminal Court to the international legal
framework. It is an example of positive international
cooperation which will complement the efforts of
States to end impunity for the worst violations of
international humanitarian law.
United Nations work in East Timor is another
outstanding example of how the organization can, and
does, make a difference  in this case in response to a
humanitarian crisis. In May we celebrated East Timor's
independence. We are now about to welcome East
Timor as a new member of the United Nations. That we
have arrived at this point owes much to the resolve and
courage of the East Timorese. It owes much also to the
United Nations and United Nations authorized missions
that brought stability and order and renewed hope for
the future.
I congratulate the Secretary-General and the
Security Council for providing the United Nations
Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) with the
necessary support, not just for peacekeeping and
policing, but also for developing stable governance in
East Timor. Sustained United Nations and international
support will be critical in East Timor's formative years.
Australia is determined to provide such support. I
would like to pay tribute to Sergio Vieira de Mello's
efforts in East Timor, and to congratulate him warmly
on his appointment as United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights.
HIV/AIDS is a global issue that tears at the fabric
of our society, and threatens the economic development
of entire continents. The United Nations General
Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in June last
year brought home to Member States their
responsibilities to marshal national and regional
responses to HIV/AIDS. Australia hosted a regional
ministerial meeting in Melbourne in October 2001.
Ministers agreed on the need to develop strategies to
fight HIV/AIDS, and on the need to share lessons and
cooperate in priority areas. We helped establish the
Asia-Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV/AIDS and
Development to engender greater cooperation in the
region, and we applaud the appointment of a United
Nations regional envoy for HIV/AIDS.
The United Nations has a heavy agenda. But it
cannot  and should not  try to do everything. To
make a difference it must be selective and focused,
matching its activities to its capabilities and to the
priorities that we, the Member States, set for it. The
Millennium Declaration gave us clear, agreed
priorities. And the Monterrey Financing for
Development Conference and the Johannesburg
Summit on Sustainable Development have built on
these, giving us a framework to shape and direct our
work. We also need to revitalize and reform the way in
which the key organs of the Organization  the
General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council,
the Security Council  function. The Security
Council, in particular, should be reformed, including by
expanding its membership.
26

We also need to think again about the relationship
between these organs and the Secretariat: time is not a
free good, nor are meeting services, nor are the
Secretary-General's reports, and nor is the capacity or
will of Member States to provide resources without
limits. We need to look at how we can more effectively
use existing Unite Nations mechanisms  particularly
the General Assembly and the United Nations
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)  as bodies
of review. And we are especially concerned that major
United Nations conferences have become so large and
unwieldy that their fundamental purposes have been
obscured.
Australia strongly supports the process of reform
proposed by the Secretary-General for his second term.
This provides a unique opportunity to address these
questions and to `re-tool' the Organization so as to
build on its strengths. As Member States, we are the
United Nations. The Organization is there to serve our
collective interests.
In order to address new threats and challenges,
the United Nations must be focused and responsive,
and its key organs must function efficiently and
effectively. We must continue to work together to
enable it to meet our expectations. I am confident
that  together  we can achieve success.


My delegation associates
itself with compliments extended to the President
following his election to the presidency of this session,
to his predecessor, Mr. Han Seung-soo, and to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi
Annan.
The admissions of the Democratic Republic of
East Timor and of the Swiss Confederation to
membership of the Organization are a joyous occasion
for my delegation. We welcome and indeed
congratulate those two countries and nations as they
join our family of nations.
As we meet here today, Lesotho and some other
countries of the southern African subregion are in the
grip of a most devastating and unprecedented food
shortage, as a result of a combination of floods,
unseasonable frost and drought, consequent upon
climatic changes that have hit the region in the recent
past.
On 19 April of this year, when the Government of
the Kingdom of Lesotho declared a state of famine, it
was evident that over half a million people, out of a
total of 2.2 million, faced a severe food crisis. Since
then, efforts have been made at the national level to
address the problem.
Let me take this opportunity, on behalf of the
Government and the people of the Kingdom of Lesotho
and, indeed, on my own behalf, to express our gratitude
for the rapid response of the United Nations and its
specialized agencies and programmes and that of the
donor community to the crisis facing my country.
HIV/AIDS, which has emerged as a major health
and development threat, continues to be a source of
grave concern in my country. Most of those who are
infected are between the ages of 15 and 45 and
constitute the potential and active workforce in
Lesotho.
Of equally great concern is the corrosive effect
that HIV/AIDS has on the family structure and on the
social fabric of our society. We now have a large
number of orphans and child-headed households. Those
who are sick not only lack adequate counselling and
medicine but also lack care and support.
My delegation therefore makes a special appeal to
the international community to provide adequate
financial support for the African countries, in order to
arrest and, indeed, to redress the spread of HIV/AIDS.
In this regard, the efforts of the Secretary-General of
the United Nations in establishing the Global Fund to
fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are most
welcome. Indeed, Africa as a whole needs
unconditional support in many other areas, particularly
in the sectors of agriculture, health, nutrition, water
and sanitation and education. Undoubtedly, there is a
strong link between poverty and the scourge of HIV/
AIDS.
The Monterrey Conference on Financing for
Development, the Doha Ministerial Conference on
trade and the World Summit on Sustainable
Development provided useful forums for discussing
steps that must be taken to remove obstacles to
economic growth and sustainable development,
particularly in the developing countries. We are
hopeful that commitments made by our cooperating
partners mark a beginning of the process of helping the
least developed countries (LDCs) to translate goals and
targets of major global conferences and summits into
concrete actions. My delegation reiterates that the
marginalization of LDCs can be ended only if they are
assisted in integrating profitably into the global
economy.
Africa took a very bold and decisive step recently
in Durban, South Africa, in launching the African
Union. There is no doubt, as many may have observed,
that while the road to this Union was strewn with many
obstacles, there is now some light at the end of the
tunnel. This hope is premised on the principles that
have guided us in the last thirty-nine years of the
Organization of African Unity (OAU). The Africa of
today is committed to the principles of democracy,
stability, peace, security, good governance and the rule
of law. Above all, modern Africa is committed to good
economic management because it is, indeed, the
mismanagement of our economies that has often led to
conflicts on the continent.
5

The New Partnership for Africa's Development
(NEPAD) is a home-grown African strategy and an
African Union programme for Africa's development. It
is a commitment by African leaders to eradicate
poverty and to place the continent on a path of lasting
growth and development. My delegation, therefore,
appeals for more international support for NEPAD. We
believe that the role of the entire international
community in supporting NEPAD, and the role of the
United Nations in the coordination and synchronization
of activities related to ensuring its success, would
indeed provide a fresh impetus for Africa's
development.
The right of a people to self-determination is a
human right and a fundamental principle enshrined in
the Charter of the United Nations. The peoples of
Western Sahara and Palestine, therefore, deserve no
less. Hence, my delegation urges that efforts to
emancipate these nations be strengthened and speeded
up.
Lesotho is gratified that one of the oldest and
longest running conflicts in Africa has finally come to
an end with the signing of the ceasefire in Luanda,
Angola, early this year, by the representatives of the
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA) and the Government of Angola. However,
Lesotho and other Southern African Development
Community (SADC) countries, as well as the
international community at large, are alarmed by the
harsh social and economic conditions that confront
internally displaced persons and refugees who return to
their homes in Angola.
We appreciate the efforts of the entire United
Nations system to address this situation. We are of the
view that a lot more still needs to be done for the
Angolan people, including the provision of significant
additional resources as called for by the United Nations
Secretary-General, in order to address the humanitarian
needs of the people of Angola.
Despite the temporary disruption of the ceasefire
negotiations, my delegation is convinced that the
Machakos Protocol signed between the Government of
the Sudan and the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement and Army, remains a viable framework for
the realization of durable peace in the Sudan. We urge
the warring parties to return to the negotiation table in
earnest and in good faith.
The situation in the Democratic Republic of
Congo has also been a source of concern to us all. We
wish to congratulate the Governments of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Uganda
for the signing of the peace agreements, which should
pave the way for the withdrawal of troops from the
Democratic Republic of Congo. We believe that this
will also ensure that the security concerns of the
neighbouring countries are adequately addressed,
whilst at the same time creating conditions that are
conducive for the Congolese people to live in peace in
their own country.
Terrorism has become one of the most pressing
concerns of the international community in recent
times. The Government of Lesotho has joined other
peace-loving members of the international community
in waging war against this heinous crime.
The Government of Lesotho is committed to the
full implementation of Security Council resolution
1373 (2001), and, despite financial and technical
constraints, we will continue to discharge our
obligations, as stipulated in that resolution.
The shocking images of atrocities perpetrated in
Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia will forever be
embedded in our minds. They have served as a painful
reminder to the international community that such
crimes should never go unaccounted for and their
perpetrators unpunished. In that spirit we hail the
landmark agreement reached between the United
Nations and the Government of Sierra Leone to
establish an independent special court for the
prosecution of those responsible for the serious decade-
long crimes against humanity committed in the
territory of Sierra Leone. We hope that the creation of
this special court will contribute greatly to the process
of national reconciliation and healing, as well as to the
restoration and maintenance of peace in Sierra Leone.
The Government of Lesotho reveres the coming
into force of the Statute of the International Criminal
Court, a momentous period when the countries of the
world affirmed their intolerance of those who commit
crimes against humanity with impunity. We therefore
invite those States that have not yet done so, to become
party to the Statute, so that we may embark on this
noble but difficult pursuit in solidarity.
I should not conclude this statement without
making reference to the issue of the reform of the
Security Council. The process of democratization is,
6

indeed, very difficult, and yet inevitable. It essentially
involves a lot of compromise and understanding on the
part of those who cherish and uphold the basic tenets of
democracy and equality of States. My delegation
therefore wishes to reiterate its concern that this organ
of the United Nations, which is charged with the
maintenance of international peace and security, has
itself not yet moved to be more inclusive and more
representative. Here again, efforts need to be redoubled
and the pace accelerated.