I am pleased to
congratulate you, Sir, on your election as President of
the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. May I
also pay tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Julian Robert
Hunte of Saint Lucia, for having ably presided over our
deliberations during the previous session of the
General Assembly.
Even as I speak, a magnificent transformation is
being completed on the other side of the globe — in
my country. Many of us in Indonesia have waited all
our lives to witness this historic event: our people
finally rising to take their destiny into their own hands.
Exactly a week ago, some 125 million men and
women trooped to the polling stations and chose the
President and Vice-President who will govern in the
name of 230 million Indonesians. That was the third
national political exercise that we had to carry out —
not just once, but three times — in a period of six
months, the previous two being the parliamentary
elections and the first round of the presidential
elections. All of them were peaceful, fair and
democratic.
Each of them was an enormous operation,
covering some 6,000 islands in an archipelago with an
expanse as wide as Europe’s, and involving millions of
election workers attending to some 575,000 polling
stations. As we coped with the massive logistical
requirements of that undertaking, we were extended
support and assistance by the United Nations and
friendly countries. We are grateful for this.
It will be some time before the official results of
the vote are in. But whoever the new national leaders
of Indonesia may be, they will have a clear and strong
mandate from the people — not from the elite, not
from the party bosses, nor from power brokers or
vested interests — but from the people. This is the
climax of a transition from authoritarian rule to a full-
fledged democracy, a process that began six years ago
in the crucible of the Asian crisis, which devastated our
economy and mangled our socio-political system. We
have thus become the full-fledged democracy that the
founding fathers of our Republic long ago envisioned.
This need for political reform is also felt by other
nations. The Emir of Qatar, speaking as Chairman of
the Group of 77, told this Assembly at its 3rd meeting,
“Political reform and people’s participation in
decision-making are no longer an option but have
become a definite necessity”.
Hence, we are proud of this democracy of ours. It is the
fulfilment of a universal human aspiration, and yet it is
unique to us. It sprang from our native soil, a true child
of our culture. It was not imposed from outside, at
gunpoint. And it put to rest the debate on whether
Islam and democracy can ever mix.
As the country with the largest Muslim
population, Indonesia has proven that Islam can be a
bastion of democracy and social justice. Indeed, our
deep sense of spirituality inspired our people to
resoundingly reject money politics, corruption,
terrorism and all forms of extremism. It was also our
beacon towards reform; and reform has worked for us.
Although the Asian crisis instantly doubled the number
of Indonesians living below the poverty line, we have
since been able to reduce the poverty rate to its pre-
crisis level. We did this by shifting from a
Government-driven poverty-reduction strategy to one
of community empowerment. This effort required
funding of more than US$1 billion, making it one of
the largest such programmes in the world.
Through fiscal controls that dramatically lowered
inflation, we stabilized the prices of essential goods.
Through social safety net programmes, we helped the
poor to weather the crisis. By doing this, we denied the
terrorists what could have been a dangerous mass base.
Since then, consumer confidence has led our
economic growth. With political fears allayed and
investor confidence boosted, we look forward to 4.8
per cent growth this year, and 5.5 per cent next year.
We can now wage a stronger battle against poverty.
By consolidating our efforts to promote the rule
of law, greater respect for human rights and effective
regional autonomy as the main pillars of our reform,
we are confident that we can overcome threats to our
national unity and security, including communal
violence, separatism and terrorism.
We continue to strengthen our relations with all
our neighbours. We have made a fresh start with
Timor-Leste, and we are building a strong relationship.
13

We look forward to a future of bilateral peace,
friendship and cooperation.
This does not mean that we have solved all our
problems. We still have to make democracy work for
us some more and to keep it working. This is what 230
million Indonesians devoutly wish, and they deserve no
less. Moreover, no democracy is safe without being
assured of a democratic environment at the global
level. That environment cannot be created by unilateral
action, no matter how mighty and well-intended.
At the global level, democracy can be promoted
only by democratic means, through multilateral
institutions like the United Nations. If, as its detractors
say, the United Nations is not an effective tool of
collective security and development, this is only
because it has been denied the support that it deserves
from its strongest and most influential Members.
But we need the United Nations to give
legitimacy to the necessary use of force in the cause of
collective security. And even the wealthiest nations in
the world cannot bear all the costs of global security.
The privilege and burden of decision-making must be
shared by all.
Hence, we must empower the United Nations to
serve as the effective tool of multilateralism that it was
always meant to be. We must reform the United
Nations comprehensively, including the Security
Council, by making it more democratic, in terms of
procedure and representation, in order to reflect today’s
geographical realities.
In this regard, it may be recalled that Australia
last year proposed the inclusion of Indonesia as a
permanent member on the Council. We appreciate
Australia’s position. It has greatly encouraged us. As
the world’s third largest pluralistic democracy, the
fourth most populous country, the world’s largest
Muslim nation, a country of tremendous cultural
diversity and a member with a track record of serving
in various peace initiatives of the United Nations,
Indonesia has an important global constituency on the
Council.
Indonesia has served in more than 30
peacekeeping missions, starting with the very first, in
the Middle East in 1957. Today, Indonesian soldiers
and military observers are deployed in peacekeeping
missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Sierra Leone, Liberia and Georgia. As a founding
member and active player of the Non-Aligned
Movement, the Group of 77, the Group of 15, the
Developing Eight and the Organization of the Islamic
Conference, our commitment to the promotion of
international peace and understanding is self-evident.
Indonesia has made key contributions to the
peaceful resolution of conflicts in its region, notably in
Cambodia and southern Philippines. It continues to
actively build peace and stability in the region.
A developing world striving not only for social
and economic progress but also for democratization
must have a voice on the Security Council. Moderate
Islam must have a voice on the Council. Indonesia
would be that voice. And that voice will insist — as we
now insist — that the fight against terrorism, like the
related fight against poverty, can be won. This is not to
deny that terrorists are still capable of wreaking havoc
on our societies. Just two weeks ago, they struck again
in the heart of Jakarta, killing nine innocent civilians
and wounding 150 others. We in Indonesia condemn
this act of inhuman savagery, mourn the loss of
innocent life and share the pain and anger of the
wounded and the bereaved families. But we are by no
means intimidated. We will bring the perpetrators to
justice as we have always done after every terrorist
attack.
Our faith remains firm that the fight against terror
can be won. The world can be made immensely safer.
But the global coalition to defeat terrorism must be
inclusive. It must be multilateral and democratic. It
must empower the moderates of the world. And it must
address the root causes of terrorism: the grievances and
the poignant sense of injustice that drive human beings
to such depths of despair that they would carry out the
most heinous acts of mass murder and destruction. It
must address grievances due to a poverty that is the
offshoot of social and economic inequity, the affronts
of tyranny and corruption, and the failure of States to
deliver a standard of living that befits human dignity.
Included are grievances due to political oppression,
such as the aggression and brutalities that the
Palestinian people continue to suffer in the hands of the
occupying Power.
For the coalition that would fight terrorism and
poverty to be truly multilateral and democratic, it must
include the regional organizations, which are
envisioned in the United Nations Charter as the pillars
of global multilateralism.
14

The United Nations itself, in extending assistance
and services to countries all over the world, needs
support at the regional level. This is why we in the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are
striving to develop a robust partnership with the world
Organization. We are confident that this partnership
will prosper, as ASEAN evolves into a true community
by the year 2020. As a security community, we will
assume full responsibility for our security and political
stability. As an economic and sociocultural community,
we will be a stronger force for development and social
integration in the Asia-Pacific region.
Together with our counterparts in two continents,
we are building a bridge of cooperation across the
Indian Ocean to form a partnership for development. A
summit of Asian and African nations will formally
establish this strategic partnership in April 2005 in
Jakarta.
At the same time, the summit will pay tribute to a
watershed event in the cause of equitable international
relations. Thus, we will observe the Golden Jubilee of
the Asian-African Conference held in Bandung in
1955. Moreover, ASEAN is networking in all
directions, with its counterparts in the rest of the Asia-
Pacific region, in Latin America and in Europe. We
expect this network of regional organizations, in
partnership with the United Nations, to be the ultimate
form of multilateralism. This network can also help
advance a global democratic agenda. To this end, Asia
can make a significant contribution.
Today Asia is certainly in the midst of a
democratic flowering. A series of successful
democratic elections in various Asian countries in
recent months has been hailed worldwide as a political
miracle that may be of deeper significance than the
short-lived Asian economic miracle a decade ago.
But democracy is never a miracle — never a gift,
nor something imposed. It is always hard-earned and
often the fruit of many sacrifices. And its ultimate
worth depends entirely upon us, the people — on
whether we have the political maturity, the wisdom and
the courage to make it work and make it endure. We in
Indonesia are devoutly committed to that end.


Although protocol requires that our statements be brief,
it is no matter of routine for Equatorial Guinea to
congratulate Mr. Jean Ping, Minister of Foreign Affairs
of the Gabonese Republic, on his well-deserved
election to guide the work of the General Assembly at
its fifty-ninth regular session.
We congratulate you, Mr. President, because,
first, it is right that the voice of the oppressed and
marginalized that you represent should be heard loud
and clear by the international community. Secondly, we
would like also to encourage you, because the task
facing you personally and your country, the Gabonese
Republic, is to coordinate — and to endeavour to
reconcile — the varied and opposing interests that exist
in this unipolar, artificial and fragile world, where few
speak out, others say nothing or only listen, and yet
others speak, but to no effect.
The task is difficult, because we need to rebuild
the international authority that has been taken away
from the United Nations. We can do this only if there is
a spirit of honesty, individual and collective
responsibility, and goodwill on the part of Member
States, so that selfish interests can be put aside in the
common fight to ensure the primacy of the principles
and objectives of this world Organization, which are
positive and universal.
Mr. President, you will always be able to count
on the support and ongoing cooperation of my country,
the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, in ensuring that
your work is fruitful and benefits humankind.
We express our eternal gratitude to Mr. Kofi
Annan, Secretary-General of this Organization, who at
all times has been equal to the circumstances and who
has dealt with caution, impartiality and justice with the
issues that have come to the attention of the
Organization over the course of this year. We reiterate
our confidence in him and assure him of our
cooperation in the task of strengthening the role of the
United Nations.
Equatorial Guinea is participating in the work of
the General Assembly at this session with deep concern
because of the dangers and threats posed by the
methods used by more powerful countries in
intervening in the affairs of less protected nations, such
as my own. We believe that the United Nations has still
not fulfilled its primary objective of guaranteeing
international peace and security. We are living in times
of serious upheaval in various parts of the world,
brought about by the anarchy that currently
characterizes international relations.
Equatorial Guinea will join its efforts with those
of the international community in order to strengthen
the international authority of the United Nations.
We have come to the United Nations to state
publicly that Equatorial Guinea is under threat. We say
this out loud, and we hope that we will truly be heard,
because we know that complaints by weaker States
have often fallen on deaf ears in this forum when the
interests of the strongest are at stake.
Equatorial Guinea is facing a serious threat, and
we ask the United Nations to take serious, committed
measures, not only with regard to the issues affecting
Equatorial Guinea today but also in order to prevent
41

other countries in the same situation as ours from being
victimized by the same sort of conspiracy in future.
Indeed, my country is being threatened by the
incessant and poisonous campaign of defamation
against my Government that has been orchestrated by
pressure groups and by the press of certain countries —
saying that we in Equatorial Guinea do not respect
human rights, calling my Government a dictatorship, as
well as accusing us of squandering oil revenues. That
campaign has as its only objective the justification of
an absurd intervention by force in Equatorial
Guinea — the failed multinational mercenary invasion
that was to have taken place on 6 March last.
The international community is aware of the
events connected to that aborted plan thanks to press
reports on the trials, held simultaneously in Equatorial
Guinea and in Zimbabwe, of those mercenaries who
were arrested in Malabo and in Harare, respectively.
Indeed, and under the pretext of supporting the
political claims of a supposed opposition leader in
exile in Spain, a number of mercenaries, of various
nationalities but with a common leadership, acquired a
cargo plane with the goal of transporting to Malabo, in
the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, 65 trained, armed
men who were to take part in an invasion — a suicide
operation. They planned to occupy previously
identified strategic areas, in order physically to remove
the President of the Republic, members of the
Government and anyone who opposed them.
The invasion, planned for the night of 7 March
2004, would have represented the implementation of an
elaborate plan, hatched, elaborated and perfected by
another group of 18 men, who had obtained a license to
fly cargo and passenger planes in Equatorial Guinea,
using the facilities provided by the Government. That
group was to join up with those coming from Harare.
The support that they received from Spain was to
involve the use of two Spanish Navy warships with 500
sailors on board, for support in case of resistance. The
goal was to put in power, at Government headquarters,
Mr. Severo Moto Nsa, who had formed a government
in exile that was recognized by the previous
Government of Spain.
Fortunately, the solidarity of the Governments of
Angola, Zimbabwe and South Africa came into play
and they alerted the security services of my country,
which acted immediately, arresting, on the night of 6
March, the 18 men stationed in Malabo, while the
Harare Government did the same with those found in
that capital’s airport on 7 March 2004.
The mercenaries themselves, in public statements
during the trials held in Malabo and in Harare,
explained the plan’s objectives and named the people
involved. They also gave details on the financing of the
purchase of arms and of the cargo plane, and on the
offer of the Spanish ships, which were already, at that
time, anchored in the territorial waters of Equatorial
Guinea.
The Secretary-General, as well as the Members of
this Organization, should know that, a month before
those events, my Government had rejected and
denounced the sending of those warships to Equatorial
Guinea in a note to the Spanish Government, which at
the time was using as a pretext its support for the
Government of Equatorial Guinea in the conflict
related to its claim of sovereignty over the island of
Mbañie. This General Assembly can, I am sure,
understand the danger and the loss of human life that
this invasion would have caused if it had succeeded.
We know that Equatorial Guinea is a victim for
the sole reason that it has respected the principles and
exercised the fundamental rights of a sovereign State,
which are the exercise of sovereignty by the people,
non-interference in the internal affairs of other
countries and the right to the exclusive use of the
resources that nature has given it. If this is so, we
would like the Assembly to reply to the following
questions, if possible.
Why are so many negative things currently being
said about Equatorial Guinea in foreign circles, when
the country’s people themselves live in peace and there
are no demands being made by the populace or from
the people’s representative bodies?
Why this talk of dictatorship and oppression in
Equatorial Guinea, when the administration in power
has re-established political freedom in the country,
with 13 political parties in a country of barely one
million people?
Can a dictatorship based on oppression allow
freedom such as the current level of foreign investment
and the arrival of more than seventeen international
flights per week to such a small country as Equatorial
Guinea?
42

Is there an international police force that has the
authority to tell Equatorial Guinea how to use its
economic resources, when we already have an
administrative and political organization for managing
our resources with transparency? Can a country that
does not use its resources for the benefit of the people
approve an annual budget, through parliament, of 618
billion CFA francs as a justifiable public cost?
Is it true that the only way to end the abuse
allegedly committed by Equatorial Guinea would be to
organize the kind of terrorist and mercenary invasion
targeted at eliminating innocent people that was
planned on 6 March 2004?
Equatorial Guinea would like to know whether
this mercenary system is supported by the international
community. If it is supported, which countries are
responsible for this crime? We do not believe that there
is any difference between the terrorism that we
condemn today and the terrorist acts committed by
mercenaries in various parts of the world.
Equatorial Guinea is seriously under threat. We
say this because we know from reliable sources that
our enemies will not forgive the embarrassment and
defeat caused by the failure of the mercenary invasion
on 6 March. However, this does not mean that
Equatorial Guinea is going to drop its arms or fall on
its knees and let the enemy do with it what it will. We
believe that the United Nations responsibility is to
maintain peace and international security and to avoid
a merciless war between countries.
We would like to affirm that there are countries
who are Members of this global Organization,
represented in this hemicycle, whose security agencies
were informed of this devilish plan, and who, unlike
Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe, who expressed
their solidarity, simply kept silent, waiting for events to
unfold. But we ask you to leave us in peace, because
Equatorial Guinea is a peaceful country and we do not
think that we have offended anyone.
A detailed analysis of the situation has shown us
that the end of the cold war has not actually led to the
unification of humanity and the integration of the
world as we had hoped. Rather, it has rekindled selfish
and perverse feelings among those who have always
dominated — or have always wanted to dominate —
the world. The phenomenon of mercenaries, therefore,
is a classic practice of States’ piracy, politically dressed
up and falsely justified by political, economic and
humanitarian interests. This is why we continue to see
this defamatory campaign, to justify a possible
invasion.
Nevertheless, Equatorial Guinea does not need to
please the international community with propaganda
regarding our development. Our only judge and arbiter
is our own people, to which our State institutions must
justify their actions. This tactic of creating a falsified
negative image of a State is of no surprise to anybody
at the moment, and it should least of all be a surprise to
this world Organization.
We also see that the theory of a globalized world
is a fallacy, because, as we very often say, you cannot
call a dog to you while holding a stick to beat it. We
cannot accept globalization when the concept of
colonialism, the superiority of some peoples over
others or even of neo-colonialism still exists.
Globalization is in contradiction with the concept of
the superiority of some over others. Globalization does
not mean exclusion as opposed to integration and
cooperation. Finally, globalization does not mean
power relations such as those that some would like to
impose.
The situation in Equatorial Guinea affects other
countries of Central Africa as well, as the terrorists
themselves have declared. We know that the
mercenaries have acted in other parts of the world, and
we bring this to the General Assembly because of the
destructive effects that have been seen in other affected
countries. We feel that solidarity among African States
and the third world in general is absolutely
indispensable, because we are the direct victims of
those who are ordering these mercenary acts.
In conclusion, we must stop looking backwards.
The current breakdown of the forces of peace,
independence and the sovereignty of States, as the
antithesis to the major wars of the past century, shows
us that we are close to unleashing a universal
holocaust. The situation today is that the weakest and
most needy are ignored and marginalized. We have to
put a stop to this race to chaos and build a world that is
more respectful of the human race.


On
behalf of Bolivia, I wish to express a concern that is
global: the issue of terrorism. A world that is haunted
by terrorism is an insecure world, one whose prospects
are threatened. Bolivia believes that the fight against
terrorism is one of the most important tasks we need to
undertake together. The incident in Beslan in the
Russian Federation demonstrates how far it is possible
to go in brutal actions that are entirely divorced from
any sense of humanity.
The fight against terrorism must also be linked to
the struggle against other scourges of concern to us all.
In that context, Bolivia affirms its most resolute
commitment to the fight against drug trafficking, which
in our country is being waged through the eradication
of excess coca, undertaken with respect for the nation’s
tradition of consumption. That joint task could not be
fulfilled without the presence and support of the
international community and in the context of shared
responsibility. Shared responsibility requires clear
action to be taken on both sides of the chain of
production to eliminate the scourge of drug trafficking.
Shared responsibility requires the social and the
economic issues to be considered when addressing the
problem.
Bolivia has elaborated the idea of alternative
development, which we would wish to see converted
into comprehensive development. In other words, the
participation of the communities and villages where
coca is produced in Bolivia should be part of the
decision-making process and of the design of strategies
to modify current practices of cultivation and to
generate reasonable economic options, to open
markets, and to reduce the costs of intervention to the
international community in the eradication of coca, and
in particular in the process of seeking viable alternative
ways for the Bolivian economy.
We believe that the fight against the scourges that
are currently stalemating humankind could not be
waged without a multilateral response to the challenges
to modern society. We firmly believe in multilateralism
and strongly support the United Nations as the arena of
that multilateralism. We are convinced that the time
has come to produce a series of comprehensive reforms
in the Organization as a whole. That would require,
inter alia, an expansion of the Security Council at the
onset of a new historic era. As the challenges have
changed, so too must the responses.
In that context, we are convinced that another
aspect to be thoroughly reviewed is the paradigm of
global development, which is unsustainable over time
and will not allow for long-term responses, but which
will instead generate complex problems that cannot be
resolved. A change in the development paradigm
requires openness of mind and a heterodox capacity to
respond to the basic parameters in which the world
economy functions today, without demagogic
responses or utopian solutions. On the contrary, we
need to ponder such issues as hunger, poverty and
exclusion, which afflict millions of human beings on
our planet.
This is a good opportunity to recall that, over the
past year, Bolivia has experienced a particularly
difficult situation. In October 2003, a social, political
and economic crisis pushed our nation to the brink of
confrontation and violence, with unforeseeable
consequences. The crisis threatened all of our
institutions, and in particular our democratic system.
The Bolivian response to that crisis was issued
peacefully, in respect for democracy, through a
mechanism of constitutional succession that allowed
me, as Vice-President, to take office as President and to
assume the enormous challenges to the country in order
to restore order, peace and the prospects and hopes of
our society.
20

Why did this crisis occur in Bolivia? It happened
because of an accumulation of historic arrears that, at
some point, had to be paid for by our society. Those
arrears included exclusion, discrimination, a vision of
Bolivian society rife with racism, and truly dreadful
poverty. The efforts undertaken by the country on the
basis of a liberal economic model and of a structural
adjustment model had their highs and lows. Positive
results allowed for macroeconomic stability, but
genuinely inadequate results in the social sphere were
the outcome primarily of exhaustion and the need for
different responses. All of those historical arrears fell
due in October, leading to a popular upheaval that
ended in social turmoil, calling not only for a short-
term response — ours, I believe, was effective in that
democracy and peace were preserved — but also and
above all for a forward-looking solution.
What are the major challenges facing Bolivia
today in its geographical, historical and geopolitical
contexts? It must first resolve its own conflict between
society and State and the challenges of its own
economic growth. One of the country’s key issues was
the definition of an energy policy once we learned that
our nation has one of the largest reserves of natural gas
in South America.
We chose a path that was difficult, yet attractive,
and that marked our desire for democratic participation
and participative democracy — please forgive the
wordplay — within our society. We opted for a binding
referendum in which the people of Bolivia were able to
decide what they wished to do with their most
important energy resources. The referendum
highlighted our will to participate and to define our
own destiny. It was successfully held on 18 July. It
took place in a framework of peace, of democratic
participation and of clear and convincing responses
that allowed our Government to move forward with a
hydrocarbons and natural gas policy that regulates
export, industrialization and relations with investors
and investment companies that are appropriate and
useful to our nation.
In this forum, I wish to affirm our belief in a
constructive and mutually beneficial relationship
between private investors in Bolivia and the
representatives of the State. Perhaps one of the most
important lessons of recent years is that we must
neither revert to the old system of State capitalism of
the 1950s and 1960s, nor pursue the rigid orthodoxy of
the liberal vision.
The answer for today is a practical combination
within the false distinction between the market and the
State. That distinction must be abolished and the
combination made viable without exclusions and
without jeopardizing the fundamental concept, in
which we believe, that legal security is guaranteed by
the rule of law. That is the path on which we have
embarked as we work to adopt new hydrocarbons
legislation.
Perhaps the most important thing for Bolivia in
the coming months, however, is to reach a new social
covenant. While the relationship between society and
the State has been severely damaged and threatened by
collapse, it is clear that the concept of democratic
participation has to be reflected in that covenant
through a constituent assembly, freely elected to define
the outline of the country that we wish to build in the
immediate future.
Given that my Government has no political party
or organized presence in that context, we shall convene
a constituent assembly that is truly pluralistic and in
which the elements of our Magna Carta will be
provided by various social sectors yet respond to a
single basic concept: an end to exclusion and
discrimination; the option — in a country where the
majority is of indigenous Quechua, Aymara or Guaraní
origin — for the majority to express itself; and the
definition, in a democratic context and in the
framework of distinct regions and distinct visions, of
the profile of a viable nation.
I also wish to note that we achieved something
very important after the crisis: the restoration of peace
through transparent, honest and austere action that
Bolivia urgently needed. This does not mean that the
task is done. The struggle against corruption will
always be a challenge in our country, as it is elsewhere
in the world, but I believe that we have demonstrated a
clear commitment that has given us credibility and
legitimacy in our society.
Transparency, honesty and austerity are vital
elements in a poor nation that must administer
appropriately and efficiently the meagre resources at its
disposal. In that context, I wish here at the United
Nations to thank the international community, which
was consistent and unified in its support for Bolivia
during the crisis and in the following months, helping
us to implement a consistent macroeconomic policy to
resolve such serious issues as its heavy fiscal deficit.
21

Given its geographical location at the centre of
our continent, Bolivia should be a pivotal country in
the fast-paced process of integration. That process has
two major protagonists: the Andean Community, of
which we are a member, and the Southern Common
Market, of which we are an associate member. At first,
we were a “hinge” country, but we are now in the
process of integration that will gradually encompass a
large bloc of South American nations, which we
welcome and towards which we are striving.
In that context of coordination and integration,
Bolivia holds a key play in any process of
infrastructure development. In energy, Bolivia is a
country that can serve as South America’s energy
distribution hub. In telecommunications — fibre optics
in particular — and, of course, in highway
infrastructure, we are vital and must be an actor that
facilitates rather than obstructs.
I wish to share a thought here with such
multilateral entities as the World Bank, the
International Monetary Fund and other organizations
that are cooperating with Bolivia and other developing
countries.
Because of its revenues and high level of debt,
Bolivia has been considered to be a heavily indebted
poor country. In theory, that has given it a series of
advantages in debt servicing and, above all, in the
channelling of that servicing not towards repayment,
but towards social services. Paradoxically, however,
this has limited the country’s capacity to obtain non-
concessional loans that would allow us to implement
infrastructure projects that are of interest not only to
Bolivia, but to all countries of the region.
We believe that we must begin to look differently
at the way international organizations interpret those
loans in order to make them more flexible and to avoid
the paradox whereby an advantage becomes a burden
that makes development impossible. We hope that this
new approach will be grasped by the international
community, and in particular by the multilateral
organizations.
Lastly, I wish to broach a subject that we will
always stress in our statements before the world
community. Bolivia’s landlocked status is a factor that
has curbed our development. Bolivia was born as an
independent country with a coastline on the Pacific
Ocean. Today, we demand free, useful and sovereign
access to that Ocean. Our demand has moral, historical
and legal bases and is linked to the high economic cost
that has made development difficult throughout our
history. We make this demand, and I want to emphasize
this, on the basis of a logic of construction — a logic
of integration.
Chile and Bolivia are countries that complement
each other. We are countries that have a destiny of
shared development and integration. To fail to find a
solution to the Bolivian issue is to negate the
possibility of development and integration and prevent
it from becoming a reality.
Bolivia is prepared to undertake an open dialogue
in order to find an appropriate and definitive solution
to the problem. That is all the more true today because
South American integration is so close at hand, and
because Bolivia’s maritime problem has become an
obstacle on the path to that integration.
We are expressing a rational, constructive
desire — a will for integration. Our demand is
unchanging and has profound relevance in the context
of everything I said earlier.
I should like to conclude by stating here, before
the nations of the world, that our country is one of
peace that believes in disarmament. It believes also
that we need to reflect on and change many of the
paradigms which in the course of time have
crystallized certain positions and have limited the
open-mindedness that we need today, more than ever,
in the twenty-first century, in order to face the
challenges of the future.


I am addressing the Assembly today at a most
difficult time for our country, when tears are still being
shed by those who lost their children and loved ones
during the horrific terrorist attack in the Russian city of
Beslan. I would like from this rostrum to take this
opportunity to express once again my gratitude to all
those who have shown their solidarity with Russia in
these tragic days. Our special thanks go to the States and
international organizations that extended their helping
hand to the victims and the bereaved families ó to all
those who have suffered from this outrage.
I am also addressing the Assembly at a moment
of truth, when there cannot possibly be any doubt
whatever remaining as to the true nature of
international terrorism and the challenge it has flung
down before the world community. With their actions
throughout the world, the terrorists have once and for
all placed themselves in opposition to civilized
mankind. In fact, having made the mass murder of
people an end in itself, they have knowingly violated
all norms of human morality.
Russia has drawn harsh conclusions. They have
been set forth in the 4 and 13 September addresses by
the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir V.
Putin. We will not allow anyone to encroach on the
sovereignty of our State. We will resolutely strengthen
the unity of the country and its people in order to
counter terror and to guarantee a secure and decent life
for our citizens in freedom and democracy.
The measures announced by the Russian
President to achieve these objectives will be
implemented on the basis of our countryís
Constitution; and we will continue to defend our
legitimate interests throughout the world, not through
confrontation, but by means of equitable dialogue,
cooperation and partnership. Moreover, a readiness to
engage in honest cooperation in fighting terrorism
without double standards, is becoming one of the key
criteria in our relations with any and all States.
We must enter into a qualitatively new and critical
stage in the activities of the anti-terrorist coalition. The
meeting of the Security Council of 1 September
demonstrated the strong determination of the
international community to continue its fight against
terrorism in a consistent way. It is important now to
translate this commitment into practical actions as
quickly as possible.
In the three years that have passed since the
terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, a
lot has been done to develop effective partnership in
this sphere. However, compared to the scale of the
threat, far from enough has been done. It is important
to learn lessons from the experience gained and to
draw conclusions for the future.
First, the global nature of the terrorist threat testifies
to the fact that security in todayís world is indivisible.
Consequently, only collective responsibility can make
the world secure. The fight against terrorism should
unite States rather than pit them against each other. We
can deal with this evil only on a multilateral basis by
combining our efforts and acting in the spirit of solidarity.
As President Putin has declared, Russia considers the
objective of strengthening the anti-terrorist coalition to
be one of our most important tasks.
A special emphasis here should be placed on
intensifying the cooperation among our special services,
which, we are convinced, must now be raised to a
qualitatively new level of trust and coordinated action.
Secondly, a clear strategy and a generally
acceptable legal framework are the prerequisites for
success in combating terrorism. Such a framework is
enshrined in resolution 1373 (2001) and in other
decisions of the Security Council. But now, additional
efforts are needed. They include making necessary
amendments to national legislation, acceding to
international anti-terrorist conventions and finalizing
new international counter-terrorism legal instruments.
In circumstances where international terrorism
has declared war on our entire civilization, the
determination of States to use their right of self-
defence in conformity with Article 51 of the United
Nations Charter is of particular importance. Of course
international law is clearly not an inalterable dogma.
The fight against terrorism calls for its development
and improvement.
Thirdly, the time has come to renounce double
standards once and for all when it comes to terror,
regardless of the slogans in which it may be cloaked.
31

Those who slaughtered children in Beslan and hijacked
aeroplanes to attack America are creatures of the same
ilk.
Harbouring terrorists, their henchmen and their
sponsors undermines unity and mutual trust among
those that form part of the anti-terrorist front, serves as
justification for the actions of terrorists and indeed
encourages them to commit similar crimes in other
countries. I would recall that United Nations decisions
require States granting political asylum to carefully
examine the personal records of each individual to
make sure that he or she has no links to terrorism.
Attempts to use the fight against terrorism in various
geopolitical games are even more counterproductive
and dangerous.
Fourth, the utter atrociousness of the recent
terrorist attacks proves there is the need for reliable
safeguards against terrorists gaining access to weapons
of mass destruction. Russia is prepared for the closest
kind of international partnership in that area. Our
country was one of the sponsors of Security Council
resolution 1540 (2004). It is a participant in the
Proliferation Security Initiative and a co-sponsor of the
Group of Eight (G-8) Action Plan on Non-
Proliferation. Those initiatives are complementary and
are designed to increase the effectiveness of the regime of
the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,
something which is especially relevant on the eve of the
2005 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on
the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
Fifth, drug trafficking is increasingly interwoven
with terrorism. The drug flow from Afghanistan has
acquired global significance. The implementation of a
set of social, economic and law-enforcement measures
both within and outside the borders of that country is
now more urgent than ever. One of the key elements of
that strategy lies in strengthening the existing anti-drug
security belts and creating new ones.
Russia is making an important contribution
towards resolving the drug problem, including through
the formulation of specific legal, political and
operational measures within the framework of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). We are ready to
coordinate actions with the Government of
Afghanistan, and with the multinational and coalition
forces operating in that country.
Sixth, international terrorists have neither
nationality nor religion. In fact, it is specifically
religion and national culture that, today as never
before, require protection from the devastating impact
of extremism of any kind. There is a need for
respectful dialogue among various religions and
civilizations. Russia, which is open both to the West
and to the East, is ready to play its part in that process,
which is intended to prevent a split in civilization.
Another pressing task today is the saving of
world spiritual and cultural monuments from attacks by
extremists. We deem it essential to establish
cooperation in that area between the United Nations
and its specialized agencies, primarily the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO). Failing to act here ó as well
as standing by in silence at the desecration of
memorials to Second World War heroes and victims
and at attempts to rehabilitate fascists ó can only play
into the hands of those who wish to incite extremist
trends in society.
Seventh, Russia believes that the United Nations
must continue to play a pivotal role in uniting the
efforts of the international community in its fight
against terrorism. As Chair of the Security Councilís
Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), our country
intends to actively contribute to speeding up the reform
of that Committee. We propose drafting a new Security
Council resolution that would ensure the most effective
possible functioning of the CTC, so as to identify, in a
timely manner, weak links in the anti-terrorism
network and increase practical cooperation between the
CTC and international and regional organizations,
including the Commonwealth of Independent States
(CIS), the CSTO and the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization.
The CIS summit held recently in Astana,
Kazakhstan, reaffirmed the strong potential of CIS
regional structures in all areas, from anti-terrorist
activities and ensuring collective security to
intensifying economic integration.
Certainly, in an increasingly interdependent
world, the war on terrorism cannot be considered in
isolation from other pressing issues facing mankind.
This is especially relevant to the settlement of
conflicts, which for decades have been destabilizing
the situation at the regional and global levels. Through
its decisions, the General Assembly must promote a
32

Middle East settlement on the basis of commitments
made by the parties under the road map. Yesterday, the
Quartet of international mediators spoke out to that end.
The situation in Iraq is a source of serious
concern. Russia is ready to render all possible
assistance towards attaining a political settlement
aimed at preserving Iraqís territorial integrity and
ensuring its political sovereignty and a genuinely
democratic post-war recovery. The search for national
reconciliation within Iraq is of key significance; here,
the Iraqis could be assisted by the holding of an
international conference with the participation of all
major Iraqi political forces, friendly States, Security
Council members and the League of Arab States and
other organizations.
We must remain vigilant with regard to Kosovo,
which is a dangerous hotbed of tension. There is no
room for complacency. We must work to ensure that
universally recognized standards of human rights and
the rights of national minorities are applied in the
region. We also need to make full use of existing
mechanisms for conflict settlement within the CIS.
Consolidating the peacemaking capacity of the
international community is crucial to overcoming
regional crises. A collective response to humanitarian
crises, in particular those on the African continent, in
full compliance with the United Nations Charter and in
a spirit of partnership with regional structures, would
leave no doubt that the Charter remains a universal
basis for the effective solution of such problems.
The United Nations must continue to focus its
attention on other global threats to security and
sustainable development as well. Those include the
eradication of poverty and illiteracy as a breeding
ground for extremism. Annually, our country grants
1,000 scholarships to students from African countries.
Russia has contributed $7.5 million to the Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and has
provided bilateral humanitarian assistance to a number
of African countries.
Among the challenges and threats is that of
finding ways to bridge the gap between poor and rich
States. Russia has been making its contribution there;
between 1998 and 2002 it wrote off the debt of African
countries equivalent to $11.2 billion.
Another challenge is ensuring environmental
security. Here I would like to confirm that in
accordance with the decision of President Vladimir V.
Putin we are now engaged in serious consideration of
ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.
The challenges also include preventing the
transformation of outer space into a theatre of armed
confrontation. Together with China, we are calling for the
conclusion of a comprehensive agreement to that end. We
call upon all countries with space capability to join in that
initiative. There is also a growing need to elaborate a
United Nations convention on outer space law.
A further challenge is the fight against gross
violations of human rights, with a view to ensuring the
security and dignity of the individual. The United
Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, the Council of Europe and other
organizations should not remain passive spectators
when, in some countries, a considerable part of the
population is deprived of citizenship and consequently
of basic political, social and economic rights.
On Russiaís initiative, the General Assembly, at
its fifty-seventh and fifty-eighth sessions, adopted
resolutions 57/145 and 58/16 respectively, on
establishing, under the aegis of the United Nations, a
comprehensive approach to countering new threats and
challenges. The resolutions contain specific guidelines
for bringing the international community closer to a
new security model that would meet the global
challenges of the twenty-first century.
Those are the lines along which the High-level
Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, established
by the Secretary-General, is organizing its work. We
hope that its recommendations will pave the way for a
genuine enhancement of the effectiveness of the United
Nations. At the same time, reform of the Organization,
and particularly of the Security Council, should be
based on the broadest possible agreement and should
not provoke the alienation of States.
The international community is undergoing a
complex period in its establishment of a new system of
international relations. It is already clear that this will
be a long-term process with an uncertain future and
one that, so far, is difficult to predict. At the same time,
there is an enormous increase in the number of new
unresolved problems and new dangerous challenges to
security and the development of mankind. We still lack
a collective strategy and universally applicable
mechanisms for responding to those challenges. In fact,
33

we have to constantly improvise and use makeshift
means to ensure world stability.
A question arises as to whether we could soon
find ourselves in a situation in which events start to go
out of control. Is it not time for the international
community to assume an active role in impacting upon
global processes and taking targeted actions to
establish a more secure and just world order? Russia is
fully determined, together with other countries, to
build such a world order and take its proper place
therein as a free and democratic State.
More than half a century ago, the civilized world
put aside all its disputes and differences and mobilized
its efforts to counter the deadly threat of Nazi
enslavement. The enemy that opposes us today is no
less dangerous and no less merciless. Russia sincerely
hopes that the forthcoming sixtieth anniversary of the
end of World War II and the establishment of the
United Nations will become a historic milestone on the
path to a world order in which the twenty-first century
sees the noble principles of peace, stability and
development enshrined in the United Nations Charter
hold sway.


The
protracted period of tension that the international
community is currently experiencing underscores the
need for greater cooperation and commitment. It is
fortunate, therefore, that during the past year the
General Assembly benefited from the capable guidance
of President Julian Hunte. The wealth of experience of
his successor, Mr. Jean Ping, together with his great
diplomatic acumen and insight, lead us to feel
confident that he is in the right place at the right time.
We pay tribute to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi
Annan, for the exemplary manner in which he has
promoted the United Nations and maintained and
increased its relevance for the most critical issues of
the day. The degree to which the United Nations is
consulted on and participates in pivotal events and the
resolution of crises throughout the world is a tribute to
Mr. Annanís selfless dedication to the Organization.
He is also to be commended for the closer
working relationship that he has been able to foster
with the private sector and civil society through the
global compact, with the aim of offering help and
expertise to needy communities and young people.
As the Secretary-General stated in his most recent
report on the work of the Organization, the United
Nations ó indeed, the world ó has had a very difficult
and challenging year. Many of us have been
traumatized by terrorism, by the brutal acts of
repression that are taking place in many parts of the
world and by the tense situation and developments in
Iraq.
For the majority of the worldís people, however,
the most immediate threats are those of hunger,
poverty, lack of drinking water, environmental
degradation and endemic or infectious diseases,
including HIV/AIDS and malaria. Overall, the
Secretary-General notes that we have departed
considerably from the vision and spirit of the
Millennium Declaration of 2000, which embodied the
14

aspirations of our time: a world united by common
values, with the primary goal of providing better living
conditions for humanity, in an environment of peace
and security.
Unfortunately, as the Secretary-General notes,
events related to terrorism have shaken our sense of
common purpose. The tragedy of 11 September 2001,
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the ongoing
bloodshed in the Middle East and other disturbing
incidents throughout the world have profoundly
divided the international community about how to
ensure our collective security.
While we have seen many examples of State
terrorism, terrorism has become essentially stateless
and nebulous in nature, and is able to spread without
regard to borders or nationalities. Although there is no
disputing the fact that terrorism must be confronted
promptly and vigorously, the knee-jerk reaction of
attempting to crush it militarily fails to address its
many manifestations or get to its root causes.
We must pay special heed to our prejudices and
fears as we endeavour to resolve difficult political
problems that may have been building for decades.
We must also accept that terrorism is not a faith
or an ideology. It may well be a tactic or a strategy of
last resort on the part of those who view themselves,
their faith, their beliefs or their physical environment
as endangered. While we must act resolutely in
confronting acts of terrorism, to do so precipitately,
without examining the underlying causes, could prove
destructive or even fatal. No one should excuse the
brutal and heinous crimes that are being committed in
so many places today, but we must acknowledge that
the situation requires us to find a solution.
The international community is threatened by the
instability that this phenomenon entails. We must not
underestimate the importance of realistic foreign and
development policies directed at resolving tensions and
reducing poverty. We must find a way to bring the
world together to reconcile differences and eliminate
reasons for misunderstanding. The words and thoughts
of the late American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt,
are relevant here. For him, security meant not only
safety from attack by outside aggressors, but also
economic, social and moral security. As he said,
essential to such a peace is a decent standard of living
for all individuals, for freedom from fear is eternally
linked with freedom from want.
We are all aware of the commitments we made at
the Millennium Summit in 2000. The critical needs and
ills confronting mankind were identified at that
Summit, and we committed to resolving them in
various ways and according to a specific timetable. The
eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
represent a worldwide quest to eliminate poverty and
hunger while improving health care, education and the
environment.
Sadly, an evaluation of progress towards reaching
these goals by the target dates reveals that we are
making erratic progress. A recent study in Geneva
found that the world is scarcely making a third of the
effort necessary to achieve these modest targets. In
particular, the eighth goal, which calls for a global
partnership of rich and poor countries for development,
envisioned a substantial increase in official
development assistance (ODA), a reduction or
cancellation of debts, the removal of protectionist
barriers for agricultural products and free access to the
markets of the industrialized countries. Needless to
say, progress on this goal has been limited. It is the
only goal lacking a deadline or timetable and is
hampered by the apparent reluctance of developed
countries to keep their commitments.
Of the 50 least developed countries (LDCs), 34
are in Africa. Although five or six African countries
are close to transitioning, only one has successfully
made a smooth transition. Attempts to mobilize
domestic resources through the private sector will
require more time and funds. Low levels of savings and
investment rates testify to the huge decline in resources
needed for development. Undoubtedly, there is an
urgent need to continually increase development
assistance to this group of countries.
Africa's need for development assistance has
created the impression that the continent is a major
financial burden to the international community. In
fact, while Africa is disproportionately aid-dependent,
it does not receive a disproportionate amount of aid.
Overall, as things stand, LDCs will not be able to
reduce poverty, achieve universal primary education or
reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. A report by
the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) describes LDCsí woeful
deficits in savings dedicated to growth, public
investment and essential services. The report also
states that the conclusion is unequivocal and that on
15

the basis of domestic resources alone, LDCs cannot lift
themselves out of poverty.
Today, in a post-11-September world, a new
rationale for aid is emerging. Aid is increasingly seen
as a potent force in the war on terror by providing
support to both front-line States and weak States in
which terrorism could breed. Additionally, there is a
mounting recognition of endemic poverty and of the
inequalities that threaten national security interests.
Despite this realization, however, development
assistance programmes have become more selective,
aimed at a small group of countries that are in some
way qualified. Nevertheless, many countries fail to
qualify for this aid. Concrete actions must be taken for
the sake of the millions suffering in those countries.
We ignore them at our own risk.
Common sense tells us that conflict is endemic
and hardly any region in the world has escaped its
violence. However, the reality is that no new civil wars
have broken out recently, and there has been a decline
in the number of drawn-out conflicts within and
between States. We notice that although the number of
victims has risen sharply, the number of terrorist
incidents has in fact declined. That said, fewer people
are being killed by war than at almost anytime in the
past century. Few wars are beginning and many old
ones are ending. This is particularly true in Africa,
where some seven millions souls perished in the
conflicts of Angola, Congo, Sudan, Sierra Leone,
Liberia and Somalia. With the exception of the Darfur
region in the Sudan, each one of those conflicts
appears to be either coming to an end, winding down
or stabilizing. Of course, we are all deeply saddened by
the scale of the tragedy in Darfur. This issue, however,
needs to be tackled with the greatest care, clarity,
fairness and seriousness. We must be cautious about
making generalizations and forming prejudices too
soon. We need to direct our efforts towards the right
solutions.
Conflicts, of course, require weapons, and
reducing this threat requires a halt to arms shipments.
These shipments divert vital resources from other
critical needs. The countries of Asia, Latin America,
the Middle East and Africa spend some $22 billion on
arms each year, that is, more than two thirds of arms
sales worldwide.
Solidifying peace in the world calls for more
preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and additional
peacekeeping missions. Unless fully supported by the
international community through additional resources,
further operations would strain United Nations
planning, pre-positioned forces, logistics, procurement
and command and control capabilities. What is
required, therefore, is greater assistance for regional
peacekeeping capabilities, particularly in Africa.
Any action undertaken must necessarily have the
approval of the United Nations. This is the only path
that confers a degree of legitimacy on any undertaking.
Action undertaken by the United Nations implies the
approval of the Security Council. Here it must be noted
that the Council continues to operate in accordance
with the legacy of the Second World War in terms of its
structure.
Furthermore, the exponential growth in United
Nations membership is not reflected in the Council.
There is an urgent need for the developing world to
have a stronger voice in the Council. The Council must
have a more equitable and realistic distribution, in
terms of both representation and composition. Security
Council reform is long overdue and there is an urgent
need to expand the reform in both the permanent and
non-permanent categories, embracing developing and
developed countries. We are pleased with the
establishment by the Secretary-General of the High-
Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change. Some
of its initial soundings cover the expansion of the
Security Council, recalling membersí commitment to
contribute to national and international peace and
security. We deem auspicious the projected full review
of the Councilís work at the end of every decade,
including a review of the manpower and financial
resources of peacekeeping missions. We await the
Panelís report this December to the Secretary-General,
and we will consider his comments during the next
session of the Assembly.
The President returned to the Chair.
Following the Arta Peace Conference, which we
initiated and the outlines of which I presented to this
very Assembly several years ago, the
Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)
member States considered it necessary to complete this
process by broadening its base. Since then, and to date,
the Somali reconciliation conference in Nairobi,
Kenya, under the auspices of IGAD, has achieved
tangible progress, which we welcome. Particular
recognition should be addressed to all IGAD member
16

States for their self-sacrifice and devotion, especially
to our brothers from Kenya, whose good offices,
patience and determination allowed the negotiations to
continue even in the most critical moments. Indeed, the
Somali representatives, spurred by the will of the
region and the convergence of political and financial
support of the international community, worked
relentlessly to set up the first pillar of the Somali
Government institutions ó that is, the Transitional
Parliament. This first stage, welcomed by the Somali
people within the country and in the diaspora, and the
international community as a whole, finally brought a
glimmer of hope that the reign of anarchy and chaos
would soon come to an end in Somalia.
The divergences of view that prevailed for a long
time among the countries of the region on ways of
resolving the Somali conflict have now yielded to
common sense and collective resolve, to work in
harmony and to collaborate in a sincere and fraternal
spirit towards the ultimate goal of helping our Somali
brothers achieve legitimate and lasting peace.
The misunderstandings and difficulties
encountered during the process have provided an
opportunity for a fresh review of the statements of the
various regional actors for a clear-eyed and in-depth
analysis, imbued with the genuine desire to show the
solidarity of IGAD countries towards Somalia, and has
made it possible to underscore the common need to
help the Somali people to establish a broad-based
Government that is representative and legitimate. This
Conference has culminated in a Somali Parliament,
where all the factions and various components of
Somali civil society are represented, such as
intellectuals, professionals, women and others. Last
week, the members of Parliament elected a Speaker,
and today they are electing his deputies before
proceeding on 10 October to elect the President of the
Transitional Government.
Without a doubt, and very importantly so, the
facts bear out that we are today in a significantly
different mood than the past, because this time the
Somali people are more determined to deepen their
dialogue and the reconciliation process. And as a
region we are convinced that we must work together
towards achieving the goals agreed upon. It is also the
responsibility of the international community to act in
a strong and decisive manner to assist Somalia.
In the first place, the international community
must provide the necessary financial and political
support to rapidly enable the new Government to create
the conditions for achieving the rehabilitation of
facilities needed to house the new Government; the
provision of direct budgetary support to pay wages and
other administrative expenditures; and the tackling of
security issues head-on, in particular, with the
implementation of demobilization, disarmament and
reintegration programmes (DDR).
In this first six-month critical phase, the actions
undertaken by the new Government will determine the
authority of its legitimacy as it proceeds to consolidate
the gains obtained from the reconciliation process, with
the aim of addressing the formidable expectations of
the Somali people.
In the second place, at the political level, it is
assumed that the new Transitional Parliament will be
an all-inclusive body; it will agree to swear in members
of this National Assembly; and all its members will
accept the primacy of the rule of law, responsible
norms of behaviour, disarmament and demobilization.
Any contrary attitudes, actions or activities that could
undermine the efforts to pacify the country or frustrate
the effectiveness of the new Government should not be
tolerated or accepted by the region or by the
international community.
In this respect, the Security Council, the unique
body entrusted with the maintenance of international
peace and security, may be called upon to take
necessary measures in conformity with the United
Nations Charter to apply the following measures in
case the new State faces a resurgence of obstacles to
the reconciliation process or restoration of the State.
These would be the implementation of a list and a
systematic regime of sanctions directed against those
who would continue to undermine the Governmentís
peace efforts.
We are deeply convinced that this is a unique
opportunity for the international community to finally
resolve the long-lasting conflict in Somalia. We need to
acknowledge the changes that have taken place. The
Somalis are determined, and the region is united. We
should, at all costs, avoid repetition of the scenario we
have experienced in the past. Let us seize this
opportunity. Let us, together, help our Somali brothers
and sisters in their quest for peace, stability, and unity.
17

Until now, innumerable resolutions,
commitments, initiatives and peace processes to
resolve the long-festering Middle East conflict remain
at best rhetorical. A clear-cut vision of the two-State
solution - a secure Israel side by side with a viable
Palestinian State - rings hollow in the wake of a large
expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied
Palestinian territories of the West Bank, with the
building of thousands of houses on land confiscated
from Palestinian families. All this sounds familiar.
Over the last three-and-a-half decades, we have
witnessed the blatant confiscation of Palestinian land,
farmlands and water resources. The daily oppression
and repression of Palestinian victims is beyond
comprehension. Nevertheless, the Palestinians continue
to struggle against all odds to maintain some
semblance of civil order.
Making an already untenable and explosive
situation even worse, Israel, in defiance of
international law and public opinion, has embarked on
building a separation wall, which is penetrating and
dividing Palestinian territory in two, well beyond
Israelís 1967 borders, thus creating facts on the ground.
And, as we all know by now, Israelís proposed tactical
withdrawal from Gaza is not a prelude to Palestinian
statehood. All these violent and deliberate actions have
made a mockery of the road map, and thus, rendered it
worthless; this is the same fate that met the Oslo
Accords.
Abandoned by the international community, the
Palestinians are struck with indefinite deprivation, a
sense of hopelessness and statelessness. That being the
case, this Assembly has perhaps the sad duty to
pronounce itself incapable of constraining Israel, a
Member State of this Organization, rather than
continuing to give false hope to a people that has
already lost everything.
Djibouti, strategically situated at a crossroad of
the seas, and serving as a gateway to the growing
African and Middle Eastern markets, has been
fortunate in achieving a period of sustained growth,
stability and improved governance. Many of our
facilities are presently undergoing considerable
improvements to respond to, and to take advantage of
the growing demands. A new modern port is under
construction, the first phase being an oil terminal
expected to be operational by next year, followed by a
major container terminal, and finally by an industrial
free zone that will be the first of its kind in Africa,
offering light manufacturing and value-added facilities
and services in a duty-free setting, including
warehousing, storage and distribution.
In this respect, we wish to express deep gratitude
to the inspiring and pragmatic leadership of Dubai, our
key partner in this visionary venture, that will
undoubtedly put Djibouti on the map of international
trade and shipping.
Djibouti seeks to improve its private sector
development by reducing the cost of creating or doing
business, by improving its labour force through
investments in education, training, health, social
protection and eliminating gender disparities. The
Government is also working to strengthen institutional
capacity and governance, while developing its
absorptive capacity to better manage, as well as
effectively utilize, donor support.
The Horn of Africa has seen its share of conflict
and natural disasters. Together with our friends in the
region, we are resolutely engaged in mitigating the
plight of our people, reducing tensions and conflict,
developing cooperation in the areas of transport,
communications, health and the environment. Regional
and international security issues and, in particular, the
fight against terrorism, are of primary concern to the
countries in the Horn of Africa. Together with our
international partners, we are doing all we can in the
fight against that scourge. The same holds true for the
HIV/AIDS pandemic, tuberculosis and malaria. Our
region has no other alternative than to strengthen
cooperation in all areas ó from economic development
to improving confidence-building measures.
Djibouti, friend to all, enemy of none, will spare
no effort to further intensify the search for greater
regional harmony and cooperation, while promoting a
pluralistic, open, and healthy society at home.


It is my honour to
congratulate you, Sir, on behalf of the Prime Minister,
the Government and the people of the Commonwealth
of the Bahamas, on your election to the presidency of
the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. I would
also like to take this opportunity to congratulate your
predecessor, Mr. Julian Hunte, of our sister Caribbean
State of Saint Lucia, for his outstanding leadership
during the fifty-eighth session. His legacy is one of
which we in the Caribbean can be proud, and we wish
him well in his future endeavours.
I would also like to pay tribute to the Secretary-
General for his stalwart defence of multilateralism and
the rule of law.
Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne
have ravaged the Caribbean islands and parts of the
United States. Lives were lost in Haiti, the Dominican
Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Cuba, the United States
and the Bahamas. The damage to homes and
infrastructure and the interruption to normal life and
commerce compel us to stress the need for immediate
and dramatic measures to ensure reconstruction and
rehabilitation. What has been on offer to the region so
far is woefully inadequate.
Our country’s northern islands — Grand Bahama
and Abaco — received double hits. First, Hurricane
Frances struck on 13 September, leaving hundreds
without food, water, homes and power. Then came
Jeanne, two weeks later, over the same islands that
were hit by Frances, further exacerbating the problems.
The Bahamas has many islands and, fortunately for us,
tourism facilities remain open in the capital, Nassau,
and facilities on other islands in the chain will be
operational shortly. That, unfortunately, will not be the
case in Grenada.
Regional heads have called for an international
donor conference to meet the needs of all countries
adversely affected by the hurricanes. The Bahamas
supports such a conference. We hope that, as a result of
that conference, if not before, there will be a
6

moratorium on Grenada’s debt repayment. We also
recommend that a regional disaster relief fund be
established to support the reconstruction effort.
The word “hurricane” comes from a word first
used by the indigenous people of the Caribbean region,
the Arawaks. That pre-Columbian civilization must
have seen the phenomenon so often that it invented the
word for it. That means it has been around for some
time, and it is likely to be with us for some time to
come. It behooves us, therefore, to understand the
phenomenon that we are facing, including its
connection — if any — to climate change, which low-
lying States have been warning about for years. These
facts also demand that our own societies should better
plan for the eventualities that have been, and that we
know are going to continue to be, a part of our lives.
We cannot let lack of planning be a possible cause of
the undermining of our sovereignty in this way.
The world is soon wary and weary; the
phenomenon of donor fatigue sets in. And we lose our
dignity if we cannot be seen to help ourselves. But if,
as the scientific evidence suggests, the hurricanes that
we now experience are related to climate change, it is
clear that we cannot defend ourselves alone. A major
shift on the part of the most active polluting countries
is required. They must shift gears if the people in small
island developing States are going to survive. It is a
moral imperative for them to shift gears.
In this regard, the Bahamas welcomes the
preliminary moves by the Government of Britain, as
well as the Governments of Japan and of Russia,
towards putting climate change closer to the top of the
agenda. We urge them to continue to use their
influence on their friends to cause a major shift in
attitude. The implementation of the Barbados
Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development
of Small Island Developing States, adopted at the
Global Conference in Barbados in 1994, becomes even
more urgent. The follow-up meeting on this issue in
Mauritius in January 2005 now takes on even greater
significance.
In this context, I would also like to highlight the
region’s efforts to designate the Caribbean Sea as a
special area in the context of sustainable development.
We also reiterate our grave concern about the serious
threat posed to the security and economic development
of Caribbean countries by the trans-shipment of
nuclear waste through the Caribbean Sea. We continue
to call on States involved in trans-shipment to desist
from that practice.
The scenes of death and destruction as a result of
the hurricane that affected Haiti in recent days
reminded us of the political turmoil that that country
has endured during the past year. The Bahamas extends
its deepest condolences to the Haitian nation for the
tremendous and sad loss of life. The year, which began
with so much hope with the celebration of the deeds of
Toussaint L’Ouverture and the two hundredth
anniversary of independence on 1 January, fell quickly
into the abyss of despair on the fateful evenings of
28 and 29 February. No one will ever know what truly
happened on that night as an elected President left his
country with armed rebels nipping at his heels, but it
filled the entire Caribbean with sadness. It raised the
spectre of mistrust of friends. That feeling has still not
died, but we must soldier on if we are to help the
people of Haiti achieve democracy, economic uplift
and a just and fair society.
The Bahamas stands ready to do what it can to
assist the people of Haiti in these developments. Haiti
sits 90 miles from our southern shores, and each year
thousands of migrants looking for a better way of life
seek to enter the Bahamas illegally from Haiti. We
have practical reasons, therefore, to ensure that justice
and democracy prevail in Haiti. We echo the call of all
countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
for the return to democratic order in Haiti, and we
pledge to help.
We regret the failure of the Security Council to
act in a timely fashion when Haiti’s friends begged for
the authority to intervene or to authorize an
intervention. Perhaps that failure heralds the need for
the Council’s reform. The Bahamas supports such
reform efforts and awaits the report of the High-Level
Panel appointed by the Secretary-General. But the
United Nations must never stop trying to address the
issues that face Haiti, because there is a moral
imperative to eliminate hunger, poverty, disease and
discrimination. In this regard, we welcome the work of
President Lula da Silva of Brazil and President Chirac
of France, Pope John Paul and other world leaders in
seeking to ensure that the moral imperatives to which
we have referred are placed at the forefront of the
world’s agenda. We must never forget what Haiti has
done for our region and for the world.
7

While the fight against those who would subvert
our democratic values by attacks on civilian and
military targets remains high on our agenda, we must
not allow the drums of war to drown out the calls of
the world’s poor and disenfranchized. In 2000, we gave
ourselves a set of goals with respect to development
with a human face, and we must do all that we can to
achieve them. The Bahamas has committed itself to the
fight. We offer our heartfelt condolences to the
survivors of all who have lost their lives in such
senseless attacks, particularly in the United States,
Kenya, Spain, Tanzania and Indonesia. But we also
admonish all States that terrorism cannot be an excuse
to limit freedom and to dispense with the very liberties
that we are trying to defend and that form the
foundations of free and democratic societies.
All States ought to act with caution in putting in
place rules and regulations for travel, lest the denial of
those rights cannot be defended by logic or objectivity.
That is especially so where we note that developed
countries argue in favour of free trade and
globalization but deny the benefits of that trade to
legitimate travellers by administrative discrimination
and bureaucratic procedures and delay. The appeal
therefore is to bring some sense of balance, before we
lose the very thing we seek to save.
As part of this overall process of reflection, my
delegation welcomes the high-level reviews planned
for 2005 of our commitments with respect to social
development and the advancement of women. We must
ensure that we undertake an unflinching examination
of the progress made in achieving the priority goals of
the Copenhagen Programme of Action and the Beijing
Platform for Action to determine how far we have
come and what remains to be done. It is critical that the
outcomes of the respective appraisals will acknowledge
the gaps in implementation and allow States and the
international community as a whole to move forward
and achieve the timely and effective implementation of
the commitments undertaken at Copenhagen, Beijing
and beyond. We must also make certain that the results
of our deliberations feed constructively and
synergistically into the high-level event in September
2005, so as to ensure that no ground is left uncovered.
HIV/AIDS continues to threaten to undermine
decades and centuries of progress in health care and in
developing healthy populations that facilitate economic
growth throughout the world. The Bahamas is a leader
in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the Caribbean region.
We urge the continued and unrelenting fight against the
disease, to rescue the world’s developing nations from
the clutches of that scourge. It must take all of the
political will and financial power of the world’s nations
to ensure that the scourge is brought under control and
then eliminated.
In that context, the Bahamas welcomes the recent
grant to the Pan-Caribbean Partnership from the Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. That
grant will provide a much-needed infusion of resources
for prevention, care and treatment programmes. The
Bahamas also welcomes the convening of the June
2005 high-level meeting to review the progress
achieved in realizing the commitments set out in the
Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. The
Bahamas acknowledges the pledge made by the United
States to set aside $15 billion to fight HIV/AIDS
throughout the world, including in Haiti and Guyana in
the Caribbean region.
It is an inescapable fact that there can be no
meaningful social or economic development without
security. For many of us in the Caribbean in particular,
that security is being undermined by the activities of
those trafficking in illicit drugs, illegal weapons and
undocumented aliens. By virtue of its geographical
location, the Bahamas is an unwitting transit point for
such illegal activities. In the case of illicit drugs, the
Bahamas is neither a producer nor the final destination
for them. However, as a trans-shipment point, the
Bahamas, as do other transit countries, experiences the
illegal activities associated with that trade. Those
activities tend to undermine the economic and social
fabric of our nations.
We therefore welcomed the convening in June
2004 of the first session of the Open-ended Working
Group to Negotiate an International Instrument to
Enable States to Identify and Trace in a Timely Manner
Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons, some of the
tools undermining our safety and security and our
economic and social fabric. That meeting was a small,
but important, first step in reaching agreement on an
instrument on tracing, to enable States affected by that
illicit trade to more effectively identify lines of supply,
put measures in place to interdict existing lines and
prevent new ones, and to cooperate with other States at
the bilateral, regional and international levels. At the
same time, we continue to call on developed countries
to take the same extraordinary measures they use in
seeking to stop drug trafficking into their countries to
8

stop illegal small arms from reaching our shores from
their countries.
The Bahamas joins with other countries of the
Caribbean Community in voicing our concern about
the persistent attempts on the part of some of the
developed world’s un-elected multilateral bodies to
exclude developing countries from decision-making
and norm-setting processes, thereby undermining our
economies. Chief among those is the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development. The
decisions of those bodies are not friendly acts. We
repeat the call we made last year about the need for a
global forum to deal with those unfair practices.
We welcome the work that has been done in the
Economic and Social Council to redress the imbalance
in favour of a level playing field. The arrangements for
dealing with international tax matters in particular are
a source of concern. We pledge to continue to work
with the United Nations towards establishing a world
body that will deal with those matters in a fair and
balanced way.
Yesterday I was in our capital city, Nassau, in the
Bahamas, where we marked 275 years of continuous
representative, parliamentary democracy. This, then, is
a propitious time to reaffirm the commitment of the
Bahamas to the principles enshrined in the Charter of
this great Organization, which will stand as a guiding
beacon as we continue to chart a rocky, yet crucial,
course towards peace, security and sustainable
development for all the world’s inhabitants. While
progress may seem meagre, we must not be swayed
from our course and we must remain confident that the
benefits of our activities and efforts will redound to
future generations. I say again that, now more than
ever, the world needs the United Nations.


My first
words are to congratulate you, Sir, on your election and
to tell you how gratified the delegation I have the
honour to lead is, seeing you preside over the work of
our august Assembly. Your great human qualities and
great experience in international relations, to which
you have devoted a great part of your life, convince us
that our debates will be successful. You can rely on the
support and full cooperation of my delegation in
carrying out your noble mission.
On this occasion, I would also like to express the
gratitude of my delegation to your predecessor,
Mr. Julian Hunte, for his dynamic leadership during the
past session. I would also like to convey to the
Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, the expression of
great appreciation as well as the sincere words of
encouragement of His Excellency, General Lansana
Conté, President of the Republic, for the Secretary-
General’s untiring efforts in defending and promoting
the noble ideals of our Organization.
Fifty-nine years ago our Organization emerged
based upon universal values that are equally relevant
today. While there has been some definite success in
defending those values, the world is now facing the
effects and consequences of upheavals that threaten the
foundations of our institution.
Three years after the tragic events of
11 September 2001, international terrorism continues
to strike out blindly, in an odious manner. The increase
in terrorism throughout the world is, for my country, a
source of great concern. Through me, the Guinean
Government reaffirms its resolute condemnation of
terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and
wishes to express its sympathy and solidarity with the
victims of that scourge. My delegation believes that the
struggle against terrorism must continue with greater
resolve, but we must also recognize that we can only
win the battle if the international community
energetically attacks the underlying causes of that
scourge, including inequality, poverty and injustice.
Given the highly tense international situation
with its many hotbeds of tension throughout the world,
progress over the last few months in the settlement of
disputes is a source of satisfaction to us.
In West Africa, after many painful years of
instability, we are happy to note positive achievements,
thanks to the political will and resolve of its leaders,
civil society and the international community.
In Liberia, there is hope since the transitional
Government was established. The deployment of the
United Nations mission and the progress achieved in
terms of the disarmament, demobilization and
reintegration programme, are all very encouraging. The
considerable commitments taken in February at the
international conference dedicated to the reconstruction
of Liberia must be honoured, in order to preserve the
peace that has been restored, and to ensure security
throughout the subregion.
In Sierra Leone, the peace-building process
undertaken with the support of the international
community has shown some commendable
successes — the gradual drawdown in the United
Nations mission troops is being carried out according
to agreed criteria. Further resources will be necessary
to strengthen the capacity of the security forces so they
may take over from the United Nations Mission in
Sierra Leone, to reduce unemployment among the
young, to reintegrate former combatants and to rebuild
the country.
In order to promote the momentum of the peace
process, the Summit of Heads of State and Government
of the Mano River — enlarged to include the
neighbouring countries of Côte d’Ivoire and Mali —
took place on 20 May 2004 in Conakry. The outcome
19

of the summit shows the political will of our States to
strengthen their cooperation for the consolidation of
peace and promotion of development in the subregion.
I would like to reiterate the appeal that was addressed
to the international community to concretely support
the activities of the Mano River Union.
I would also like to renew my country’s appeal
for economic, humanitarian and financial assistance so
that we can confront the negative impact of continuing
to manage and care for hundreds of thousands of
refugees and internally displaced persons while
consolidating our development foundation.
I can assure you that the Republic of Guinea will
not fail in its historical duty to safeguard peace, and
will continue to carry out its duties in terms of
solidarity to populations in distress in the subregion,
and we will do this on a basis of mutual confidence and
respect for national sovereignty and our common
obligations.
In Guinea-Bissau, notable progress enables us to
have hope. We are gratified at the resumption of
cooperation with the Bretton Woods institutions which
will make it easier to mobilize the required resources
to build a strong peace.
In Côte d’Ivoire, the preservation of unity,
territorial integrity and the full sovereignty of the
country must serve as the core of the peace process that
is under way. We appeal to all parties to rely on
dialogue in order to overcome the difficulties that lie
ahead on the way to peace.
Guinea is very preoccupied by the persistence of
interdependent transborder problems that characterize
socio-economic conflicts and crises. Among those
problems are the proliferation of and illicit traffic in
small arms and light weapons, the movements of
mercenaries, the recruitment and the use of child
soldiers and the pillaging of natural resources.
The initiative for transforming the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
moratorium on export and import of small arms and
light weapons into a regional convention is sound and
deserves the firm support of the international
community.
The Republic of Guinea encourages the Open-
Ended Working Group established to negotiate an
international instrument on small arms and light
weapons to speedily arrive at an agreement ready for
immediate implementation.
Like West Africa, the Great Lakes region is on
the road to peace in spite of persistent instability in the
eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
It is hoped that, beyond the instability of the transition
period, the momentum that exists will enable that
country to restore lasting peace and devote its energies
to national reconstruction.
My delegation welcomes the deployment of the
United Nations Operation in Burundi. We urge the
international community to make greater efforts to
conclude the peace process, thus ensuring genuine
reconciliation among all citizens of Burundi.
Guinea is satisfied to note the progress made on
the question of the Sudan and urges support for the
African Union’s efforts for a comprehensive peace
agreement. Nevertheless, we are concerned at the
humanitarian and security situation in Darfur. We
invite the brotherly Sudanese Government and the
parties concerned to spare no effort to reach a
settlement to the crisis.
Turning to the Horn of Africa, my country
welcomes the encouraging results of the national
reconciliation in Somalia. We also hope that Ethiopia
and Eritrea will manage to settle their dispute and
restore peace.
The Republic of Guinea is convinced that there is
no alternative to a political settlement of the question
of Western Sahara. My country therefore encourages
the parties to strengthen their cooperation with the
Special Representative of the Secretary-General in
order to find a just, lasting and mutually acceptable
settlement.
The Middle East continues to be the scene of
grave events arising from the logic of violence that
diminish day by day the chances of a peaceful
settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. Guinea is
greatly concerned at the Israeli Government’s stubborn
determination to continue its construction of the wall
of separation in spite of the advisory opinion of the
International Court of Justice. My country is convinced
that peace in the Middle East greatly depends on
obliging all parties to respect their commitments as set
out in the Quartet’s road map and the relevant Security
Council resolutions. I reaffirm the Guinean people’s
feelings of solidarity and friendship for the brotherly
20

Palestinian people and their historic leader, President
Yasser Arafat.
My Government remains concerned at the
situation prevailing in Iraq. It hopes that the
establishment of a secure environment will enable the
Iraqi people to consolidate their sovereignty and
dedicate themselves to the reconstruction of their
country.
With respect to the Korean Peninsula, my
delegation urges the parties to continue efforts aimed at
the peaceful and independent reunification of the two
Koreas.
I also reaffirm the deep commitment of the
Government and the people of Guinea to the one-China
policy.
Four years ago, the adoption of the Millennium
Declaration raised hopes for a better life for one billion
human beings. To that end, my country urges the
United Nations and the other development partners to
commit themselves fully to contributing to the
elimination of poverty by implementing the measures
for attaining the Goals. Of course, achieving those
Goals essentially depends on the creation of a global
partnership for development, in particular in the least
developed countries and the vulnerable segments of
society.
While it is true that globalization has created
enormous wealth and prosperity in certain regions of
the world, it must also be noted that the majority of the
inhabitants of the world, in particular in the least
developed countries, have not reaped the benefits. We
believe that a world that provides no opportunities for
development cannot be a world of peace, or even a
world at peace.
The Monterrey International Conference on
Financing for Development and the Johannesburg
World Summit on Sustainable Development, as well as
the recent eleventh session of the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development in São Paolo,
Brazil, and the International AIDS Conference in
Bangkok, Thailand, provided opportunities to make the
needed commitments. The plans of action adopted at
those conferences should be implemented by all
development actors and at all levels.
We believe that the 2005 review of
implementation of the Millennium Development Goals
will enable us to make necessary adjustments and add
the needed momentum. In that context, my delegation
holds that only by increasing official development
assistance, supported by debt relief and better access to
markets within the framework of a more fair
globalization, can we overcome the obstacles to
sustainable development.
With respect to trade, at the present session
Member States should reaffirm their political will to
move beyond the failed World Trade Organization
Conference at Cancún and conclude negotiations
concerning the Doha Development Agenda. The recent
agreement reached by the General Council of the
World Trade Organization at Geneva is a beneficial
step in the right direction.
Conscious of the importance of all that is at stake,
the African leaders are more committed than ever to
tackling the major challenges facing the continent. The
efforts made to achieve the objectives of the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) reflect
that awareness. In that context, we appeal again to the
international community for enhanced support for
NEPAD, which steadfastly places Africa on the road to
better taking charge of its own affairs.
Given the many challenges, the Member States of
our Organization have the critical responsibility of
taking action together and individually. Our collective
response, commensurate with all these challenges,
should be comprehensive, integrated and multilateral.
The reform of the United Nations is now more
necessary than ever. I would even say it is
indispensable. The restructuring of United Nations
bodies, in particular the revitalization of the General
Assembly and the reform of the Security Council, will
undoubtedly enhance the efficiency of our collective
Organization.
My delegation calls for a reformed United
Nations that is adapted to the new realities of the
world, a United Nations of increased solidarity and
tireless efficiency, better able to strengthen peace and
stability in the world, for the happiness of our peoples.