On  behalf of the people and Government of El Salvador, I
would like to extend the most sincere congratulations
to Mr. Kerim on his being unanimously elected to
preside over this session and to wish him every success
in fulfilling his mandate. At the same time, I would like
to express our appreciation of the dynamic work done
by the Secretary-General and the Deputy Secretary-
General and call on them to continue to make every
effort to strengthen the United Nations.
 Allow me to express once more our gratitude for
the important role played by the Organization, in
particular its contribution to conflict resolution and to
economic and social development, as so successfully
exemplified in the peace process in Central America,
based on the 1987 Esquipulas II Agreement. Recently,
Central American countries celebrated the twentieth
anniversary of the signing of that Agreement which set
in motion the process of establishing a firm and lasting
peace in Central America with a view to achieving,
through dialogue, a peaceful solution to the Central
American crisis and promoting peacebuilding and
democratization in the region.
 Following a long process of transition from war
to peace, from peace to democracy and to freedom, we
are now focusing our efforts on the implementation of
an economic and social development model that is just
and equitable. In particular, we are promoting an
integration process that will allow us to strengthen our
capabilities and combine resources to more efficiently
tackle and thus benefit from the process of opening up
to world trade.
 In this context, I would like to mention, in
particular, a regional issue that has attracted the
attention of the international community and that was
referred to yesterday in the media, namely, the Gulf of
Fonseca. As President of El Salvador, I wish to inform
you that I have submitted a formal initiative to the
brother States of Honduras and Nicaragua in order to
develop a frank and sincere dialogue with a view to
ushering in a new era of cooperation in this area in
order to truly establish a joint ownership regime and
thereby facilitate the overall and sustainable
development of the Gulf Zone for all its inhabitants.
That proposal, made yesterday, was well received by
the leaders of Honduras and Nicaragua. The three
States should begin a new era of collaboration and
cooperation in order to tackle and fully resolve issues
related to the Gulf. We should not leave any problem in
the Gulf of Fonseca unresolved, whether it be by a
three-nation or a two-nation approach.
 A topic of special interest for my country is
international migration, in view of its positive impact
on countries of origin and destination alike, and, in
particular, because of the significant contributions
immigrants make to the economy. Our Government is
making efforts for Salvadorians who have emigrated,
supporting them through our Embassies and
Consulates. In this respect, we greatly appreciate the
agreements and recommendations emanating from the
United Nations High-level Dialogue on International
Migration and Development, which reiterated the
necessity of fully respecting the human rights of
migrants and their families, who must be a central
concern of internal and external immigration policy of
States, including transit States.
 I am pleased to confirm that the efforts I have
made in favour of Salvadorian immigrants, especially
in the United States, have yielded positive results such
as the extension of the Temporary Protected States
(TPS) programme, which guarantees work permits and
the opportunity to reside in that country with no risk of
being deported. Those efforts demonstrate my firm will
to continue spearheading initiatives and efforts in order
to stabilize migration for all of our fellow citizens.
 In the Central American region, we have made
significant progress in different areas, but
unfortunately, long-standing and emerging threats
could still affect the security of our citizens and the
stability of our countries. It is therefore essential to
unite our efforts to frame suitable national, regional
and international policies.
 Currently, in most of our countries, as well as in
the United States and Mexico, citizens are noting that
one of the greatest threats to democracy and economic
and social development springs from the activities of
gangs, generating a wave of violence and crime in an
open challenge to the established order. Those anti-
social groups do not conform to the patterns of
traditional or ordinary crime, but gradually evolve into
more sophisticated forms of organized crime whose
manifestations can also be seen in countries outside the
continent. Many countries represented here are not as
yet faced with this threat. However, the criminal
activities of such groups are expanding, both
substantively and quantitatively, as is actually apparent
and thus the treatment of this issue requires action and
cooperation of all States, especially in Latin America.
As for El Salvador, we are making efforts that have led
to the reduction of crime and homicide perpetuated by
such groups through joint actions involving our public
security authorities, the judicial system and the
legislative authority. At the same time, we are
coordinating efforts and adopting measures within the
framework of security policies for Central America.
 We have to strengthen global cooperation in the
fight against terrorism, which is one of the greatest
threats to peace and international security. The recent
thwarted terrorist attacks in European countries and the
repeated threats by extremist groups to continue with
their terrorist actions in different parts of the world are
a grave threat and danger looming over our society.
Consequently, we welcome the efforts of Member
States of the United Nations to adopt a global counter-
terrorism strategy, giving particular importance to
preventing and combating terrorism on a unified,
coherent and coordinated basis.
 The Middle East is a region in which nations
have developed different missions and supported
initiatives for a just and lasting solution to the problem,
while the United Nations itself has made undoubted
efforts to that end, which, unfortunately, have not been
successful.
 We support any initiative or effort to redirect the
peace process. In particular, we welcome the initiative
to convene an international peace conference for the
Middle East in November. That initiative is a source of
renewed hope for achieving the long-awaited peace
that will allow all peoples of the region to live free
from fear, violence and destruction. It would also
establish an environment conducive to political
cooperation and to shared economic and social
development. We recognize the Palestinian people’s
right to self-determination, as well as Israel’s right to
live within secure and internationally recognized
borders, so that both peoples can live in peace.
 Taiwan is a unique political reality in the
international community. It has systematically
developed, in particular in recent years, under the
leadership of President Chen Shui-bian. He has made
his country a modern, peaceful entity that is resolutely
determined to promote peace and international
cooperation. Given that reality, we acknowledge the
legitimate right of more than 23 million Taiwanese to
determine their own future, just as other peoples have
done. That is why we support the initiative to have the
General Assembly review the case of Taiwan in the
light of current global realities, acknowledging the
right of the Taiwanese to hold a referendum on joining
this international Organization.
 El Salvador will continue to play an active role in
the reform process of the United Nations, which, we
reiterate, should be comprehensive. In that regard,
since States are responsible for complying with the
objectives of the Charter, we must strive not only to
achieve consensus and move towards Security Council
reform, but also to revitalize the General Assembly and
thoroughly revise the mandate of the Economic and
Social Council.
 The current economic situation has improved for
some developing countries that have achieved
acceptable rates of growth. However, international
instability in prices, commodities and raw materials
in particular the high prices for petroleum   is having
a negative impact on our development efforts. Indeed,
global economic short- and mid-term imbalances must
be anticipated and prevented, and require the
coordination of international macroeconomic policy
involving developed and underdeveloped countries.
 In an effort to review the criteria and conditions
for the extension of international cooperation, the first
Intergovernmental Conference on Middle-Income
Countries took place in Madrid on 1 and 2 March. At
the Conference, we identified several areas for
strategic action that could guide the efforts of
international donors to contribute to the development
of that group of countries. We thank the Government of
Spain for its readiness to host the event and for the
meeting’s success. We also express our gratitude to
King Abdullah II of Jordan and his Government for
convening the summit of the Group of Eleven in May,
and in particular for the recommendation that resulted
from that forum.
 Next October, my country, El Salvador, will host
the second International Conference on Development
Cooperation with Middle-Income Countries in order to
further study international measures allowing us to
meet the Millennium Development Goals. We believe
that donor countries and international financial
organizations should reassess their development
cooperation policies with the principal aim of
encouraging those countries which are responsibly
implementing transparent growth strategies that are
adequately endowed in terms of finance management
and of the quality and impact of projects. To the
middle-income countries and the entire cooperating
community, including international financial
organizations, I reiterate here our cordial invitation to
join us in the important event to take place in San
Salvador in October.
 With respect to development, I would stress that,
in the past 10 years, my country has reduced the level
of overall poverty from 65 per cent to 30 per cent. One
of my Government’s priorities is and will continue to
be fighting extreme poverty, towards which we are
implementing a series of substantive social
programmes. One of the most important of those is the
Solidarity Network, through which we directly support
families living in extreme poverty, mainly in the rural
areas, by granting health and education subsidies and
by providing infrastructure, basic services and
opportunities to enter the labour market through, inter
alia, the provision of microcredit. We have also
established a special health fund through which we
have increased basic health care for the most
vulnerable sectors of the population, seeking to benefit
more than 4 million people through comprehensive
programmes to include prevention and the promotion
of health education campaigns.
 While we acknowledge that progress has been
achieved and efforts made to improve the living
standards of the most vulnerable sectors of the country,
we must continue to enjoy international bilateral and
multilateral cooperation if we are to achieve higher
levels of well-being. Our Government is convinced that
the social sphere is not complementary to anything
else, but the basis of everything.
 One of the most disturbing challenges to the
present and future of the international community is
global warming. In particular, as we learn in the
impressive report prepared by the United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the
harmful effects of climate change on all peoples have
grown alarming in their human, material, economic and
environmental impacts, which are increasingly being
felt in countries and regions throughout the world. All
States must speedily and fully adopt corrective
measures in order substantially to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions so as to halt the trend towards
irreversible and massive environmental degradation. To
that end, we urge developed countries to join in the
efforts to curb that trend with responsibility and in a
common but differentiated manner.
 Alongside international efforts for environmental
protection, the countries of Latin America, including
those of Central America, Mexico and Colombia,
members of the Puebla-Panama Plan, are undertaking
measures and coordinating regional and subregional
activities in the field of renewable and sustainable
energy as alternatives to fossil fuels. Concerned by the
instability of international hydrocarbon fuel prices, at
the previous session of the General Assembly we
proposed that the topic be included on the agenda
because of its impact on economic development, in
particular in developing countries. In the current
situation of ever-spiralling high prices, we reiterate
that proposal. We have been increasingly diverting
precious economic resources that could, in other
circumstances, be directed towards other programmes
essential to our countries’ human development.
 That is why, at this global forum, we appeal to
the oil-producing countries to seek, on the basis of
international cooperation and solidarity, to implement
flexible mechanisms to prevent hydrocarbon fuel prices
from drastically impacting developing countries. We in
the United Nations cannot ignore that issue, because
countries that depend on oil could be bankrupted in the
coming years.
 I must mention that, faced with high oil prices,
we are promoting several initiatives in El Salvador in
the area of alternative and renewable energy, such as
biofuels. One of those initiatives has led to the
formulation of a bill on incentives for investing in
renewable energy. We also analysed the economic and
technical feasibility of introducing a plan to produce
ethanol on a national scale. That is in addition to
stepping up thermal energy, which in El Salvador
already represents 23 per cent of energy consumption
with the entry into operation of the new plant in the
eastern part of El Salvador. Similarly, we are beginning
technical and financial feasibility studies to promote
the production of biodiesel through the establishment
of a pilot plant and the use of different crops, which
will make it possible to promote reforestation and to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions, relying for this on
the direct support of the United States, Brazil and
Colombia.
 We believe that Latin American and other
developing countries could contribute substantively to
global environmental conservation efforts. But efforts
will be limited if industrialized countries do not fully
assume their responsibilities when it comes to the
environment.
 Lastly, I would like to recall that we are all
representatives of our respective countries and they are
the ones that we must serve and protect from the
threats that we face. We are convinced that the future
of humanity will depend on the decisions and actions
that we will adopt here and that we will implement in
areas of common global interest. We have the
responsibility and obligation to act, and this we must
do in order to avert a problem of uncontrollable
proportions.
 We must understand that the future of humanity
will depend on the decisions and actions that we adopt
today, but I would like to strongly emphasize that
people reach development as a result of perseverance,
order, work, discipline and long-term vision. The
transformation process and the progress that has been
achieved in economic and social policy in the
democratic institutions of my country are the result of
the exercise of freedoms. Progress is built and gains
momentum when people work hard, persevere and
have full freedom, which makes it possible to move
towards the implementation of the greatest dream that
people have: to enjoy progress and social peace.
 I invite the Assembly to combine their efforts to
consolidate freedoms in those countries that already
enjoy them and to return freedoms to countries that do
not have them or have lost them. Let us remember that
the dearest freedom is the one that we do not have, that
liberty is not missed until we lose it. Without freedom,
there is no economic and social progress. We must
work every day for freedoms that are threatened by
extreme radicalism or populist demagoguery, the seeds
that destroy freedom. God bless the world.


Let me at the outset
congratulate the President on his election to the
presidency of the General Assembly and to reassure
him of the Gambia’s full support and cooperation
during his tenure in office. Let me also use this
opportunity to express our appreciation of the excellent
manner in which the outgoing President of the General
Assembly, Mrs. Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa managed the
affairs of the Assembly at its sixty-first session.
 My delegation would also like to use this
opportunity to once more congratulate our new
Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, on his
assumption of the leadership of the United Nations.
The Gambia is particularly delighted that Mr. Ban had
the opportunity to address the Summit of Heads of
State and Government of the African Union during his
meeting in Banjul in July 2006. His subsequent
election, surely can only be a source of pride and
delight for us.
 We also wish to commend him for the initiative
he took to convene a high-level event several days ago
on a subject that is of great concern to all nations and
peoples of the world, namely, climate change. All the
salient issues surrounding this phenomenon have been
brought to the fore. It is now our fervent hope that
action will be taken to address them in a most timely
manner.
 The mid-term review of the Millennium
Declaration two years ago indicated that the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are far from
being attained in most of the developing world. This
notwithstanding, our commitment to the MDGs is
unwavering. The overarching policy objective of the
Government, under the leadership of the President of
the Republic of the Gambia Al Hadji Yahya A.J.J.
Jammeh, is to reduce poverty and achieve all the
MDGs. We have just concluded a second Poverty
Reduction Strategy Paper, which clearly sets out our
policy framework for achieving growth and poverty
reduction, despite our meagre resources and
endowments and despite the failure of several partners
to fulfil their pledges of aid, debt relief and market
access for African countries. The same mid-term
reviews also showed that the commitments that were
made in many forums by the international community
in support of the MDGs in poor countries have not
translated into real resource flows into these countries.
 We therefore call on the international community
to rededicate itself to the provisions of the Monterrey
Consensus and the Paris Declaration on Aid
Effectiveness. In this regard, my delegation welcomes
the panel of eminent personalities established by the
former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair, to
monitor pledges made at summits of the Group of
Eight, including those made at Gleneagles. My
delegation considers it particularly critical to take
action to reverse the downward trend in overseas
development assistance.
 We also need to re-examine the framework of key
rules that govern, inter alia, international trade and
finance, global competition, foreign direct investment
and international migration. It is important that bodies
making rules in those areas accommodate the views of
developing countries in general, and least developed
countries in particular. For Africa, where we must of
necessity move away from aid dependency, the
development of the continent must be addressed from
the crucial vantage point of trade and market access, so
as to enable our economies to be advantageously
positioned in order for us to begin enjoying the fruits
of globalization.
 My delegation would like to seize this
opportunity to request the Assembly to pause for a
moment and reflect on the plight of the poor the world
over. Poverty anywhere, we will all agree, is indeed a
problem everywhere. And it is worth remembering that
the plight of the poor can affect the comfort and
security of the more privileged and affluent members
of human society. There is no doubt that poverty
engenders many economic, social and political
problems. It negatively affects global health and is a
threat to international peace and security as well.
 Therefore, the need for greater international
solidarity to fight poverty in all its forms and
ramifications cannot be overemphasized. The
development efforts of most Governments, particularly
those in Africa, continue to be undermined by the
scourges of malaria, HIV/AIDS and other health
related issues, such as hunger and malnutrition. I must
thank our true friends and development partners for the
excellent support they are providing to the Gambian
people, particularly in the areas of health, education,
and agriculture. It is my fervent hope that the
international community will live up to its commitment
to support the efforts of our Government as we strive
to improve the well-being of our people. In order to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015,
which we should all consider to be a necessary
condition to affect people’s living standards, Africa
sorely needs significant investments in health,
education, agriculture and infrastructure.
 Allow me to turn to peace and security in the
world, especially on our continent of Africa. In recent
years, we have witnessed significant improvements in
most of the continent. In West Africa, for example, we
have been consolidating peace and deepening the
democratization process as well.
 The people of Sierra Leone have just gone
through a peaceful, free and fair presidential election.
My delegation would like to congratulate them and to
wish the new Government all the success in its efforts
to follow the path of rapid socio-economic
development for the Sierra Leonean people. The return
of peace to Côte d’Ivoire is a welcome and a vital
development not only for the country and its people,
but also for the entire West Africa subregion. The
Government of the Gambia fully welcomes the Ivorian
Government’s commitment to organize presidential
elections shortly, and we wish the friendly people of
that great country every success.
 The situation in Somalia requires the urgent
response of the international community. Lasting
peace, stability, and reconciliation can return to that
country only when the Transitional Federal
Government is empowered to establish law and order.
The United Nations, as the overall guardian of
international peace and security, should support the
efforts of the African Union (AU) in that regard, and
Somalia’s neighbours as well, to rally the various
factions together and bring lasting peace to that
country.
As we gather here, thousands of innocent
civilians, including women and children, continue to be
victimized by the fratricidal conflict in the Sudanese
region of Darfur. My Government therefore welcomes
the commitment of the international community to
replace the existing African Union Mission in Sudan
(AMIS) with a hybrid United Nations-African Union
mission, invested, of course, this time around, with a
more active mandate to keep and enforce peace in
Darfur. We in the Gambia have been in the forefront in
the African Union’s peace efforts in Darfur, and we
will certainly continue to support the international
effort with a substantial contribution of Gambian
troops to serve in the new arrangement. At this
juncture, let me salute the Sudanese Government for
their cooperation and their manifest willingness to find
a lasting solution through a political process.
 The peace and security situation of the Great
Lakes region remains a major concern. While we
welcome the successful elections in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo last year, we recognize the
fragility and precarious nature of peace in that country
and the region as a whole. My delegation therefore
calls on the international community to continue to
work to search for ways of achieving durable peace.
We also urge the international community to assist in
bringing all the parties to the negotiation table and to
move vigorously to address the humanitarian situation.
 Just as the security and peace situation in Africa
preoccupies my delegation, so also do the conflicts and
turmoil in the rest of the world, especially in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Palestine. The conflict in Iraq remains
a major source of concern, not least because it now
threatens the peace and security of the entire Middle
Eastern region, if not the whole world. Within Iraq
itself, the conflict has brought untold suffering to the
civilian population especially women and children.
Furthermore, the alarming rate of civilian deaths
cannot be justified.
 Also, the resultant large volume of refugee
outflows has now placed unbearable pressure on the
economies of, in particular, the neighbouring countries.
While we recognize, of course, the potential of
refugees to make positive contributions to the
economies and societies of their host countries, refugee
outflows of the magnitude that we are seeing in Iraq
can only pose a threat to social and political security.
We therefore strongly urge that as a matter of urgency,
alternatives be found in order to resolve the conflict in
that country.
 A new approach to the situation in Afghanistan is
also long overdue. The country needs more political
dialogue than military engagement. We also wish to see
leaders in the region engage each other in meaningful
dialogue and, of course, renew their commitment to
good-neighbourliness as well.
 The unresolved question of the self-determination
of the Palestinian people remains the most important
political and moral question of our time. A few years
ago, we all placed our faith in the so-called Road Map
for peace and hoped that the Quartet would bring about
the eagerly awaited two-state solution.
 My delegation now very much welcomes the new
initiative being led by the United States of America and
very much looks forward to the convening of a
conference that would once and for all settle this
festering imbroglio. We urge all concerned to come to
the table in good faith and with a strong will to make a
positive contribution to the search for a lasting solution
to the problems of peace and security in the Middle
East and, indeed, in the peace process throughout the
world.
 Allow me to highlight some issues relating to
international justice. The illegal, outrageous and
protracted embargo imposed on the friendly Republic
of Cuba has no basis. It is devoid of political and
commercial sense, and those who impose the embargo
should join our ranks in the international community in
rejecting the embargo as a colossal error of judgement
that should never have happened in the first place. We
hope to see a repeal of all laws, measures and policies
in that direction.
 The Gambian delegation sincerely hopes as well
that the international community will reflect deeply on
the dangers posed by the increasing and unprovoked
militarization of the Taiwan Strait. Regional and,
ultimately, international stability are under threat from
the build-up of thousands of military warheads for use
in attacks on Taiwan. The problem of the Taiwan Strait
is one that is very serious indeed, and which calls for
urgent action by the international community. The
United Nations should not wait until it is too late to
address the situation of the Strait and its growing
militarization.
We, the Members of the United Nations, have at
this juncture abdicated our responsibilities towards
Taiwan by refusing it full membership in the
Organization. The legitimate aspirations of the people
of that dynamic, technologically developed, advanced
economic powerhouse ought to be fulfilled by States
Members of the United Nations. Let me seize this
opportunity to assure the Assembly that my delegation
is not acting against the interest of any Member State.
Rather, we speak out in the interest of peace across the
Taiwan Strait, peace throughout the Asia-Pacific region
and, indeed, peace in the whole world. It is in that
spirit that my delegation will continue to call on the
General Assembly to address this threat to international
peace and security.
  Mr. Beck (Palau), Vice-President, took the Chair.
 Let me conclude by putting on record the
Gambia’s frustration with the stalled reform of the
United Nations. As former Secretary-General Kofi
Annan said when the proposals were first made, two
years ago, no reform of the United Nations can be
complete without reform of the Security Council. For
us in Africa, it is just unacceptable that a body that
decides on life and death issues for millions of
Africans includes no African country at all as a
permanent member. That is why the Gambia continues
to strongly endorse the Ezulwini Consensus, which
represents Africa’s common position on reform of the
Security Council.
 At a time when we are all committed to good
governance at the national level, we surely cannot
ignore good governance at the international level. The
proposed reform of the United Nations, especially as
regards the Security Council, must be seen within that
context.
 I wish us all a very successful session.


I am grateful for the
opportunity today to address this sixty-second annual
gathering of the General Assembly.
 On behalf of my nation, I would like to
congratulate the Secretary-General on his innovative
leadership and on the exceptional progress he has made
in his first nine months. His steadfast vision for peace
in Darfur, his commitment to rallying the world to
combat climate change and his determination to
eradicate global poverty stand true to the founding
principles of this institution.
 Let me also extend my congratulations to
Mr. Srgjan Kerim on his assumption of the presidency
of the General Assembly and express our appreciation
to his predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa,
for her very effective leadership.
 Today, in this great Hall, we have an opportunity
to reaffirm one of the core principles of the United
Nations "the right of every individual to pursue a life
of liberty in dignity” by voicing our support for
hundreds of thousands of peaceful protesters, monks
and ordinary citizens, daring to seek freedom for the
people of Myanmar. We must stand fast with them. It is
my deepest hope that we will look back and remember
this saffron revolution of the Burmese monks as
another step in the inevitable march of liberty across
the planet. It echoes the rose and orange revolutions
that freed the peoples of Georgia and Ukraine from
hopelessness and stagnation just a few years ago.
 When we returned Georgia to its rightful path of
peace, democracy and transparency, we did so in the
knowledge that our country was not an island. We
knew that, in order for our freedom to endure, we
would have to help advance the peaceful aspirations of
others around the world, as a responsible member of
the international community of democratic nations.
That is why Georgia has lent its sons and daughters to
peacekeeping efforts in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.
And just this month, we committed a new battalion to
serve under French command in Kabul.
 This is why we have reached out to our
neighbours in Europe, Central Asia and beyond to
promote peace through cooperation, trade and deeper
engagement. Together, we are working to help ensure
new and diverse supplies of energy for European and
global markets. We contribute to the integrated effort
by building new roads, railways and pipelines that
weave together the countries of our region, ensuring
that people and goods flow across our borders in a
manner that is safe, legal, predictable and fair. In short,
our vision for the region is guided by the belief that
mutual interdependence brings mutual benefit.
 I believe that the people of Georgia have served
as a catalyst and a living example of how governing
transparently, through democratic principles, breeds
lasting stability and shared prosperity. This is not, of
course, a new path for Georgia, but rather a return to
our European home and our European vocation, so
deeply enshrined in our national identity and history.
 And, while our most challenging relationship
today remains with our neighbours in the Russian
Federation, my Government is committed to addressing
this subject through diplomatic means, in partnership
with the international community. I can say this with
confidence, because Georgia is a nation that is rooted
in justice, the rule of law and democracy. This is an
irreversible choice made by the people of my country.
For evidence of that, one merely has to look at how
Georgia has responded to the many provocations it has
faced in the past year, which range from missile attacks
to full-scale embargoes and even destructive pogroms.
Rather than lash out angrily, we have redoubled our
commitment to democratic development and
comprehensive reform. My Government and I have
done everything we can to show how much can be
achieved when good governance opens the door to the
development of human potential.
 Today Georgia's economy is growing at over 14
per cent. Our gross domestic product per capita has
more than doubled in four years.  Corruption is the
lowest among transition economies around the world
and one of the lowest in Europe, according to the
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
And as of today, our country has taken its place
alongside some of the most developed economies in
the world like Australia, New Zealand, the United
Kingdom, Singapore and Hong Kong, Iceland, when
the World Bank and the International Financial
Corporation ranked Georgia as the 18th easiest and
best place to do business because of institutionalized
transparency and a lack of corruption.
 We were 140th in world, one of the worst
rankings, and now we have one of the best rankings
for business and in terms of economic development
and economic conditions. That is proof of what can be
achieved when institutions function and when rhetoric
is replaced with results.
 Four years ago, I spoke at this Assembly about
Georgia being a test case for the modern challenges of
democratic transition. Today, it is clear that Georgia's
transition has led to real transformation. I could recite
a long list of other successes since the Rose Revolution
and, equally, I could elaborate upon the many profound
challenges that remain. But let me focus on what is
perhaps our most important duty; the imperative to
create a better future for the next generation.
 We will not rest until every school in Georgia is
filled with empowered and confident students, who
have the benefit of new books, a modern curriculum,
full Internet access, many computers, until every
student gets a computer, and motivated teachers. Just
four years ago our schools were barren and
desperate - many lacked desks, windows, heat and,
above all, hope.
 Today, reforms in education are sowing the seeds
of lasting prosperity, and our students are leading the
way. That is the Georgia we promised. And that is the
Georgia we have created. It is also the Georgia we will
and we must defend.
 For our democratic project is not yet complete -
far from it. Georgia today is not whole. The vast
majority of residents from the regions of Abkhazia and
South Ossetia have been unable to reap the benefits of
the Rose Revolution that I have just shared with you.
 Tens of thousands of children in these regions are
raised amidst the sounds of gunfire instead of
fireworks. Their homes are not their own, and their
dreams are distant and frightening. They are prisoners
of the morally repugnant politics of ethnic cleansing,
division, violence and indifference.
 But we will not rest until justice is restored, until
the rule of law is accessible to everybody.
 Today, I regret to say that signs of hope are few
and far between. The story of Abkhazia, where up to
500,000 men, women, and children were forced to flee
in the 1990s, is of particular relevance - one of the
more abhorrent, horrible and yet forgotten ethnic
cleansings of the twentieth century. In the time since
Russian peacekeepers were deployed there, more than
2,000 Georgians have perished and a climate of fear
has persisted.
 It is worth pausing to remember that today's
Abkhazia is populated by less than 20 per cent of its
pre-war population. It is an area with very fertile land,
beautiful beaches, lovely resort areas and wonderful
landscapes. Yet it is all deserted, houses have been
destroyed, and signs of hopelessness, desperation and
annihilation abound.
 The brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing uprooted
ethnic Georgians, Armenians, Estonians, Greeks, Jews,
Russians and others who had lived peacefully in that
land for centuries, creating a depopulated and
criminalized wasteland.
 President Ilves of Estonia spoke today of the
parallels between Darfur and Abkhazia. Of course, we
should remember Darfur, but we should not forget
Abkhazia. President Ilves knows of what he speaks
because tens of thousands of ethnic Estonians were
also deported and their houses confiscated. In 1992, the
Estonian Government had to evacuate some of these
people by air under the fire of the people that were
attacking this peaceful middle-class population in
Abkhazia.
 The United Nations has tried to bring peace to
this region, but it has not succeeded in making Georgia
whole again, despite its unwavering recognition of
Georgian sovereignty. Every day that passes without a
peaceful resolution to the conflict, every day in which
forcibly displaced persons are not allowed to return
home, marks a slow erosion of the credibility of this
House and of its ability to fulfil its mission. We cannot
allow this situation to continue.
 Fourteen years have passed without a single in-
depth analysis being carried out as to why peace has
not triumphed or why the legal framework has not been
restored and has therefore failed. For this reason and in
order to inject a new and positive dynamic into the
process, I am calling on the United Nations today to
launch a comprehensive review of all aspects of the
Georgian peace process. The necessity of this review of
the peace process is self-evident, and it must result in
fundamental changes.
 Changes are necessary in the negotiation format,
which has stalled, and is stagnant and
counterproductive. That in turn must lead to real
changes in operations on the ground. Years of biased
and unbalanced actions by supposed peacekeeping
forces must be replaced with competent and neutral
ones that will be engaged in peacebuilding and
peacemaking, rather than in trying to maintain the so-
called status quo, while in fact being biased and
preserving the injustices that have happened there.
 That is the only path forward. Out of this process,
we can expect genuine and relevant changes in the
legal framework. Although we need effective economic
rehabilitation, the main thing we need is a meaningful
and implementable plan to bring about the return of
displaced persons, guaranteeing their property rights,
the establishment of lasting security and the
resumption of direct dialogue on the ground without
any preconditions and without any adverse movements
from sides that are against dialogue.
 Because of the lack of political will, countless
lives in that part of Georgia are being wasted. And
inaction has its costs.
 One of the greatest voices for peace in the last
century, Martin Luther King, captured the essence of
the problem when he said:
 "Man's inhumanity to man is not only perpetrated
by the vitriolic actions of those who are bad. It is
also perpetrated by the vitiating inaction of those
who are good".
 Let us fill the vacuum with new energy, new
commitments and a new common resolve. I want to
take this opportunity to elaborate on the foundations of
our proposals for a lasting and peaceful settlement.
First, we offer the alternative of security and prosperity
to those who have been poisoned by the separatist
illusion. We offer and recognize the right to full self-
governance for all who live in Abkhazia and South
Ossetia, within our sovereign territorial borders under
international guarantees. We offer constitutional
changes to enshrine the protection of minorities
including language rights, the protection of culture and
education. And we are even willing to offer special
property rights to all interested groups in order to
enhance their identities and to guarantee and secure
that their long-term survival will be protected by the
State and the international community. Finally, we
offer and welcome a robust role for the European
Union and a greater role for its engagement on the
ground.
 In short, we offer a level of autonomy grounded
in the very same principles that have guided the rest of
Europe in promoting peace and prosperity throughout
its multi-ethnic tapestry.
 The continued ignorance of the ethnic cleansing
in Abkhazia, Georgia is a stain on the moral account
book of the international community. These disputes
are no longer about ethnic grievances; they are about
the manipulation of greed by a tiny minority of
activists, militants, militias and their foreign backers,
at the expense of the local population, the displaced
and those who are deprived of their property and
fundamental rights - even the right to speak and study
in their own language.
 The choice is between a Georgia that is willing to
welcome them back with every constitutional
recognition of their identity and their rights or a bleak
future where they are the objects of propaganda, fear
and poverty, and where they are pawns in a big
geopolitical game.
 I have faith that we will succeed.  Their masters
and foreign manipulators will not succeed.
 Where does the international community stand?
My dear friends, that is the essence of the issue.
 But the violent hold of the armed separatists and
their patrons is not unbreakable. In South Ossetia, the
courage of the people, of common men and women
who have chosen dialogue over division, and
reconciliation over recriminations, is making a
difference. Unfortunately, those who do not share a
vision of peace and reconciliation have chosen to
oppose peace in South Ossetia, fearful that the power
of the people and the desire to live in freedom may
undermine their cynical plans.
 As I speak before you today, elements from
Russia are actively and illegally building a new, large
military base in the small town of Java, in South
Ossetia, in the middle of Georgia, on the other side the
Caucasian ridge, very far from Russian territory,
hoping that arms and violence will triumph over the
will of the people. And this dangerous escalation is
taking place under the very noses of international
monitors, whose job it is to demilitarize the territory.
 I have brought a very conclusive body of
evidence with me today, to show our friends in the
international community the truth that others conceal. I
bring that disturbing fact to the Assembly's attention
because reckless acts such as that must be highlighted
and countered. Our collective job today is not to ask
how this is possible. Rather, it is to act with
determination and unity. We have all the evidence, we
have video footage, documented facts and all the other
evidence, and we will present it to the international
community, to anybody who has voiced interest in this
issue.
 Sooner rather than later, the march of liberty will
prevail. In the past year, the residents of South Ossetia
have started down a different path. They are seeking to
participate in Georgia's economic growth, to benefit
from our new hospitals and our revived schools and to
share in and contribute to our democracy. It is the
ordinary residents of South Ossetia engaged in
extraordinary acts of heroism who are making a
difference. It is the children who took their summer
holidays on Georgia's seacoast, only to return home
and be barred from their schools or menaced by official
authorities, who will tear down the barriers of hate. It
is the residents rebuilding their towns under gunfire. I
have specially met with the workers who continued to
build schools, movie theatres and even discos under the
gunfire of elements that wish to stop them. These are
very courageous people of different ethnicities who
want to live in peace and who are willing to take risks,
even with their own lives for the sake of peace and a
better future for their children.
 It is the courage of local leaders such as Dmitry
Sanakoev, a former separatist leader of South Ossetia
who once bore arms against Georgia, who will lead the
way. He was chosen by the people of South Ossetia in
democratic elections to represent them. This vision will
be embraced. I believe we should respect the
courageous expression of the ethnic Ossetians who
have decided to take that path within Georgia.
The only obstacle to the integration of South
Ossetia is a separatist regime that basically consists of
elements from security services from neighbouring
Russia that have no historical ethnic or cultural links to
the territory whatsoever. I think that is a very
temporary development Now is the time to seize this
historic opportunity to avoid the escalation of violence,
which is a possibility and a major risk, especially in the
territory of South Ossetia.
 In closing, I would like to share the insights of a
woman whose name is on our minds and in our hearts
today: Aung San Suu Kyi. Her courage, her resolve and
her reflections on peace and democracy, cannot be
imprisoned. They travel across every border and barrier
to inspire us all. Her words are of profound relevance
to the people of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. I believe
they also must be a beacon for all of us in this Hall.
 "Even under the most crushing State machinery,
courage rises up again and again, for fear is not
the natural state of civilized man. It is man's
vision of a world fit for rational, civilized
humanity which leads him to dare and suffer to
build societies free from want and fear."
 Those words poignantly reflect what is taking
place today in the streets of Burma.
 In our own corner of the world, for the past four
years, the people of Georgia have invested their own
sweat and treasure to build such a society - one free
from want and fear. We now must ensure that Georgia
whole and free includes all the people of South Ossetia
and Abkhazia.
 I believe I have been clear in stating Georgia's
intentions and equally clear as to where we are
unshakeable in our principles - principles, I stress,
that are shared by all nations that seek legality and
stability in the international system.
 We are committed to a peaceful and honest path.
Unfortunately, our interlocutors do not seem to be. This
morning, a senior Russian official made the very
unconstructive, unsubstantiated and untrue accusation
that Georgian forces killed two innocent people in
Upper Abkhazia. What the senior Russian official
failed to say, however, is that one of the people was a
lieutenant colonel of the Russian military and that he
was killed during a law enforcement operation against
armed separatist insurgents. One has to wonder, what
was a lieutenant colonel in the Russian army doing on
in the Georgian forests, organizing and leading a group
of armed insurgents on a mission of subversion and
violence? I want to ask our Russian friends: is there not
enough territory in Russia? Are there not enough
forests in Russia for Russian officers not to die in
Georgian forests, on Georgian territory, for them not to
fight on foreign territory for God knows what cause for
their nation? Whatever the explanation, we regret any
loss of life. That person was recruited from Russian
peacekeepers and State and local militia. We do not
wish anybody such an end to their life.
 Indeed, we will do everything possible to avoid
violence and further hostility and confrontation. This
reckless and dangerous pattern of behaviour must not
continue.
 In conclusion, I want to express the gratitude of
Georgia for the efforts of the United Nations and its
staff. I trust that I have demonstrated that we have the
opportunity and, in Georgia, the desire to resolve our
common challenges so that the international
community can commit its resources to resolving the
great challenges of our age. Let us not lose any more
time.


I would like to congratulate
you, Mr. President, and express our support for your
leadership of the General Assembly at this session.
Finland aligns itself with the statement of the European
Union.
 The Millennium Declaration and the Millennium
Development Goals continue to serve as our common
pledge to create a better future for everyone. The
United Nations is our world organization, and in
addressing global challenges, the United Nations is the
key forum for our cooperation.
 In order to achieve comprehensive security, we
must strive not only for security, but also for
development and human rights. In the World Summit
two years ago, we decided that the United Nations
system should be reformed to better ensure the
implementation of these three fundamental principles.
We should spare no efforts to continue the overall
reform of the United Nations.
 A more just world is a safer world. Making the
Economic and Social Council more effective is an
important part of the United Nations reform and of the
concept of broad security.
 Establishing a new United Nations institution is
truly a challenging task. We know that from our own
experience. Finland was a member of the Human
Rights Council during its first year. But we have to go
on. We must sustain our efforts to make the Council a
credible institution, capable of defending and
promoting globally the human rights of women, men
and children. Our good words and intentions must lead
to strong action.
 The new Peacebuilding Commission must be
developed into a platform that can successfully assist
countries struggling in post-conflict situations. To
support that work, Governments, parliaments,
non-governmental organizations and the private sector
must also work together. The Peacebuilding Fund must
be used as an effective tool to respond to the
immediate needs of post-conflict countries.
 Achieving the Millennium Development Goals
calls for coherent action. Finland strongly supports the
recommendations of the Secretary-General’s High-
level Panel on System-wide Coherence. The objective
of One United Nations at the country level is worth
striving for.
 We also must reinforce our efforts to address the
challenges in the fields of health and education, as so
many speakers have mentioned here.
 Finland warmly welcomes the Panel’s
recommendations concerning gender. We do need to
take decisive measures to promote gender awareness
across the entire United Nations system. We support
the proposal to set up a new, consolidated gender
agency with a new Under-Secretary-General position at
its head.
 In this context, I would like to stress the
importance of engaging women in all phases of crisis
management: conflict prevention, peacekeeping and
peacebuilding, without forgetting peace talks. Let me
give one example: the United Nations Development
Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Middle East Initiative. I
believe that the cooperation between Israeli and
Palestinian women under this initiative can help to
restart the peace negotiations. I also use this
opportunity to state that Finland is preparing its
national action plan to advance the implementation of
Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women,
peace and security.
 A stronger United Nations also needs reform of
the Secretariat. In this regard, we welcome the
additional emphasis given to the rule of law. Support
for the rule of law is a necessity in the consolidation of
global security.
 Sustainable development requires us to
consistently promote fairer globalization and the well-
being of nature. Climate change affects the future of
the whole of mankind. Finland highlights the necessity
to reach, as soon as possible, a globally inclusive
agreement on the post-2012 climate regime. The
United Nations has a central role to play in this
process.
 Every nation has the right to develop and to aim
for growth and prosperity. Industrialized countries
must demonstrate solidarity with developing countries
and take all possible steps to promote access to
environmentally sound technologies for everyone.
 I believe that the tone of the climate change
debate is developing in a promising direction. Many
Member States and various regions and social actors
have become active and have produced initiatives
concerning the development of climate policy. We have
to take advantage of that as an asset in the run-up to
the Bali Climate Change Conference, to be held in
December.
 The high-level event on climate change held on
24 September was a success. I feel that it gave us the
political support that we will need when we are
heading towards Bali. Everyone’s input will, of course,
be required. Finland appreciates the fact that the
President of the General Assembly has made this topic
one of his priorities.
 We need effective international cooperation in the
field of disarmament and non-proliferation. For
example, given the number of victims in today’s
conflicts, small arms and light weapons are indeed
weapons of mass destruction. Finland, together with
more than 150 other States, supports the process aimed
at the adoption of an international arms trade treaty.
 The role of the United Nations is vital in
resolving numerous crises around the world. This
morning, we heard news from Burma/Myanmar, where
the people’s fight for freedom and human rights has
been suppressed. We must react. United Nations
activities need political support and our resources.
 We value the determination of the Secretary-
General in searching for a solution to the crisis in the
Sudan. The new peacekeeping operation in Darfur will
increase the total number of United Nations troops to
more than 100,000. That remarkable figure proves that
the United Nations enjoys the trust of the international
community. We welcome Security Council resolution
1778 (2007), adopted yesterday, on an international
presence in Chad and the Central African Republic.
 In order to achieve success in crisis management,
we need partnerships and shared responsibilities. For
example, the African Union and the European Union
have been valuable partners of the United Nations. The
support of local and regional actors is critical for
successful United Nations peacekeeping.
 We Europeans believe that resolving Kosovo’s
status is vitally important. In that process, the United
Nations Special Envoy has played a pivotal role. We
encourage all parties to engage constructively in
finding a solution to that problem.
 Let me assure the Assembly that Finland supports
a stronger United Nations for a better world. It is up to
us to deliver on our commitments to achieving better
security, sustainable development and respect for the
human rights of all people. I wish to express our
firmest support to the Secretary-General, Mr. Ban
Ki-moon, in pursuing such efforts.


I want  to invite us all to take a short journey down memory
lane and recall that in 1946 the United Nations General
Assembly, convened for the very first time, by its very
first decision established a Committee to deal with the
problems raised by the discovery of atomic energy.
 Almost nothing has happened since that time to
allay the fears of humankind. On the contrary, the race
to possess nuclear weapons, which even terrorist
organizations have now joined, has continued
unabated. Even though the community of nations has
long recognized the need to reform the international
security system, there has been no real progress.
 The lack of an international consensus on the
issue has led to a dramatic weakening of the collective
security system. Speaking in general terms, we are
dealing with a systemic crisis of international
governability, and the international community is
running out of legitimate levers capable of stopping the
spread of weapons of mass destruction.
 Quite apart from any ethical, economic or other
such considerations, we need to erect legal barriers to
stop proliferation. For this reason, Kazakhstan
proposes that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons (NPT) should be adapted to
accommodate the new realities.
 It should be acknowledged that the NPT has
become an asymmetrical agreement under which
sanctions are applicable only to non-nuclear States.
Yet, if nuclear Powers call for the development of
nuclear weapons to be banned, they themselves should
set an example by reducing and renouncing their
nuclear arsenals. That is not the case. This unfairness is
an inducement for those States that still aspire to
acquire weapons of mass destruction. I would only add
that, to our way of thinking, this aspiration is irrational.
 The people of Kazakhstan have lived through all
the horrors of the effects of nuclear explosions. Four
hundred and fifty-six such explosions were conducted
at the Semipalatinsk nuclear testing ground.
 It was for this reason that the first milestone
decision taken by Kazakhstan after gaining its
independence was to shut down the Semipalatinsk
nuclear testing site. That was followed by the
renunciation of its nuclear missile arsenal, the fourth
largest in the world, and the dismantling of its
infrastructure. I want to note here that at that time we
had not only the trained personnel but also practically
all means for delivery of nuclear warheads.
 Those steps have shaped the strategy of our State
in the area of global security. For the first time in
human history, a nation possessing destructive force
has given it up voluntarily.
 I am sure that by taking that action Kazakhstan
established trust in the world. Thanks to that step, the
country has witnessed an inflow of considerable
investment that has become the foundation for
impressive achievements in development known today
throughout the world. By taking that step, we
consolidated our independence, having received
security assurances from all nuclear-weapon States. I
have a question for others: why not follow our
example, instead of wasting astounding amounts on the
arms race?
 Over recent years, international terrorism has
significantly undermined world security. International
drug trafficking serves as a financial pillar of terrorism.
Today, the international drug industry accounts for a
third of the annual volume of the “economy of
terrorism”. It is a well-established fact that terrorism
finds fertile ground in unstable and poor countries. We
have such a country in our region, Afghanistan. That
country is driving an ever-growing trade in drugs.
 Poor countries need the assistance of developed
nations. They need assistance that would give tangible
results. Thanks to a thriving economy, our country,
until recently a foreign aid recipient, has joined the
group of “new donors”. Over the last few years,
Kazakhstan has seen its economy grow at an annual
rate of some 10 per cent. And now we are in a position
to help our neighbours.
 We are concerned with the difficulties in the
process of reconstruction of Iraq and the stabilization
of the situation in Afghanistan. The peoples of our
region, like the entire international community, count
on a peaceful solution of the so-called crisis around
Iran. The best way to achieve that is for Iran, whose
people have a great history and culture, to prove the
peaceful character of its nuclear programme.
 Today, the peacekeeping efforts of the United
Nations remain the most effective instrument for the
peaceful settlement of regional crises. Fifteen years
ago, from this rostrum, Kazakhstan put forward an
initiative related to the enhancement of the
Organization’s peacekeeping potential. We proposed
the establishment of a United Nations peacekeeping
fund, with States voluntarily contributing 1 per cent of
their military budgets.
 That idea has been supported by the Secretary-
General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who has proposed to
redirect 1 per cent of global military spending to
development. I believe that such a decision would
constitute an important step towards the
implementation of the United Nations strategy to
achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
 Allow me now to draw the Assembly’s attention
to a number of issues that are important in the context
of Kazakhstan’s cooperation with the United Nations
and its Member States.
 First, Kazakhstan welcomes the decision by the
General Assembly to identify problems involving
climate change as a priority theme of the current
session.
 In this context, I would like to draw attention to
our initiative put forward at the Johannesburg Summit
on Sustainable Development, by reiterating our
proposal to establish, within the framework of the
United Nations, a register of global environmental
problems. Such an instrument would help us to develop
mechanisms for addressing environmental disasters.
 By the 1990s, the Aral Sea, once a large inland
sea, had lost three fourths of its water. That spelled
disaster for millions of people living around it. The salt
from the exposed seabed is being sprinkled on the
entire Eurasian continent, damaging its environment.
The countries of the Central Asian region have done
much to rehabilitate the sea. However, without
consolidation of the efforts of the world community,
this problem cannot be solved. As I did at the 2002
Earth Summit, I again propose to give to the
international fund to save the Aral Sea the status of a
United Nations institution.
 Secondly, a deepening global energy crisis and
the growing threat of negative climate changes taking
place on our planet present acute problems for the
world community. We share the concern of the leaders
of the Group of Eight (G-8) and Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) countries over these problems. It
is advisable that we develop, within the framework of
the United Nations, a global energy and environment
strategy and discuss it at the 2012 World Summit on
Sustainable Development.
 Thirdly, Kazakhstan forms part of the Caspian
region, which is playing a growing role in international
energy markets. As of today, Kazakhstan has the
world’s seventh largest reserves of oil, the sixth largest
reserves of gas and the second largest deposits of
uranium.
 By 2017, Kazakhstan will be among the world’s
10 largest oil producers and exporters. Kazakhstan is
also increasing its gas production. Possessing large
deposits of uranium, we will be playing an important
role in the development of the nuclear energy sector.
That said, Kazakhstan is fully aware of its share of
responsibility for ensuring a global energy balance and
security.
 To promote further diversification of energy
delivery to consumers and also to provide assurances
to energy producers, Kazakhstan proposes the adoption
of a Eurasian pact on stability of energy delivery.
 Fourthly, the first-ever global United Nations
conference on problems faced by landlocked
developing countries, hosted by Kazakhstan in 2003,
adopted an international document, the Almaty
Programme of Action. We believe that it will facilitate
effective assistance to that group of countries.
Decisions on the development of regional cooperation
and transport and transit infrastructure adopted at the
latest session of the Economic and Social Commission
for Asia and the Pacific, held in Kazakhstan last May,
have become an important and logical step in the same
direction.
 Fifthly, speaking of Asia, we must mention here
the issue of the establishment of a continental
arrangement for collective security. That has become
possible through the implementation of Kazakhstan’s
initiative to convene the Conference on Interaction and
Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA),
announced by me from this very podium, during the
forty-seventh session of the General Assembly in 1992.
Today, the CICA process brings together 18 States,
which occupy 90 per cent of Asia’s territory. Their
population makes up half of the people living on our
planet. Time has proven the relevance of the CICA
process, within which a political dialogue among Asian
States is gaining momentum.
 Sixthly, we support joint efforts to reform United
Nations activities. In our view, the Security Council
should be enlarged in the categories of both permanent
and non-permanent members and on the basis of
equitable geographical representation and respect for
the sovereign equality of States. The working methods
of the Security Council should also be reformed in
order to increase its transparency and accountability.
The General Assembly should play a central role as the
main deliberative, decision-making and representative
body of the United Nations.
 Most of the sensational predictions of an
inevitable “clash of civilizations,” fortunately, have not
yet been accurate. However, we should be clear that
interfaith tension feeds the social basis of international
terrorism and religious extremism. I believe that
seeking an accord between religions and the peaceful
coexistence of ethnic groups is a crucially important
element in the process of maintaining international
security.
 Kazakhstan, a home to 130 ethnic groups
representing 45 religions, has set an example of
tolerance, which has become a decisive factor in efforts
to ensure peace, stability and the economic progress of
Kazakhstan.
 Conscious of the critical importance of a dialogue
between world religions on key issues of the modern
world order, Kazakhstan hosted, in 2003 and 2006,
forums of leaders of world and traditional religions
where religious opinion makers were trying to find not
only a language of mutual understanding but also
mechanisms for easing interfaith tensions in the
planet’s hot spots.
 I propose that the Third Congress of the Leaders
of World and Traditional Religions, scheduled for
2009, be convened under the auspices of the United
Nations. I also propose the proclamation of one of the
coming years as an international year of convergence
of cultures and religions.
 Just days after the terrorist attacks on
11 September 2001, Pope John Paul II visited our
country. He said that that tragic event should not
become a cause for confrontation between religions. I
strongly believe that there are no problems in the world
that cannot be solved if we set harmony, tolerance and
spirituality against animosity, relying on mutual trust
and cooperation. That understanding instils hope and
enhances confidence in the future.
 The United Nations plays a special role in the
strengthening of those hopes. We are not sceptical
about the legitimacy of international law and have faith
in the effectiveness of such multilateral mechanisms as
the United Nations in the promotion of security and
fairness. We are against attempts to weaken our
Organization. Kazakhstan associates itself with those
States that are willing to strengthen the role and
authority of the United Nations because they view it as
the only international body capable of influencing, in
an effective way, the issues of war and peace.


Allow me  at the outset to congratulate the Secretary-General,
Mr. Ban Ki-moon, on the quality of the intensive work
done in such a short period of time at the head of the
United Nations. I would like to congratulate him
sincerely and to encourage him on his correct
assessment of the world’s present problems.
 This is the first time that I am taking part in the
General Assembly in my seven years at the head of
 Cote d'Ivoire. As members know, I am fully committed
to resolving the crisis gripping my country and which
has so mobilized the international community over the
past five years. My presence, today, here in New York,
at this rostrum, is the best proof of the climate of calm
prevailing in  Cote d'Ivoire today, following the signing
of the Ouagadougou political agreement, which was
the outcome of direct dialogue between the State and
the former rebels.
 That agreement was endorsed by the Security
Council which unanimously adopted resolution 1765
(2007). On behalf of the people of  Cote d'Ivoire, I
wish to thank and to greet all who were involved in
these positive developments: the countries members of
the Security Council, the countries members of the
African Union Peace and Security Council, all the
countries of the African Union and the countries
members of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS). In particular, I thank the heads of
State whose personal involvement was key in resolving
the crisis in  Cote d'Ivoire: President Thabo Mbeki,
mediator in the Ivorian crisis appointed by the African
Union, and President Blaise Compaoré, facilitator for
the direct inter-Ivorian dialogue, as current Chairman
of ECOWAS.
We have noted that despite the international
community’s efforts over the previous four years, the
peace process was blocked and the country was at a
standstill. That is why, on 19 December 2006, I
suggested to my compatriots a way out of the crisis,
focusing on five points: first, the establishment of
direct dialogue with the rebels, aimed at disarmament
and the reunification of the country; secondly, the
removal of the Zone of Confidence; thirdly, the
establishment of a national service programme;
fourthly, a general amnesty; and finally, the
establishment of an assistance programme for the
return of persons displaced by the war. That plan was
based on the experience of solutions considered up
until then, but with a completely different approach, in
order to ensure complete ownership of the peace
process by the Ivorians themselves.
 I thus took up direct dialogue with the rebels. Our
discussions, through the facilitation of President Blaise
Compaoré, took place in neighbouring Burkina Faso,
the West African country with the closest historical and
sociological ties with  Cote d'Ivoire. Those discussions
led to the signing on 4 March 2007 of the
Ouagadougou political agreement.
 In accordance with that agreement, a new
Government was established. It is headed by the
former rebel leader, Mr. Guillaume Soro. With this
Government, we have made considerable progress in a
short period of time. An integrated command centre,
bringing together soldiers from the national armed
forces and from the former rebel forces, was
established on 16 March 2007. Its mission is to set up a
joint force entrusted with ensuring security and the free
movement of individuals and goods throughout the
national territory. A general amnesty order was issued
on 11 April 2007. Disarmament effectively began with
the 30 July 2007 “peace bonfire” in Bouaké. The
redeployment of the administration and reinstatement
of magistrates throughout the territory has now taken
place. A plan for the return of those displaced by the
war has been put in place. Mobile courts to identify
members of the population and update electoral lists
began yesterday, Tuesday, 25 September 2007. We
have made major strides towards peace since the
Ouagadougou peace agreement.
 The lesson I draw from this experience of direct
dialogue between State authorities and the rebels has
led me to invite the international community to favour
local solutions in the settlement of conflicts. The
United Nations in New York should make
arrangements to monitor the implementation of
solutions adopted by parties to a conflict.
  Cote d'Ivoire will emerge from crisis. Côte
d’Ivoire is emerging from crisis. Today more than ever,
it needs the support of the international community to
build peace and stability within its borders and in the
West African subregion.
 In this context, and given the climate of calm
prevailing in the country, I would like the United
Nations to revise downward the security rating. Phase
III no longer reflects reality.
 In the same spirit, with the implementation of the
Ouagadougou agreement, today  Cote d'Ivoire is
reunified and it is now up to the State to restore law
and order throughout the territory. The agreement
provides explicitly that in the redeployment of
administrators, the forces of law and order are to take
part in providing protection for administrative staff, as
well as for the citizen population. I appeal here for the
partial lifting of the weapons embargo so that the
Ivorian State can carry out its task of protecting
persons and goods.
 Moreover, and in the present context of national
reconciliation, Ivorians remain concerned that
individual sanctions are still imposed on some of our
compatriots. Since the Ouagadougou Agreement, those
young people have put heart and soul into the search
for peace. For that reason I am formally asking the
United Nations, within the spirit and letter of the
Ouagadougou political Agreement (S/2007/144)
endorsed by resolution 1765 (2007) to lift the sanctions
imposed on Charles Blé Goudé, Eugène Djué and
Martin Kouakou Fofie.
  Cote d'Ivoire is a sound country and our
management of public finance has made it possible for
the Ivorian State to function and to ensure a minimum
standard of living for its people. But the ongoing crisis
has ultimately led to a reduction in the financial
resources available to the State and has disrupted its
financial stability.
 Today I am asking for assistance to help finance
the actions related directly to resolving the crisis,
namely: the civil service, mobile courts, general
elections, the return of those displaced by war and in
general, peacebuilding.
But beyond the short and medium-term actions,
Cote d'Ivoire requires international aid to strengthen
the basis for a more robust economic recovery in the
long-term. We must rebuild and strengthen our
community infrastructures. Our schools and health
centres were damaged during the war. We must rebuild
and strengthen our economic infrastructures   roads,
railways, electric and water supply stations were
severely strained by the crisis.
 All observers and all actors in the crisis in Côte
d’Ivoire agree that elections are the goal of the crisis
resolution process in  Cote d'Ivoire. The holding of
transparent, free elections that are open to all is not
only a requirement under my political culture, but is,
above all a democratic requirement. Elections are proof
of good governance. I intend to make my country
 Cote d'Ivoire   a modern State   that is, a State in
which people appoint their leaders through just and
transparent elections.
 Democratic elections are a requirement for my
country in order to modernize our political life.
Elections are also required for our economic recovery.
We absolutely must reorganize the coming elections in
 Cote d'Ivoire and hold them successfully in order to
restore confidence among economic actors in the
country and abroad.
 Elections are a requirement as well for stability in
our country and in the subregion. We must organize
elections quickly to confer political legitimacy on
those who are exercising State power in order to
stabilize the society in  Cote d'Ivoire and ensure
economic recovery in West Africa. Finally, elections
are a constitutional imperative. According to our
constitution, when exceptional circumstances make it
impossible to hold elections   as was the case before
the country was reunified   all institutions within the
Republic function solely with a view to holding
elections. For that reason, the elections must be
reorganized quickly so that we can move beyond this
constitutional, but exceptional situation.
 For all those reasons, from this rostrum at the
United Nations I invite all friends of  Cote d'Ivoire
throughout the world, but also and above all the
politicians, both men and women, Ivorians and all
peoples living in  Cote d'Ivoire to become involved in
the peace process. I invite them to become fully
invested in the electoral process underway and to
contribute, each person according to his or her ability,
to national reconciliation and to peacebuilding.


Allow me to express our gratitude to the Secretary-
General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who has done a laudable
job, thus enhancing the prestige of the United Nations.
 I am here on behalf of the people of Honduras,
who have entrusted to me the torch of Central
American peace so that I can hold high in the
Assembly Hall this light that illuminates understanding
among peoples and nations.
 Honduras is filled with a spirit of hope. Today we
have the best social and economic indicators of recent
decades. We have an average economic growth of more
than 7 per cent. We have very good results in the area
of job creation. We have begun to speed up poverty
reduction by more than 6 per cent in 18 months. We
have reduced forest fires by 40 per cent, together with
illegal logging and the advance of migratory
agriculture and extensive ranching. We now have a
climate conducive to public and private enterprise. We
are beginning to strictly implement the transparency
law as a civic instrument to provide better access to
public information.
 We have already presented, during the recently
concluded sixty-first session of this very special forum,
the Assembly of the people, our demands, our
proposals and a reaffirmation of our values. Most of
the people of Honduras believe in democracy and
social liberalism, and in a free-market economy in its
true meaning, as a useful instrument for the equitable
trade of commodities   the fruits of human labour.
 However, in actual practice   the only possible
means of testing our theories   international trade
operates in an unequal and inequitable way, as do the
relations between powerful and economically weak
countries. Free trade, so highly touted in all our
speeches and international propaganda may, if we do
not redirect it properly, turn into yet another ruse
disguising unequal relations, the unjust distribution of
advantages and the undue, invisible code of unfair and
discriminatory competition.
 Let us just look at the figures of the World Trade
Organization, which acknowledge that barely 7 per
cent of international trade goes through free channels
and the free market of economic and transparent rules.
The rest, that is, more than 90 per cent of global trade,
takes place outside the scope of the illusory standards
of liberty and justice that we all aspire to.
 We must remedy this situation. Now is the time.
We must continue to establish the conditions to
improve international agreements. I acknowledge that
we are competing in imperfect markets with unequal
rules of the game, which provide advantages and
disadvantages. Some receive all kinds of subsidies and
preferential tariffs, which transform their products into
privileged goods. Speculative pricing, dumping,
monopolies, oligopolies and other discriminatory
practices are promoted, and certain parties are able to
advance their interests and impose their will on those
of us who are struggling just to reach the threshold of
development.
 We demand that the rules of true free trade and
competition be respected. We do not want to be
relegated to the basement of history. Our peoples have
the right to reach the summits of prosperity.
 One of the most obvious and classic examples of
this problem, which is worth mentioning in this
Assembly, is the excessive charges and increased
tariffs imposed by the European market on the bananas
from our region. A similar example is the recent
revision request from the United States that we impose
new tariffs on products and on the sale of textiles and
finished fabrics that Honduras exports to the United
States market. This weakens the spirit of the trade rules
we signed barely a year ago and would affect
Honduras’ sales to the United States market   a
market that investors in our country have gained by
dint of hard work, competing in order to sell at the best
price and to sell goods of better quality.
 As the Assembly can see, we are not coming here
to ask for the impossible or to demand what is not
owed to us. We simply want to go on record in
expressing our just and necessary demand for equitable
treatment in trade relations in the international market.
We are not asking for sympathy or pious
condescension. We are asking for respect. We want
people to pay a proper price for our products and to
value our effort and work with the same criterion that
is used to rate the effort of other peoples and other
communities that produce goods and services. We
demand equitable rules and standards. We require the
just treatment that we deserve as authentic and real
members of this planet that we all share.
 Likewise, we would like to mention in the
Assembly a problem that almost all of us are
experiencing. We are suffering the same fate because
of speculative increases in the international markets in
the price of oil and its derivatives. Barely five years
ago, the price of a barrel of oil was about $13; today it
is already above $80 a barrel. It has increased by a
dramatic 600 per cent, thus subjecting our nations to a
state of greater dependence and international
destitution.
 The economies of our countries cannot withstand
this economic blood-letting, which destroys any
attempt for social protection. A large part of what we
can invest in order to combat illness, ignorance, hunger
and age-old backwardness now drains to the large
transnational oil corporations. While we are fighting to
reduce poverty and its ills   ills caused by those who
claim to be free of all blame and responsibility   the
masters of the world and of trade are increasing prices
to indecent scales as instruments of pressure with the
rise of oil.
 We are appealing to the global conscience to
share urgent efforts to intervene in the extreme
speculation in oil prices. We need to establish mutual
cooperation in order to produce forms of alternative
energy without it becoming a new opportunity to come
up with low- or high-intensity wars that only threaten
the sovereign rights and the right to strengthen peace
of the democracies of the world.
 These are the contrasts of the modern world.
Paradoxically, while borders are opening up to
speculation, abuse and free trade in commodities, they
are closing to people, especially to emigrants. The lack
of ethical limits of a society of unfettered consumption
produces false expectations among young people in
developing countries. Bombarded by alienating
propaganda, illusions are created that later turn into
urgent economic needs, producing diasporas compelled
by the famous pursuit of the American dream.
 There is no better opportunity than this universal
forum to expand on a theme that concerns all of us
countries of origin as well as receiving countries. It is
impossible to measure the drama of the emigrant
experience, the modern self-exiles that go from place
to place in search of better opportunities.
 Honduras, my country, is a multi-ethnic and
multiracial society and full of immigrants. My country
throughout its history has been a territory of passage
and a refuge for foreign migrants and a centre which
has produced its own emigrants looking for a better life
in far-off places. This triple status as a country of
origin, a receiving country and a country of transit is
what gives us the moral authority to talk about this
topic with the necessary correctness and firmness, but
also with indispensable feeling and solidarity.
 To be an emigrant is not to commit a crime.
Migration has not been and should never be considered
a crime or threat, but rather a human right. Migration
does not belong to nor should it be included in the
security agenda of any country. That was done only in
the time of fascism. It should be included and
considered within the framework where it really
belongs, that is, the development agenda of our
countries. In this way, we would no longer witness the
monstrous spectacle of inhuman persecution simply
because people are migrants, undocumented aliens,
pursued and humiliated. Emigration is a right, a simple
and basic human right.
 Those who see the problem of migration simply
from the point of view of family remittances or voting
by emigrants abroad are committing a serious and
short-sighted error. They are wrong to look at the
phenomenon of growing migratory flows in the world
in this way. The problem is complex and difficult. It is
related to the economic structure of the country that
produces emigrants   political problems, natural
disasters, war, violence, poverty, unemployment.
Migration weakens the social cohesion of the country
that produces emigrants, facilitates outflows of share
capital and stimulates the fleeing of manpower at its
most productive and hard-working stage. It empties
communities, impedes the processes of democracy and
generates unfavourable conditions because of which
this wonderful working force is compelled to leave.
 Migration is a very complex and contradictory
social phenomenon that deserves serious scientific
treatment, beyond simple emotions and feelings.
Immigrants are people who are simply looking for
better market opportunities in order to sell the only
thing they have: their power to work, their energy, and
their boundless desire to overcome their poverty and
set out on the road to prosperity and well-being, which
are basic elements of life. They are human beings who
deserve to be treated as such and to enjoy the basic
respect that humans should enjoy. They want us to
recognize their rights and to give them responsibilities,
to value and consider them in what they represent, and
to see them for what they are: a productive and mobile
human force that is vital and beneficial both to the
economy that they serve and to the economy of their
country of origin.
 I propose that we provide a legal basis, a fair and
legal international framework to ensure that
immigration becomes an ordered phenomenon
beneficial to all. I propose that we seek consensus,
reach agreement and establish the necessary
international cooperation. Our world needs immigrants
and I implore its representatives, in the name of mercy
and justice, to help stop the shameful persecution of
immigrants. We must apply the law of family
reunification. It is God's will that the families of
immigrants be reunified.
 All of us in Central America, Mexico and Latin
America deeply regret the fact that we have seen no
progress on the corresponding legislative initiative that
the President of the United States submitted to the
United States Congress. We know that he did so with
the best of wills, and we therefore believe that
President Bush should not falter in promoting that
proposal. The construction of a wall can only separate
us. We must find other mechanisms to resolve the
problem. Halting the mass deportations and reunifying
families would be a gesture highly appreciated in
national and international public opinion. We also
recognize the work of various Governments, in
particular the efforts of President Rodríguez Zapatero
of Spain, who has reached immigration agreements and
quotas with various countries.
 Just as the Kyoto Protocol protects biological life
on the planet, the Charter of the United Nations and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantee life
and peace in our societies. Let us ensure that they are
implemented.
 We express solidarity with peoples who are
fighting for their identity, and reaffirm our support for
the Republic of Taiwan in its efforts to achieve
recognition in this forum of nations, in its fight for
independence, and in its constructive and faithful
dedication to the many development processes under
way in Central American countries.
 Central America and Honduras, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Belize and
the Dominican Republic are united by the dreams of
Francisco Morazán, the champion of Central America,
a region of leaders in contemporary continental thought
and artists of stature throughout Latin America and the
world, the belt of the Americas and a bridge to the
world, in the words of General Omar Torrijos. Through
me, they offer a fraternal and united invitation to visit.
We have every facility. We have the most beautiful
places on the planet, with great potential in such areas
as tourism, bio-energy, telecommunications,
agriculture and the environment.
 We cannot remain passive or inactive in the face
of social despair. Our lives are replete with dreams. We
must, where necessary, overcome the neglect to which
the developing world is subject. Our great poet and
thinker, Alfonso Guillén Zelaya, said that we certainly
cannot control fate. Prometheus always has to find
someone to liberate him if civilization is to move
forward. It is not possible for humankind to come to an
end of its history without first giving the most
disadvantaged peoples of the world the opportunity to
live.
 We trust in the future. Humankind knows that
hope is not lost and has full confidence in the
principles of the infinite god of love who guides us,
and not in the god of violence, whom we reject. Before
this Assembly, we express the fervent wish for peace in
the world, a new dawn for humankind in which
everything would be different and our energies would
focus on serving human beings and not on trade.


The item at the top of our
agenda is climate change. The upcoming Bali
Conference needs our full support. Climate change is a
challenge that can only be overcome by our collective
efforts. If we fail, the future will be troubled. Small
island countries like Singapore will be in great danger.
People living in the lowlands will have to move to
higher ground. The pressure of migration into spaces
which become more habitable because of global
warming may well become unstoppable. There will be
new conflicts in the world.
 We are coming now to understand better the role
of climate change in the conflict in Darfur. It does not
excuse the heinous crimes that have been committed
there, but understanding the water situation in that
region will help us find more durable solutions for the
future. Many historians are now reassessing the role of
climate change in major political events in the past.
 We cannot be sure whether our best efforts can
stop global warming. The Earth’s climate has always
gone through cycles. But, even if all we can do is to
slow down the process that will buy us time: time to
accumulate knowledge, to develop new technologies
and to adapt. For example, the cost of recycling or
desalinating water has been steadily coming down and
is becoming completely affordable for us in Singapore.
Improvements in water technology can defuse political
tensions in many parts of the world.
 Many problems we face can only be overcome by
the nations of the world acting together. Climate
change is one. Another is the danger of global
pandemics, which must also be kept high on our
agenda. The late Director-General of the World Health
Organization (WHO), Lee Jong-wook, once said that a
new global pandemic was not a question of “whether”
but of “when”. With the mass movement of human
beings, much of it at jet speed, a new bug can spread
quickly.
 Only a few years ago, we had the scare of Severe
Acute Respiratory Syndrome. We are still not sure why
that epidemic burned out so quickly, but luckily it did.
During the few months it hit us in Singapore, our
economy was severely affected. Our tourism industry
was devastated. As our economy is so dependent on
external trade, shutting our airport was not an option.
Instead, we hurriedly converted military night-vision
devices into thermal scanners and used them at the
airport so that arriving and departing passengers with
fever could be pulled aside for medical examination.
We knew we could not overcome this problem on our
own. The leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) convened an emergency meeting to
which the Premier of China, the Chief Executive of
Hong Kong and the Director-General of WHO were
also invited.
 Whether it is climate change, global pandemics,
the fight against terrorism, the multilateral trading
system or international finance, we need better global
governance. During the cold war, the world was
divided into two camps with each super-Power taking
the lead in its own sphere. That era is now behind us. A
multipolar world is crystallizing. On no major issue
can one country, however powerful, now act on its
own, completely disregarding the views of others. The
situation in Iraq is a sad example of that. Russia,
China, India and Brazil are emergent or re-emergent
Powers whose interests must increasingly be factored
in. Smaller countries too have become more assertive,
refusing to let bigger countries ride roughshod over
them.
 When major international institutions like the
United Nations, the World Bank, and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) were established many years
ago, after the end of the Second World War, the world
was very different from what it is today. Because of
this, those institutions are not as effective as they ought
to be. However, we have to work with those
institutions as they are and not as we would want them
to be if they were to be newly established today. Unless
there is another global conflagration, the improvement
of global governance can only be achieved through
gradual evolution, not revolution.
 We can do that at two levels: at the level of the
major Powers and at the level of small and medium-
sized countries. At the level of the major Powers,
international institutions should increasingly reflect the
multipolar reality. For example, the reform of the
United Nations, including the reform of the Security
Council, should take into account the weight of India,
Japan, Germany and Brazil and the growing
importance of regional organizations. Selection of
heads of the IMF and the World Bank should be
widened. Membership of the Group of Eight (G-8)
should be enlarged to include countries such as China
and India. It is also important that international
organizations be held to the highest standards of
management. We must maintain their moral authority
in the eyes of the world if they are to stay effective.
That Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s recent visit to a
refugee camp in Darfur received so much applause was
because of the prestige of the United Nations and the
hope reposed in the Blue Helmets.
 On climate change, it is good that the United
States has convened a meeting in Washington of the
world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. As the
world’s biggest economy, the United States has to
exercise leadership. But it cannot do it on its own.
Without major emitters achieving a certain common
understanding among themselves, we will not make
much progress at the coming Climate Change
Conference in Bali.
 The involvement of small and medium-sized
countries in international institutions has to be
enhanced. It is unhealthy if the only way small and
medium-sized countries can ensure their interests are
taken into account is by threatening to block the
progress of others. Indeed, if every country in
international organizations had the power of veto the
result would be paralysis. As a small country itself,
Singapore takes the view that small and medium-sized
countries have both rights and responsibilities. We too
must have a sense of responsibility for the global
system. A rules-based world gives us more freedom
than one where “might is right”.
 Regional groupings can help small and medium-
sized countries strike this balance between rights and
responsibilities. The African Union offers a good
example of how the discipline of a group gives each of
its members a greater say in world affairs than it could
have on its own. Group solidarity enables regional
organizations such as ASEAN to play a bigger role in
the world. ASEAN will soon be strengthened by the
leaders’ adoption of a formal charter next month.
 Both formal and informal arrangements have
their uses. For example, the Forum of Small States is a
loose coalition of 100 countries that meet regularly to
exchange views and to give support to one another.
They make up more than half the Members of the
United Nations. Formal and informal groups can play a
constructive role by taking the middle ground and
moderating the excessive demands of radical members.
Let us, through the groupings to which we belong,
encourage each other towards compromise on the
various issues. An example is the Doha Development
Agenda. The positions are not so far apart now and it
would be a great pity to walk away from a Doha deal
because of relatively small differences when the deal
could add hundreds of billions of dollars to global
welfare.
 However effective they are, international
institutions cannot stop the natural rivalry among
nation States. The major Powers will still throw their
weight around, but rules can be established for
civilized behaviour and to prevent countries from
taking extreme actions that will endanger the planet we
share and our common heritage.
 We are not a union of nations, but we are at the
very least a confederation of nations. There are limits
to the sovereignty we exercise as independent nation-
States. For example, the countries of the world have
not only a legitimate right but also a responsibility to
decry the brutal suppression of demonstrators in
Myanmar. Yesterday the Foreign Ministers of ASEAN
expressed our revulsion through a Chairman’s
statement which also called on the Myanmar
Government to abandon its old ways and take a fresh
approach towards national reconciliation with all
groups in the country. We applauded the initiative of
the United Nations Secretary-General to dispatch
Special Envoy Ibrahim Gambari to Myanmar and urged
the Myanmar Government to work with him for the
good of the people of the country.
 Six months before 11 September 2001, the people
of the world watched with shock and horror the
deliberate destruction of the ancient Buddha statues in
Bamiyan by the Taliban. We must never allow such
wanton acts to take place again, whether the injury is
to world heritage sites, to the environment or to human
beings.
 Behind such acts is an attitude of hatred and
intolerance that must never be condoned. If this
century is to be one of peace and development, all of
us must internalize a spirit of interfaith understanding
and common humanity. Recently, the Indian
Government announced its intention to revive the
ancient Buddhist university at Nalanda and offered it to
Asian countries as a project to promote cultural and
religious understanding and exchange. For hundreds of
years Nalanda was a great university drawing students
from all over Asia to study not just Buddhism but also
philosophy, science, mathematics and other subjects.
That project deserves our support.
 We need many such endeavours in the world
today so as to create a greater awareness of our
common origins, our growing interdependence and our
common future. Without that larger sense, the
challenge of global governance will be difficult to
overcome. Without all countries feeling a sense of
shared responsibility for the Earth’s environment, for
example, climate change will become much worse
before effective measures are taken, by which time it
may be too late for many of us.