I
would first of all like to thank Mr. Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann of the sister Republic of Nicaragua for his
work during the sixty-third session of the General
Assembly. I would also like to convey our
congratulations to Mr. Ali Treki on his election as
President of the Assembly at its sixty-fourth session, as
well as to wish him every success in his efforts. We
would also like to thank Secretary-General Ban
Ki-moon for his leadership of the United Nations.
 A little more than three months ago, by changing
its Government after two decades under the same
political party, El Salvador began a process to expand
and strengthen its democracy. The new Government
has set just a few, but overarching, goals aimed at
beginning a process of change that pulls the country
out of its economic crisis and its social and cultural
backwardness while establishing the foundation for the
full development of its productive potential, including
social integration and fair distribution of its income, as
well as making it possible to achieve peace and
security, which is our greatest challenge. We have set
out the major outlines of my Administration in three
words: unite, grow and include.

09-52228 24

 First of all, the Government over which I preside
is not based on a single political party, let alone on a
single faction. It is a Government of national unity
focused on two main goals. The first is to put an end to
the confrontations, hatred and divisions that have
drained a significant amount of vigour from our society
and fuelled a bloody civil war that has left behind
painful scars. The second is to put in place the
foundation for peaceful and secure coexistence.
 That means that major national decisions will no
longer be taken behind closed doors or out of sight of
the majority of our people. Every measure, every step
in El Salvador will be discussed and decided at the
table through dialogue. Seated at that table will be
representatives of the production and labour sectors, as
well as of social movements, non-governmental
organizations, political parties, churches and academia.
It is untrue that the demands of administration require
curtailing dialogue as the basic instrument of the
decision-making process.
 We were able to set up our economic and social
council in barely 100 days. That body is charged with
proposing and considering social and economic
policies that will allow us to successfully address the
crisis we are experiencing. In the same period, we were
also able to launch an ambitious low-income housing
programme that is unprecedented in El Salvador’s
history. That programme, which was the result of
Government working with the private sector, will
produce 100,000 jobs. Work has already begun in the
first projects.
 That undertaking, like others in the area of social
and productive infrastructure, also helps to promote
temporary work for young people at risk and to
improve the housing and community conditions in the
poorest areas. It is also part of the comprehensive
anti-crisis plan that I promised during my campaign,
which we are carrying out through enormous effort.
 Also in less than 100 days, we succeeded in
expanding the social safety net and the provision of
assistance for the poorest families in 100 rural
municipalities. Upon my return to the country, we will
launch the first safety net, involving social and
employment services in urban communities
experiencing extreme poverty. We are responding
promptly to the urgent needs of the most excluded,
impoverished and neglected groups in our society. I
should like to reiterate that all this is being done
through an honest and wide-scale dialogue that
includes the entire social spectrum of El Salvador.
 We have resolutely addressed the concerns
resulting from changes in power. It was once believed
that changes in Government would lead to instability
and uncertainty. The complete opposite happened. We
have given legal guarantees and clear examples that the
new Government is serious, responsible in managing
finances and trustworthy when it comes to both
domestic and foreign affairs, including as regards
multilateral organizations and friendly countries
extending assistance to El Salvador.
 In that connection, allow me to thank the
countries and groups for that assistance. Their
generosity makes us even more determined to follow
the path of responsibility, austerity and anti-corruption
efforts throughout society and Government.
 My country has open wounds that have an impact
on our daily lives, including on our family, social and
cultural lives. Those wounds include public safety and
immigration, which has taken about 3 million of our
fellow citizens abroad in search of the work and
opportunities they have not found in our homeland.
 I should first like to speak briefly about
insecurity.
 As the Assembly is aware, this is not an
exclusively Salvadoran phenomenon. While it is a
global problem, it is certainly more pronounced in our
region. Organized crime, drug trafficking and the
activities of violent criminal youth gangs have
developed in the past decade to become the worst
threat to the stability of our countries. The policies that
have been implemented jointly and within individual
countries have not merely fallen short; they have been
but a succession of failures. That means that we must
increase our joint efforts while using all the means and
intelligence at our disposal to confront those scourges.
We are faced with a structural phenomenon that
hampers the full normal functioning of our societies.
 In that regard, I am completely convinced that we
must have strong, long-term, decisive and intelligent
policies within our countries. However, we will fully
defeat crime only if we unite as a single entity that is
genuinely determined to defeat organized crime, which
is a destructive element that undermines institutions
and saps the creative and productive energies of our
peoples.

25 09-52228

 I have said to my fellow citizens, and I should
like to reiterate here, that my Government will do
everything the law allows to combat crime with
determination and courage. However, this is not a task
for a single president or Government; it is also one for
society as a whole. I have therefore called for the
widest possible level of participation from all groups
and people of good will in carrying out what is called
“the good fight”, referred to by the Apostle Paul in his
first letter to Timothy — a good fight against
insecurity, fear and hopelessness. That is the great
challenge that brings us together, let us make no
mistake.
 I should like to propose the holding of an
international conference to address these problems in
order to consider best practices with which to confront
that battle together. To that end, we would require the
logistical and financial support of both the
Organization of American States and the United
Nations.
 The other wound to which I referred is the
ongoing waves of immigration by Salvadoran men and
women that have been taking place for many years. All
those who have left have been in their productive
years, the most skilled, seeking the work, security and
well-being denied them in their own country. With
3 million Salvadorans abroad, remittances equal about
18 per cent of our gross national product. That tearing
apart of families is difficult to overcome. It is also a
constant reminder of the fact that we have not been
able to put in place the necessary conditions to keep
our children home, as well as of the fact that we will
never be able to achieve our potential, individually or
as a society, unless we heal this terrible wound.
 I have personally raised the flag of our country’s
full democratization, which means that emigrants
should have access to the vote that has been denied
them to this day. That unjustifiable denial is added to
the pain of separation and the loss of human rights to
which they are subjected as immigrants.
 I have called on political parties, intellectuals,
academics and judges to draft the outlines of a national
political accord that advances the necessary reforms to
expand and strengthen democracy, increase
transparency in the workings of political parties,
improve the administration of national elections law
and — as a key element of my appeal — ensure the
right to vote for our brothers and sisters abroad.
 We are concerned, moreover, not only by the
unstable situation of migrants living abroad with no
legal status, suffering constant uncertainty and fear of
being deported, but also by the difficult situation they
are currently experiencing as a result of the global
financial and economic crisis. For this reason a policy
for the inclusion and protection of the rights of our
migrant population and their families is a priority for
us. We will be undertaking measures within and with
countries of transit and destination countries to
guarantee migrants’ rights everywhere in the world,
and in particular the rights of our Salvadorian brothers.
We will emphasize an integrated and long-term
approach to addressing migration, considering all its
causes, manifestations and effects. We will bring this
vision to the process initiated at the High-level
Dialogue on International Migration and Development,
and we pledge our participation at the third Global
Forum on Migration and Development, to take place in
Athens.
 My Government is carrying out a foreign policy
geared towards strengthening and broadening
relationships of friendship and cooperation with all
countries of the world, both at the bilateral and
multilateral levels, based on solidarity, mutual respect
and compliance with the principles of peaceful
coexistence, such as respect for sovereignty, territorial
integrity, non-interference in internal affairs, the
non-use or threat of use of force, the peaceful
settlement of disputes, respect for the right to
self-determination and respect for international law and
international commitments, in accordance with the
principles and purposes of the United Nations Charter.
 The foreign policy of El Salvador is free from
ideological or partisan political stances. In good faith it
is guided not only by national interests and priorities
but also by the common goals and interests of the
international community, in particular the quest for and
promotion of peace, political dialogue, cooperation in
solidarity, security and sustainable development. One
example of this is the restoration of diplomatic
relations between El Salvador and Cuba, which
overcame a lingering breach in our country’s
hemispheric relations. I also wish to underscore that a
further key objective of my Government is to
strengthen the ties that we have with our brother
countries in Central America.
 In this context, I am certain that there will be no
solution or future for any of our countries if we act in

09-52228 26

isolation from each other. We long ago emerged from
the era of nationalities, and we are now ready to
embark on a new phase, one of greater integration. In
this regard the European Union is perhaps the most
advanced example.
 I appeal to my Central American colleagues to
consider this point. There are many pending issues that
we must address. There are common challenges that we
must face shoulder to shoulder. We have everything to
gain and nothing to lose in the full integration of our
region. In these years of the bicentenary we must
regain the free and independent spirit of our ancestors,
which was exemplified in the concept of a Central
American union as a basis for development, well-being
and peace for our peoples. A first step would be to
convene a summit that would focus on a balanced
integration process and an analysis of greater transfer
of competencies to strengthen the mechanisms of
supra-nationality, in order to further the aims and
principles established in the Tegucigalpa Protocol, to
ensure its credibility and viability.
 Among the aims, of course, would be to
strengthen regional democratic institutions, helping us
to avoid occurrences such as the Honduran coup d’état,
of which members are all well aware. Working together
we must ensure that it will be impossible to return to
the times of authoritarianism or military or civilian-
military dictatorships. The coup d’état in Honduras
must not be allowed to set a precedent which will
jeopardize the achievements that we have reached in
terms of regional stability and democratic institutions.
The de facto Government in our brother country has
ignored the clamour of voices raised by the
international community, calling for Honduras to return
as quickly as possible to constitutional order through
dialogue and political negotiation in accordance with
human rights and the fundamental freedoms of the
Honduran people.
 Until the Constitution is restored in Honduras
through the immediate reinstatement of President
Zelaya and the creation of a government of national
unity in keeping with the San José Agreement, the
electoral process currently being prepared in our
brother country will lack the legitimacy or
transparency necessary to guarantee reliable results
which might help resolve the crisis in our brother
country.
 The United Nations has played and will play a
leading role in the maintenance of international peace
and security and in the promotion of democracy and
development. El Salvador is a leading example: the
Organization helped in reaching the Peace Agreements
that succeeded in resolving our internal conflict — a
contribution for which I am deeply grateful, because it
led us from war to peace and from peace to a phase of
transition to democratization and development. In this
regard we will engage in a major review of the
international agenda in order to set priorities and to
ensure compliance with the key guidelines issued by
this global Organization and which benefit the well-
being and dignity of our peoples. We are implementing
policies that are geared towards meeting the
commitments we have entered into at major
international conferences, in particular the Millennium
Development Goals and the promotion and full
protection of human rights. We will also be joining
international agreements aimed at strengthening human
rights and freedoms.
 We believe in the role that the United Nations has
played in the field of cooperation and development,
and we reiterate our support for the reform of its
principal organs, programmes and subsidiary bodies,
which will allow the Organization to adapt to the
demands and complexities of new challenges, in
particular through the interrelationship and interaction
that exist among political, economic, social,
environmental and security phenomena.
 Thus we commit ourselves to strengthening our
national system for the protection of human rights and
to promoting and guaranteeing a policy of justice, truth
and compensation for serious infringements of human
rights, by implementing a policy of openness, honesty
and transparency in public affairs.
 The effects of the international crisis that broke
out last year have been felt by all, but especially by
poor and developing countries whose economies are
dependent on large markets and that suffer from the
consequences of the decline of economic activity,
employment and consumption. Given this situation,
international solidarity and cooperation take on
extreme importance for developing countries, which
have limited natural and financial resources and are
very vulnerable. In this regard we call upon the
industrialized countries and on the donor community to
join every international effort and initiative to
overcome the current challenges, which jeopardize

27 09-52228

achievements made to date and future progress for
humankind.
 We recommend taking full advantage of the
experience and expertise within the United Nations
system in fostering international cooperation and
coordinating efforts to achieve common goals. In this
context we appeal particularly to developed countries
to ensure follow-up, support for and implementation of
the recommendations and commitments set out in the
Monterrey Consensus and the Follow-up International
Conference on Financing for Development to Review
the Implementation of the Monterrey Consensus that
took place in Doha in 2008, as well as the
recommendations contained in the Outcome of the
Conference on the World Economic and Financial
Crisis and Its Impact on Development (resolution
63/303, annex), in particular the need for donors to
maintain and fulfil their commitments and objectives
with regard to official development assistance. To that
end, there is a need for political resolve to reform the
international financial structure and system in order to
address the current difficulties.
 The high-level meeting on climate change
convened by the Secretary-General provided us with an
opportunity to consider that issue, especially with
respect to compliance by States, and in particular the
industrialized countries, with the provisions of the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change, which was adopted shortly before the Earth
Summit, and with later commitments to eliminate the
danger posed by environmental degradation and
ongoing activities that have exacerbated climate
change. We therefore hope that we will act in earnest,
responsibly and decisively at the Copenhagen
conference to achieve a new agreement in this area so
as to ensure that States do not put their own interests
before the common well-being of humankind. It is time
to adopt measures and mechanisms to rectify the
mistakes and shortcomings of the past, and to launch a
process to bring development into harmony with
environmental protections.
 As participants here are aware, in my country we
have done away with ideological prejudices and
stereotypes in our international relations. We believe in
multilateralism and in particular in the systems of our
continental organization, the Organization of American
States, and of the United Nations. We believe in the
rich and valuable contribution that new and emerging
nations can make to the work of those two systems. We
believe that the future of humankind largely depends
on the intelligence, honour and generosity of the larger
nations in ensuring the full and fair development of
emerging countries so as to put an end to the
discrimination and differences that offend human
nature.
 I thank the General Assembly for its attention and
its support for my country and the Salvadoran people.


I would like first of all to
thank almighty Allah for granting us yet another
opportunity for a gathering of world leaders. My
delegation would like to thank President Obama, the
Government and people of the United States of
America, and the leadership of the United Nations for
their warm welcome and the facilities placed at our
disposal since our arrival.
 Permit me also to congratulate Mr. Miguel
d’Escoto Brockmann on his inspiring leadership and on
conducting the affairs of the sixty-third session so well.
By the same token, I extend warm felicitations to
Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on his election to the
presidency of the General Assembly at this important
sixty-fourth session. He has the full support of my
delegation. Our special thanks go to Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon for his stewardship and the commitment
he has shown to the welfare of humanity, particularly
of Africa.
 “Effective responses to global crises:
strengthening multilateralism and dialogue among
civilizations for international peace, security and
development”, the theme adopted for this year’s
session, is indeed apt and relevant. It calls on every
nation, big or small, to adopt multilateralism and
dialogue in fostering international partnership on all
matters of common concern surrounding global peace
and development.
 The complexities of today’s world are such that
no nation can successfully confront them alone. Some
issues cannot even be resolved by regional groups
acting independently. Much can be achieved only when
we all collaborate and work together within the
framework of multilateralism based on mutual
understanding, respect and, above all, sincerity, strong
commitment and universal justice under the same rule
of law and equity.
 Our global body, the United Nations, has indeed
adopted countless resolutions, which, if implemented
to the letter, would have made this world a better place
for all humankind and indeed other creatures on our
planet. Unfortunately, there are some Member States
that block well-meaning resolutions necessary for the
maintenance of world peace and even question or
disregard with impunity resolutions adopted by this
body.
 As long as this continues to be the order of the
day, the United Nations will remain united in name
only, unable to achieve in full the fundamental
objectives for which it was established. The modus
operandi of the Organization therefore needs urgent
reforms to ensure that such impunity is eliminated and
that the principle of equality among nation States,
irrespective of their geopolitical size, location,
economic circumstances, race or religion is
safeguarded. Double standards have no place in the
United Nations.
 There cannot be peace and security in the absence
of justice for all. There cannot be justice in the face of
abject poverty characterized by hunger, starvation,
disease and a lack of basic social services as a result of
exploitation. There cannot be justice if there is
merciless exploitation, suppression and criminal
invasion of sovereign States. There cannot be peace if
there is no development as a result of marginalization,
injustice and racism. Unfortunately, injustice, racism,
merciless exploitation and marginalization, especially
as inflicted on developing nations by developed
nations, are the order of the day.
 Africa and Africans are the poorest of the poor,
despite the fact that the African continent is the world’s
richest in terms of mineral and other natural resources.
The sad truth is that, despite the fact that the African
continent is the source of 90 per cent of the precious
minerals, gemstones and strategic raw materials for the
industrialized North, we Africans are the poorest of the
poor.
 It is no fault of ours if we Africans are poor
today. This situation has been brought about by the
perennial invasions of the locusts and their permanent
presence in Africa. They devour 90 per cent of our
useful resources, from agricultural and mineral to flora

09-52425 28

and fauna. These locusts are present in all resource-rich
African countries today. This devastating permanent
invasion is exacerbated by another destructive
phenomenon — the permanent drought that affects all
African countries without exception. We cannot do
anything about these two deadly scourges of the
African continent. In the case of the locusts, they are
protected by a one-sided international treaty imposed
on all third-world countries, not only Africa. As for the
drought, it is even worse, since no irrigation system in
Africa can eradicate it.
 The locusts I am talking about are the
multinational Western companies that exploit our
natural resources and agricultural produce, taking
95 per cent of their financial value and leaving us, the
owners of the resources, with 5 per cent or less at most.
Is it not interesting that, with respect to the mining of
African mineral resources, only four African countries
receive more than a 3 per cent royalty from these
multinational mining companies? The rest receive only
a 3 per cent royalty or even less. In the case of
petroleum exploitation, few African countries receive
above a 15 per cent royalty.
 There is nothing African countries can do about
this because these locusts have an absolute monopoly
of the technologies used in the extractive industries.
The treaty that makes it impossible for us to do
anything about it is called globalization, which means
the exploitation of poor third-world countries’
resources by the rich first-world countries. With
regards to the drought — that is, the debt burden —
very few rich countries have cancelled the debt owed
them by third-world countries. This excruciating
burden of debt consumes 80 per cent of the 3 to 5 per
cent left by the multinational companies.
 Our agricultural produce, such as tea, coffee and
cocoa, is bought at prices fixed by the buyers, in most
cases at an average price of less than $1 per kilo. The
same produce is then sold at more than $15 per kilo
when processed. Thus, for every kilogram of our
agricultural produce worth $15 on the Western market,
we get only $1. How can Africa develop and emerge
from this abject poverty?
 African resources have been looted continuously
from the eleventh century to date. Everything in Africa
that the locusts set their eyes on is looted even today.
Even dead bodies have not been spared by the locusts.
Graves were and are being desecrated and human
bodies called mummies have been stolen from Africa.
In such a situation, where even Africans in their graves
are not spared by these rampaging locusts, who in his
right mind could expect us in Africa to develop and
become rich? In Africa, “R.I.P.” on a tombstone, which
normally means “Rest In Peace”, has never been
respected. “R.I.P.” really means “Respected If Poor” —
that is, the body in the tomb will rest only if it was not
buried with any precious jewellery.
 The United Nations must come to the rescue of
Africa. Otherwise, we Africans stand ready to liberate
ourselves from this eternal bondage at any cost. From
now on, the African Union will work towards ensuring
that African nations and our farmers receive their
rightful share of our God-given natural and agricultural
resources. We will no longer accept less than 65 per
cent of the proceeds from our natural resources.
 We Africans have been suffering for too long at
the hands of Westerners and we will put an end to this.
It is African sweat, blood, tears and natural resources
that have built the North throughout almost five
centuries of merciless and racist exploitation that
continues today. Enough is enough. Instead of being
respected, we are being called all sorts of names and
given all sorts of unsolicited titles — dictators, corrupt
leaders, failed States and even rogue States.
 We, the new generation of African leaders, will
seek to put an end to this humiliating, degrading and
racist treatment by any means necessary. The world
will not live in peace and security as long as this
dehumanizing and racist status quo continues to prevail
with regard to the continent of Africa and to Africans.
We have been forced to endure this for far too long and
now we are going to put an end to it, as we have ended
apartheid in South Africa, by force if necessary. We
will defend our humanity, our dignity, our resources,
our interests and our culture from this moment
forward.
 HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis are killer
diseases. While I would like to reiterate my
delegation’s support for the work of the Global Fund in
fighting these diseases, I wish to call for concerted
efforts to mobilize resources to support international
research on traditional medicine and alternative disease
treatment programmes. These traditional systems are in
most instances more cost-effective, yet they have been
abandoned due to the sort of criticism that come from
multinationals threatened that certain traditional

29 09-52425

breakthroughs would be detrimental to their corporate
existence and interests. These multinationals value
their monetary gains more than human life. They
should not be allowed to hold humanity to ransom.
Their insatiable appetite for massive wealth at any cost
has pushed them to the point of blindness, insensitivity
to human suffering and the loss of human life in the
developing world, especially in Africa.
 With regard to international peace and security,
my delegation calls once again for stronger and more
honest international cooperation and dialogue in
addressing conflict prevention, the peaceful resolution
of disputes and respect for the cultural values, norms
and ways of life of others. We must respect the fact that
humanity was created to be diverse, just as planet Earth
has different regions, each with its own diverse
climatic and ecological system. Therefore, there is
bound to be diversity in the colour of our skin,
diversity in the way we live and differences in our
beliefs. Diverse as we may be, we are part and parcel
of the one human family created by the one and only
God, Allah. If we accept the principle that we are all
human beings equal before the only God that created
us, and that differences in religion and skin colour do
not make one person less human than another, then we
will all live in perfect peace and harmony in this global
village called the world.
 The problem is that some play God and believe
that, by virtue of the colour of their skin, they are
better than the rest of humanity and therefore should
dictate to them how they should live and how they
should worship God. They impose their value systems
on the rest of humanity. This unacceptable dictatorship
is the source of all the world’s major conflicts and a
contributing factor to persistent threats to world peace.
 Racism is on the rise. Extremist hate-mongers are
increasing in number and rising in rank. Instead of
being condemned as criminals and terrorists, they are
labelled the far right, neo-Nazis or supremacists, and
tolerated and even encouraged by the same Powers that
would happily bomb them back to the Stone Age if
they were Muslim, black African or Asian. As long as
this status quo persists, peace and security will
continue to be an elusive dream as people, rich or poor,
Muslim or non-Muslim, black or Asian, are bound to
defend their human dignity at any price.
 My delegation therefore calls for a united front
against this dictatorship of a few over the rest of
humanity. And in the interest of our collective security,
the United Nations should see to the total elimination
of racism and hatred in all their forms, whatever it
takes, so that we can bequeath to the generations of
humanity yet unborn a very peaceful and prosperous
world devoid of destitution, exploitation and
marginalization.
 In this context, my delegation would like to see a
speedy resolution of the plight of the Palestinians. We
call on the State of Israel to accept and respect the
two-State solution that the international community has
so clearly articulated without preconditions. We also
urge the Security Council to ensure that its resolutions
are respected by all States and enforced to the letter
and spirit by the United Nations, and not to allow
certain States to choose not only to ignore these
resolutions, but to violate them with impunity, while
other States face drastic and devastating military action
if such resolutions are adopted against them and they
so much as ask for clarification.
 The State of Israel has ignored and violated all
United Nations resolutions and conventions with
regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not only with
impunity, but also with the support and protection of
certain world Powers, while other countries have paid a
very high price merely for not having fully complied
with a Security Council resolution. The Council should
stop employing these unfortunate double standards.
The United Nations must not be turned into an “animal
farm”.
 Secondly, there is also the lingering issue of the
Republic of China on Taiwan. My delegation holds the
position that Taiwan should be invited to participate in
all meetings and activities of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change and the
International Civil Aviation Organization, among other
bodies. Taiwan has a legitimate right to full
membership of all United Nations specialized agencies,
since even non-governmental organizations have either
full membership or observer status in those agencies.
Taiwan, a democratic State with a population of
23 million, is still being denied this fundamental
human right, which the United Nations is supposed to
uphold and protect in the first place.
 My delegation also hereby calls on the United
Nations to urge the United States of America to
immediately and unconditionally lift its embargo on
Cuba, in accordance with the wishes of more than

09-52425 30

98 per cent of the membership of this body. That trade
embargo continues to hurt Cuban women and children.
The Cuban children born into those extreme hardships
have committed no crime. The punishment of women
and children because of political differences is a very
serious violation of their rights.
 Thirdly, my delegation renews its full support for
the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the Kingdom
of Morocco. On the question of the Moroccan Sahara,
we remain convinced that the proposal of the
Moroccan Government to grant substantive autonomy
to the Saharan region on the basis of the negotiations
initiated by the Security Council and conducted and
agreed by the parties would lead to a lasting and
peaceful resolution of the conflict.
 Finally, my delegation has been following keenly,
but with deep dismay, the protracted negotiations on
reform of the Security Council and a seeming
connivance to prevent such reform. Africa would like
to see Council reform undertaken, with balanced
representation of all continents in the Council. My
delegation therefore urges the President of the General
Assembly to make more effort on the issue during the
sixty-fourth session and to ensure that the continent of
Africa has at least two permanent seats on the Security
Council with full veto powers; if it does not, any
resolution adopted by the Council will not be binding
on Africa or any African Union member State by the
end of 2010. Africa, a continent 10 times the size of
Europe, does not have a single permanent seat on the
Security Council, while Europe has more than one.
 Africa has been subjected to discrimination,
marginalization, exploitation and humiliation for a very
long time. We Africans are no longer going to accept
that status quo. We will put an end to it very soon.
Members should take my words seriously.


I am grateful for the
opportunity to address the General Assembly at its
sixty-fourth session.
 Each year, we gather here to confront our
common challenges and to express our vision for the
world we share, the world for which we are common
stewards. And each year we promise to do more and to
do better to live up to and defend the principles
enshrined in the United Nations Charter.
 This year, we meet on the twentieth anniversary
of the most successful triumph of those principles.
Twenty years have passed since Europe and the rest of
the world were liberated from one of the cruellest
episodes in modern history. The fall of the Berlin Wall
brought an end to an artificial line that separated
nations, divided families, strangled freedom and
imprisoned millions. Remarkably, that formidable wall
crumbled without a single shot being fired. It yielded
to the will of those millions who yearned for liberty
and it yielded to the determination of a united West.
 Twenty years ago, a universally feared military
force was defeated by the force of a universal truth —
the call for freedom and the simple desire to live a
dignified life. When the Berlin Wall was dismantled
20 years ago, it did more than free the captive nations
of the Warsaw Pact. It unleashed the hopes, dreams,
aspirations and talents of millions of citizens living
under the tyranny of the Soviet Union — including my
own nation’s people.
 Today, these citizens make up more than a dozen
diverse nations, linked together by the common desires
and ambitions to live in a world free from spheres of
influence — free from external control — and to be
able to choose their own destiny. Today, as we look
back at that historic chapter and the impact it has had
on our world, we can rightly be proud of what was
achieved, the tremendous progress that has been made,
and the prosperity that a lasting peace has brought.
 But if we are to evaluate the past honestly, we
must admit that the present remains bittersweet. For
there is a real danger that, rather than build on this
great chapter of idealism and progress, States and
leaders will allow a return of the dull complacency and
cynical power politics that led to so many of the worst
moments of the past 100 years.
 And the moment is bittersweet because,
regrettably, not everyone drew the same lessons of
hope and inspiration when that wall came down.
Indeed, 20 years ago, when freedom’s spirit swept that
wall away, few imagined the repression and threats it
represented would so soon reappear and that the hopes
unleashed in 1989 would so quickly founder. Yet today,
a Europe that is whole, free, and at peace remains a
goal still to be achieved — a project not yet
accomplished and a challenge, unfortunately, unmet.
 Today, I stand before the Assembly as the
democratically elected leader of a proud and sovereign
nation. But, tragically, Georgia today, like Germany a
generation ago, is a nation with a deep wound running
through it. As Václav Havel and other leading voices
of Europe’s conscience declared earlier this week,
Europe is today divided by a new wall built by an
outside force — a wall that runs through the middle of
Georgia.
 This wall has been built by the same people who
miss the Berlin Wall, who regret its fall, who did
everything so that the wall would not fall. This wall
cuts off one fifth of our territory and, once again,
divides Europe from itself, creating new lines of
repression and fear, artificial dividing lines inside the
internationally recognized borders of a European
nation.
 It may be unpopular, but I am obliged to speak
the truth. And the truth is that this wall’s existence
mocks the progress we seemed to have made since that
bright, shining day in Berlin 20 years ago. This new
wall tells us that, once again, the rule of force has
trumped the rule of law and the rule of reason.
 I see no irony — only tragedy — in the fact that
this wall is being built by the very people whose ideas
were collectively and decisively defeated and rejected
just 20 years ago. I take no comfort in the fact that

57 09-52425

those who thought the wall’s destruction was the single
greatest tragedy of the twentieth century now lead
these deplorable efforts.
 One year ago, my country was invaded. Tanks,
warplanes, warships, bombs and State-directed cyber-
hackers descended upon our towns, villages, cities,
infrastructure and economy. Hundreds of our people
were killed within days and thousands were wounded.
Tens of thousands of innocent civilians were forced to
flee in the face of ethnic cleansing, which independent
human rights organizations have documented very
well.
 Today, these acts of brutality have gone
unaddressed, in direct contravention of international
law, the norms of this institution and internationally
signed agreements designed to reverse these wrongs.
These are the facts that confront us as we gather here
today, and these facts have a name: armed aggression,
ethnic cleansing, mass violation of human rights and
continuing illegal occupation.
 Those who unleashed war in our region and in my
country and led ethnic cleansing campaigns in Georgia
said yesterday — in this very Hall, from this very
rostrum — that they had to do it to “implement the
principle of the indivisibility of security” in order to
“move beyond the legacy of the past” (). This
is la langue de bois — very classical langue de bois
from the old days.
 The only thing that they stepped over in reality
was our sovereign border. They said they had to do it,
just as their predecessors had to invade Poland —
because of Poland’s reckless desire to be free — in
1939, Finland in 1940, Hungary in 1956,
Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Afghanistan in 1979. The
same people had to erase a capital of 400,000
inhabitants — Grozny — to destroy and exterminate
the proud Chechen nation and kill tens of thousands of
innocent women and children. And I am saying on the
record that the clock is ticking, and they will have to
do it again, and they will do it again unless they are
stopped by all of us. Recent history indeed is a
powerful guide to understanding what kind of actions
these leaders undertake in order to bring what they call
security and stability to my nation.
 But I want to say clearly today that the people of
Georgia cannot and will not accept a new dividing line
in our country. That is an unchangeable commitment.
Under these daily menaces, military provocations and
all kinds of lies directed against us from many different
sources, my nation will not crumble and we will never
surrender to this brutal force.
 The wall across Europe is not a matter of concern
to Georgia alone. Indeed, in this matter the very values
of this institution are under threat. The protection of
human rights, respect for the dignity and equality of all
persons, the inadmissibility of ethnic cleansing and the
recognition of the inviolability of sovereign borders —
all these are values that form the bedrock of this
institution.
 We certainly did not choose this course of action,
but it is up to us to recognize and reverse its illegality.
As a community of responsible nations, it is our
collective responsibility to uphold international law
and to insist that borders cannot and will not be
changed through the use of force. It is up to us to tear
down this new wall peacefully with the power of our
ideas and the strength of our convictions. I want the
world to understand clearly how we view this new wall
and our strategy for tearing it down.
 To start with, let me state outright that we do not
expect it to disappear overnight. We understand that it
is a very, very hard process, but the history of the
Berlin Wall teaches us that patience must never be
passive. We should never become resigned to the idea
that this situation should be accepted or tolerated. The
Berlin Wall fell only because passionate, disciplined,
energetic partisans of freedom, both behind and outside
that wall, worked with focus, discipline, courage and
determination to remind the world community of the
illegitimacy and illegality of that wall, and to take
action to hasten its demise.
 I would like to take this opportunity to thank
those States Members of the United Nations for their
votes recognizing the right of return for all who have
been displaced and for all the victims of ethnic
cleansing. I would like to thank all those nations across
the globe that resisted illegal pressure — and in many
cases attempts at bribery — by standing firm in their
non-recognition of those territories of Georgia now
occupied by a foreign force. I want to thank all those
nations that have been so generous in pledging and
providing the vital economic support that has proved
invaluable in helping to build shelters for and rebuild
the dreams of those the invasion has made refugees and
internally displaced persons. On behalf of all my
fellow citizens, I wish to thank them for their

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generosity, especially at a time of such extreme
hardship around the world.
 Beyond the comfort provided by their material
support, I want to thank all of Georgia’s friends who
have defended not only our sovereignty, but our right
to forge our own path in the world, to choose our own
alliances and to reject the nineteenth-century notion of
spheres of influence, which led to so much warfare,
repression and hardship in the world’s history. I want
to thank those nations and leaders of the European
Union who today have committed their monitors to
Georgia for the promotion of peace. The Georgian
people are also grateful to United States President
Obama for his unyielding words and very strong
declarations of support for our sovereignty and
territorial integrity, as well as to Vice President Biden
for visiting Georgia this summer and for underscoring,
in meeting with refugee children, America’s
commitment to our democracy and our right to choose
our own future. In particular, I want to thank the
United Nations for more than 16 years of contributions
to peace on the ground in Georgia through its presence
in our country — a presence recently and abruptly
halted by the unilateral actions of one single Member
State.
 Our future depends on us, and so today I also
want to report to the United Nations on the progress
Georgia has made, through our own efforts, in the year
since we suffered Europe’s first invasion in the post-
cold war era. One year after losing hundreds of our
sons and daughters and after seeing hundreds of
thousands of our people displaced, the Georgian people
have regrouped and made real progress down the path
of peace, freedom and individual liberty.
 I would like to pay tribute to their courage. Just a
few days ago, in a refugee camp outside Tbilisi, I saw
young children demonstrating their unstoppable will to
have a normal and free life. These were children of all
ethnic backgrounds. Indeed, most of the refugees from
South Ossetia are ethnic Ossetians, and they fled from
so-called liberators or were forced out. The children I
saw in that refugee camp were seizing the opportunity
to learn how to compete in the modern age using new
computers, mastering English and advancing their
pursuit of knowledge, despite the odds. These children
are the future of my country. These children symbolize
the path Georgia took after the invasion.
 We are following through on the promises I made
at this rostrum last year to strengthen our democracy,
foster pluralism and expand individual liberties.
Already, we have set reforms in motion that within the
next year will advance the progress of the Rose
Revolution and irreversibly deepen our identity as the
freest State in our region. Already, we have permitted
nearly three months of opposition protests to proceed
unhindered, even though they closed down the main
streets of our capital and paralysed Government
buildings. Our actions reflect our deep commitment to
pluralism and our respect for dissent and freedom of
speech.
 In a situation where enemy troops are just two
dozen kilometres from the capital, with their artillery
pointed at the city centre, we have already given
opposition-controlled broadcast stations license to
transmit across the nation. Already, we have brought
opposition parties into the meetings of our national
security council, basically keeping no secrets from
them and giving full access to all State information, so
as to ensure that our security policies reflect the unified
will of the nation, beyond faction and beyond party.
Already, we have committed to the direct election of
all mayors in a few months’ time, and we have begun
the development of new electoral rules, based on
consensus and the agreement of different political
parties, in order to ensure the greatest possible
legitimacy of the next local, parliamentary and
presidential elections.
 Along with all these efforts and our commitment
to democratic reforms, our biggest imperative today is
to continue to integrate all different political interests
and groups in promoting a better everyday life for our
citizens. We are also doing everything we can to
rebuild our economy.
 The Georgian people are skilled and hard-
working, but they are enduring the double punishment
of the global economic downturn and the economic
consequences of last summer’s invasion. Our biggest
imperative at home is to create more employment, and
we are pursuing that goal every day. Indeed, we are
heartened and proud that the World Bank recently
ranked Georgia as the eleventh most attractive country
in the world for doing business, when only a few years
ago we ranked 122nd. We also rank first in Eastern and
Central Europe, just one year after the invasion. And
we will continue to take steps to strengthen our
economy and create more employment.

59 09-52425

 We are resolutely committed to our vision of a
sovereign and unified Georgia. Together with all of
Georgia’s diverse ethnic groups and religions, we will
prevail over the illegal occupation and reverse the
results of ethnic cleansing.
 Abkhazia is the birthplace of Georgian
civilization. Since the days of the ancient kingdom of
Colchida — which was the birthplace of one of the
most interesting and ancient European cultures,
beginning with Jason and the Argonauts — it has been
a valuable and vibrant part of our journey through
history. Just a few years ago, it remained a very vibrant
part of Georgia. And that most vibrant and successful
part of Georgia has now been emptied of more than
three quarters of its population. Gardens, hotels,
theatres and restaurants have been replaced by military
bases, minefields and graveyards. It will take time, but
I am sure that Abkhazia will once again be what it
was — the most wonderful part of Georgia — and that
the occupation will be merely a part of history.
 I came here today to deliver a simple message.
We believe that Georgia is winning the peace, and here
is how the Assembly can measure our commitment.
Did we crumble in the face of the brutal invasion? No.
Did we crack down on dissent? No. Did we reduce
freedom in the face of recession? No. Even in the face
of adversity, we continue to contribute to the common
goals established by our friends and the international
community at large.
 I am proud to say that Georgia is in the vanguard
of the battle against climate change, producing 85 per
cent of its electricity from green and renewable
sources. That percentage is growing, and within the
next three years we will cover 100 per cent of our
needs. Meanwhile, we are on the front lines in
confronting terrorism throughout the world with our
allies, including in Afghanistan, where our troops will
serve side by side with others from around the world.
 We are winning the peace because, every day, the
nations of our region become more and more
independent from our common imperial legacy. Every
day, regional States increasingly reject the tremendous
pressure generated by our common past. Every day, the
idea that we can resist revanchist tendencies is
spreading further, and every day the arc of independent
nations — from Ukraine to Moldova and from
Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to Mongolia — is telling
the world that spheres of influence are a thing of the
past.
 Georgia is not only a country; the new wall that
cuts across our territory has transformed Georgia into
an idea and a test. It is an idea of freedom and
independence and a test for the world — a test that the
world must not fail. If the world passes the test, then
everyone will be amazed at how quickly the region will
develop its tremendous potential. An active, patient
victory over this new wall would be a crucial step in
the effort to build energy security for free nations and a
united front against lawlessness and terrorism. Georgia
is a place where all cultures, influences, religions and
traditions meet, providing an antidote to the threat of a
clash of civilizations.
 Yesterday, President Obama said clearly that new
walls should not divide us, that the future belongs to
those who build and not to those who destroy, and that
cooperation and values must prevail against division
and cynicism. Today, I want to stress how much we
share that vision and how vital that vision is to my
country, my region and beyond.
 Twenty years ago, the velvet revolutions opened a
new era of international relations and a new journey
began towards a free and cooperative world. I am
confident that we will prevail on that journey, but only
if we are not complacent or passive and only if we
support and defend our deeply held values. After all,
only this week, the clarion voice of those velvet
revolutions two decades ago — the voice of Václav
Havel — offered us a solemn reminder about the
dangers that we have yet to overcome. Speaking about
the new wall that now divides Georgia, he wrote,
together with other prominent Europeans, that
“the failure of western democracies to respond to
the dismemberment of a friendly nation, albeit a
small one, can have very serious global
consequences … The European Union was built
against the temptation of Munich and the iron
curtain. It would be utterly disastrous if we were
to appear in any way to condone the kind of
practices that plunged our continent into war and
division for most of the last century. At stake is
nothing less than the fate of the project to which
we continue to dedicate our lives: the peaceful
and democratic reunification of the European
continent”.

09-52425 60

 We must not fail to hear Václav Havel’s call,
President Obama’s call and the call of one of my
personal heroes from Russia, Anna Politkovskaya, who
was so brutally silenced. I remember my conversation
with Ms. Politkovskaya just a few days before she was
murdered. She was my friend and my hero, and I
remember the hopes that she expressed. Their calls
echo across two decades of progress — progress that
has inspired the greatest hopes but that remains very
fragile. Today and together, we must provide answers.
Today and together, we must show leadership and
vision. Today and together, we must demonstrate our

common resolve. And most of all, today and together,
we must provide an example, showing that the power
of our values and ideals will finally unleash the
tremendous human potential within all of us.


Like previous speakers, I
offer you, Sir, my warmest congratulations on your
election to the presidency of the General Assembly for
this session. I also wish to pay tribute to the Secretary-
General for his excellent report on the work of the
Organization (A/64/1) and for his continuing
leadership during these unprecedented and challenging
times. A testament to the Secretary-General’s
leadership has been his persistent efforts to convene
the Summit on Climate Change held earlier this week.
For those of us who are also members of the Alliance
of Small Island States, our own Summit, held
immediately beforehand, was a timely exercise in
focusing on the critical issues at stake in the run-up to
the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference to be held
in December.
 Climate change has taken its rightful place at the
forefront of many of the statements we have heard this
week. In the case of small island developing States like
ours, we all need to reach beyond our narrow national
interests and embrace our collective responsibility to
one another as nation States and to those most
vulnerable and least able to address the adverse effects
of climate change. At the Pacific Islands Forum, the
issue of climate change and the type of collective effort
it requires has been at the forefront of the meetings of
Pacific leaders, most recently in Cairns under the
chairmanship of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd of
Australia. Such efforts resulted, earlier this year, in the
General Assembly’s adoption by consensus of
resolution 63/281, on climate change and its security
implications.
 It has been heartening to hear in this Hall words
of action — a determination to move away from the
rhetoric of climate change to the reality of action:
action to mitigate the effects of climate change and
action to stop the waste of our energy resources. But
the words of Presidents and Prime Ministers are not
enough. They must be matched by action. Our
determination and our understanding of the truth of
climate change must be propelled by honest efforts to
mitigate and change the wasteful energy habits of a
lifetime into the productive energy habits of the future.
 The lessons of the past year have reinforced our
support for reform of the international financial
institutions. In particular, we look forward to the
outcome of the just-concluded meeting of the Group of
20 in Pittsburgh as further crucial and concerted action
following the measures taken in Washington and
London.
 Despite the uncertain global economic and
financial climate, we remain committed to making
further progress in achieving the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs), which remain a core
component of our national development planning.
Much of that progress has been reliant on our own

37 09-52586

domestic efforts, but it has also been assisted by our
development partners. In that regard, we support the
Secretary-General’s convening of a special summit on
the MDGs in 2010 as a final push towards 2015.
Further, the high-level review of the Mauritius Strategy
for the Further Implementation of the Programme of
Action for the Sustainable Development of Small
Island Developing States, to be carried out the same
year, offers us, as small island developing States, a
fresh opportunity to take stock of progress and areas
for improvement. We also welcome the renewed
interest and engagement of the United States of
America regarding the Pacific islands.
 Earlier this year, my country, the Kingdom of
Tonga, in compliance with its obligations under the
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,
lodged a partial submission for the consideration of the
Commission on the Outer Limits of the Continental
Shelf. This was a significant exercise made possible
through our own efforts, with the technical assistance
of organizations such as the Commonwealth
Secretariat. As we are an island nation, the living
marine resources of our maritime zones and the
potential of non-living ones remain critical to our
future.
 We continue to follow the meandering course of
the discussions on reform of the Security Council. We
maintain our support for such reform and hold the view
that there should be an expansion in both the
permanent and the non-permanent membership
categories.
 Since 100 per cent of our power generation is
fuelled by imported fossil fuels, our economic potential
has been adversely affected by rising fuel prices, which
has forced us to investigate feasible renewable sources
of energy. We thus have set the target of achieving
50  per cent of our electricity generation utilizing
renewable energy sources by the year 2012.
 We have reviewed donor funding provided by our
development partners to see how best we could achieve
that ambitious goal and also fulfil our wish to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. At the conclusion of the
regional Pacific Energy Ministers Meeting hosted in
Tonga earlier this year, we discussed those issues with
our development partners. It very quickly became
apparent that a new model for doing business was
needed. And so it was that the concept for the Tonga
Renewable Energy Road Map was born.
 The development partners all agreed to
collaborate, under the coordination of the World Bank,
to assess the current infrastructure of on-grid and
off-grid electrification throughout the Kingdom. The
World Bank, the European Union, the Asian
Development Bank, Australia, New Zealand and Japan
readily accepted this opportunity to actively participate
in the development of our Energy Road Map. Those
efforts were recently boosted by strong support from
the Government of the United Arab Emirates and the
International Renewable Energy Agency, which was
reaffirmed at bilateral meetings held in New York this
week.
 Tonga’s cultural and constitutional roots are
innately enduring. We are proud of our 134-year-old
written Constitution, which is one of the oldest in the
world and is still in force. Our Constitution enshrined
basic human rights and freedoms that today are the
subject of international treaties. The Tongan way of life
is not based solely on the rights, responsibilities,
freedoms and obligations of the individual, but
emphasizes rights, responsibilities, freedoms and
obligations attaching to the extended family and the
whole community. While the values underlying human
rights may be expressed differently from Tongan
customary and traditional values, and while both
reflect similar aspirations, Tonga’s strength lies in the
binding links of collective group values and individual
obligations and responsibilities.
 Our parliament recently considered ratification of
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Parliament
voted not to ratify CEDAW, because to do so would
conflict with the cultural and social heritage that makes
up the unique Tongan way of life. We take the
ratification of international treaties very seriously. We
did not want to ratify CEDAW as a matter of
international convenience. We would rather be judged
by our actions to empower women than by a
ratification of convenience. And we make no apologies
for our stance. We admit that there are issues to be
addressed. But, rather than ratify CEDAW, we prefer to
address those specific areas of concern to women in
our own way. We maintain that our women are among
the most highly cherished, elevated and respected in
the world.
 Finally, this month marks the tenth anniversary of
Tonga’s admission as a Member of the United Nations.
We reaffirm the rights and responsibilities bestowed

09-52586 38

upon us by the United Nations Charter, and we pledge
to continue to participate constructively in addressing
our common challenges. Those challenges will be
overcome by our action. Given that the United Nations
is the forum for united action and given the
commitments made by leaders to such action, we may
just awake to the fact that it is the good in the world,
not the evil, that surpasses all explanation.


In these tumultuous
times marked by manifold crises, we are more than
ever in need of a global Organization that all Members
make use of and support. We need the United Nations.
The comprehensive, universal system of the United
Nations forms the heart of the global system of crisis
prevention and mitigation. Now more than ever,
Germany pledges its active and extensive support to
this world Organization.
 This past year taught us bitter lessons, and today
it seems clearer than ever: we must secure the
sustainability of the economic recovery. That applies
not only to the financial sector, but also, and in
particular, to the most vulnerable in the world — the
poorest of the poor in the developing countries — as
well as to our environment and the world’s climate.
 The consultations on a charter for sustainable
economic activity point in the right direction. The
United Nations should be actively involved in that
process. We must turn the crisis into an opportunity for
development and a truly green recovery.
 The aftermath of the financial crisis is
jeopardizing our progress on the path towards
achieving the Millennium Development Goals.
Therefore, we must do our utmost to avoid any
setbacks in that regard. Donor States must continue
their efforts for development, all the more so in times
of crisis. Germany has continually increased its official
development assistance contributions in recent years.
In 2008, my country was the second-largest donor of
official development assistance. We will also
significantly increase our contributions to the
multilateral development banks.
 All of this underscores one thing: Germany, as
one of the world’s largest economies, stands by its
global responsibility. But developing countries must
also live up to their responsibilities. Responsible
governance, respect for human rights, environmental
protection, the fight against epidemics, the
strengthening of the rights of women — those are the
challenges that each country has the responsibility to
meet.
 Climate change is the pre-eminent challenge of
the twenty-first century. It threatens our well-being,
our security and our economic development. It will
lead to uncontrollable risks and dramatic damage, if we
do not take resolute action — not in some distant
future, but right now.
 I can assure the Assembly: Germany will
continue to be a leader in climate protection. But we
will be successful only if we act together. We need an
inclusive process in which those countries directly
affected by climate change, such as the small island
States, can also play a part. The United Nations is the
only reliable framework for this. I would like to thank
the Secretary-General for his very timely initiative in
convening a United Nations summit last week
addressing this key issue.
 Disarmament and arms control can help create
better conditions for global cooperation and increase
security and stability. We warmly welcome the new
dynamic in the area of nuclear disarmament. The call
for a nuclear-weapon-free world enjoys widespread
support, including that of Germany. We must seize this
opportunity for progress in all areas of disarmament.
Germany has underlined that sub-strategic nuclear
weapons must also be incorporated into the continuing
process of disarmament. Our clear commitment to
ridding the world of all nuclear weapons is the best
way to strengthen the international non-proliferation
regime.
 We need a new international consensus at the
2010 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on
the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), the
launching of negotiations in Geneva on a fissile
material cut-off treaty and the entry into force of the
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. In order to
avoid a conflict of objectives between
non-proliferation and peaceful uses, Germany supports
multilateral solutions to nuclear-fuel supply and has
put forward its own proposal on that issue.
 The international community must not relent in
its commitment to banning all weapons of mass
destruction. A model in that respect is the Chemical
Weapons Convention, which outlaws a whole category
of weapons of mass destruction. Its implementing
organization needs strong and dynamic leadership.
Germany has always had a particular commitment to

55 09-52604

the Chemical Weapons Convention, and we stand ready
to accept greater responsibility in that organization.
 We view the ongoing nuclear programme in Iran
with great concern. The belated admittance by Iran
concerning the construction of a second enrichment
plant underlines the fact that our concerns are more
than justified. Even before this latest event, the report
by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
Director-General El Baradei emphasized the urgency of
the matter. Unfortunately, the Iranian Government still
refuses to cooperate fully with the IAEA and to remove
serious doubts concerning the peaceful character of its
nuclear programme. We urge Iran to grant an IAEA
verification team access to the newly disclosed site
without delay.
 We sincerely hope that Iran will use the
opportunity of the upcoming talks between it and the
E3+3 — the United Kingdom, France and Germany,
plus the United States, the Russian Federation and
China — to demonstrate its willingness to engage in
honest and speedy negotiations. If Iran’s leaders
continue to stall, the international community will have
no other choice but to take additional measures to
emphasize the seriousness of our common concern.
 Iran has a long and great history. It witnessed the
origins of civilization. It can become an anchor of
stability in its region — a respected member of the
international community. But that involves, in addition
to a diplomatic resolution of questions regarding its
nuclear programme, a responsible foreign policy
towards its neighbours. The key to this is the
recognition of Israel’s right to exist.
 Since the escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip
at the beginning of the year, we have seen some
encouraging signs of a return to the peace process. The
resumption of negotiations aimed at the two-State
solution is still possible. Germany strongly supports
President Obama’s intensive commitment and regional
approach. Together with the partners of the European
Union, we are prepared to support efforts towards
peace through concrete contributions. What we now
need, however, are courageous gestures of goodwill on
all sides to create the conditions for serious talks.
 The successful holding of elections in June was
an important milestone towards the continuing
stabilization of Lebanon. What is now important is that
a new Government soon be formed. The successful
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
mission remains a crucial contribution to securing the
ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, and thus to the
stabilization of the region. By again assuming
command of the UNIFIL Maritime Task Force on
1 September, we further strengthened our commitment
to UNIFIL.
 For Afghanistan, 2009 is a pivotal year. The
presidential elections — the first elections in decades
that were free and organized by the Afghans
themselves — determined who will control the fate of
the country over the next five years. They were an
impressive sign of the resolve of the people of
Afghanistan to take part in the political process.
 Against the backdrop of the difficult security
situation, the further build-up of Afghan security forces
assumes even greater importance. We will, therefore,
continue to increase the number of German police
instructors in Afghanistan, we will support the further
build-up of the European Union Police Mission, and
we will help to advance the training of the Afghan
army within the framework of the International
Security Assistance Force.
 Despite all the criticism, there are also
encouraging accomplishments, especially in the field
of economic growth and in the reconstruction of the
country’s infrastructure. The basic prerequisites for
Afghanistan’s sustainable development are good
governance, a resolute fight against corruption and an
improvement in State services. These are essential if
the population is to once again nurture hope for the
future. As one of the largest troop-contributing nations
and one of the main bilateral donors, Germany will
continue to play an instrumental role in the
reconstruction of the country.
 Following the presidential elections, we are now
entering a new phase of cooperation between the
international community and Afghanistan. For that
reason, Germany, together with the United Kingdom
and France, has taken the initiative to hold an
international conference that will set out concrete,
realistic and measurable goals for the future political
and economic development of Afghanistan. To that
end, the Afghanistan Compact, which will expire in
2010, should be further developed.
 In 2010, we will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary
of the independence of no fewer than 17 African
States — a fitting moment to also look to the future.
Despite the global economic crisis, the overall outlook

09-52604 56

for Africa and its people is positive. We must succeed
in utilizing the continent’s enormous potential in terms
of people, creativity and resources. It remains our
challenge to support the development of that potential
while, at the same time, respecting African ownership.
 African ownership should by no means be
equated with a withdrawal from our neighbouring
continent. On the contrary, it means that we should
cultivate relations with the States of Africa in a spirit
of partnership — a partnership in which each side
introduces its ideas, and in which we work together to
master the challenges we face, whether locally or
globally.
 One major common challenge remains the
containment of violence and the protection of people in
conflict areas. Germany will continue its extensive
engagement in Africa, be it in the area of development
cooperation, peace and security, business and
technology, the environmental and energy sector or
educational and scientific cooperation. This also
applies to cooperation with the African Union, which
has been expanding increasingly in recent years.
 United Nations peacekeeping missions are a
central pillar of the international security architecture.
Reform of United Nations peacekeeping is an urgent
issue, and Germany is ready to actively contribute to
such reform.
 It is absolutely essential that the cooperation
between the United Nations and regional organizations
be further intensified. The European Union has just
shown that, with its peacekeeping missions in
Africa — those in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo and Chad, to name just two examples — it is a
reliable partner of the United Nations when it comes to
crisis management.
 We are facing a multitude of global challenges.
Today, no country is strong enough to tackle those
challenges on its own. We need a universal forum for
joint global action. That is why we need a strong
United Nations that is capable of taking effective
action.
 A long chain of high-level meetings — from the
2005 High-level Event to the Secretary-General’s
Summit on Climate Change last week — has
emphasized how urgent it is to adapt the United
Nations to the challenges of today’s world, for threats
have become global. Our responses, however, are still
not always global, and that is true for the United
Nations as well.
 Reforms must start with simple questions. Does a
particular body effectively fulfil its tasks? Does its
composition reflect the world of today? Where that is
not the case, reform must have a clear objective: to
make the United Nations more effective, more credible
and more assertive.
 However, we must not limit reforms to the United
Nations. If we want to deal effectively with the current
crisis and effectively prevent future crises, we must
also reform the international financial institutions.
Isolated reforms of individual institutions will not get
us anywhere. Reform of the financial institutions and
of the United Nations must intermesh as a broader
reform of global governance — a reform that, more
than six decades after the founding of today’s world
order, is long overdue. Germany, incidentally, is
advocating at a high level the improved representation
of newly industrialized and developing countries as
part of the reform of the international financial
institutions. This is our understanding of global
governance: fair participation for everybody.
 In 2000 and 2005, heads of State and Government
called for reform of the Security Council. They did so
out of the realization that we can meet the threats of
today only if the Council reflects the world of today.
One thing is clear: if the Security Council does not
reform itself, there is a risk that other bodies will
attempt to take its place. Such a rivalry would be
detrimental to us all. Let us therefore attempt, at this
sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly, to bring
about concrete results.
 Germany has been and remains willing to take
responsibility. That includes assuming a permanent
seat on a reformed Security Council. We also underline
this readiness to take responsibility with our candidacy
for a non-permanent seat on the Council for the period
2011-2012. Through our work in the Security Council,
we want to contribute to the success of the United
Nations, just as we are already contributing to
worldwide United Nations missions, to development
funds, humanitarian aid and the United Nations
Environment Programme. Now and in the future, we
will work to find common interests, to overcome
divisions and to strengthen a global partnership of
responsibility.


I
would like to congratulate the President of the General
Assembly and reiterate to the United Nations our
gratitude for its positive presence and cooperation with
the Colombian people.
 The Government over which I preside aims to
enhance the confidence of the national and
international community in Colombia. This quest for
confidence is based on three pillars: security with
democratic values, the promotion of investment and
entrepreneurship with social responsibility, and social
cohesion with freedoms.
 We continue with our security advances, but also
there are some outstanding challenges. I would like to
highlight some intangible achievements that attest to
the democratic credentials of our security project.
 We have recovered two monopolies that we
should never have lost: the monopoly of institutional
forces to fight criminals and the monopoly of justice
that the terrorists tried to dislodge. We have dismantled
paramilitarism, a term that emerged to describe private
criminal gangs whose objective was to fight drug-
trafficking guerrillas. Today, the State is the only entity
that fights all those criminals. Those criminals in all
their forms — narco-guerrillas, criminal gangs — are
part of a mafia-type relationship that unites them or
pits them against each other to distribute or fight over
the gains of the criminal drug business.
 Justice, with the Supreme Court that was attacked
in 1985 by drug traffickers and guerrillas; justice,
which was tormented by the threats to and
assassination of judges and was dislodged in many
regions by the terrorists leaders of guerrillas and
paramilitary groups that attempted to replace it; justice
has, throughout the entire country, regained its full
effectiveness.
 Victims did not complain out of fear of retaliation
or because they thought it was pointless. Now, thanks
to the recovery of our security, we have registered
239,758 victims, whose situations we are determined to
remedy, a remedy that is never complete but which will
lead little by little to reconciliation by overcoming of
the spirit of vengeance and hatred.
 We have regained the independence of
decentralization and of political exercise. Terrorism
had displaced 30 per cent of our mayors, stolen and
corrupted municipal and departmental budgets and
exercised coercion within the public sector. Mayors
have regained their security so that they may freely
carry out their duties and transparently manage their
resources. Politics is now expressed freely in all
spectrums of thought. This terrorist threat has been
tackled without martial law, with full civil and political
guarantees and absolute respect for the freedom that we
promote with security.
 We are working to improve the effectiveness of
our public forces as well as respect for human rights.
We do not hesitate to punish those who violate them,
but neither do we refrain from defending our soldiers
and policemen who sometimes have been victims of a
dirty legal war. Colombia has voluntarily presented
itself to a United Nations human rights review.
 Furthermore, despite the suffering caused by
landmines that had been planted by terrorist groups, the
State destroyed those that were used by its public
forces for training purposes. Our country is one of the
leaders of the Ottawa Convention to destroy these
landmines and will host the next meeting of States
parties in Cartagena.

09-52228 14

 We tackle terrorism with the utmost
determination, and we practise democracy fervently.
That is why the doors of Colombia have been open
without restriction to international vigilance. We
deliberate and disagree, but both impartial observers
and biased critics have had complete freedom to
express themselves in Colombia.
 Our interest does not lie in the fanatical
confrontation between left and right, which is as
dangerous as it is obsolete. Rather, we are betting on a
modern democracy, a democracy that is safe and free,
that builds social cohesion, a democracy with
independent institutions and with confidence that stems
from the transparency that is based on a high level of
civic participation.
 We have not been able to completely overcome
the problem of displacement, but we have increased
our budget twelvefold to help displaced persons. We
promote trust between public forces and communities
so that those who fight drug trafficking are not
thwarted by the displacement that is caused by drug
traffickers.
 We have demobilized 51,783 members of terrorist
groups, whose numbers have dropped from around
60,000 to fewer than 8,000. We have been extremely
generous with those who have been demobilized and
extremely severe with the 7 per cent who have returned
to crime. The Justice and Peace Law, which covers
them, made it possible to report 29,555 criminal acts,
12,104 confessions, the discovery of 2,043 graves with
2,492 corpses, the identification of 708 bodies and the
return of 581 to their families. The participation of
victims and new procedures for restitution and
restoration of their rights are a decisive component of
this demobilization process.
 Terrorism cannot be ignored in the name of good
international relations. To the contrary, multilateralism
and diplomacy must lead to collaborative action among
States to overcome this tragedy and its corollaries,
including arms trafficking, illicit drugs, money and
asset laundering and terrorist havens.
 We reaffirm our commitment to multilateralism in
all its legitimate expressions, from organizations of
neighbouring countries to the most global
Organization, but we believe that multilateralism must
demonstrate that it is effective in defeating
international crime.
 Colombia has acknowledged its internal problem
of narco-terrorism. We have carried out a heroic
struggle that will ultimately prevail. We cooperate with
the international community and we ask for more
effective cooperation. We are cooperating with Mexico,
Guatemala, Panama, Costa Rica, Haiti, the Dominican
Republic, Peru, Afghanistan and other countries. We
acknowledge the efforts of the United States to work
together with us to make progress in dismantling
narco-terrorism. We request greater cooperation from
more countries and from the international community.
Our objective is to restore domestic security and never
to participate in the arms race for the bloody game of
international warfare. Our tradition is one of respect
for the global community.
 We are concerned that, instead of progress
towards greater cooperation to ensure the security,
peace and tranquillity of the citizens of all countries,
there is an acceleration of the arms race. Some justify
it by citing the need to modernize their military
equipment, while others admit their desire for war.
 Multilateral agencies, led by the United Nations,
must strengthen their action so that Governments will
fulfil their duty to protect their citizens and their
obligation not to attack the international community.
 In Colombia, the only reason for terrorism is the
drug trade. Its violent criminals used to deny being
involved in narco-terrorism and to try to appear
ideological; today, having lost all sense of decency,
they cannot hide their criminal enterprise or feign
ideological postures, which are negated by their cruelty
towards their victims and those whom they have
kidnapped. The democratic transparency of our
country, which they tried to destroy, ensures that they
will never be acceptable.
 We have a different view of co-responsibility and
of the proposal that drugs be legalized. The former
division between producer and consumer countries has
disappeared. Colombia began as a trafficking territory,
burst into production and now suffers as a consumer.
Those who began as consumers increase production.
All peoples are exposed to the risks of drug production,
trafficking and consumption. Co-responsibility must
thus be exercised in accordance with its real meaning:
a task that belongs to all of us, without any
reservations.
 We believe that, instead of advocating the
legalization of drugs, we should consider the need to

15 09-52228

criminalize consumption. There is no consistency
between toughness when it comes to production and
trafficking and permissiveness when it comes to
consumption. That has led to deadly micro-trafficking
in cities, the promotion of consumption by adolescents
and young people and the involvement of children in
the criminal trade. We are making progress in the
constitutional process of criminalizing consumption,
taking care not to confuse the sick addict with the
criminal distributor.
 Our Government is promoting investment and
entrepreneurship as ways to overcome poverty and
build equity. Colombia is moving forward in terms of
competitiveness and confidence. Investment must
perform a function of social responsibility to acquire
popular legitimacy in democratic societies. Social
responsibility — not speculation — is inseparable from
capital as a significant factor in social-wealth creation.
The economic crisis is a crisis of speculation, rather
than of creative free enterprise. We are confident that
the necessary conventions will be adopted to avoid the
risks created by speculative money transfers and
financial market speculation. We fear a new era of
protectionism and the selective closure of developed
economies, which would impede sustainable economic
recovery.
 Social responsibility is inseparable from the fight
against climate change. Colombia is a net producer of
oxygen and emits insignificant amounts of carbon
dioxide. However, we are highly vulnerable, as shown
by the winter tragedies in recent years, which have
caused losses in terms of human life, production and
high service costs. We support tougher international
conventions to protect the environment. We hope that
the Copenhagen conference will produce effective
binding instruments so that it will not be another dead
letter.
 Our main contribution to the fight against climate
change is the preservation of our 578,000-square-
kilometre rainforest, which constitutes more than
51 per cent of our national territory and the majority of
which lies along the Amazon. We have as a concrete
policy the forest ranger family programme, which has
involved more than 90,000 rural families in the
collective effort to protect the rainforest, keep it free
from the shadow of illicit drugs and ensure its recovery
where it has been destroyed. The State pays a bonus to
those families. The programme, supervised by the
United Nations, has received the highest rating from
the Organization.
 In Colombia, forest ranger families protect the
Amazon rainforest from predatory drugs; elsewhere in
the world, a similar model could preserve trees in order
to mitigate climate change.
 Clean energy, mass transportation systems and
the protection of water sources are essential actions in
our contribution to the fight against global warming.
Colombia, at more than 1 million litres per day, is the
second-largest Latin American producer of ethanol
from sugar cane and, at 1.8 million litres per day, the
largest producer of biodiesel from African palm. The
conditions in our country make it possible to increase
those outputs without destroying the rainforest or
limiting food security.
 We have introduced incentives for other clean
energies such as solar and wind energy, the
development of which remains small despite their great
potential.
 We are working on building nine mass
transportation systems in major cities and are now in
the process of incorporating another 10 that are
proportionally sized, with a view to replacing
individual transportation with collective transportation.
 Eleven per cent of our national territory has been
designated a protected area. In natural sanctuaries such
as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, which is the
highest coastal sanctuary in the world, agreements with
indigenous communities are being implemented. In
exchange for security, the recovery of lands and the
building of seven out of nine promised villages, they
have once again taken over the noble task of preserving
forests and water sources.
 We gain nothing from security, investment,
health, education or any other social cohesion policy if
we do not attach equal importance to the environment.
We understand this in a “mega-diverse” nation that
contains 14 per cent of the planet’s diversity and ranks
second — behind Brazil — in terms of plant and
animal species and first in terms of amphibians and
birds.
 Our fervent desire is to increase the Human
Opportunity Index in order to eliminate poverty, build
equity and guarantee every possible alternative for new
generations. We propose to include in the measuring of
the Index progress and setbacks in environmental

09-52228 16

policies. Opportunities are pointless without
environmental protection. Let us be effective in our
fight against climate change so that we do not condemn
the future inhabitants of the Earth to a planetary
holocaust.


Let me start by expressing my
sincere congratulations to Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on
his assumption to the presidency of the United Nations
General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session.
 This year marks important milestones for Timor-
Leste. Ten years ago, the United Nations sponsored the
popular referendum held in my country, marking the
transition to full independence. Seven years ago, we
attained full sovereignty with the restoration of our
independence and began, for the first time in the
history of our nation, the challenging process of
nation-building.

35 09-52604

 We have been assisted by successive United
Nations missions, which began by exercising, for the
first time in the history of the United Nations, full
administrative powers in Timor-Leste. This process has
been undertaken a very limited number of times in this
new millennium.
 Naturally, there are always failures and successes
in decisions taken and policies adopted, and those form
part of our collective challenge on the nation-building
road. This is true for both established and newly
established States. Timor-Leste has been both
showcased as a success story of the United Nations and
hastily characterized by some as a failed State.
 I stand here today, not to argue on behalf of one
view or another, much less to duel over the past. I am
here to describe what Timor-Leste is today, what we
have been able to do, our modest achievements and
remaining challenges, but most importantly, how we,
as a new and small nation-State, situate ourselves in
the community of nations.
 We also want to be part of the solutions to the
unprecedented challenges facing humanity in this new
millennium. Today we talk about global problems that
are the responsibility of all of us, requiring concerted
and collective action, and Timor-Leste is ready to
assume its part of that responsibility.
 Let me also stress, however, that I am able to be
here today because it was through the United Nations
that a solution was found to what was then termed the
“Question of East Timor”. It was the United Nations
that shouldered the responsibility of finding a just
solution to that question and that was, indeed,
successful in doing so.
 The decision to engage with the United Nations
was a wise one, taken by the then leaders of the
resistance, who are today our elder statesmen, our
esteemed President of the Republic, Mr. José Ramos-
Horta, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Kay Rala Xanana
Gusmão.
 The underlining policy of seeking to resolve
conflict through peaceful means and of deferring to the
United Nations Charter so as to enable the exercise of
the universal right to self-determination is a
fundamental principle embraced by the new generation
of Timorese leaders. The engagement with the United
Nations continues to be the policy of Timor-Leste
today.
 Timor-Leste has benefited greatly from this
engagement, through the dedicated work of successive
United Nations missions and through the presence and
work of various United Nations agencies, funds and
programmes. The United Nations administrative role in
Timor-Leste under the capable leadership of our dear
friend, the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, was without
precedence. Could the United Nations have done things
differently in those earlier and subsequent years and
how can we best use this partnership to move forward?
 Without a doubt the most valuable contribution of
Timor-Leste to lessons learned and how to apply those
lessons for future situations involved United Nations
peacekeeping and peacebuilding. One of the most
important lessons is that it takes time to build national
capacities and sustainable institutions.
 Young nations like ours have to evaluate and
balance many priorities among various pressing
socio-economic requirements, including the provision
of basic social services, building State institutions and
developing capacities. We have to balance justice with
peace and reconciliation. This involves prioritizing
many urgent demands and sequencing actions. There
are no quick fixes or short-term solutions.
 Timor-Leste has been the subject of a staggering
number of evaluations and studies, about three
thousand in number, including some on United Nations
work in the country. As our contribution to the lessons
learned for the United Nations, I have proposed that
Timor-Leste, as the beneficiary of what has been done
and in order to provide a country-based perspective,
should itself conduct an evaluation of all that has been
done in the country by the international community,
and of how the benefits of these actions, or otherwise,
have been experienced and felt in the country by the
Timorese themselves.
 The experience of the United Nations Integrated
Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) has shown the need
for a longer term engagement by the United Nations.
The crisis in Timor-Leste in 2006 was an unfortunate
reminder of the fragility of peace when State
institutions are still weak, capacities still need to be
strengthened, and all competing social, economic and
political needs cannot be met. The cost of dealing with
the regression to violence in 2006 has been high for the
international community, including the United Nations
and our development partners, as well as for the
Timorese Government itself. UNMIT’s mandate to help

09-52604 36

reconstruct our security forces and provide support for
our justice system is central, and the Mission is still
needed to ensure long-term peace and stability in our
country.
 The Government of Timor-Leste has continued to
make significant achievements, although we still face
challenges. Some of the main problems from the 2006
crisis have been resolved. Internally displaced persons
have been peacefully reintegrated into their
communities, the security forces are being
reconstituted, although they still require capacity-
building and strengthening, and gang violence has been
stopped. Our State institutions are fully functioning,
and the Government can now concentrate more on
development.
 I wish to emphasize the importance that we
continue to place on relations with Indonesia, where
we have taken a pragmatic approach and base our
relations on reconciliation and the principle of looking
forward. We cannot deny, or undo, what has happened
in the past we share, but we are determined to be
reconciled with that past, because we know we can
progress and do much for the future. I am part of a new
generation of leaders in Timor-Leste, and neither we
collectively nor I personally have been spared the grief
and loss experienced by most of Timor-Leste’s
population. But I know that my responsibility is to
prevent what happened in Timor-Leste in the past from
ever happening again. Timor-Leste and Indonesia are
both countries in transition, and we should be allowed
to search for our own path, as President Obama has
said, conscious that our path may not be perfect.
 This is a complex process that requires a
Timorese solution. I am sure that other countries that
have been in conflict have appreciated the long-term
support of the international community as they tackled
the same problems that we are facing. Timor-Leste has
not in any way turned its back on justice. Our
Constitution enshrines the rule of law in our country,
and the Government’s policy is to fully strengthen the
justice system. We are being aided in this by the
international community, and we are fully cognizant
that we will continue to need its assistance in years to
come. Our Government has been severely criticized,
both internationally and nationally, on some positions
that we have adopted and some decisions that have
been taken. However, they were taken in the conviction
that we need to be reconciled with our past and ensure
peace for current and future generations, and we stand
by those decisions.
 Timor-Leste today has its own set of challenges,
which may appear distant from the emerging
challenges facing humankind in general and presented
at this forum. Timor-Leste continues to be concerned
with alleviating and reducing poverty and high
unemployment, addressing the needs of the rural
population and establishing and consolidating State
institutions so they can better respond to the needs of
all of our people. But that does not mean that Timor-
Leste has its head in the sand and is unaware of other
challenges. Our young nation will need time to address
and overcome all of these challenges.
 As part of the community of nations and
humankind, Timor-Leste is also concerned with all that
threatens life on this planet, and has expressed its
views. In fact, as a Member of the United Nations,
Timor-Leste has expressed its position in the General
Assembly on a number of important issues. We wish to
reiterate our opposition to the economic sanctions
imposed on Cuba by the United States, and we reaffirm
our support for the General Assembly resolutions of
the past 17 years that have called on the United States
to lift those sanctions.
 It is not Timor-Leste’s intention to develop
nuclear capacity or become a nuclear power, and we
have therefore ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty. We
counsel caution in the development of and use of
nuclear capacity. With regard to climate change, Timor-
Leste, although an island State, is fortunate not to be
immediately threatened by rising sea levels, nor is it
responsible for large carbon emissions. But we are
affected by changing weather patterns and we are
following the climate-change debate. At the national
level, we are naturally concerned with the preservation
of our environment and consider reforestation and
protection of the environment important issues.
 As far as the financial and economic crisis is
concerned, Timor-Leste has been fortunate to have
experienced only partial impact. However, we are also
concerned with the causes of the crisis, and we are
looking to learn the lessons about what to avoid in
building our financial systems and institutions. In light
of this, we support the decisions taken at the recent
meeting of the G-20 in Pittsburgh on taking preventive
measures for the future.

37 09-52604

 In conclusion, allow me, on behalf of our
Government, to express our gratitude to the United
Nations and our international partners for their
continued support of Timor-Leste. We stand resolutely
with you to contribute to solutions to our collective
challenges, and we are resolved to find solutions to our
own national challenges.