Thank you for the honour of
addressing the General Assembly. The American
people respect the idealism that gave life to this
Organization. And we respect the men and women of
the United Nations, who stand for peace and human
rights in every part of the world. Welcome to New
York City, and welcome to the United States of
America.
During the past three years, I have addressed the
General Assembly in a time of tragedy for my country,
and in times of decision for all of us. Now we gather at
a time of tremendous opportunity for the United
Nations and for all peaceful nations. For decades, the
circle of liberty, security and development has been
expanding in our world. This progress has brought
unity to Europe, self-government to Latin America and
Asia and new hope to Africa. Now we have the historic
8

chance to widen the circle even further, to fight
radicalism and terror with justice and dignity and to
achieve a true peace, founded on human freedom.
The United Nations and my country share the
deepest commitments. Both the American Declaration
of Independence and the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights proclaim the equal value and dignity of
every human life. That dignity is honoured by the rule
of law, limits on the power of the State, respect for
women, protection of private property, free speech,
equal justice and religious tolerance. That dignity is
dishonoured by oppression, corruption, tyranny,
bigotry, terrorism and all violence against the innocent.
Both our founding documents affirm that this bright
line between justice and injustice — between right and
wrong — is the same in every age, every culture and
every nation.
Wise Governments also stand for these principles
for very practical and realistic reasons. We know that
dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free
nations strive to resolve differences in peace. We know
that oppressive Governments support terror, while free
Governments fight the terrorists in their midst. We
know that free peoples embrace progress and life,
instead of becoming the recruits for murderous
ideologies.
Every nation that wants peace will share the
benefits of a freer world. And every nation that seeks
peace has an obligation to help build that world.
Eventually there is no safe isolation from terror
networks, or failed States that shelter them, or outlaw
regimes or weapons of mass destruction. Eventually
there is no safety in looking away, seeking the quiet
life by ignoring the struggles and oppression of others.
In this young century our world needs a new
definition of security. Our security is not merely found
in spheres of influence or some balance of power. The
security of our world is found in the advancing rights
of mankind.
Those rights are advancing across the world. And
across the world, the enemies of human rights are
responding with violence. Terrorists and their allies
believe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
the United States Bill of Rights and every charter of
liberty ever written are lies to be burned and destroyed
and forgotten. They believe that dictators should
control every mind and tongue in the Middle East and
beyond. They believe that suicide and torture and
murder are fully justified to serve any goal they
declare. And they act on their beliefs.
In the last year alone terrorists have attacked
police stations and banks and commuter trains and
synagogues and a school filled with children. This
month in Beslan we saw once again how the terrorists
measure their success in the death of the innocent and
in the pain of grieving families. Svetlana Dzebisov was
held hostage along with her son and her nephew. Her
nephew did not survive. She recently visited the
cemetery and saw what she called the “little graves”.
She said, “I understand that there is evil in the world,
but what have these little creatures done?”
The Russian children did nothing to deserve such
awful suffering and fright and death. The people of
Madrid and Jerusalem and Istanbul and Baghdad have
done nothing to deserve sudden and random murder.
Those acts violate the standards of justice in all
cultures and the principles of all religions. All civilized
nations are in this struggle together and all must fight
the murderers.
We are determined to destroy terror networks
wherever they operate, and the United States is grateful
to every nation that is helping to seize terrorist assets,
track down their operatives and disrupt their plans. We
are determined to end the State sponsorship of terror,
and my nation is grateful to all that participated in the
liberation of Afghanistan. We are determined to
prevent proliferation and to enforce the demands of the
world, and my nation is grateful to the soldiers of many
nations who have helped to deliver the Iraqi people
from an outlaw dictator.
The dictator agreed in 1991, as a condition of a
ceasefire, to fully comply with all Security Council
resolutions, then ignored more than a decade of those
resolutions. Finally, the Security Council promised
serious consequences for his defiance. The
commitments we make must have meaning. When we
say “serious consequences”, for the sake of peace there
must be serious consequences. So a coalition of nations
enforced the just demands of the world.
Defending our ideals is vital, but it is not enough.
Our broader mission as United Nations Members is to
apply those ideals to the great issues of our time. Our
wider goal is to promote hope and progress as the
alternatives to hatred and violence. Our great purpose
is to build a better world beyond the war on terror.
9

Because we believe in human dignity, the United
States and many other nations have established a
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
In three years the contributing countries have funded
projects in more than 90 countries, and pledged a total
of $5.6 billion to those efforts. America has undertaken
a $15 billion effort to provide prevention and treatment
and humane care in nations afflicted by AIDS, placing
a special focus on 15 countries where the need is most
urgent. AIDS is the greatest health crisis of our time,
and our unprecedented commitment will bring new
hope to those who have walked too long in the shadow
of death.
Because we believe in human dignity, the United
States and many other nations have joined together to
confront the evil of trafficking in human beings. We
are supporting organizations that rescue the victims,
passing stronger anti-trafficking laws and warning
travellers that they will be held to account for
supporting this modern form of slavery. Women and
children should never be exploited for pleasure or
greed, anywhere on Earth.
Because we believe in human dignity, we should
take seriously the protection of life from exploitation
under any pretext. In this session, the General
Assembly will consider a draft resolution sponsored by
Costa Rica calling for a comprehensive ban on human
cloning. I support that draft resolution and urge all
Governments to affirm a basic ethical principle: no
human life should ever be produced or destroyed for
the benefit of another.
Because we believe in human dignity, the United
States and many other nations have changed the way
we fight poverty, curb corruption and provide aid. In
2002 we created the Monterrey Consensus, a bold
approach that links new aid from developed nations to
real reform in developing ones. And through the
Millennium Challenge Account, my nation is
increasing our aid to developing nations that expand
economic freedom and invest in the education and
health of their own people.
Because we believe in human dignity, the United
States and many other nations have acted to lift the
crushing burden of debt that limits the growth of
developing economies and holds millions of people in
poverty. Since those efforts began in 1996, poor
countries with the heaviest debt burdens have received
more than $30 billion of relief. And to prevent the
build-up of future debt, my country and other nations
have agreed that international financial institutions
should increasingly provide new aid in the form of
grants rather than loans.
Because we believe in human dignity, the world
must have more effective means to stabilize regions in
turmoil and to halt religious violence and ethnic
cleansing. We must create permanent capabilities to
respond to future crises.
The United States and Italy have proposed a
Global Peace Operations Initiative. Group of Eight
(G-8) countries will train 75,000 peacekeepers —
initially from Africa — so they can conduct operations
on that continent and elsewhere. The countries of the
G-8 will help that peacekeeping force with deployment
and logistical needs.
At this hour, the world is witnessing terrible
suffering and horrible crimes in the Darfur region of
the Sudan, crimes my Government has concluded are
genocide. The United States played a key role in efforts
to broker a ceasefire, and we are providing
humanitarian assistance to the Sudanese people.
Rwanda and Nigeria have deployed forces in the Sudan
to help improve security so that aid can be delivered.
The Security Council adopted a new resolution that
supports an expanded African Union force to help
prevent further bloodshed and that urges the
Government of the Sudan to stop flights by military
aircraft in Darfur. We congratulate the members of the
Council on this timely and necessary action. I call on
the Government of the Sudan to honour the ceasefire it
signed, and to stop the killing in Darfur.
Because we believe in human dignity, peaceful
nations must stand for the advance of democracy. No
other system of government has done more to protect
minorities, to secure the rights of labour, to raise the
status of women or to channel human energy to the
pursuits of peace. We have witnessed the rise of
democratic Governments in predominantly Hindu and
Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian cultures.
Democratic institutions have taken root in modern
societies and in traditional societies. When it comes to
the desire for liberty and justice, there is no clash of
civilizations. People everywhere are capable of
freedom and worthy of freedom.
Finding the full promise of representative
Government takes time, as America has found in two
centuries of debate and struggle. Nor is there only one
10

form of representative Government, because
democracies by definition take on the unique character
of the peoples that create them. Yet this much we know
with certainty: the desire for freedom resides in every
human heart, and that desire cannot be contained
forever by prison walls or martial laws or secret police.
Over time and across the Earth, freedom will find a
way.
Freedom is finding a way in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and we must continue to show our
commitment to democracies in those nations. The
liberty that many have won at a cost must be secured.
As Members of the United Nations, we all have a stake
in the success of the world’s newest democracies. Not
long ago, outlaw regimes in Baghdad and Kabul
threatened the peace and sponsored terrorists. Those
regimes destabilized one of the world’s most vital and
most volatile regions. They brutalized their peoples in
defiance of all civilized norms.
Today, the Iraqi and Afghan peoples are on the
path to democracy and freedom. The Governments that
are rising will pose no threat to others. Instead of
harbouring terrorists, they are fighting terrorist groups.
And this progress is good for the long-term security of
all of us. The Afghan people are showing extraordinary
courage under difficult conditions. They are fighting to
defend their nation from Taliban hold-outs and helping
to strike against the terrorist killers. They are reviving
their economy. They have adopted a Constitution
that protects the rights of all, while honouring their
nation’s most cherished traditions. More than 10
million Afghan citizens — over four million of them
women — are now registered to vote in next month’s
presidential election. To any who still would question
whether Muslim societies can be democratic societies,
the Afghan people are giving their answer.
Since the last general debate of this General
Assembly, the people of Iraq have regained
sovereignty. Today, in this Hall, the Prime Minister of
Iraq and his delegation represent a country that has
rejoined the community of nations. The Government of
Prime Minister Allawi has earned the support of every
nation that believes in self-determination and desires
peace. And under Security Council resolutions 1511
(2003) and 1546 (2004), the world is providing that
support. The United Nations and its Member nations
must respond to Prime Minister Allawi’s request and
do more to help build an Iraq that is secure,
democratic, federal and free.
A democratic Iraq has ruthless enemies because
terrorists know the stakes in that country. They know
that a free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will be a
decisive blow against their ambitions for that region.
So a terrorist group associated with Al Qaeda is now
one of the main groups killing the innocent in Iraq
today, conducting a campaign of bombings against
civilians and the beheadings of bound men. Coalition
forces now serving in Iraq are confronting the terrorists
and foreign fighters so that peaceful nations around the
world will never have to face them within our own
borders.
Our coalition is standing beside a growing Iraqi
security force. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization
is providing vital training to that force. More than 35
nations have contributed money and expertise to help
rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure and, as the Iraqi Interim
Government moves towards national elections,
officials from the United Nations are helping Iraqis
build the infrastructure of democracy. Those selfless
people are doing heroic work and are carrying on the
great legacy of Sergio Vieira de Mello.
As we have seen in other countries, one of the
main terrorist goals is to undermine, disrupt and
influence election outcomes. We can expect terrorist
attacks to escalate as Afghanistan and Iraq approach
national elections. The work ahead is demanding, but
those difficulties will not shake our conviction that the
future of Afghanistan and Iraq is a future of liberty.
The proper response to difficulty is not to retreat — it
is to prevail.
The advance of freedom always carries a cost,
paid by the bravest among us. America mourns the
losses to our nation and to many others, and today I
assure every friend of Afghanistan and Iraq, and every
enemy of liberty: We will stand with the people of
Afghanistan and Iraq until their hopes of freedom and
security are fulfilled.
These two nations will be a model for the broader
Middle East, a region where millions have been denied
basic human rights and simple justice. For too long,
many nations, including my own, tolerated and even
excused oppression in the Middle East in the name of
stability. Oppression became common, but stability
never arrived. We must take a different approach. We
must help the reformers of the Middle East as they
work for freedom and strive to build a community of
peaceful, democratic nations.
11

That commitment to democratic reform is
essential to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Peace
will not be achieved by Palestinian rulers who
intimidate opposition, tolerate corruption and maintain
ties to terrorist groups. The long-suffering Palestinian
people deserve better. They deserve true leaders
capable of creating and governing a free and peaceful
Palestinian State.
Even after the setbacks and frustrations of recent
months, good will and hard effort can achieve the
promise of the road map to peace. Those who would
lead a new Palestinian State should adopt peaceful
means to achieve the rights of their people and create
the reformed institutions of a stable democracy. Arab
States should end incitement in their own media, cut
off public and private funding for terrorism, and
establish normal relations with Israel. Israel should
impose a settlement freeze, dismantle unauthorized
outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian
people, and avoid any actions that prejudice final
negotiations. And world leaders should withdraw all
favour and support from any Palestinian ruler who fails
his people and betrays their cause.
The democratic hopes we see growing in the
Middle East are growing everywhere. In the words of
the Burmese democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi:
“We do not accept the notion that democracy is a
Western value. To the contrary, democracy simply
means good Government rooted in responsibility,
transparency and accountability.”
Here at the United Nations, Members know this to be
true. In recent years, this Organization has helped
create a new democracy in East Timor and the United
Nations has aided other nations in making the
transition to self-rule.
Because I believe that the advance of liberty is
the path to both a safer and better world, today I
propose establishing a democracy fund within the
United Nations. This is a great calling for this great
Organization. The fund would help countries lay the
foundations of democracy by instituting the rule of law,
independent courts, a free press, political parties and
trade unions. Money from the fund would also help set
up voter precincts and polling places and support the
work of election monitors. To show our commitment to
the new democracy fund, the United States will make
an initial contribution, and I urge all other nations to
contribute as well.
Today I have outlined a broad agenda to advance
human dignity and enhance the security of all of us.
The defeat of terror, the protection of human rights, the
spread of prosperity, the advance of democracy —
these causes, these ideals, call us to great work in the
world. Each of us alone can only do so much. Together
we can accomplish so much more.
History will honour the high ideals of this
Organization. The Charter states them with clarity: “to
save succeeding generations from the scourge of war ...
to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights ... to
promote social progress and better standards of life in
larger freedom”.
Let history also record that our generation of
leaders followed through on these ideals, even in
adversity. Let history show that in a decisive decade,
members of the United Nations did not grow weary in
our duties, or waver in meeting them. I am confident
that this young century will be liberty’s century. I
believe we will rise to this moment, because I know the
character of so many nations and leaders represented
here today. And I have faith in the transforming power
of freedom.
May God bless you.


There are some matters on
which we all agree. One of these is that, later this year,
we will receive the important report that will be tabled
by the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and
Change, which was constituted by our Secretary-
General. The other is that, next year, we will mark the
tenth anniversaries of the Copenhagen World Summit
on Sustainable Development and the Beijing World
Conference on Women and discuss their outcomes. The
third matter on which we all agree is that, next year, we
will observe the fifth anniversary of the adoption of the
historic Millennium Declaration.
We will also agree that we took all these
initiatives ó the convening of the social, womenís and
millennium summits and the constitution of the High-
Level Panel ó because we were of one mind that we
had a number of problems that needed to be solved. In
the Millennium Declaration, we used inspiring words
to sum up our response to these problems. We said:
ìWe have a collective responsibility to uphold the
principles of human dignity, equality and equity
at the global level. As leaders we have a duty
therefore to all the world's people, especially the
most vulnerable and, in particular, the children of
the world, to whom the future belongs.î
(resolution 55/2, para. 2)
We went on to say:
ìWe are determined to establish a just and lasting
peace all over the world in accordance with the
purposes and principles of the Charter.î (ibid.,
para. 4)
We also said that our efforts to make globalization
fully inclusive and equitable
'must include policies and measures, at the
global level, which correspond to the needs of
developing countries and economies in transition
and are formulated and implemented with their
effective participation'. (ibid., para. 5)
To this we added the commitment that
'We will spare no effort to free our fellow men,
women and children from the abject and
dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty'.
'We are committed to making the right to
development a reality for everyone and to freeing
the entire human race from want.' (ibid.,
para. 11)
Naturally, we have no choice but to agree that we
did say all these things and would undoubtedly agree
that we meant what we said. I trust that this will not
mark the end of the range of issues over which we
would speak with one voice. I say this because, when I
have asked myself the question 'Have we achieved the
goals we set ourselves?', I have found it impossible
not to answer that we have failed. There may very well
be others among us who will take a different view and
say that a good beginning has been made and therefore
that it is too early to say we have failed.
But I am certain that if we say to those affected
by violence and war that we have made a good
beginning towards the establishment of a just and
11

lasting peace all over the world, they will not believe
us. I am equally certain that if we say to those who go
to bed hungry every day that we have made a good
beginning towards freeing the entire human race from
want, they will also not believe us.
I would make bold to say that the vision of
human dignity, equality and equity at the global level
that we enunciated in this imposing forum four years
ago resonates among the ordinary people who are
victims of hunger and war as a beautiful dream that
will inevitably be deferred.
Does this mean that, when we made the promises
we made, we deliberately intended to tell the billions
of ordinary people a lie? The answer to that question is
obviously ìnoî. Did we speak as we did simply
because talk is easy and cheap? Again, the answer to
that question is obviously 'no'. The question must
therefore arise as to why the grandeur of our words and
the vision they paint ó of a world of peace, free of
war, a world characterized by shared prosperity, free of
poverty - has not produced the grand results we
sincerely sought and seek.
It would seem to me that the answer to that
question lies in the fact that we have as yet not
seriously confronted the difficult issues that relate to
the uses and perhaps the abuses of power. Yesterday, in
his statement on his report on the work of the
Organization, our Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan,
spoke eloquently about the 3,000-year-old Code of
Hammurabi, and said: 'That code was a landmark in
mankindís struggle to build an order where, instead of
might making right, right would make might'
(). We took it that the Secretary-General was,
in his own elegant way, drawing our attention to the
central question of our day: the uses and abuses of
power.
Contemporary human society is characterized by
a gross and entrenched imbalance in the distribution of
power. That power is held and exercised by human
beings. As human beings, the powerful share many
things with the powerless. Together, the powerful and
the disempowered share the common human needs to
eat, to drink water, to be protected from the elements,
to dream, to love, to laugh, to play, and to live.
But life itself tells us that all of that describes
only what human beings share. The rest, the relations
among us as social beings, is defined by our varied
access to power and its exercise.
Without fear of contradiction, I have said that we
all agree that later this year we will receive the report
of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and
Change. I am equally convinced that, depending on
where we stand relative to the power equation, we will
hold radically different views about what constitutes
humanity's most serious threats and challenges, and
therefore what must be changed to respond to that
perceived reality.
Both the powerful and the disempowered will
undoubtedly agree that terrorism and war represent a
serious threat to all humanity. They will agree that we
were right to make the commitment in the Millennium
Declaration to work for
'a just and lasting peace all over the world in
accordance with the purposes and principles of
the Charter' (resolution 55/2, para. 4).
Many of those who have already addressed the
Assembly have correctly drawn our attention to many
instances of terrorism and war, to which we are all
opposed. They have spoken of the bombings of the
United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and of
the African and American lives those claimed; of the
heinous 11 September outrage in this city; and of the
acts of terrorism in Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Morocco,
Spain, Israel, Gatumba in Burundi, Beslan in the
Russian Federation, and elsewhere.
They have correctly drawn our attention to the
violent conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Burundi, the Sudan, Palestine, Israel, Iraq,
Afghanistan, Chechnya, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and
elsewhere, and to other unsolved problems, such as
self-determination for the people of Western Sahara,
that cry out for a solution.
Both the powerful and the disempowered agree
that the international community must act together
successfully to confront these situations and therefore
the threat and challenge of terrorism and war.
However, the powerful will also make the
additional determination that terrorism and war
constitute the central and principal threat and challenge
that human civilization faces. They will make that
determination because, almost by definition, the
terrorists target them simply because they are
powerful; they have no logical choice but to identify
terrorism as the central and principal threat and
challenge they face, and to which they must respond.
12

Because of their place in the power equation,
what they decide will necessarily represent the global
decision of what constitutes the central, principal and
most urgent threat and challenge to human society,
necessitating various changes in the global system of
governance. What they decide will translate into a set
of obligatory injunctions, issued by this Organization,
which all Member nations will have to accept and
implement.
Again, both the powerful and the disempowered
will undoubtedly also agree that poverty, want and
underdevelopment constitute serious problems that all
humanity must confront. Many of those who have
already addressed the Assembly have correctly drawn
our attention to the reality of poverty, which billions
across the globe continue to experience.
Among other things, they have correctly
reminded us of the fact that some countries are poorer
today than they were a decade ago. They have pointed
to the virtual certainty that we will fail to meet the
Millennium Development Goals we set ourselves four
years ago.
Both the powerful and the disempowered agree
that the international community must act together
successfully to confront this situation, and therefore
the threat and challenge of poverty and
underdevelopment. However, the disempowered, who
are also the poor of the world, will also make the
additional determination that poverty and
underdevelopment constitute the central and principal
threat and challenge that human civilization faces.
They will make the determination that, because
they are the daily victims of deprivation and want,
which claim the lives of millions every year ó
translating into cold statistics about shortened life
expectancy - deprivation and want represent the
central and principal threat and challenge that
humanity faces, necessitating changes in the global
system of governance in order effectively to respond to
that reality.
But because they are powerless, those billions -
the overwhelming majority of the same humanity that
needs to eat, to drink water, to be protected from the
elements, to dream, to love, to laugh, to play, to live -
will have no possibility of persuading this
Organization, laughably described in the Millennium
Declaration as 'the most universal and most
representative Organization in the world', to translate
what they have concluded into obligatory injunctions,
issued by this Organization, which all Member nations
will have to accept and implement.
If, for a moment, we resist the temptation to
speak in parables or in tongues, for fear that we might
be punished for telling the truth, we must say that this
stark and simple reality reflects the distribution of
power and wealth in contemporary human society.
The wealthy and powerful feel, correctly,
mortally threatened by the fanatical rage of the
terrorists. They have the power to respond to this
present and immediate danger with all their might, and,
because they are mighty, they can determine for all
humanity that the principal threat to them is the
principal threat that all humanity faces.
The poor and powerless feel threatened by a
permanent hurricane of poverty, which is devastating
their communities as horrendously as hurricane Ivan
destroyed the Caribbean island State of Grenada.
But, tragically, because they are poor, they do not
have the means to respond to this present and
immediate danger. Neither do they have the power to
determine for all humanity that what they decide is the
principal threat they confront, is also the principal
threat that all humanity, including the rich and
powerful, faces.
In the Millennium Declaration, we spoke of the
need to implement
'policies and measures, at the global level, which
correspond to the needs of developing countries
and economies in transition and are formulated
and implemented with their effective
participation' (ibid., para. 5).
Perhaps the mistake we made was to assume that
the contemporary distribution of power in human
society would permit this outcome, and that, regardless
of this fundamental consideration, it would be possible
for the concerns of the poor to take precedence on the
global agenda and the global programme of action.
We comforted, or perhaps deluded, ourselves
with the thought that this Organization is 'the most
universal and most representative organization in the
world' - afraid to ask the question, is it?
Every year many of us who have spoken, and will
speak, from this rostrum make an annual pilgrimage to
this great and vibrant city to plead the cause of the
13

poor of the world, hopeful that this time our voices will
be heard. Every year, after a few days, we pack up our
bags to return to the reality of our societies, whose
squalor stands out in sharp contrast to the splendour of
New York and this majestic precinct that constitutes
the headquarters of the United Nations.
In the aftermath, resolutions are passed. Again
and again our permanent representatives, with their
extraordinary and plenipotentiary powers, report that
those resolutions oblige us to act to thwart the deadly
plans of murderous terrorist gangs. Again and again
they report that yet another appeal has been made to
the mighty and the lowly alike, voluntarily to respond
to the cries of the wretched of the earth.
We are truly proud and inspired to see you,
Mr. President, presiding over the proceedings of the
General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session, because we
know that you will discharge your obligations as a son
of the poor of the world should. We are moved by the
fact that you had as your predecessor President Julian
Hunte, who also understood intimately what must be
done to ensure that the United Nations can become, in
reality, the indispensable common house of the entire
human family.
As an Israeli said to us at our headquarters in
Pretoria a fortnight ago, it is perhaps time that we, the
poor and powerless, abandon our wheelchairs and
begin to walk unaided. Perhaps that will help to build
the social order of which Hammurabi - and Kofi
Annan - spoke, in which right makes might and not
might, right.


I would
like to begin by expressing our appreciation to
Mr. Julian Hunte, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Saint
Lucia, for his accomplished and skilful leadership of
the General Assembly during its previous session.
I would also like to congratulate you, Sir, on your
election to the presidency of the General Assembly at
its fifty-ninth session.
I would also like to commend the Secretary-
General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for the great wisdom that he
has shown in the discharge of his functions. He
deserves our respect and appreciation, and we extend
to him our support and solidarity.
My country has reached a crucial point in its
history. It faces the challenge of living up to the
expectations raised by the end of the internal armed
conflict. Since January, when I assumed office, the
frustrated hopes of all of our people have been
rekindled.
My plan of government is predicated on the peace
agreements and defines their implementation as a
commitment of the whole nation. As President of
11

Guatemala, I endorse fully the principle that a firm and
lasting peace must be based on participatory socio-
economic development, aimed at achieving the
common good and responding to the needs of all of our
people, particularly those still living in extreme
poverty.
Since I took office, I have made a point of
listening to the opinions of all of our citizens. That has
enabled me to identify the constraints facing
Guatemala, which it must overcome if it is to deal
adequately with the many legitimate social demands
and expectations.
The actions that my Government intends to take
in the period 2004 to 2008 will focus on four areas:
social investment; conditions of production;
environmental sustainability; and security for all.
Those policies are being carried out within the
framework of the principles of solidarity and
inclusiveness; decentralization and participation; and
transparency in public actions. Those areas of action
and principles accord fully with the Millennium
Development Goals.
I would like to single out a number of
achievements resulting from our new approach to
government. We have reduced our troop strength by
43 per cent and have begun to modernize the armed
forces and to make them more professional, consistent
with the functions that they are required to perform in
time of peace. This includes, at the international level,
greater participation by the Guatemalan army in United
Nations peace operations, for example in Haiti.
In terms of public spending, we are according
priority to education, health, security, citizenship and
infrastructure.
We are fighting petty crime, gang-related crime
and organized crime, focusing in particular on
combating drug trafficking, terrorism, smuggling,
money laundering, trafficking in persons and the illegal
arms trade, all of which represent a huge challenge that
cannot be overcome without the support of the
international community.
We are waging an all-out war against corruption,
and creating mechanisms to ensure transparency in
public procurement and contracting. For the first time
in the history of our country, charges of corruption are
being investigated, and those found guilty will be
prosecuted.
We have adopted a series of measures aimed at
elaborating and implementing a fiscal pact. Sustained
efforts are being made to meet the taxation goals set
out in the peace agreements, within the framework of
my Government’s objectives for economic growth.
We have, as a matter of priority, established a
national front against hunger and malnutrition.
Working with civil society, we have elaborated a policy
on food and nutritional security.
We have consolidated our responsible approach
to macroeconomic management; that is necessary if we
are to promote competitiveness and productive
investment and ensure the well-being of all
Guatemalans. In this context, we launched a
programme for economic and social recovery, entitled
Vamos Guatemala.
We have taken firm measures to eliminate
extreme poverty and reduce social exclusion, while
fully respecting our diversity — for Guatemala is a
multi-ethnic, multicultural and multilingual country.
My Government is committed to full respect for
human rights. We believe that every Guatemalan
should enjoy basic rights and fundamental freedoms,
and that the right to development must be ensured. In
this context, Guatemala will cooperate with
international bodies that promote and protect human
rights.
My Government’s foreign policy is consistent
with its national interests. Our guiding principle is the
need to ensure that Guatemala can take its proper place
in today’s globalized world, as well as to strengthen
multilateralism and regional integration.
The presidents of the Central American countries
have given greater impetus to our integration process.
This year, we took the decisions required to bring to
fruition a customs union between El Salvador,
Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala.
My Government is proposing a new beginning in
its bilateral relationship with Belize. We must reach a
permanent, just, equitable and honourable settlement of
the territorial dispute between the two countries, while
at the same time making a constructive effort to resolve
the socio-economic problems afflicting our peoples.
That is why my Government is promoting joint
projects relating to production, a trade agreement,
greater flexibility in the transit of persons, goods and
services, full observance of human rights and the
12

conclusion of agreements for mutual legal assistance,
all of which will contribute to the progress of our
peoples and to the security of the region.
The Central American countries have just
concluded trade negotiations with the United States.
Last May, at the Guadalajara Summit, an
announcement was made regarding the initiation of a
process leading up to an association agreement
between Central America and the European Union, to
include a free trade agreement. We will shortly be
signing a trade agreement with Colombia, and we hope
to conclude free trade agreements with Taiwan,
MERCOSUR, the Andean Group and the Caribbean
Community.
Looking after the interests of Guatemalan
emigrants is also a priority issue for my Government.
We provide support for them as they seek solutions to
their problems and respect for their fundamental rights.
We are in contact with the receiving countries,
particularly the United States of America, with a view
to regularizing the situation of emigrants, who make a
substantial contribution to the well-being of their
communities.
All the efforts that Guatemala is making to
overcome poverty and achieve socio-economic
development necessarily depend on the progress being
made in multilateral trade negotiations. Guatemala
appeals to the international community to fulfil its
longstanding commitments to eliminate all the
measures and practices that distort markets, to
liberalize trade in our products and, more generally, to
adopt measures enabling a country like Guatemala,
which has been striving to open its economy, to obtain
better opportunities for access to markets for its
exports.
May I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the
United Nations Verification Mission in Guatemala
(MINUGUA), which, after 10 years of fruitful work, is
reaching the end of its mandate. MINUGUA has left an
important legacy in our country.
I would like to turn now to our agenda at this
session. We are convinced of the need to adapt the
Organization to the new challenges, threats and
changes that humanity faces. We trust that 2005 will
offer us an opportunity to react to them in a responsible
manner.
One of the most timely issues is the reform of the
Security Council. Our position thereon has been
evolving, reflecting the imperative need to make that
organ more representative, transparent and effective.
We advocate the expansion of its membership and
could agree to such an expansion being applied to both
categories of members — permanent and non-
permanent — so long as the need to ensure adequate
geographic representation is taken into account. The
reform of the Security Council would be the point of
departure for the adaptation of all the organs of the
United Nations to the new circumstances. We favour
the strengthening of the General Assembly and the
Economic and Social Council.
We reiterate our complete repudiation of all
forms of terrorism. We are taking all feasible measures
at the national level against the scourge and support the
collective action of the international community to
combat it, inter alia, through the implementation of
Security Council resolutions 1373 (2001) and 1390
(2002), as well as participation in the relevant treaties.
We are convinced of the need for a stronger
collective capacity to prevent and resolve conflicts. We
believe that the United Nations should continue to
address the imperative of development, including such
emerging issues as transnational migrations. We also
feel that our Organization should play a vital role in
seeking to ensure that the benefits of globalization are
widely distributed among all countries. In that
connection, we wish to highlight the significance we
attach to the Monterrey Consensus and the
Johannesburg Plan of Action.
Guatemala is conscious of the divisions that
persist in the Middle East, Asia and Africa among
neighbouring countries. We earnestly hope that the
disputes between them can be resolved through
dialogue and other peaceful means, thus enabling all
peoples of the world to be represented here without
rejection or discrimination.
I wish to note in particular our concern over the
situation of the 23 million inhabitants of the Republic
of China on Taiwan, whose aspirations to
representation in international bodies remain
unfulfilled. We also wish to voice our earnest hope that
the difficult situation prevailing in the Middle East,
which has deteriorated of late, will be resolved in
conformity with Security Council resolutions 242
(1967), 338 (1973), 1397 (2002) and 1402 (2002).
13

Under your guidance, Sir, this Assembly will
have to address issues of the greatest significance for
humankind and the United Nations. Guatemala
undertakes to participate actively in this year’s debates
and in the special event to be held just before our next
regular session. We hasten to offer our cooperation
with a view to the success of your endeavours.


Mr. President,
on behalf of the people and the Government of the
Republic of Mozambique, I would like to congratulate
you upon your election as President of the fifty-ninth
session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.
We are delighted to see a distinguished son of Africa in
the stewardship of the highest organ of the United
Nations, which shows the confidence the world places
on your experience, wisdom and proven skills. Let me
also pay a well-deserved tribute to your predecessor,
His Excellency Mr. Julian Robert Hunte, Minister for
External Affairs, International Trade and Civil Aviation
of Saint Lucia, for successfully having presided over
one of the most productive sessions of the General
Assembly.
I wish to commend the Secretary-General for his
continued devotion to the fundamental ideals of our
Organization, stressing the importance of
multilateralism, with a view to addressing the global
challenges before us, such as to eradicate poverty,
hunger, pandemic diseases and illiteracy and to bring
about development, peace and stability.
I speak before this Assembly at a time when
Mozambique is preparing to conduct its third multi-
party general elections, to be held on
1 and 2 December 2004.
Having had the privilege of leading my country
through many challenges, moving from war to peace,
from destruction to reconstruction, from economic
decline to economic growth and development, I felt I
should allow other elected sons and daughters of
Mozambique the opportunity to take up the noble task
of conducting the affairs of the nation, leading to
further gains. This is therefore my very last attendance
of a session of the General Assembly in my capacity as
Head of State and Government.
After the elections, I will join civil society and
continue to make my humble contribution to the efforts
on the prevailing challenges still facing Mozambique,
Africa and the world, particularly in the areas of peace
and the promotion of cultural, social and economic
development.
5

I have been attending sessions of the General
Assembly since 1975, first in my capacity as Minister
for Foreign Affairs and then as President of
Mozambique. I cherish every moment I have spent here
at the United Nations, as part of the global efforts to
collectively find solutions to the problems around the
world. It has been, indeed, quite a rewarding
experience as, through our common resolve, we have
been able to successfully advance the decolonization
process in Africa and elsewhere, while engaging in the
struggle for peace and stability, poverty eradication and
development.
As I depart, allow me to share some reflections
on the role played by our universal Organization, the
United Nations. Reaffirming the inalienable right of all
peoples to self-determination and independence, in
accordance with the principles and objectives set forth
in the Charter of the United Nations and General
Assembly resolution 1514 (XV), Mozambique attained
its independence from colonial rule in 1975. Since
then, the country has been actively involved in the
United Nations, has progressively improved its
relations with the Organization and its related bodies
and has received strong, multidisciplinary support.
Since then, 60 territories worldwide have become
decolonized, and millions of people today are able to
exercise their right to self-determination.
It was on 16 September 1975 that, for the first
time, I had the privilege of addressing the General
Assembly from this rostrum. I was then the Foreign
Minister of my country, and I was expressing the
gratitude of the people and the Government of
Mozambique for our admission as a Member of the
United Nations.
When Mozambique was admitted, the United
Nations was composed of 144 Member States,
compared to 191 in 2004. That shows the extent of the
growth of our Organization. In Africa, countries such
as Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and
Western Sahara were not yet independent or were
under apartheid domination. On other continents, the
situation was very similar.
The cold war was at its peak and the arms race
was a dominant feature of international politics. The
focus of the Non-Aligned Movement was on
advocating the interests of the developing countries, on
raising international awareness of the dangers and risks
of a nuclear confrontation and on the struggle for the
establishment of a new international economic order.
In those days of high political tensions, international
dialogue was characterized by confrontation and
intolerance. Today, international dialogue is more one
of consultation and the search for consensus. The
constructive dialogue existing among Africa and the
Group of Eight, the European Union, the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations, the South American
Common Market (MERCOSUR) and other regional
groupings are good examples of the prevailing new
international political mood. Throughout this process,
the United Nations has played an important role.
Soon after its independence, my country had to
face the economic and social consequences stemming
from its decision to close its border with Southern
Rhodesia, in compliance with a United Nations
resolution that imposed sanctions on that neighbouring
Territory. It was a costly measure, but because it
achieved its aim of ending the illegal regime in that
Territory, we feel proud to have taken that action.
During that period, Mozambique enjoyed
important support from the United Nations, particularly
in the areas of health, education, rural development,
advocacy and emergency assistance for the victims of
war and natural disasters.
Following many years of a destabilizing war, the
Government and the Mozambique National Resistance
(RENAMO), the former guerrilla group, signed the
General Peace Agreement on 4 October 1992. Soon
after the signing of the Agreement, the Security
Council approved the establishment of the United
Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ) to
monitor and verify its implementation.
We deeply appreciate the resolute and decisive
involvement of the United Nations in the peace
process, with the mobilization of human, material and
financial resources. That strong support from the
international community, combined with our peopleís
will and determination to achieve peace, led to what
many regard as the first example of a successful United
Nations peacekeeping mission in Africa.
During the last 12 years of peace, our country has
benefited from considerable support from the United
Nations and its various specialized bodies for
reconstruction and development activities. That
support has been critical for economic growth and the
gradual improvement of the peopleís living conditions.
6

In 2000, unprecedented floods devastated
Mozambique. Those floods affected the central and
southern parts of the country, causing heavy losses of
human lives and infrastructure. Again, the response of
the United Nations and the international community to
the disaster was commendable. We take this
opportunity to reiterate our gratitude to both the United
Nations and the international community in general for
their unconditional support, without which the losses
could have been heavier.
As a result of sound economic and social policies
and an enabling political environment, we have been
able to record encouraging progress. The absolute
poverty rate decreased from 69.5 per cent in 1997 to
54.1 per cent in 2003. From 1997 to 2003, real average
gross domestic product growth was 8 per cent.
We wish to recognize the critical role played by
our development partners in assisting our country as it
embarked on its steady progress. Their continued
assistance will be critical to ensuring the sustainability
and the irreversibility of the political, economic and
social gains made so far.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Mozambique is a
growing threat to sustainable development. Together
with malaria, tuberculosis and cholera, it is
jeopardizing decades of economic and social
development. Without an aggressive response by the
year 2020, 20 per cent of the agricultural labour force
in Mozambique will be lost to HIV/AIDS, and it is
estimated that life expectancy will drop to 36 years by
2010.
Within the framework of the African Union and
its programmatic vision, the New Partnership for
Africaís Development (NEPAD), Africa has been
making important strides towards its renaissance and
the ownership of its destiny. In that endeavour, we have
witnessed a further strengthening of democracy on the
continent. Moreover, Africa has been increasingly
discharging its responsibility with regard to the
maintenance of peace and stability on the continent.
Today we are building self-confidence around
Africa and creating the necessary conditions for
sustainable development. Through NEPAD we are
raising the ownership spirit surrounding African
leaders to bring about significant changes in Africaís
development. The recognition that success can only be
achieved through partnership among all stakeholders is
a step forward in the establishment of public-private
partnerships, regional integration and cooperation
among different regions in Africa.
We would like to commend the decision of the
Secretary-General to appoint an advisory panel on
international support for NEPAD.
During the last few years, we have witnessed
global action towards the materialization of the
Millennium Development Goals around the world. In
that endeavour, we have registered mixed results with
encouraging developments on one side and visible
setbacks on the other.
We have seen a strong determination by
developing countries to achieve the Goals through
relevant domestic actions and policies. However,
despite such a clear commitment to improvement of the
living conditions of our respective peoples, our goals
may not be realized, due mainly to an unfavourable
international environment, including insufficient flows
of official development assistance and foreign direct
investment.
Consequently, we are failing in the creation of the
necessary conditions for the achievement of the
Millennium Development Goals. We will not be able to
achieve the 3 per cent economic growth worldwide that
is required for reducing poverty by half by 2015, while
sub-Saharan Africa records a disappointing level of
economic growth.
The flow of financial resources for the most
needed regions is decreasing. Market access remains a
challenge for both developing and developed countries.
Pandemic diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, are
aggressively eroding the productive capacity of
developing countries.
We therefore need concerted global action to
effectively address those challenges. The meeting of
world leaders for action against hunger and poverty
held at the United Nations yesterday was an
encouraging renewal of the commitment of the
international community to make the Millennium
Development Goals a reality. The final declaration that
was adopted should be the guide to our collective
action against hunger and poverty.
The success of the ongoing reforms should be
measured against an effective improvement of global
governance and the strengthening of multilateralism,
with the General Assembly assuming a central role in
the conduct of global issues. The United Nations
7

should pursue a multilateral approach that truly reflects
the current realities of the world, rather than entrench
an anachronism inherited from the end of the Second
World War.
I urge you to continue the process of reform of
our Organization, in order to have a Security Council
that is democratic, representative, equitable and
transparent. I urge you to continue with the agenda for
economic and social development.
I feel honoured for having shared experiences
with Your Excellencies. I will keep and cherish
memories of the long and difficult, but gratifying
moments that we have spent together, building
consensus around vital issues for our Organization and,
indeed, for our world. They were precious moments of
learning and of individual and collective enrichment.
I express my profound gratitude to the United
Nations family for all the support they have given to
me and to my country. I plead for the continuation of
that solidarity to Mozambique, with the aim of
eradicating poverty, hunger and endemic diseases.
I leave you with a sense of having fulfilled my
duty and given my humble contribution to the cause of
liberation, peace and development of Mozambique,
Africa and the world as a whole.
The goal of complete decolonization has not yet
been fulfilled, as the fate of 16 Non-Self-Governing
Territories has yet to be determined. We continue to
look for the day when the agenda of the General
Assembly will contemplate neither colonies nor Non-
Self-Governing Territories.
I look forward to a successful fifty-ninth session,
one in which we will focus on the priority actions for
the present year and for the years ahead. Whatever we
do, we must be able to give real hope to our nations
and peoples ó hope not just to live, but also to live
well and safely; hope not only to continue to be free,
but to be free in decency and dignity.


Let me start by congratulating
you, Sir, on your election to the presidency of the fifty-
ninth session of the General Assembly. Your election is
a tribute not only to yourself, but also to your country,
Gabon, with which Botswana enjoys the most cordial
of relations. 1 assure you of the full support and
cooperation of my delegation in the discharge of your
onerous duties and responsibilities.
We also pay tribute to your predecessor,
Mr. Julian Hunte of Saint Lucia, for his stewardship of
the fifty-eighth session of the General Assembly. Saint
Lucia is another country with which Botswana enjoys
excellent relations. Come to think of it, we can
understand why countries of the world can be friendly
with each other, as Botswana is friendly to them all.
Our words of congratulations are addressed also
to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his
visionary leadership of the Organization and for his
enduring spirit in the face of the complex challenges
that the United Nations is called upon to address across
our common universe.
I take this opportunity to join other delegations in
extending our condolences to the Government and the
people of the Russian Federation on the tragic loss of
life in Beslan. There can never be any justification for
such a savage attack on innocent children, men and
women. Botswana joins the rest of the international
community in condemning that horrendous act.
We also extend our sympathies and condolences
to our dear brothers and sisters in the Caribbean and
the southern part of the United States of America on
the loss of life and the destruction of property caused
by recent hurricanes.
We are gathered here today, 12 months before the
first review of the Millennium Declaration, an
unprecedented compact made by world leaders to unite
in action in addressing the problems bedevilling
humanity. It is our hope that we will use this gathering
to reflect on whether we have done enough to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals. We have to ask
ourselves, individually and collectively, whether the
enthusiasm and political commitment with which we
endorsed the Declaration is being translated into
programmes and projects. Simply put, we must be
ready to answer, hopefully in the affirmative, whether
we are doing enough to meet the targets that we set for
ourselves for the first five years of this millennium.
Let us recall that pessimists proclaimed the
Millennium Summit a talking shop and poured scorn
on its intended outcome. Are we doing enough to prove
them wrong? We owe it to the millions of our people
who look up to us to mitigate their suffering. Thus far,
the available evidence suggests that our performance
has been disappointing. Unfortunately, time is not on
our side. There is need to act with vigour if we are to
meet our commitments.
My delegation is fully aware that a multiplicity of
factors combined to constrain and to thwart some of
our efforts in the past few years. There is no doubt, for
instance, that major international conflicts, such as the
war in Iraq, have been a drag on the international
community’s efforts to focus on the Goals. As a result
of the war, oil prices have skyrocketed, putting
tremendous pressure on the world economy, and in
particular on the vulnerable economies of developing
countries.
In spite of those challenges, we have abiding
faith in the human spirit, and therefore remain
convinced that it is not beyond the capacity of the
international community to implement those ideals.
The Millennium Declaration recognized that
poverty eradication is fundamental to achieving
sustainable development, but many of our people still
live in conditions of abject poverty. The alleviation of
poverty and its eventual eradication therefore remain a
top priority for us. Official development assistance
levels continue to fall in real terms to below the agreed
target of 0.7 per cent of gross domestic product. I must,
however, commend the few countries that have met
that target. They have demonstrated that the target is
realistic and achievable.
The continuing debt burden is contributing
significantly to the failure to deal effectively with the
problem of poverty. Most developing countries have
undertaken courageous measures to implement painful
structural reforms. The commendable steps taken to
introduce sound macroeconomic management and
principles of good governance deserve an urgent,
positive and appropriate response. It must be
acknowledged that some of the reforms can, in the short
term, worsen the plight of the poor for a very long time
before the benefits of the sacrifices are realized.
8

Structural reforms have not been confined to
budgetary matters alone. They cover the whole
economic spectrum, including the creation of an
environment conducive to the growth of the private
sector and development, as well as to the flow of
foreign direct investment. A number of developing
countries have promulgated legislative and regulatory
frameworks to stimulate greater private sector
participation in their economies. It is only natural,
given the scope of the reform measures, that
developing countries should expect some positive
reaction in the form of flows of foreign direct
investments, which at the moment are, regrettably, still
very low.
In the area of trade, we are concerned about the
slow progress in multilateral trade negotiations. As
developing countries, we have more to gain from a
more just, fairer and rule-based international trading
system that would facilitate the integration of our
economies into the global economy. We urge the major
players in those negotiations to show a greater sense of
urgency and commitment.
We are concerned at the fact that, in spite of the
strong commitments expressed at the Millennium
Summit, almost half of the people in sub-Saharan
Africa continue to survive on a dollar a day. That
reflects no change in the statistics of 1990. One
hundred twenty-one million children are still out of
school; and the under-5 mortality rate is still as high as
174 per 1,000 live births.
The resources provided to fight the HIV/AIDS
epidemic remain inadequate, yet we all agree that
HIV/AIDS is one of the greatest challenges of our
time. Combating the scourge of HIV/AIDS must
therefore remain a high priority for action, because the
epidemic has a debilitating impact on everything that
we do to improve the human condition. In 2003, it was
reported that about 40 million people around the world
were living with the virus, and that well over 26
million of them were in sub-Saharan Africa alone. The
epidemic has killed over 2.3 million people in sub-
Saharan Africa, out of a total of 3 million people who
died of AIDS-related illnesses around the world.
In Botswana, our various intervention programmes
are beginning to bear fruit. We are indebted to our
friends internationally, whose partnership, support,
assistance and, indeed, solidarity have combined to
save lives and give hope to many of our people.
However, a lot still needs to be done. Our immediate
challenge is the lack of capacity to provide the
antiretroviral therapy programme to all who need
assistance. We shall therefore continue to rely on the
international community for consistent and assured
support, if we are to assist our people in time.
International peace and security are under
constant threat. Our collective memory appears to be
failing to draw appropriate lessons, even from the
recent horrors of conflicts in Rwanda, Afghanistan and
the Balkans. Millions of people continue to suffer and
die needlessly in Africa and elsewhere because of
unnecessary conflicts. It is once again Africa that has
had to bear the brunt of those conflicts.
We are concerned by the protracted conflicts in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Burundi
and Côte d’Ivoire. As Africans, we accept our
responsibility to find solutions to those conflicts. That
is why we established the Peace and Security Council
of the African Union in May of this year. In its short
history, the Council has already deployed peacekeepers
in Burundi and peace monitors in the Darfur region of
Sudan, and has sent mediators and peace envoys to
help in negotiating solutions to conflicts elsewhere on
the continent.
One thing is clear: Africa is an integral part of the
international community. The problems of Africa are
global problems. We cannot isolate ourselves, nor be
isolated from the rest of the world, and be expected to
single-handedly find solutions to such conflicts. We
need consistent and continued international support. In
that regard, we acknowledge the important and
commendable role that the United Nations is playing in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire
and Burundi.
The peace process in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo is at a critical stage. The international
community has a duty and a responsibility to assist the
Government and people of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo in the search for national reconciliation and
a lasting political settlement to the problems facing
that country. It is our hope that the international
community will provide the necessary financial and
material support to ensure the success of the
international conference on the Great Lakes region,
which is to be held in Arusha, United Republic of
Tanzania, at the end of this year.
9

In Côte d’Ivoire, everything possible must be
done to maintain peace and stability, as well as to
promote national reconciliation, by ensuring that the
parties accept the Government of National
Reconciliation.
Regarding the situation in the Darfur region of
Sudan, the international community must take urgent
measures to arrest the deteriorating security and
humanitarian situation in that country. The people of
Darfur should be assisted to return to their homes in
safety and dignity. We urge the Government of Sudan
to be receptive to the proposals contained in the
Secretary-General’s report and, above all, take due
cognizance of Security Council resolution 1564 (2004),
and in particular to facilitate the speedy delivery by the
international community of much-needed humanitarian
assistance.
We are troubled by the escalating conflict in the
Middle East, which is a serious threat to international
peace and security. How long can humanity stand the
sight of human suffering that we see daily on our
television screens? For how long can generations of
mothers mourn the loss of their sons in combat? For
how long should succeeding generations fight wars that
their forebears fought? We ask those involved in those
conflicts, descendants of old civilizations that made
enormous contributions to the growth and development
of modern civilization, to live and let live and to find
in themselves the courage to resolve their differences
through dialogue rather than through indiscriminate
violence.
Terrorism is one of the greatest challenges to
international peace and security. No one country can
defeat that scourge, which has caused the loss of many
lives across the world. The activities of terrorists have
become very complex and sophisticated. We need
united, stronger and concerted action by all the
countries of the world to defeat that scourge, which
knows no boundaries.
In conclusion, I reaffirm the importance that
Botswana attaches to the revitalization of the General
Assembly and the reform of the Security Council. We
commend the President of the fifty-eighth session of
the General Assembly for his practical proposals in
that area. We were disappointed that the Assembly
could not reach consensus on those proposals. My
delegation will contribute in whatever small way it can
to the building of such consensus.
Regarding the reform of the Security Council, we
are concerned that, after 11 years of consultations, not
much progress has been achieved. The solution to that
vexing question rests on the ability of Member States,
in particular the permanent members of the Council, to
muster the political will to compromise. We should not
tolerate this paralysis any longer. It is therefore my
hope that action will be taken at this session to
continue the process of democratizing the Security
Council and make it more representative of the
membership of the United Nations.
Finally, I once again make a special appeal to the
general Membership of the Organization to do more to
facilitate the implementation of the Millennium
Declaration. We must do all we can to transform hope
into reality. Together we have the resources, the skills
and the science and technology to make the
Declaration have meaning in the lives of our peoples.
Botswana is committed to doing its part.


Mr. President, on behalf of the Government and the
people of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, I
extend congratulations to Mr. Ping on his election to
the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-
ninth session. We are confident that his experience and
diplomatic skills will enable him to discharge fully the
weighty responsibilities of his office.
Permit me to convey to his predecessor, The
Honourable Julian Hunte, Minister of Foreign Affairs
of Saint Lucia, our deep appreciation of his efforts
towards revitalization of the General Assembly.
I wish also to convey to our Secretary-General,
Mr. Kofi Annan, the full support of the Government
and the people of Trinidad and Tobago as he continues
the global initiatives of the United Nations towards
making the world better and safer for all humanity.
Today Trinidad and Tobago is celebrating its
twenty-eighth anniversary as a republic. Over our 42
years as an independent country, we have made
significant strides in the development of our nation. We
have maintained a strong tradition of democratic
7

governance through an increasingly inclusive and
multiparty political system; by respecting fully the
constitutionally entrenched and internationally
recognized fundamental human rights and freedoms of
the individual; and by ensuring strict adherence to the
rule of law.
We have sought increasingly to diversify our
economic base. Through consistent and sound macro-
economic policies, together with prudent management
and use of our resources, we have sustained more than
a decade of positive economic growth, which last year
was of the order of 13.2 per cent.
Our country has made significant strides in
advancing the capabilities of our people through
universal access to primary and secondary education.
We have gone further through our State-sponsored
preschool programme, which targets universal early
childhood education by 2010, and by fully opening the
gateway to tertiary education through support for every
student, enhanced funding for deserving ones, and our
recently established University of Trinidad and
Tobago.
Our archipelagic Republic, populated by 1.3
million people of African, Indian, European, Chinese,
Middle Eastern and mixed ancestries, constitutes a
veritable microcosm of the people of the world.
However, we have been able to foster racial harmony
and religious tolerance through the collective embrace
of the diversity of our people.
That approach, together with adherence to
integrity and transparency in public affairs and equality
of opportunity for all, has been essential to the
continued peace, stability and progress we enjoy as we
propose to make Trinidad and Tobago a beacon of
integrity in the world.
Trinidad and Tobago has demonstrated
remarkable strength and resilience in the face of a
global environment characterized by rapid economic,
social and other changes; this has mobilized us to
embark on the realization of a bold new vision in the
pursuit of our developmental agenda. In that respect,
our Government and people are currently engaged in a
highly participatory consultative process aimed at
formulating a National Strategic Development Plan to
guide Trinidad and Tobago towards becoming a
developed nation by the year 2020 or earlier.
It is called Vision 2020, and its agenda includes
human capital development; the evolution of a
technologically driven, knowledge-based society; the
development of a highly productive and globally
competitive economy; and, by the year 2020, the
provision for all our citizens of a standard of living
comparable to that enjoyed in developed countries.
Our achievements stand in indisputable testimony
to what a small, independent nation such as ours can do
in that regard. There is an instructive link between two
of the features that today define and distinguish our
country among others in the region. One is our oil and
natural gas resources — the foundation and mainstay
of our economy; the other, the steelpan, our creation
derived from heating and tuning the top of discarded
oil drums.
The steelpan is one of the most important musical
instruments invented during the last century. We are
proud to have created it, and equally so of its growing
international recognition and popularity, which is an
apt reflection of the phenomenal ingenuity of the
peoples of developing countries.
The same holds true in respect of achievements in
our energy sector. At just over 130,000 barrels of oil
per day, Trinidad and Tobago’s production is not
significant by international standards. Our natural gas
production, however, stands at 2.9 billion cubic feet
per day, and that has propelled my country to become
today the world’s largest exporter of methanol and also
of ammonia. We are currently supplying 80 per cent of
United States liquid natural gas imports out of our
three trains, and we propose to leverage that fact
towards Caribbean regional development. We are also a
critical supplier of energy to our Caribbean neighbours.
To further facilitate this, we are exploring the
feasibility of several energy-related projects, including
the establishment of a natural gas pipeline through the
eastern Caribbean. We have also entered into a joint
venture with neighbouring Venezuela to liquefy that
country’s natural gas in Trinidad and Tobago.
Meanwhile, our iron and steel production
facilities are being expanded. Several new production
facilities are in train, among them an ethylene
production complex, an aluminium smelter project, and
others for expanded ammonia and methanol production
as well as other downstream petrochemical products.
The combination of an attractive and enabling
investment climate, available and affordable energy, a
8

strategic location vis-à-vis the North, Central and
South American and European markets, a population
literacy level of over 90 per cent, and a sound work
ethic, as well as a good communications infrastructure,
continue to make Trinidad and Tobago one of the
largest per-capita recipients of foreign direct
investment in the hemisphere. Indeed, last year we
were the second-largest recipient after Canada.
Like other countries we, too, have our fair share
of challenges. For example, our strategic location —
less than nine miles off the South American coast and
to the south of the Caribbean island chain, with
excellent air and sea transport links to major North
Atlantic cities — renders Trinidad and Tobago highly
vulnerable to trade in illegal drugs and firearms.
Combating narco-trafficking, drug-related crimes and
the spread of HIV/AIDS is among our greatest
challenges, but the Government of Trinidad and
Tobago remains resolute in its determination to
eradicate those scourges. We continue to implement the
measures necessary to fight them and are confident that
we shall win the battle.
Our development agenda is not centred solely on
the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is part and
parcel of a pan-Caribbean agenda to which we are
irrevocably and solidly committed, and which takes
into consideration the fullest development of the
countries of our region. Many historical and other ties
bind our Caribbean nations and we understand that the
fundamental basis for our development lies in being
able to work more closely together to exert a greater
influence on our own as well as global development,
which for centuries have been dictated by others.
Today, our level of functional cooperation in the
region has increased over a range of areas and Trinidad
and Tobago continues to play a central role at all
levels. We therefore look forward to the
operationalization of our newest Caribbean institution,
the Caribbean Court of Justice, which will serve as the
arbitral body for the soon-to-be-established CARICOM
Single Market and Economy, as well as the region’s
final appellate Court, and will be headquartered in Port
of Spain.
The development of Trinidad and Tobago and
CARICOM are intertwined. CARICOM is our second
largest export market after the United States of
America, absorbing close to 20 per cent of our exports.
Our share of regional trade grew to 80 per cent in
2001. Since 1996, we have contributed approximately
US$ 1.4 billion in assistance to Caribbean States
through a variety of mechanisms including capital
market activities, foreign direct investment, debt relief,
and direct assistance. Last year we provided US$ 505
million in loans to companies and Governments in the
region, some of whom have difficulty in borrowing on
the international market. In addition, we have recently
established a new grant facility, to be based on sales of
petroleum products to the region, which will be
dedicated to poverty eradication within CARICOM.
My country sees the development of the
Caribbean, our second largest market, as integral to the
development of Trinidad and Tobago. Even so, our
national and regional development efforts require an
international economic environment of greater
sensitivity, one facilitating a more beneficial
integration of developing countries into the world
economy. In that regard, as sanguine as we are about
the future of Trinidad and Tobago, I must on this
occasion take a stand in the interest of the beleaguered
nations of the Caribbean. How often have small
independent States preached from this very
mountaintop of the need for multilateral trading
arrangements that take into account the inherent
vulnerabilities of small island developing States, and
consequently the need to be accorded special and
differential treatment? There is a notable reluctance of
some partner countries to respond accordingly, and that
continues to have negative consequences, especially
for the small economies of the Caribbean.
Trinidad and Tobago therefore stands resolute
with our developing country partners in calling for
what must be conceived of as the application of a
social conscience within the management of
globalization and its processes. As capital importing
economies, the developing countries of the Caribbean
are only too well aware, sometimes painfully so, of the
implications of capital shortage for the generation of
employment and the provision of housing, education
and health care for our citizens. And perhaps I speak
even for those yet unborn.
It is through softer trading arrangements,
increased financial flows and the consequent
empowerment of our citizens that we will be able to
realize the most central of all the Millennium
Development Goals, the eradication of poverty. The
implications are clear. The course on which some of
our European Union (EU) country partners are
9

embarked will render the achievement of our
Millennium Development Goals more difficult.
In speaking of those goals our attention is now
drawn to Haiti, our newest CARICOM member, where
over 1,000 people died from the onslaught of
Hurricane Jeanne, further aggravating the tremendous
problems that that nation already suffers. Trinidad and
Tobago therefore welcomes the decision taken by the
Security Council in its resolution 1542 (2004) of 30
April 2004 to establish the United Nations Stabilization
Mission in Haiti. We also support the recent decision
by the Economic and Social Council to reactivate its
Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Haiti to promote the
coordination and development of a long-term
programme of assistance to that country. We believe
that those efforts by the international community will
contribute significantly to the stability and urgently
needed development of Haiti.
At this juncture, however, Haiti needs a
tremendous outpouring of international humanitarian
assistance. The same holds true for Grenada and
several other Caribbean States whose misfortune it was
to have been visited by “Ivan, the Terrible”. On
8 September, Hurricane Ivan descended on Grenada. In
less than two hours it had completely destroyed the
economy and infrastructure of Grenada, ravaging that
country beyond description. Ninety percent of the
buildings on the island were damaged or destroyed. A
primarily agricultural economy, dependent also on
tourism, all of Grenada’s crops disappeared with the
strong wind. CARICOM leaders were recently advised
by a Grenadian representative that today Grenada has
no gross domestic product.
Before visiting Grenada, Hurricane Ivan —
sowing varying amounts of disruption and
destruction — visited Tobago and Barbados. After
Grenada, it proceeded to Saint Vincent and the
Grenadines, Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Cuba,
Bahamas and the southern United States. Everywhere
there was considerable damage, but Grenada and the
Cayman Islands were the hardest hit.
Before Ivan, there was Charley and Frances.
After Ivan came Jeanne, with death and destruction for
Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A
number of CARICOM countries are now saddled with
the immense challenge of trying to restore normalcy.
Permit me to ask, to what extent have these
obvious climate changes been influenced by incursions
into space from planet Earth, or for that matter by
ecological imbalances caused by industrialization?
In the aftermath of the devastation visited on
Grenada, CARICOM countries have been rallying to
the assistance of that island, and must be applauded for
their massive outpouring of humanitarian aid that
continues to flow to Grenada. In that regard, permit me
to recognize and applaud the most appropriate response
of the Secretary-General.
Trinidad and Tobago pledges its support to our
beleaguered Caribbean neighbours, and we have thus
committed ourselves through direct financial and other
assistance. But what Grenada and Haiti require is well
beyond the region’s capacity to deliver. I urge the
wider international community and donor agencies to
respond adequately and to play their part. Help is
needed and needed now.
The catastrophic events of the present hurricane
season bring into sharper focus yet another dimension
of the vulnerability of Caribbean countries. The
January 2005 International Meeting in Mauritius to
review the implementation of the Barbados Programme
of Action must seek to comprehensively address the
new and emerging threats to the sustainable
development of small island developing States. The
international community should take note that a whole
new set of security issues have now arisen in the
Caribbean as a result of those developments.
The answer to so many of our problems lies in
multilateralism, if approached the right way. Belief in
and respect for multilateralism led to Trinidad and
Tobago’s respect for all major global and regional
forums. Today, we are active participants in the
creation of the free trade area of the Americas, which,
when realized, will stretch from Alaska in the north to
Tierra del Fuego in the south, creating a market of
more than 800 million consumers and generating
tremendous opportunity for economic and social
development.
Our region’s commitment to that hemispheric
integration process has led Trinidad and Tobago and its
partners in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to
propose our capital city, Port-of-Spain, as the ideal
location for the seat of the proposed permanent
secretariat of the free trade area of the Americas.
Unanimous regional support for this CARICOM
proposal would demonstrate the hemisphere’s
10

solidarity with one of its smaller members and give
true meaning to the principle of the sovereign equality
of all States. It would further decentralize the
headquartering of major international and regional
organizations and enable a small island developing
State to place its resources at the service of the
hemispheric community. Accordingly, we look forward
to receiving the support of all our neighbours in the
hemisphere.
We remain pleased with the progress of certain
multilateral initiatives, including the New African
Partnership for Development, which I urge CARICOM
and African countries to support by exploring
opportunities to develop investment, trade, tourism and
regular transport routes between our region and the
African continent.
We also consider the establishment of the
International Criminal Court to be a major
achievement, and we urge partner countries to uphold
the integrity of the Rome Statute. The commission of
war crimes, genocide and other such crimes against
humanity has been facilitated by a global culture of
impunity. The people of the world will be safe only
when the perpetrators of such crimes know that
punishment is inescapable.
Trinidad and Tobago condemns all forms and
manifestations of terrorism, wherever and by
whomever they are committed. We are already a party
to the principal international legal instruments against
terrorism, and the Government will shortly take
parliamentary action to enact legislation honouring our
obligations with respect to the International
Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of
Terrorism.
As the international community continues to
confront the many threats to the survival of mankind,
the world’s political leadership must unequivocally
reaffirm its commitment to the United Nations so that
the United Nations can continue its role in fighting
injustice, inequality, inequity and intolerance
worldwide through resolute and speedy action, in
respect of its commitment to the ideals for which it was
founded.
Trinidad and Tobago is of the view that the issue
of United Nations reform takes on even more urgency
as the institution approaches the sixtieth anniversary of
its founding in 1945. We therefore look forward to
discussion of the Secretary-General’s recommendations
based on the report of the High-level Panel on Threats,
Challenges and Change, chaired by former Prime
Minister Anand Panyarachun.
In conclusion, I wish to propose that on 24
October, 2005, United Nations Day, a special
commemorative meeting of the General Assembly be
held in San Francisco, where our Charter was signed,
to reaffirm our commitment to the lofty ideals
enunciated some 50 years ago, which are still valid
today.


Let me first
congratulate Mr. Jean Ping on his election as President
of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session and
wish him every success in this important position. I
would also like to thank his predecessor, Mr. Julian
Hunte, for his relentless efforts and leadership
throughout the year.
In May, the Czech Republic became a member of
the European Union (EU). For the first time, we took
part in the preparation of the EU statement presented
here last week by the Foreign Minister of the
Netherlands, as well as in shaping the EU priorities for
the current General Assembly session. It goes without
saying that we fully associate ourselves with those
texts.
We share the commitment of the EU to effective
multilateralism, with the United Nations at its core.
Indeed, the vision of a strong and truly universal
United Nations is one of the fundamentals of Czech
foreign policy.
Security, or the lack of it, has emerged as the
most challenging problem today. International
terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, regional conflicts, State failure or
organized crime — these are the threats menacing all
of us.
Terrorism spares no one anywhere in the world.
The brutality of the attacks and the increase in their
number over the past year are frightening. It seems that
the whole nature of terrorism is changing. While most
earlier terrorists tried to target specific persons or
institutions, with the aim of gaining the sympathy of
the general public, today’s terrorists are solely intent
on spreading fear and terror. Their target is the general
public, each one of us, and the more killed the better.
What can we expect of individuals who sacrifice
unlimited numbers of their own people to a perverse
ideology? Their acquisition of weapons of mass
destruction would result in a deadly combination.
Absolute disregard for life by these “new”
terrorists has also given rise to their most dangerous
tool, the ideological suicide bomber. Previously,
terrorists had to devote most of their energy to
planning escape routes and concealing themselves; a
suicide bomber, on the other hand, needs only to
concentrate on how best to hit and to destroy his target.
The diffusion of targets and the perpetrators’
absolute resolve mean that terrorist threats have
completely permeated our public and private spaces,
each area of which has become a defence site. All this
could ultimately lead to very disagreeable restrictions
on certain freedoms and rights. And this takes us full
circle.
If we are lax in understanding our roots and
values, and if we do not have a comprehensive grasp of
human rights, we could find that, in the end, we are
unable to cope with the uneasy balance between
security and freedom.
I do not want to speculate about cause and effect.
It is not the case that a terrorist attack is a reaction, an
inappropriate reaction, to something. Terrorists’
ideology is aggressive and expansive, and they do not
recognize terms such as “conciliation” or
“coexistence”. Therefore, each offer we make to
negotiate, each sign of unwillingness to defend
ourselves, is seen by them as further proof of our
weakness and, by extension, of their “right” to assume
control of declining society.
In the fight against terrorism, nobody can remain
neutral. The United Nations has to pave the way for
this fight at the global level. To be sure, the Counter-
Terrorism Committee has done an outstanding job in
overseeing the implementation of Security Council
resolution 1373 (2001) and in facilitating universal
acceptance of the United Nations Conventions on
terrorism; but certainly more can and should be done.
The true tests of our ability to cooperate are Iraq,
Afghanistan and the Middle East.
Iraq continues to be of utmost concern to the
international community. The full transfer of power to
the Iraqi Interim Government is a historic moment for
the country and an essential step on the road towards a
free, prosperous and secure country. The road will, no
doubt, be long and winding. Without the elimination of
terrorist activities and the stabilization of the security
situation, political transition and economic recovery
will remain elusive.
5

Last summer, United Nations employees in Iraq
paid the highest price for their commitment to help
those in need. Now, the Organization has new tasks
before it, including those connected with preparations
for free elections in January 2005. However, a greater
engagement of the United Nations requires a more
secure environment and stronger support from the
international community. The Czech Republic’s
contribution is focused mainly on building up Iraqi
security forces and helping to finance the protection of
the United Nations presence in Iraq.
Iraq, however, must not divert our attention from
other major security concerns, including Afghanistan,
the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. In all these
conflicts, my country seeks to play a constructive role,
contributing in various ways to the related efforts of
the international community. Thus, in Afghanistan, the
Czech Republic is participating in the stabilization
process and the rooting out of terrorism; in Africa, it is
taking part in peacekeeping operations; in Kosovo, we
have our largest military contingent abroad serving in
the Kosovo Force and we intend to contribute troops to
the new EU-led mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
As for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we believe
that the role of the international community lies in
providing a trusted frame of reference. It is crucial that
both parties to the conflict make a sincere effort to
implement their obligations in order to achieve the
vision of two States living side by side in peace and
security and in a peaceful and secure neighbourhood.
Last but not least, Africa has to remain on our
agenda. Ten years after the genocide in Rwanda,
another part of Africa is suffering from grave ethnic
violence. In Darfur, people are dying every day, and in
the Great Lakes region the situation is not much better.
The international community must not turn away from
those tragedies.
So far I have focused mainly on what we call
hard threats to international security. But I do not want
to create an impression that other problems plaguing
the contemporary world are of lesser importance.
Those more traditional problems, or soft threats, also
continue to deserve our undiminished attention. There
is no question of these two threats competing for our
response; there is no question of forgetting one in
favour of the other.
That is why the Czech Republic, as an emerging
donor country, supports the strengthening of
multilateral development assistance within the United
Nations system, as well as close cooperation among the
United Nations funds and programmes and the Bretton
Woods institutions. That is why we support and strive
to contribute to activities undertaken in pursuit of the
Millennium Development Goals and other
internationally agreed development targets.
Respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms remains a priority of Czech foreign policy.
Together with the rest of the EU, we place special
emphasis on the abolition of the death penalty, the fight
against torture — in fact, just a few days ago we signed
the Optional Protocol to the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment — the protection of children
in armed conflicts and, of course, respect for the
activities of human rights defenders who,
unfortunately, continue to face difficult conditions in a
number of countries, such as Belarus, Myanmar and
Cuba, among others.
Convinced that all people have equal rights and
dignity, the Czech Republic is concerned about recent
attempts to create a human being through cloning. We
therefore concur with those calling for the swift
adoption of a legally binding instrument at the
universal level regulating the cloning of human beings.
Faced with the aforementioned challenges, the
United Nations has to change. Of course, United
Nations reform seems to be on everyone’s agenda.
There are, perhaps, too many reform processes going
on in parallel or partially overlapping. To achieve
genuine reform, however, we simply have to keep the
pressure on; the United Nations must continue
constantly to monitor itself and to continue its pursuit
of improvement.
The Czech Republic considers itself a reform-
minded country. It is an advocate of revitalization of
the General Assembly, strengthening of the United
Nations and reform and enlargement of the Security
Council. For many years, we have been actively
involved in those processes, including through the
Czech presidency of the fifty-seventh session of the
General Assembly. We have no vested interest in these
reforms except the better functioning and greater
authority of the whole United Nations. The Czech
Republic will continue to support inevitable reform
measures, including enlargement of the Security
Council in both categories of membership. In
6

particular, we support the aspiration of Germany and
Japan to permanent seats, as well as the allocation of a
further three new permanent seats for Africa, Asia and
Latin America.
We greatly appreciate the reform efforts that the
Secretary-General has made so far, and we expect his
guidance to continue in the years to come. We eagerly
await the report of the High-Level Panel on Threats,
Challenges and Change, which should place United
Nations reform in a wider context of major global
threats and challenges.
We are determined to play an active role in
finding multilateral and United Nations-based solutions
to numerous grave problems of the contemporary
world. An expression of that commitment and
determination is our candidature for a non-permanent
seat on the Security Council in 2008-2009.