Sir, let me begin, like
others, by congratulating you on having been elected
President of the fifty-sixth session of the General
Assembly. Let me also very warmly commend you on
your commitment to making the most efficient use of
the Assembly’s time, including — if I may say — by
beginning meetings punctually. I also want to join other
speakers in congratulating the Secretary-General, Kofi
Annan, and the United Nations more generally on their
heartily deserved receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The terrorist attacks of 11 September in
Washington, D.C., and here in New York City were not
just attacks on the United States. Australia, along with
more than 80 other nations, lost innocent civilians. We
are united in our grief for the victims and their
families. Australia condemns these attacks and
reaffirms unequivocally that terrorism is never justified
and must never be tolerated.
Australia has joined the international coalition
against terrorism. We have invoked our mutual security
pact for the first time with the United States, and we
are contributing military forces to the campaign against
those responsible for the 11 September attacks.
The international community is obliged to close
ranks against terrorism. We must starve terrorists of
their support — financial, political and moral. We must
deny terrorists safe haven. We must bring terrorists to
account.
Australia commends Security Council resolution
1373 (2001) of 28 September, which targets
comprehensively the terrorist menace. We will work
closely with the Committee on Counter-Terrorism of
the Security Council.
Australia has introduced new measures to prevent
and suppress the financing of terrorism and is already
party to all but one of the 12 international counter-
terrorism instruments.
A comprehensive convention against terrorism is
potentially a very important symbol of global
commitment on this issue. As the Assembly is aware,
Australia has taken a leading role in the negotiations,
reflecting our strong commitment to strengthening the
international legal framework. While we are
encouraged by the progress this past month, we join the
Secretary-General in urging the parties to conclude the
convention without delay.
The events of 11 September underline how
important it is that we maintain and strengthen
international non-proliferation regimes governing
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. If we want
to prevent the spread of ballistic missiles and
associated technology — and if we want to strengthen
mechanisms relating to conventional weapons — then
we also need a stronger commitment to other arms
control and disarmament instruments as well.
Let me turn now to East Timor. We all have a
deep interest in a stable, secure, viable and democratic
East Timor. East Timor is no longer an emergency, but,
instead, an emerging nation.
However, much more needs to be done. East
Timor remains vulnerable, and the role of the United
Nations is not complete. We need, after independence,
an integrated United Nations mission of civilians,
police and peacekeepers, under a single Security
4

Council mandate funded from United Nations assessed
contributions.
Australia therefore welcomes the Security
Council President’s statement of 31 October endorsing
the Secretary-General’s recommendations for a United
Nations successor mission in East Timor. We look
forward to working with others over the coming
months to set a solid and sensible mandate for a
successor mission.
Cooperative relations between East Timor and
Indonesia are key to East Timor’s longer-term security
and to that of the region as a whole. We very much
welcome steps by both sides to resolve outstanding
issues.
We welcome progress by the Indonesian
Government to resolve the situation in refugee camps
in West Timor, and we urge continued efforts to ensure
security and to facilitate the safe return of refugees.
Justice and reconciliation are important to East
Timor’s longer-term stability and prosperity. Australia
welcomes steps by President Megawati Soekarnoputri
to expand the jurisdiction of the ad hoc human rights
court and her Government’s commitment to bring to
justice those who have perpetrated human rights crimes
in East Timor. That commitment was reconfirmed in a
most welcome way in the Assembly yesterday by the
Foreign Minister of Indonesia, Mr. Hassan Wirajuda.
Australia will continue to support East Timor
generously. We have an agreement to share resources
from the Timor Sea. We are helping to reduce poverty
in East Timor and we are building East Timorese
capacity to govern peacefully and democratically. We
urge others to support East Timor. This is our chance,
collectively in the international community, to ensure
that the United Nations historic mission in East Timor
is remembered as a success.
Let me talk about what we in Australia call
“people-smuggling”. Australia has a proud history as a
major country of migration. We are, as a result of over
a century of planned and managed legal migration, a
tolerant multicultural society. We will continue as a
country of migration and we will continue to take more
than our fair share of refugees.
Regrettably, Australia is also increasingly a
favoured target for illegal migration, assisted by
individuals and criminal syndicates engaged in the
pernicious crime of people-smuggling. Many other
countries — as either transit or destination countries —
are also affected by this problem. As with other
transnational crimes, combating the phenomenon of
people-smuggling requires not just national, but also
concerted regional and multilateral action.
People-smugglers are primarily organized crime
syndicates. They exploit their victims. They find their
clients among people who have experienced conflict or
persecution, economic downturn or extreme
environmental breakdown. They target those desperate
for a better life. The loss recently of more than 350
lives, when a people-smuggling boat headed for
Australia sank, is a tragic reminder of the human costs
involved and of the callousness of people-smugglers.
Irregular migration, facilitated by people-
smuggling, undermines the integrity of the
international protection system. All countries share an
interest in protecting and strengthening the
international protection system. To do so, we must
tackle the problem of people-smuggling. A year ago, at
the Millennium Summit, leaders committed us to fight
people-smuggling and other transnational crimes. We
should redouble our efforts to do so. We need
coordinated, comprehensive approaches and concerted
international action to address all its aspects. Root
causes in source countries need to be addressed. The
humanitarian and other needs of displaced persons in
countries of first asylum need to be addressed. Transit
countries and countries of destination need to
cooperate more effectively.
Australia is working closely with its neighbours
in the Asia-Pacific region to strengthen our capacity to
prevent and deter people-smuggling and to bring
perpetrators to justice. This will continue to be a high
priority for my Government. We will also continue to
contribute to broader international efforts to deal with
the causes of irregular migration. These efforts, which
have the protection needs of refugees at their core, will
continue while we work with others in our region and
internationally to combat illegal migration and people-
smuggling.
Afghans fleeing the devastation of their homeland
pose a particular challenge to the international
community. A renewed focus and a more coordinated
response are needed. Australia supports the efforts of
the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees and those of the countries of first asylum
to protect refugees in South-West Asia. We have
5

advocated, consistently and strongly, a comprehensive
response to the Afghan situation and substantially
increased our assistance to displaced and vulnerable
Afghans in South-West Asia.
The international community faces grave new
challenges that threaten global peace and prosperity. At
the same time, as the Secretary-General said in his
statement, the challenges that faced us before 11
September — poverty, disease, development — have
not diminished. The need for international cooperation
has never been greater. It is therefore tremendously
important that agreement was reached in Doha to
launch the development round of world trade
liberalization. Free trade, including in agriculture,
offers benefits for all countries and is crucial for
developing countries to overcome poverty.
Finally, I want to say that Australia stands ready
to support international efforts to combat international
terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass
destruction. Australia stands ready to ensure that recent
United Nations successes — such as in East Timor —
help create vibrant and sustainable democracies in
which people can be assured of their future and that of
their children. Australia stands ready to contribute to
sustained international action against people-smuggling
at source, in transit and at destination. Australia urges
that this fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly
makes substantial progress towards those same goals.


On behalf of
His Majesty’s Government, I should like to express
once again my warmest congratulations to the
President on his election and our appreciation to his
predecessor, Mr. Harri Holkeri of Finland, President of
the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly. I would
also like to congratulate the Secretary-General on his
re-election. We are extremely pleased that he is
continuing to serve the United Nations. The award of
this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is a fine tribute to his
work and to the United Nations agencies and workers
in the field, who have served us all with such
dedication to the principles of the Charter.
Sadly, of course, this comes at a time when their
work is perhaps more crucial than ever before. The
atrocities committed in the United States on 11
September have rightly received the absolute
condemnation of all civilized people. There is no
justification for terrorism. As we have stated both
individually and in our regional associations, Brunei
Darussalam will continue to do all it can to work
closely with the United States and all members of the
Security Council to play its part in overcoming the
direct challenge that terrorism poses to the proper
conduct of international affairs.
The existence of terrorism is, however, a grim
reminder that the United Nations agenda, set over the
last half of the twentieth century, has yet to be
completed. There are many unwelcome legacies from
the past 50 years. Though none justify acts of terror,
many offer justification for deep resentment and
profound despair. Perhaps the most apparent of all at
this time is the situation in Palestine, where the justice
implicit in the Security Council’s resolutions on
Palestine is still denied to what is now a third
generation of Palestinians. In this respect, we welcome
the recognition given by many world leaders, including
the President of the United States and the Prime
Minister of the United Kingdom, to the principle of a
Palestinian State. Brunei Darussalam hopes that all
concerned and interested parties involved in the Middle
East peace process will act with urgency in order to
bring this about.
As we all know, dispelling feelings of past
injustice is an extremely difficult task. In essence, we
believe it must involve new approaches to security. We
believe all members of all regional associations have a
crucial role in this. Brunei Darussalam is trying to do
this through the Association of South-East Asian
Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in an approach that
has been taking shape over nearly a decade now. This
involves all the nations of South-East Asia and our
partners in North America, East Asia, Europe and
Oceania. We seek common understandings through
consultation and various confidence-building measures.
Members have recognized the complex nature of
modern conflict. They have accepted that its roots are
often deep and intricately entwined. As elsewhere in
the world, it can be the result of long-standing
territorial claims, centuries-old animosities and
instinctive suspicions or conflicting ideologies. Or it
can be as basic as local land disputes or simple lack of
basic resources.
Whatever the cause, however, the members
believe the Forum is seeing signs of success. This year,
for example, it has been able to move things another
stage forward and is now looking into the very
challenging area of preventive diplomacy. In short, the
members see dialogue and consultation not as a series
of meetings but as a process. As such, it may never
end. In fact, in the long run, the process itself may
indeed become the solution.
That, we think, is the framework within which the
ideas expressed at the Millennium Summit can be
pursued successfully. In short, we believe that the key
to security today is the capacity to think locally,
regionally and globally at the same time. To us this
means that a positive, forward-looking United Nations
is crucial. It is here that all these thoughts can truly
come together. It is here that all nations can renew and
strengthen the tolerance and friendship that are the real
building blocks of security.


The delegation of the Central African
Republic would like first of all to fulfil the task
entrusted to it by His Excellency Mr. Ange-Félix
Patassé, President of the Republic and head of State, of
expressing the solidarity of the Central African
Republic with the American people, as well as its
resolute condemnation of the heinous acts committed
against freedom, democracy and peace on 11
September. We will certainly make our contribution to
the process of reflection that the international
community will undertake together throughout this
session to elaborate measures aimed at the eradication
of terrorism.
Before proceeding, I should like warmly to
congratulate Mr. Han on his election to the presidency
of the General Assembly at this session, as well as the
other members of the Bureau. His expertise in
international affairs, together with his wisdom, will
guarantee the success of our work, and the delegation
of the Central African Republic would like to assure
him of its cooperation. My delegation greatly
appreciated the skilful way in which his predecessor
conducted the work of the Millennium Assembly.
We would also like to address, on behalf of the
Central African Republic, our warmest congratulations
to Mr. Kofi Annan on his re-election as Secretary-
General. He has been honoured for his commitment to
the cause of the Organization by the award of the
Nobel Peace Prize, which is a tribute both to him and
to the United Nations as a whole. He can continue to
count upon the cooperation of the Central African
Republic in the fulfilment of his extremely difficult
10

mission, in the wake of last year’s adoption by Member
States of the Millennium Declaration, which
establishes a new framework for cooperation between
States.
Indeed, the Millennium Declaration must be
viewed as a strategy within which States should work
so as to be able meet the many challenges facing the
world today, which include poverty, conflict,
intolerance, terrorism, debt, marginalization, endemic
disease and HIV/AIDS. These growing challenges, the
persistence of which leads to global imbalance, can be
dealt with only through multilateral cooperation, above
all in the framework of the United Nations.
Such cooperation must first of all aim to eradicate
the causes of certain frustrating problems in the world,
by, for example, achieving a just and lasting settlement
of the question of the Middle East.
Likewise, my delegation urges the parties
concerned to implement the provisions of the Lusaka
Agreement so that the Democratic Republic of the
Congo can regain its territorial integrity and unity and
establish a lasting peace, which will be of benefit to the
Central African Republic.
Furthermore, States should cooperate in support
of Africa, which is currently burdened by the weight of
numerous challenges. The Millennium Summit rightly
committed the international community to a campaign
for development cooperation so as to make the right to
development, like human rights, a reality for all.
The Central African Republic, which endorsed
the Millennium Declaration, urges the countries of the
North to establish a true partnership with Africa, at
both the public and private level, so as to support the
developmental efforts of the continent. This will
require a degree of political will, since, given the
conflicts that are taking place today between, and often
within, States, our partners sometimes give in to
despair and indifference when confronted with slow
progress, or occasionally allow themselves to be
swayed by emotions incited by certain people who
wish to discourage initiatives by abusively
manipulating ideas that promote genocide and ethnic
cleansing — phenomena that some countries have
recently endured, but that can gain no foothold today in
a country such as the Central African Republic.
We often forget that the deep-seated sources of
such conflicts are the lack of a culture of democracy in
our societies and extreme poverty. That is why our
partners should support our efforts to achieve
democratization and contribute to consolidating the
foundations of our young democracies, above all by
paying priority attention to the economic aspect,
which, unfortunately, is not always the case.
In the case of the Central African Republic, for
example, on 28 May last an attempted coup took place
with the aim of ending the march of democracy in the
country. That was the fourth such attempt in the five
years since 1996. We would like briefly to shed some
light on those events.
At its 4261st meeting, on 23 January 2001, the
Security Council considered the situation in the Central
African Republic. While noting certain shortcomings,
the Council recognized the efforts of the Government
and asked it, along with representatives of all parts of
society in the Central African Republic, to continue
down the path towards the consolidation of democracy
and the preservation of peace. To help in that task, the
mandate of the United Nations Peace-building Support
Office in the Central African Republic (BONUCA) has
been extended because, with the assistance of others, it
is doing remarkable and productive work.
Despite everything, the Central African Republic
is determined to continue resolutely to be a small
haven of relative stability in a region torn apart by war,
as one eminent personality put it recently. The social
and political tension has, indeed, begun to diminish.
Since May 2001, there has been an international
presence.
Contrary to all expectations, the same groups that
have repeatedly subjected the people of the Central
African Republic to acts of terrorism for five years
committed an act whose foreseeable and tragic
consequences are well known. When condemned by
both the national and international community, those
groups rushed to hide behind claims of genocidal
practices in an attempt to justify the unjustifiable, thus
creating ethnic division in various parts of the country.
This recurrence of violent crises raises questions
about justice in our young States, which are trying to
establish the rule of law, but where amnesties are
granted in lieu of justice, allowing impunity to prevail
and thus encouraging recidivism.
Fortunately, the world has spoken out in
condemnation of the most recent coup attempt, and we
11

would like to take this opportunity, from this rostrum,
to thank the United Nations, the European Union, the
Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the
Community of Sahel Saharan States, as well as
brotherly and friendly countries, which responded
immediately, calling for the re-establishment of
constitutional legality.
Any coup, be it failed or successful, always gives
rise to actions to undermine freedom, human rights, the
rights of society and national rights. The Central
African Republic did not want to play that game. Thus,
a number of appropriate measures have been taken,
including the creation of a joint judicial inquiry
commission; the establishment of contacts among the
various social sectors and with the chancelleries,
organizations and accredited institutions in the Central
African Republic at the governmental and presidential
levels; and diplomatic activity with the countries of the
subregion and the region, which are being pursued.
However, beyond the attempted coup of 28 May,
the entire situation in the Central African Republic
must be assessed as a whole. Just recently, having
refused to present himself to the commission of judicial
inquiry that had been established specifically to
determine the consequences of the attempted coup of
28 May, the former army Chief of Staff organized
resistance that threatened to turn into a rebellion and
almost plunged the country into renewed tragedy. The
rapid reaction of the Organization of African Unity, the
Community of Sahelo-Saharan States and neighbouring
brotherly countries has certainly helped to calm the
situation for the moment.
All these events, sorely trying to men of good
will, have again highlighted the question of the march
of democracy in the Central African Republic. That
march has been made even more difficult by the
nation’s extreme poverty and fragility, which, because
of enormous financial hardships, is unable to cover the
costs of sovereignty, creating a veritable breeding
ground of instability. The attempted coup on 28 May
exacerbated the country’s situation by plunging it into
tragic destitution.
This situation has been clearly grasped by the
Organization of African Unity (OAU), which, on 2
August, reminded its member States, for their
information and possible action, of the decision on the
situation in the Central African Republic, adopted at
the seventy-fourth ordinary session of the Council of
Ministers in Lusaka, which
“Appeals to Member States and the rest of
the international community to provide the
necessary economic and financial assistance for
the reconstruction of the Central African
Republic and in particular calls on the countries
which have promised to provide funds at the
Pledging Conference in favour of the Central
African Republic in New York in May 2000 to
honour their commitments.” (CM/Dec.602
(LXXIV), para. 4)
The Central African Republic thanks the OAU for
that decision. We also wish here to express our
gratitude to the Security Council, which has always
shown great interest in the situation in our country. We
further wish to make special mention here of Gabon,
France and the Secretary-General of the United
Nations, as well as the friends of the Central African
Republic represented here, for their firm involvement
at the side of the Central African Republic. We hope
that they will not despair over these repeated crises
because, in spite of everything, we in the Central
African Republic are truly determined to overcome our
problems.
We therefore hope that the United Nations will
advocate even more energetically the cause of our
country before the various international financial
institutions with a view to securing greater assistance
for us, because the repercussions of the series of events
that began in 1996 will require significant financial
resources to ensure the recovery of the country, the
total collapse of which would have an impact
throughout our subregion, if not beyond.
We are called upon at this session to consider the
manner in which States should implement the
Millennium Declaration through their conduct. It is
only through cooperation and solidarity that we can
achieve this and thus ensure for the world the
fulfilment of the objectives set out in the United
Nations Charter. This cooperation should also allow us
to find the necessary means of meeting the common
challenge of terrorism, which is more apparent today
than ever before.


I wish warmly to
congratulate Mr. Han Seung-soo on his unanimous
election to the presidency of the General Assembly. We
share the conviction that he will infuse the work of the
Assembly with dynamism and a new perspective.
I also join in the warm tributes paid to his
predecessor, Mr. Harri Holkeri. We congratulate
Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his staff on having
been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2001. He has
brought honour to us all. His re-election to a second
term is a just tribute to his dedication, commitment and
sheer hard work.
The catastrophe of 11 September has scarred us
all deeply. It has brought irrevocable change and
inevitable hardship. Yet it has honed and hardened a
common resolve, a steely determination to confront and
condemn all such irrational and mindless acts of
violence. Bangladesh stands committed to fight against
terrorism, in all its forms and manifestation, by
whoever and wherever it is committed. We believe that
terrorism hampers peace and security and creates
political chaos and economic instability around the
world.
We have therefore pledged total support for the
concerted efforts of the international community to
confront this scourge as best, as quickly and as
comprehensively as we can. We have initiated the
process of identifying any possible administrative or
financial focus or network of suspected terrorists. We
have not given, and will not give, any form of
sanctuary, training or support to any kind of terrorist
group or cell. We are responding to the call of the
Secretary-General and working towards becoming a
party to a number of United Nations anti-terrorist
instruments. We already subscribe to the 1987 South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)
Convention on Suppression of Terrorism and believe
that it has scope for further strengthening.
As a member of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC), we support, and will actively
participate in, efforts to reach an agreement on the
early completion and adoption of a comprehensive
convention to combat terrorism. We hope that an
inclusive approach will be taken that will unite us all in
our common struggle against terrorism.
We are aware that terrorism has no consistent
profile and that it has many variables reflecting the
increasing complexity of human society. But this much
is certain: we know what it is not. We must emphasize
and underscore emphatically the fact that terrorism has
no connection to any one religion or to any particular
41

region of the world. It is a global phenomenon and
should be addressed as such. We therefore welcome
President Bush's statement to the General Assembly, at
the 44th meeting on 10 November, during which he
quoted the sheikh of Al-Azhar University, the world's
oldest Islamic institution of higher learning, as having
declared that terrorism is a disease and that Islam
prohibits killing innocent civilians.
Previous speakers have underlined the fact that
the spotlight on terrorism should not blind us to the
pursuit of other pressing objectives. Indeed, terrorism
is but one aspect of the many negative forces that shape
the substance of what we call globalization, including
drugs, organized crime, the illicit transfer of small
arms, money-laundering, environmental degradation,
and the new diseases that have invaded all societies.
Many have intrinsic interlinkages, and none respect
borders. They call for collective approaches and
concerted global action.
On the positive side, two crucial forces have
impelled globalization  mass consciousness of
individual rights and the impact of science and
technology. The push for individual rights,
humanitarian concerns and a burgeoning new
humanitarian law are reflected in the worldwide sweep
of democracy. Advances in science and technology
have closed the information and communications gap.
Together, these forces have changed the nature of our
world, challenged the context and meaning of
sovereignty, and brought about a need for new and
dynamic approaches.
The radical changes that came in the wake of the
end of the cold war coincided in Bangladesh with the
overthrow of military dictatorship in 1990 and the
advent of democracy. Since then, Bangladesh has held
in succession three general elections that have been
acclaimed by all impartial observers, both local and
foreign, as being eminently free and fair. We have the
unique distinction of being the only parliamentary
democracy in which elections are constitutionally
carried out by an interim caretaker government within
a 90-day period.
The roots of democracy have taken hold and have
spread far and wide. Today, despite all of Bangladesh's
limitations due to poverty, its people have
demonstrated unequivocally that they are a functioning,
moderate, modernizing Muslim country. The most
recent elections, held on 1 October 2001, had a voter
turnout of 75 per cent of an electorate of over 70
million people. What was extraordinary was the
unprecedented number of women who freely exercised
their right of franchise.
In an overwhelming demonstration of support, the
people have returned the four-party alliance led by
Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to power, with
more than two-thirds majority seats in the Bangladesh
Parliament. This is an outstanding endorsement of, and
triumph for, democracy. It also imposes a huge burden
of responsibility on the Government to measure up to
this massive mandate.
The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Begum
Khaleda Zia, has responded firmly. The new
Government is committed to consolidating and
developing a sustainable structure of democracy with
the participation of the opposition. The primary focus
is to restore law and order and to ensure social peace,
harmony and justice, so as to improve our capacity to
fight poverty, illiteracy and underdevelopment. Four
factors pace the economic agenda: reducing poverty,
raising rural productivity, boosting trade and
encouraging investment.
In pursuing these key factors, the Government
will refine its already established four-fold strategy of
1991-1996: encouraging macroeconomic reform,
stimulating the private sector, enhancing the quality
and quantity of development expenditure and
concentrating on the quality, not quantity, of
investment. There will be a cardinal push for
aggressive economic diplomacy in the wake of
globalization, which has called for closer interaction
between domestic and foreign policy and which has
triggered intense competition for greater access to
markets, the flow of resources and investments, the
transfer of technology and employment opportunities
abroad.
In the pursuit of the pre-eminent objective of
alleviating poverty, a key concern remains to place
people at the centre of all public policies.
In the field of foreign policy, a fundamental
charge remains that of reinforcing mutual, beneficial
and cooperative relations with all countries and the
consolidation of our image abroad as a responsible,
stable, moderate, democratic and contributing member
of the world community.
42

Our unwavering policy is to maintain close and
friendly relations with our neighbours on the basis of
equality, mutual respect, non-interference in internal
affairs and the settlement of outstanding bilateral issues
through dialogue and negotiation. It is a matter of some
gratification that, close on the heels of the formation of
the new Government, special envoys of the leaders of
both India and Pakistan visited Bangladesh as a
goodwill gesture to renew and reinvigorate ties.
In our region, a priority objective will be to
revitalize the momentum and credibility of the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
It is a matter of particular satisfaction that the stalled
twelfth SAARC Summit will now be taking place 4-6
January 2002 in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is of vital
importance that this first millennium summit of South
Asian leaders forge a new vision for the future of the
region that will encompass promotion of not only its
socio-economic mandate, but also the reduction of
tension, the normalization of relations and the creation
of a broader-based climate of confidence-building.
Bangladesh believes that the most compelling
security challenge facing South Asia is promoting
sustainable growth, reform and development.
Nuclearization in South Asia has, if anything, enhanced
security concerns in the region. Bangladesh adheres to
the belief that security goes beyond the weapons a
nation possesses and extends to raising living standards
and building stable and healthy democracies. The link
between development and security is thus crucial in
South Asia. This was the underlying rationale of
SAARC. The guiding motivation  as enunciated by
the late President Ziaur Rahman  was to visibly
improve the quality of life of the common people in an
environment of peace.
In the global context, a cardinal priority for
Bangladesh will be to play an active role through
concrete initiatives in all socio-economic forums, to
promote the cause of developing countries as a whole
and the least developed in particular and, especially, to
keep alive special treatment for the poorest of the poor.
A fundamental objective for Bangladesh
consistent with our Constitution is to strengthen the
role of the United Nations as the central organ for the
cooperative management of the world's problems.
Bangladesh will continue to actively contribute to the
peaceful settlement of disputes, to bolster collective
security and peace-building. Our commitment to
peacekeeping remains firm and has manifested itself in
the participation of Bangladeshi military and civilian
contingents in many areas of simultaneous conflicts.
We are immensely proud to be currently the largest
contributor among blue helmets, serving in ten United
Nations missions. In the field of peacekeeping, we
believe that the recommendations of the Brahimi Panel
provide a good basis, and we feel that the Department
of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) should be
equipped adequately to handle such a requirement.
Bangladesh strongly believes that the issue of
representation of troop-contributing countries in the
military, civilian police and diplomatic components in
the DPKO and in other departments, as well as in the
mission headquarters, should be seriously considered in
the context of the proposed expansion scheme.
Bangladesh's term in the Security Council is now
about to come to an end. We have sought to live up to
our responsibility with pragmatism and moderation. We
have tried to make the work of the Council more
transparent, open and proactive and to develop an
effective interface between the Council and the general
membership to reflect the aspirations of all on issues of
common interest.
Today, certain issues both political and economic
have assumed centre stage, and our attention is
telescoped upon them. Prime among them is the
situation in Afghanistan. Bangladesh is a part of the
international coalition that seeks to establish a stable,
durable, social, political and economic structure in
Afghanistan as soon as possible. It is our hope that the
Afghan people will have a true opportunity to choose
their own system of governance in line with human
values and democratic practices in a post-Taliban
dispensation. Such a Government should be broad-
based, multi-ethnic, demographically and equitably
representative, responsive to the needs of the Afghan
people and acceptable to the people of Afghanistan, the
neighbourhood and the international community. We
welcome efforts to focus on positive and finite
solutions to the problems of Afghanistan, especially
efforts being made with the assistance of the United
Nations for forming an interim transitional Government
acceptable to the Afghan people. We also welcome two
key projects: first, a massive reconstruction and
rehabilitation plan and efforts to mobilize funding;
second, a hard focus on ways and means to facilitate
the return of the refugees. Of immediate importance is
the vast humanitarian tragedy in Afghanistan, the need
43

to contain and minimize the loss of human life and to
reach out with immediate relief to refugees and
displaced persons.
While new threats to peace, security and
economic stability are emerging, the old ones remain.
Occupation, inter-State and intra-State conflicts,
particularly in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans,
continue to threaten regional and global peace and
stability. We are particularly concerned at the steady
deterioration of the situation in Palestine, arising out of
the encroachment on Palestinian territories and the
collective punishment meted out to the Palestinians.
Bangladesh will continue to maintain its unflinching
support of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian
people to an early establishment of a State of their own
with Jerusalem as its capital.
Poverty today remains the pre-eminent moral
and humanitarian challenge of our age and hence
needs to be tackled with due priority. The Secretary-
General has reminded us of the commitments made by
our leaders during the Millennium Summit last year to
eradicate this scourge.
The role of external financial support in the
development process has assumed greater importance
by virtue of the fact that better education, knowledge,
skill and awareness must be effectively integrated into
the global economic and market mechanism. In this
context, we look forward to the Monterrey
International Conference on Financing for
Development in March 2002.
Over the last few decades, access to global
markets has been seriously limited for the products of
the developing countries in general and the least
developed countries (LDCs) in particular. In this
context, Bangladesh calls upon development partners
to create more access for trade, including offering
duty-free, quota-free access to products from the LDCs
on a secure, long-term and predictable basis with
realistic and flexible rules of origin to match the
industrial capacity of the LDCs. We are hopeful that
the current Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade
Organization in Doha will be able to effectively focus
on the obligations to implement the commitments made
earlier during the Uruguay Round of negotiations. Debt
repayment is also an enormous burden on the
developing countries, particularly on the LDCs. We
urge the developed countries to expand the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) facility to include
more indebted developing countries, with particular
focus on the LDCs.
Bangladesh is committed to strengthening and to
following up on many ideas to bolster the United
Nations capacity to lead, especially that of the General
Assembly. Bangladesh strongly supports the idea of
forging better coordination between the major organs
of the United Nations, namely the General Assembly,
Security Council and the Economic and Social Council,
for working out a long-term strategy for sustainable
peace and development.
In conclusion, I would like to say that it is not the
lack of resources that prevents the promotion of a
collective and shared perspective on common
challenges. What we perhaps need is to muster the
determination and courage to build up a collective and
inclusive approach for undertaking pragmatic and
forward-looking actions. The challenges of the twenty-
first century remind us once again that we must seek
harmony through diversity, peace through dialogue,
and prosperity through mutual cooperation. The United
Nations offers the most appropriate and central
mechanism to promote our best aspirations and
objectives. The journey to peace has always been
arduous; nonetheless, it is the longing for peace,
progress and justice that has inspired us to work for our
better tomorrow.


This
session of the General Assembly is facing the very
important task of comparing and coordinating the
positions of the members of the international
community on the most urgent issues of our time, that
is, ensuring strategic stability and equal security for all
States, strengthening the coordinating role of the
United Nations in the maintenance of international
peace and security and the settlement of regional
conflict, fighting poverty and disease, and creating
conditions for sustainable development and prosperity
of all peoples on our planet. It is clear that the search
for a collective response to the unprecedented
challenge thrown down to mankind by international
terrorism on 11 September has become a key subject of
this session.
The twentieth century proved convincingly that
the United Nations has indeed become the centre for
harmonizing the actions of nations in maintaining
36

peace, ensuring collective security, developing
international cooperation, and ensuring respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms. Thanks to the
joint efforts of its Member States, the Organization has,
in 55 years, become a universal forum capable of
developing joint political approaches of the community
of nations towards resolving the most urgent and
complicated problems of world development. The role
of the United Nations as the most representative
international forum for discussing the whole range of
problems faced by mankind, and developing
approaches for international cooperation in dealing
with such problems, is becoming more significant with
each passing year. In the view of the President of
Tajikistan, Emomali Rakhmonov, the task of
strengthening the central role of the United Nations has
become more rather than less urgent.
During the fifty-sixth session of the General
Assembly the Republic of Tajikistan will be celebrating
the tenth anniversary of its United Nations
membership. Since the first day of its international
recognition, Tajikistan has been working closely with
the United Nations. Cooperation with the United
Nations in the first years of its independence helped
Tajikistan to stop civil strife, to find an effective
formula for peace and national accord and now to start
post-conflict peace-building.
We will never forget that dramatic period and the
selfless assistance and support that we were given by
Member States, the Security Council, and specialized
agencies. Our special gratitude goes to the Secretary-
General, Mr. Kofi Annan, whose contribution to the
settlement of the inter-Tajik conflict deserves the
greatest appreciation. We believe that the Nobel Peace
Prize awarded to the United Nations also reflects the
success achieved under its leadership by the
international community in the peaceful settlement of
the internal conflict in Tajikistan and in overcoming its
consequences. We are convinced that the unique
experience of peacemaking in Tajikistan deserves in-
depth consideration and study. Practical lessons learned
from the settlement of the inter-Tajik conflict and the
United Nations peacemaking activities will enable the
international community to find new approaches
towards resolving conflicts in other hot spots on the
planet.
The variety of problems dealt with by the United
Nations highlights the unique and universal role played
by the Organization in regulating international affairs.
That is particularly important in the field of
international security. The Republic of Tajikistan calls
for ensuring strategic stability in the world based on
maintaining the existing system of agreements and
treaties on disarmament and a continuing process of
arms limitation, on both a unilateral and multilateral
basis. Tajikistan, for its part, is prepared to make its
contribution to this process. In cooperation with our
neighbouring States, we are actively working to
implement the initiative of establishing a nuclear-free
zone in Central Asia. We hope that a treaty to this
effect will shortly be ready for signing by the heads of
State in our region, and expect that all nuclear Powers
will become its guarantors.
The appalling acts of terror perpetrated in the
United States on 11 September forced the whole world
to confront the issue of international terrorism and take
a fresh look at it. In order to solve this problem, it will
be necessary to analyse the whole set of new
challenges and threats and develop new approaches
towards creating a credible and effective system for
countering them. May I remind Member States that, on
behalf of the people of Tajikistan, immediately after
the terrorist acts, President Emomali Rakhmonov
conveyed sincere condolences and sympathy to the
families of all those who had died or suffered. He
expressed full solidarity with the people of the United
States and readiness to cooperate closely with their
Government and the Governments of other States in
eradicating international terrorism.
Tajikistan has always condemned terrorism in all
its manifestations and categorically rejects the use of
terrorist acts as a means of achieving political or other
goals. We reject any attempts to justify acts of terror on
political, religious, philosophical, ethnic or racial
grounds. International cooperation in combating
terrorism and extremism is not an abstract notion for
our country. The Tajik people are very well aware of
the methods and practices of international terrorism. In
recent years, Tajikistan has repeatedly been a target of
terrorist activities carried out from outside. In addition
to the huge material losses, such actions always entail
loss of life and enormous human suffering. What is
worse, terrorism attempts not only to derail the peace
process in Tajikistan, but also to destabilize the
situation over a vast region of Asia. Acts of
37

international terrorism constitute a grave threat to
international peace and security. In combating
terrorism in any part of our planet, the international
community should be guided by similar criteria and act
in a resolute, sincere and, most important, consistent
manner. All States must unconditionally and fully
implement the provisions of United Nations Security
Council resolution 1373 (2001), including those which
call for depriving terrorists and their sponsors of
financial or any other support and haven.
We believe that one of the primary objectives of
this session of the General Assembly is to consolidate
the legal framework, under United Nations auspices,
for the interaction of States in combating international
terrorism. In our view, the early adoption of a
comprehensive convention on combating international
terrorism and the convention on combating acts of
nuclear terrorism could be of great significance in this
regard. On various occasions, in particular from this
rostrum, the President of Tajikistan has called for
uniting the efforts of the community of nations to
combat the international terrorist underground. Our
country has interacted effectively with other States in
combating international terrorism on a bilateral and
multilateral basis, in particular within the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other
international organizations. The United Nations, with
its unprecedented experience and authority in
coordinating the efforts of its Member States, is called
upon to play the key role in establishing a global
system to counteract a threat of such magnitude as
international terrorism. It will take much effort and
time. However, the lofty and vitally important goal of
eradicating this dreadful phenomenon is worthy of such
endeavour.
The five weeks that have elapsed since the
beginning of the military operation in Afghanistan have
proved that the Afghan problem cannot be resolved by
means of force alone. There is simply no military
solution to it, and history has provided convincing
proof of that. At the high-level meeting yesterday of
the Six plus Two Group, and today at the meeting of
the Security Council on Afghanistan, the delegation of
Tajikistan emphasized that under current circumstances
the Afghan people have a unique opportunity to return
to peaceful and stable development. This is an
opportunity for Afghanistan to become a full-fledged
member of the international community and to change
its unfortunate image of an accomplice in international
terrorism and other criminal, destructive, destabilizing
movements. The Afghan nation is on the threshold of
fundamental change. The most crucial task, and I
would say a matter of honour for the international
community, is to help the Afghan people to take
advantage of this opportunity. Everything must be done
to make sure that in the future Afghanistan is no longer
a threat to the Afghans themselves, to neighbouring
countries and to international security overall.
Everything must be done in order to ensure respect for
human rights and fundamental freedoms in
Afghanistan, including putting an end to the shameful
discrimination against women and girls. Everything
must be done to restore to the Afghan people hope for a
peaceful future and prosperity. Tajikistan is prepared,
in cooperation with other concerned States, and with a
central coordinating role for the United Nations, to
assist Afghanistan, a country with a great history, to
regain a worthy future and to restore its former
attractive image in the eyes of the international
community. We believe that determining the future of
Afghanistan is the exclusive prerogative of the Afghan
people themselves. One of the indispensable conditions
for returning Afghanistan to a peaceful life is ending
outside interference and uniting, under United Nations
auspices, the efforts of the international community to
accelerate the process of political settlement of the
Afghan problem and the rehabilitation of the country.
Furthermore, it is essential that all hotbeds of
terrorism, elements of organized crime and the
structures and — most importantly — the production
potential of the drug business be eliminated in
Afghanistan.
It goes without saying that the territorial integrity
of Afghanistan must be guaranteed. Only the
establishment of a freely chosen, effective, broad-
based, politically balanced and multi-ethnic Afghan
administration can guarantee peace and stability in the
country. It also goes without saying that the Taliban
movement as a political group has no place in a future
Afghan administration since this could be fraught with
the danger of the recurrence of terrorism and the drug
trade in Afghanistan.
We are profoundly concerned about the grave
humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. The refusal of
the Taliban regime to fulfil the demands of the anti-
terrorist coalition to hand over the masterminds and
organizers of the acts of terror in the United States has
38

resulted in new sufferings for the Afghan people and an
increase in the numbers of refugees and displaced
persons. According to the Office of the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, among the 22
million refugees throughout the world, at least one out
of six is an Afghan. According to the estimates of the
humanitarian organizations, the drought that has
continued for three years in Afghanistan has already
resulted in the incredible impoverishment of the entire
population, and military operations and the
approaching winter have placed millions of Afghan
people on the edge of extinction. The actual reality is
such that the coming winter threatens millions of
Afghans with death from starvation. Right after the
beginning of the United States anti-terrorist operation
in Afghanistan, the Tajikistan Government issued a
special decision expressing its readiness to open its
airspace and related infrastructure for providing
humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan
who have been suffering from the Taliban tyranny for a
long time. We call upon all Member States and
humanitarian institutions and organizations to give all
the necessary assistance to the people of Afghanistan
without delay. If that is not done, then Afghanistan will
become the scene of a horrendous humanitarian
tragedy. It could cause a wave of instability in
neighbouring States and in the region as a whole. We
cannot allow that to happen.
The policy of drug production and export pursued
by the Taliban regime can be described as a policy
against humanity. It is sad that Afghanistan, one of the
founding Members of the United Nations and one of
the cradles of world civilization and culture, has now,
through the fault of the Taliban regime, become one of
the world’s largest producers of lethal drugs.
According to the United Nations Office for Drug
Control and Crime Prevention, the considerable
decrease in the poppy crop in Afghanistan this year has
not resulted in a reduction of illicit heroin trafficking,
either to neighbouring countries or to Europe. Huge
amounts of raw opium stored in the Taliban-controlled
territory were used for heroin trafficking. The quantity
of heroin that has been destroyed in Tajikistan this year
alone is three times as much as last year, and this
amounts to tons of this deadly product.
As a result of the tragic events of 11 September, a
new situation has emerged in Afghanistan. The United
Nations has been unable to continue assistance to the
Afghan farmers and exercise control over drug
production and trade. The Taliban movement, for
whom, under the current circumstances, drug
trafficking has become one of its major sources of
income, took advantage of this situation. That has put
an additional burden on neighbouring countries, such
as Tajikistan, that are trying to block drug trafficking
from Afghanistan. We understand that the drug threat
emanating from Afghanistan can be eliminated only
through a lasting peace settlement in the country and
by establishing a new coalition government that would
ensure fulfilment of all its international commitments.
However, that will take time. For this reason we
express our gratitude to the Office for Drug Control
and Crime Prevention and to all donor States that are
funding the anti-drug programmes implemented by the
Office, and call upon them to increase their assistance
to Tajikistan in its noble struggle against illicit flows of
deadly substances from Afghanistan, a struggle that
serves the interests of millions of people in various
countries. We in Tajikistan attach great importance to
this struggle and view it as an important contribution to
combating international terrorism by depriving it of
one of the main sources of its financial support.
The Millennium Summit and Millennium
Assembly, which have become milestones in the
international dialogue, identified globalization as the
main challenge to the international community. There
is no doubt that globalization, which is an objective
economic process, provides unprecedented
opportunities for accelerated development. At the same
time, it is obvious that the benefits of globalization are
distributed quite unequally, and the balance of benefits
and costs is definitely in favour of the developed
nations. The conclusion is obvious: for various reasons
many developing countries and economies in transition
run the serious risk of finding themselves on the
sidelines, away from the mainstream development of
civilization. Only by applying all available mechanisms
of multilateral international institutions can we stop the
widening gap in development and incomes between
rich and poor countries that was caused by
globalization, and prevent an increase in poverty,
unequal access to advanced technologies, cross-border
crime and the spread of hidden forms of discrimination
in international trade.
As for Tajikistan, it faces the long-term problem
of rebuilding a country that has been heavily damaged
by civil strife. The Government is undertaking all
possible measures to strengthen civil society, to
39

encourage economic recovery and to create favourable
conditions for healthy and sustainable social and
economic development. We hope that the participants
in the Consultative Group Meeting for Tajikistan, held
in Tokyo in May 2001, will fulfil their commitments to
Tajikistan, which would enable us to channel additional
resources to rehabilitation projects. That would
increase employment and substantially reduce poverty.
The problem of combating poverty will remain, in the
short term, one of the priority tasks for the Government
of Tajikistan. The targeted comprehensive programme
that is currently being implemented in the country
envisages, in particular, measures to create new jobs, to
improve primary education, to ease access to loans and
microcredits, and, what is particularly important, to
enhance the development of rural regions. We are
carefully studying the experience of other countries in
combating poverty. The progress made by some
States — in particular in China, our neighbour — is
quite encouraging. However, the high level of external
indebtedness of Tajikistan is a major obstacle in this
regard. It also impedes post-conflict peace-building
and poses a serious threat to social and economic
stability in our country. We are convinced that in order
to support the developing countries and economies in
transition in combating poverty it is important for the
international community to become more dynamic and
flexible in easing the debt burden for our countries.
In recent years we have witnessed an increasing
number of major natural and industrial disasters,
including hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and forest
fires. Human casualties and material losses caused by
them have become a serious destabilizing factor. For
two years running, Tajikistan has suffered as a result of
a large-scale drought, unprecedented in the twentieth
century. One third of our cotton and grain crops was
destroyed by drought. Cattle farming and animal
husbandry products have sharply declined. Shortages
of water, including fresh water, have increased. We
express our gratitude to the Secretary-General, to the
United Nations specialized agencies and donor
countries for their prompt and generous response to the
appeal made by our President in connection with the
unprecedented drought in the spring and summer of
this year. The concerted collective response of the
international community to natural disasters is
evidence of the increasing effectiveness of the
available international machinery in this regard. The
United Nations has played an important role in
developing them. The outcome of the United Nations
International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction
has shown the need to increasingly use national
opportunities and to enhance international cooperation
in this field.
In the context of globalization, natural and
industrial disasters demand an appropriate global
response. It is essential that the community of nations
unite its efforts to prevent natural disasters and deal
with their consequences by training personnel and
exchanging experience and the results of scientific and
applied research. That would also allow coordinated
approaches to such global challenges as the greenhouse
effect, the depletion of the ozone layer, endangered
biodiversity and desertification. All these issues are
directly linked to the problem of protecting the
environment, a problem that is global by its very
nature.
Among the environmental challenges of the
twenty-first century, the problem of maintaining water
equilibrium and access to fresh water is one of the most
urgent. The population of earth is increasing, and the
need for fresh water is also increasing, while natural
water resources are not increasing. One out of six
people on earth does not have access to fresh water
today. The danger of the world’s diminishing fresh
water resources is quite evident: it represents a threat
to the environment and to all life on earth. This
tendency is not becoming less acute, and therefore
Tajikistan, which possesses considerable water
resources in Central Asia, greatly appreciates all efforts
to deal with the problem of fresh water resources at all
levels throughout the world. We are pleased that the
initiative of the President of Tajikistan, Emomali
Rakhmonov, to proclaim 2003 the international year of
fresh water has received wide-ranging support in the
community of nations. We believe that the preparation
and holding of events dedicated to the international
year of fresh water, at both international and national
levels, will help us all to find answers to the global
challenges faced by mankind and to come closer to a
solution to the strategic problem of providing access to
fresh water to every person on earth.
With the beginning of the new century, the
number of problems faced by mankind has not
diminished. The entire history of the United Nations
has demonstrated that the best way to deal with
problems is through collective action, based on an
agreed platform. We have such a platform: the
Millennium Declaration adopted by our heads of State,
40

on a basis of global consensus, in the autumn of 2000.
The task that lies before us, the United Nations, is to
mobilize energy and resources to achieve our common
goals in meeting the challenges of globalization. The
peoples of our planet believe in the effectiveness of our
Organization. We should not fail to meet their hopes
and expectations.


Antigua and
Barbuda is pleased that this is the United Nations Year
of Dialogue among Civilizations. However, we can
have meaningful dialogue only if the dominant
countries reach out with genuine understanding when
others speak. We can have dialogue only if the basic
principles of the United Nations are made the core of
reality. We cannot have dialogue if multilateralism
remains selective or if the principle of rotation
continues to be based on demographics, military might
and economic principles. The people of my country
represent an integral part of human civilization and we
wish to contribute our voice and our ideas to the debate
on the future of the journey of humankind on this
planet.
28

The tragic events of 11 September in the host
country of the United Nations have presented a
challenge to world civilization. The Parliament of
Antigua and Barbuda on Thursday, 18 October, passed
strong anti-terrorism legislation. Also, the Caribbean
Community, meeting in special emergency session in
the Bahamas on 11 and 12 October, recognized
terrorism as a global problem requiring a resolute
global response. The heads of Government stated:
“We are conscious that the unprecedented
and barbaric terrorist assaults of 11 September
will require of us extraordinary vigilance and
coordination in the future, to ensure that our
territories, our institutions and our citizens are
not used in any manner to facilitate the activities
of terrorists or to undermine our national and
regional security.”
We share the agony of the United States, for we
too had nationals who perished in the 11 September
atrocity. We fully support Security Council resolution
1373 (2001), which makes it obligatory for all States to
impose far-reaching measures to combat the scourge of
terrorism. We support the work of the Counter-
Terrorism Committee. International terrorism is in
reality an act of war against the world’s peace-loving
peoples. It is imperative that all countries of the world
address in a more meaningful manner the underlying
social, economic and political problems that cause
human misery and perpetuate injustice. We must act to
ensure that the entire global society lives in an
environment of freedom and is free from fear. The fight
against terrorism will be a long and arduous one, but it
is one in which we must thoroughly and completely
engage ourselves.
Antigua and Barbuda has now ratified the Rome
Statute for the International Criminal Court. The
citizens of my country believe that in the prospect of an
international criminal court lies the promise of
universal justice, since the Court will have the power to
indict individuals. Antigua and Barbuda is certainly
disappointed that crimes pertaining to drug trafficking
and terrorism have been put on the back burner at the
International Criminal Court, but we are prepared to
continue our dialogue to bring them under the ambit of
the Court when it becomes active. The cancer of drug
trafficking will continue to threaten human civilization
until we fashion a truly global response to its menace.
The battles in Seattle, Windsor and Quebec are an
integral part of world civilization’s struggle to
humanize globalization. Interestingly, we find
ourselves agreeing with the statement made by the
Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund
(IMF) in his address to members of the Deutsche
Bundestag on 2 April 2001 in Berlin. Mr. Köhler
declared that it is political and economic madness for
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) countries to spend $360 billion a
year on agricultural subsidies, while poverty rages in
developing countries, especially in the rural and
farming regions. He went on to say that it is high time
for industrial countries to honour their commitment to
provide 0.7 per cent of their gross national product for
official development assistance.
At the United Nations Millennium Summit, my
own Prime Minister, Lester Bird, castigated the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development for its unilaterally devised set of
standards for international taxation to be imposed on
other jurisdictions and for demanding that States
change their domestic laws to suit OECD purposes.
The rule of law has become the rule of the jungle,
where rules do not apply, and only might is right. In
reality, the OECD Harmful Tax Competition project
has nothing to do with money laundering, but has more
to do with the fact that OECD believes that its member
States would lose capital to other States with more
competitive tax regimes.
Globalization has left States like my own with a
feeling of exclusion, a feeling of being cast aside and
pushed outside, from where we observe the gains of the
dominant. It is a feeling of not being able to participate
in the determination of our own destiny. The “green
room” process evident at World Trade Organization
(WTO) ministerial meetings has done nothing but
increase our apprehension. We call for serious reform
of the global political and economic architecture to be
undertaken, both at the United Nations and at the
World Trade Organization. The multilateral trading
system needs to be transparent. It needs to be fair and
equitable, and all countries should be able to share in
its benefits.
Antigua and Barbuda, as a small island State, is
extremely vulnerable to natural disasters. The most
prevalent threat is that of hurricanes, three of which
recently impacted our sister States of Belize, Cuba and
the Bahamas. A single hurricane can set back the
29

development of a small island State by 10 years.
Between 1995 and 2000, our beloved twin island State
was hit by seven hurricanes.
We call on the international community to
acknowledge in a meaningful way the vulnerability of
small States like Antigua and Barbuda. We point to our
lack of capacity in financial and human resources to
bounce back from natural disasters and from external
shocks to its economy caused by economic recession in
the major economies of the world, which also happen
to be our main trading partners. It is therefore
imperative that we be able to continue to access
concessionary financing through the World Bank. Our
social and economic development needs, including
infrastructure, seem not to register in the boardrooms
of the international financial institutions.
Countries like Antigua and Barbuda are viewed
as middle income because of the per capita income
criterion, but this is a flawed measurement and should
be abandoned. Financing for development should take
into account a mix of factors and should be linked to
the vulnerability index on which the United Nations
Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has
done important work.
No account is taken of the considerable
transaction costs faced by small States because of their
remoteness and the disproportionate burden they bear
in order to effectively participate in world trade. No
account is taken of the openness of our economy to
goods and services from all over the world, without
corresponding market access for our own limited range
of goods to the markets of Europe and North America.
An inhospitable stranger known as “non-tariff barriers”
continues to slam the door in our face.
In these circumstances, we cannot overemphasize
how important it is for the IMF and the World Bank to
apply special and differential treatment to measuring
the fiscal and economic performance of small island
States. Our limited capacity to raise revenue and our
necessity to spend at a disproportionate level in order
to maintain a decent standard of living for our people
should lead the IMF to have special and differential
programmes of assistance for small island States.
These programmes should not merely prescribe the
traditional formula of large-scale public sector
dismissals and reduction of public sector investment
programmes. Instead, innovative ways should be found
to provide long-term financing at repayment periods
and rates of interest that would allow small States to
maintain democracy, human rights, low crime rates and
economic growth.
My country welcomes the successful conclusion
of the Marrakesh meeting on climate change, where the
parties to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change finalized the operational details of
the Kyoto Protocol, thereby opening the way to
widespread ratification by Governments and the
Protocol’s early entry into force. This was the result of
several years of tough negotiation in which Antigua
and Barbuda was very active and took a leadership
position. What we now have in place are the
institutions and detailed procedures of the Kyoto
Protocol, and the next step is to test their effectiveness
in overseeing the five per cent cut in greenhouse gas
emissions by developed countries over the next decade.
The agreements reached in Marrakesh also made
important progress on strengthening the flow of
financial and technological support to developing
countries so that they can move towards a sustainable
energy future. They also send a clear signal to
business, local governments and the general public that
climate-friendly products, services and activities will
be rewarded by consumers and national policies alike.
The meeting also adopted the Marrakesh
Ministerial Declaration as an input into next
September’s World Summit on Sustainable
Development, to be held in Johannesburg. The
Declaration emphasizes the contribution that action on
climate change can make to sustainable development
and calls for capacity building, technology innovation
and cooperation with the Biodiversity and
Desertification Conventions. With the Summit a little
less than a year away, small island developing States
such as my own, which are among the most vulnerable
to the adverse effects of climate change, continue to
urge the speedy ratification of the Protocol.
That will require a global coalition among States
to ensure that it enters into force and becomes legally
binding after it has been ratified by at least 55 parties
to the Convention, including the industrialized
countries that represent at least 55 per cent of the total
1990 carbon dioxide emissions from this group. While
it remains true that those with the highest per capita
levels of greenhouse gas emissions should take the
lead, it is incumbent upon all countries to work
30

together to ensure that there is full compliance with
commitments contained in the Protocol.
There is a deep concern in our countries, a
concern that takes on paramount proportions and that is
centred around the transhipment of nuclear waste
through the waters of the Caribbean Sea, and which
represents a blatant disregard of our sovereignty. The
countries of the Caribbean have insisted that it be
stopped, but to no avail; and our populations live in
constant fear of an accident. We call on those who
engage in this deadly traffic to respect the rights of
transit States such as Antigua and Barbuda.
The most populous democracy in the world,
India, spoke on the first day of the general debate and
highlighted concerns that we find it necessary to
reiterate. There needs to be a more determined
movement towards the liquidation of the external debts
of low income and highly indebted countries. There
should be poverty alleviation programmes designed for
countries facing financial crises, and there should be
stabilization of international prices of primary
commodity exports.
The measures that we have outlined here are
essential to building a just and equitable international
order. Anything less would simply be the imposition of
the will of the powerful upon the pusillanimous. All
societies are measured by the way they treat their most
vulnerable members, and the international community
of nations is no different. I call on all representatives
here assembled to heed the plea of the victims and to
construct an international order that can lift human
civilization to achieve the highest ideals of the United
Nations.


At the outset,
let me express my sincere felicitations and those of my
Government and the people of the Solomon Islands, on
your election, Sir, as President of the General
Assembly at its fifty-sixth session. As you know, the
Republic of Korea and Solomon Islands enjoy very
warm and cordial relations. My delegation is therefore
delighted to see you presiding over this Assembly. Our
gratitude also goes to your predecessor, Mr. Harri
Holkeri, for the efficient manner in which he conducted
the work of the previous session. I also congratulate the
Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, on his well-
deserved reappointment for another term in office, and
on the award, to him and to the United Nations, of the
2001 Nobel Peace Prize.
The horrendous terrorist attack on the United
States on 11 September was an attack against humanity.
What we witnessed on that day was unimaginable. It
brought pain and loss on an inconceivable scale; there
can be no justification for it. This morning I visited
ground zero to pay my respects to the thousands of
innocent people buried there and to reaffirm the
solidarity of Solomon Islands with the Government and
the people of the United States of America.
Terrorism is an evil phenomenon which must be
eradicated. Individuals and organizations perpetrating
such evil must be brought to justice. Similarly, States
that harbour or provide safe haven for terrorist
activities must play their full part in eradicating this
menace.
The war against international terrorism must aim
to have far-reaching solutions, rather than be merely
reactive. Effective international cooperation is critical
to the global implementation of anti-terrorism
measures, in order to deny terrorists any weak spots
that they could exploit to launch their criminal
operations. Solomon Islands is taking steps towards the
ratification of the various international conventions
against terrorism. Countries such as mine need
technical support in law enforcement, surveillance and
information-sharing so as to effectively implement
these instruments. In this regard, I welcome President
Bush’s offer to help countries that need assistance in
2

strengthening and implementing anti-terrorism
strategies.
While the war against terrorism is a matter of
urgency, the United Nations should not underestimate
the continuing need to address other global issues that
also threaten human security. Persistent poverty and
underdevelopment; environmental degradation; internal
conflict and war; the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, as well as of small arms and light
weapons; trade in illicit drugs; the deadly spread of
HIV/AIDS; and violations of human rights are all
complex global problems that continue to demand
concerted global responses.
With their limited resources and capacity, small
island developing States like Solomon Islands are
unable to cope with the magnitude of these problems.
Post-cold-war security now rightly embraces human,
environmental, economic and political dimensions.
The inter-ethnic crisis that the Solomon Islands
experienced between 1998 and 2000, and its
devastating impact on the country, is a sobering
reminder that peace and development are intrinsically
linked. One cannot be achieved if the other fails. In
most situations, including in our case, peace takes
precedence, as no rebuilding is possible without
security and stability. My Government has worked
resolutely to bring the warring factions to the table.
Our efforts culminated in the signing of the Townsville
Peace Agreement in October 2000 and of the Marau
Peace Agreement earlier this year.
The Townsville Agreement led to the cessation of
the conflict. However, progress in the implementation
of the Agreement’s disarmament provisions has been
slow. With a considerable number of high-powered
weapons still to be handed in, the peace process
remains fragile. A review of the Agreement was begun
recently, but it has been temporarily suspended. We are
confident that the review process will soon resume in
order to positively consolidate the ongoing peace
process.
At this juncture, I wish to acknowledge the
contributions of our development partners towards the
peace process, in particular the Governments of the
Republic of China on Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand
and the countries of the European Union. My
Government is also grateful to civil society institutions,
including the churches and non-governmental
organizations, for their efforts, especially at the height
of the crisis.
The challenge is far from over. With a shattered
economy and a delicate peace process, the task of
rebuilding the country and ensuring lasting peace is
formidable. It requires the patience, cooperation and
commitment of all Solomon Islanders. My Government
has adopted a National Peace Plan and Programme of
Action aimed at addressing the root causes of the
conflict through meaningful dialogue and discussion
and by encouraging a more participatory approach in
the country’s socio-economic and political
development. The recent ruling by our judiciary
affirming the constitutional legitimacy of my
Government has given us additional resolve to
implement this Plan and Programme of Action. In this
connection, the understanding and support of the
international community, in particular our development
partners, is important.
Development cooperation should strive to reduce
the vulnerability of societies to violent conflicts. Aid
should go beyond immediate humanitarian needs. It has
to be linked to peace-building initiatives in order to
make peace sustainable. Development assistance could,
therefore, be a means of conflict prevention and an
instrument for peace-building.
There is a clear imperative to address the poverty
and inequality that exist among our countries. But there
is also an irrefutable common interest for doing so, as
many of today’s problems — especially in the least
developed countries — are rooted in underdevelopment
and poverty. The timely implementation of the
outcomes of the Third United Nations Conference on
the Least Developed Countries is therefore imperative.
We are fully aware that primary responsibility to put in
place the necessary reforms for poverty reduction and
economic growth lies with the least developed
countries. Education, infrastructure development and
improving basic health services remain priority issues
for Solomon Islands.
Undoubtedly, investment of overseas
development assistance resources to support our efforts
can accelerate development. Donor countries and
agencies must be more inclined to ensure that they do
not give with one hand, only to take away with the
other. In a globalizing world, donor partners’ policies
3

in virtually every sector — including trade and
investment, financial systems and the environment —
must help promote development for the poorest. In the
absence of that, the goal of attaining sustainable
development and managing globalization in a way that
maximizes its benefits for all will be difficult to
realize.
In the same spirit, I call on the development
partners to consider more practical and realistic
measures to deal with the huge amount of debt burden
that poor countries continue to shoulder. Development
partners must continue to positively consider measures
such as writing off debts; for even the Heavily Indebted
Poor Countries Debt Initiative and the Paris Club
initiatives to address the problems of highly indebted
and poor developing countries have been cumbersome
and slow.
The International Conference on Financing for
Development, which is to be held in Mexico next
March, offers a unique opportunity for achieving
consensus on how to mobilize new and additional
resources for development. Solomon Islands looks
forward to participating actively in the Conference.
Agenda 21 remains a valid blueprint for the
management of the Earth’s environment and the
sustainable development of its resources. The World
Summit on Sustainable Development, to be held in
Johannesburg next year, 10 years after Rio, should
reach consensus on ways and means to ensure wider
and effective implementation of Agenda 21 and
subsequent international programmes, including the
Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable
Development of Small Island Developing States.
The ocean and its bounty continue to be a
principal resource for Solomon Islands. Our priorities
concerning oceans include sustainable fisheries
management, habitat protection and avoidance of
marine pollution. For us, the success of national
development planning depends significantly on the
continued health of the marine environment.
The unique circumstances of small island
developing States must be fully understood by the
international community as we strive to address the
serious threats of natural disasters, climate change and
sea-level rise. The Kyoto Protocol remains a significant
first step on the path to ensuring effective global action
to combat climate change. The international
community must now build on the outcomes of the
seventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the
Framework Convention and work further towards the
resolution of all outstanding negotiating issues.
We must recall the vision which the United
Nations was created to serve, i.e. that each and every
human being deserves to live in dignity, be well
nourished, be educated, have access to decent health
care and decent work, be respected and consulted, and
be able to develop their talents and creativity. Our
challenge is to strengthen the United Nations and other
international institutions to strive more effectively
towards that vision. Solomon Islands remains
committed to the reform initiatives of the Secretary-
General.
This session should also continue with efforts to
make the work of the General Assembly more efficient
and effective. Furthermore, discussions on the reform
of the Security Council have gone on for too long
without substantial progress. Greater flexibility is
required in order for this process to be completed. The
goal is to have a more democratic, transparent and
effective Security Council.
In what is surely one of the bitter ironies of our
times, free and democratic Taiwan, home to 23 million
people and a peace-loving country, has been excluded
not only from the United Nations and all its specialized
agencies but also from nearly every other
intergovernmental organization in the world. Although
the Republic of China on Taiwan willingly abides by
international norms, standards and obligations, it is not
able to enjoy the same normal standard privileges and
treatment accorded to others. This is simply unfair and
unjust. The time has come to reconsider the exclusion
of the Republic of China from the United Nations. The
Republic of China on Taiwan was a founding member
of the Organization. It is a model of economic success
and democratic politics. Taiwan has continued to share
its development experiences with the wider
international community when given the opportunity.
Its continuing assistance during humanitarian crises
also deserves full commendation.
Solomon Islands’ appeal for Taiwan’s
representation and participation in the United Nations
system is premised on the principles of justice, dignity
and the right of the people of Taiwan to be heard and
represented in the international arena and for them to
be able to enjoy the same benefits that the rest of us
enjoy. My Government firmly believes that Taiwan’s
4

membership in the United Nations will effectively
serve to facilitate peaceful dialogue between the two
Chinas and provide a solid basis for a lasting
reconciliation between them. Dialogue is the only
means to resolve differences, and parity and mutual
respect must be the foundation upon which both sides
can build trust and confidence. The United Nations is
the best forum to nurture that trust and confidence. The
issue of Taiwan’s membership is consistent with the
United Nations principle of universality. But, above all,
it must be acknowledged that the Republic of China on
Taiwan is fully committed to fulfilling the obligations
of the United Nations Charter.
Finally, next month my country is going to the
polls to elect a new parliament, and thereafter a new
Government will be formed. This election manifests
our continuing commitment to constitutional and
parliamentary democracy. It is a critical election, as it
will confer a new mandate for the next Government to
continue with the ever-important responsibilities of
ensuring the rule of law, rebuilding the economy and
further consolidating the current peace process.
Those are difficult tasks, but we are determined
to write a new page in our young history — a new page
that should provide for ethnic harmony and co-
existence, comprehensive and lasting peace, economic
prosperity, and, above all, engender and nurture a
better future and hope for our children and future
generations.


The crash
of American Airlines flight 587 two days ago has once
again cast into mourning the city of New York, which
has already suffered so much. On behalf of the
delegation of the Congo, I offer my most sincere
condolences to the bereaved families.
I wish at the outset to congratulate you sincerely,
Sir, on your outstanding election to the presidency of
the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session. The
trust that has been placed in you reflects the
14

international community’s recognition of your qualities
as an experienced diplomat and is a tribute to your
country, the Republic of Korea, for the decisive role it
plays in maintaining peace and security throughout the
world. You may rest assured of the full cooperation of
the delegation of the Congo.
I express our gratitude to your predecessor,
Mr. Harri Holkeri, for the competence and deftness
with which he carried out his task.
I also take this opportunity once again to offer
our sincere congratulations to Secretary-General Kofi
Annan on his brilliant re-election and on his reception
of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is a crown on his
personal contribution and on that of our Organization.
We still have in our mind’s eye the terrifying and
unbearable images of the attacks perpetrated against
the United States on 11 September —acts of pure
barbarity, blind terrorism that we condemn absolutely,
as we do all other forms of violence, which must be
curbed and eradicated. In keeping with the commitment
undertaken at the Millennium Summit, we must be
especially vigilant and determined in the fight against
that evil, which has no place in the world today. The
Congo fully endorses all the relevant United Nations
resolutions aimed at strengthening the effectiveness of
the response of the international community to
terrorism, in particular Security Council resolutions
1368 (2001) and 1373 (2001).
The African continent, which has suffered for
many years from violence that has hampered its
development and integration into the world of today,
has clearly condemned such acts, which can lead only
to further destitution and poverty. That is why, at a
time when it is launching new initiatives to help it to
emerge from crisis and promote development, Africa is
dressing its wounds and appealing for various forms of
local, regional and international mediation. These
initiatives have already borne fruit.
With regard to the conflict in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, which is of particular concern
to my country, we welcome the progress that has been
accomplished in implementing the Lusaka Agreement,
which is enabling the United Nations Organization
Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
(MONUC) to move on to phase III of its deployment.
In this context, we welcome the Security Council
meeting with the Political Committee of the Lusaka
Agreement. We invite all the parties to continue to
demonstrate their goodwill in carrying out the
commitments they have undertaken. We have great
hopes for the inter-Congolese dialogue, which is
scheduled to take place in South Africa.
After years of war and illegal exploitation of its
wealth, that brotherly country needs to return to peace,
national unity and political stability and to fully
recover its sovereignty so that it can achieve the
progress promised by its enormous potential. My
country, for its part, has always maintained good-
neighbourly relations with the other side of the Congo
River, and we will continue to contribute in every way
we can to ensure the peace and normalization that are
so greatly desired.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank
Mr. Kofi Annan and, through him, his Special
Representative, Mr. Namanga Ngongi, for the action
that has been carried out within the framework of
MONUC.
As for Burundi, we would like to pay tribute to
President Nelson Mandela for his mediation, which has
led to the formation of a government of national unity,
to which we wish every success. This process, which
should contribute to a return to lasting peace and
stability for that country, deserves the full support of
the international community.
In Angola, the consistent resort to terrorism and
other acts of sabotage by UNITA, in disregard of the
relevant Security Council resolutions, should lead us to
strengthen the sanctions against that organization,
which is responsible for the continuation of war in the
country. The Congo reaffirms its solidarity with the
people and the Government of Angola, who are sparing
no effort to restore peace and rebuild their country. The
international community must provide all necessary
assistance to Angola.
Given the continuing violence in the Middle East,
a return to the Oslo accords is urgently required if the
current deadlock is to be broken. We appeal to the
parties in conflict to show a willingness to move
forward so as to re-establish a dialogue, which remains
the only way to restore lasting peace in an area of the
world that has been troubled for far too long. We
therefore welcome the constructive proposals made by
the President of the United States of America, His
Excellency George W. Bush, on the coexistence of two
States, Israel and Palestine, within secure and
15

recognized borders, as required by Security Council
resolutions.
Situations such as these are often and almost
systematically accompanied by the massive
displacement of populations, which causes
destabilization in neighbouring countries and worsens
domestic problems. Such is the case in my country,
which is currently hosting more than 200,000 refugees
mainly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Angola, Rwanda and, more recently, the Central
African Republic. The situation is a great cause for
concern in a country that is only just emerging from
war itself and is thus confronted by many other
challenges. Given the seriousness of this situation, I
would like once again to repeat the appeal of my
Government for adequate assistance.
After the signing, at the end of 1999, of
agreements on the cessation of hostilities, the priority
tasks set out by President Denis Sassou Nguesso were
national reconciliation and relaunching the democratic
process, with a view to ensuring the reconstruction and
development of the Congo. Today, almost all of these
objectives are in the process of being achieved.
At the political level, we organized in
Brazzaville, from 14 March to 17 April 2001, a
national dialogue from which no one was barred, under
the auspices of an international mediator, His
Excellency El Hadj Omar Bongo, President of the
Gabonese Republic, to whom we would like once again
to express our deep gratitude. That dialogue has been
sanctioned by the signing of the convention for peace
and reconstruction in the Congo, as well as by the
adoption of a preliminary draft of the constitution. This
preliminary draft was approved by the National
Transitional Council — our transitional parliament —
on 2 September, and it will be submitted to a
referendum before the end of this year. In preparation
for the constitutional referendum and the general
elections, an administrative census has just been
carried out so as to draw up electoral lists.
I would also like to mention the efforts being
made by the Government within the context of
strengthening the consolidation of peace. These
include, in particular, the demobilization of over
25,000 militia members; the collection of 10,817
weapons and rounds of ammunition, of which 6,484
have already been destroyed, with the technical support
of the International Organization for Migration;
assistance for the reintegration of 6,844 former militia
members, with the United Nations helping with more
than 2,190 small-scale projects; and the large-scale
return of displaced persons and refugees to their
normal domicile.
Furthermore, the establishment of a high
commission responsible for reintegrating former
combatants, a Committee for the follow-up of the
convention on peace and reconstruction in the Congo,
and a national committee to eradicate poverty all form
part of this momentum for the consolidation of peace.
Our work will long continue to reflect the painful
background against which it is taking place — the
terrorist attacks. We have committed ourselves —
rightly, unanimously and resolutely — to fighting this
scourge. But this means that we must eradicate
anything that might be used as a pretext for acts of
blind destruction. To decrease tension throughout the
world is to deal with situations that can foster
terrorism. But we should remember that an apparently
local crisis can have repercussions very far away —
sometimes even at the global level. In this context,
globalization must not be seen solely in economic and
commercial terms. In reality, we are talking about the
daily existence of individuals, peoples and nations,
closely linked because of the rupture of borders.
The eleventh of September just gave us a painful
reminder that the world is one in its suffering, meaning
that we must also remain as one as we seek better
times. That is why we must reduce, as quickly as
possible, the gulf that separates the poorest among us
from the wealthiest.
The socio-economic tensions we see throughout
the world are also the result of extreme poverty in
developing countries. Over 1 billion men and women
are victims of malnutrition and do not even have access
to drinking water or minimal health services. Unless
we accelerate growth, poverty will continue to worsen.
We must all therefore mobilize generally in order to
urgently implement the strategies we ourselves have
adopted here, especially those adopted during the
Millennium Summit.
We should welcome the recent United Nations
initiative to set up a Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS
and to respond to the desire of developing countries to
have access to new therapies at a lower cost.
16

With regard to the particular economic situation
in Africa, Congo expects that during this session the
international community will support the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development. As the
Assembly is aware, the New Partnership — which
harmonizes the concerns of the new African Union in
the areas of development and economic integration —
is the response that Africa unanimously intends to
present to the challenges of globalization.
It is also appropriate now to again look at the
essential instrument in that international struggle,
namely, the United Nations. The conferences and
special session organized by the United Nations this
year — on the least developed countries, AIDS, human
settlements, the illicit trade in light weapons in all its
aspects, racism and many other issues — once again
proves that our Organization remains a vital and
irreplaceable instrument at the service of humankind. It
is also in this framework that the fight against terrorism
must take place.
As we stated during the Millennium Summit last
year, we must, while relying on the United Nations,
work more resolutely and methodically to find
solutions to all those concerns. It is for this reason that
I would like, in conclusion, to reaffirm my country’s
commitment to the United Nations, which must remain
the preferred forum for international coordination and
dialogue among civilizations, for the maintenance of
international peace and security, for the peaceful
settlement of conflict, and for international economic
cooperation in the service of all.