Bangladesh, 2001

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.