Central African Republic, 2001

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

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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

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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.