Central African Republic, 2005

I should like first of all to express

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heartfelt congratulations to you, Sir, on behalf of my

delegation and on my own behalf, on your election to

the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixtieth

session. We wish you every success in the discharge of

your important functions. Your election to the

presidency is, of course a reflection of your great

personal qualities and experience. But it is also a

tribute to your country, Sweden, which has always

been committed to United Nations activities, in

particular development assistance.

I would like to take this opportunity to express to

your predecessor, Mr. Jean Ping, Minister for Foreign

Affairs of Gabon, my deep admiration for his

outstanding work as President, including the

considerable efforts that he made throughout his term

of office with a view to ensuring the success of the

High-level Plenary Meeting, which took place from

14 to 16 September. As an African and as a

representative of a country member of the Economic

Community of Central African States, I cannot but feel

great pride in his achievements.

Just a few days ago, a major event took place

here at the United Nations — an event comparable to

the Millennium Summit, in which leaders from all over

the world took part.

I am sure that we all remember how the President

of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session

invited us to focus our discussion on the theme, “A

stronger and more effective Organization: follow-up to

and implementation of the High-level Plenary Meeting

in September 2005”.

On Friday, 16 September, late in the evening, a

compromise document was adopted, which was

acceptable to my delegation, even though it did not

respond to all the concerns expressed in the courageous

report of the Secretary-General, to whom, once again,

my country would like to pay a well-deserved tribute.

Some of the bold proposals that he made, in particular

those relating to the need to reform the Organization,

seem to us still to be entirely relevant, since they

would make the United Nations stronger and more

effective by adapting it to the challenges of twenty-first

century.

The delegation of the Central African Republic

believes that the debate on the reform of the

Organization, in particular the reform of the Security

Council, is far from over. This is not simply a matter of

justice for all those who were not present in San

Francisco 60 years ago when the Organization was

created. The African continent, which really began to

make itself heard internationally from 1960 onwards,

rightly claims its place within the Security Council on

an equitable basis. We can rest assured that the young

people of Africa are paying attention to the activities of

the United Nations and to our discussions here, and

they find it increasingly difficult to understand why our

continent is the only one not to have a permanent seat

in that body, which is responsible for taking the most

important decisions affecting peace and security

throughout the world, including in Africa.

In a statement made from this rostrum on

Thursday, 15 September 2005, during the debate in the

High-level Plenary Meeting, His Excellency

Mr. François Bozizé, President of the Central African

Republic, underlined the extent to which we, the small

developing countries, in particular those that have gone

through or that are currently going through major

conflicts or political crises, need a strong and effective

United Nations.

The recent history of our country makes clear the

extent to which international solidarity, coordinated by

the United Nations and its specialized agencies,

succeeded in helping us to get back on our feet. After

almost a decade of chaos, on 15 March 2003 an

upsurge of patriotism enabled us to make a consensus-

based transition, and we have benefited from the

support, advice and expertise, as well as the financial

and material assistance, of all of our external partners.

For two years, we were assisted by the United

Nations Peacebuilding Support Office in the Central

African Republic, the United Nations Development

Programme and other specialized agencies, and by our

bilateral and multilateral partners, including France,

China, the United States of America, the European

Union, the International Organization of la

Francophonie and, of course, our high-ranking African

colleagues, among them the countries of the Central

African Economic and Monetary Community, under

the chairmanship of El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba,

President of Gabon.

Therefore, the success of our consensus-based

transition is to a large extent the success of

international solidarity as mobilized by the United

Nations. Of course, the national will, expressed first

and foremost by the citizens of the Central African

Republic at all levels — who are weary of violence and

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chaos and yearn for peace — and supported by our

political elite as reflected in governmental actions by

President Bozizé himself, this national will has been

the prime factor enabling us to bring our transitional

period and electoral process to a successful conclusion.

In this sense, and rightly so, the international

community has paid unanimous tribute to the wisdom

of the Central Africans, who have chosen to return to

peace and national concord.

But international solidarity was a necessary

condition that led us successfully to a consensus-based

transition and a successful electoral process. That is

why, on behalf of President François Bozizé and the

Central African Government and people, I should like

to reiterate to all of our partners an expression of our

gratitude.

As the head of State said in his statement on

Thursday, 15 September 2005, the Central African

Republic is starting on a second stage in its process of

return to peace and security, and that is the stage of

reconstruction. This is a tremendous challenge in a

country that was ruined and subject to chaos for many

years. As Central Africans, we are well aware of our

prime responsibility, of our collective responsibility as

a nation, for the disaster that our country lived through.

If only for that reason, the bulk of the efforts and

sacrifices to be made in the reconstruction must fall to

us. We are fully convinced of that. But we must

honestly admit that in the face of the enormity and

complexity of the tasks involved in reconstruction, the

need for solidarity is still great. In saying that, we wish

simply to recall precedents where the international

community understood that the best way to avoid a

step backwards was to support reconstruction in a

strong way. The real victory over violence and disorder

is achieved when extreme poverty, which is the prime

cause of the frustrations that lead to confrontation, is

rolled back. Successful elections and democratic

institutions that begin to function and cope with the

country’s problems are certainly an important advance

along the lengthy and difficult path toward peace and

stability. But all this remains basically precarious, as

long as the legitimate expectations of the population

are not satisfied and their hope to benefit from the

dividends of peace is not realized. How can this be

done in a country that has been bled white, that does

not even have the minimum required for life, and on

which donors impose the same conditions as they do on

countries that are functioning normally? How, when a

country is painfully emerging from a long period of

chaos, can it find the resources to repay the debt so that

it can hope to benefit from additional economic

assistance?

These issues and others face the international

community as part of its responsibility for managing

the emergence from crisis. This raises the question of

the ways and means of consolidating peace to emerge

from a period of chaos in order to avoid the risk of a

return to square one. The Secretary-General very

rightly underlined this in his report. The outcome

document of the High-level Plenary Meeting also

mentions that. The creation of a Peace-building

Commission is, therefore, very timely. This is a sign

that there is uncertainty in conflict management, as to

discharge a sick person when convalescence is only

just beginning often leads to a relapse. It would be a

good thing if this uncertainty could be removed. The

moving appeal made by the President of the

Transitional Government of Somalia strengthens us in

our belief that the best way to avoid relapses, which

are very difficult and costly to manage, is to provide

strong support for reconstruction.

Whenever a country that has plunged into the

abyss starts to raise its head again, it is a victory for the

whole of humanity, and humanity cannot stand by

while one of its members drowns, however small it is.

Emergence from a crisis stands, therefore, as a new

challenge for the United Nations. It is a matter of

creating the conditions under which a country that is

starting on the return to peace and stability can avoid

tumbling back into a state of chaos. The solution

involves, in our opinion, an additional demonstration

of solidarity and generosity from its development

partners to support the efforts of the convalescing

society.

Our country is convinced that a lasting return to

peace involves the participation of people at all levels

of Central African society. The quest for peace and

stability is not only the concern of professional

politicians. Of course, it is important that politicians

work tirelessly to develop arrangements that are in

keeping with the national interest and that they avoid

any radicalization of their political positions in order to

give peace a chance. This is the behaviour Central

African politicians have exhibited and it explains to a

large extent the peaceful outcome of the consensus-

based transitional process and the successful electoral

process.

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But this is not enough to consolidate peace.

Those who pay the highest price for the failures of

politics must also have their say. Young people,

women, peasants, urban employees, private

entrepreneurs and the media all have a great interest in

being closely involved in efforts and actions aimed at

peacebuilding and we should therefore pay tribute to

the model of cooperation initiated by the United

Nations in the Great Lakes region of Africa. This

cooperation, which regularly brings together the heads

of State and their ministers as well as various segments

of civil society, ensures that discussions related to the

quest for peace involve non-politicians as well. This

initiative, moreover, has the merit of bringing to the

table other countries, either closely or less closely

involved in the Great Lakes problems. In fact, no crisis

is limited to just one country, there are direct or

indirect effects on neighbours. That is why the

tremendous work done by Professor Ibrahima Fall

should be encouraged and supported.

As far as the Central African Republic is

concerned, the priorities of the Government of

National Reconciliation formed after the election were

clearly identified in the Declaration of General Policy

presented to the National Assembly in early August by

Prime Minister Elie Dote. There are three focal points

for the short and medium term. First, the re-

establishment of security throughout the whole

country; secondly, the control and stabilization of

public finances; and thirdly, the rehabilitation and

relaunching of various sectors of the national economy,

such as the mining industries, lumber, agriculture and

livestock.

With regard to the first point, it goes without

saying that no progress is possible without eradicating

the endemic insecurity caused by armed bands,

especially those who set up roadblocks. Reconstruction

of the security and defence forces, which has already

begun, and the re-equipment of those forces are matters

that the Government is working to resolve. Subregional

cooperation is also an important asset, with the active

presence of the multinational force of the Economic

and Monetary Community of Central Africa and

operations carried out by forces from the Central

African Republic, Cameroon and Chad along their

shared borders. In this connection we should pay

tribute to the initiative taken by the United Nations

Peacebuilding Support Office in Bangui, which

organized a meeting of subregional diplomats and

defence experts in Yaoundé, from 26 to 27 August. We

should also pay tribute to the contribution of France,

which is providing the multinational force of the

Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa

with valuable logistical support.

Beyond short-term considerations, the major

long-term challenges facing the Central African

Republic are those of health and education. Education

and health care are among the principal objectives of

the Millennium Development Goals. The Central

African Republic hopes to achieve those Goals by

2015. We know that lasting development cannot be

established without strengthening our national

capacities.

Having suffered in various ways in recent years,

the people of the Central African Republic sincerely

aspire to peace and stability. They are determined to

strive and sacrifice in order to leave the painful past

behind. They need the understanding and support of

their partners, chief among which is the United

Nations.