Central African Republic, 2008

First, I

sincerely congratulate Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann

on his election as President of the General Assembly at

its sixty-third session. The role played by his country,

Nicaragua, in pursuing the purposes of the United

Nations and his long and distinguished career as a

diplomat have been recognized by his election. I assure

him of my country’s support and my own support as he

carries out his difficult and noble mission.

I also pay Mr. Srgjan Kerim, who presided over

the sixty-second session, a well deserved tribute for the

excellent work he did throughout his term in office.

I wish to express words of encouragement to the

Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, for the important

direction he has given our Organization since taking up

his duties.

My country, the Central African Republic, has

since 1996 experienced domestic instability fuelled by

the effects of numerous conflicts in neighbouring

territories. The Darfur crisis and the constant

incursions of irregular armed bands in the north-east

and north-west and of the Lord’s Resistance Army on

the southern frontier, bordering on the Sudan and the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, have been

accompanied by plunder, rape, deportation and the

conscription of children under the age of 10.

The use of that part of the Central African

Republic territory as a rear base for non-State armed

elements represents a danger of the same type as those

that led to Security Council resolution 1778 (2007).

I welcome the mandate given to the United

Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and

Chad (MINURCAT) as part of a multidimensional

operation to restore the safety and security conditions

needed for a voluntary and lasting return of refugees

and persons displaced by the conflicts in that area of

the three frontiers that straddle the Central African

Republic, Chad and the Sudan.

However, with the mandate of the European

Union Force (EUFOR) ending in March 2009, and

because of the fragility of the situation in the north-east

and growing insecurity in the south-east, it is highly

desirable that MINURCAT’s mission be revised and

enlarged. We earnestly hope that it will go beyond its

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current framework to become an operational force of

the United Nations, and that cooperation between

MINURCAT and the other forces involved at the

regional and community levels will continue.

Referring to the situation in my country gives me

the opportunity to emphasize that the recurrent

political and military crises have further increased

poverty and food insecurity, particularly in the rural

and agricultural areas.

A suggested theme for this year’s general

debate — the impact of the world food crisis on

poverty and hunger throughout the world — in addition

to the need to democratize the United Nations, is at the

heart of the international community’s concerns, and

has been for some decades. The first matter involves

the following questions: climate conditions,

demographic problems, indebtedness, free and

equitable trade, redirecting the agricultural sector

towards biofuels, the price of oil and armed conflicts.

In the current context of world trade and the

world economy, there is a tendency for natural

disasters and armed conflicts, because of their effect on

socio-economic structures, to accentuate the impact of

the food crisis on developing countries.

For the Central African Republic, the food crisis

can be seen as somewhat paradoxical, in view of our

natural potential. The climate throughout the country is

favourable to pluvial agriculture, with an enviable

annual rainfall of 800 millimetres in the extreme north

and more than 1,500 millimetres in the south, and an

availability of fresh water estimated at 37,000 cubic

metres per inhabitant.

Of more than 15 million hectares of arable land, only

600,000 to 700,000 are cultivated. That is 1 per cent of our

national territory and 4.4 per cent of the total arable

area. Less than 0.5 million hectares are being actively

exploited by agricultural workers.

Stock-raising land represents 9.3 million hectares

out of a total of 16 million, with livestock totalling

about 3.2 million head of tropical breeds.

The challenges to be overcome are the insecurity

of rural areas, the disorganization of agricultural

producers, the low degree of support for the rural

community, the fact of being landlocked, the lack of

basic economic and social infrastructures, the exodus

from the countryside and the impact of HIV/AIDS and

malaria, which have reduced the labour force and

resulted in limited access to credit and fostered social

discrimination.

One of the Millennium Development Goals is to

halve, between 1996 and 2015, the number of those

suffering from hunger, and to halve, between 1990 and

2015, the degree of poverty.

There are a number of causes of the problems:

so-called natural causes and human causes. The natural

causes result from natural disasters: drought,

desertification, degradation of the environment and

floods, resulting in the erosion of arable land. Human

causes are regarded as having been responsible for

more than 35 per cent of the food emergencies in 2004,

compared with only 15 per cent in 1992. Wars and

economic and social upheaval have caused or worsened

the food situation.

The General Assembly is the appropriate forum

in which to raise and debate the problems confronting

our world today. That is what is expected of us in the

Assembly.

There is no human endeavour that will not

respond to application. Therefore, it is possible to meet

the challenge of the food crisis. But our weakness is

above all our lack of the technical, economic and

structural capacity to create the conditions for

agricultural production and productivity.

I welcome the measures taken in June this year at

the World Food Summit of the Food and Agriculture

Organization of the United Nations (FAO), held in

Rome, on the food crisis. The initiative on the upswing

in the price of foodstuffs should mainly be based on

stimulating food production in our countries. For that,

we look forward to implementation of the International

Monetary Fund proposal to double its aid to agriculture

on the African continent, in the hope of strengthening

the productive capacity of our farmers and creating the

structural conditions for the production and marketing

of agricultural goods.

As part of regional talks on the food crisis, held

in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

on 29 July this year, under the aegis of the Economic

Community of Central African States (ECCAS), it was

agreed to make effective the Maputo Declaration and

the Abuja Declaration on, respectively, allocating

10 per cent of our national budget to agriculture and

assuring our countries better access to resources for

agriculture.

35 08-51839

We have also given ECCAS a mandate to, among

other actions, accelerate implementation of a common

agricultural policy. Relaunching the agricultural sector

is one of the priorities of my mandate as President of

the Central African Economic and Monetary

Community (CEMAC). At the Yaoundé summit in June

this year we decided to put that concern at the centre of

the regional economic programme.

None of these good resolutions can become

reality for our farmers unless the support promised to

them actually reaches them. Particularly in Central

Africa, if these promises are kept they will speed up

the putting into place of regional focal points for

development that will help to reduce the shortfalls in

agricultural activity and the disparities between rural

and urban areas.

Food security has become a matter of concern for

the world. Hunger continues to be the worst weapon of

mass destruction. The social crises seen in many places

result from the realization that food insecurity is

worsening with the rising cost of living and other

uncertainties, such as climate change and natural

disasters.

In Central Africa, because of the destructive

action of irregular military rebel groups, many

manipulated from outside, food insecurity, particularly

in rural areas, is often provoked by lack of security.

That led the Government to organize, in April this year,

a national seminar on reforming the security sector,

which was an important step towards peace.

In the light of this, the process of inclusive

political dialogue, which I have pledged to carry

through to its conclusion, should be seen by all Central

Africans as a categorical imperative.

Today, millions of people throughout the world

are increasingly losing their means of subsistence

because of the impact of food insecurity and of the

steep rise in oil prices on the world economy, with

unprecedented consequences for world order and

peace.

Hunger, the environment, corruption and civil

and ethnic conflicts are a burden for the most

impoverished peoples on earth.

Other threats, such as terrorism, poverty and

misgovernment, also contribute to making the world

even more vulnerable, and demand from us responses

and methods that will bring about a lasting solution.

In this age of interdependence of States, the

prime solution and imperative need seems to be a

collective decision-making forum and an instrument

for rapid action. That was the vision of the founders of

our Organization in 1945.

But we must recognize today that the various

institutions that make up the United Nations have their

limitations, and we must agree on the need for reform

to make the Organization much more effective in order

to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and

seek the kind of peace that meets the current situation.

My country is convinced of the importance of

genuine democratization of the United Nations system.

In that connection, particular attention should be given

to the functioning of the Security Council, the

Economic and Social Council, the Bretton Woods

institutions and the General Assembly. If together we

take courageous decisions to implement this ambitious

project, we shall give the world an ideal structure that

can tackle all international questions. This is an

opportunity to build a world that is more secure, more

equitable, more balanced and freer for all peoples.