Cameroon, 2003

I should like at the outset to congratulate you,

Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the

General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session. You have

set in motion a cycle of African presidencies of the

Assembly — today, the African diaspora, tomorrow the

African motherland. Your election attests to the high

esteem in which the Member States hold your country,

Saint Lucia, a traditional partner of Cameroon in the

great African, Caribbean and Pacific family. It is also

testimony to the trust that the representatives of those

States place in you and your eminent diplomatic

qualities. You may rest assured that my delegation will

cooperate fully with you, as we have the pleasure of

being a member of your Bureau in our capacity as

Chairman of the Third Committee. Allow me to extend

my wishes of success to the other members of the

Bureau.

I also take this opportunity to commend your

predecessor, Mr. Jan Kavan, for the skill with which he

guided our work at the last session.

To Secretary-General Kofi Annan, I wish to

reiterate, in the context of the current international

scene, Cameroon’s expression of great pride and trust

in him and his role as a facilitator in the settlement of

inter-African conflicts. I thank him for his energetic

and tireless activity in the service of the great ideals of

the Organization.

Our Organization was created to preserve future

generations from the scourge of war, to create

conditions in which all can enjoy dignified lives, and to

promote respect for human rights and fundamental

freedoms. The United Nations was created to ensure

the reign of peace at the service of humankind. As

Pope John XXIII recalled in his encyclical Pacem in

Terris, which was addressed to all men of good will

and the fortieth anniversary of which we celebrate this

year, that peace rests on four indispensable conditions

corresponding to four specific necessities of the human

spirit: truth, justice, charity and liberty. Our heads of

State trod the same path at the Millennium Summit.

They undertook to free humankind from warfare and

poverty, to promote human rights and to strengthen the

United Nations. We felt that it would be useful to recall

those principles because the picture of the world that

has emerged in this general debate since 23 September

is not a very optimistic one.

On 19 August, the United Nations was struck by

tragedy. The terrorist attack that destroyed the United

Nations headquarters in Baghdad and struck and killed

dozens of innocent victims, including Sergio Vieira de

Mello, Special Representative of the Secretary-General

for Iraq, posed a great challenge to the principles and

values that are the bedrock of our Organization. At the

time, President Paul Biya expressed on behalf of

Cameroon expressed his profound indignation and

firmly condemned that odious, criminal act. Tomorrow,

we will weep with the people of Iraq for the tragic

death — again in Baghdad — of Akila Al-Hashemi, a

highly talented diplomat and eminent member of the

Iraqi Governing Council.

Cameroon is proud that our Organization did not

shirk its responsibilities or even weaken in its resolve

to play a central role in the stabilization, orderly

restoration of the sovereignty and reconstruction of

Iraq and to support the political process under way.

Following upon the long series of terrorist acts

committed throughout the world since the tragedy of 11

September 2001, the 19 August attack in Baghdad was

a timely reminder of the vulnerability of our world

today. The complexity of the challenge and the gravity

of the danger require us to step up our collective efforts

effectively to confront terrorism, which today poses

perhaps the most serious threat to international peace

and security. Cameroon again calls for a high-level

conference to be convened to define a collective

organized response by the international community to

terrorism.

In addition to new threats to international peace

and security, such as terrorism and the proliferation of

weapons of mass destruction, there are other, equally

dangerous, threats: all sorts of pandemics, including

HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and despair

stemming from almost endemic poverty.

Therefore, our joint mobilization should be aimed

primarily at reducing or even eliminating the germs

and causes of conflicts and despair.

In the Middle East, we must demand that the

parties to the conflict — Israel and Palestine — return

without delay to the negotiating table to agree on

modalities conducive to the rapid and comprehensive

implementation of the road map. Cameroon regrets and

condemns the escalation of violence, which is seriously

26

endangering any peaceful solution based on the letter

and spirit of Security Council resolution 1397 (2002),

adopted with no vote against. In it the Council affirmed

“the vision of a region where two States, Israel

and Palestine, live side by side within secure and

recognized borders”.

Our Palestinian and Israeli friends must get used

to the idea that they are condemned to live side by side,

to coexist in the geopolitical configuration forged by

their rich, common history. To that end, Israelis and

Palestinians will have to disarm — of course, in terms

of weapon policies, but primarily disarm at the cultural

level by unanimously and sincerely ridding their hearts

of fear and the psychosis of war. The axiom that peace

results from a balance of war-making ability and

weapons should be replaced by the principle that real

peace can be built only on mutual trust.

The same applies to the peoples of the renowned

Mesopotamia, who are emerging from three decades of

tyranny, and must very soon, with the help of the

international community, have their full dignity and

sovereignty restored in a stable and prosperous Iraq,

living in peace with all its neighbours.

Over the past year, the many conflicts that have

bloodied Africa have remained at the centre of the

concerns of the United Nations, which has made many

efforts to end them. Fortunately, those efforts are

beginning to yield results. Some African conflicts are

on the way to being resolved, nourishing new and

legitimate hopes. Unfortunately, despite everything,

there are still deplorable situations where the

protagonists are having trouble finding a negotiated

political solution or keeping their commitments. We are

convinced that there will soon be results, given genuine

political will on the part of the major actors. The

irreplaceable support they receive from the United

Nations deserves to be welcomed and recognized.

Africa in general and our subregion in particular

are fully aware of the role this important partner plays

in our economic development, in consolidating

democracy and the rule of law, and, finally, in

promoting peace and security within and outside our

countries. That is why the member States of the

Economic Community of Central African States

(ECCAS) have forcefully expressed their desire to

strengthen their cooperation with the United Nations

through a political presence of that Organization in the

subregion, which would bolster our subregional

capacities, particularly in the area of peace and

security.

In that connection, Cameroon reiterates its thanks

to the Secretary-General for sending a

multidisciplinary mission to Central Africa last June at

the request of the members of the Security Council. We

await with interest its innovative recommendations,

which will shortly be made to the Security Council.

They will nourish the debate to be held in this Hall on

the agenda item entitled “Cooperation between the

United Nations and the Economic Community of

Central African States”.

We welcome the Secretary-General’s suggestions

concerning the functioning of the Organization in this

constantly changing world. We will fully support any

reform that will bring the Organization closer to our

peoples, as envisaged by the measures for strengthened

cooperation between the United Nations and Central

African organizations.

In the Millennium Declaration, the political

leaders of the world committed themselves to creating

a world partnership for development and to respond to

the special needs of Africa. The New Partnership for

Africa’s Development (NEPAD), whereby Africa has

decided to take back the initiative and to control its

own fate, can serve as a sound platform for a fruitful

partnership between the continent and the international

community.

Africa is waiting for multiple responses. One,

which will play a decisive part in the growth of our

continent, is linked to trade. What African States want

and aspire to is to play a more important part in the

trade of goods and services. That implies in particular

standards favouring fair competition.

The failure of the recent World Trade

Organization Ministerial Conference held at Cancún

has raised grave doubts, particularly among African

countries that export agricultural products. The

tremendous reluctance of wealthy nations to dismantle

their agricultural subsidy regimes is puzzling, and

seriously threatens the survival of African economies

based on agriculture and livestock. The subsidies given

to that sector are stifling millions of farmers and cotton

producers in Central and West Africa.

In the same context, Mr. President, your country,

Saint Lucia, and Cameroon have been carrying out an

epic battle for almost a decade for the survival of our

27

banana industries, which are up against the giants of

the sector.

There are many more examples of the need for

solidarity and urgent reform of the multilateral

economic system. We hope that the Doha round will

not deviate from its main objective — development —

and that it will take well into consideration the

concerns of the poorest in order to integrate them

promptly into the global economy.

Globalization does not relate only to trade. It also

affects human development and new technologies, the

protection of the ecosystem and the sustainable

development of water and other natural resources. All

of those aspects require a concerted approach, given

that the sacrifices of some work to everyone’s

advantage. Cameroon, which has chosen, for example,

to participate in rational and sustainable management

of the world forest ecosystem, has established a bold

national environmental management plan.

It is clear that, in order to effectively implement

such policies without exposing its rural populations to

extreme poverty, our country needs significant

financial assistance, particularly to diversify its

production and to ensure systematic transformation of

its natural resources. In other words, today, more than

ever before, solidarity should rhyme with

partnership — and globalization with fair trade — to

ensure the comprehensive and orderly development of

our world.

The United Nations assuredly remains the only

universal Organization that not only possesses the

necessary competencies and impartiality, but is also the

only entity that can confer legitimacy on any

multilateral action tackling the great world challenges,

a number of which we have just listed. To attain these

noble objectives, it urgently needs to consider in depth

its current approaches, the way it operates and its

implementing mechanisms.

Cameroon unreservedly supports the Secretary-

General’s initiative to establish a high-level panel of

eminent personalities to consider ways to strengthen

the United Nations. We hopefully await their

contribution to the Organization’s necessary and

unavoidable reform to improve its performance,

including its missions of an economic and social nature

as well as international peace and security.

The Secretary-General invites us to go further

along the path of reform, to which he has been

committed for several years. He is right. What is at

stake is the Organization’s very effectiveness, which it

needs to tackle the great challenges of our time. He can

count on Cameroon’s support.

As I have been concluding my remarks, the light

has changed from green to yellow and from yellow to

red. How can one refrain from prolonging his

comments when it is a question of humanity and

humanity’s future through peace, a negotiated peace, a

concerted peace, a peace that rests on justice and the

equitable distribution of benefits and wealth?