Republic of the Congo, 2003

Three

years ago, we held the Millennium Summit, during

which we crafted a clear-cut common vision for the

twenty-first century, a road map to confront the

challenges of globalization: peace and security now

facing new threats, development and international

cooperation, the environment, pandemics and so forth.

One year later the first challenge to this

reassuring and ambitious edifice arose, the terrorist

attacks of 11 September 2001. The international

community reacted unanimously and immediately

adopted a collective response. A few months later we

witnessed the aggravation of tensions with the Iraq

crisis, which severely tested the principle of collective

security and moral authority of the United Nations, to

the point that we doubted the rationale for and the

survival of what should be, after all, our common

home.

Finally, and most recently, we have witnessed the

failure of the Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade

Organization (WTO) in Cancún. This deadlock in

defining a negotiating process to revive the Doha round

places in jeopardy the growth prospects of the world

economy which would otherwise benefit all people.

This can also be interpreted as a new opportunity to

marginalize the countries of the South.

All of this shows that this present session is being

held in a particularly worrisome context. These

developments are dangerous for the management of

international affairs that should be marked with a spirit

of dialogue, consultation and openness.

We must, therefore, return to the spirit of

multilateralism that characterized the Millennium

Summit. We must reaffirm, loud and clear, the role of

the United Nations as a central axis of collective

security and inspiration for the rules of international

cooperation aimed at justice and equality.

For this reason it is important to strengthen the

role of our Organization and improve its effectiveness.

The Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, has now

presented a very edifying report in this connection and

we very much encourage him to persevere along the

path of reform and rationalization and to place the

multilateral system at the core of the management of

crises and the display of leadership in the world.

Your election, Sir, to the presidency of this

session of the General Assembly is, for us, a

tremendous asset. It symbolizes the sovereign equality

of all States, large and small, and is a way of paying

tribute to your great qualities and your diplomatic

experience. We are convinced that you will know how

to skilfully guide our debate on multilateralism to a

satisfying outcome, very much in keeping with the high

expectations of the community of nations.

This year, once again we see the challenges to

peace and international security at the very core of our

major preoccupations. Everyone remembers the attack

of 19 August 2003 against the United Nations offices

in Baghdad. The death of the Special Representative of

the Secretary-General, Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello, and

several dedicated servants of the United Nations, is still

alive in our memories.

In paying tribute to their courage and dedication,

we must do everything within our power to ensure that

their sacrifice was not made in vain and that the cause

they served so heroically does indeed triumph in the

interests of the Iraqi people and the noble ideas of the

United Nations.

We must therefore encourage the Security

Council to return to its essential unity so that the

international community, led by the moral authority of

the United Nations, can help the Iraqi people to find

peace, security and stability and reconstruct their

country devastated by war and many years of embargo.

Not far from Iraq, the international community is

still confronted with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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This shows that the infernal cycle of violence can only

lead to a dead end. The two parties must come to their

senses and return to the vision set out in the road map,

which provides for the creation of a Palestinian State

that is independent, democratic and viable, living side

by side with Israel and its other neighbours in an

atmosphere of peace and security.

The Security Council approved this vision in

Security Council resolution 1397 (2002) and the two

parties committed themselves to respecting the road

map on 4 June 2003 at the outcome of the Aqaba

Summit. We must now bring them back to the

negotiating table, with no pre-conditions, and demand

that they refrain from any measure or unilateral action

that is incompatible with the goals of the road map.

Still on the subject of peace and security, it seems

to be necessary and essential to emphasize that we

must refrain from conflating terrorism, religion or

civilization as belonging to any geographical area or

supporting any national liberation struggle.

Just as we must be firm, demanding and united

when confronting acts of unjustifiable blind violence,

we must also be vigilant so as not to be tempted by

convenience.

In our relentless struggle against terrorism, it is

important to give appropriate responses when it comes

to the sovereignty of peoples, respect for human rights,

social justice and combating poverty. We must also

seriously analyse the causes that serve as the breeding

ground or pretext for terrorism. This is also part of

conflict prevention and, to some extent, the prevention

of terrorism.

This year we are celebrating the twenty-fifth

anniversary of the first special session of the General

Assembly on disarmament. It is regrettable to note that,

since the end of the cold war, so little progress has

been accomplished and today’s deadlock in the

Conference on Disarmament is a tragic display of our

failure.

At a time when the international community is

legitimately concerned about weapons of mass

destruction that might fall into the hands of terrorists, it

is important to remind all of the actors that they must

abide by the multilateral agreements and scrupulously

respect them.

Within the context of disarmament activities, we

welcome the holding, last July in New York, of the first

Biennial Meeting of States to Consider the

Implementation of the 2001 Programme of Action on

Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects. My

country hosted in Brazzaville, from 12 to 14 May 2003,

a sub-regional seminar on the implementation in

Central Africa of the United Nations Programme of

Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit

Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its

Aspects and presented at that time a report reflecting

Africa’s firm determination to eradicate this scourge.

As part of its implementation of the Ottawa

Convention on anti-personnel landmines, from 9 to 10

September 2003, Congo destroyed its stock of

landmines. During two public operations carried out

with the support of Canada and the United Nations, our

Government destroyed 5,220 landmines. We intend to

continue with an operation to search out landmines in

the southern part of our country that borders on Angola

and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

This is to illustrate the degree of cooperation that

prevails among the countries of Central Africa when it

comes to questions of peace and security.

Africa is seen today as the focal point for the

challenges confronting humanity, in particular as

regards armed conflict, underdevelopment and the

proliferation of pandemics. But this is not all that

Africa has to offer the rest of the world. Various

courageous initiatives now show Africa’s

determination to take its fate into its own hands: the

adoption of the New Partnership for Africa’s

Development (NEPAD), the African Peer Review

Mechanism and the Council for Peace and Security.

The African Union Summit that was just held in

Maputo, Mozambique, eloquently displays this attitude

of ours. My delegation associates itself with the

statement made on 24 September by His Excellency

Mr. Joaquim Alberto Chissano, President of the

Republic of Mozambique, on behalf of the African

Union. The Acting President clearly informed the

international community about the resolve of the

African continent to overcome current obstacles to

building a new Africa in the areas of peace, security,

democracy, human rights, economic development and

regional integration.

It is precisely in this sprit that His Excellency

Mr. Denis Sassou Nguesso, President of the Republic

of Congo, put forward his thoughts in a statement

entitled, “For a Pan-African Pact against Aggression”

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at the summit in Maputo, which constitutes a

contribution to preventive diplomacy that will help to

spare the African peoples the horrors of fratricidal

strife and enable them to devote themselves exclusively

and usefully to development objectives and a code of

conduct between African States, lending timely support

to the framework outlined by the Peace and Security

Council of the African Union. My country, which is the

current acting President of the Economic Community

of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Central

African Economic and Monetary Community

(CAEMC), takes such concerns to heart as it discharges

its mandates in the management of various crises that

are shaking our subregion.

We have already had the opportunity to deplore

the fact that Central Africa suffers from the paradox of

being both one of the richest subregions on the

continent and one of the weakest zones in terms of

human development indices. All the current initiatives

of the leaders of the subregion are geared towards the

resolution of this paradox. Thus, during the past year,

significant progress had been registered in the various

countries that have experienced, or are experiencing,

armed crises — Angola, Rwanda, the Democratic

Republic of the Congo, Congo, the Central African

Republic, Burundi and Chad. In the quest to resolve

these crises, we have counted on the cooperation of

diverse partners, especially the United Nations and

African Union.

Allow me to briefly touch on some of the

situations that require particular attention from the

international community. With respect to Angola, while

we welcome the return of peace in that country,

ravaged for nearly three decades by civil war, we wish

to urge the international community to help the

Angolan authorities in their efforts at reconstruction.

We continue to support the intention of the Angolan

Government to submit for consideration at the present

session a draft resolution on international assistance for

the reconstruction and economic development of

Angola.

We also welcome the positive developments

under way in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

distinguished in particular by the establishment of

transitional institutions and the deployment of the

United Nations Organization Mission in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo in Ituri. We urge the

international community to continue its support for the

pacification and reunification process under way in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo and to further

contribute substantively to the reconstruction

programmes in place. I would like to reaffirm our

steadfast wish to see this neighbouring and brotherly

country find peace again, a guarantee for stability of

the subregion.

I am also duty-bound to draw the attention of the

international community to the situation in the Central

African Republic, which has been confronted for years

with serious and persistent economic, social and

security problems. I would like to recall here that

alarmed by this ever-worsening situation, CAEMC has

established an ad hoc committee on the Central African

Republic, presided over by His Excellency El Hadj

Omar Bongo, President of the Gabonese Republic. It

has also deployed a peacekeeping force in that country.

CAEMC’s involvement in the Central African

Republic, which has received much encouragement,

particularly from the Security Council, mainly aims at

the reconciliation of the Central African people, the

pacification of the country and the prompt restoration

of constitutional order. The holding of a Central

African dialogue fits precisely in the framework of the

recommended measures.

This country, which has suffered greatly these

past years, truly needs assistance from the international

community to regain peace, stability, economic growth

and democracy. That is the meaning of the appeal made

at Brazzaville on 17 May 2003 by the ECCAS

Ministers at the meeting of the United Nations

Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in

Central Africa.

Still with respect to our subregion, I would like

finally to stress in particular the crisis that raged in the

Democratic Republic of Sâo Tomé and Pr'ncipe in July

2003. At that time, ECCAS, the African Union, the

Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries and

Nigeria worked in perfect concert to re-establish the

constitutional order shattered in this country on 16 July

2003. While we commend the contribution made by the

United States and South Africa, we would like to

appeal again for the entire international community to

give substantial assistance to the Democratic Republic

of Sâo Tomé and Pr'ncipe, particularly to the

emergency programme that has just been established by

the Government of this country.

We must also follow with great interest

developments in Burundi, where every step forward

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must be supported and encouraged to make the process

irreversible. To that end, the international community

is urgently called upon to make good on the financial

commitments made during the conferences in Paris and

Geneva.

The situations that I have just mentioned lead us

to the relevant conclusions of the open Security

Council meeting on 22 October 2002 on strengthening

cooperation between the United Nations system and the

Central African region in the maintenance of peace and

security. At that meeting, we expressed our

appreciation for the cooperation between our region

and the United Nations while welcoming, inter alia, the

work of the Standing Advisory Committee on Security

Questions in Central Africa. We welcomed the multi-

country programme of demobilization and reintegration

put forward by the World Bank.

Since then, we welcomed the visit of the Security

Council in June 2003 to the Great Lakes region and the

multidisciplinary mission of the United Nations

system, and we are eagerly awaiting its conclusions.

These conclusions will allow us to meaningfully

participate in the future public debates of the Security

Council on our subregion, one year after the meeting

that elaborated a comprehensive, integrated,

determined and concerted approach to the problems of

peace, security and development of Central Africa.

Energized by that approach, we intend to

participate in the international conference on peace,

security, democracy and development in the Great

Lakes region. We intend to seize this historic

opportunity to exorcise the demons of hatred and

violence and lay the foundation for peaceful

coexistence among our peoples and nations, which

share a common destiny.

While reaffirming the central role that the

Democratic Republic of the Congo has to play in that

conference, I would like to stress that the Republic of

Congo, my country, which is close to the Democratic

Republic of the Congo in so many ways, would not

understand if it had to attend as an observer at this

crucial event. The same goes, by all accounts, for other

neighbouring countries of the Democratic Republic of

the Congo, such as Angola and the Central African

Republic.

The issues of peace, security and building

national unity were at the core of the Congolese

authorities’ concerns during the past year. It is in this

framework that the 17 March 2003 agreement must be

placed, thanks to which peace continues to reign

throughout the entire territory.

Having regained peace, we are seeking to build

on it each day, particularly by implementing the

programme of disarmament, demobilization and

reintegration of ex-combatants. We are also working

towards the resettlement of internally displaced

persons. It is not hard to fathom that these missions

require considerable funding, which the Congo cannot

provide alone. We would like to thank all our partners

for their active solidarity.

We must still meet the great challenges of

reconstruction, economy recovery, poverty reduction

and the fight against HIV/AIDS, all sectors for which

national strategies have been adopted. To implement

this vast project, which we have called “The New

Hope”, we are mobilizing all the national forces

capable of providing assistance to the State, including

local government authorities, non-governmental

organizations, civil society and the private sector. In

that framework, we have conducted negotiations with

our external partners with a view to benefiting from the

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative.

All of these achievements can be implemented

only in a world free from fear, as envisaged by the

founders of our Organization, and as we believe today.

This is why we wish to reiterate our faith and

attachment to the United Nations, an irreplaceable

framework and beacon of all hopes for peace for

humanity, and which has never seemed more clearly

necessary than today.