Republic of the Congo, 2007

As he had to leave New York earlier than scheduled owing to

pressing engagements, President Denis Sassou

Nguesso has asked me to address the Assembly on his

behalf in order to share with other Member States the

perspectives of the Congolese Government on items on

the General Assembly’s agenda at this session.

On behalf of my delegation, I wish first to thank

Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa of Bahrain for her

excellent work. I also thank the President on his

election as President of the General Assembly at its

sixty-second session. The five priorities that he has

articulated and the road map for climate change, the

drafting of which he announced at his election,

represent an agenda that is in line with the objectives

that have been pursued by the United Nations since the

Millennium Summit of September 2000. He can rely

on my delegation’s cooperation when we consider

those issues.

To Mr. Ban Ki-moon, in his first experience of

the General Assembly’s general debate as Secretary-

General, I reaffirm my Government’s commitment to

assisting him in the direction he seeks to set for our

Organization. My country is sensitive to the many

displays of interest in us that he has demonstrated time

and time again since his election last year. Proof of

that, inter alia, are the visit he made to Brazzaville in

January 2007 and his choice of a son of our country,

Mr. Rodolphe Adada, former Foreign Minister of the

Congo, to direct the African Union-United Nations

Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). We are very

grateful to him for that.

Following the violent crises that shook our nation

in the late 1990s, the Congo has gradually found peace

and stability through political dialogue and national

reconciliation, which remain our ongoing objectives.

The return of a number of Congolese who left the

country during the civil wars is part of that positive

trend. The legislative elections that have just been held

peacefully are indeed the sign of a democracy at peace.

That favourable dynamic needs, of course, to be

encouraged, assisted and supported by the international

community.

Despite enormous losses in human life and

considerable material damage, at the end of the civil

war the Congo was not considered to be a country in a

post-conflict situation. We had to undertake at our own

expense the vast task of restoration and reconstruction.

We therefore plunged resolutely into difficult

negotiations with the Bretton Woods institutions to

elaborate a programme of debt relief, implementation

of the Millennium Development Goals including the

fight against poverty and economic recovery. In that

context, in order not to exacerbate further the daily

existence of the majority of our people already living

without the basic necessities, we are trying to prevent

the negotiations from being an intolerable burden on

them. We therefore hope to bring the negotiations to a

conclusion as soon as possible so as not to delay the

implementation of the necessary reforms.

The return to peace and stability has allowed my

country to resume its place on the international stage.

In less than three months, the Congo will end its term

as a non-permanent member of the Security Council.

For the past 20 months, we have participated in the

Council’s deliberations in a constructive spirit. We

have always favoured the resolution of disputes

through peaceful means and dialogue, seeking

compromise and enhanced multilateralism. Our

participation has strengthened our belief in the need

and urgency of reform of that main organ of the United

Nations, entrusted with the maintenance of

international peace and security. Our position and that

of Africa is well known on that question. We have also

focused on improving the Council’s working methods

in order to ensure greater transparency and

inclusiveness in its decision-making process.

During the presidency of the African Union

assumed by Congolese President Denis Sassou

Nguesso in 2006, the Congo had occasion to speak on

behalf of a continent whose issues occupy the lion’s

share of the Council’s agenda. We made the case for

strengthening the partnership between the United

Nations and the African Union in order to ensure that

the Council’s decisions take the concerns of African

countries into consideration and are thereby legitimate

and viable. We called for ongoing dialogue between the

Council, on the one hand, and the African Union,

through its Peace and Security Council, and African

States as a whole, on the other, as well as parties to

conflicts.

We encouraged the international community to

remain involved in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo through the United Nations Organization

Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

including after the elections, which clearly represented

a great step forward but left unresolved the questions

of peace in the East, the disarmament of armed groups,

the repatriation of foreign combatants and economic

reconstruction. Such developments could be facilitated

in the context of the pact signed at the conclusion of

the second summit of the International Conference on

the Great Lakes Region, which is an appropriate

regional framework.

In the Côte d’Ivoire, after much uncertainty, it is

comforting to note that the process engaged by the

Ouagadougou agreement has opened prospects for a

resolution of the crisis, which we need to encourage

and assist.

The same prospects for encouraging

developments are now open to Darfur following the

adoption of Security Council resolution 1769 (2007).

In his statement to the Council summit of

25 September, the Congolese Head of State called on

the international community to seize this opportunity to

act with a sense of urgency.

We must accelerate the pace of work in the

following three areas, as emerged from the high-level

meeting on Darfur held here in New York on

21 September. First, political dialogue is to resume on

27 October in Tripoli, where all parties must

participate, bearing in mind the exceptional open-

mindedness of the Sudanese Government, which has

decided to observe a ceasefire once the Tripoli talks

begin. Sanctions should be considered for all reticent

parties. To encourage the initiative of political

dialogue, which will determine any possible success

for the international community’s involvement in

Darfur, my Government has decided to contribute to

the special Trust Fund created by the Secretary-General

to that end.

Secondly, peace must be maintained via the

deployment of UNAMID. The creation of the force was

a most significant decision that must be implemented

without delay in order to avoid any political setback

and any deterioration of the situation on the ground. In

that area, too, my Government has demonstrated its

solidarity by deciding to dispatch a contingent, along

with the military observers it sent earlier as part of the

African Union Mission in Sudan. In that regard, my

delegation vigorously condemns the recent attack on

the African Union peacekeepers in Haskanita in

southern Darfur. We ask that the perpetrators be

actively sought and punished.

Thirdly, humanitarian assistance and economic

recovery are more than indispensable to stabilization

and a return to normalcy in Darfur. With respect to

African crises, we cannot ignore the tragedy of

Somalia. As we all know, Africa has committed to

deploying the Africa Union Military Observer Mission

in Somalia, which should be vigorously supported and

ultimately relieved by a United Nations force. Somalia

must not become a forgotten crisis. The Somalis

themselves, however, must assume their

responsibilities and make a serious commitment to an

inclusive political dialogue that will lead to genuine

national reconciliation.

Until the end of this month, the Congo is the

President of the Economic Community of Central

African States. Our subregion has always been

involved in international initiatives concerning the

situations in its various constituent countries. A

contingent put together by some of those countries is

therefore contributing to the stability of the situation in

the Central African Republic. The twenty-sixth meeting

of the United Nations Standing Advisory Committee on

Security Questions in Central Africa, held in Yaoundé

on 7 September 2007, resulted in a series of

conclusions including, in particular, an appeal to the

international community and the donors to help the

Governments of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of

the Congo and Chad secure their borders and improve

general security conditions; support for the

multidisciplinary operation to be deployed to secure

the situation in the areas of Chad and the Central

African Republic bordering the

Sudan the subject of Security Council resolution

1778 (2007), adopted on 25 September and pursuing

subregional cooperation on questions of security,

including the announcement of the military exercise of

a simulated peacekeeping operation, scheduled for

Chad in November.

And finally, still in Yaoundé, on the margins of

the meeting of the Advisory Committee, a ministerial

conference on cross-border security questions in

Central Africa resulted in the adoption of a statement,

which amounts to a political commitment, by the States

in the subregion to implement organizational,

administrative, legal and technical mechanisms of

cooperation in border areas. This will allow us to

tackle such phenomena as uncontrolled or forced

movement of populations, criminal activities of armed

groups, illicit flows of small arms and light weapons

and the illegal exploitation of natural resources.

My country also remains vigilant to the threats

that weigh on other parts of the world and crises that

shake several regions around the globe. In this spirit,

we have always supported a peaceful settlement to the

Middle East conflict that takes into account the

Quartet’s Road Map and the Arab Peace Initiative. We

have also called for an international conference on the

Middle East, with the participation of all countries in

the region that can make a useful contribution. We

therefore welcome with interest and hope the

announcement of the November conference on the

Middle East.

In terms of nuclear non-proliferation, we have

always called for compliance with the

Non-Proliferation Treaty in all its aspects, including

the right of all countries to develop nuclear technology

for civil purposes. We have always insisted on the

crucial role of the International Atomic Energy Agency

and on the need for a political dialogue with the

countries whose nuclear programs raise questions. In

this respect, we are pleased with the evolution of

negotiations with North Korea, and we encourage

pursuing dialogue with Iran to make sure that there is

no slippage in the programme that country is

developing.

My delegation is also pleased with the

mobilization of the international community around a

question crucial for the future of mankind: the real

threat of climate change. Now, thanks to science, it has

been clearly established that it is human activity that is

at the origin of this scourge. We agree with the

Secretary-General and the President of the General

Assembly that the time has come to act. Therefore, we

welcomed the high-level meeting held here on

24 September on this theme. The President of the

Congo personally participated in that meeting to show

the commitment of the countries of the Congo Basin

the world’s second ecological lung, after the Amazon

Basin in the struggle for survival of our species and

safeguarding the planet overall. On the basis of a

strategic plan called the convergence plan, a ten-year

plan, these countries have made a commitment to

national and subregional actions having to do with

sustainable management of forest ecosystems in the

Basin.

The awareness that we have a responsibility in

this common fight has led us to cooperate with the two

other great forest areas the Amazon and in

Borneo to promote better forestry and commercial

practices. The talks that these three areas held on

24 September, on the margins of the high-level

meeting, have permitted our delegations to prepare for

a common approach to be presented at the conference

of the States parties to the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change in Bali this December.

Our constant commitment to peace and

international security today includes many aspects.

Climate change merits this special attention that this

Assembly, as the world’s conscience, must give to

these great challenges confronting humanity.