Republic of the Congo, 2008

My

delegation welcomes your inspired election, Sir, to the

presidency of the General Assembly at this session,

which is being held at a particularly important moment

in the life of our Organization, given the numerous

challenges that we have to face. The robust messages

that you yourself have issued here clearly indicate that

you are fully aware of the magnitude of what is at

stake. As is so well suggested by the Secretary-General

in his report on the activities of the Organization

(A/63/1), more than ever before the world’s problems

require concerted and coordinated actions.

We commend the Secretary-General on the

resolute action that he has undertaken since the

beginning of his mandate. We highly appreciate his

dynamism, his realism and the increasing interest that

he brings to matters of peace, security and sustainable

development.

His Excellency Mr. Denis Sassou Nguesso,

President of the Republic of the Congo, who was

unable personally to attend this general debate, has

instructed me to share with the members of the

Assembly a few thoughts on developments in our

world.

The challenges that we have to tackle

immediately are numerous. They are related to peace,

security, and threats to people’s lives and to nations,

heightened by the food, energy and financial crises, as

well as natural disasters and climate change.

By placing emphasis on the notion of solidarity,

which we fully support, you have certainly illustrated,

Mr. President, the risk we run of losing our identity, an

option that can only offer partial, even uncertain,

solutions to the challenges that confront us. Here, we

reaffirm that the United Nations offers us the ideal

framework to work together in search of lasting

solutions. That is the meaning underlying our ongoing

attachment to multilateralism.

Recent events in different parts of the world,

particularly in Europe, remind us that peace and

security rest on a fragile foundation, even where such

matters seem to have been solved definitively. Africa,

still at the heart of the concerns of the international

community and top of the agenda of the Security

Council because of the conflicts that continue to

jeopardize progress and to hinder implementation of

the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), will not

solve its problems with declarations of good intentions.

The high-level meeting on Africa’s needs that

was held on 22 September revealed that it is time to

move from promises to sustainable action. That is why

we welcome the adoption of the declaration that

marked that important event. Similarly, we salute the

high-level meeting for the MDGs that concluded here

on 25 September.

As we all know, the stabilization of the situation

in countries in conflict and the building of peace in

others would not have been possible without the

sustained efforts of the United Nations and other

bilateral and multilateral partners. The African Union

and subregional African organizations continue to act

resolutely and often with limited resources to meet

those challenges. Thanks to all such efforts, the Central

African Republic, to cite the example of our

neighbouring country, is working to restore peace and

security through dialogue among the Government, the

opposition and rebel movements.

Still with respect to our subregion of Central

Africa, we call on the international community to step

up its efforts to help stabilize the situation in the

eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, particularly

by supporting the Government of that country in its

fight against rebel movements and other negative

forces. In that context, the entry into force in June of

the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the

Great Lakes Region will usher in a new climate of

confidence in that nerve centre of our continent. My

Government is committed to fully playing its role in

that process, which will greatly contribute to

stabilizing to the situation.

With regard to the crisis between Chad and the

Sudan, we encourage those two countries to pursue

every effort to normalize their relations and consolidate

peace in the region. In that regard, we welcome the

resumption of diplomatic relations between the two

countries — an initiative that must be consolidated

through the establishment of military monitoring units

along the common border. Those units need to be

adequately equipped, in implementation of the Dakar

Agreement signed in March 2008.

As African Union co-mediator with Libya in that

crisis, Congo will spare no effort in helping to bring

those two brotherly countries to respect the

engagements undertaken and to act always in good

faith in order to establish a definitive peace between

and around them.

27 08-53135

Solving the conflict in Darfur would contribute

largely to that end. That is why we make an urgent

appeal for the effective deployment of the troops of the

African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in

Darfur (UNAMID), which should be supplied with all

necessary equipment to become operational and

efficient.

For its part, my country recently completed the

preparatory phase for a police unit composed of 140

personnel that is now at the disposal of UNAMID.

However, the international community should also

work tirelessly to implement of the Abuja Agreement

on Darfur. Non-signatories who are violating that

Agreement must be strongly pressured to return to the

negotiating table. In that context, we believe that it is

counterproductive to carry out the indictment against

the Head of State of the Sudan.

With respect to Africa yet again, we welcome the

settlement of the crisis in Kenya and the process of

reconciliation in Zimbabwe, and call on African

political actors in power and in opposition to respect

the verdict of the ballot box.

In its desire to participate in the collective effort

in the area of peace and security, my country reaffirms

its full commitment to the fight against terrorism, the

proliferation of small arms and light weapons, drug

trafficking and human trafficking. Congo remains fully

committed to strict compliance with the Treaty on the

Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in all its facets.

Congo calls on the international community to

consider as a matter of urgency the resolution of the

Middle East conflict on the basis of commitments

already undertaken, particularly the road map of the

Quartet and the Arab peace initiative.

Our commitment to multilateralism leads us to

believe that there is a pressing need to pursue the work

of United Nations reform, and particularly that of the

Security Council. In keeping with the African position

on that issue, my country welcomes the decision to

launch, before 31 January 2009, intergovernmental

negotiations that should finally enable that matter to

genuinely move forward.

It is right that our present agenda includes the

matter of the effects of climate change on the

environment, which is one of the major challenges of

our times. My country is particularly sensitive to that

issue since it has within its borders a part of the

enormous Congo basin, the world’s second ecological

lung after Amazonia. The countries bordering the basin

have a great responsibility to humanity in the

management and sustainable exploitation of these

ecosystems, which they are shouldering in a

determined and encouraging manner.

While endorsing the conclusions of last year’s

Bali Conference, which laid the groundwork for the

post-Kyoto period, the States of the Congo basin

believe that global policies on the preservation of

forest equilibriums should establish compensation

mechanisms. Those would include the creation of

substitute economies to benefit the populations in the

areas involved.

In expressing those concerns, I take the

opportunity to announce that Congo will host in

Brazzaville, from 27 to 30 October 2008, the sixth

World Forum on Sustainable Development, devoted to

assessing the progress achieved in the implementation

of Agenda 21 and the Johannesburg Plan of

Implementation, particularly concerning strategic,

credible and pertinent partnerships towards achieving

the Millennium Development Goals.

On the economic and social front, we welcome

the focus at this session on sustainable development

and implementation of the Millennium Development

Goals. The analyses carried out here last week indicate

that African States have made significant progress,

with a rate of growth of approximately 6 per cent per

annum, and that, as emphasized in the Secretary-

General’s report, Africa is resolutely on the right path

and should continue to pursue those commendable

efforts, particularly since it varies between countries

and regions.

Nevertheless, such efforts and the promising

outcomes they may yield require genuine, continuous

and tangible international support. That is why our

partners must keep their promises.

The current Chair of the African Union, President

Kikwete of the United Republic of Tanzania, brilliantly

described to the Assembly the situation in our

continent and indicated the way forward. We fully

endorse the presentation he made here and on other

occasions. We welcome the different partnerships that

Africa has established with its traditional friends and

with new ones. Here once again, the commitments need

to be brought to fruition.

08-53135 28

Our continent is resolutely committed to the

battle for progress, which has several facets. That is

why we attach great importance to matters of

democracy, good governance and respect for human

rights in the framework of the African Peer Review

Mechanism, a pillar of the New Partnership for

Africa’s Development. Several African countries have

agreed to submit to periodic evaluations that represent

a sort of right to positive interference in the affairs of

other member States in matters that normally fall under

national jurisdiction. Congo has voluntarily subscribed

to the process, illustrating Africa’s devotion to the fight

against bad governance, corruption, human rights

violations and impunity.

It is therefore inconceivable that certain foreign

judges should confer upon themselves the right to drag

African leaders to their national courts in the name of

the principle of universal jurisdiction — a rule that

seems to be applied exclusively to Africa since, as we

have already seen, the same principle was soon

dropped when it targeted leaders of powerful States. It

is regrettable that international jurisdiction, while

remaining respectable, seems to be following a path of

judiciary spite against African leaders.

In that regard, Africa has become an

experimentation ground for dangerous and even hateful

practices. The sad memories of such other negative

experiences as slavery, the slave trade and colonization

are enough for us. President Kikwete was right to raise

this issue here, in application of a decision taken

during the summit of the African Union held in Sharma

el-Sheikh in Egypt.

The Republic of the Congo had a particularly

rough patch in the 1990s and managed, thanks to the

political will of the Government, all political actors

and the civil society, to achieve national reconciliation.

That climate of peace made possible the organization

of legislative elections in 2007 and municipal and local

elections in 2008 in an atmosphere of calm and

serenity, despite irregularities identified during the

voting process. Nevertheless, the transparency and

credibility of the process were not disputed by the

international observers.

With the irregularities corrected, it is in the same

climate of calm and serenity that we are organizing the

2009 presidential election, in accordance with our

Constitution. The climate of restored peace has led to

an increasingly reassuring economic situation that is

supported by improved budgetary planning and better

debt management within the framework of the Heavily

Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative and the

rigorous measures that today have enabled Congo to

focus more ambitiously on its development and on the

progressive achievement of the Millennium

Development Goals. Within that framework and in a

participatory manner, with the assistance of the United

Nations Development Programme, we drafted a

poverty reduction strategy paper that was approved by

the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

By way of illustration, the principle measures

taken towards the attainment of the Millennium

Development Goals in the sensitive areas of education

and health care focus on from free access to education

and textbooks, the establishment of a drug purchase

centre, the distribution of treated mosquito nets to the

population, and free access to HIV/AIDS testing,

checkups and anti-retroviral medication.

Such efforts, however encouraging they may be,

can bear fruit in the long run only with the support of

external partners and in a favourable international

context as regards such thorny issues as debt, trade,

official development assistance, financing for

development and, above all, international peace and

security.

Members may now easily understand why a

modest member of the international community such as

Congo is so deeply invested in the existence and the

work of our collective home, the United Nations.