Comoros, 2004

Mr. President, allow me at the outset, on behalf of the

delegation of the Comoros and on my own behalf, to

congratulate you warmly on your election to preside

over the work of the General Assembly at its fifty-

ninth session. Your task is by no means an easy one,

but it is an honour to you personally, to your country

and to the entire African continent. No other

organization can boast of that universal mission. I

would therefore like to assure you of the full readiness

of my delegation to work with you for the success of

that noble mission in the service of peace and security

in the world.

My delegation welcomes the way in which your

predecessor guided the work at the fifty-eighth session.

On behalf of the Comoros I hail the tireless

commitment and complete availability of the

Secretary-General in the fight he leads to advance the

ideals of peace, social justice, development and

freedom throughout the world.

The world — a world of peace and vision,

Of ideas and union now unfurled,

A world that has divided lands

And with seas that share their sands;

World of tolerance and knowing,

World abundance, overflowing;

World of peace, world that charmed,

No, world; you cannot be harmed.

Nations unity provided,

But hearts tend to be divided.

For we have met each other,

And yet our peoples live in fear.

Children of the world,

and countries of the world,

24

Where is the world?

What is this world?

Borders here do not exist;

Prayers vanish in the mist.

Terror is their daily lot;

Fear is all that they have got.

Killers rule instead of bread.

Millennium world, world so fair,

Yet a world of billionaires;

World of speeches of all sorts

Within fora, and of courts.

World rejecting our solutions

and denying resolutions.

What a world. What a peace.

While the world is slowly forging ahead in this

third millennium, we are obliged to note that the

feelings of our respective peoples are fluctuating

between hope and concern. Indeed, while the

relationship between peace and development is

becoming increasingly justified and is making them

indivisible, the path of world events is tending to call

this into question. It is indeed true that there can be no

peace and no security in the world as long as hundreds

of millions of individuals are still prisoners of

destitution and poverty and still do not have the

minimum necessary for a decent daily life. Nor can

there be peace and security in the world as long as,

working all together, we have not made the required

efforts to save the hundreds of millions of human lives

threatened by the scourges of AIDS and other

pandemics.

Moreover, what kind of peace can there be in a

world that makes the spread of weapons and the

proliferation of hotbeds of tension the very pattern of

its existence and the means for its evolution?

These are the problems before us, this forum with

the highest priority mission of seeing to the proper

conduct of world affairs, the prosperity and flourishing

of the human race and to the control of the global

environment by our actions, which must serve the

cause and the welfare of each and every people, each

nation and each citizen of the world.

That is why it is incumbent on the United

Nations, today more than ever, to play fully its role as

defined by the Charter. This role is one of vanguard

action, of mediation par excellence, of stimulus and of

promotion of the remarkable accomplishments wrought

every day by the progress of science.

For that reason, my country says “no” to poverty,

“no” to AIDS and other pandemics, “no” to terrorism

and “yes” to the implementation of the Millennium

Development Goals. In order to combat the scourges of

poverty, major diseases and terrorism, we need a firm

and determined will to work for development.

The Millennium Summit, in which all the

foremost leaders of our planet participated, took full

note of that reality. The Millennium Declaration set out

the steps and the course to follow in order to

effectively direct the world’s development and

progressively correct the problems identified. The

Declaration established 2015 as the deadline for

reviewing the plan of action that each country must

implement, in a collective resolve to get the world back

on track.

The Union of the Comoros endorses the

Millennium Development Goals. While working for

progress in the national reconciliation process, the

Government of my country, like all other members of

the community of nations, has made the necessary

efforts to establish a poverty reduction strategy. Today,

that document to which all active forces in our country

contributed, constitutes the instrument panel of our

development priorities.

In order for the Comoros to act on those

development priorities, it requires the assistance of the

international community. It was only this past April

that my country finally completed the establishment of

its institutions, thus bringing to a close the separatist

and institutional crisis that for seven years had shaken

the foundations of our State.

In particular, we hope that the entire international

community will support the African Union’s call,

issued at the recent summit at Addis Ababa, for an

international donors round-table meeting to be held to

assist the convalescent Comoros. This would enable it

to recover and by stages to rejoin the other nations in

working at the subregional, continental and global

levels to achieve sustainable development, which is

now its greatest priority.

The firm national commitment of all Member

States of the international community is required to

achieve the Millennium Development Goals. This

25

militates in favour of the enhanced representation of

continents and peoples in the United Nations.

We should therefore consider increasing the

permanent membership of the Security Council to

include, for example, the Republic of India, Japan, the

Federal Republic of Germany and the Federative

Republic of Brazil. The African continent and the Arab

world also deserve appropriate representation on the

Security Council. That is the way to achieve equity,

and equity is desperately needed for there to be greater

justice and peace in the world. That appears to be what

must be done today to create the necessary balance for

control of the international order and the global

environment, which have never been so unstable and

uncertain.

In the eternal search for peace, social justice and

prosperity, the fate of small island States, which face

so many threats to their survival, must not remain in

jeopardy. Let us be fully aware that numerous countries

are destined to disappear because of such hazards as

rising sea-levels, desertification, cyclones and volcanic

eruptions. Accordingly, we must consider specific

actions for each of those States. We urge the

international community to mobilize on a large scale to

ensure the success of the forthcoming meting of small

island developing States, to be convened on the island

of Mauritius early in 2005.

I must not fail to affirm before the Assembly that

my country, the Union of the Comoros, in its concern

to maintain its unity and integrity, considers the issue

of the Comorian island of Mayotte to be one of its

greatest and most urgent priorities. My Government is

convinced that a speedy settlement of this dispute will

further the development of the country as a whole and

will enable it to resolutely take its place alongside

peace- and freedom-loving countries and to champion

universal ideals and promote democracy in the world.

The Union of the Comoros therefore calls on the

French Republic to engage in a constructive political

dialogue on this issue, in compliance with General

Assembly resolution 3385 (XXX), which admitted the

Comoros to the United Nations as the Comoro

Archipelago, composed of four islands: Mayotte,

Anjouan, Mohéli and Grande-Comore.

In the same spirit, my country attaches the utmost

importance to the principle of a single independent and

indivisible China and calls for the restoration of the

island of Taiwan to its rightful home.

My country truly values the very constructive

dialogue now under way between the Government of

the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of

Pakistan on the question of Kashmir.

The Union of the Comoros sincerely hopes that

the Palestinian and Israeli peoples will soon institute a

dialogue that will bring about an end to the violence

and lead to the peaceful coexistence of those two

neighbouring peoples.

It also hopes to see a just and equitable settlement

to the question of Western Sahara and vigorously

supports the efforts made to that end by the United

Nations and the Government of the Kingdom of

Morocco.

The Union of the Comoros vehemently condemns

the hostage-takings in Iraq and hopes to see a rapid

return of peace and security in Iraq, which will

contribute to security in the region.

The Union of the Comoros is closely following

developments in Darfur. It supports the efforts of the

African Union, the Government of the Sudan and the

entire international community to find a speedy, just

and equitable settlement of that question.

Finally, I hope that the work of the fifty-ninth

session of the General Assembly will be successful,

and I join all those eminent personalities who have

preceded me at this noble rostrum in expressing my

country’s most fervent desires for greater peace and

security throughout the world.