Djibouti, 2002

In a year

of frightful tragedy and uncertainty, we were at least

fortunate to have the charisma and leadership of Mr.

Han Seung-soo, as President of the fifty-sixth session

of the General Assembly. We also take this opportunity,

Mr. President, to warmly congratulate you. We

welcome the admission of the Swiss Confederation to

the United Nations family, and we are pleased at the

future status of East Timor.

Under the enlightened leadership of Mr. Kofi

Annan, the United Nations has rediscovered its

relevance and its credibility. The reform measures he

has implemented in recent years have enabled better

coordination, better information-sharing, strengthened

cohesion and a stronger strategic direction. Today the

United Nations is working more and more closely with

civil society to fight disease, address the challenges of

poverty and respond to humanitarian crises. The

Organization has also built a meaningful partnership

with private sector enterprises, aimed at having

developing countries benefit from their expertise and

resources.

In that regard, the Monterrey International

Conference on Financing for Development and the

World Summit on Social Development, held in

Johannesburg, have highlighted the unprecedented

collaboration of various decision-makers, such as the

United Nations, Governments, the private sector,

international financial institutions and civil society.

Last week, during numerous commemorative

ceremonies marking the horrible events of 11

September 2001, it was obvious that the world had

been left traumatized. The reverberations of 11

September are still palpable throughout the United

Nations system and the world. Indeed, within less than

24 hours, the Security Council took decisive action,

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declaring that the 11 September attacks posed a threat

to international peace and security. The important

resolution on the fight against terrorism, Security

Council resolution 1373 (2001), established a general

procedure for verifying that every country is

implementing the relevant provisions of the resolution,

in order to eradicate that scourge.

Our resolve and determination to fight the threat

of terrorism has undoubtedly been strengthened. The

event itself alerted us to understanding and perceiving

certain basic truths: human vulnerability and

interdependence, the mobilization of a real

international coalition in a short time, if need be, and

our common resolve to eradicate the criminals who

take innocent life, regardless of nationality, religion,

sex and colour.

Presiding over the official ceremonies marking

the anniversary at the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan,

the Secretary-General, said that:

“Everything that we work for — peace,

development, health, freedom — is damaged by

this horror. Everything that we believe in —

respect for human life, justice, tolerance,

pluralism and democracy — is threatened by it. It

must be defeated — and it must be defeated by a

world acting as one.” (SG/SM/8376, para. 7)

Therefore, combating terrorism requires more

aggressive law enforcement measures everywhere.

In order to eradicate that horror, almost all

countries have initiated an extraordinary series of

actions, which have converged towards a complete

reorientation of their policies, and particularly their

foreign policies.

We have witnessed countries pursuing policies to

reach out to others, to strengthen ties, to share global

visions and to forge new strategic alliances. There is no

doubt that the events of 11 September 2001 have led to

the forming of new alliances and the strengthening of

existing ones. However, it should not be a surprise that

this has also generated stricter controls on the

movements of people, particularly people of certain

religions, backgrounds, complexions and regions.

There is no doubt that we are living in a dangerous

world in which vigilance is called for. However, while

taking all that into account, let us be careful not to

debase our grief for the victims and their families. As

an editorial in a well respected newspaper stated:

“What happened a year ago was terrible, but

our shock and our respect for the suffering of

those left behind should not cloud our judgement

about unrelated issues”. (The Independent,

11 September 2002)

In the Secretary-General's words of 11 September

2002, on the first anniversary of that unspeakable

tragedy:

“Today, we come together as a world community

because we were attacked as a world community.

“...

“May the memory of those who perished on 11

September serve to inspire a better, more just,

more peaceful world for all of us”. (Press release

SG/SM/8376)

We hope that reason will prevail over fear, prejudice

and hatred.

We welcome President Bush's commitment to

explore fully the route of the Security Council in

finding a way to draw Iraq towards a peaceful

settlement of the outstanding issues. We also welcome

Iraq's unconditional agreement to the return of the

United Nations inspectors. That demonstrates its

readiness and full cooperation in the implementation of

the relevant Security Council resolutions. It is, indeed,

an encouraging development. We must dedicate

ourselves to seeking a political solution within the

framework of the United Nations. And the United

Nations must act, and act very quickly, to put an end to

the acute crisis which threatens to engulf an entire

region and which could have an impact on the whole

world. We all know the consequences of this crisis. Let

us join together and work with determination to save

the region, which is already in turmoil, from further

conflict.

One of the gravest yet often overlooked threats to

world peace is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The

Republic of Djibouti agrees with the Secretary-General

that the route to peace in the Middle East was laid out

decades ago in Security Council resolutions 242

(1967), 338 (1973), and, recently, in resolution 1397

(2002), which stipulated the conditions of land for

peace, an end to terror and to occupation and two

States, Palestine and Israel, living side by side within

secure and recognized borders. Unfortunately, the

focus has been shifted again by demands for a

leadership change in the Palestinian Authority and for

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political and security reforms, while simultaneously

easing Israel's obligation to return to the negotiating

table. The so-called sequential approach has always

failed. It is urgent to move forward on all the issues,

comprehensively and simultaneously.

To the political impasse should be added the

economic destruction that has resulted from the

insurmountable checkpoints, roadblocks, repeated

incursions and the demolition of buildings and supply

networks. The Palestinian people are in danger; a

whole nation is virtually living in a prison. There is a

growing, unprecedented humanitarian crisis, as stressed

by a number of recent reports, describing in detail the

levels of malnutrition, the drop-off in child

immunization programmes, the increased risk of

communicable diseases and runaway, endemic poverty.

We remain steadfast in our condemnation of the

violence and the killing of innocent civilians, whether

they be Palestinians or Israelis. In this context, we

welcome the latest plan of the Quartet, which outlines a

three-phase road map to a comprehensive final

settlement within a three-year period ending in 2005.

To complete the process of bringing peace to the

Middle East, Syria and Israel must reach an agreement

on Israel's withdrawal to the borders of 1967.

A decade ago, the United Nations Conference on

Climate and Development, held at Rio in 1992, gave us

Agenda 21, which contains pertinent recommendations

for lessening our wasteful consumer habits, protecting

the atmosphere and the oceans, promoting sustainable

agriculture and combating poverty. The subsequent

thematic conferences further strengthened and

broadened those recommendations, which have led to

the promises set out in the Millennium Declaration,

particularly on alleviating endemic and severe poverty.

The goals, targets, commitments and deadlines for

reducing poverty provide a new, decisive impetus. The

recent World Summit on Sustainable Development,

held in Johannesburg, made important and significant

progress on crucial issues facing humankind today.

All those demonstrations of goodwill, however,

need to be backed by concrete action. Speaking on

behalf of the European Union during this General

Assembly debate, the Prime Minister of Denmark

expressed that sentiment:

“At Doha, Monterrey and Johannesburg, we

reached consensus on what needs to be done. But

knowing what has to be done is not enough. As

world leaders, we must see that it is done”.

(A/57/PV.2)

In an increasingly demanding world, more and

more references are made to good governance,

investment in human capital and economic freedom as

conditions for developing countries to qualify for

development assistance. For its part, Africa has

acknowledged to its partners the need to enhance the

continent's responsibility in all areas of concern,

including peace, stability, democracy, human rights and

development. Through the New Partnership for

Africa's Development, Africa has shown that it is able

to shoulder greater collective responsibility in

resolving its conflicts and in its development. In return,

Africa keenly hopes that the financial constraints that

have seriously hindered development and human

dignity will be duly taken into account by our partners.

The issue of HIV/AIDS is one of the major

concerns of our continent. More than 30 million people

are infected in the world, and 75 per cent of those are

Africans. The impact on development is disastrous.

Life expectancy has decreased in some countries.

Remarks made by the Executive Director of the Joint

United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS are very

clear:

“If people are not alive, if people are not

healthy — the people who are supposed to bring

us sustainable development — then it won't

happen. AIDS is a major crisis of human

resources.”

Based on the outcome of the peace and

reconciliation conference held at Arta, Djibouti, our

subregional organization, the Intergovernmental

Authority on Development (IGAD), is working to

organize a conference to bring together the national

transition Government and other parties in Somalia —

the regional administrations, factions and groups that

opted to stay away from that historic meeting. The

front-line States, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya, were

mandated by the Ninth IGAD Summit of Heads of

State and Government, held in January, to bring all of

the components together with a view to completing the

Arta process and thus paving the way for the

emergence of a broad-based Government. Much has

been accomplished, but it is fair to state that an

enormous amount remains to be done.

The Republic of Djibouti believes that a realistic

road map, consistent with current thinking is a capital

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necessity. The majority view of the international

community — including the United Nations, the

African Union, the League of Arab States, the

Organization of the Islamic Conference, IGAD and the

European Union — is that the Arta peace process

remains the most viable basis for peace and national

reconciliation in Somalia. There has been a willingness

to complete, without preconditions, the Arta peace and

reconciliation process. Without ambiguity, the

international community has consistently called for

dialogue involving the national transition Government

and the other parties, in a spirit of mutual respect and

tolerance, with a view to establishing an inclusive

Government in Somalia based on power sharing

through a democratic process. Those are cardinal

principles that should keep us on the right path. We

cannot permit ourselves to stray from them.

Decisions related to the maintenance of

international peace and security lie with the Security

Council, which, despite the exponential increase of

United Nations membership over the past three

decades, has singularly remained an unrepresentative

body. If confidence is to be placed in its decisions,

there must also be an expansion in both the permanent

and the non-permanent member categories, giving both

developed and developing countries the opportunity to

become permanent members. The Working Group

charged with studying that issue has thus far failed to

arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, and we see no clear

prospect of the impasse being broken soon. More

objectivity and clarity of vision are required in order to

bring about that vital necessity.

Over the past decades, the people of the Horn of

Africa have had their share of difficulties and

suffering, and we are anxious to see peace,

development and a reduction in conflict. For its part,

my country, the Republic of Djibouti, is firmly

convinced of the merit of good-neighbourly relations,

cooperation and the creation of opportunities for the

benefit of our peoples. We are resolutely committed to

work hand in hand with our international partners in

general, and with our friends in the region in particular,

to resolve all outstanding issues that compromise trust

and harmony.