Fiji, 2004

I would like to extend to the

General Assembly the warm greetings and good wishes

of the Government and people of the Republic of the

Fiji Islands. I would also like to warmly congratulate

you, Mr. President, on your election to the presidency

of the fifty-ninth session. I pledge to you our support

and cooperation. That reflects our respect for your

country, with which we have enjoyed close relations

through our common membership of the African,

Caribbean and Pacific partnership with the European

Union. I also wish to express Fiji’s warm thanks to

Mr. Julian Hunte of Saint Lucia for his very able

leadership of the fifty-eighth session. Fiji and other

small island nations of the Pacific region applaud the

fine example set by the countries of the Caribbean

Community (CARICOM) in their shared approach to

managing the responsibilities of that high office.

Today we are confronted by events that cast a

shadow over humankind and the United Nations vision

of peace. The humanitarian crisis in Sudan continues. As

relief efforts proceed, our thoughts are with the refugees

of Darfur. We urge the Government of Sudan to do

everything in its power to bring that tragedy to an end.

We think of those whose lives have been

devastated by the destructive fury of hurricanes in the

Caribbean and on the Atlantic coast of the United

States. We extend to them our deepest sympathies for

the loss of life and property.

The perpetrators of the slaughter of innocents in

Russia gave a new dimension to wickedness. They

defeated their own cause through the ruthless and

indiscriminate shedding of the blood of children.

Nothing can justify what they did. The United Nations

must be united against such infamy.

Let us express our sympathy and solidarity with

the ordinary people of Iraq caught in that country’s

terrible cycle of violence. Let this forum give them our

full and unreserved support in the struggle for genuine

democratic Government and the regaining of their

national sovereignty. May their hopes for a peaceful

future and lasting stability find fulfilment.

We feel for the families of the people killed by

terrorists outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta. We

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want them to know that their pain is shared in this

family of nations.

The plea from Fiji is for United Nations member

countries to strengthen their joint resolve to oppose

political terror everywhere. This is a critical time in

history. The United Nations is called upon to mobilize

all its experience, skills and powers to create concord

among nations. That was its founding principle. It is

the principle that must continue to drive and sustain the

United Nations.

Fiji, as always, is committed to the maintenance

of peace and security and to a world free of weapons of

mass destruction and terrorism.

We want an end to ozone-depleting pollution and

the elimination of other hazards to the environment.

The international community must continue to

fight poverty and disease. HIV/AIDS has become more

than a health crisis. For some countries it is now a

security threat. We in the Pacific have no immunity

from this global epidemic. We would welcome

continued assistance from the Global Fund to Fight

AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to supplement our

regional campaign to contain this scourge.

The United Nations must continue to resist

external interference in any form, which undermines

the sovereign right of every Member State to determine

its own destiny. However, where there are internal

crises and disorder and the United Nations mandates

intervention for peace, we are ready to contribute. We

consider it an honour to serve the cause of peace under

the flag of the United Nations and regional

organizations like the Pacific Islands Forum. Fiji’s

soldiers and police officers have been taking part in

United Nations peacekeeping operations since 1978.

That has cost us 35 precious lives, but we remain

strong in our resolve to continue serving where we are

needed. Peacekeeping personnel from Fiji are working

in Liberia, the Sinai, Kosovo, Timor-Leste, the

Solomon Islands and Bougainville, Papua New Guinea.

My Government is now giving careful consideration to

requests from the United Nations to assist it with

security personnel in Iraq.

I would like to take this opportunity to express to

the United Nations and to those countries that have

assisted Fiji on a bilateral basis our gratitude for their

help in making it possible for us to honour our

commitment to international peace and security.

Through the Pacific Islands Forum, and with the

assistance of Australia and New Zealand, we are

currently preparing a Pacific plan to pool resources and

efforts for the strengthening of collective interests. We

will come together to combat the threat of terror and to

improve law enforcement and our defences against

terrorism and transnational crime. There will be a

cooperative approach to social and economic

development, and especially for advancing trade,

investment and tourism. We will stand united to guard our

oceanic heritage, which is a treasure for all humanity.

Our region has the world’s largest remaining,

sustainable tuna fishery, which is an essential source of

food for the global market. But more than 95 per cent

of the value of the mid-Pacific Ocean tuna catch goes

to distant-water fishing nations. We look to the United

Nations and other international organizations to help us

get a just return from that major natural resource. Fiji

commends those countries that have already worked

with us to reach that goal. We would like to express

particular thanks to the United States for its regional

fisheries treaty with certain Pacific island nations. Our

island countries have now entered a new phase of

cooperation in the tuna industry through the Western

and Central Pacific Tuna Convention, which came into

effect in June this year.

In addition to reinforcing regional cooperation,

Fiji and its neighbours are giving special attention to

their relationships with countries in the wider Asia-

Pacific region.

We strongly support a role for Japan and India in

an enlarged and strengthened Security Council. May I

also add that Fiji would endorse the inclusion of South

Africa and Brazil as permanent members.

Let me say that we greatly value the assistance of

Australia, New Zealand and the United States in

securing our region as a zone of peace.

It was heartening to see the two Koreas marching

and participating under a single banner at the Olympic

Games in Greece. It is our prayer that that will lead to

more substantive progress in the reunification of the

Korean people.

We are glad to see the People’s Republic of China

growing in stature and developing so quickly. Fiji enjoys

steadily strengthening relations with China and wants to

see those relations expanded further. It is committed to its

diplomatic recognition and official relations with the

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People’s Republic of China. At the same time, Fiji values

its trade and economic ties with Taiwan. It is our fervent

hope that their people will resolve their future

peacefully through dialogue and consensus.

For the past 29 years, close to 80 countries of the

African, Caribbean and Pacific Group (ACP) have been

the beneficiaries of a historic development partnership

with the European Union. I pay tribute to the leaders of

Europe and the ACP who pioneered that unique

international North-South arrangement. Generous

assistance in trade, aid and investment has contributed

in very significant ways to the livelihood of millions of

people from poorer States.

Now, as we begin negotiations with the European

Union for the continuation of those arrangements, we

are finding to our dismay that the World Trade

Organization’s (WTO) insistence on free and open

trade will effectively mean for many ACP countries,

including Fiji, a massive loss in export earnings from

reduced prices. For our sugar industry the direct

consequence will inevitably be that the price the cane

farmers receive will fall substantially below their

production costs. That is despite the urgent and

comprehensive reforms we have embarked upon in our

sugar industry to make it more productive, efficient

and competitive.

Those WTO hurdles are made more difficult by

the loss of competitive margins through the withdrawal

of schemes like the Generalized System of Preferences.

The consequence is that many small island developing

States, already disadvantaged by their smallness,

distance from export markets and regular devastation

from natural disasters, are now faced with serious

uncertainty over their economic prospects. We

therefore welcome the holding by the United Nations

of a special conference of small island developing

States early next year to review the Programme of

Action for those countries, the Barbados + 10 review. I

very much hope that review will lead to new

international commitments of assistance to

disadvantaged small island developing States. Those

commitments must underpin economic survival and a

sustainable future, as the world moves inexorably

towards a free and open trading system. It is also our

hope that the Barbados + 10 review will renew the call

for those States that have yet to sign or to ratify the

Kyoto Protocol to do so, for the sake of our planet.

My Government commends the initiative taken

by the International Labour Organization in its World

Commission Report on the Social Dimension of

Globalization. It is the international community’s

responsibility to ensure that for both developed and

developing countries, and for big and small countries

alike, globalization means a fair and equitable spread

of opportunities — opportunities manifested in new

investments, more jobs, decent work and improvements

in education, health and other social amenities.

For us in the Pacific, as small island nations,

there is another area of increased concern. We take

great pride in our culture, customs and traditions. They

give us our identity and oneness as indigenous

communities and as Pacific island peoples. I appeal to

the General Assembly to bring before it for adoption at

the earliest opportunity the draft declaration on the

rights of indigenous peoples. I request the Secretary-

General to expedite that process.

While we acknowledge the importance of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other

international instruments in the promotion of human

rights, we also recognize that they are primarily

concerned with the rights of individuals. Indigenous

Pacific island communities see a United Nations

declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples as

being vitally important for the international recognition

and acceptance of our right to self-determination and,

indeed, to our very survival as ethnically and culturally

distinct peoples. But that is not to say that we are

unconcerned about other communities whose members

are fellow citizens with equal rights and responsibilities.

Members of the Assembly are aware that Fiji has

a multiracial society. The ethnic Fijians and Rotumans

are the indigenous community. Collectively and

communally, they own close to 90 per cent of all land

in the country. Settlers from India came some 125

years ago and now comprise the majority of tenants of

native land. Europeans, people of mixed ancestry,

Chinese and other Pacific islanders complete Fiji’s

colourful cultural tapestry. We are proud of that

national diversity. It gives our country its distinctive

character and its still unrealized potential.

Although we have learned to co-exist without the

racial violence and hatred common elsewhere, we are

still a country divided, especially in politics. From

independence, in 1970, we tried hard to create

multiracialism founded on mutual respect, mutual care

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and understanding. But, unfortunately, during elections

the overwhelming majority of voters still make their

choices along ethnic lines. It is not because they are

against candidates from other communities, it is just

that they find security and comfort in choosing

representatives from their own community.

Since my Government came to office, in 2001,

we have been engaged in a new quest for unity. Our

vision is for a peaceful, unified and prosperous Fiji.

Politically, we wish to build on the concept of

guaranteed representation for our different

communities in Parliament. The challenge now is to

extend this to representation in Government.

As a parliamentary democracy, we are committed

to Government based on the free will and consent of

the people. But, at the same time, we want to ensure

that each community has a direct voice in national

decision-making. It is that desire for inclusion and

equity that has led us to adopt measures to close the

social and economic gap between Fijians and the other

communities and between the affluent and the

disadvantaged and the poor. Increasingly, we are

finding that faith in God is a powerful instrument for

forming bonds across the racial divide. We may follow

different beliefs, but a common focus on the divine is

lighting the way forward.

When I return to Fiji, the country will be getting

ready for eight days of prayer, forgiveness and

reconciliation. The aim is to bring people together and

to create a sense of national purpose and patriotism.

All the great faiths represented in Fiji will be part of

that. Each contains in their teachings the jewels of

truth that gleam for all humanity. Each has an

important capacity for peace-making. Each can make a

valuable contribution to increasing understanding and

resolving differences.

In those eight days in October, therefore, our

religious leaders will join with other citizens of good

will in this fresh search for togetherness. The

promotion of unity has been a pressing national

priority since my Government came to office, four

years ago. We understand that it will not come quickly.

The General Assembly will be pleased to hear that our

communities themselves, through their religious and

cultural organizations, are coming forward to join with

the Government in the making of a unified State. The

climax of our national week of prayer and forgiveness

will be an interfaith service. We recognize that human

effort alone is not enough for what we want to achieve.

Just as this great Organization seeks a world of

harmony bound together by common ideals, we in Fiji

want our own United Nations, a united nation where our

citizens live together happily and nationhood is fulfilled.