Equatorial Guinea, 2006

Equatorial Guinea is participating in the

debates of the sixty-first session of the General

Assembly in the firm conviction that this world

Organization remains the only forum with the authority

necessary to resolve any situation facing the

international community. Attempting to usurp that

authority is irrational; it means negating the universal

principles of international law, which govern our world

with justice and equity.

That is why, before addressing any of the issues

on our agenda, I wish to pay a well-deserved tribute to

His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General,

and to His Excellency Mr. Jan Eliasson, President of

the General Assembly at its sixtieth session, for the

arduous task that they accomplished in the face of the

conflicts that have threatened the peace and stability of

the planet during 2006.

We should also like to welcome the election of

Her Excellency Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa,

Legal Adviser to the Royal Court of Bahrain, who will

preside over the General Assembly at this session. We

believe that her election is an implicit recognition of

the seriousness, dedication and dynamism that

characterize her country’s quest for global equilibrium

and its respect for the principles of international law,

human freedom, the right of peoples to self-

determination, national independence and sovereignty,

mutual respect among nations, and international

cooperation to promote development and respect for

human rights.

This session opens at a time of uncertainty for

humanity, due to the many conflicts and the increasing

socio-political imbalance threatening the lives of

millions of people throughout the world. Humanity

today finds itself in a complex situation that raises

several questions.

What is the current role of the United Nations,

given the absence of priorities in its decision-making

process? What has been gained since the end of the

cold war? What kind of future can humanity hope for

in a world of so-called globalization, governed by a

political and economic system characterized by

inequality and a lack of cooperation in eradicating

poverty in the weakest nations? What kind of future is

there for the developing countries when the gap in the

acquisition of technology for development continues to

grow, or when sprawling intelligence services are

constantly devising plans to keep the world under the

political dominance and economic influence of the

most powerful nations?

Those and similar questions must be the focus of

attention of politicians and this world body if we are to

straighten this crooked path in international relations.

Presently, there is no judge capable of adjudicating any

international conflict equitably and impartially. From

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our point of view, the authority of the United Nations

has been taken hostage by certain interests that are

monopolizing the world. Nevertheless, I am convinced

that we still have time to rescue the situation if we do

not wish to see the international community completely

derailed, because the results obtained to date are not

satisfactory.

We must first democratize this world

Organization by reinstating its rightful authority on the

international scene. We must also set an objective

value to the globalization of politics by adopting new,

equitable political and economic strategies to protect

the legitimate interests of the weakest States. If we do

not, we must be prepared to endure a world crisis as a

result of our inability to sustain the current pressures

and jarring disparities among nations.

Many conferences held in various political,

economic and social forums have identified a number

of strategies to reduce the gap that separates us all, but

such strategies have always been met with the

complete indifference of those who are supposed to

execute them.

We ought not be surprised, then, by the

phenomenon of terrorism that threatens the world

today, because, although its methods and destructive

effects on humans are condemnable, it remains the

recourse of the oppressed and a reaction of those who

oppose prevailing injustices that have been denounced

throughout the last quarter of a century.

The ongoing mass migration of peoples from the

South to the North is another consequence of the huge

imbalance caused by the present unjust international

economic system. That migration will never cease if

the North does not help the South to develop with

programmes of support and solidarity.

We would like to see democracy, equity and

solidarity in a more harmonious world become the rule

that would enable international relations to function,

especially those governed by the Bretton Woods

institutions, the World Trade Organization, the

relationship between the European Union and the

nations of the African, Caribbean and the Pacific, and

all other economic relations between the North and the

South.

Moreover, nature has endowed the world with

immense natural resources that are perfectly sufficient

to allow all to live in dignity. We do not have to resort

to draconian rules of exchange that favour some and

discriminate against others. Those who seek to

monopolize resources that belong to humanity and who

still believe in the larceny of the past, or rather in their

own ability to perpetuate illegal exploitation by force,

are the same people who today support and maintain

vast mercenary organizations that fall upon the weaker

nations in order to create internal political instabilities

for their own selfish interests.

Indeed, my country has been a victim of such

plotting because we own crude oil, the product that is

today dividing and destroying the world. My country

was able to avert a mercenary invasion on 6 March,

2004, that was organized by powerful countries that

continue to dispute among themselves and to nurture

ambitions to gain free control of the world’s petroleum.

Fortunately, our security services were alerted in time

and were able to prevent the anticipated genocide.

Those directly responsible for the attempted coup are

serving time in prison, while the brains behind the

whole thing are still at large and thumb their noses at

justice.

Nevertheless, my Government does not believe

that this natural resource belongs to us alone. My

country benefits from barely 30 per cent of the

proceeds from that exploitation, because, as we have

explained time and again, due to an unjust system of

exchange, the operating contracts give the lion’s share

of those profits to our partners of the North.

In that regard, I noted at the sixtieth session of

the General Assembly that if the responsibility of

transparency is to be borne equitably, there is a need to

demand the same from the operators of the extracting

industries and compliance with the contracts and

regulations that guarantee equal benefits between the

parties concerned.

To conclude, the message from Equatorial Guinea

is that we must respond as human beings, because we

still have time to make this planet Earth a better place

for human beings. Therefore, let us turn our backs on

greed, hegemonic ambition and the lack of sensitivity

to the sight of such horror and misery that is rife in our

world, so that we can respond to this system of

injustice and inequality, and so that, as human beings,

we will be able to join hands and face, with solidarity,

intelligence and wisdom, the challenge to spare

humanity from the scourges of war, poverty and

underdevelopment.