Sri Lanka, 2004

I congratulate you, Sir,

on your assumption of the high office of President of

the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly and

assure you of Sri Lanka’s fullest support and

cooperation as you undertake the onerous

responsibility of presiding over the deliberations of the

Assembly. I also thank the outgoing President, The

Honourable Julian Hunte, for his able and efficient

conduct of the fifty-eighth session.

The International Day of Peace we celebrate

today is indeed a significant event in the United

Nations calendar. It is a day dedicated to the creation

and pursuit of a culture of peace. As I speak today in

this Hall of peace, men, women and children in my

country are celebrating the Day of Peace through a

wide variety of civil society events. Prayers and

meditations, the resonating chimes of bells and the

gentle glow of candlelight are powerful symbols of our

deep collective yearning for peace.

We recognize that the pursuit of peace requires

more than symbols. It requires consistent commitment,

patience, perseverance and, above all, resolute action

and consensus-building.

Peace and the resolution of conflict through

dialogue take centre stage in the world today and hence

need to be accorded the highest priority on the United

Nations agenda. All of us here are only too aware that

peace is not the simple absence of war; it entails an

active engagement to understand and address the root

causes that endanger peace and generate conflict.

In Sri Lanka, my Government has for 10 years

implemented a series of programmes to engage the

armed group that has been engaged in armed conflict in

comprehensive peace negotiations. We face the

challenges posed by an armed group using terror and

suicide bombs in pursuit of its demand for a separate

State. My Government has adopted the policy that all

conflicts have deep-rooted and real causes, and that we

must sift those causes from the acts of violence and

terror and find the means to redress them. We believe

that a lasting solution to conflict lies along the path of

power-sharing between the centre and the regions

where people of different communities live. We believe

that this path can be found only through negotiations

and dialogue.

We abhor violence and war. We believe in life

and in the celebration of all that is human and decent.

We believe that the moral justification of the State and

of all human institutions, such as the United Nations, is

the protection and the safeguard of life. In numerous

elections, my Government has requested and received

mandates from our people to end the conflict through a

negotiated settlement. We are committed to achieving

peace, a peace founded on democracy, respect for

human rights, a pluralist polity and good governance.

We are fully aware that peace is not achieved

easily. It is a constant struggle for mutual

22

understanding and reconciliation and the establishment

of the rule of law, justice and equality.

The Buddha, popularly known as the Prince of

Peace, preached at length about peace and all that is

required to achieve it, both within each individual and

among nations. I quote from the Dhammapada:

“Victory breeds hatred. The defeated live in pain.

Happily the peaceful live, giving up victory and

defeat”.

We are deeply saddened at the violence,

instability, loss of life and human suffering in Iraq. We

in Sri Lanka know, and have experienced first-hand,

the impact of violence on society and the difficulty in

finding solutions to problems of governance that

satisfy all parties. As the Secretary-General’s Special

Representative for Iraq recently pointed out, security

measures alone will not suffice to end violence and

create stability and peace. Political consensus-building,

reconciliation, rehabilitation and the promotion of the

rule of law are essential for democracy to take root.

Equally important in today’s interdependent,

increasingly globalized world is the commitment of the

international community to remain engaged and to

ensure that Iraq does not become further plagued by

violence and fragmented along ethnic or religious

lines.

None of us, as leaders and, above all, as mothers

and fathers, can ever forget the sheer brutality of the

terrorist attack earlier this month on a school in Beslan,

in the Russian Federation, which led to the loss of so

many lives of children and adults. Terrorism in all its

manifestations must be condemned and fought

relentlessly and globally. While no cause justifies

unleashing terror upon the innocent, such outrages

must make us redouble our efforts to address their root

causes and seek political and socio-economic

explanations and solutions to them.

My Government is firmly committed to the global

endeavour to fight terrorism. We have signed and

ratified the United Nations conventions aimed at

combating that menace, and we continue to contribute

to the process by chairing the Ad Hoc Committee on

Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism. We

hope that at this session of the General Assembly,

substantial progress can be made on the draft

comprehensive convention on international terrorism

and the draft convention on nuclear terrorism.

Sri Lanka believes in the United Nations and its

potential to be the principal forum where the voice of

the poor, the defenceless and the weak is also heard, as

much as the voice of the rich and powerful. In that

regard, we applaud the words today of Secretary-

General Kofi Annan, who made a passionate appeal for

upholding the rule of law, without discrimination,

throughout the world. We congratulate him on the

courageous leadership he gives to our world body. It

gives us confidence and hope at this moment of human

history when we question our collective ability to lead

humanity towards peace and prosperity.

We also recognize the need for reform to render

the United Nations more responsive to the needs and

aspirations of all its Member States. We look forward

to the recommendations to be presented at this session

of the General Assembly by the High-Level Panel on

Threats, Challenges and Change, appointed by the

Secretary-General.

There is general agreement that the Security

Council, as now constituted, does not reflect current

geo-political realities. We share the concern over the

lack of progress on the question of equitable regional

representation and on an increase in the membership of

the Security Council in both the permanent and non-

permanent categories. For many years, the developing

countries have consistently urged that the composition

of the Security Council be broadened to accommodate

the basic principles of democratic representation,

including representation of the developing countries. In

that context, we observe that Asia, the most populous

continent and home to expanding economic

powerhouses of the world, is grossly underrepresented

in the present Council.

We take note that four countries — Brazil,

Germany, India and Japan — will announce their

participation in a compact under which they will

collectively support their respective candidatures for

permanent status in an expanded Security Council. Sri

Lanka supports their candidatures, as they comply with

the objective criteria applicable to the expansion of the

permanent membership of the Security Council. Sri

Lanka would also wish to see a consensus emerge on

the permanent representation of Africa in the Security

Council. Africa must be included in a final

determination on the future composition of the Security

Council. It is also hoped that the Open-Ended Working

Group will continue to exert efforts to resolve all

outstanding issues expeditiously.

23

We propose that the General Assembly,

representing all Member States of the United Nations,

should play a larger and more active role as a

deliberative and decision-making body.

At the dawn of the new millennium, four years

ago, we forged a consensus to pursue a vision of an

inclusive globalization process that provides benefits to

the widest possible segments of society. Setting aside

the commonplace clichés about globalization, we

agreed on a number of goals to be implemented within

specific time frames.

My Government’s economic and social

development programmes were planned and put into

action 10 years ago. We have now made the necessary

changes to align our plans more closely with the

United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The

Sri Lankan Government’s strategy for development

seeks a constructive partnership between a strong and

accountable private sector, including foreign investors,

and a robust and responsive public sector. The major

thrust of our vision is to eliminate poverty, reduce

inequalities and enhance the standard of living among

the various sectors of our population, thus providing

equal opportunities for all.

On the subject of social progress, I must

commend the United Nations for its continued

commitment and perseverance in promoting and

protecting children’s rights. Apart from guaranteeing

the rights of every child to education and good health

services, Sri Lanka believes that children must be

protected from abuse of all

types — sexual, alcohol, drugs and tobacco. We have

adopted measures to combat those evils.

Children in some of our countries suffer from the

ignominious practice of being used as child soldiers. In

Sri Lanka, we are addressing the problem of child

conscription by the armed group, by seeking to engage

that group in the process of negotiations and by

supporting the activities spear-headed by UNICEF and

by civil society organizations.

Our economic strategy is market driven but

geared to achieve human development and prosperity

at the grass roots level. We have crafted a policy and

launched programmes to channel development efforts

and resources to domestic capacity-builders at the

village level who are the pillars of our national

economy. The majority of our population live in the

rural areas and depend on agriculture for their

livelihood. Promotion of small- and medium-scale

enterprises is therefore vital to sustain development.

Sri Lanka draws strength from the recognition the

United Nations has granted to small and medium

industrialists in the developing world by declaring

2005 as the Year for Micro-Credit.

We witness with concern the emergence of a

contrived association of certain religious beliefs with

some groups of fanatics. Extremism, violence and

terrorism are the complete antithesis of the ethical and

spiritual foundation of all religious philosophies and

practices. We should work resolutely to prevent those

aberrations from becoming irreversible trends.

On the other hand, we are disturbed to witness

religious symbols being defamed or abused for

commercial purposes. Whether the symbols belong to

the Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish or any

other faith, such abuse should be condemned and

prohibited. The recent phenomenon of Buddhist

symbols being used for commercial purposes, thus

causing pain of mind to Buddhists all over the world is

a case in point. Fortunately, most of those

organizations have agreed to refrain from such abuse in

the future. Sri Lanka, together with other like-minded

States, has brought the situation to the attention of

UNESCO and other relevant intergovernmental bodies.

We propose that the United Nations call upon those

responsible to pay due respect to religious symbols and

practices. That would be a fitting contribution by the

United Nations to its own initiative on a dialogue

among civilizations.

This year Sri Lanka will begin events to celebrate

the fiftieth anniversary of our membership of the

United Nations that falls next year in 2005. On that

occasion, we will renew our commitment to the

purposes and principles of the United Nations. We

expect the Organization to provide leadership in the

task of creating a world where understanding and

harmony prevail, along with economic, scientific and

technological advancement.

My commitment — and that of my Government

and the people of Sri Lanka — to the United Nations

remains undiminished. Our hope is that all Member

States will cooperate fully with the United Nations to

realize the Goals of the Millennium Declaration.

Finally, I would like to say that our noble words,

unless translated quickly into palpable deeds, will

remain no more than a silent testimonial to our

24

collective unwillingness or incapacity to transform the

lives of our peoples when they cry out for attention and

redress. If all that the United Nations can do for them

is to churn out, periodically, ritual phrases and hollow

invocations to duty and responsibility, their frustration

will swell and spread globally, challenging peace and

stability. That must not happen.

Let us leave this session of the General Assembly

not only with renewed commitment to the ideals of the

Organization, but with renewed vigour to address our

awesome responsibilities for alleviating the plight of

the poor, the hungry, the disadvantaged and the

oppressed.