Lesotho, 2003

My delegation associates

itself with the compliments expressed to Mr. Julian

Hunte on his election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at this session; to his predecessor, Mr. Jan

Kavan of the Czech Republic; and to the Secretary-

General, Mr. Kofi Annan.

As we converge upon this city of New York, we

are once again reminded of the stark reality of the

scourge of terrorism, whose effects have reverberated

across the world. Earlier this month two years ago, in

this very city, humanity suffered the worst threat ever

visited on it by terrorism. We continue to share the

grief of those who will forever miss the love and the

support of their loved ones. We must therefore reaffirm

our resolve to join together in partnership to eliminate

those elements which threaten to destroy humanity and

its way of life.

Our best hope for success is and should be

our collective strength. We owe it to ourselves and to

future generations of humankind to pool our resources

and strategies to annihilate the scourge of terrorism. In

doing so, we must simultaneously and genuinely

examine and begin to understand what forces and

factors drive an inherently good human being to

commit such desperate actions and drastic acts of

violence, in the process committing them not only

against others, but against himself. Our preventive

measures must address such forces and factors in order

to disarm potential terrorists.

The progress report on the implementation of the

Millennium Development Goals in Lesotho documents

that the single greatest obstacle to the development of

our nation and indeed to reaching the objectives laid

out in the Goals is the scourge of HIV/AIDS. In our

part of the world, Southern Africa, Governments are

overwhelmed by high levels of morbidity and

mortality, especially among the working-age group in

all sectors, including health and agriculture. HIV/AIDS

has become the leading cause of the food insecurity

and famine that plague so many of our people today.

We are also frustrated because our efforts to

achieve the Millennium Development Goal of

education for all by 2015 through the introduction of

free primary education is faltering due to the high rate

of absenteeism by both teachers and pupils. Teachers

are sick and dying. Children especially girls are

dropping out of school to take care of their sick

relatives. The number of malnourished, traumatized,

orphaned and out-of-school children is increasing at an

alarming rate. We therefore stress the need for urgent

assistance to Lesotho and the southern African region

and increased supplies of the anti-retroviral and other

related HIV and AIDS drugs, in order to curb the

scourge. Lesotho and the region also need financial and

technical resources for training and capacity-building

in HIV and AIDS programme implementation and

management.

Lesotho is concerned that the goal of poverty

eradication, which is the first Millennium Development

Goal and one of the cross-cutting themes of all major

United Nations conferences and summits, could elude

the international community. Indeed, this critical state

of affairs is highlighted in the Economic Report on

Africa, 2003, which indicates that in 2002, of the 53

countries in Africa, only five achieved the 7 per cent

growth rate required to meet the Millennium

Development Goals, while 43 countries registered

growth rates below 7 per cent and five countries

registered negative growth rates.

Against the backdrop of a democratizing

continent a precondition set for assistance by the

developed North there is a growing consensus that

the decline in official development assistance and other

financial flows to Africa is increasing the

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marginalization of the continent in the global economy.

Without new inflows of external resources, the pace of

development in Africa will forever remain elusive. My

delegation therefore wishes to reiterate its appeal to the

developed countries to fulfil the commitments made at

all the major United Nations conferences, as well as at

the Millennium Summit.

Furthermore, we wish to stress the need for a

review of the list of heavily indebted poor countries

and those on the borderline, so that all poor countries

that, like Lesotho, face debt servicing difficulties, can

be considered under the enhanced Heavily Indebted

Poor Countries Debt Initiative. My delegation also

shares the view that debt cancellation for the least

developed countries should be considered as a viable

option so that such countries can inject that money into

their economies.

My delegation reiterates the call for increased

support to the New Partnership for Africa's

Development (NEPAD). We are aware that Iraq today

dominates the world spotlight, as was confirmed in

recent testimony before the Congress of the United

States of America, which was asked to approve $87

billion for the rehabilitation of that country. In sharp

contrast, an injection of only about $6 billion into

NEPAD would go a long way towards achieving what

is a continentwide agenda.

African leaders need extensive support as they

address, inter alia, the root causes of the agricultural

crises in the continent. For us in Africa, agriculture is

the engine of overall growth, as it is at the very core of

people's livelihoods, especially in the rural areas. It is

linked to issues of food security and affects growth in

other economic sectors.

Lesotho is deeply concerned that armed conflicts

continue to hinder economic growth in Africa and

elsewhere. We have also been shocked by several

reports of an extreme lack of respect for the basic

principles of international humanitarian law on the part

of parties to armed conflict. Equally regrettable are

incidents of egregious violations of the rights of

women and children. We therefore commend the

United Nations for all its efforts aimed at the

elimination of human suffering in armed conflict.

Indeed, the establishment of the International Criminal

Tribunals, the birth of the International Criminal Court

and the setting up of the Special Court for Sierra

Leone, are cause for considerable optimism and prove

beyond any doubt that the world has grown weary of

impunity. It is our fervent hope that Member States will

continue to provide the necessary support and

cooperation to those institutions.

Africa hungers for peace. The continent must

never again have to witness acts of violence and

atrocities such as those that were recently committed in

the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Liberia. We

hope that the international community will continue to

support all endeavours aimed at attaining lasting peace,

security and stability in those countries.

My delegation is encouraged by the progress to

date to restore law and order in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo, including the establishment of

an all-inclusive transitional Government of National

Unity. The international community must intensify its

efforts to assist millions of Congolese people who are

not only displaced but also facing serious food

shortages. My delegation is confident that, with the

necessary support, the Government of National Unity

in the Democratic Republic of the Congo will restore

peace and security in the country and heal the deep

wounds caused by war and ethnic hatred. We are also

gratified that the Security Council has mandated a

special Panel to investigate the plunder of natural

resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It

is our hope and wish that those responsible will be

brought to book.

The people of Angola have peace at last, now that

one of Africa's longest-running fratricidal wars has

come to an end. The scars of war in Angola will remain

forever, deeply embedded in the memories of the most

vulnerable of the population the women and

children of that country, where motherhood was abused

and children were deprived of their childhood.

Reintegration and rehabilitation assistance to Angola,

therefore, should, in the main, target those groups.

The future of Somalia continues to hang in the

balance, despite the efforts by Kenya, the Inter-

Governmental Authority on Development, the African

Union and all other stakeholders to put an end to the

carnage in that country. Somalia has been turned into a

breeding ground for warlords who have no respect for

human life but are greedy for power and money. We

tend to agree with those who argue that the deployment

of an international force would help to facilitate the

disarmament, demobilization and reintegration process.

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At the end of the day, however, the responsibility for

bringing peace and reconciliation to Somalia lies with

the Somalis themselves.

Although there have been positive indicators in

the search for a peaceful and acceptable solution to the

conflict between Israel and Palestine, we are concerned

that the recent resumption of the cycle of violence will

render the road map for peace futile. The drastic and

repressive measures, the unilateral erection of a wall

dividing the two, the reoccupation of Palestinian towns

and villages, and the targeting of Hamas leaders with

the aim of killing them are all measures which cannot

help the course of peace or ensure that the Palestinian

people enjoy their inalienable rights, including the

right to self-determination in a sovereign and

independent State. In like manner, the continuing

suicide missions by militant groups to kill Israelis

indiscriminately cannot, and must not, be condoned or

justified.

But then two stark realities must be addressed:

first, that the root cause of the problem is the illegal

occupation of Palestinian lands; and secondly, that no

one country can be an honest broker in the Middle

East. History itself positions some countries so much

with one party to the conflict that they cannot even

with the best of intentions be non-partisan.

Consequently, my delegation strongly urges the United

Nations to take the initiative and to lead the process,

and thus to lend legitimacy and credibility to the efforts

to find an abiding solution.

The same goes for the people of Western Sahara.

In the civilized world of the twenty-first century, it is

simply untenable that we still have colonizers in some

parts of the world, in disregard of the widely accepted

principles of self-determination and democracy. The

international community must intervene so as to bring

finality to the status of the Saharawi Arab Democratic

Republic. The brotherly people of Sahara have suffered

unduly and long enough.

On a positive note, we welcome the lifting of

sanctions against Libya by the Security Council.

Nevertheless, it is our contention that the lifting of the

sanctions would have been more significant if all the

members of the Security Council had raised their flags

in favour.

By the same token, it is now time to collectively

address all issues relating to the unilateral economic

blockade against Cuba. It is simply untenable for the

United Nations to look on helplessly when a Member

State strangles another Member State of this body,

simply because it holds or practices different economic

philosophies or political viewpoints. Those truths must

be confronted and discussed in honesty and without

malice towards anyone. Otherwise, our credibility and

our raison d''tre are called into question.

In conclusion, I wish to refer to the question of

the reform of the Security Council. It is now a trite fact

that the credibility of the United Nations including

its adherence to multilateralism is being openly

questioned. It will take a lot of work to change that

perception on the part of many, especially in the

developing world. The Secretary-General, Mr. Annan,

has on several occasions stressed the need for radical

reform to restore United Nations credibility. We

therefore applaud the statement that he made before

this body yesterday that he intends to establish a high-

level panel of eminent persons to look into the

challenges to peace, security and other global issues. It

is our hope that the recommendations of that panel will

pave the way to a better international order.

It has been almost 10 years since the

establishment of an open-ended working group to study

all questions relating to equitable representation in the

Security Council, including increasing the membership

of the Council. My delegation is of the view that there

is an urgent need to accelerate the pace and to redouble

our efforts to bring this matter to a conclusion. Let us

face it: the very concept and practice of a veto in the

Security Council is simply untenable and is totally at

variance with the democratic principles of our modern

times. For one member with a veto to overrule 14

others is simply undemocratic. It is patently unjust and

contrary to every principle underpinning fair play and

world order. My delegation cannot in all honesty

and without malice to anyone understand how and

why leading champions of democracy can cling so

desperately to such an outmoded, primitive and unjust

system. The same sacred convictions, truths and beliefs

that guided and forced our forbears to abolish slavery,

to declare racism and genocide crimes against

humanity and to preach and uphold the equality of all

humans must of necessity guide us in this instance.

Otherwise, history will judge and chastise us

severely but justifiably as dishonest. Such is the

naked truth staring us in the face.