Niger, 2000

wish at

the very outset to convey to the countries and

institutions represented here a message of sincere

friendship from the people of Niger along with its

fervent wish to maintain and continue to strengthen the

links of peaceful coexistence and of fruitful and

mutually beneficial cooperation with all the other

peoples of the world.

My warm welcome and hearty congratulations go

to Tuvalu, the latest country to join the United Nations

family.

With the 24 November 1999 presidential

elections and the 31 December 1999 legislative

elections, our people emerged from a period of political

instability and economic decline with every confidence

in the resiliency of the democratic institutions

established by our 18 July 1999 constitution, and with

strengthened determination to ensure that the universal

ideals of peace, freedom, justice and equity will prevail

in Niger, throughout Africa, and everywhere in the

world.

34

We are participating in this great gathering at the

beginning of the twenty-first century, proud of being

among the democratic nations and committed, at home

and internationally, to the establishment of institutional

and legal provisions based on free and equal

participation by all, on transparency, on responsibility

and on solidarity.

Today's Niger is experiencing the same freeing of

creative forces that results from the triumph of

freedom, and the same upsurge in individual and

collective initiative that is today being generated in

democratic societies everywhere. We are no less

optimistic about the inevitable triumph of the universal

values of which the General Assembly is the shrine.

But we also feel the same wrenching pain over the

uncertain future caused by the persistence of conflicts

and the destitution of the vast majority who are crushed

beneath the burden of debt, endemic diseases, illiteracy

and, above all, the troubling inadequacies of the

remedies prescribed to deal effectively with the ills

afflicting humankind.

Hence our even more profound attachment to the

principles and ideals of the Charter and our full

conviction that the United Nations, which is at risk of

being out of step with current developments towards

increasingly participatory management of our common

public resources, will undertake the necessary reforms

to make its institutions and organs more responsive to

the aspirations of the people they are supposed to

represent.

Refashioning the Organization to match the new

century that is beginning, to make it a real instrument

of change and to renew our hope goes far beyond

simply restructuring its main bodies, subsidiary bodies

and specialized agencies. We must also strive

vigorously to open up the entire system to increasingly

active partners, such as Parliaments, governmental

regional organizations, non-governmental organizations,

organizations of civil society, the media and the private

sector, without ever losing sight of the primary

vocation of the United Nations as an expression of the

national will of Member States. This would greatly

increase the international community's capacity for

action in such varied areas as peace and international

security, the fight against pandemics, especially

HIV/AIDS, poverty eradication, the resolution of the

question of debt and, generally speaking, the promotion

of sustainable development in the world.

For many countries represented here the primary

ongoing source of anguish comes from the absence of

basic physical security for citizens who are victims of

armed conflict, and the unacceptable proliferation of

light weapons and small arms, which States that are

unstable and economically drained have difficulty

halting. Other forums, including the Organization of

African Unity, have pointed out ways of resolving the

conflicts in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic

Republic of the Congo, in close cooperation with the

United Nations.

With regard to the Middle East, the recent failure

of the Camp David process should further strengthen

our determination in the tireless search for a just and

lasting peace that can restore the inalienable rights of

the Palestinian people, including their right to an

independent State, and ensure the return of the Golan

Heights to Syria. In Western Sahara, it is time that the

relevant United Nations resolutions were implemented

for the self-determination of the Sahrawi people. In

addition, the Iraqi people continue to be victims of an

embargo that chiefly affects the most vulnerable

sectors of society, including women and children. It is

high time that the international community took the

necessary measures to alleviate the pain of the Iraqi

people.

With regard to small arms and light weapons,

which are one of the major challenges facing the

international community, my Government feels that

concrete and sustained measures should be taken at

three levels — national, regional and worldwide — to

combat the illicit trade, proliferation and use of this

type of weapon. In this regard, my Government is

pleased that a United Nations mission recently visited

the Niger in order to evaluate in the field the relevance

of the request for financing submitted by my

Government.

It is a pleasure for me to warmly thank the

Governments of all interested States, particularly of

France, Germany, Japan and Norway, for their financial

contributions to the United Nations fund to assist

States in the collection of small arms, which made that

mission possible.

A draft submitted by my country forms part of the

subregional and regional initiatives aimed at halting the

illicit traffic in small arms and light weapons, such as

the Moratorium adopted on 30 October 1998 by the

Conference of Heads of State and Government of the

35

Economic Community of West African States and the

integrated project on security and development called

Programme for Coordination and Assistance for

Security and Development.

The handover, on 5 June, of weapons held by

various groups of the former rebellion and the lighting

on 25 September 2000 of a flame of peace at Agadez,

Niger, create hope for a return to calm for the people of

the Niger and the full implementation of projects

designed with the welcome assistance of bilateral and

multilateral partners of the Niger. In this regard, the

convening of the United Nations Conference on the

Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All

Its Aspects next year bodes well. For the Niger the goal

of that Conference should be to develop and strengthen

international, regional and national efforts to prevent,

combat, limit and eradicate illicit traffic in small arms

and light weapons through strengthening national

capacities in the areas of customs, police, justice and

information.

Never before has humankind had such wealth and

so much potential to create common well-being. Yet

today more than half of the world population still lives

in destitution, excluded from the benefits of

globalization and of the digital revolution. We can

certainly welcome the unanimous will expressed by the

international community to reduce poverty by half by

2015. But we need to go beyond statements of faith to

establish a real international development strategy

firmly based on the eradication of absolute poverty and

on reviving growth in the developing world, and

particularly in Africa, the most vulnerable region.

The treatment of the question of the external debt

of poor countries is one of the best barometers by

which we can measure the real degree of the

international community's commitment in the search

for appropriate solutions to eradicate poverty. The

Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Debt

Initiative, the present framework for debt alleviation, is

too slow and too selective and comes with restrictive

eligibility requirements that need to be made more

flexible; otherwise, many countries will remain in

perpetual poverty. Hence the urgent need to give fresh

impetus to this Initiative.

It is also essential to cooperate closely at the

international level in order to further strengthen the

cohesiveness of the coordination mechanisms of the

various initiatives for Africa, so that that continent can

benefit more from development assistance.

Moreover, while not a panacea, information and

communication technologies are important factors, for

the developing world in general and for Africa in

particular, of growth and integration into the global

economy. The United Nations has a leading role to play

in creating a partnership framework that would

promote initiatives aimed at closing the digital divide

so that technological benefits will not remain a remote

promise.

The recent high-level debate of the Economic and

Social Council on the role of information technology

highlighted in a timely manner the urgent need to make

the digital revolution a tool for development and to

fairly distribute its benefits through international

cooperation. My country also fully supports the

recommendation of the high-level expert group,

contained in the Secretary-General's report, calling for

universal access to new technology to be set out in a

General Assembly resolution as a basic human right.

The global partnership against AIDS in Africa,

whose vitality was demonstrated during the Durban

Conference, must henceforth be based, among other

things, on the mobilization of sufficient resources, on

prevention and on access to drugs.

In an altogether different area, my delegation

believes that particular attention should be given to the

insidious problem of malaria. Increasingly resistant to

the medical treatment used so far, this illness — which

above all affects the most vulnerable populations of

women and children — is currently a source of

profound concern for Africa. This was confirmed by

the recent summit of heads of State held at Abuja,

Nigeria, on the issue. That meeting highlighted the

importance of preventive action and of increasing the

means to combat malaria. There is thus a need for the

international community to give this problem the full

attention it deserves and to contribute further to

mobilizing the necessary resources for the research,

prevention, treatment and eradication of that disease.

At the threshold of the new millennium, the time

is certainly right to rethink development. As the

Secretary-General said at the tenth session of the

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

(UNCTAD), held in Bangkok, the time has indeed

come for a new global deal for least developed

countries. That new global compact will be aimed at

36

correcting imbalances and at making it possible for

everyone to participate in the new world economy and

to share equally in its benefits. Today, it is undeniable

that globalization has been accompanied by heightened

inequalities and that, given the way it has evolved, it

will not be able to meet the expectations of poor

countries, whose rural and urban populations are

paying a heavy social price for that process.

Moreover, the failure of the recent World Trade

Organization (WTO) Conference in Seattle has

compromised the launching of what was supposed to

be the development cycle that was finally to make it

possible to attain the benefits of the much-touted trade

liberalization. That development, it has been said in

passing, is constantly being slowed by the

protectionism of industrialized countries.

The United Nations, as the democratic and

universal body with the mandate to achieve the

objectives of development, must more than ever

promote reform and coordination of the international

mechanisms of trade and finance. To that end, our

common Organization has the necessary moral

authority to regulate the process of globalization in the

common interest of all. There is therefore a need to

strengthen its role and to put in place rules for good

global governance that are capable of promoting — in

the words of that hallowed phrase — globalization with

a human face.

With the holding in 2001 of the international

conference on financing for development and the third

United Nations Conference on the Least Developed

Countries, we hold out the resolute hope that there will

be greater mobilization of financial resources, better

coordination of policies and more effective cooperation

among development actors, in particular among

Governments, the United Nations system, international

financial institutions, the private sector and civil

society, so as to achieve the major objectives of

poverty eradication and development.

The praiseworthy efforts of the United Nations to

promote and consolidate new and restored democracies

deserves strong support, as that is in keeping with the

will of our Organization to meet the aspirations of the

peoples of the world.

We in Niger fully appreciate all the valuable

assistance given by the United Nations system and

friendly countries for the restoration of democracy.

After more than a decade of political and institutional

instability, Niger — one of the least developed

countries of the world, which is bowing under the

weight of the debt burden and the impact of the

downward trend in official development assistance and

of climatic vagaries — has seen a return to democracy,

in accordance with the profound aspirations of our

people. However, as was so well put in his swearing-in

statement by the President of the Republic, Mr.

Mamadou Tandja,

“We are aware that the support of the

international community is essential to succeed in

this recovery. We therefore appeal to all countries

that support peace and solidarity and to

international organizations to accompany us in

our efforts, on the basis of mutual beneficial

interests and with strict respect for national

sovereignty.”

We would like formally to reiterate here our

gratitude to the United Nations Development

Programme, the United Nations Population Fund, the

United Nations Children's Fund and all of Niger's

development partners for the invaluable support they

have constantly given my country and its people during

their most difficult times.

By chance the schedule has it that Niger is

speaking just before the end of the general debate of

the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly, the socalled Millennium Assembly. What, then, could be

more natural than for me to conclude my statement by

repeating our satisfaction with the outstanding work

done by our brother, Mr. Kofi Annan, at the head of the

universal Organization? Whether it be in the area of

maintaining international peace and security or that of

developed countries' providing development assistance

to the least developed, the Secretary-General deserves

our full trust, support and encouragement.

Namibia's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr.

Theo-Ben Gurirab, your predecessor, Mr. President,

was a good President. His old companion in the

struggle, the late Mr. Johnny Makatini, as demanding

as he was in his lifetime, would have been as proud as

we at seeing the unequalled diplomatic talents Mr.

Gurirab displayed for a whole year. I pay humble

tribute to him here on behalf of Niger. I say to him:

Theo, you will always be a freedom fighter.

As for you, Mr. President, we know that the torch

that has been passed to you is in good hands. Your

personal competence and Finland's tradition of always

standing with the weakest leads us fervently to believe

that the Millennium Summit's conclusions will find in

you a true and committed advocate, so that at last our

Organization can acquire the new habits required by

the advent of the twenty-first century.