Senegal, 2001

Pending

further news, I also wish to share in the sadness we all

feel on the announcement of an aeroplane crash in

Queens.

Through me, Senegal has the pleasure of

addressing its warm congratulations to Mr. Han Seung-

soo on his brilliant election to the presidency of the

fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly.

His election clearly is a tribute to his outstanding

qualities as a diplomat and statesman and it also

expresses the unanimous recognition of the Member

States of our Organization of his country, the Republic

of Korea, for its steadfast commitment to the service of

universal peace and international cooperation.

I wish to express to his predecessor, His

Excellency Mr. Harri Holkeri of Finland, our deep

gratitude for the competence, commitment and spirit of

openness with which he discharged his mandate during

a particularly heavy year.

Finally, I am happy to reiterate Senegal’s deep

appreciation to the Secretary-General, His Excellency

Mr. Kofi Annan, and at the same time to reiterate to

him our wholehearted compliments on his historic re-

election, the dazzling consecration of outstanding

qualities of a man of good will, conviction and vision,

who has devoted his life to the noble causes of the

United Nations. I also congratulate him on the brilliant

recognition he and the United Nations have just

received as the Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

He deserves our full support in the pursuit and the

achievement of the outstanding work in the area of

reform in which he, along with his colleagues, is fully

invested to bring our Organization closer to the

realities of the twenty-first century.

The terrorist attempts of 11 September, which

tragically struck New York, the Headquarters of our

Organization, Washington and Pennsylvania, have

radically changed our vision of the world and of

international relations. My country, Senegal, once

again conveys its sympathy to the people of the United

States and reiterates its heartfelt condolences to the

bereaved families.

Let us say it unambiguously: there is no moral,

religious or political cause noble enough to justify

17

terrorism or its always barbarous manifestations —

which all of us without exception must condemn with

unwavering unity and with the utmost force.

Senegal is a secular democratic country whose

population is more than 90 per cent Muslim; we reject

all forms of confrontation between religions, cultures

or civilizations. Senegal believes that Islam, like other

revealed religions, is a faith of peace and tolerance, and

vigorously condemns any equation of Islam with

terrorism and any attempt to invoke or use religion for

criminal purposes. The massacre of pregnant women

and the destruction of buildings occupied by innocent

civilians — God’s creatures every one — are acts that

have no justification in any religion, least of all Islam,

whose banner of peace and harmony among men and

women, peoples, cultures and civilizations we proudly

bear.

Beyond simply condemning terrorism in all its

forms, methods and manifestations, the international

community must act firmly to eradicate terrorism, its

sources of financing and its bases of action throughout

the world.

Senegal is committed to that course, which is why

His Excellency President Abdoulaye Wade took the

well known initiative of convening on 17 October at

Dakar an African conference against terrorism, in

which 27 countries participated. President Wade

submitted to that forum a draft African pact against

terrorism as a needed complement to the Organization

of African Unity (OAU) Convention on the Prevention

and Combating of Terrorism. The conference ended

with the adoption of the Dakar Declaration against

Terrorism, which firmly condemned terrorism in all its

forms; reaffirmed our solidarity with all victims of

terrorist acts, in particular the thousands of innocent

civilian citizens of countries throughout the world who

died on 11 September; and invited the OAU promptly

to convene an extraordinary session on terrorism to

consider, inter alia, the draft African pact against

terrorism submitted by Senegal with the support of

other countries.

Let me make it clear that those who argue that

Africa has priorities other than terrorism are surely

forgetting that tragedy resulting from acts of blind

slaughter struck first in Africa: in Kenya and Tanzania.

With bald lack of consideration and respect for African

lives, bombers in Nairobi killed 12 United States

nationals and 212 Kenyans and wounded more than

3,000 of our Kenyan brothers and sisters. They have

never expressed any regret, much less remorse, for

their obvious contempt for us. Fighting international

terrorism means saying loud and clear that Africans,

like Europeans, Americans and all the other peoples of

the world, have an equal right to safety, security,

stability and peace.

That is the powerful message that His Excellency

President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal wants to echo

throughout the world. Let us remember his initiative

for a genuine security policy in Africa, along with his

initiative to review African debt and his Omega

Plan — a genuine African globalization strategy which

has now been merged with the Millennium Partnership

for African Recovery to form the New African

Initiative.

There are years that the long march of history

cannot conceal or obliterate, and the past 12-month

period is undoubtedly among these; it was

extraordinarily rich in events of great importance both

for the United Nations and for Africa, the seat of

humankind. Thus, within the framework of the fifty-

fifth session, the Millennium Summit brought together

in this Hall heads of State or Government to, in the

felicitous words of the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, identify and work to solve the world’s major

problems.

In an extraordinary convergence of views, world

leaders reaffirmed their faith in the United Nations and

its irreplaceable mission to protect international peace

and security, to fight poverty, to promote economic and

social development, to strengthen democracy and the

rule of law and to ensure justice and equity among

citizens, peoples, cultures and civilizations.

In view of the universality which is the hallmark

of the United Nations and which was reaffirmed at the

Millennium Summit, Senegal firmly supports the

legitimate request of the Republic of China on Taiwan

to resume its seat in the Organization and in its

specialized agencies. That request is not directed

against any State Member of the United Nations; meeting

it would be a key contribution to consolidating the

ideal of the universality of the United Nations and to

the advent of an era of peace and stability in that

sensitive part of the world.

Africa remains the region where some conflicts

seem to exist in tragic eternity; it is where nearly half

of the world’s refugees and displaced persons are to be

18

found; it is the site of 33 of the world’s 48 least

developed countries. Africa is also the region whose

inhabitants are the most appallingly affected by the

HIV/AIDS and malaria pandemics. Unquestionably,

that enormously disturbing situation calls out to the

entire international community and, in particular, to

Africans. That is why it is important to implement the

outcome of the twenty-sixth special session of the

General Assembly, which was devoted to the fight

against HIV/AIDS.

Last July, the African Union was christened at the

historic Lusaka summit of the OAU. By that historic

act, Africa committed itself, in a proactive and unified

spirit, to find African solutions to the many challenges

before it, by establishing a modern, viable, open

institutional framework that can respond to Africa’s

emergencies and needs in the new century. Here, I

renew my congratulations to my friend and brother

Amara Essy, to whom African heads of State or

Government have entrusted the task of following Salim

Ahmed Salim in shouldering the high responsibilities

of the post of Secretary-General of the OAU and of

putting in place the new structures of the African

Union.

The second major event of the Lusaka summit is

part of the same pan-African dynamic: the adoption of

a plan for the economic and social development of

Africa, known as the New African Initiative — the new

partnership for the development of Africa, to which I

earlier referred. This has the quality of having been

conceived by Africans for Africa on the basis of the

merger of two novel projects: the Omega Plan of

President Abdoulaye Wade; and the programme for an

African renaissance of Presidents Thabo Mbeki of

South Africa, Abelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria and

Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. That joint initiative

should help create the synergy needed to eradicate

poverty in Africa and to lay the foundations for

sustainable economic and social development, which is

a prerequisite for integrating the continent into the

ongoing process of globalization.

For the first time in the history of plans for the

renewal of Africa, an international conference on the

financing of the New African Initiative is planned for

January 2002 at Dakar. That forum will truly be an

African Davos and should make it possible to hold a

fruitful dialogue among all development partners that

have understood the renewal heralded by the new plan,

which sums up our experiences and symbolizes the

hopes of all of us who unconditionally love Africa.

There has been impressive progress in Africa this

year with respect to the urgent need to tackle the root

causes of the many conflicts that shake the continent

and to work peacefully towards their lasting resolution.

On the crises in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

in Burundi and in Sierra Leone, we are pleased to say

that significant milestones have been reached by all

actors in the implementation of peace agreements

already concluded.

From that standpoint, there is true cause for

encouragement in the beginning of an inter-Congolese

dialogue in Gaborone, Botswana, and the recent

formation, with the help of the incomparable Nelson

Mandela, of the transitional government of Burundi for

national reconciliation. It is now up to the Security

Council to perform all of its responsibilities under

Chapter VII of the Charter. These efforts deserve to be

intensified and given diplomatic support by the

international community through concrete actions to

finance strategies for post-conflict peace-building. In

the same spirit, it is important to support the efforts of

Angola and the Organization of African Unity for the

rapid settlement of the conflict in that country.

In light of the debt crisis aggravated by the

exponential drop in official development assistance, the

international community must explore new ways and

means to develop the third world, especially Africa,

through, inter alia, an increase in direct foreign

investment. It is this break with the past — this

“epistemological” departure — that our President

proposes to Africa and its partners. He argues that the

aid/credit couplet, which has been the principal way to

finance development in Africa and has led to the

impasse we all know, should be abandoned and

replaced by an approach that makes Africa attractive

and competitive, leading to a massive inflow of private

investment, both domestic and international.

The cycle of debt followed by ever greater

debt — a cycle that has been described by our

President as a scourge similar to the slavery that

devastated Africa — should give way to an approach

that brings in massive investment in an adequate fiscal

and legal environment — investment capable of filling

the gaps in priority sectors such as infrastructure,

education, health, agriculture, new technologies and

access to the markets of developed countries. This

19

approach, of course, would be part of a strategy of

good political and economic governance and

unqualified respect for the rule of law, democracy and

human rights.

Africa is relying greatly on the results of the

Ministerial Conference of the World Trade

Organization that just opened in Doha; the

International Conference on Financing for

Development in Monterrey, scheduled for March 2002;

and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in

Johannesburg, planned for September, to provide

innovative solutions to the challenges besetting Africa

at the beginning of this millennium.

Looking sadly toward the Middle East, Senegal is

following recent developments with great concern and

feels solidarity with the Palestinian people in light of

the new tragedy. Horrified by the scope of this tragedy,

Senegal condemns the Israeli occupation of Palestinian

territories and the intensification of acts of violence

against innocent civilians. Senegal addresses an earnest

appeal to all the parties, the co-sponsors of the peace

process, the European Union, the Security Council and

the international community, for the withdrawal of

Israeli forces from the occupied Palestinian areas; for

the immediate cessation of all acts of violence and

provocation; for respect for the Geneva Convention

Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time

of War and the relevant United Nations resolutions; for

the resumption of peace negotiations in accordance

with the agreed timetable; and for the conclusion of an

overall settlement agreement that is just, durable and in

conformity with resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973)

of the Security Council.

Peace cannot prosper nor can the development of

the region be ensured so long as Israelis and

Palestinians fail in their efforts to forge bonds of

confidence, as sovereign States within internationally

recognized and guaranteed borders. I am happy to note

that the European Union and the United States have

recently affirmed this, inasmuch as Israel and the

future State of Palestine each have the right to exist, to

live in peace and to develop in security and dignity.

I wish to conclude by saying that the

consolidation of the rule of law and the promotion and

protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms

remain one of the major focal points of our national

and foreign policy. The special importance that our

President attaches to these matters has been eloquently

expressed in the appointment of a woman to the post of

High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The World Conference against Racism, Racial

Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance

was held, despite all obstacles, and dealt with its

agenda despite the complexity of the issues and the

particularly difficult conditions under which the

negotiations took place. My country, which had the

honour to preside over the work of the Preparatory

Committee, once again addresses a solemn appeal to all

actors in international life to translate the Declaration

and Plan of Action adopted at Durban into action.

Thus, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, the

world can be definitively freed of the scourge of

racism, which represents a grave infringement of

human dignity and a flagrant violation of human rights.

Speaking of human rights, we also naturally think

of the rights of women and children. The twenty-

seventh special session of the General Assembly,

planned for 8-10 May 2002, will adopt a new agenda

for the international community aimed at better

ensuring, safeguarding and defending the rights of the

child and promoting the Convention on that subject.

The commitments to which our Governments will

subscribe must be implemented, as must the

conclusions of the Fourth World Youth Forum of the

United Nations system, held in Senegal in August this

year.

It is imperative that we face the challenges of

peace and development. We have no other choice but to

do so through multilateralism and universalism. Thus

the world needs the United Nations, an organization

that is universal and unique. This is the conviction of

Senegal, which proclaims that a United Nations that is

well restructured and more representative would be

better equipped to face the challenges that humanity

confronts today. Those challenges seem as immovable

as mountains, but everything is possible in a world of

solidarity, brotherhood, security and respect for the

sacred character of human life, dignity and the

inalienable right of all peoples to happiness and liberty.