Chad, 2007

Please accept our warm congratulations, Sir, on your well-

deserved election to the presidency of our Assembly.

We are convinced that you possess all the necessary

qualities for the sound direction of our work. My

country assures you of its support as you carry out your

important task.

We also wish to convey our gratitude to your

predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for the

efficiency with which she guided the work of our

sixty-first session. I also wish to pay a well-deserved

tribute to our Secretary-General, His Excellency

Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who has been constantly playing a

significant role since his election in advancing the

ideals of our Organization.

One important event has caught the attention of

Chad. On 25 September, the Security Council adopted

unanimously resolution 1778 (2007) authorizing an

international operation on the eastern border of Chad

and the north-east border of the Central African

Republic. That operation and we should stress the

defensive nature of its mandate: the protection of

refugees, displaced persons, civilian populations and

humanitarian workers is something that in Chad we

are very satisfied to see since it will lighten the heavy

burden borne thus far by the Chadian local police since

the beginning of the crisis in Darfur.

Chad also wishes to thank the Office of the

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and

the friendly countries who have supported the local

Chadian police. At this point, I wish also to pay tribute

to their courage and dedication because they did their

best in order to accomplish their sensitive and

dangerous mission.

The new operation will be able to rely on the

availability and cooperation of Chadian authorities. We

venture to hope that it will stabilize and create

conditions for the reconstruction of the eastern part of

our country, which has been destroyed by incursions of

the Janjaweed militias from the Sudan and other armed

groups from Darfur. It will also especially require that

the Chadian displaced persons, who have so far been

neglected by the international community, be

reinstalled in their original localities.

Above and beyond our hopes of stabilization and

reconstruction in the eastern part of our country, we

have the legitimate hope that the Darfur crisis will end.

More than any country, Chad would gain by that,

especially since our populations in the eastern part of

Chad have been the victims of the crisis as often if not

more than our sister populations of the Sudan in

Darfur. For that reason, our country has tirelessly

endeavoured to restore peace and security to Darfur. In

that regard, no one can ignore the extremely important

role played by the President of the Republic, His

Excellency Mr. Idriss Deby Itmo, in supporting the

peacekeeping measures taken by the international

community.

The Republic of Chad has no intention of

departing from that course. For that reason we will

make the fullest possible contribution to the success of

the resumed inter-Sudanese peace talks on Darfur that

are scheduled for Tripoli on 27 October. We have also

contributed to the preparation of the peace talks

through our participation in meetings bringing together

the non-signatory movements of the Abuja Peace

Agreement, including meetings at Abeche in Chad, at

Asmara in Eritrea, at Tripoli in the Libyan Arab

Jamahiriya and at Arusha in Tanzania, as well as the

last Seminar of N’Djaména in Chad all of which has

taken place under the auspices of the joint mediation of

the United Nations and the African Union.

We have just underscored our resolve to work for

peace in Darfur in particular, and of course, in the

Sudan in general, because that work is in the interest of

peace and security in the subregion of Central Africa in

general and of Chad in particular. We all need peace

among our neighbours in order to fend off any risk to

the stabilization of our countries and to continue,

guided by the inspiration of His Excellency Mr. Idriss

Deby Itmo, President of the Republic and Head of

State, to build upon the democratic process that our

country has been committed to since 1990, as well as

to ensure the peace, security and social well-being of

the Chadian people.

In that regard, we should highlight that, since last

year, Chadian political life has witnessed some positive

developments. A number of military and political high

officials of the Chadian rebellion have had their legal

rights restored, individually or in small groups or with

their entire organization.

On 4 March 2007, a new Government was formed

under the leadership of one of the well known figures of

the political opposition to the presidential majority

Prime Minister Sem Nouradine Delwa Kassire

Koumakoye. Moreover, the new Government has

responded to the expectations of the opposition by

deciding to postpone the legislative and communal

elections in order to wait for the conclusions of a

political dialogue begun under the auspices of the

European Union. That dialogue is aimed at

strengthening the rule of law and the democratic

process by organizing the elections under conditions

that are acceptable to all actors in our political life, or

at least by the greater majority, which is devoted to the

peaceful settlement of political conflicts and has

renounced recourse to weapons and anti-constitutional

changes.

That political dialogue led to the signing of a

political agreement on 13 August 2007. The signing of

that important agreement by the parties of the

governmental majority and the democratic opposition

clearly stems from the constant resolve of the President

of the Republic, His Excellency Mr. Idriss Deby Itmo,

to establish a peaceful political life in the country.

Furthermore, we wish also to warmly thank our

development partners, in particular the European

Union, whose valuable assistance enabled us to

produce the agreement that we consider historic. That

new fact in Chad’s political life has enabled us to note

with great satisfaction that a number of political exiles

have returned or intend to return without delay to the

country. We owe that situation to the facilitation of the

heads of State who are friends of Chad and we mention

in particular His Excellency El Hadj Omar Bongo

Ondimba of Gabon and His Excellency Mr. Boni Yayi

of Benin. In addition to the notable progress with the

democratic opposition and the Chadian political exiles

we note that we are looking forward with the

support of the guide to the Libyan revolution and the

mediator of the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States

(CEN-SAD), our brother Muammar Al-Qadhafi to

continuing with the useful discussions taking place in

Tripoli with the armed movements aimed at reaching

agreements with those organizations that have not yet

rejoined the great Chadian family. We hope that those

movements will renounce any recourse to weapons and

express their expectations within the peaceful

framework set by the historic political agreement of 13

August 2007 and with respect for the institutions of the

Republic.

It is our view that all political initiatives having

to do with national reconciliation should fall within the

framework of the political agreement of 13 August and

should contribute to strengthening the State apparatus

for the benefit of the general interest. For we should

not forget that since its independence, Chad has known

only conflict or post-conflict situations, often, indeed,

internal, but including in particular those fuelled from

the outside to weaken the State or to topple the

country’s institutions. This is why we count on the

international community to unreservedly condemn all

attempts to destabilize the Chadian State, and also all

who use unconstitutional means, notably force, to seize

power. The Chadian people, victims of insecurity due

to the interminable armed struggles for power,

condemn these sterile struggles and rely on the

democratic political actors and on the international

community to block the path to violence.

If we must extend a hand to the rebels, whose

causes sometimes seem to be from the world of a

revolutionary utopia, this should not be done to the

detriment of the highest interest of the rule of law and

of democracy. Unhappiness is at the heart of rebellions.

We find mercenaries in the pay of someone from the

exterior, and adventurers who use it as a source of

commerce to gain unwarranted material advantages or

to satisfy personal ambitions in exchange for their

return to legality, in disdain of the authority of the

State apparatus, of the law and of the country’s

regulations.

After this brief overview of Chadian political

questions, allow me to raise some other issues

regarding today’s challenges: globalization with its

hopes and anguishes, poverty, inequitable international

trade, terrorism, the AIDS pandemic, and so forth. A

number of international meetings have been held on

these topics and on others. Resolutions and

recommendations have been adopted. However, no

decisive advances have been made in these areas. We

can only hope that the international community will

honour its commitments and that the richest will keep

their promises vis-à-vis the poorest.

We cannot simply ignore another important event,

the High-level Event on Climate Change and its

consequences, which was held right here. We hope that

the international community will learn lessons with a

view to acting instead of indulging in fine statements,

as was the case after the United Nations Framework

Convention on Climate Change in Kyoto.

Yes, we need to act, and for us the most tragic

case deserving the attention of the international

community is that of the shrinking of Lake Chad,

whose surface has been reduced in a few decades from

25,000 square kilometres to 2,500 square kilometres.

Saving Lake Chad would not only contribute to the

struggle against disastrous climate change on a

planetary level, but would also meet the needs of

25 million people in the countries adjacent to the Lake.

Another issue is just as worrisome, and that is the

conflict situations in Africa and on other continents.

How can we not take a stand? We applaud the efforts

of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations to

find lasting solutions to the conflicts in Africa or

elsewhere in the world.

This prompts us to underscore the importance of

another event that has caught our attention. That is the

Security Council meeting held at the level of heads of

State on 25 September on the question of peace and

security in Africa. We are mindful of the Council’s

steadily growing interest in Africa, and that meeting

seems to pave the way for the strengthening of

cooperation between the United Nations and the AU,

especially with a view to building the capacities of the

AU so that it can accomplish its peace missions in the

best possible conditions. This is the moment to

condemn the recent barbarous attacks on the African

forces in Darfur and to express our condolences to the

families of the missing.

We have great hope for the settlement of all crises

in the framework of the rebirth of multilateralism and

collective security, which our Secretary-General has

very strongly endorsed: hopes for peace in Côte

d’Ivoire, in Western Sahara, in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo, in the Horn of Africa, in the

Middle East and so forth.

Before I conclude, I would like to recall that we

have constantly condemned before this Assembly all

forms of violence and intolerance, especially their most

extreme form terrorism. We reaffirm our

condemnation and our commitment to fighting these

phenomena. We would like to reaffirm our commitment

to strive to eliminate all sources of conflicts and all the

threats that jeopardize peace and security around the

world.

In this regard, I wish to recall the need to respect

the principles of peaceful coexistence, which are

respect for the sovereignty and the territorial integrity

of States. This, of course, prompts us to reaffirm our

devotion to respect for internationally recognized

historical borders. We cite as an example our

attachment to the policy of a single China and our

opposition to Taiwan’s attempts to bring about a kind

of accession to the United Nations, under whatever

name they might choose.

This also prompts us to express respect for the

sovereign right of States to develop nuclear energy for

peaceful purposes. And we welcome the good

arrangements to find solutions to the question of

nuclear energy through negotiations and to find a

peaceful solution to the problem of the dissemination

of weapons of mass destruction.

This last prompts us once again to launch a

pressing appeal to our Assembly, especially to the

permanent members of the Security Council, to redress

the injustice of the African continent being the only

continent that does not have a permanent member seat

on the Council, when the bulk of the Council’s agenda

is comprised of African situations.