Tanzania, 2000

At

the outset, I should like to congratulate the President

on his well-deserved election to the presidency of this

Millennium Assembly. I also want to congratulate his

predecessor for his invaluable contribution and his

outstanding leadership during the fifty-fourth General

Assembly. In the same vein, I should like to register

my delegation's appreciation to the Secretary-General

for the excellent manner in which he is conducting the

affairs of the Organization. Let me also take this

opportunity to express our delight in welcoming the

Republic of Tuvalu as the newest member of the

United Nations family.

Tanzania is gratified that the recently ended

Millennium Summit addressed some of the most

pertinent issues and challenges facing the United

Nations and its Members in the new millennium. Those

issues include development and poverty eradication;

the effects of globalization, including technological

disparities; conflict prevention, management and

resolution; disarmament; and the HIV/AIDS pandemic,

malaria and tuberculosis. It was recognized that Africa

and, particularly, the least developed countries suffer

most and hence demand urgent remedial action by the

international community.

Poverty remains one of the areas of great concern

in Africa. The number of poor people in our region

living on less than one dollar a day is estimated to be

300 million. That number represents more than

40 per cent of Africa's total population. Indications are

that the number of poor people in the continent is

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likely to increase as Africa's output continues to drop.

There is therefore an urgent need for a comprehensive

strategy for Africa to address poverty eradication with

all its ramifications. The strategy should include a

compendium of measures aimed at capacity-building in

the development process, including social services. The

implementation of such a far-reaching strategy for

poverty eradication would very much depend on the

availability of resources. Bearing in mind that in 2001

the United Nations will convene a High-level

Intergovernmental Event on Financing for

Development, it is our hope that the issue of mobilizing

resources for the development of Africa will be

thoroughly addressed.

Official development assistance continues to be

particularly critical in supporting development efforts

in Africa and the least developed countries. It is sad to

note that flows of official development assistance have

fallen to an all-time low of 0.2 per cent, far from the

agreed target of 0.7 per cent of the gross national

product of developed countries. My delegation

therefore wishes to appeal to our development partners

to reverse the trend of declining resources and increase

the level of official development assistance

contributions.

Many African countries are undertaking painful

reforms aimed at attracting foreign direct investment.

However, foreign direct investment flows have been

minimal. Investors should feel encouraged to invest in

Africa because the competitive rate of return on foreign

direct investment stands at between 24 per cent and

30 per cent. That rate is higher than those of all

developed countries, which stand at between

16 per cent and 18 per cent. We therefore call on

Governments and relevant international organizations

to assist in sensitizing potential international investors

to the possibility of directing their investments to

Africa.

The various debt relief initiatives pursued by the

international community have been helpful, but not

sufficient, in providing a meaningful solution to the

debt problem of the developing countries. In some of

those countries, external debt service constitutes a

major drain on scarce resources, taking at least

30 per cent of the national income. In that regard, we

welcome the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC)

Debt Initiative to support some of the poor countries in

their efforts to resolve the external debt problem. My

Government appreciates being one of the countries

which have attained eligibility under this scheme. We

call upon the institutions concerned to speed up the

process towards our reaching the completion point so

that we can fully benefit from HIPC relief.

Commenting on the HIPC Initiative, my

President, Mr. Benjamin William Mkapa, has had this

to say:

“Tanzania welcomes the revisions made to

the HIPC Initiative. If implemented in full they

will provide additional debt relief, which in turn

will facilitate the war on poverty and will

contribute to sustainable growth and development

if managed well. However, if growth is to be

sustained, adequate levels of external funding

must complement our economic reform efforts.

Debt relief under the HIPC Initiative should also

not be a substitute for increased bilateral non-

debt-creating aid, and neither should it be

financed through reallocation of committed aid.”

Even acknowledging the importance of the HIPC

initiative, the burden of meeting debt service payments

would remain heavy even after debt relief for most of

the least developed countries. We therefore call upon

the donor community to increase HIPC debt relief and

to consider additional relief measures, including debt

cancellation, so that scarce resources will be released

to cater for economic development and poverty

eradication programmes.

The development of the least developed countries

depends on improvement of their capacity to produce

goods and services. Improvement of terms of trade and

market access for the goods of least developed

countries in the developed countries' markets would

further contribute towards poverty eradication efforts.

In that regard, we call upon developed countries to

provide unhindered market access for goods from

developing countries, particularly from least developed

countries. In the same context, my delegation calls for

speedy implementation of the World Trade

Organization's Integrated Framework for Trade-related

Technical Assistance which will facilitate the

integration of least developed countries into the world

trading system.

The development process of developing countries

very much depends on access to technology and on the

endogenous capacity to develop it. We are encouraged

that the Millennium Summit reiterated the need to

assist developing countries to leapfrog into new

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technologies in order to close the existing technology

gap between developed and developing countries,

especially least developed countries. It is our sincere

hope that the Millennium Declaration will be translated

into a concrete programme of action to assist

developing countries to develop the critical

technologies, including information technologies,

needed for their development. We therefore call upon

our development partners and all relevant international

institutions to facilitate the transfer of technology,

including environmentally sound technologies, on

favourable terms.

My delegation believes that South-South

cooperation is an important means of realizing some of

the objectives of economic development. Tanzania

fully supports the programme of action adopted last

April in Havana, Cuba, at the South Summit.

Tanzania recognizes and fully supports the role of

women in the development process. Here, the

Government has adopted a number of specific

measures aimed at enhancing the participation of

women in decision-making processes, and at bringing

about equal access to education and health, and access

to credit on a preferential basis. In the area of

representation, for example, the Government has

increased the minimum quota of women

parliamentarians from 15 per cent to 20 per cent. The

Government has also passed legislation that

criminalizes discriminatory activities against women.

Furthermore, the Land Act was revised in 1999 to

enable women to own land, the major means of

production in Tanzania. Tanzania is firmly committed,

therefore, to implementing the Beijing Platform for

Action. We therefore call on the international

community to support our efforts in this regard.

Serious pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, malaria

and tuberculosis are threatening the economic and

social development of developing countries, especially

African and least developed countries. For example,

the scale of the HIV/AIDS pandemic has grown to

alarming proportions in Africa. The Security Council

has recognized this menace as constituting a security

threat. Moreover, the Millennium Summit has

underscored the urgency of adopting effective action to

combat the scourge. Tanzania urges the international

community to assist developing countries in this

endeavour, particularly in education and access to

affordable treatment.

Disarmament, peace and security continue to be

crucial to the aspirations of all humanity, and therefore

they constitute a critical challenge of the new

millennium. The existence of huge arsenals of nuclear

weapons poses a major potential threat to world peace

and security. These weapons continue to represent a

threat to the survival of mankind. Tanzania calls for the

complete destruction and elimination of all nuclear

weapons. The United Nations also needs to urgently

address the problem of small arms and light weapons,

which fuel most of the ongoing conflicts in various

regions of the world. In this context, we strongly

support the convening of the 2001 United Nations

Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and

Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.

The Millennium Summit addressed extensively

the conflict situations existing in some countries,

including those of Africa. The Summit reaffirmed the

existence of the intrinsic link between peace and

development, which requires an integrated approach to

conflict prevention, management and resolution. While

supporting United Nations peace efforts, we note with

concern that there has been a slow and an inadequate

response to African conflicts from the United Nations.

In Angola, it is with apprehension that we bear

witness to the continuing hostilities and the grave

humanitarian situation brought about by Jonas Savimbi

and his organization, UNITA; they have blatantly

violated the decisions of the Security Council

regarding the implementation of the Lusaka Protocol. It

is disturbing that Mr. Savimbi has been able to sustain

his insurgency by violating the sanctions imposed

against UNITA by the Security Council. We call upon

the international community to continue its support to

the Government of Angola.

On Burundi, my delegation is pleased to note that

after protracted negotiations between the parties

involved in the Burundi conflict, the Burundi peace and

reconciliation agreement was concluded in Arusha,

Tanzania on 28 August 2000. We welcome the

agreement and commend the Facilitator, President

Nelson Mandela, for his role in reconciling the parties.

We also commend the regional leaders for their efforts

in support of the Burundi peace process. Although a

small number of parties to the conflict did not sign the

agreement, efforts were made to ensure that all of them

would sign it. As I speak here, most of the parties have

now signed. It is our hope that the parties will abide by

the terms of the agreement and afford the people of

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Burundi the opportunity to realize their aspirations for

peace and development. We call upon the United

Nations and the international community to extend

support to the agreement.

As for the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the

Lusaka Agreement remains the basis for the resolution

of the conflict in that country. It is unfortunate, though,

that there is an impasse in the implementation of the

Agreement. One of the reasons for the existing

situation is the mistrust among the parties. The delay in

the deployment of the United Nations Mission in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo has created a

vacuum that has further contributed to the impasse.

Tanzania supports Security Council resolution 1234

(1999). We also urge the Security Council to deploy the

peacekeeping force in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo as soon as possible.

On Somalia, we welcome the agreement reached

in Djibouti on the formation of the Government of that

country. In this regard, we congratulate the

Government of Djibouti for its constructive role in the

reconciliation process.

Concerning Western Sahara, Tanzania reiterates

its support for the right to self-determination of the

Sahrawi people and the effort of the United Nations to

organize and supervise an impartial, free and fair

referendum, in accordance with the Settlement Plan for

Western Sahara and the relevant Security Council and

other United Nations resolutions. We urge the United

Nations to conduct, as soon as possible, the referendum

on the basis of the preparations that have so far been

made. The lessons of East Timor should not be ignored.

On the Middle East, Tanzania continues to

support the cause of the Palestinian people. In this

regard, we welcome the ongoing peace process aimed

at achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in

that volatile region.

There is a direct linkage between conflicts and

the incidence of refugees and internally displaced

persons. In this respect, Tanzania finds itself in the

very difficult situation of hosting more than 800,000

refugees, most of whom are products of the crisis in the

Great Lakes region. This is a huge burden for a poor

country like Tanzania. Besides, refugees pose many

problems relating to security and environmental

degradation. There is an urgent need for the

international community to increase its support to the

refugees, as well as to the refugee-hosting countries. In

the same vein, we reiterate our call for international

burden-sharing and responsibility in refugee situations.

A definitive solution to the refugee situation evidently

lies in resolving conflicts so as to enable the

repatriation of refugees to their countries of origin.

One of the pressing reform issues in the United

Nations is the reform of the Security Council. Among

the significant changes of our time is the liberalization

and democratization of economic and political

processes. The Security Council cannot persist in being

an exception. Its composition and powers must bear a

relationship to the democratic ideals necessary for its

continued relevance and legitimacy. It is our hope that

the Council membership will be expanded in both

categories and that such expansion should include both

developed and developing countries.

Furthermore, Tanzania believes that the capacity

of the United Nations to effectively carry out its

mandate is contingent upon the willingness of all

Member States to support it politically as well as

financially. In this regard, we call upon the Member

States to provide it with adequate resources on a timely

and predictable basis.

Tanzania also welcomes the many reform

proposals and measures that have been introduced to

improve working methods, both at the Secretariat and

at intergovernmental levels. For that effort to succeed,

there has to be consensus among Member States on the

best method to manage change in the United Nations.

In conclusion, allow me to observe that the

Millennium Assembly, like the preceding Summit, is an

act of partnership. We can only hope, therefore, that the

renewed enthusiasm and the recommitment to the

Charter of the United Nations will galvanize our

energies and enable us to rise to and fulfil, the hopes

and aspirations of the Organization and its peoples, as

espoused in the Millennium Declaration.