Tanzania, 2004

I congratulate you, Sir, on

your election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. I assure you of

Tanzania’s support as you discharge your mandate. I

pay tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Julian Hunte, for

his able stewardship of the work of the General

Assembly. I commend the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, and his staff for their dedicated service and

tireless efforts during a very difficult time.

The Millennium Development Goals represent

our vision and hope for a new global partnership for

shared global prosperity and security — an ideal at the

very heart of the United Nations. But we are still far

off the mark in meeting many of them, especially in

sub-Saharan Africa. We must further strengthen our

common resolve to act in their resolute pursuit. In this,

as in other things, actions speak louder than words.

We commend Denmark, Luxembourg, the

Netherlands, Norway and Sweden for consistently

meeting the long-established United Nations target of

allocating at least 0.7 per cent of the national incomes

of rich countries to development cooperation. Those

countries have a broad national consensus on that

matter, and their people are not in any way poorer

because of it. We urge the other rich countries to

produce timetables to meet that long-overdue target, to

have coherent development policies and to earnestly

and deliberately build and nurture a national

consciousness and consensus on the global war on

poverty. That war should now be a central political

issue for all countries, rich and poor. Only then will the

political will be generated to do more for the timely

attainment of the Millennium Development Goals.

It is true that money is not a panacea, but the

eighth Millennium Development Goal — to develop a

global partnership for development — may actually be

the single most important key to unlocking new

initiatives and latent capabilities to enable us to attain

the Goals. And a genuine partnership implies shared

rights and responsibilities as well as a shared

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commitment to be evaluated. I commend the

Governments of the Netherlands and Denmark for

conducting, and making public, evaluations of their

performance in meeting their commitments under the

eighth Millennium Development Goal.

On our part, never before have so many African

Governments committed themselves to good

democratic governance, to peer review, to ownership of

the development agenda and to the participatory

prioritization and sequencing of the tasks necessary

for the attainment of the Millennium Development

Goals. We now need an equally unprecedented

commitment — in deeds — to the global war on

poverty in all rich countries. African countries doing

their part in the global compact on poverty alleviation

should not be constrained by a lack of supportive

external resources. At the International Conference on

Financing for Development, held at Monterrey,

developed countries pledged to match stronger reform

efforts in developing countries with increased support.

Tanzania asks that they now show leadership by

delivering on their promises.

When both rich and poor countries meet their

obligations, tangible progress is realized. My country

is an example. Our Primary Education Development

Programme, for instance, has recorded remarkable

progress. We now expect to attain the education

Millennium Development Goal in 2006, nine years

ahead of schedule. Gender parity has been attained, and

the net enrolment ratio is already 90.1 per cent. Pass

rates have doubled over the past four years. That was

made possible by an increased budgetary allocation to

the sector, by debt relief, by increased aid channelled

through our own budget and by local ownership and

participation. We are grateful for the cooperation we

have received from our development partners.

Together, we have shown what can be done where there

is political will.

Yesterday, my colleagues and I launched the

report of the World Commission on the Social

Dimension of Globalization, entitled “A fair

globalization: Creating opportunities for all”. The

report is a contribution by commissioners with varied

backgrounds and experiences; it is also a reflection of

the views of many ordinary people consulted through

national and regional dialogues. It presents one

important consensus: globalization has produced both

striking achievements and harmful distortions in global

growth and development. We all agreed that, left

unchecked, globalization will exacerbate the wealth

gap within and between nations, thereby planting the

seeds of social instability and crime on a national and

global scale. But the report also presents the prospect

of hope. Globalization, when properly governed, can

be a force for good — a catalyst for change and for

meeting the Millennium Development Goals. I

commend the report to the Assembly.

Responses to the challenges of globalization must

begin at home. Good governance, prudent monetary

and fiscal policies, macroeconomic stability, peace and

security, the protection of property rights, setting

priorities for poverty reduction and the creation of a

conducive environment for investment and trade, both

between Africans themselves and between Africa and

the rest of the world — all those are things that we in

Africa have agreed to address.

But I must stress one conditionality: no solutions

to Africa’s problems can be sustainable unless they are

genuinely embraced and owned by Africans

themselves. We have shown our new resolve to come

to terms with our problems and to take the initiative

and the lead in finding solutions. From our

development partners, we ask in return for genuine

respect for our ownership and the policy space for local

initiative and leadership. We need policy space to deal

with problems such as conflict, ethnicity, land and

agrarian reform and institution-building, and we need

adequate, consistent and predictable external support to

implement the solutions we put forward.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo deserves

our continued and strong support. Instability in that

country robs the entire region of its potential for shared

progress, development and solidarity. The people of the

Democratic Republic of the Congo must continue to

walk down the path of peace, reconciliation and unity.

They and the Government of President Kabila need and

deserve our robust help. We commend President Mbeki

and the South African Government for their efforts,

and Tanzania pledges its unwavering support to them.

In Burundi, we commend President Museveni of

Uganda and the South African Vice-President,

Mr. Jacob Zuma, for their dedication to helping

Burundi realize a new political and social dispensation

of inclusive governance, development and peace. The

Regional Initiative for Peace in Burundi has made

strenuous efforts to accommodate, through

negotiations, all the parties in a Government of

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national unity. Sadly, the Parti pour la libération du

peuple hutu-Forces nationales de libération

(Palipehutu-FNL) has refused to be part of that

process. Its declaration of responsibility for the

massacres against innocent and unarmed refugees at

Gatumba was the proverbial last straw for us in the

region, so we took a stand and declared the FNL a

terrorist group. We appeal for the Assembly’s support

in treating it as such.

The first international conference on the Great

Lakes region, which Tanzania will host in November

2004, will review aspects concerning peace and

security, governance and democracy, economic

development and regional integration, as well as

humanitarian and social issues in the region.

Ultimately, we hope to adopt a comprehensive security,

stability and development pact for the Great Lakes

region. I thank the Group of Friends of the Great Lakes

region for supporting the preparatory process and

appeal to the United Nations and the international

community to render their support to that process.

The humanitarian tragedy in Darfur is harrowing

and demands urgent remedy. A humanitarian ceasefire

agreement must be promulgated, presaging the

evolution of a democratic and political culture. We

commend and support the effort by His Excellency

Olusegun Obasanjo, President of Nigeria and African

Union Chair, and President Idriss Deby of Chad. We

ask for the practical, urgent and increased support of

the United Nations and the international community as

a whole for the initiatives of the African Union in

addressing this tragedy.

The question of Western Sahara has dragged on

for too long. We fully support the right to self-

determination of the people of Western Sahara. It is the

duty of this body to help them realize it. We support

the United Nations peace plan and call on all sides to

cooperate fully in its speedy implementation.

When the Middle East road map was put forward

in 2003, we supported it, believing that it addressed

comprehensively the issue of the establishment of a

viable Palestinian State living with the State of Israel,

with recognized and secure borders between them. It is

regrettable that the road map has been put aside. In our

view, the road map remains the most reasonable, viable

and sustainable way of resolving this long-standing

conflict. We condemn the cycle of violence and

killings and the use of excessive force. We urge that

the implementation of the road map be brought back on

track.

We are living with the spectre of international

terrorism: the most vicious and pernicious among

international crimes. The people of Tanzania will never

forget the terrorist attack directed at the American

Embassy in Dar es Salaam in 1998, which killed or

wounded innocent Tanzanians. There should never be

any doubt about our unflinching resolve to cooperate

with others in combating terrorism in all its forms.

Tanzania is a faithful and active Member of the

United Nations, and we reaffirm our readiness to work

with our fellow Members in addressing global concerns

in furtherance of the ideals of the Assembly and the

Charter of the United Nations. It is, therefore, with

deep humility and gratitude that the United Republic of

Tanzania has secured the endorsement of the African

Union to seek a non-permanent seat in the Security

Council. Our candidature will be placed before the

Assembly for election later during this session, and we

appeal for the full support of our candidature.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to ravage

many of our countries. As public awareness grows and

technology improves, so do our chances of protecting

the most basic human right, the right to life. That right

can be enjoyed by our people if current and future

advances in science and technology are extended to the

many poor who are infected with HIV/AIDS.

Preventive care, access to affordable drugs and the

health delivery infrastructure in developing countries

all need to be widened and strengthened. On this front,

too, we need help.

Democratic governance is a universal norm,

which has to be reflected also in the United Nations

system. What is desirable for our individual countries

must also be true for the United Nations. Recent

developments in the reform agenda of the Organization

must therefore be expedited. Our hope is that the report

of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and

Change will bring forth recommendations for a firm

jump forward in the reconfiguration of the reform

process.

The Security Council must be representative of

today’s wider membership of the United Nations and

reflective of the current geopolitical and economic

structure of the world. There are countries in Asia,

Africa and Latin America that deserve permanent seats

because of their major contribution to the sustainability

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of the Organization and to global peace, security and

development. The time to bring them in has come.

Members of the United Nations must uphold

steadfastly, in word and deed, the ideals of its Charter

for peace with justice and for security with

development for all. These common aspirations are the

foundation of international law, of international order

and of international cooperation. They also invest with

credible legitimacy our collective pursuit of the

happiness of humanity and the renewal of humanity’s

environment. Working together, we can ascend to the

heights to which we aspire. Only then shall we leave to

coming generations a deserved legacy of a common

future for all mankind.