Tanzania, 2006

Permit me to begin by

congratulating Her Excellency Sheikha Haya Rashed

Al-Khalifa on her well deserved election to the

presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-first

session. This is an important milestone on the gender

agenda of the United Nations. I wish her great success

and assure her of Tanzania’s full support and

cooperation as she discharges her duties.

I would also like to commend her predecessor,

His Excellency Mr. Jan Eliasson, for his able

stewardship of the Assembly’s sixtieth session. Under

his leadership, Tanzania was privileged to co-chair,

with Denmark, negotiations that led to the

operationalization of the Peacebuilding Commission.

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I stand before this Assembly as the fourth

President of my country, Tanzania, following another

successful democratic election last year. This is the

third smooth transition of power in Tanzania. I took

over from my eminent predecessor in office, His

Excellency Benjamin William Mkapa, who has

remained active both at home and abroad. He remains

my useful and wise counsel, as does his predecessor

His Excellency Ali Hassan Mwinyi. Among the many

functions that former President Mkapa continues to

discharge for our country and the human family as a

whole is his membership in the Secretary-General’s

High-level Panel on System-Wide Coherence, which is

an important task on our agenda for the reform of the

United Nations.

Such was the success of the previous

administration that I can only come before you with

one central message — a message of policy continuity,

nationally, regionally and internationally.

We will continue the efforts of the previous

administration to promote peace, stability and national

unity. In addition, we shall redouble our efforts to

uphold and strengthen good democratic governance,

respect for human rights and the rule of law, and

intensify the fight against corruption. We feel greatly

honoured in this regard that the Global Organization of

Parliamentarians Against Corruption decided to hold

its second global conference in Arusha in two days’

time, in recognition and support of our efforts.

Tanzania also made impressive economic strides,

making it one of the fastest growing economies in

Africa. I intend to sustain and enhance that record with

greater zeal, vigour and speed.

Similarly, Tanzania has emerged as one of the

best-practice cases in terms of ownership of the

development agenda and the harmonization and

coordination of development assistance. I will advance

this policy and practice during my tenure in the hope

that it will contribute to the realization of the theme of

this General Assembly: the implementation of a global

partnership for development.

In view of this record, and given our political and

macro-economic stability and political will, Tanzania is

now well poised to accelerate the pace towards the

attainment of the Millennium Development Goals. For

this to happen, however, we need international support

to upgrade our infrastructure and build capacity for

value-addition processes and human resource

development. Fortunately, the framework for such

international support already exists, for example

through the Monterrey Consensus. I believe Tanzania

has lived up to its commitment under the Global

Compact for development. I now call upon our

development partners to do likewise.

Cognizant of the role of the private sector as the

engine of growth in Tanzania, we have implemented

far-reaching policies and institutional reforms geared

to creating an environment conducive to the thriving of

private business.

The World Bank’s “Doing Business 2007” report

recognizes Tanzania as one of the top-ten best

reforming countries in the world. That means that

Tanzania has again fulfilled its commitments under the

Global Compact. We therefore call upon our

development partners to buttress our efforts and assist

the private sector in responding positively.

The success of whatever we try to do nationally

depends critically on a peaceful neighbourhood. For

too long, Tanzania has suffered from the consequences

of conflict and instability in the Great Lakes region,

including hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees

and the destruction of infrastructure and the

environment, and in terms of time and resources

deployed in facilitating conflict resolution. For this

reason, Tanzania will continue to play its part in the

quest for peace, security, stability and development in

the Great Lakes region.

Significant progress has been achieved in the

political and security situation in the Great Lakes

region. We appreciate the support of the United

Nations and other partners in the regional peace

processes. Tanzania welcomes and commends the

Government of Burundi and the Parti pour la libération

du peuple hutu-Forces nationales de libération rebel

group for finally signing the ceasefire agreement. We

are humbled that we could be given an opportunity to

make our contribution. We promise to continue to be

useful in whatever way may be required.

Likewise, I commend the Government, the major

political actors and the people of the Democratic

Republic of the Congo for holding the long-awaited

elections. We urge that the forthcoming second round

of elections be conducted in a free, fair and peaceful

manner. Tanzania, as Chair of the Southern African

Development Community Organ on Politics, Defence

and Security, will play its role in support of this

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process. As a friendly neighbour, we will endeavour to

be as useful as is necessary.

Moreover, Tanzania, as current chair of the

Initiative for Peace and Security in the Great Lakes

Region, will continue to work closely with other

members to ensure a successful Second International

Conference on the Great Lakes Region later this year

in Nairobi.

I wish to put on record our sincere gratitude to

the Group of Friends of the Great Lakes Region for

their support. I appeal to them and the international

community to remain engaged with this process.

Peace seems to have eluded the world. Reports of

wars and violent conflicts are headline news in most of

our media. Unfortunately Africa, the poorest of the

continents, has had an unfair share of conflict. Like

other delegates, we express our concern for the security

and humanitarian situation in Darfur, and call for

continued engagement at the regional level and by the

international community. Likewise, we are deeply

concerned about the situation in Somalia, Côte d’Ivoire

and elsewhere on the continent.

The continuing impasse on the issue of the

Western Sahara is unfortunate. After 31 years, it is high

time that the United Nations redouble its efforts to

resolve this matter. The United Nations resolved the

question of East Timor, which has a lot of similarities

to that of the Saharans. The people of Western Sahara

deserve no less from their United Nations. I believe it

could be done if all parties played their part

appropriately.

Turning to the situation in the Middle East, I am

pleased to see the ceasefire between Israel and

Lebanon holding, and troop contributing countries

responding positively in reinforcing the United Nations

Interim Force in Lebanon.

The 34-day war in Lebanon took international

attention away from the plight of the Palestinian

people. The lack of progress towards a negotiated two-

State solution and the decline in confidence in the

peace process are worrying developments. We call

upon the Quartet, and encourage bilateral and other

multilateral initiatives, to revive the peace process laid

down in the road map. A just, viable, lasting and

comprehensive peace in the Middle East can come only

through negotiations, and no other way.

Tanzania welcomes and applauds the adoption by

the General Assembly of a comprehensive Global

Counter-Terrorism Strategy (resolution 60/288). It is

our expectation that the differences that arose during

the negotiations will not stand in the way of the

Strategy’s implementation. After experiencing a major

terrorist attack on our soil in 1998, Tanzania has

always repeated its resolve to cooperate with others to

combat terrorism in all its manifestations. The threat of

terrorism is global and complex; it demands our

collective efforts and an adaptive strategy to contain it.

Thank God we already have that strategy — let us

implement it.

Tanzania has always stood for the sovereign

equality of nations and for the primacy of

multilateralism in global governance and in addressing

global issues. We have always cherished and stood for

the central role of the United Nations in global affairs.

We promise to continue to be faithful and responsible

members of the United Nations. It is now our intention

to participate more actively in United Nations

peacekeeping missions and operations.

We have always believed that the United Nations

of today has to reflect, in its structure, policies,

programmes and activities, the realities of the world of

today, not that of sixty years ago. The United Nations

has to move with the changing times and aspirations of

its membership. I want to reaffirm Tanzania’s

continued commitment to these urgent and legitimate

demands. We are very much committed to the reform

agenda of the United Nations, especially reform of the

Security Council to make it more representative and

more responsive to changing realities.

Tanzania’s term as a non-permanent member of

the Security Council will end in three months. I would

like to thank all members for having accorded my

country the honour of serving in that very important

United Nations organ. We thank our fellow Council

members for their cooperation and support during our

term of office. As we prepare to leave the Council, we

are gratified that we were able to organize a special

Council meeting to discuss the situation in the Great

Lakes region at which useful conclusions and decisions

were made.

As we prepare to leave the Council, we are also

gratified that we have taken note of the feeling in the

Council of the need to reform that body. Let us pluck

up courage and take the bull by the horns.

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Allow me to pay special tribute to our outgoing,

illustrious Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan — a

great internationalist and a great statesman. We

congratulate him for a job well done and for his able

leadership during a particularly difficult period for the

world, for the United Nations and for him, personally.

He will be remembered as one who challenged the

Organization to live up to the true promise of

multilateralism, through delivering collective security,

pursuing fundamental human rights and the rule of law

and promoting human development. We thank him and

wish him the best of luck on his retirement. I hope that

he will be given time to retire.