Zambia, 2001

Let me begin by

congratulating you, Mr. President, on your election as

President of this fifty-sixth session of the General

Assembly. My delegation pledges its support and

cooperation to you and your country as you discharge

your important responsibilities.

I also wish to take this opportunity to pay tribute

to your predecessor, Mr. Harri Holkeri of Finland,

President of the fifty-fifth session. We are grateful to

him for the able and successful manner in which he

presided over the session.

I wish to salute the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi

Annan, on his re-election to the helm of the United

Nations, which is an attestation of the commitment and

the dynamism with which he has guided the

Organization during this period of great challenge.

I am addressing this session in my dual capacity

as President of the Republic of Zambia and current

Chairman of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).

This occasion holds a special significance to me as I

make my last statement to the General Assembly as

President of the Republic of Zambia, having almost

come to the end of my second and last tenure of office

of my country.

This year the general debate of the General

Assembly is taking place in November instead of two

months ago, because of the tragic events of 11

September. Those developments united us on the need

to postpone this session, just as we were united in our

resolve to fight international terrorism, which knows

no boundaries. Indeed, today more than ever before,

the entire world seems more conscious of, and gripped

by, the evil of international terrorism and the

consequent loss of life and destruction of property.

Terrorism is an affront to humanity. It is a

heinous and cowardly act that is hated almost as much

as we hated apartheid or any form of racism. It is for

these reasons that Africa has for a long time been

fighting international terrorism. In Algiers, Algeria, in

1999, we, as African leaders, took a mammoth decision

by adopting a Convention on the prevention and

combating of all forms of terrorism. Although the

Convention has not entered into force, Africa has since

then been seeking international support in the adoption

of appropriate strategies for the effective eradication of

the multiple root causes of terrorism. We remain

resolute and resolutely committed to, and united in, the

pursuit of this goal.

However, let me also hasten to add that, in spite

of its gravity and magnitude, the threat of terrorism

must not override or deduct from the appropriate focus

on the outstanding matters on the global agenda.

Burning issues such as the scourge of conflicts, poverty

eradication, the debt problem and the HIV/AIDS

pandemic, among other things, should continue to be

accorded the necessary attention they so much deserve.

While many good things and positive

developments have been taking place on the African

continent, these are, nevertheless, largely

overshadowed by the many conflicts that continue to

rage in a number of our countries. We have witnessed

conflict in the Mano River basin involving Sierra

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Leone, Liberia and Guinea; the situations in Sudan and

Somalia are yet to be settled; disturbances recently

erupted in the Comoros; and violence continues to

threaten the constitutionally elected Government in the

Central African Republic. The Great Lakes region

remains a tinderbox, while the conflict in Angola has

experienced no movement towards resolution for quite

some time now. Meanwhile, the ceasefire agreement in

the Democratic Republic of the Congo is yet to be fully

implemented.

Africa does not lack the political will or resolve

to find solutions to these conflicts. Neither has Africa

sat back and waited for the outside world to come and

resolve these conflicts. Instead, Africa has

acknowledged responsibility for these conflicts and has

spearheaded efforts to bring peace wherever there have

been conflicts.

It was Africa, through the efforts of President

Abdelaziz Bouteflika, that brought about an end to the

Ethiopia-Eritrea conflict. The guns were silenced in

Liberia and Sierra Leone, thanks to the efforts of the

leaders of the Economic Community of West African

States (ECOWAS), who are still leading the effort to

bring peace to the Mano River basin. The leaders of the

Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD)

have continued to seek peaceful settlements in Sudan

and Somalia, while the Lusaka peace processes have

addressed the conflicts in Angola and the Democratic

Republic of the Congo. Most recently, a Transitional

Government of National Unity was inaugurated in

Burundi on 1 November 2001, as a culmination of

efforts started by the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere and

completed by Nelson Mandela, two of Africa’s most

distinguished sons.

It is clear from the foregoing that what Africa

needs to successfully resolve the conflicts on the

continent is the moral, practical and financial support

of the international community. Africa has always

believed in the dictum that in unity there is strength.

We believe that all nations belong to a common global

community with a shared destiny and shared

responsibilities.

To this end, Africa has always been ready and

willing to participate in efforts to restore peace where

peace has broken down, irrespective of the location of

the region. Our men and women have served as

peacekeepers in Europe, in Asia and in the Middle East

because we believe that peace is indivisible.

Africa therefore expects that, just as we are ready

and willing to serve in the promotion and defence of

peace everywhere, so, too, should the international

community be willing to be full partners in the search

for peace in Africa.

In this regard, I cannot help but register our

disappointment that after the painstaking efforts by Sir

Ketumile Masire to organize the inter-Congolese

national dialogue in Addis Ababa on 15 October 2001,

and notwithstanding the many pledges made to finance

it, the dialogue could not take off due partly to

insufficient funds. I would therefore like to appeal to

the international community, through the Assembly, to

provide the necessary assistance to Sir Ketumile

Masire, the facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue,

to enable him to proceed with organizing the dialogue

and to conclude the peace process in the Democratic

Republic of the Congo. In particular, I wish to make a

special appeal to all those who have made pledges to

the facilitator to release these pledges urgently.

Conflicts do not stand alone or develop in a

vacuum. Political conflicts and social tension are a

result of imbalances in the dispensation of political

power, economic wealth and benefits, as well as of

social suppression, segregation and the repression of

one or more groups of people on the basis of race,

ethnicity or even religion. The African continent, with

barely 40 years of independence, has suffered centuries

of fractured development, deprivation of resources and

the political and social suppression of its people. These

are the conditions at the centre of Africa’s current

struggle to redress both the political and economic

imbalances.

The United Nations World Conference against

Racism, held in South Africa this year, took a major

historical step by refocusing on that human injustice of

the past, whose consequences continue to ravage our

societies to this day. The Conference condemned the

slave trade, slavery, colonialism and apartheid as

crimes against humanity. The condemnation of past

injustices should be made on the premise that we now

have the will, the resolve and the commitment to

embark upon the process of healing, reconciliation and

redress. Our final objective is to bring about justice,

political liberation, economic development and a fair

social system that will promote the human rights of

individuals, the national sovereignty of States and

mutually beneficial regional and global

interdependence and cooperation.

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The African economic and social condition has

been on the agenda of the United Nations since

Africa’s decade of independence. Slavery, colonialism

and apartheid, and now pervasive poverty, misery and

squalor for the majority of our people continue to

ravage the continent with negative consequences for

human life. The advent of HIV/AIDS, coupled with

centuries-old diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis

and with many other communicable yet curable

diseases such as cholera, dysentery and diarrhoea, has

reduced African life expectancy from 68 years to 50

years, and in some countries to only a pathetic 38

years. The mortality rate for children under the age of 5

years is 140 per 1,000 births on the average. Such

adverse social conditions cannot be at all conducive to

economic development and improvement in the

standard of living. These conditions have to be changed

for the better.

The development process of post-colonial or

independent Africa has also accumulated debt and

suffered negative terms of trade for its raw materials

and products exported to the developed countries. On

the one hand, the resulting huge trade deficits of

African nations reduce their purchasing power for the

technology, equipment and investment capital they

need for economic growth and development. On the

other hand, the deficit increases the foreign debt and

shrinks public investment programmes for

infrastructure and education and health delivery

systems, thereby further suppressing the very

conditions necessary for development and the

eradication of poverty.

Africa is not asking for charity! No. What Africa

is asking for is more accessible conditions for its raw

materials and products, and for prices that are fair and

conducive to development. We are not asking for

charity. No. We are asking for more African countries

to have access to the enhanced Heavily Indebted Poor

Countries Initiative (HIPC), so that they could use the

freed resources to build infrastructure such as schools,

combat diseases, provide safe drinking water and

invest in income-generating community activities

because, eventually, these are the measures which will

reduce poverty. We further call on the international

community to intensify and accelerate initiatives that

should bring debt cancellation to the poor countries.

There cannot be a credible solution to the problem of

poverty in Africa without debt cancellation.

The continent of Africa has accepted and fully

shares the responsibilities that come with globalization.

As a developing continent, we need to continue to

reorganize ourselves to face the challenges of the time.

The thirty-seventh session of the Organization of

African Unity (OAU) Assembly of Heads of State and

Government, held in Lusaka, Zambia, last July, took

Africa to a new historical stage when it launched the

African Union (AU). The AU will elevate Africa’s

integration agenda by forging a more cohesive political

union, while also creating an economic community of

nations. The Union also seeks to promote new levels of

partnerships with the international community,

particularly in the areas of sustainable economic

growth and development and of peace and security. At

the Lusaka Summit, the OAU also adopted a new

economic-centred recovery programme and poverty

reduction strategy called the New African Initiative,

which is now called the New Partnership for African

Development.

I wish to take this opportunity to express Africa’s

appreciation to the Group of 8 which, at its meeting in

Genoa, Italy, in July, endorsed the African initiative. I

also wish to thank the European Union, which, during

our meeting last month in Brussels, pledged its full

support of the initiative. It is important to note also that

Africa has been an active participant in global trade

liberalization initiatives. We thank the Government of

the United States for the practical step it has taken

through the African Growth and Opportunity Act. It is

a pioneering example in expanding trade and export

opportunities for Africa and for development.

Debt relief, debt cancellation, increased

production, accessibility to export markets, better

terms of trade and economic integration — these mark

the way forward to African development, sustainable

growth and poverty reduction. Under economic growth

and improved social conditions, democracy and good

governance will be sustained and conflicts reduced and

managed, while peace and security will last.

The time has come for me to thank the people of

Zambia for having given me the privilege and honour

of serving in the distinguished capacity of President of

the Republic of Zambia, to thank my colleagues in

Africa for entrusting me with the chairmanship of the

OAU and for their confidence and support and to thank

all of you in the international community. I have tried

my best during my tenure of office and can therefore

only hope that I have lived and performed up to your

17

expectations. Soon Zambia will have a new president.

It is my hope that he will be accorded the same support

and cooperation you have so kindly given to me in the

last ten years.