Zimbabwe, 2006

Let me begin my statement

by echoing the sentiments of those who have

congratulated you, Madam on your assumption of the

presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-first

session, as well as of those who have expressed their

appreciation for the manner in which your predecessor,

Mr. Jan Eliasson, successfully conducted the business

of the sixtieth session. In the same vein, I should also

like to congratulate the Republic of Montenegro on its

admission to the United Nations family.

I also wish to pay special tribute to the Secretary-

General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his vision and exemplary

leadership of the United Nations over the past 10 years.

We commend him for his tireless efforts to assist

Member States in transforming the United Nations into

a dynamic, relevant and effective instrument for

meeting challenges that confront us as we try to make

the world a better place for everyone.

The achievements of the Secretary-General,

especially in the area of the promotion of peace and

development — notable among them the Millennium

Summit in 2000 and the review Summit held last

year — will always be remembered as historic because

of the important decisions that we made on both

occasions. As he nears the end of his tenure of his high

Office, we wish him the best in his future endeavours

and hope that he will be available to serve the

international community wherever he may be needed.

The theme for our debate this year —

implementation of the global partnership for

development as a follow-up to the 2005 World

Summit — is very appropriate. We acknowledged last

year that fighting poverty was a collective undertaking.

Together, we recognized that mobilizing financial

resources for development is central to a global

partnership for development in support of the

implementation of internationally agreed goals,

including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

For many years now, the international community

has acknowledged the need for accelerated economic

development in Africa. There have been many

initiatives and programmes of action aimed at

achieving that objective. Indeed, the history of the

United Nations in the past three decades is littered with

well-meaning initiatives, many of which unfortunately

never made the transition from theory to practical

implementation.

We have agreed on goals and set targets for

ourselves in our quest to meet our economic and social

development challenges. Given this impressive array of

initiatives, it is curious and ironic that the aggregate

economic performance of our countries has not made a

difference in the lives of the majority of our people.

Mr. Belinga-Eboutou (Cameroon), Vice-President,

took the Chair.

One explanation for our development

predicament and the many failed initiatives is the wide

gap between rhetoric and concrete action on the

ground. We have on many occasions agreed on making

available the means of implementing agreed goals. We

have set targets for making those resources available.

Yet, at the same time, we have witnessed some

countries and groups taking concerted action, such as

illegal economic sanctions, to frustrate our

development efforts.

In the case of Zimbabwe, those countries have

blocked balance of payments support and other types

of assistance from the international financial

institutions that they control. Following the heroic and

successful efforts of the people of Zimbabwe to clear

requisite arrears to the International Monetary Fund,

those negative forces have manipulated decision-

making at that institution so as to deny us any new

support. They have even tried to restrict investment

inflows, all on account of political differences between

them and us.

Is it not a paradox that, while we are denied

resources for development, funding is readily made

available to support elements bent on subverting the

democratically expressed will of the majority of our

citizens and to unconstitutionally effect regime

change? We condemn such interference in our domestic

9 06-52885

affairs. Let me repeat what I have said before: regime

change in Zimbabwe — as, indeed, in any other

country — is a right of the people of that country; it

can never be a right of people of other countries. The

golden key to regime change is in the hands of the

people of Zimbabwe and is very well guarded. No one

from Washington or London has the right to that key; it

is our key and ours alone.

Let it also not be forgotten that those who want

regime change are the very same people whom we

fought yesterday. They represent British colonialism

and imperialism. We spent many years in jail; I spent

11 years in jail. Then we went into exile in order to

muster the military strength needed to overthrow

colonialism. Many of our people died in the process.

Many were killed by the British regime headed by Ian

Smith. Finally, our people were victorious. On 18 April

1980, a representative of the royal family, Prince

Charles, was sent to lower the British flag. I was there

to hoist the flag of independence, which today

represents the full sovereignty of the people of

Zimbabwe, never again to be lost. Never again shall

Zimbabwe become a colony.

And so, these manoeuvres and manipulations

continue, and my Government is well aware of them

and is well guarded. At every turn, we will take the

steps necessary to protect our sovereignty, defend our

people and defend our right to continue to ensure that

that sovereignty reposes in the hands of the

Zimbabwean people. From this rostrum, I want to warn

that any attempt to change that mandate through

unconstitutional means, by agents sent to undertake a

process that we regard as illegal, will meet with the full

wrath of the law.

It is for that reason that we welcome this debate,

which seeks to address the yawning gap between

agreed action plans and implementation, and between

rhetoric and what actually happens on the ground. We

fully acknowledge that national Governments shoulder

the primary responsibility for implementing their

development plans, including achieving the MDGs.

However, it is absolutely necessary that our efforts at

the national level — including adopting and

implementing correct and relevant programmes — be

supported, not hampered by a lack of international

cooperation. This session, therefore, would be of great

value if agreement were to be reached on financing for

development, including the establishment of

mechanisms to measure aid flows. Such financing, if it

is to have a meaningful impact, should be adequate,

predictable and consistent.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic continues to cause

untold havoc in Africa — particularly Southern

Africa — owing to high levels of poverty, which make

it difficult for the affected people to gain access to

medication. Zimbabwe welcomes the continuing efforts

by the international community of nations to find

lasting solutions to the scourge of HIV/AIDS. We urge

the donor community, in cooperation with

pharmaceutical companies, to assist in scaling up

access to affordable essential drugs, particularly for

developing countries.

The tendency to use assistance in the fight against

HIV/AIDS as a reward for political compliance and

malleability is one that the United Nations should

condemn. Given the fact that the pandemic does not

respect borders, the denial of assistance to countries on

political grounds, through a self-serving and selective

approach, will do more harm and weaken international

efforts to fight the pandemic. For example, in my

country, a Zimbabwean AIDS patient receives, on

average, approximately $4 per year in international

assistance, compared with an average of approximately

$172 per year for other countries in the region.

However, even against that background, my

Government has registered some modest success in

reducing the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate from

approximately 29 per cent in 2000 to 18.1 percent in

2006, on the strength of its own resources and

programmes.

While we do not dispute the inevitability of

migration, the problem of the brain drain is of great

concern to my Government and, indeed, to other

developing countries. The brain drain has proved to be

a handicap to sustainable development. If it is not

addressed now, the chances that developing countries

will achieve the MDGs by 2015 are minimal. While

developing countries are losing skilled manpower

through migration, the benefits associated with migrant

remittances are far less than the cost of developing

human resources and skills. We need to develop

solutions that give due recognition and respect to the

investments made by Governments in human resources

and in developing the skills of citizens, as well as to

the human rights of migrants.

While official development assistance is

desirable, what developing countries need more is an

06-52885 10

open, rules-based, predictable, non-discriminatory

trading and financial system. If developing countries

are to realize the full potential of international trade to

enhance economic growth, it is essential that the main

barriers to their exports be removed. In that regard, we

are concerned that tariffs have remained high on

goods — such as textiles and farm products — that are

strategically important to developing economies. Much

could be done with the right partnerships and with fair

terms of trade. We share the view that the

implementation of the development aspects of the

Doha Work Programme will go a long way towards

assisting developing countries to compete in this global

village. It is therefore disturbing that there has been no

progress in breaking the deadlock on the Doha Round

of international trade negotiations. The failure of

multilateral negotiations will give rise to bilateral

arrangements that are inimical to fair trade. We cannot

help but suspect that the breakdown was deliberately

engineered in order to perpetuate the status quo that

favours one group of countries at the expense of

another.

The United Nations is uniquely placed to provide

the framework for international cooperation. There is

consensus that the United Nations should play a

fundamental and central role in the promotion of

international cooperation for development. In that

regard, it is important that coherence and coordination

be enhanced, as agreed in the 2005 World Summit

Outcome. At the country level, the United Nations

system should be effectively coordinated in order to

support national efforts in poverty reduction and

sustainable development.

While my Government applauds the United

Nations continuing efforts to elaborate a convention on

terrorism, we urge Member States to guard against a

situation in which established international conventions

are ignored and resolutions of the General Assembly

and other United Nations bodies on that issue are

disregarded. In our attempt to deal with the scourge of

terrorism, it is also necessary to address the underlying

causes of that phenomenon. To demonstrate its

commitment to fighting terrorism, the Parliament of

Zimbabwe has come up with the Suppression of

Foreign and International Terrorism Bill, which seeks

to fight foreign and international terrorism, as well as

mercenary activities.

The recent developments in the Middle East are a

cause of great concern. We condemn the

disproportionate use of force by Israel in Gaza and

Lebanon and the detention of elected Palestinian

members of Parliament and ministers. We firmly reject

the collective punishment of the Palestinian and

Lebanese people and the intrusion into their territories

in violation of international law. We call upon the

international community, particularly the Security

Council and the Quartet, to make every effort to ensure

that the brokered ceasefire continues to hold.

It is sad that the Security Council dithered and

failed to take timely action to stop the massacres and

wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure in

Lebanon, all because of the misguided national

interests of one super-Power. The status quo in the

Council, where a few powerful countries hold the

world to ransom, is no longer tenable. There is

therefore a strong case here for addressing the core

issue of the democratization of international

governance. Africa remains the only continent that

does not have a permanent seat with veto power in the

Security Council. That situation is unacceptable. It

needs to be corrected and corrected now. The position

of the African Union on that issue is very clear. Africa

demands two permanent seats, complete with veto

power — if the veto power is to continue — plus two

additional non-permanent seats. We will not

compromise on this matter until our concerns are

adequately addressed.

Those who take objection to that are perhaps

States that would want to remain in the position in

which they are considered to be superior to everyone

else. There cannot be superiority under the Charter of

the United Nations, which recognizes the equality of

nations. We are all equal under that Charter, and that

principle has got to be recognized, but it would appear

that some countries that have amassed military power

over time consider themselves to be superior to all the

others because they have that muscle of power. But the

muscle of power is not the consideration that we take

into account in judging the worth of nations. The

Charter of the United Nations has got to be taken into

account, and who knows whether the Goliath of today

may tomorrow not be the same. Anyway, every Goliath

has his own David.

In many parts of Africa, the dawn of an

unprecedented era of peace and tranquillity has

allowed us to refocus our attention and resources

towards economic development. There can be no better

time than now for the international community to

11 06-52885

augment our own efforts to bring home to our people

the peace dividend we have so patiently waited for. We

therefore call on the international community to renew

its solidarity with Africa through tangible support in

the form of increased resources, decisive debt relief, as

well as new and additional financial resources for

investment and growth.

Let me conclude by reiterating the fact that the

future of the international community is best served by

an international order that is based on strengthening

multilateralism and thereby destroying the present

unipolar system. It is our conviction that only through

a multilateral approach can we achieve peace and

development. For us to successfully tackle the

challenges that we face, there is a need for more than

just pious expressions of solidarity. Together as global

partners in development, we can guarantee a

prosperous future for generations to come. Such a

partnership should be based on the principle of the

sovereign equality of nations and on mutual benefit.

That is the path we should strive to follow.