Algeria, 2005

At

this crucial moment, when it is debating questions vital

to the United Nations and all humanity, the General

Assembly has unanimously decided to elect you, Mr.

President, to preside over the deliberations of its

sixtieth session. I therefore congratulate you very

warmly and offer you my best wishes for success. I

also congratulate your predecessor, Mr. Jean Ping, and

thank the Secretary-General for his efforts for peace,

development and agreement among nations.

Our world has been radically transformed since

the end of the cold war — that sombre period that still

has continuing effects. New threats have appeared,

while other, older ones remain. New kinds of

challenges loom, even as the international community

is falling behind in finding appropriate responses to

existing challenges, which are getting worse. New

conflicts are erupting violently today, while the

international community still struggles with the

flashpoints that appeared following the Second World

War, as well as those that arose out of the ensuing

process of decolonization.

Humanitarian disasters, whether man-made or

natural, and the problems of refugees, famine, the

AIDS pandemic and malaria, exacerbated by persistent

underdevelopment have contributed more than ever to

stretch beyond strictly military issues our definition of

collective security, which our Organization, since its

birth, has been asked to promote. The mission to

protect remains today an unattainable goal.

A vital threat seen daily throughout the world is

the growing threat of international terrorism, which

respects no borders and violates the most fundamental

human rights. It is not enough to vigorously denounce

the killing of innocent victims. To combat terrorism,

we must oppose it with relentless determination. In that

context, there is no alternative to resolute international

cooperation that recognizes, above all, that an effective

response to transnational terrorism is necessarily a

collective effort.

Algeria believes it urgent to implement existing

agreements on the fight against terrorism and to

conclude a comprehensive convention on terrorism that

can overcome the difficulties in reaching an agreed

definition of terrorism while not providing pretexts for

the oppression of peoples seeking to realize their

legitimate rights. Active cooperation has been long

awaited, but it is not sufficient.

Bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation

must be expanded and improved as we strengthen

international legal instruments, such as the

International Convention for the Suppression of Acts

of Nuclear Terrorism, adopted last April.

At the same time, given the justifiable revulsion

terrorism provokes, we must guard against attributing

such acts to any religion or civilization. On the

contrary, we must emphasize that the aspiration to

peace and the search for agreement and exchange

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among peoples are values common to the various

civilizations we represent. That leads us to express our

complete rejection of terrorism and spurs our collective

reaction against it.

We cannot hide our concern at growing

intolerance and the echoes we sometimes hear of

pseudo-theories and false analyses that show ever less

restraint in directly blaming Islam, which, for the

overwhelming majority of a billion believers, is a

religion that calls for fraternity, solidarity and

tolerance. To blame Islam - as some small but

influential groups do - is to forget that before

terrorism was recognized as an international

phenomenon, it also struck, in particular, at Muslims

who had rejected the perpetrators and denied their

claims that they represented all Muslims.

I strongly reaffirm that those criminals have placed

themselves outside Islam and have no claim to it. I say

this on behalf of a country that has suffered a decade of

terrorism and which has found precisely in its religion

the endurance and the will to triumph over barbarism,

staunch its wounds, renew its hope and take the path of

reconciliation and brotherhood, which are at the very

heart of the community of people and its leaders, as we

approach the national referendum of 29 September.

Although the situation today confirms some of

our earlier doubts and concerns, our only concern now

is to see the people of Iraq — the heirs to an ancient

civilization that is admired by the whole world —

return to peace and stability through the recovery of its

full and complete sovereignty over a territory whose

integrity is best preserved by exorcising the divisive

demons generated by the present circumstances.

The Arab world is today the site of promising

developments for the development of democracy and

economic prosperity for its people. It would be wrong

to see in these developments merely a response to

external pressure. First and foremost, it comes from

peoples wishing to participate, finally and actively, in

their future, and who are eager to make their specific

contribution to the conduct of affairs in a world where

nothing that happens should be alien to them.

This desire for reform brought the Arab heads of

State together in Algiers, last March for a summit

meeting, over which we were honoured to preside.

Reaffirming that desire, the leaders made firm

commitments and we have proceeded to implement

them.

As diverse as the Arab countries may be in their

political, economic and social realities, we still have

the same aspiration, which is bearing us towards a

future of peace and progress to be shared by all if

possible. In other words, we are fully aware that no

peace and no sustainable economic momentum can be

built in the Middle East unless the Palestinian people

recover their full and complete sovereignty in the

occupied territories, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif,

capital of their independent State.

It is a positive thing that the risks of nuclear

proliferation have received heightened international

attention in the last few years. The seventh Conference

to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty held

last May should have provided us with a special

occasion to develop and adopt appropriate measures to

deal with the problem on a consensual basis. However,

we must note that our expectation was not met,

particularly with respect to the 13 measures on nuclear

disarmament agreed to at the preceding Conference.

Algeria, which has adopted and supported the

Additional Protocol on the International Atomic

Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards regime, also fully

supports total and complete disarmament, as well as

the total elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

But we cannot conceal our concern that an exception to

the treaty that has been tolerated, even allowed, in a

region as riven by conflict as the Middle East only

further underscores the discriminatory approach that

prevails with respect to non-proliferation.

The African landscape has been profoundly

transformed since the formation of the African Union

and the launching of the New Partnership for Africa's

Development (NEPAD). So it is with new energy that

Africa, having established its Peace and Security

Council, has decided to tackle the conflicts that afflict

it and to take up the resolute promotion of their final

settlement. Anyone who looks at Africa objectively

cannot ignore the endemic diseases, all of the visible

and latent crises, the natural and man-made disasters,

the famine and illiteracy. But today’s Africa, we must

note, has never had so many democratically elected

regimes and so many economies undergoing promising

reforms. Much still needs to be done, and the African

countries are the first to recognize that.

Out of a sense of solidarity and also out of self-

interest, developed countries should accompany Africa

in its determination to make a radical change in its

circumstances so as to allow the African continent to

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become part of the world economy, gain prosperity and

make its contribution to the prosperity of the world in

general. This cannot be done unless we take specific

actions that have been amply identified by NEPAD, by

the Commission for Africa established by Tony Blair

and by the report of the Secretary-General of our

Organization.

As you know, the main points are to erase the

debt and raise official development assistance (ODA)

from the current $25 billion to $50 billion and then to

$75 billion between now and 2010, to establish an

international finance facility and to raise ODA from the

developed countries to 0.7 per cent of their gross

domestic product by 2015.

It is also in Africa, near Algeria, that we still see

one of the last remaining uncompleted processes of

decolonization. I am referring to the conflict in the

Western Sahara, where Morocco and the Polisario

Front are adversaries. The United Nations has

identified this territory as being non-autonomous, and

it is a situation that is actionable under the Declaration

on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries

and Peoples. There is a peace plan that has been

approved unanimously by the Security Council, calling

for a framework and modalities for a final settlement

through a free consultation of the Saharawi people

regarding their destiny.

My country believes that the Baker Plan is the

only framework able to lead to a settlement of the

conflict, which pits Moroccans against the Polisario.

Algeria fully supports the efforts of the United Nations to

this end. We are pleased in this respect to see Mr. Peter

van Walsum appointed as Personal Envoy of the

Secretary-General and we assure him of our support in his

mission, just as we do the new Special Representative of

the Secretary-General for the Western Sahara.

Resolving the conflict in the Western Sahara in

keeping with norms of international legality and within

the framework of the United Nations would have the

positive effect of giving critical momentum to the

building of the Greater Arab Maghreb, which Algeria

has always called for.

We can only agree with the Secretary-General

when he puts development at the centre of his concept

of a new international economic order and gives it

priority attention within the United Nations agenda. A

few days ago, Member States evaluated progress made

since the September 2000 adoption of the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs), and we must admit that

the results are not that encouraging, the case of Africa

being rather instructive. With regard to the

implementation of the eight goals of the 2000

Declaration, we would say that some of them, such as

poverty reduction, have been deferred to a dangerously

remote future.

The requirement of adapting to new international

realities makes reform an obligation for our

Organization. Such reform must be thoroughgoing and

balanced and serve and preserve the interests of as

many as possible. We cannot just have specific

amendments for the ambitions of a small number of

Members, legitimate though those ambitions may be.

The reforms to be undertaken must, above all, satisfy

the majority and serve the collective interests and

common aspirations of all.

The special attention given to the expansion of

the Security Council is certainly justified, given the

dominant role played by the Council in maintaining

international peace and security, but we must not let

this cause us to lose sight of the legitimate demands of

Africa, nor of the need to maintain balance among the

various bodies. Given the fact that most of the African

countries were excluded from the Conference for the

United Nations at San Francisco because they were

colonies, it would be paradoxical, anachronistic and

ineffective if developing countries were now invited to

validate reform proposals that ignore their interests and

concerns.

In this exercise that we are undertaking under the

watchful eye of our peoples, let us work together and

embrace a common vision that will ensure a future of

peace and prosperity shared by the Member States that

the United Nations has the duty to guarantee.