Burkina Faso, 2007

I

should like at the outset to express our sincere

congratulations to His Excellency Mr. Srgjan Kerim on

his election to the presidency of the General Assembly

at its sixty-second session. I am convinced that, thanks

to his skill as an experienced diplomat, he will ably

carry out his mandate. He can count on the cooperation

of the delegation of Burkina Faso. I should also like to

express our deep gratitude to his predecessor, Her

Excellency Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for the

ability with which she led the work of the sixty-first

session.

I would like, finally, to pay tribute to the

Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who has shown, in

the less than a year that he has been at the head of this

Organization, his full-fledged commitment to peace

and development and his firm determination to pursue

the ambitious work of modernizing the United Nations

bequeathed to him by his predecessor, Mr. Kofi Annan.

As I speak to this Assembly, Burkina Faso has

had floods this year, which have bereaved many

families in all regions of the country. The dozens of

death, the thousands of homeless people and displaced

persons, the food crisis and the subsequent epidemics

have implications above and beyond the statistics —

the heavy price that a country, such as Burkina Faso,

pays for global warming and all other phenomenon

linked to climate change. It is my hope that the

conclusions of the important summit on climate change

held here on 24 September will promote the adoption

of appropriate and urgent measures that will shield our

populations from this type of scourge.

All types of tension are shaking the world and, in

particular, the African continent, which gives us

reasons to welcome the role played by our

Organization in the search for and strengthening of

peace and peacebuilding. Burkina Faso, which is the

Chair of the Economic Community of West African

States (ECOWAS), is mindful that no sustainable

development can be contemplated without an

environment of peace and stability and has made

conflict resolution a key thrust of its diplomacy.

Therefore, President Compaoré has made a

resolute commitment as facilitator to search for

solutions to the crises that have affected the fraternal

and neighbouring countries of Togo and Côte d’Ivoire.

The Inter-Togolese Dialogue, which led in August 2006

to the signing in Lomé of a comprehensive political

agreement. The agreement is bearing fruit, which

pleases all those concerned. The latest session of the

follow-up committee, which was held in Ouagadougou

in August 2007, noted the conclusion of the electoral

roll revision process and the setting of a date for

legislative elections on 14 October 2007.

Prospects are encouraging in Togo and, on behalf

of President Compaoré, facilitator of the Inter-Togolese

Dialogue, I can confirm the sincere will and the real

commitment of the people and the political class of

Togo to get their country out of this crisis and to create

the best conditions conducive to reconstruction, growth

and development. And, in thanking the international

community for their assistance, I would call on them to

pursue their action for institutional reforms,

peacebuilding and economic development in Togo.

In the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, thanks to the

Ouagadougou Political Accord, signed on 4 March

2007 by President Gbagbo and the Secretary-General

of the Forces Nouvelles Guillaume Soro, the end of

hostilities is now a reality. And so we should commend

and encourage them to persevere to a final peace in

Côte d’Ivoire. The facilitator of the direct dialogue in

the Ivorian crisis, President Compaoré, who is

President of the Conference of Heads of State and

Government of ECOWAS at this time, is please to see

all of the political class and the entire population of

Côte d’Ivoire joining in the Ouagadougou Accord. This

Accord translates the will of the parties to proceed with

identifying people for an electoral enumeration and to

organize a free, open and transparent presidential

election. The Security Council, in its resolution 1765

(2007), has endorsed this Accord.

I would like to express our appreciation to the

United Nations, which has supported Burkina Faso in

its efforts to establish peace and security, particularly

in West Africa. In deciding to be a candidate for a non-

permanent seat on the Security Council, for the period

of 2008-2009, Burkina Faso hopes to make its

contribution to the triumph of a world of justice and

peace over the current world, where exclusion,

intolerance and frustrations generate violent acts of

despair. At this time, I would like to reiterate our

thanks to the member States of the ECOWAS and the

African Union (AU) who decided to make the

candidacy of Burkina Faso an African candidacy. Our

hope is that all Members of this Organization will give

us their trust. We will be worthy of it.

Burkina Faso remains concerned by situations of

tension and conflict in Africa and throughout the

world. We welcome the decision of the Security

Council to deploy a hybrid United Nations-African

Union force in Darfur (UNAMIS). Burkina Faso has

decided to participate in it, as we have done in a

number of other theatres of operation. I would call

upon the international community to give peace a

chance in the Sudan by giving this hybrid force the

logistical and financial resources necessary for

accomplishing their mission. As for the protagonists,

they will have to do everything they can to make the

upcoming talks an important milestone in the process

of national reconciliation and in bringing peace to the

country.

We also think about the persistence of conflicts in

Somalia and between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The

Saharan zone, which includes the north of Mali and

Niger, has also been hit by armed conflict. Burkina

Faso has expressed its solidarity to those two

neighbouring countries and hopes that durable

solutions will allow for peace to be re-established and

will allow for the promotion of socio-economic

development.

We are pleased about the political developments

in Sierra Leone, a country which has just had great

success in organizing free, democratic and transparent

general elections. This is the most recent illustration

that democracy and good governance are gradually

taking root in Africa. Throughout the continent, this

principle of good governance is part of the political

agendas.

We also congratulate the Moroccan Government

for having initiated direct talks with the Polisario Front

on the future of the Western Sahara. By this direct

dialogue the two parties are, together, proving their

ability to look for a mutually beneficial political

solution. We would strongly encourage them to do so,

convinced as we have always been that only a

negotiated, political solution will put an end to this

conflict.

Because it is at the heart of any lasting peace in

the region and throughout the world, the settlement of

the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must remain an absolute

priority for our Organization. In this respect, it has

been established that the only solution is the creation

of a Palestinian State that is viable with secure and

internationally recognized borders alongside a State of

Israel that is also certain of its security. And this is now

where all efforts should be focused.

In welcoming the existence of nuclear-weapon-

free zones, Burkina Faso is also calling for a

responsible, just and equitable approach to the so-

called nuclear crises. My delegation is very much

concerned by the proliferation and the trafficking of

small arms and light weapons, which for the victims

are truly weapons of mass destruction. In West Africa,

the phenomenon is particularly disturbing and its

eradication requires sustained cooperation among

States, as well as significant support on the part of the

international community. Burkina Faso, which is the

Chair of ECOWAS, has decided to make a priority of

this issue.

The West African region is also in the process of

becoming a key centre of drug trafficking. That

situation requires urgent and appropriate action on our

part, since it is likely to destabilize States, particularly

by disrupting their economies and increasing the level

of organized crime and corruption. Therefore, we call

for solidarity and support from the international

community to help us eradicate this scourge as swiftly

as possible.

Those worrisome issues will certainly be on the

agenda of the conference on peace and security in West

Africa and the role of the joint European Union-Africa

strategy which my country will host in November

2007. A joint initiative of the Republic of Austria and

Burkina Faso, that important meeting will be an

opportunity to identify the underlying causes of

conflict and to formulate solutions capable of ensuring

the sustainable development of countries in the

subregion.

The current situation in many countries reminds

us of the cruel reality of terrorism, which remains

among the most pernicious of challenges and thus the

most difficult to overcome. We must therefore

demonstrate greater solidarity to contain it. In

particular, we call for diligent implementation of the

United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and,

in that connection, effective international cooperation

to strengthen the current legal arsenal and the

conclusion of a comprehensive convention as soon as

possible.

By working for sustainable peace, we offer our

States the best guarantee for their economic

development. Nevertheless, the current international

economic reality, which is characterized by

globalization and excessive liberalization, continues to

batter economies such as that of Burkina Faso. What is

more, these fragile economies must contend with unfair

trade rules.

Several years ago, President Blaise Compaoré, by

launching his crusade against subsidies for Northern

cotton growers — a crusade that was also carried out

on behalf of his peers in Benin, Mali and Chad —

sought to put an end to one of the most cynical

practices of international trade. We hope to see the

conclusion of the Doha Round of negotiations, which

will place development at the heart of international

trade.

Millions of men, women and children —

particularly in Africa — are waiting to benefit from the

positive impact of international trade in the hope that it

will contribute to their development and to the

improvement of their living conditions. For them,

poverty and misery are not statistics or assessments, let

alone projections. They are the mother who, because

there is no drinking water or no health facility within a

distance of 10 kilometres, sees the baby whom she bore

with difficulty die in her arms; they are the child who

is eager for knowledge but who will never go to

school; they are the father who sees his only son

confront the wrath of the sea and jeopardize his life in

search of a supposedly better life on some shore. Those

are the daily tragedies to which all of us here can

attest.

We have the means to act. We must act quickly.

We must act now.

For a number of years, we have engaged the

United Nations in a process of qualitative change to

equip it with the means to deal with the demands of the

modern world and to be able to effectively fulfil the

aspirations of peoples. However, while the

achievements are considerable, the task remains vast

and the expectations pressing. Thus, we must

demonstrate the will and the discernment to give the

Organization viable structures and adequate means.

Burkina Faso hopes that, at the end of this process, the

historical wrongs committed against Africa and other

parts of the world will be corrected, particularly at the

level of the Security Council.

We also deplore the ongoing injustice committed

against the Republic of China on Taiwan, whose

legitimate aspiration to participate fully in world

affairs has been denied. Nevertheless, that country is a

good example of successful democracy and social and

economic development. By depriving 25 million men

and women of the right to make their contribution to

the realization of United Nations principles and

objectives, our Organization is also depriving itself of

its own quest for modernity and universality.

Therefore, it is a new United Nations, open to all, that

Burkina Faso earnestly calls for.

Burkina Faso reaffirms its faith in multilateralism

and in the role of the United Nations as an

irreplaceable instrument for peace, development and

the promotion of dialogue among peoples, which it is

our historic duty to preserve and strengthen.