Central African Republic, 2011

At the outset, I would like to convey to the

President, on behalf of His Excellency Army General

François Bozizé, Head of State and President of the

Central African Republic, who it is my honour to

represent here, our heartfelt congratulations on his

election to preside over the General Assembly at its

sixty-sixth session. He can rest assured of our full

readiness to cooperate with him to ensure the success

of his challenging task. I would also like to pay well-

deserved tribute to his predecessor, His Excellency

Mr. Joseph Deiss, for the talent and dedication that he

demonstrated as he steered our work throughout the

sixty-fifth session of the Assembly. To His Excellency

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, I convey my heartfelt

congratulations on his reappointment to the head of the

Organization.

Lastly, the Central African Republic welcomes

the admission of South Sudan, a brotherly

neighbouring country, as the 193rd Member State of

the United Nations.

In proposing “The role of mediation in the

settlement of disputes through peaceful means” as the

central theme of the general debate of the sixty-sixth

session of the Assembly, the President has placed our

deliberations at the very heart of those problems that

are of current concern to the international community.

It must be recalled that the maintenance of

international peace and security around the world

continues to be the primary mission of the

Organization, and that, for Member States, mediation

continues to be an indispensable tool in the peaceful

settlement of conflicts. The Central African Republic

remains committed to the principles of the United

Nations Charter, which enshrines language pertaining

to the peaceful settlement of conflicts — principally

through mediation and prevention.

The international community faces many

challenges to which we need to provide tailored

responses in order to together build a better world.

We attach particular attention to the issue of

climate change and the environment. Protecting the

environment and combating climate change are major

challenges, as well a priority for the international

community, given the many and varied risks that they

pose to ecosystems and economies.

The commemoration, next year, of the twentieth

anniversary of the first Earth Summit on sustainable

development will be devoted to forests. Tropical

forests, including those in the Central African

Republic, are exposed to various harmful and

destructive activities associated with the pressure

exerted by social problems and natural disasters. The

countries concerned have recognized the need to

formulate land-use policies in order to conserve their

biodiversity, both in terms of flora and fauna, in these

regions.

Furthermore, the drought that is currently

afflicting the Horn of Africa, where approximately

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12 million human lives are threatened, is a source of

major concern and requires broad-scale mobilization

by the international community.

That brings me to the issue of food security. The

Central African Republic will support a draft resolution

on food development, some provisions of which would

be incorporated in the various resolutions of the

Assembly and in other United Nations meetings

throughout the year.

Nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament

remain a priority. The Central African Republic

welcomes the renewed interest in disarmament on the

part of the international community. Greatly concerned

by the nuclear threat to all of humankind, non-nuclear-

weapon States are entitled to call upon those who

possess nuclear weapons to fully shoulder their

responsibilities by implementing specific measures to

bring about genuine nuclear disarmament. For its part,

the Central African Republic will spare no effort to

support any United Nations initiative to that end.

Today, terrorism remains a scourge of the

international community. In resolution 1963 (2010), the

Security Council declared its intent to hold a special

meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) on

28 September 2011, open to all United Nations

Member States, to mark the tenth anniversary of the

adoption of its resolution 1373 (2001) establishing the

CTC. It should be recalled that the CTC has done a

great deal in assisting Member States in undertaking

actions to combat this scourge by strengthening the

implementation of standards and border controls, as

well as in the fight against the financing of terrorism.

The Central African Republic remains committed

to the universal values of human rights, democracy and

good governance. We reaffirm our commitment to

working throughout this sixty-sixth session with the

other Members of the United Nations to provide

responses that uphold those values.

The fight against impunity and against violations

of human rights is a given for our community. We hope

to see it placed within an overall approach that does

not hinder the process of political crisis and conflict

resolution around the world or undermine regional and

international efforts provided for by the United Nations

Charter.

The Central African Republic attaches special

importance to the reform of this Organization and all

its bodies with regard to their structures, modes of

operation and work methods. For this reason, we

remain committed to the African position regarding the

Security Council. Indeed, in all the ongoing crises in

the world, the Security Council has gradually imposed

the authority of the United Nations, placing it at the

service of international peace and security. Its action is

and remains legitimate. Its authority will be further

strengthened when we reach an agreement on its

expansion, which will enable us to take the emergence

of new Powers into account by giving a more equitable

place to all continents.

Like many African States, my country has been

engaged on the path towards democratic governance

since the 1990s. As part of our democratic process, we

have endeavoured to improve the management of

public policy on the political, economic and social

fronts. We are aware that much remains to be done in

these spheres.

The renewed trust of the Central African in His

Excellency General of the Army François Bozizé

Yangouvonda, President of the Republic and Head of

State, has given him the opportunity to pursue the

successful task he began on 15 March 2003. We are

determined to break with instability and at long last to

turn the page on political-military upheavals. That will

enable him to focus on reconstruction. In other words,

we will do everything to consolidate that peace that

guarantees enduring development. Without peace and

security, there can be no economic development that

benefits the population as a whole.

It is from this standpoint that the Central African

Government held a round table in Brussels with our

development partners on 16 and 17 June in order to

raise the awareness of the international community

with respect to the funding needs of the programmes

outlined in the second poverty reduction strategy paper.

The matter of security remains at the very heart

of our concerns. Part of the population of the Central

African Republic continues to suffer the aggression of

rebels belonging to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)

of Joseph Kony. The activity of the LRA, a cruel and

barbaric rebellion from a country that shares no

borders with the Central African Republic, remains the

source of atrocities, destruction, looting, rape, forced

recruitment and the deportation of men, women and

children. Mobilization on all sides and the shared

17 11-51398

allocation of resources are needed to eradicate that

scourge once and for all.

The Government of the Central African Republic

greatly appreciates the initiatives of the United

Nations, the African Union and the United States on

this issue. We continue to believe that the Republic of

South Sudan will join other affected countries in this

relentless struggle against a cross-border enemy that

harbours vague ambitions harmful to the stability

required for development of our subregion.

The December 2010 withdrawal of the United

Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and

Chad left a security vacuum that my country is trying

to fill despite our limited resources. The same holds

true for Mission for the Consolidation of Peace in the

Central African Republic deployed by the Economic

Community of Central African States, whose mandate

expires at the end of December 2013.

Reinforcing the capacities of our defence and

security forces, which are slated to take over from the

international forces, is still far from complete. I should

like here to thank the United Nations through its

Peacebuilding Fund, which has been supporting the

Central African Republic in its tireless quest for peace

and stability.

In the light of all this, I appeal once again to the

international community to take urgent action in order

to build peace and prevent conflict in the Central

African Republic. We welcome in advance all

commitments that have been or will be made on our

behalf. We are convinced that the dividends of those

efforts will benefit both the Central African Republic,

which lies at the heart of the African continent, and the

entire subregion.