Comoros, 2008

We are

extremely pleased to see Mr. Miguel d’Escoto

Brockmann presiding over the sixty-third session of the

General Assembly. I take this opportunity to express

my sincere thanks to His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon,

Secretary-General of our Organization, for his

commitment and active role in the service of the

United Nations and for promoting its ideals of justice

and peace.

The world today is faced with innumerable

challenges. We who govern our respective countries

bear a heavy responsibility. We must become

increasingly concerned about the fate of our world.

Why are we going through all these crises? Why are

there so many centres of tension throughout the world?

Why is there so much poverty and vulnerability in our

universe? Why is terrorism spreading throughout the

globe? Those are questions that must be addressed by

each one of us, by our collective conscience and, first

and foremost, by the United Nations, whose key

purpose remains the defence of the ideals of peace,

justice, solidarity and development.

Today’s reality is quite different. Unfortunately,

all those values are far from being solidly established.

The most privileged nations must therefore show

greater concern for the fate of some parts of the world

and, in particular, for developing countries where

violence, hunger, disease, injustice of all sorts conflicts

and their consequences are facts of daily life.

The double crisis of food and energy, to mention

but two, requires a new surge of solidarity at the

international level. The crisis affects the entire world,

but is felt particularly in developing countries.

Furthermore, we firmly believe in multilateralism. That

is why the reform of the major organs of the United

Nations is required today to ensure greater firmness

and effectiveness.

Last March, Operation Democracy in the

Comoros put an end to a rebellion that had shaken the

island of Anjouan and re-established constitutional

legality. As I promised, free, transparent and

democratic elections took place on the island last June,

enabling us to complete the establishment of local

Governments on the islands of the Union of the

Comoros.

Therefore, I would like to pay heartfelt tribute to

the African Union, the League of Arab States and the

friendly countries of Tanzania, the Sudan, Libya,

Morocco, Senegal, France and the United States of

America, which have all supported us morally,

materially or financially in our task to complete

without bloodshed the delicate operation of freeing the

island of Anjouan.

Firmly resolved to consolidate the renewed

stability and in line with the commitment made to our

partners, I have decided to organize as soon as possible

an inter-Comorian conference to bring together

political movements, local island Governments, civil

society and the Comoros’ partners. The conference will

focus on the outstanding institutional issues that have

long been a source of misunderstanding between the

central Government and the federal entities. Initial

contacts with the international community have been

established to muster the support necessary to convene

that national gathering which is required to improve

the functioning of our national institutions.

Economic difficulties cannot allow us to lose

sight of other major challenges, including environmental

problems, which particularly affect the small island

developing States, of which the Indian Ocean islands

are a part. Thus, as head of State of the country

currently holding the chairmanship of the Indian Ocean

Commission, which has observer status at the United

Nations, I would like to reiterate our subregional

organization’s desire to contribute to implementing the

Mauritius Strategy. I also take this opportunity to thank

the European Union for having agreed to finance a

programme of support for the Indian Ocean

Commission within the framework of the tenth

European Development Fund as the Union’s

15 08-51845

contribution to the implementation of the Mauritius

Strategy.

I appeal to the United Nations and to the

international community to support the efforts of the

Indian Ocean Commission to ensure the successful

development and integration of its Member States and

to pay particular attention to the issue of implementing

the Mauritius Strategy.

Every individual and every nation aspires to

justice, dignity and freedom. Those are the ideals of the

United Nations system to which we must remain

faithful if peace, security and development are to

ensure the progress of humanity.

On the basis of respect for those values, allow me

to inform this Assembly of the great concern of the

people and the Government of the Comoros with

regard to the issue of the Comorian island of Mayotte. I

would like to note that, following talks undertaken with

France on that issue since last September following my

meeting with President Nicolas Sarkozy, I did not

intend to raise the issue at this session. The high-level

working group that was set up for that purpose on the

initiative of the French President provides, I believe,

an ideal bilateral framework to study all aspects of the

issue.

However, the intention recently declared by the

French authorities to organize a referendum in 2009

with a view to transforming Mayotte into a French

department forces me to raise the issue here. It will be

agreed that such a decision, coming at a moment when

discussions are under way between the two parties, will

not favour an open and constructive dialogue.

Therefore, in order to throw further light on the

justification of the Comorian claim to the island of

Mayotte, allow me to set out certain important facts

that need to be taken into account when we analyse the

issue.

Throughout the years of French colonization, the

Comorian archipelago, comprised of the four islands of

Anjouan, Grande Comore, Mayotte and Mohéli, was a

single physical, geographical, religious, cultural and

linguistic entity. Under French domestic law, and ever

since Anjouan, Grande Comore and Mohéli were

established as a French protectorate, they were

combined with Mayotte to form a single territory.

The first text on that issue was the decree of

September 1889. Since then, the political and

administrative unity of the Comoros archipelago has

never been questioned in any document, despite the

plethora of provisions adopted with regard to the

Comoros. I would refer, for example, to the law of

9 May 1946, the law of 17 April 1952, the decree of

22 July 1957, the law of 22 December 1961 and the

law of 3 January 1968.

Thus, each time the French legislature or

regulatory authority has acted, it has done so by

considering the archipelago of the Comoros to

constitute a single territory.

It is clear then that the French Republic has never

called into question the territorial unity of the

archipelago of the Comoros, while international public

opinion has consistently considered that the four

islands of the Comoros form a single territory, subject

to the French Republic and administered most recently

under the provisions of article 72 and following the

French Constitution.

It was in that spirit that at the end of 1974 we

implemented the procedure provided for by article 53

of the French Constitution, which aimed to gain the

support of those affected by the accession to

independence of the archipelago of the Comoros.

In accordance with the law of 23 November 1974,

the people of the archipelago of the Comoros were

invited to vote on whether they wished the territory to

gain independence.

In all the islands, namely, in Anjouan, Mohéli,

Mayotte and Grande Comore, on 22 December 1974,

overall a positive answer was given to the question

posed.

The question was put to the Comorian people as a

single, indivisible people and over 96 per cent voted in

favour of independence, in accordance with the law

based on article 53 of the French Constitution.

However, at that time the French Parliament,

rather than simply ratifying that decision of the people,

wanted to draw up another law organizing another

referendum on the pretext that in Mayotte about 60 per

cent had voted against.

But the question had been put to the Comorian

people, comprising the population of Mayotte,

Anjouan, Mohéli and Grande Comore, and the result

translated into overall terms as that did not in any way

affect the letter and spirit of the law.

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Faced with the unwillingness of the French

Parliament at that time to recognize the irrevocable

verdict of the Comorian people, the late President

Ahmed Abdallah Abdérémane, with the backing of the

Comorian people, unilaterally declared the

independence of the Comoros on 6 July 1975.

Looking beyond such measures, which come

under French domestic law, I should like to stress the

principle of the inviolability, under international law,

of borders inherited from the colonial era and thereby

to make it clear that the Comorian demand is indeed in

conformity with the law.

Lastly, I would like to remind the Assembly that

the Comoros, comprising Mayotte, Anjouan, Mohéli

and Grande Comore, was admitted into this prestigious

Organization on 12 November 1975, as demarcated by

its borders, without France showing its opposition to

that admission.

Today, there are good grounds for our great

concern over France’s official statements regarding the

departmentalization of the Comorian island of

Mayotte. Those statements are not in keeping with the

principles of justice, fairness and respect for

international law, for which the great country of France

is known.

For that reason, my country as of now considers

any ballot organized on the question of making the

Comorian island Mayotte a department to be null and

void. Such are the facts — and the facts speak for

themselves.

However, today the reality is that France is in

Mayotte notwithstanding the relevant resolutions of the

United Nations and all the other international

organizations that have been regularly seized of the

matter. Against that background, I have entered into

talks with the French President, His Excellency

Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, who has shown a willingness to

find a solution to the problem.

It may therefore be hoped that that legitimate

claim of the Comoros to the island of Mayotte will

soon have a happy outcome. I am particularly

confident of that, because many outstanding problems

throughout the world have been settled and others are

on the way to being settled since His Excellency

President Nicolas Sarkozy assumed France’s highest

office.

Let me take this opportunity to make a solemn

appeal to the French Government to strive to preserve a

climate conducive to a committed dialogue, which has

our support and which, in order to result in a

negotiated settlement will need to take into account the

concern of the Comoros that its national unity and

territorial integrity be respected.

Moreover, I urge the international community to

help to reconcile the views of the two parties along

those lines, because the unity of the four islands of the

Comoros, as well as peace and lasting stability for the

archipelago, are a prerequisite for its harmonious

development.

In conclusion, may I express the sincere thanks of

the Comorian delegation to all the American authorities

for the particularly warm welcome and the good

arrangements made to ensure the success of this sixty-

third session of the General Assembly.