Equatorial Guinea, 2004

Although protocol requires that our statements be brief,

it is no matter of routine for Equatorial Guinea to

congratulate Mr. Jean Ping, Minister of Foreign Affairs

of the Gabonese Republic, on his well-deserved

election to guide the work of the General Assembly at

its fifty-ninth regular session.

We congratulate you, Mr. President, because,

first, it is right that the voice of the oppressed and

marginalized that you represent should be heard loud

and clear by the international community. Secondly, we

would like also to encourage you, because the task

facing you personally and your country, the Gabonese

Republic, is to coordinate — and to endeavour to

reconcile — the varied and opposing interests that exist

in this unipolar, artificial and fragile world, where few

speak out, others say nothing or only listen, and yet

others speak, but to no effect.

The task is difficult, because we need to rebuild

the international authority that has been taken away

from the United Nations. We can do this only if there is

a spirit of honesty, individual and collective

responsibility, and goodwill on the part of Member

States, so that selfish interests can be put aside in the

common fight to ensure the primacy of the principles

and objectives of this world Organization, which are

positive and universal.

Mr. President, you will always be able to count

on the support and ongoing cooperation of my country,

the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, in ensuring that

your work is fruitful and benefits humankind.

We express our eternal gratitude to Mr. Kofi

Annan, Secretary-General of this Organization, who at

all times has been equal to the circumstances and who

has dealt with caution, impartiality and justice with the

issues that have come to the attention of the

Organization over the course of this year. We reiterate

our confidence in him and assure him of our

cooperation in the task of strengthening the role of the

United Nations.

Equatorial Guinea is participating in the work of

the General Assembly at this session with deep concern

because of the dangers and threats posed by the

methods used by more powerful countries in

intervening in the affairs of less protected nations, such

as my own. We believe that the United Nations has still

not fulfilled its primary objective of guaranteeing

international peace and security. We are living in times

of serious upheaval in various parts of the world,

brought about by the anarchy that currently

characterizes international relations.

Equatorial Guinea will join its efforts with those

of the international community in order to strengthen

the international authority of the United Nations.

We have come to the United Nations to state

publicly that Equatorial Guinea is under threat. We say

this out loud, and we hope that we will truly be heard,

because we know that complaints by weaker States

have often fallen on deaf ears in this forum when the

interests of the strongest are at stake.

Equatorial Guinea is facing a serious threat, and

we ask the United Nations to take serious, committed

measures, not only with regard to the issues affecting

Equatorial Guinea today but also in order to prevent

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other countries in the same situation as ours from being

victimized by the same sort of conspiracy in future.

Indeed, my country is being threatened by the

incessant and poisonous campaign of defamation

against my Government that has been orchestrated by

pressure groups and by the press of certain countries —

saying that we in Equatorial Guinea do not respect

human rights, calling my Government a dictatorship, as

well as accusing us of squandering oil revenues. That

campaign has as its only objective the justification of

an absurd intervention by force in Equatorial

Guinea — the failed multinational mercenary invasion

that was to have taken place on 6 March last.

The international community is aware of the

events connected to that aborted plan thanks to press

reports on the trials, held simultaneously in Equatorial

Guinea and in Zimbabwe, of those mercenaries who

were arrested in Malabo and in Harare, respectively.

Indeed, and under the pretext of supporting the

political claims of a supposed opposition leader in

exile in Spain, a number of mercenaries, of various

nationalities but with a common leadership, acquired a

cargo plane with the goal of transporting to Malabo, in

the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, 65 trained, armed

men who were to take part in an invasion — a suicide

operation. They planned to occupy previously

identified strategic areas, in order physically to remove

the President of the Republic, members of the

Government and anyone who opposed them.

The invasion, planned for the night of 7 March

2004, would have represented the implementation of an

elaborate plan, hatched, elaborated and perfected by

another group of 18 men, who had obtained a license to

fly cargo and passenger planes in Equatorial Guinea,

using the facilities provided by the Government. That

group was to join up with those coming from Harare.

The support that they received from Spain was to

involve the use of two Spanish Navy warships with 500

sailors on board, for support in case of resistance. The

goal was to put in power, at Government headquarters,

Mr. Severo Moto Nsa, who had formed a government

in exile that was recognized by the previous

Government of Spain.

Fortunately, the solidarity of the Governments of

Angola, Zimbabwe and South Africa came into play

and they alerted the security services of my country,

which acted immediately, arresting, on the night of 6

March, the 18 men stationed in Malabo, while the

Harare Government did the same with those found in

that capital’s airport on 7 March 2004.

The mercenaries themselves, in public statements

during the trials held in Malabo and in Harare,

explained the plan’s objectives and named the people

involved. They also gave details on the financing of the

purchase of arms and of the cargo plane, and on the

offer of the Spanish ships, which were already, at that

time, anchored in the territorial waters of Equatorial

Guinea.

The Secretary-General, as well as the Members of

this Organization, should know that, a month before

those events, my Government had rejected and

denounced the sending of those warships to Equatorial

Guinea in a note to the Spanish Government, which at

the time was using as a pretext its support for the

Government of Equatorial Guinea in the conflict

related to its claim of sovereignty over the island of

Mbañie. This General Assembly can, I am sure,

understand the danger and the loss of human life that

this invasion would have caused if it had succeeded.

We know that Equatorial Guinea is a victim for

the sole reason that it has respected the principles and

exercised the fundamental rights of a sovereign State,

which are the exercise of sovereignty by the people,

non-interference in the internal affairs of other

countries and the right to the exclusive use of the

resources that nature has given it. If this is so, we

would like the Assembly to reply to the following

questions, if possible.

Why are so many negative things currently being

said about Equatorial Guinea in foreign circles, when

the country’s people themselves live in peace and there

are no demands being made by the populace or from

the people’s representative bodies?

Why this talk of dictatorship and oppression in

Equatorial Guinea, when the administration in power

has re-established political freedom in the country,

with 13 political parties in a country of barely one

million people?

Can a dictatorship based on oppression allow

freedom such as the current level of foreign investment

and the arrival of more than seventeen international

flights per week to such a small country as Equatorial

Guinea?

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Is there an international police force that has the

authority to tell Equatorial Guinea how to use its

economic resources, when we already have an

administrative and political organization for managing

our resources with transparency? Can a country that

does not use its resources for the benefit of the people

approve an annual budget, through parliament, of 618

billion CFA francs as a justifiable public cost?

Is it true that the only way to end the abuse

allegedly committed by Equatorial Guinea would be to

organize the kind of terrorist and mercenary invasion

targeted at eliminating innocent people that was

planned on 6 March 2004?

Equatorial Guinea would like to know whether

this mercenary system is supported by the international

community. If it is supported, which countries are

responsible for this crime? We do not believe that there

is any difference between the terrorism that we

condemn today and the terrorist acts committed by

mercenaries in various parts of the world.

Equatorial Guinea is seriously under threat. We

say this because we know from reliable sources that

our enemies will not forgive the embarrassment and

defeat caused by the failure of the mercenary invasion

on 6 March. However, this does not mean that

Equatorial Guinea is going to drop its arms or fall on

its knees and let the enemy do with it what it will. We

believe that the United Nations responsibility is to

maintain peace and international security and to avoid

a merciless war between countries.

We would like to affirm that there are countries

who are Members of this global Organization,

represented in this hemicycle, whose security agencies

were informed of this devilish plan, and who, unlike

Angola, South Africa and Zimbabwe, who expressed

their solidarity, simply kept silent, waiting for events to

unfold. But we ask you to leave us in peace, because

Equatorial Guinea is a peaceful country and we do not

think that we have offended anyone.

A detailed analysis of the situation has shown us

that the end of the cold war has not actually led to the

unification of humanity and the integration of the

world as we had hoped. Rather, it has rekindled selfish

and perverse feelings among those who have always

dominated — or have always wanted to dominate —

the world. The phenomenon of mercenaries, therefore,

is a classic practice of States’ piracy, politically dressed

up and falsely justified by political, economic and

humanitarian interests. This is why we continue to see

this defamatory campaign, to justify a possible

invasion.

Nevertheless, Equatorial Guinea does not need to

please the international community with propaganda

regarding our development. Our only judge and arbiter

is our own people, to which our State institutions must

justify their actions. This tactic of creating a falsified

negative image of a State is of no surprise to anybody

at the moment, and it should least of all be a surprise to

this world Organization.

We also see that the theory of a globalized world

is a fallacy, because, as we very often say, you cannot

call a dog to you while holding a stick to beat it. We

cannot accept globalization when the concept of

colonialism, the superiority of some peoples over

others or even of neo-colonialism still exists.

Globalization is in contradiction with the concept of

the superiority of some over others. Globalization does

not mean exclusion as opposed to integration and

cooperation. Finally, globalization does not mean

power relations such as those that some would like to

impose.

The situation in Equatorial Guinea affects other

countries of Central Africa as well, as the terrorists

themselves have declared. We know that the

mercenaries have acted in other parts of the world, and

we bring this to the General Assembly because of the

destructive effects that have been seen in other affected

countries. We feel that solidarity among African States

and the third world in general is absolutely

indispensable, because we are the direct victims of

those who are ordering these mercenary acts.

In conclusion, we must stop looking backwards.

The current breakdown of the forces of peace,

independence and the sovereignty of States, as the

antithesis to the major wars of the past century, shows

us that we are close to unleashing a universal

holocaust. The situation today is that the weakest and

most needy are ignored and marginalized. We have to

put a stop to this race to chaos and build a world that is

more respectful of the human race.