Equatorial Guinea, 2007

On behalf of the Republic of Equatorial

Guinea, I should like to join previous speakers in

expressing our support and congratulations to His

Excellency Mr. Srgjan Kerim of the Republic of

Macedonia on his election to preside over the debates

of the sixty-second session of the General Assembly.

We congratulate him because his country is an example

of freedom and democracy and because, for the United

Nations, the sovereign equality of States whether

large or small is a principle of respect for dignity,

justice, equality and peace throughout the world. We

are convinced that under his far-sighted leadership the

Assembly will ensure that those principles are

observed and respected by all.

We also congratulate his predecessor, Her

Excellency Ms. Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa of Bahrain,

President of the General Assembly at its sixty-first

session, on her great political skill in serving the

interests of the international community at a time

dominated by wars, conflicts of interest and natural

disasters.

In addition, we commend the laudable work of

the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-

moon, who deserves our full support so that United

Nations intervention can be effective in conflicts and

situations threatening peace, stability and the well-

being of nations.

Equatorial Guinea is participating in the present

session of the General Assembly with uncertainty

regarding United Nations efforts, which are drowning

in a vicious circle of good declarations of principle and

technical and scientific definitions, which are ethically

motivated but which ultimately fail to attain the

objectives of the peace, security, development and

well-being of humanity, which inspired the

establishment of this world Organization.

Indeed, the fact that, despite so many preventive

resolutions, we are focusing this year’s deliberations

on atmospheric degradation, which currently poses a

threat to humanity because of nuclear tests; the

proliferation of chemical industries with military

purposes, which are destroying vital elements of the

environment; the use of chemical weapons and other

weapons of mass destruction in armed conflicts; and

the irrational use of non-renewable natural resources,

which is destroying ecosystems activities that do

not seek the common good of humanity, but that have

caused the destruction of the ozone layer and the

breakdown of the components of the planet’s

atmospheric equilibrium. This is an obvious sign that

our resolutions are being ignored. The tsunami, if it

was not the result of a nuclear test, must be the

consequence of this atmospheric deterioration, which

has now increased the number of floods, hurricanes,

fires, cyclones, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions

throughout the world.

Nevertheless, for more than 20 years the United

Nations has undertaken praiseworthy initiatives to

reduce spending on these activities and to use the

surplus on development in the poorest countries.

Despite that, no favourable response has been made by

the countries owning these industries. Nor has the

Kyoto Protocol itself which obliges States to reduce

their emissions of harmful gases been ratified by all

the States Members of the Organization.

Equatorial Guinea believes that the phenomenon

of climate change must be addressed by the United

Nations with the same intensity with which it is

currently addressing issues that include, among others,

democracy, human rights and the threat of terrorism.

It is correct to say that climate change is a

challenge for all States, because its effects are truly

harmful to everyone. But we cannot ignore the fact that

the primary responsibility lies with those who

developed, for their own interests, the technologies that

are destroying the ozone layer. The countries of the

tropical forests of the Congo Basin in Africa and the

Amazon Basin in South Africa cannot make use of

their own forest resources, because they must

contribute to the maintenance of the ecosystems that

help to maintain the ozone layer. However, there are no

compensatory policies to avert the economic resource

crisis occurring among the affected peoples.

My Government is now committed, in the spirit

of the Kyoto Protocol, to processing the gas produced

by the oilfields of my country and its neighbours into

liquefied gas for the benefit of humanity. Nevertheless,

Equatorial Guinea cannot manage to benefit from the

credits offered by the international financial

institutions and bodies, because we qualify as a

middle-income country, whereas it is known that we

have produced oil for only 10 years and have never had

any development infrastructure.

Our uncertainty is even greater when we consider

the problem of development financing for the least

developed countries. In our view, no bilateral or

multilateral cooperation policy has shown itself to be

capable of meeting the basic development financing

needs of poor countries. Because of a lack of political

will, everything is reduced to political conditioning

factors and requirements that cannot be met by

countries seeking to develop. In that regard, Equatorial

Guinea has not been informed of the fate of the 0.7 per

cent an insignificant amount that developed

countries were to give from their gross domestic

product for the financing of the least developed

countries.

Nor has the question of the cancellation of the

external debt of least developed countries and their

interest been welcomed by creditors, despite their

historic obligations. Our experience over many years

has shown us that Equatorial Guinea cannot develop if

it does not have its own means and if it does not take

principal responsibility for it.

Thus, once oil resources were discovered, the

Government organized, in 1997, the first national

economic conference in order to plan better use of

these resources for the short, medium and long term.

The programme adopted has been implemented in a

manner satisfactory to the people and Government.

Now we can organize the second such national

economic conference, in order to plan the development

of the country for a sustainable economy. From this

rostrum, we would like to invite bodies of the United

Nations system and friendly Governments and

international economic institutions to participate in this

conference in Equatorial Guinea in the first two weeks

of November this year, in order to help us by sharing

their experiences.

Humanity has never been threatened and

frightened as much by terrorism as over this last

decade. Terrorism used to be known as a process for

the settlement of accounts through violent means by

those who felt powerless to see their claims met

through legal and democratic processes. It has now

reached different dimensions, which do not uphold

legitimate claims, nor are their effects directed only

against persons or institutions from which rights are

being demanded. Any third-party country can be a

victim of terrorism today, as if it were a country

against which the demand may be lodged.

The result is that today terrorism is a threat

against humanity. It violates individual and collective

freedoms, impedes the exercise of democracy, violates

the peace and security of nations and stands in the way

of the development of peoples. All countries of the

world that love peace, justice and freedom have the

duty and the obligation to combat this phenomenon,

which is a form of regression of the human species.

However, there seems to be a tendency to ignore

another, similar phenomenon, namely, the use of

mercenaries, that practice of resorting to force to

destabilize legitimate political regimes for whatever

reason. In the case of Republic of Equatorial Guinea, it

has been clearly shown that the invasion operation

against our country by mercenary groups in 2004 was

organized to gain access to oil. The masterminds

behind that operation, clearly identified, were leaders

of Governments of States Members of the United

Nations. Since these facts came to light and were

denounced by my Government, we have not had any

condemning reaction from specific Member States or

friendly countries in criticism of the barriers to

bringing to justice the perpetrators of that operation,

which means that they would probably be happier had

the invasion of my country been successful, with the

inherent dramatic consequences.

If we want to combat terrorism and the use of

mercenaries, we need to rely on well-developed

internal security systems and to exchange information

among States. We have to be faithful and show

solidarity with the principles of the equal sovereignty

of States, non-interference in internal politics of other

States and the resolution of controversies by peaceful

means, giving priority to dialogue, consultation and

tolerance. We should adamantly condemn any terrorist

act of intimidation and destabilization of States and

take actions of solidarity against such acts, because

they threaten State sovereignty and the free will of

people.

Finally, if we are looking at reform of the United

Nations today, it is because the objectives that support

this world Organization, their very principles, have

been and are being systematically violated. The United

Nations has gone through many changes: from an

organization aspiring to a universal consensus to one

comprised of interest blocs; from an organization with

universal goals for the well-being of humanity to an

organization of the stronger against the weaker. Today,

the reason for a veto in the Security Council is not so

much the necessity of preventing abuses of power by

some against humanity as it is an eagerness to defend

the partisan interests of groups or individuals. Thus,

although a veto in the Security Council does not mean

anything today because resolutions are not much

observed, Africa also has its own interests to defend.

Thus we want the right of a veto to be conferred on the

continent and not a State, because that continent

represents a third of humanity.

The future of humanity is in our hands. Each one

of us must feel committed to meeting the challenges of

our time so that new challenges can become new hopes

for people. May God guide us in our deliberations.