Gabon, 2003

Permit me

at the outset to express to Assembly President Julian

Hunte the congratulations of my country, Gabon, on his

election to the presidency of the General Assembly at

this session. Indeed, his election has symbolic value,

since, through him, Saint Lucia has become — as he

himself said — the smallest country ever to have

occupied that high office. Is that not a perfect

illustration of the universal vocation of the

Organization, which recognizes the equality and rights

of all its Members, small and large, but also their

common responsibility in the conduct of the world’s

affairs? Gabon expresses to him its wishes for success

in leading this session, and we assure him of our full

cooperation. We also congratulate Mr. Jan Kavan, who

preceded Mr. Hunte in his office, on the work that he

accomplished. In addition, we thank the Secretary-

General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for the self-sacrifice and

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courage with which he is leading the Organization at

this time of grave world turbulence.

The extreme seriousness of the situation facing

the world today sometimes leads the United Nations,

when States are unable to carry out responsibilities that

in principle devolve to them, to assume those

responsibilities.

As the United Nations carries out its difficult

mission, its authority, unfortunately, is quite often

sorely tested, and the very lives of its personnel are

threatened. The tragic death of Sergio Vieira de Mello,

one of the torch-bearers of the ideals of the United

Nations, and other staff members in Baghdad on 19

August is a dreadful reminder of just how fragile

international peace and security are. Nevertheless,

despite the delicate nature of the situation, the

activities of the United Nations must be pursued in Iraq

to assist in the reconstruction of the country.

Beyond Iraq, the future of the entire Middle East

region must be at the centre of all our attention. The

road map remains, despite current threats to its

enforcement, the sole hope to restore peace between

the parties to the conflict and sustainable regional

balance to the Middle East. Gabon urges the two

parties to end the violence and resume their dialogue.

Despite the persistence of some hotbeds of

tension, the overall situation in Africa has witnessed

positive changes. In the Democratic Republic of the

Congo, the peace process has begun to be implemented

with the creation in June 2003 of a Transitional

Government, whose chief mission is the establishment

of new democratic institutions and preparations for

elections.

It goes without saying that the security and

stability of the country continues to depend on that of

the entire Great Lakes region. This is why Gabon

ardently desires the completion of the Arusha process

in Burundi. After a period of uncertainty, the Central

African Republic is also restoring peace, particularly

thanks to specific pacification measures taken by the

country’s new authorities.

To complement their efforts, the Central African

Economic and Monetary Community, which met in

Libreville in June 2003, decided to make an ad hoc

contribution of 5 billion francs CFA to the Central

African Republic.

For its part, Gabon has always actively worked

for peacekeeping and peace-building in Africa. This

was recently demonstrated again in Sâo Tomé and

Principe, where the good offices of President Bongo and

his African peers, particularly those from the Economic

Community of Central African States, contributed to the

restoration of constitutional order in the country.

Unfortunately, these welcome events are at

variance with our inability to react promptly to some

crisis situations that jeopardize collective security and

cause gross violations of human rights. We must

assume a two-fold duty today: to strengthen our

collective means of conflict prevention and, when

those efforts do not obtain results, to have the capacity

to react swiftly to contain armed conflicts before their

escalation brings about new humanitarian disasters, as

was recently the case in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo and Liberia.

African countries have shown their ability to

manage crises on many occasions. But their will is

most often impeded by the scarcity of human resources

and lack of appropriate logistical means. To facilitate

the prompt deployment of peacekeeping forces in these

regions, should we not establish, under the auspices of

the United Nation, a partnership between African

countries and the developed countries that provide

logistical support.

Because many conflicts are rooted in poverty, any

effort to resolve them must be based on the quest for

efficient solutions to the problems inherent in

underdevelopment. The Monterrey Consensus, reaffirmed

during the Johannesburg Summit, is based on the

recognition that financing for development is a crucial

element for an international strategy for sustainable

development. The drop in private international

investment in developing countries is liable to hinder

them from truly recovering. Moreover, many of these

countries, in particular those known as medium-income

countries like Gabon, continue to devote huge

resources to repay external debt. Gabon remains

convinced that only a courageous strategy to defer or

cancel debt would enable the economic recovery of the

countries involved.

The HIV/AIDS pandemic, which has become a

development problem, also deserves our attention. The

disease is now the leading cause of death among

women and the young in Africa. In other words, its

main victims are our nations’ hope. We welcome the

26

fact that the high-level plenary debate that took place

last week at United Nations Headquarters itself

reaffirmed the commitment of the international

community to combat this horrifying disease.

The ills that the world is facing should prompt us

to identify the structural causes and find the best way

to respond. This is particularly true with respect to the

fight against international terrorism. One vital stage in

this process is the establishment of a legal framework

conducive to effective international cooperation.

We must finalize without delay the negotiations

to adopt a universal convention against international

terrorism in all its forms, including the issue of the

acquisition of arsenals of weapons of mass destruction

by terrorist groups.

The positive forces that drive our world towards

greater integration and solidarity are increasingly

jeopardized by growing threats. Because the new

challenges of our world have a global impact, we must

respond collectively. Only close coordination and

active multilateral cooperation will enable us to meet

them. It is within the United Nations, a high-level

forum for dialogue and cooperation, that we can

achieve this objective.

To do so, as we have stressed during the previous

session, we must strengthen our Organization,

particularly by restoring the role of the General

Assembly and reforming the Security Council. We

agree on the principle. May we thus have the courage

and will to harmonize our views to attain this ideal of

change and strengthen the multilateral dimension of

our Organization.