Guinea, 2006

It is a

great pleasure to extend to you, Madam President, the

warmest congratulations of my delegation on your

election to the presidency of the sixty-first session. In

giving you their trust as the third woman to preside

over the General Assembly, the Member States wished

to recognize your talents as a skilled diplomat and to

pay tribute to the important contribution of your

country to achieving our noble ideals of freedom,

peace and prosperity in the world. My country, which

shares common values with yours, wishes you every

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success in fulfilling your mandate. I should also like to

commend the remarkable work done by your

predecessor, Mr. Jan Eliasson, who steered the work of

the sixtieth session with great wisdom and

effectiveness.

Another very pleasant duty is to convey to a

valuable son of Africa, Secretary-General Kofi Annan,

the highest appreciation of His Excellency General

Lansana Conté, President of the Republic, for his

eminent contribution to promoting the fundamental

values of the United Nations. At this time, when he is

getting ready to pass on the torch, I should like to

express to him our deepest gratitude.

Guinea also welcomes the admission of

Montenegro to the great family of the United Nations.

In September 2005 the General Assembly

adopted, as the outcome of a high-level meeting,

important decisions which are a road map for

implementing the Millennium Development Goals and

for reforming the Organization to adapt it to a changing

world. My delegation is pleased with the reforms

begun and the progress achieved. We welcome the

establishment of the Human Rights Council, an

appropriate tool to promote basic rights as well as good

national and international governance. Likewise, we

hope that the new Peacebuilding Commission will

make an important contribution to mobilizing the

necessary resources to help countries emerging from

conflict.

However, six decades after the creation of the

United Nations, consistent action by the Organization

in terms of development, humanitarian aid and the

environment is still an unfinished work. The reform of

the Secretariat’s management, which implies individual

and collective sacrifices, aims not only at reducing the

costs of the United Nations, but also at better

investment in order to enhance its effectiveness. To

move forward, the international community must

consolidate the reforms and extend them to the

principal organs of the Organization. Guinea firmly

supports this dynamic, which is the only thing that can

ensure the transparency, representativeness and

effectiveness of its bodies. This process depends, of

course, on the political will of all its Member States,

without exception.

In the maintenance of international peace and

security we see reasons for both satisfaction and

concern.

In Africa, and in particular the western part, my

delegation is happy that peace has been restored to

Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia. However, the

balance in these States is still precarious. We therefore

urge the international community to strengthen its

cooperation with their democratically elected

Governments in order to strengthen peace and to

ensure the rapid recovery of their economies.

In Côte d’Ivoire the peace process is entering a

decisive phase, with the settlement of sensitive issues

related to the holding of upcoming free and fair

elections. Guinea encourages the parties to fully

cooperate in continued dialogue with a view to a

successful outcome to the crisis.

The significant progress made in the Great Lakes

region in recent months is encouraging.

The general elections held on 30 July in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo are a crucial stage

in the peace process. But keeping troops of the United

Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the

Congo (MONUC) there, in support of Government

efforts, is still crucial to restoring State authority over

the entire national territory and, in particular, to

bringing peace to the eastern part of the country.

In Sudan, we greatly appreciate the efforts of the

international community, particularly the African

Union and regional leaders, to promote peace and

security in Darfur. The Abuja Peace Accord of May

2006 is a stepping stone towards the inclusive,

comprehensive agreement that is crucial to that

country’s stability.

In Somalia, my delegation encourages all the

parties concerned to favour the path of negotiation with

a view to restoring peace.

With regard to the Western Sahara, the Republic

of Guinea encourages the parties in conflict to

strengthen their cooperation with the Secretary-

General’s Personal Envoy in order to find a political

solution that is fair, lasting and mutually acceptable.

In the Middle East, Guinea regrets the fact that

Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza was not followed by

additional measures to put an end to the occupation of

Palestinian territory. It calls upon the parties to uphold

the relevant United Nations resolutions as well as the

Quartet road map for the creation of two States,

Palestinian and Israeli, with secure, internationally

recognized borders, living side by side in peace.

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With respect to the Israeli-Lebanese crisis,

Guinea greatly regrets the tragedy of the Lebanese

people. We support effective implementation of

Security Council resolution 1701 (2006), which

imposes a ceasefire and the deployment of a stronger

international force in southern Lebanon.

We stress the need to end the escalating violence

in Iraq, in order to guarantee the country’s stability and

successfully carry out national reconstruction.

In Asia, the Government of Guinea reaffirms its

attachment to the one-China principle. We also attach

great importance to the peaceful reunification of

Korea, and the continuation of efforts to preserve

peace, security and stability in the Korean peninsula.

The recommendations of the Working Group on

peacekeeping operations are a reference point for

taking up the challenges of peace. We welcome the

greater cooperation between the Secretariat and the

troop-contributing countries, which has made it

possible to better understand what is at stake, thus

favouring an increased contribution from Member

States. The Republic of Guinea regularly takes part in

peacekeeping operations, and we reaffirm our readiness

to enhance our contribution within the framework of

the new agreements and arrangements that will stem

from the reform process.

Guinea strongly condemns all forms and

manifestations of terrorism, the scourge threatening

international peace and security. We value the crucial

role played by the United Nations in fighting it, and

therefore support the Global Counter-Terrorism

Strategy adopted at the sixtieth session of the General

Assembly.

In the area of disarmament, Guinea condemns the

stalemate in the Conference on Disarmament. Nuclear

disarmament and non-proliferation are two inseparable

parts of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and bind all

parties, without exception.

The failure last July of the United Nations

Conference to Review Progress Made in the

Implementation of the Programme of Action to

Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in

Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects

should not in the least undermine our commitment to

combat the proliferation of such weapons and the illicit

trade in them. My country is in favour of establishing

an international, legally binding instrument dealing

with all the related issues. In this respect, the

transformation of the Economic Community of West

African States (ECOWAS) Moratorium into a

Convention on small arms reflects the determination of

our States to eradicate this other scourge. Its success

will depend upon the level of cooperation of member

States and also the commitment of its partners.

The 2005 Summit was a decisive step in

promoting the Millennium Development Goals. Guinea

has made an effort to put in place more ambitious

national development strategies. In this context, the

Government has drafted a national poverty reduction

strategy based on speeding up economic growth and

access to basic social services, as well as improving

governance. In order to implement this policy, the

Government and its development partners have begun

programmes and projects dealing with priority sectors,

such as education, health, integrated rural

development, infrastructure, the provision of water,

and strengthening human and institutional capacities.

In the same spirit, the drafting in February 2005

of the second follow-up report on the Millennium

Development Goal made it possible to assess the

progress made, note the shortcomings and outline the

prospects of achieving the Goals by 2015. We regard

this as an opportunity to urge our development partners

to swiftly implement the entire set of internationally

recognized development initiatives, including the goals

and objectives of the Programme of Action for the

Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010.

We reaffirm the urgent need to strengthen official

development assistance and to assure the long-term

viability of debt by cancelling all public and bilateral

debt of the most heavily indebted poor countries.

While condemning the impasse in negotiations of the

World Trade Organization’s Doha Round, my

delegation calls upon Member States to make a

collective effort to prevent a return to protectionism, a

factor in the deregulation of international economic

relations.

Guinea took part with great interest in the High-

Level Dialogue that the General Assembly has just

devoted to the question of international migration and

development. We reiterate our conviction that

continuation of this Dialogue within the framework of

the global consultative forum will help to identify ways

and means to better exploit the benefits of migration

for development, while mitigating its harmful effects.

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Although Guinea is not a country in conflict or

emerging from conflict, the midterm review of the

humanitarian appeal, “Guinea 2006”, points out,

“Today its social indicators have become similar to

those of countries emerging from a prolonged war.”

That confirms the very serious consequences of the

subregional instability that we have seen for more than

15 years in my country. In this respect, our

Government, through me, wishes to reiterate its appeal

for greater assistance in order to help the affected

regions to recover. We welcome the transformation of

the Central Emergency Revolving Fund into the

Central Emergency Response Fund. We hope that

within the common country programming process and

the United Nations Development Assistance

Framework, covering the period 2007-2011, the

funding gaps apparent in the course of various

humanitarian appeals will be filled and better

provisions for Guinea will be considered.

Furthermore, deeply concerned by child

trafficking, Guinea has signed with Mali and Côte

d’Ivoire a memorandum of understanding to prevent

this phenomenon and to improve border control.

In our common quest for a new international

order, this sixty-first session of the General Assembly

will be seen as one of important change for the United

Nations. The reforms that we have achieved will be the

beacons illuminating the path to a lasting peace and

development with greater solidarity. But we must also

maintain the impetus of reform and continue in our

common will to make the United Nations the

irreplaceable instrument to take up the enormous

challenges of peace, security, development and human

rights in the twenty-first century.