Mauritania, 2008

It is with pleasure that I offer Mr. Miguel

d’Escoto Brockmann my warmest congratulations on

his election as President of the General Assembly at its

sixty-third session. We have every confidence in his

exceptional skill and future success in consolidating

the gains achieved and in enhancing international

peace and security in a world system characterized by

prosperity, stability and progress. I would also like to pay

tribute to the valuable efforts made by his predecessor,

Mr. Srgjan Kerim, to strengthen the principles of dialogue

and consultation as a means to reach effective solutions

to international issues and disputes. I would further

like to express our thanks and gratitude to Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon for his continual efforts on

important issues relevant to reforming the Organization

and to enhancing international peace and security.

The current session of the Assembly is convening

at a time when our country, Mauritania, has undergone

a change of head of State. I would like to seize this

opportunity to explain the reasons for that change.

In August 2005, after two decades of political

tyranny, bribery and increasing corruption, the armed

forces and security forces intervened to put an end to

the grave abuses that threatened the structure and very

existence of the Mauritanian State. That move by the

Military Council for Justice and Democracy led to a

transitional democratic phase, which successfully

concluded in April 2007. Mauritanians and

international observers alive attested to the fairness and

transparency of that phase. The Mauritanian

experiment in democracy became an example worthy

of emulation. The satisfaction of various national and

international observers and the support of civil society

added to the success of the experiment. A series of

elections were held, with the support of international

partners, leading to the ratification by popular

referendum of the Constitution in June 2006.

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A Parliament with two chambers was elected in

November of the same year; a new president of the

Republic was elected in March 2007; and a new law

for the organization of the press was enacted in

October 2006, establishing a higher authority for the

press, radio and television. With respect to good

governance, a new general inspectorate of the State

was established; transparency initiative was

implemented in the field of extracting industries;

public officials were compelled to disclose their

financial affairs and property; and public transactions

are now undertaken in a transparent manner. Lastly,

women were accorded a quota of 20 per cent of all

candidatures in our Islamic republic. As a result,

18 women were elected to the current Parliament.

Those splendid achievements, in addition to the

atmosphere of harmony and accord enjoyed by the

people of Mauritania, are the result of the work of the

military establishment, which pledged to complete the

process within the announced time frame and indeed

kept its promise. Once the former President assumed

office, anything was possible in the new Mauritania,

with all its new institutional gains, in terms of

consolidating and deepening the achievements of the

transitional period of 2005 to 2007. Regrettably, from

the outset the former President demonstrated his

weakness and inability to lead the country and confront

the many challenges it faced.

Conditions in the country continued to seriously

deteriorate over the following 15 months in the

political, security, economic and social fields. The

deteriorating situation posed a real threat to the

country’s peace, security and stability. Indeed, it

threatened the very existence and foundations of the

State.

Thus our country has, over the past three months,

undergone an institutional crisis that led to an

interruption in the work of parliamentary institutions

and paralysed the affairs of the State, the stability of

which was threatened by the intransigence of the

executive authority, which prevented Parliament from

exercising its constitutional powers.

In order to secure the loyalty of some

parliamentarians from the majority party who were

unhappy with the difficult situation and concerned

about the future of the country, the former President

resorted to certain illegal measures that would be

unacceptable in any democratic system. He used public

funds to buy the allegiance of some parliamentarians.

In addition, he made some irregular appointments and

arbitrarily fired some high-ranking public officials in

order to stem the people’s desire for change. Moreover,

he continuously threatened to dissolve Parliament in

order to prevent the formation of a parliamentary

committee to investigate the sources of financing of a

private business created by his family.

The President returned to the Chair.

In the field of security and as a result of his laxity

and refusal to heed the advice of the security services,

a number of terrorist acts took place for the first time

in the country’s history, following the release of a

number of terrorists who had been in custody until he

took office.

Economically and socially, the situation was

simply disastrous. While the people suffered in

poverty, hunger and disease, the former President —

who, in the aftermath of floods that hit the country, had

visited only one city inside Mauritania, the city of

Tintane — made 25 visits abroad, costing Mauritanian

taxpayers huge amounts of money, without achieving

any tangible results in the field of cooperation between

Mauritania and its development partners.

The former President continuously and

intentionally obstructed the work of democratic

institutions and thus paralysed the State. Faced with the

failure of his manoeuvres, he resorted to firing high-

ranking officials in the leadership of the army and the

security services at the same time. That almost led to a

confrontation between high-ranking officers and

created a situation that could have brought the country

to the brink of civil war.

In view of the political impasse, the armed forces

and security forces, conscious of the serious dangers to

the country, intervened to correct the abuses and to

strengthen national unity and other gains made in the

country, as well as its prospects for development and

progress. That change enjoys the support of two thirds

of the members of Parliament, approximately 90 per cent of

mayors and two thirds of recognized political parties, in

addition to civil society organizations, including

cultural and professional societies. Support has also

been come from unprecedented popular marches.

The High Council of State declared its

commitment to protecting democracy and enhancing

democratic processes in Mauritania; guaranteeing the

43 08-53141

continued regular functioning of State institutions;

allowing officially recognized political parties to carry

out their activities; guaranteeing freedom of the press

and the media; respecting the obligations, agreements

and international treaties concluded in the name of the

Mauritanian State; and organizing free and transparent

elections at the earliest possible date.

Aware of the importance of and need for

integration among countries and peoples of the world,

Mauritania reaffirms its adherence to the Arab

Maghreb Union as a strategic choice of the people of

the region, the League of Arab States, the African

Union and the purposes and principles of the United

Nations.

In the same spirit, we reiterate our support for

efforts to reform the United Nations and, in particular,

the Security Council. We believe that the African

continent should be given permanent representation on

the Security Council; Africa has been the only

continent without permanent representation in the

Council since the creation of this Organization. We

also call for giving the Arab Group representation in

the Security Council in view of the fact that it

represents more than 11 per cent of the peoples of the

world. We support granting permanent seats in the

Security Council to Japan and Germany, since both

countries play a vital role in the maintenance of

international peace and security.

Allow me to pay special tribute to the great

efforts made at the sixty-second session of the General

Assembly in the field of development, especially with

respect to the steep rise in food prices and all other

goods, the financing of development projects and the

problem of greenhouse gases and their effect on the

planet.

The sixty-third session of the General Assembly

falls at a very difficult time, when the world is

confronting sharp increases in food prices, that

negatively affect the economies of developing

countries and could even undermine the economic

structure of those countries if no urgent measures are

taken to address the problem. The food crisis facing the

world requires concerted international efforts and

strategies to overcome its negative effects.

Today, we are halfway to the deadline for

achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

However, many developing countries are still far from

achieving those Goals. That is why we call on rich

countries to keep their promises to finance

development in the developing world.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is a source of tension

and a threat to international peace and security in a

vital and sensitive region of the world. That is why my

country supports the efforts to settle the conflict in a

manner that guarantees the Palestinian people the

restoration of their rights and the establishment of their

own State, with Jerusalem as its capital, coexisting in

peace and security with the State of Israel.

As regards the question of the Sudan, we totally

and categorically reject the most recent developments,

in particular the request of the Prosecutor of the

International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant

for the President of the Sudan. We believe that such a

move would jeopardize peace efforts in that brotherly

country and increase tensions in that sensitive region of

the world.

My country follows the question of the Western

Sahara with interest. While we welcome the latest steps

taken to return to the negotiating table, we also renew

our support for the efforts of the Secretary-General to

reach a final settlement acceptable to both parties.

The dissemination of the culture of peace and the

spirit and values of tolerance among peoples and

civilizations, the restoration of rights and the

realization of justice among peoples are, in our view,

the best way to maintain peace and security in the

world. The fact that certain questions that have gone

unresolved for so long, the widening gap between the

poor and the rich, the unfair structure of the global

economy and the absence of any attempt to spread

justice, equality and fairness have all contributed to the

creation of conflicts and to the phenomena of

extremism and terrorism.

We in Mauritania condemn and reject terrorism in

all its forms. We are equally committed to adhering to

our tolerant Islamic values, which reject violence and

extremism and call for tolerance and brotherhood. We

believe that the international family should seriously

consider the causes of the phenomenon of terrorism

and ways to confront and eradicate it fully from the

world.

We affirm the importance accorded by developing

countries to development as we look forward with hope

to the results of the Doha Follow-up International

Conference on Financing for Development scheduled

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from 29 November to 2 December 2008. We also

would like to express our concern at the deadlock of

the Doha Round of trade negotiations and call on

industrialized countries to show more flexibility and

stronger political will in that respect.

Development has economic, social and

environmental dimensions. Any shortcomings in any

one of those dimensions negatively affects the others.

That is why we highlight the need to address the

phenomenon of climate change. My country is one of

the 10 countries that would be the most vulnerable to

the effects of greenhouse gas emissions if they should

cause a rise in sea levels. We call on industrial

countries to limit the emissions that lead to greenhouse

effects.

The commitments undertaken by the international

community at the time of the establishment of this

Organization will not be implemented unless all

countries and peoples of the world are able to benefit

from global resources and unless development efforts

in the developing countries are supported with a view

to creating conditions conducive to decent living in

freedom and equality. Only then will we have honoured

the commitments we have always affirmed.