Niger, 2004

Allow me at the outset, Mr. President, to join those

who have spoken before me in extending warm

congratulations on behalf of my country, my delegation

and myself for your brilliant election to the presidency

of the General Assembly at its fifty-ninth session. The

Chairman of the African Union, His Excellency

Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo, already expressed here a few

days ago our continent’s gratitude to the international

community, which, by choosing you, has made one of

Africa’s most illustrious sons President of the General

Assembly. We naturally associate ourselves with that

expression of gratitude. We wish you every success in

carrying out your lofty mission, and you know you

have always had Niger’s support. To your predecessor,

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His Excellency Mr. Julian Hunte, I should like to

express our congratulations on the skill, enthusiasm

and authority with which he conducted the work of the

fifty-eighth session of the Assembly in a difficult

international context.

Today, the international community finds itself at

a crossroads. International peace and security —

already sorely tested by recurrent armed conflicts —

are subjected to threats or bloody attacks of terrorist

acts, which further darken the global atmosphere of

uncertainty and insecurity. In your opening statement,

Mr. President, you mentioned one of those persistent

and bloody conflicts — that of the Middle East, a

conflict that costs so much to humanity in terms of

human lives, financial resources and lost hope. That

region’s macabre statistics remind us — as if that were

still necessary — of the urgent need to bring the parties

to the negotiating table on the basis of the road map,

which the Security Council itself endorsed through its

resolution 1515 (2003).

Today, in addition to the Palestinian problem and

in light of Iraq, the situation in the Middle East is

central to world peace and security as never before.

With respect to Iraq — a country with which Niger

shares the same faith, Islam, the basis of our common

membership in the Organization of the Islamic

Conference — we cannot fail to deplore so much loss

of human life and so much blind violence, which are

the daily lot of the Iraqi people. We earnestly hope that

greater, revitalized international cooperation will

enable us to swiftly establish free and democratic

institutions in Iraq, put an end to the chaos that seems

to have taken root there and bring to the country the

peace and stability necessary for its socio-economic

development.

Niger, as a member of the Organization of the

Islamic Conference Contact Group on Jammu and

Kashmir, believes that a sustained dialogue between

India and Pakistan will make it possible to lay the

foundation for a peaceful solution to that conflict by

enabling the people of Kashmir to exercise their right

to self-determination, in accordance with the relevant

United Nations resolutions.

Concerning Western Sahara, Niger reaffirms its

support for United Nations efforts with a view to

reaching a just and comprehensive settlement of the

conflict. The commendable actions of the Secretary-

General should be continued and supported until we

see a successful conclusion, in conformity with the

relevant United Nations resolutions, particularly

Security Council resolutions 1495 (2003) and

1541 (2004).

In Niger, at the end of a long and sometimes

painful process, we have established a political system

in which a multitude of parties, private media and civil

society organizations flourish, all of them under the

protective umbrella of a constitution that guarantees

the separation of powers and an independent judiciary.

His Excellency Mr. Tandja Mamadou, President of the

Republic since the democratic elections of

22 November 1999, invited the people of Niger on

14 September 2004 to vote in new presidential and

legislative elections that will be held starting on

13 November 2004. That will be the first time since

1991 — when the multiparty system was established in

Niger — that a fully democratic mandate has been

completed. And it will be successfully, because in our

country, social peace has returned, State authority has

been restored, the economy is back on track and the

people of Niger have new hope. On 24 July, the

building of democratic structures was completed

through municipal and local elections, to the great

satisfaction of everyone.

The restored status of the State has made it

possible — thanks to the personal intervention of

President Tandja Mamadou — to quickly overcome the

resistance of the remaining few who were still opposed

to the expanded polio vaccination programme. Here, I

must sincerely thank the international community —

particularly the World Health Organization, UNICEF,

the Centres for Disease Control of the United States

and Rotary International — for having effectively

assisted us in our efforts in that fight.

At the external level, our public and private

bilateral partners who left Niger before 1999 have

since returned. Niger’s presidency of the West African

Economic and Monetary Union and, last year, of the

Community of Sahelo-Saharan States has given greater

visibility to our external action aimed at peace and

security in Africa. In particular, that action has taken

the form of sending a Niger contingent to Côte

d’Ivoire, military observers to the Democratic Republic

of the Congo and civilian police components to

Burundi, the Central African Republic and Timor-

Leste. All that has convinced us that the international

community’s support is more essential today than ever

before to help Africa strengthen the capacities of its

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subregional institutions and those of its continental

organization, the African Union.

Under the leadership of President Olusegun

Obasanjo, the African Union is working ceaselessly to

prevent conflicts in African countries where peace

reigns, to consolidate peace and security where — as in

Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone or Liberia — the

populations have barely emerged from a situation of

political instability or bloody armed conflicts, and,

lastly, to extinguish the hotbeds of tension persisting in

Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

Burundi and the Sudan.

Our experience with conflict prevention and

resolution in Africa teaches us that the golden rule in

that respect is to have confidence in subregional

institutions and the African Union and to support them

with consistent logistical and financial means. In that

regard, Niger welcomes the decision taken by the

Security Council to support the African Union’s

decision to strengthen and expand the observation

mission in Darfur and to encourage member States to

provide all the equipment and logistical, financial and

material resources required for the mission’s swift

expansion. We earnestly hope that the various parties

to the conflict will respond positively to the appeals

coming from Africa and elsewhere to swiftly put an

end to that tragedy and to bring about a comprehensive

peace agreement, on which the advent of a peaceful

Sudan will depend.

Within the framework of Africa’s new

development initiatives, the heads of State of the

African Union agreed, during a special summit held

recently in Ouagadougou, to place employment at the

centre of their political, economic and social policies.

As rightly pointed out by His Excellency Blaise

Compaoré, President of Burkina Faso and host of the

summit, Africa needs the effective support of the

international community to implement the decisions of

Ouagadougou.

From the Millennium Declaration to the world

conferences and summits that followed it, many

international decisions made the fight against poverty a

world priority and a major challenge for humanity.

How, then, can it be that hundreds of millions of

people continue to languish in abject poverty and total

destitution? How can it be that, in this era of

technological and scientific advances, HIV/AIDS and

other pandemics continue to wreak havoc throughout

the world, particularly in Africa? How can it be that, at

a time of globalization, many parts of the planet —

particularly the least developed countries — are still

totally excluded from international trade? And how can

it be that, despite the commitments undertaken through

the relevant international conventions, the global

environment continues insidiously to deteriorate,

dangerously jeopardizing the future of generations to

come?

In light of that situation, and in view of the dearth

of financial resources to address the crucial problems

assailing humanity, we must wonder about the

existence of real political will on the part of rich

countries to help the most impoverished countries

overcome abject poverty. The Global Fund to Fight

AIDS and the World Solidarity Fund for the

Elimination of Poverty — whose creation we

welcome — suffer from a cruel lack of resources.

Furthermore, we believe the modalities for

granting those resources to eligible countries should be

modelled after those in force for the funds obtained in

the framework of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries

Initiative, in order to ensure management that is both

transparent and responsible.

We have to face the reality. Given the economic

stagnation, poverty and the lack of prospects that are

serious threats for social stability and the young

democracies of developing countries, international

cooperation is the key to achieving the Millennium

Development Goals — as long as developed and

developing countries agree to assume their respective

responsibilities. In this respect, the commitments made

in Doha to promote a just trade, the Monterrey

Consensus on Financing for Development and the

Johannesburg Plan of Implementation on Sustainable

Development remain the cornerstones for

implementation of the Goals.

However, the meagre results achieved in the

implementation of conclusions from major forums

prompt the international community as a whole to re-

examine its conscience. The upcoming high-level

dialogue on financing for development should be an

opportunity to once again place at the core of the

debate the important issue of the mobilization of

resources for development. In this respect, taxation at a

level to be agreed upon — as was recalled at the last

summit on poverty — on all international financial

transactions could provide the substantial funding so

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necessary for attaining the Millennium Development

Goals.

Endemic poverty, which affects the African

continent in particular, is not a question of fate. It is

possible to reduce poverty as long as the international

community is resolute in tackling it. It is possible to

reduce poverty if industrialized countries implement

without delay the enhanced programme to alleviate the

debt of highly indebted countries and agree to cancel

all bilateral public debts. It is possible to reduce

poverty if industrialized countries agree to increase

official development assistance to the level necessary

to reach the objectives of the Millennium Development

Goals. It is possible to reduce poverty if industrialized

countries resolve to open their markets to commodities

from developing countries, and if raw materials from

those countries are purchased at their proper values. It

is possible to reduce poverty if industrialized countries

eliminate their farming subsidies for cotton and support

the countries concerned in their policy for providing

rural areas with a suitable farming infrastructure and,

especially, with small rural facilities.

Lastly, it is possible to reduce poverty if

globalization is better managed and if interdependence

leads to the establishment of an international financial

and commercial structure that is democratic and able to

meet the needs of all parties.

Not so long ago the international community,

with the Group of 8 in the lead, solemnly declared its

commitment to support the New Partnership for

Africa’s Development (NEPAD). Today we must

acknowledge that that great enthusiasm still has not

materialized in concrete actions on a scale that would

meet the legitimate aspirations of African continent.

Despite constant efforts by the African countries, there

is still much left to be done to meet the objectives

contained in that vast and ambitious partnership.

I am pleased to say here that Niger is very

pleased to work with the Office of the Representative

of the Secretary-General for NEPAD, as well as with

the Office of the High Representative of the United

Nations for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked

Countries and Small Island Developing States.

To conclude, it is important that the

Desertification Convention be effectively implemented,

a convention that is seen as the best illustration of the

link between environmental degradation and poverty.

Speaking of environmental degradation, how can

we overlook the ecological ravages caused by the

current locust invasion in part of Africa? Because it did

not act in good time, the international community —

which had been warned of this danger far in

advance — must now mobilize, as soon as possible,

sufficient financial and material means to stop the

spread of the plague in order to halt the spectre of

famine that looms over the populations of northern

Africa, the Sahel and West Africa as a whole.