Papua New Guinea, 2002

On

behalf of the people and the Government of Papua New

Guinea, I join previous speakers in congratulating you,

Sir, on your election as President of the fifty-seventh

session of the General Assembly. Your election to the

helm of the Assembly shows the high esteem in which

the international community holds you and your

country, the Czech Republic.

I take this opportunity to express my delegation's

sincere appreciation to your predecessor, Mr. Han

Seung-soo of South Korea, for his outstanding

stewardship of the work of the fifty-sixth session of the

General Assembly. I also wish to place on record my

Government's deep appreciation to the Secretary-

General, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, for his

continuing strong leadership and immense diplomatic

skill in dealing with many pressing international issues

which confront us today.

Papua New Guinea welcomes and congratulates

the newest State Member of the United Nations,

Switzerland, and looks forward to the accession to

membership of the Democratic Republic of East Timor.

Papua New Guinea acknowledges the political

will and wisdom shown by all parties — the Republic

of Indonesia, Australia, Portugal and the United

Nations — in respect of East Timor. We also praise the

people of Switzerland for their collective decision to

formally join the United Nations.

With the election of a new Government in my

country, our Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Sir

Michael Somare, recently made a nationwide address

detailing some of the challenges facing our economy

and what is required to put it back on the path to

recovery. He identified specific areas and sectors where

remedial measures are needed.

Domestically, our capacity to meet these

challenges and worthy goals is lacking. The problem is

further exacerbated and our capacity further

undermined by poor governance, incompetent

economic management, a rise in corruption, and

diminished public confidence in political leadership

and in the fundamentals of representative government.

The new Government of Papua New Guinea is

determined to chart a new course by addressing these

problems.

There have been specific initiatives taken to

enhance trade, investment and economic prospects. The

Pacific countries members of the African, Caribbean

and Pacific Island Group of States (ACP), together

with the African and Caribbean member States, are

now in the process of pursuing negotiations with the

European Union for possible economic partnership

agreements.

Recently, I announced the direction of our

Government's foreign policy focus. I stated that the

27

policy must be underpinned by the development and

strengthening of core relations in the Asia-Pacific

region.

We intend to consolidate relations with our close

neighbours and give more emphasis to the promotion

of trade and economic cooperation, investment, and

education and training.

As a small island developing country, and as an

affected member of the global village, my country fully

endorses the declarations and plans of action adopted at

recent world conferences. We believe that international

conferences such as the Doha, Monterrey and

Johannesburg summits and their plans of action are

blueprints to resolve many of the pressing global

challenges and needs, including poverty eradication;

sustainable development; environmental degradation

and climatic changes; and social ills, including HIV/

AIDS and other preventable diseases. They also echo

the voices of the majority of the world's population

living in poverty and struggling to overcome the

biggest challenge of all — how to survive.

These declarations and plans of action are a

further amplification of the historic Millennium

Declaration and its Development Goals, signed by all

our heads of State and Government in September 2000.

The challenge is to forge new global partnerships

for change — partnerships in which both developed

and developing countries join together to address the

issues that the global community will face in this new

millennium. These partnerships also include

international financial institutions, intergovernmental

organizations, the private sector, non-governmental

organizations, and civil society.

These partnerships will be necessary if the shared

hopes of humanity for peace and security, sustainable

development and a better way of life for all are to be

realized.

Papua New Guinea has been faced with an

internal conflict in our province of Bougainville for the

last decade. Like all previous Governments, the current

Government will continue to address the continuing

peaceful resolution of this conflict as a matter of

priority.

Papua New Guinea would like to take this

opportunity to express its appreciation to the United

Nations for its role in resolving this crisis. The conflict

has, in fact, involved substantial commitments of

personnel and funds by the United Nations,

neighbouring countries and Governments, including

our own.

I would like also to place on record our

appreciation to the Governments of Australia, New

Zealand, Fiji and Vanuatu for contributing financial

and manpower resources to the Regional Peace

Monitoring Group to restore peace and security to the

island.

In addition, on the recommendations of the

Secretary-General, and in close cooperation between

the Papua New Guinea Government and the

Bougainville parties, the Security Council approved the

expansion of the role of the United Nations Political

Office in Bougainville in monitoring and assisting in

the arms collection, storage and disposal, under the

new Bougainville Agreement.

I am happy to report that the first and second

stages of the arms disposal programme are progressing

well; however, more remains to be done.

Our partners from Australia, New Zealand, the

European Union, Japan, and the United Nations

Development Programme continue to provide resources

for restoration and development work. A number of

non-governmental organizations, including churches

and the Red Cross, have also been active.

Changing the world from a system of relations

between imperial Powers to a partnership between

sovereign States through decolonization is among the

greatest achievements of the United Nations in the last

century. The process will not be completed, as it must

be, until the remaining 16 Non-Self-Governing

Territories have exercised their inalienable right to self-

determination.

Our Organization should continue to monitor

developments in New Caledonia, Tokelau and the other

14 Non Self-Governing Territories on the United

Nations decolonization list, on a case-by-case basis.

Neither small size nor remoteness nor population

density should be allowed to qualify or limit the

exercise of this inalienable right. The Pacific Islands

Forum Leaders' Meeting, held last month in Fiji, once

again reaffirmed its support for this principle.

The Pacific Islands Forum Group, with the

exception of Australia and New Zealand, comprises of

small island countries that are custodians of the largest

ocean space. This ocean is rich in natural marine

28

resources. The countries of the region, however, have

limited human, financial and technological capacities

to control, manage, and secure those resources for the

benefit of our current and future generations.

The recent Pacific Islands Forum adopted the

Pacific Islands Regional Oceans Policy, which aims to

ensure the future sustainable use of our oceans and

their resources by our island communities and external

partners.

The Pacific Islands peoples have not received

their equitable share of the benefits resulting from the

tapping of natural resources within their vast ocean

space. For example, statistics showed that, in the year

2000, the value of fishery in the Central and Western

Pacific was in excess of $2.5 billion per annum, but the

Pacific countries earned a meagre $66 million in

licensing fees. This situation needs to be reviewed and

changed.

More than 80 per cent of Papua New Guineans

live in rural villages, where they depend directly on the

land, rivers, lakes and sea for their livelihood.

Our National Constitution commits the nation to

conserve, use, and develop the rich variety of the

country's natural resources for the common good and

benefit of future generations. Papua New Guinea has

therefore spoken out strongly and worked actively on a

wide range of environmental issues.

Like other members of the Pacific Islands Forum,

Papua New Guinea is firmly committed to the

Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable

Development of Small Island Developing States. We

strongly urge its full implementation.

Papua New Guinea, together with other small

island developing States, continues to reiterate deep

concerns about the adverse impacts of climate change,

climate variability and sea-level rise, particularly with

regard to the small, low-lying islands that are already

experiencing extreme hardships. We will therefore

continue to stress the urgent need for the developed

countries to take a strong lead in the reductions of

greenhouse gas emissions.

Consistent with this, Papua New Guinea has

signed and ratified both the United Nations Climate

Change Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. We

believe that the Kyoto Protocol paves the way forward

for Annex I countries to fulfil their commitments under

the Climate Change Convention. We urge those parties

to translate their legally binding targets into concrete

actions for the reduction of their gas emissions.

We welcome the support for the Kyoto Protocol

by Japan, the European Union and, more recently,

China and Russia. We urge the United States and

Australia to join the global efforts towards addressing

this issue, including ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.

Pacific Forum island leaders also reiterated

continuing serious concerns over the shipment of

radioactive materials through the region. They called

on those States engaging in these activities to accept

full responsibility and liability for compensation for

any damage that may result, directly or indirectly, from

the transport of radioactive material through the region.

Global warming has brought an increase in the

number of cases of diseases like malaria in the higher-

altitude regions of our country. This is still a major

threat to Papua New Guinea, particularly in the most

populous region — the highlands.

Papua New Guinea is not immune to the HIV/

AIDS epidemic, and tuberculosis is again on the rise,

so there is an urgent need to find preventative measures

for these diseases.

In this regard, we welcome announcements by the

Governments of Japan and the United States, among

other, that they would set aside substantial financial

resources for eradication programmes in developing

countries. Papua New Guinea concurs with the recent

calls by the international community to reform and

restructure the charters and mandates of the two

Bretton Woods institutions: the World Bank and the

International Monetary Fund. These two institutions

must realign their policies and focus more on

development and poverty eradication, rather than on

the reconstruction of economies.

Their lending policies should be made more

lenient and flexible in assisting the developing

countries, including small islands, landlocked and the

least developed countries. The ultimate goal must be to

transfer resources into the hands of the needy, the

marginalized and the ostracized of society, so that they

can take pride in the ownership of the outcomes of new

initiatives taken in their own countries.

The way forward was agreed to under the

Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable

Development of Small Island States and Agenda 21

and in the recent conferences on landlocked developing

29

countries and the Third United Nations Conference on

the Least Developed Countries in Brussels.

I must however underline that to date, we have

observed a lack of effective implementation of both the

Barbados Programme of Action and Agenda 21. There

has also been little or no increase in the international

aid and development assistance given to the developing

countries to build necessary infrastructure, human

resource capacities, and other basic needs. This, in our

humble view, has to change if the developing countries,

especially the small island developing States,

landlocked and the least developed countries are to

attain sustainable growth and development.

There is an urgent need to reform and restructure

the United Nations General Assembly and its

subsidiary bodies and agencies, as well as the Security

Council and the Economic and Social Council, so as to

reflect the recent dynamics and changes.

The Security Council should be reformed and

expanded in both categories, permanent and non-

permanent. It must take into account the interests of

both the developed and developing countries.

Although we are encouraged by the general

positive signs of progress towards resolving conflicts

and securing peace in several regions of the world,

Papua New Guinea remains concerned at the

continuing conflict in the Middle East. We believe

violence will not resolve the conflict. We call on both

Israel and the Palestinian leadership to come to the

negotiating table to discuss outstanding issues with the

view to resolving the conflict peacefully.

It would be remiss of me if I did not make

mention of the fact that 11 September 2002 marked the

first anniversary of the terrorist attacks in the United

States of America. The Government and people of

Papua New Guinea express to the Government and

people of the United States, and the families of the

victims drawn from many countries, our sympathy for

the tragedy and suffering of just a year ago, when

terrorism struck this great city of New York and

Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.

Though distant from this tragic event, we share in

the deep sorrow felt around the world, and in the

admiration of the extraordinary bravery and sacrifice of

so many who engaged themselves in the rescue efforts.

Our thoughts are with those who continue to mourn.

Papua New Guinea joins with all the freedom

loving nations and peoples of the world in condemning

terrorism in all its evil forms. Terrorist attacks can

never be justified. Terrorism, in which the lives of the

most innocent and vulnerable are so senselessly taken,

must be especially condemned.

Papua New Guinea fully endorses and supports

all efforts towards the effective implementation of the

United Nations Security Council resolution 1373

(2001).

You concluded your opening address to this

Assembly, Mr. President, by appealing to Member

States to focus on what we have in common — and

especially our desire to live in a peaceful and secure

world where the values and principles expressed in the

United Nations Charter are honoured. Papua New

Guinea shares your vision and the confidence that

underpin your address.

If the nations of the world — with our great

diversity — focus on what we have in common, we

will build and secure a better world, one in which the

benefits of economic development are shared, and one

in which the marvels of modern science and

technology, including modern medicine, are harnessed

for the common good of humanity. But none of these

things can be achieved without a genuine and lasting

peace.

In conclusion, I want to reaffirm Papua New

Guinea's firm commitments to what I have outlined

and reiterate that global, regional and local

partnerships in promoting sustainable development is

the key to addressing the challenges that confront the

world today.