Republic of the Congo, 2005

I should

like at the outset to sincerely congratulate you, Sir, on

your election to the presidency of the General

Assembly at the present session. That election is a sign

of confidence in your qualities as a statesman and a

recognition of your country, Sweden, which reminds us

of its illustrious son Dag Hammarskjld, the second

Secretary-General of the Organization, who sacrificed

his life for the cause of humanity. I should also like to

express to your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Jean

Ping, Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs of

the Gabonese Republic, our heartfelt congratulations

on the skill and wisdom with which he guided the work

of the fifty-ninth session and successfully led the

difficult negotiations that produced the document

recently adopted at the World Summit (resolution

60/1). Finally, we commend the Secretary-General,

Mr. Kofi Annan, for his courageous and tireless

initiatives to renew and revitalize the United Nations

system.

The sixtieth session of the General Assembly is

taking place in an international situation characterized

not only by recurrent wars but also by the resurgence

of terrorist acts that spare no region in the world and

by natural disasters that have plunged many families

into mourning. We wish to express to the Government

and the people of the United States of America our

sincerest condolences following Hurricane Katrina.

Combating terrorism, like preserving our

environment, calls for greater solidarity. The United

Nations, whose sixtieth anniversary we are celebrating,

remains the essential tool for expressing that solidarity.

It is only the United Nations that will enable us to face

the formidable challenges of the future.

The Congo therefore welcomes the adoption of

the outcome document of the High-level Plenary

Meeting, which sets out the main course of action to be

taken. The outcome document gives us reasons for

hope about ways in which to meet the challenges

facing our world. At the same time, it gives rise to

some questions.

The Congo welcomes the clear reaffirmation by

all heads of State or Government of their commitment

to continue to discuss and seek solutions to the worldís

main concerns: issues of development, collective peace

and security, human rights and the rule of law, and

strengthening the United Nations.

We welcome the consensus regarding the need to

create a Peacebuilding Commission and a Human

Rights Council. A Human Rights Council would,

together with the International Criminal Court, enhance

the effectiveness of mechanisms to promote and defend

human rights.

Institutional reform of the United Nations -

encompassing, of course, all its principal organs,

including the General Assembly, the Security Council,

the Economic and Social Council and the

Secretariat - like reform of the internal management

of our Organization, is both a political and a moral

imperative that would enable the United Nations to

move with the times and to prepare more effectively to

face the coming decades.

The Congo regrets, however, that the serious

issue of disarmament was not even mentioned in the

outcome document because of a lack of consensus,

even though nuclear weapons, weapons of mass

destruction and the illicit trade in small arms and light

weapons are the greatest threats to humanity. The

Congo reaffirms its full support for the objective of

general and complete disarmament and the total

elimination of weapons of mass destruction.

Africa has always been a source of concern for

the United Nations, and the Security Council with good

reason spends most of its time on Africa. We have

reason to be pleased that some degree of progress has

been made in several countries.

In Burundi, we welcome the efforts of the

international community, which a month ago led to the

successful completion of the electoral process in that

country. We welcome the Central African Republicís

return to constitutional order after several years of

crisis and instability. These countries deserve increased

support from the international community so as to

consolidate situations that are still fragile.

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In the Sudan, we welcome the reconciliation

between the Sudan People's Liberation Movement

(SPLM), the central Government and the new

Government of national unity, which has just been

established. But the reconciliation between the north

and the south in Sudan should not lead us to forget the

tragedy that has for two years been affecting another

segment of the population in the west of the country,

namely, Darfur. We call for greater mobilization on the

part of the international community in support of the

African Union's efforts to bring an immediate end to

that political and humanitarian crisis.

In Cote d'Ivoire, because of the differences

between the parties to the conflict and despite the

tireless efforts on the part of the United Nations and

the African Union, the holding of elections, initially set

for October 2005, has now been brought into question.

We urge our Ivorian brothers to rise above their

differences in the higher interest of their country and of

peace and stability in the subregion.

Peace and stability in the Democratic Republic of

the Congo determine the stability and development of

the whole of Central Africa and the Great Lakes

region. We applaud the efforts by the international

community in support of the electoral process leading

to a successful transition in the Democratic Republic of

the Congo.

Our subregion was very much involved in those

efforts. As current chairman of the Economic

Community of Central African States, the President of

the Republic of the Congo, Mr. Denis Sassou-Nguesso,

was assigned by his peers, following the twelfth

Conference of Heads of State and Government held in

June 2005 at Brazzaville, the task of promoting

successful transition. Pursuant to that mandate,

together with my colleagues from Angola, Gabon and

the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we met with

the international partners of the Democratic Republic

of the Congo, namely Belgium, the European Union

and, of course, the United Nations.

Concerning the Great Lakes region, the first

summit meeting of the International Conference on the

Great Lakes, which was held in November 2004 at

Dar es Salaam, aroused great hopes for a return to

peace, stability and development in that subregion.

In a few months, the second summit meeting of

the International Conference will be held at Nairobi

and will adopt a security, stability and development

pact, under which our countries intend to implement

action programmes and protocols in order to make a

reality of their desire for a shared future of peace,

security and development.

The International Conference on the Great Lakes

Region is a unique experience of regional

peacebuilding. We very much hope that this subregion

will be the first to implement the reforms proposed by

the Secretary-General concerning peacebuilding.

We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate

the appeal made by the President of the Republic of the

Congo to the international community in general and to

the development partners in particular to make the

Great Lakes region a special development area.

Nine of the eleven countries that make up our

subregion of Central Africa are now in a post-conflict

situation. This subject was discussed at length at the

twenty-third meeting of the United Nations Standing

Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central

Africa, which was held at Brazzaville from 29 August

to 2 September 2005.

We welcome the existence and work of that

committee, of which my country is now chair, and at

the same time we ask the United Nations to act on the

outcome of the committeeís multidisciplinary mission

to Central Africa in June 2003.

In the Middle East, notwithstanding the

persistence of the Israel-Palestine conflict, we welcome

and encourage the efforts made over the past several

months by the Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Ariel

Sharon, and the President of the Palestinian Authority,

Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, which reflect a common desire

to bring about a fair and lasting solution.

Consolidation of peace, restoration of

macroeconomic balances and combating pandemics

such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, these

are the top priorities of my Government.

Our Government intends to expand its activities

to deal with other scourges. We organized in

Brazzaville in June 2005 a conference on

trypanosomiasis, during which a resolution declaring

trypanosomiasis the number-one priority for public

health, like HIV/AIDS and malaria, was adopted. We

request that special attention be given to this disease.

Concerned about preserving the environment, the

Congo and other countries of the subregion entered

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into a partnership agreement with the international

community in 2002 within the framework of the Congo

River Basin Initiative.

The second summit meeting of heads of State and

Government on conservation and sustainable

management of forest ecosystems in Central Africa

was held at Brazzaville in February 2005, and adopted

a long-term strategy for the preservation of the forest,

fauna and biodiversity in the greater Congo basin.

I wish to thank the European Union, the United

States of America, France and Germany for their

support of this initiative.

In conclusion, I wish to thank the African Group

for having endorsed the candidacy of the Congo for a

non-permanent seat on the Security Council for 2006 to

2007. I would like to reassure you that we are fully

determined to work resolutely for peace, freedom and

justice throughout the world.