Rwanda, 2003

This

session of the General Assembly is being held at a time

when the world is confronted with the most serious

challenges of its history in all areas.

The Assembly has chosen Mr. Julian Hunte to

preside over our work and for my delegation it is a sign

of recognition of his qualities and competence. I would

therefore like to join my voice to those of other

distinguished heads of delegations preceding me in

conveying to him my sincere congratulations as well as

my hopes for his complete success, and we pledge to

him the support of my country to assist him in

accomplishing his task. We also wish to pay a tribute to

his predecessor, whose success was tremendous in

conducting the work of the fifty-seventh session, which

has just ended. We ask him to accept our

congratulations and our gratitude and we hope he will

continue to impart to us the benefits of his experience.

We would also like to respectfully convey our

thanks to the Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, for the

wisdom that he has shown and for his tireless efforts

which he continues to deploy, sometimes in extremely

difficult situations, so that the Organization can, as

much as possible, reach the objectives which have been

assigned to it under the terms of its Charter.

During this fifty-eighth session of the General

Assembly, we are going to commemorate the tenth

anniversary of the genocide which, in less than 100

days, from April to July 1994, in plain sight of the

entire world, claimed the lives of more than a million

Rwandans and caused the internal displacement or the

exile of thousands of others. We hope that this will be

17

an occasion for the General Assembly to collectively

recommit our efforts, as Governments and peoples

across the globe, so that these types of horrors never

again occur. Toward this end, we suggest that 7 April

2004 be declared, by this distinguished Assembly, as a

day to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the

Rwandan genocide.

While the advent of this sad anniversary obliges

us to recall this genocide as something we must remember

and as a sign of respect and of international solidarity, it

is not the only reason we have taken the floor here. On

the contrary, we wish to share an experience which is

very hopeful, namely the rebirth of the Rwandan nation

which, in our opinion, has been a test of stamina and of

the determination of an entire people. In fact, in the last

five months Rwanda, which in 1994 looked very much

like a failed State, courageously undertook its

reconstruction and now has experienced some

promising events, the most promising of its post-

colonial history.

Since its accession to independence in 1962, the

first pluralist presidential elections have just been held

and they took place in an atmosphere of unprecedented

peace and calm. The stunning victory of His

Excellency Paul Kagame as President of the Republic

in the vote that was held on 25 August, exactly one

month ago, is part of the democratic process set in

motion since 1999 by local elections, followed in 2001

by municipal elections and in May 2003 by the

constitutional referendum. This marks, de jure, the end

of the transitional period, begun in the aftermath of the

Rwandan tragedy in 1994.

These free and transparent elections, as well as

the legislative elections which are ongoing even now as

we speak, are not only an important step in the process

of democratization, but also and especially are

restoring Rwandans to their right and sense of pride at

being able to make and write their own history, a

history, which has turned its back forever on genocide

and which is instituting, as critical values and objectives,

unity, peace, justice, democracy and development.

These consultations, we are reminded, are not the

result of chance, and would not have taken place nor

known as much success as the international community

has seen, had it not been for the firm will of the

Rwandan leadership and the Rwandan people to

commit themselves with determination to peace and

security of individuals and property throughout the

entire Rwandan territory; unity and reconciliation of

the Rwandan people; and good governance which, in

the end, is our policy engine and which has allowed us

to dismantle the structure of a State that was too

centralized and totalitarian and which stifled positive

initiatives, as well as the involvement of the people in

decisions concerning their own development.

We have also set up principles of accountability

and transparency at all levels of public life by creating

strong autonomous institutions to combat corruption,

nepotism and abuses of power. The success of these

initiatives can be measured today by the fact that a

recent study of the World Bank Institute has cited

Rwanda among the developing countries that are the

best managed, the best governed and not corrupt. Such

public transparency would not have been possible

without our having eradicated the culture of impunity

which had taken root in our country.

We had to take steps to completely overhaul the

classical legal system and introduce a legal system that

is participatory and traditional called Gacaca', which

is inspired by Rwandan know-how and whose major

objective is not only to punish crimes committed

during the genocide, but also, and especially, to

reconcile Rwandans.

It should also be pointed out that the 1948

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the

Crime of Genocide obliges the international community

to prevent, stop and punish genocide. While the

international community came up short in its obligations

under this Convention, we did greatly appreciate the

subsequent establishment of the International Criminal

Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), established to bring to

justice and punish the perpetrators of this crime.

Our country was particularly pleased and satisfied

with the recent decision of the Security Council to

appoint a full-time prosecutor for the ICTR in order to

improve its performance and its effectiveness. We are

of the view, however, that other reforms could still be

initiated to obtain this objective which, in our view,

would help restore human dignity.

Regionally, the political and security situation in

the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa has tangibly

improved since last year. Rwanda is pleased with the

ongoing peace process in the Democratic Republic of

the Congo, which has led to the formation of an

inclusive transitional Government and the reunification

of that country.

18

We are disposed to work with this new

Government, as well as with the United Nations

Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of

the Congo (MONUC), to achieve disarmament,

demobilization and effective repatriation, as called for

in the Agreements of Lusaka and Pretoria, of the ex-

FAR and the Interahamwe militia, whose belligerent

activities are at the heart of the two regrettable clashes

between our two countries.

With respect to the situation in Burundi, this

requires more attention on the part of the international

community. Rwanda, at this point, is calling on all the

parties to consider the best interests of the Burundians

and to join with the ongoing peace initiatives supported

by countries in the region so that we can put an end to

the unspeakable suffering of the Burundian population.

This being the case, at a time when these different

African peace initiatives are beginning to take form, it

is time to call on the international community to

accompany them and support organizing an

international conference for peace, security and

development in the Great Lakes region. This

conference would hopefully produce a kind of Marshall

Plan for the development of the region.

Elsewhere in Africa and throughout the world,

Rwanda condemns the fact that conflicts, often

conflicts that have been going on for some years,

continue to claim many human lives and deflect

enormous financial and material resources that could

be allocated to developmental projects.

We are of the view, however, that these conflicts

will not disappear on their own, unless we pay

attention to them and unless we attack the root causes

of these conflicts and, in particular, unless we put into

place effective and appropriate mechanisms to prevent,

manage and resolve these conflicts.

Indeed, we must all work together, resolutely, to

promote dialogue in good faith, solidarity among nations,

non-exclusion, the human dimension, international law

and diplomatic activities as a means worthy of the

individual and of nations to resolve their differences.

The point concerning United Nations reform is on

the agenda of our Organization and has been for

several years, although we have never been able to

agree on the scope and content of the necessary

reforms. That the United Nations needs to be reformed

is without doubt. In fact, as the United Nations

Secretary-General indicated, when the stakes change,

we must adapt our responses to them.

It is certain that the challenges facing the

international community today are different from those

they faced from the 1940s to the 1980s. Rwanda is also

convinced, therefore, that the institutions, the

structures and the working methods of the United

Nations, which have been adopted over the years must

be adjusted and fine-tuned to the realities of the day.

Would it not be fair, for example, in a world

which has fundamentally changed, that we question the

membership and the decision-making methods in the

Security Council? At a time when we are requiring all

nations to have democratic governance, is it not

legitimate to require the Security Council itself to be

more representative and more democratic in its

methods of work?

Rwanda supports the proposal submitted by other

Member States to increase the number of members of

the Security Council to better reflect regional realities

and therefore to allow a better representation of

developing countries. Nevertheless, in order to do that,

we must bear in mind the fact that the Security Council

has been placed as a body under the General Assembly

and that its enlargement can in no way compromise

that order.

We must therefore better reorganize the United

Nations so that it can achieve the goals of ensuring

peace and security among nations, developing more

equitable international relations in the areas of

cooperation and friendly ties and inspiring and

guaranteeing the international order and international

law. In doing so we must ask ourselves why the United

Nations has been unable to respond collectively and

effectively to such recent crises and tragedies as the

1994 Rwandan genocide and the situation in Iraq. Why

has the United Nations been unable to prevent or stop

various crises throughout the world or to fulfil its

primary mission of ensuring peaceful co-existence among

nations? Why has the United Nations been unable to be an

effective and efficient catalyst for harmonious political,

social and economic development in all nations? We

believe that the answer to all of those questions, and

many others, will determine the nature and scope of the

reforms to be undertaken. In that regard, we welcome

the Secretary-General's decision to establish a high-

level panel to address the question of reform and to

make proposals to the General Assembly.

19

As I said at the beginning of my statement, the

major challenges in the world today include poverty;

poor governance; economic, political and social

injustice which give rise to many internal conflicts

international terrorism; globalization and the

HIV/AIDS pandemic and other widespread diseases.

Those challenges cannot be successfully addressed

without greater and more effective cooperation on the

part of all countries. Nevertheless, the development

goals for the new millennium, the New Partnership for

Africa's Development, the current series of

negotiations in the Doha round to allow greater access

to world markets for products from developing

countries, the recent decision by the World Trade

Organization (WTO) to allow poor countries to import

low-cost basic generic medicines to combat such

illnesses as AIDS, and the various tools established by

the United Nations to combat international terrorism all

represent the beginning of collective responses to those

challenges. However, those initiatives will only bear

fruit if all nations abandon selfish reflexes, such as

those that were at the heart of the recent failure of

WTO negotiations at Cancun.

Rwanda would like to take advantage of this

forum to reiterate its steadfast determination to commit

itself and to contribute, however modestly, to address

those challenges. We are committed to working with all

the nations of the world to begin that undertaking in

our region and in our dear continent, Africa.