Solomon Islands, 2007

Mr. President, I am

privileged to stand before you today in the place of my

Prime Minister, Mr. Manasseh Sogavare, to renew the

firm commitment of the Government and the people of

Solomon Islands to the principles, ideals and values

that gather us together here annually for their

re-examination and reaffirmation. The privilege of

membership in the United Nations allows my country

to sit amongst Member States and stand up for, as well

as against, decisions on issues that either unite or

divide us. Belonging to this Organization for almost

half the time it has existed is a proud feat for a country

that is barely 30 years old. The experience of nearly

three decades of sovereign statehood has taught

Solomon Islands many lessons that we can share with

the rest of the world. In particular, we are well placed

to highlight the fragility of our independence as a

nation of peoples whose survival is both threatened and

guaranteed by our interdependence with the

international community as represented in this

Assembly.

Mr. President, representing my Prime Minister

and addressing this Assembly on behalf of more than

the half a million people of Solomon Islands, I wish to

begin by congratulating you on your recent election as

President of the General Assembly at our sixty-second

session. Both you and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

have been selected by fate to pledge your devotion to

duty in a cause challenged by humanity’s survival. We

trust you to do what is right to attain the best for the

rest of us. Your distinguished predecessors have paved

pathways for the progress of this Organization along

many routes which you must now travel to fulfil our

Charter’s promises to us and those whom we are

fortunate to represent.

Much has happened in Solomon Islands since my

Prime Minister’s address to this Assembly in

September last year. Turning firstly to cataclysmic

events, just six months ago, a series of earthquakes and

tsunamis terrorized, devastated and swallowed up some

of our islands, their inhabitants, homes, gardens,

animals and worldly possessions. From that

catastrophe alone, we suffered the loss of more than 50

lives and injury to countless more, the total destruction

of over 3,240 homes and severe damage to another

3,000 homes. The damage bill is estimated to exceed

$100 million. Thanks to the instantly televised news

coverage of the devastation, the entire world was

shown graphic evidence of the sinking of some of our

islands, the elevation of submerged reefs 3 metres

above sea level and the submersion of many coastal

lands.

Not visible at the time were the immediate and

future effects of nature’s structural adjustments on the

daily livelihoods of Solomon Islanders. Traditional

fishing grounds have shifted. Agricultural activities

have had to be relocated. The debris is slowly being

cleared. The water supply is being restored. Roads,

wharves and bridges are being rebuilt and hospitals,

clinics, schools and houses are being repaired or

reconstructed. Entire villages will need to be relocated

and rebuilt. Life can no longer be the same for the vast

majority of our people in rural areas, who depend on

fishing and subsistence agriculture for their daily

survival. Any slight tremor or vibration causes them to

flee to higher ground in panic. The emotional and

psychological effects of nature’s non-negotiable terrors

are what our people have to struggle with for the rest

of their lives.

My snapshot of the April earthquakes and

tsunamis and of their aftermath would not be complete

if I did not acknowledge and place on record the

eternal gratitude of Solomon Islands to all those

Governments, international organizations and peoples

who offered sympathy, prayers and a helping hand

through the humanitarian relief that was dispatched to

our affected areas. Without the assistance and

involvement of all those who volunteered their time

and resources and the generosity of those who donated

emergency relief funds, supplies and provisions, my

Government would not have progressed to the

rehabilitation phase of the disaster recovery

programme as fast as we have. It is at this time of

suffering and need that we appreciate the true value of

human compassion and sacrifice.

With the increasing incidence of disasters all over

the world, we must bolster the resources of the United

Nations humanitarian relief programme and its

capacity to respond rapidly and effectively to such

crises to alleviate human suffering. As much as we

appreciate the quantum of funds pledged by

sympathetic individuals, institutions and nation-States,

we are left to wonder whether the filtering of donor

financial assistance through national charitable

organizations is calculated to whittle down its value

through the consumption of largesse in its delivery and

administration. Respecting the generosity and altruism

of those who give and the desperation of those who

need requires that we enshrine the principles of

efficiency and effectiveness to guide humanitarian

relief efforts across international borders. Human

charity and human suffering are done a disservice

when disasters create “feeding frenzies” for

non-governmental charitable organizations. The recent

experience of Solomon Islands mirrors what many

other nations have undergone and underlines the need

for concerted international action to regulate the

collection and delivery of humanitarian aid.

Dealing with the effects of environmental

catastrophes rather than their causes takes us only half

as far as we ought to go. The proceedings of last

week’s High-level Event on Climate Change have

emboldened small island developing States to rally

together to demand the intensification of international

efforts to curb global environmental recklessness.

It appears that the fragility of States such as

Solomon Islands has less to do with the quality of our

governance machinery and more to do with our

ecological vulnerability. My Government wonders:

what is so virtuous about foreign aid when billions of

dollars can be spent on improving the governance

structures of an economy that derives its export income

from the destruction of tropical forests, when just a

fraction of that expense is all that is needed to preserve

our forests and finance our annual national budgets?

Solomon Islands believes that the protection of our

global environment is a matter of international

responsibility and that it can be capably addressed

through the enunciation of principles that dictate

reciprocal undertakings aimed at the continued

granting and receipt of foreign aid.

I now turn to the ongoing disputes concerning the

future occupation of Solomon Islands by the

Australian-led visiting contingent. My Government has

initiated a parliamentary review of the legislative basis

for the continued presence of the occupying police,

military and civilian personnel from our neighbouring

countries. Credit must, however, be given to the

visiting forces deployed in 2003 to restore law and

order in Solomon Islands following many years of

ethnic rivalry and violence. The policing of the crisis

for four years has contained it on the surface, without

addressing the underlying socio-cultural roots of

dissension. My Government is determined to delve

deeper into the historical causes of the friction between

our peoples and to do what is necessary to resolve the

disputes that prevent their reconciliation.

The Commission of Inquiry into the April 2006

Civil Unrest in Honiara capital of Solomon

Islands whose establishment was announced by the

Prime Minister during his most recent address to the

Assembly (see A/61/PV.17), finally became functional

this year after the failure of externally orchestrated

manoeuvres to derail it. The Commission of Inquiry’s

interim reports have exposed major flaws in our

national security operations. My Government

appreciates the support of and the financial assistance

pledged by Papua New Guinea in staffing the

Commission of Inquiry. The Commission’s final report

and recommendations should be available in the next

few months.

Our people’s gratitude to Australia and New

Zealand for financing the deployment of their nationals

to police our crisis with the help of a small contingent

of personnel from neighbouring Pacific island nations

is often expressed and is genuine. However, as our

fellow Pacific island States can readily appreciate, our

sovereign right to determine the terms under which the

Government of Solomon Islands will permit our

continued occupation by the visiting contingent cannot

be undermined by any Member of the United Nations.

The long neglect of our internal problem by the

United Nations, followed by the hasty conclusion of

the regionally based multilateral agreement, which led

to the dispatch of the initial visiting contingent of

Australian, New Zealand and other Pacific island

forces, have caused the ongoing controversies

concerning their continued existence and eventual

return to the Organization’s doorstep. Viewed from the

perspective of Chapter VIII of the Charter, the nature

of the arrangements and activities embraced by the

2003 agreement, as well as their practical application

and operation since that time, appear to transgress

Article 52 of the Charter as a result of apparent

inconsistencies with Articles 1 and 2.

However disguised and rationalized, intervention

and occupation allow assisting nations to spend and

earn substantial revenue for their supporting businesses

and industries. My Government is too nationalistic to

become captive to the fortunes that justify our

perpetual retention under a state of siege. My Prime

Minister and my fellow ministers and parliamentarians

remain unmoved by Australian resistance to our

attempts to reclaim our sovereignty and independence.

In keeping with our obligations under Article 54,

we shall keep the Security Council fully informed of

the activities undertaken under the 2003 agreement and

shall seek its assistance in reducing the financial

burdens that Australia and New Zealand needlessly

bear under the current arrangements.

As members of the Assembly know only too well,

those who pay the piper call the tune. Our experience

with the Australian-designed cooperative intervention

package demonstrates the need for greater United

Nations involvement in the leadership of future

regional peacekeeping operations.

The impetus for Australia’s involvement in our

internal unrest was a dramatic change of focus and

heart concerning the protection of its strategic interests

in the Pacific region. The threat of terrorist penetration

through porous frontiers is sufficient cause for

international anxiety, insecurity and sometimes

paranoia. Despite global condemnation of terrorism,

the struggle for consensus on an acceptable definition

of terrorism retards the progress of multilateral

initiatives in the formulation of a comprehensive anti-

terrorism convention.

Illustrative of the potential for overreaction to

terrorism is the indignity that I, as Foreign Minister of

Solomon Islands, had to suffer when my multiple-entry

visa to Australia was suddenly cancelled last year. The

written explanation for that decision identified me as a

risk to the health, safety or good order of the Australian

community under Section 116 (1) (e) of its Migration

Act. One would have to admit that that is an incredible

justification for excluding democratically elected

leaders of neighbouring countries not known for

breeding terrorists. Just over a century ago, many of

our ancestors were kidnapped and forcibly taken to

work as labourers in a country that is now quick to

regard their descendants as terrorists. Defining

terrorism has proved to be more difficult than

deploring it.

Moving from the preoccupations of the past year

to our perennial protestations, Solomon Islands is

compelled by principle, rather than pragmatism, to

ventilate again our people’s concerns arising from the

non-representation of the Government and people of

Taiwan in this Assembly. Our recent attempts to

channel Taiwan’s application for admission through the

established gateways was resisted without any

regard for the legitimate quest of 23 million Taiwanese

people for self-determination by fellow Member

States committed to upholding a peremptory rule of

international law also enshrined in Article 1 of the

Charter of the United Nations. Organized international

hypocrisy is the only basis for explaining the indignity

that the Taiwanese people must suffer at the hands of a

powerful constellation of States interested only in the

protection of trade and investment and not any

humanitarian concerns.

China’s assertion of sovereignty over Taiwan

must be the pretence that it invariably is, since most of

its major trading partners have also forged and

maintain bilateral relations with Taiwan, which are

ultimately predicated on politico-juridical autonomy.

Solomon Islanders have a native empathy for all people

who are struggling to reclaim what is rightfully due to

them under international law. Our support for their

struggle stems from our convictions about what is right

and just. Our sovereign conscience is not a tradable

commodity. Our rejection of regular approaches for the

reconsideration of our existing allegiances to Taiwan is

premised on our preference, ideally, to recognize both

China and Taiwan on a realistic rather than an

imaginary politico-juridical footing.

This Assembly is the forum in which mutual

respect and goodwill prevail and enable us to implore

China, as one of the oldest civilizations of our world,

to pledge its non-resort to force in settling the disputed

question of its sovereignty over Taiwan.

As one of Taiwan’s long-standing diplomatic

allies, and undeterred by the result recently engineered

by international political pragmatism, Solomon Islands

cannot shirk its Charter obligations under Article 35,

paragraph 1, to bring to the attention of this Assembly

the situation currently prevailing between Taiwan and

China. The situation is clearly of a nature requiring

investigation by the Security Council, pursuant to

Article 34, on the basis that it “might lead to

international friction or give rise to a dispute”. The

Security Council is obliged to investigate the situation

in order to determine whether the continuance thereof

is likely to endanger the maintenance of international

peace and security.

Having now brought the situation to the attention

of this Assembly, Solomon Islands expects that we will

follow the stipulations of Article 11, paragraph 2, in

discussing any questions relating to the maintenance of

international peace and security and making the

necessary recommendations or taking the requisite

action that this Assembly is empowered to make and

take under the applicable provisions of the Charter. A

full, frank and fair discussion of the situation is the

least the Assembly can undertake to affirm our faithful

obedience to our Charter’s creed and satisfy ourselves

as to the existence of grounds for our further proactive

involvement.

Led by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare, my

Government belongs to a constituency of States for

whom the United Nations represents the promise of

hope for civilizations condemned by circumstance to

eternal misery. The effective representation of our

hope, voice and vision in this Organization can be

achieved only by the reform of its governance

structures to reflect the changing configurations of

geopolitical power and influence. Solomon Islands

therefore supports the proposal for the enlargement of

the Security Council. We also believe that India and

Japan must be allocated permanent seats on the

Council.

The attainment of the Millennium Development

Goals will remain elusive for many nations unless

innovative strategies for debt conversion and

cancellation are devised and adopted to fast-track the

poor's exit from poverty. We look forward to exploring

that prospect at the forthcoming meeting on financing

for development in Doha.

Solomon Islands has reason to register its

disappointment with the Division for Ocean Affairs and

the Law of the Sea for its tardy action in releasing

funds that are payable to us from the Trust Fund for

Special Aspects of the Implementation of the United

Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to defray

the costs and expenses of establishing our sovereign

claims to continental shelf areas registrable under

article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the

Law of the Sea. We are concerned that any further

delay in accessing those funds might affect our

registration entitlements due to non-compliance with

time restrictions.

Time deprives me of the opportunity to chronicle

many more grievances that we needlessly experience in

securing the benefits accorded us by virtue of our

membership in this Organization. The appointment of

the Deputy Resident Representative of the United

Nations Development Programme, stationed in the

Solomon Islands, is a welcome sign of the United

Nations interest in my country’s problems and permits

us to interact more closely with the Organization in

prioritizing the remedial action we need to undertake

for the betterment of the lives of our population. With a

visible presence in our midst and on our shores, the

United Nations will no longer be remote from the

consciousness of the people it exists to serve.

Before I conclude, allow me to take this

opportunity to extend to Secretary-General Ban

Ki-moon my Prime Minister’s invitation to visit our

shores during his tenure in office. We sincerely hope

His Excellency will honour the Government and people

of Solomon Islands by becoming the first Secretary-

General to venture to my country.