Sudan, 2010

It gives me

great pleasure at the outset to extend warm

congratulations to you, Sir, on your election as

President of the General Assembly at its sixty-fifth

session. I am confident that your election was the right

choice.

I would also like to commend the outstanding

manner in which Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki conducted

the meetings of the previous session. His statesmanship

and experience reflected positively on the work of the

session.

We would also like to extend our thanks and

appreciation to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and

the Secretariat for their ongoing and appreciated

efforts.

We followed with keen interest and actively

participated in the preparations for the High-level

Plenary Meeting on the Millennium Development

Goals (MDGs). We have reviewed our achievements

and identified obstacles and challenges in a way that

will enable us to meet our obligations. There is no

doubt that the success attained and the constructive

recommendations submitted will encourage Member

States to make further progress in this respect.

We would like to underscore the great importance

of development aid in achieving the MDGs and of the

need to maintain such assistance even in the current

situation of successive global crises and in the context

of the increasing burden of foreign debt on the

economies of the developing countries and their ability

to achieve the MDGs.

I would like to take this opportunity to give the

Assembly a brief review of the recent political

developments in my country, especially regarding the

implementation of the Comprehensive Peace

Agreement (CPA) signed in 2005, which was the

subject of a high-level meeting on the Sudan held three

days ago at the invitation of the Secretary-General and

attended by a number of leaders and Heads of State. I

note the concluding communiqué citing positive

developments in the implementation of the CPA and

the steps to establish peace in Darfur. It also

commended the holding of public elections in the

Sudan last April in an atmosphere of tranquillity and

peace. International observers were witness to the

credibility and integrity of the voting process.

Arrangements are now under way for the holding

of the referendum in Southern Sudan on schedule

concerning the options of unity or separation. For our

part, we are determined that our fellow citizens in the

South shall have their say without coercion and in an

atmosphere of freedom, integrity and transparency. We

also hope that unity will be the voluntary choice of the

citizens of Southern Sudan. We therefore call on all

people to support and consolidate the unity of the

Sudan and to participate in observing the referendum.

We also welcome the Secretary-General’s decision to

ask former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa to

chair the United Nations panel mandated to observe the

referendum.

13 10-55122

We also recall my Government’s efforts to

consolidate peace in Darfur, which has undergone

several positive changes that continue to promote the

normalization of the situation. Lasting peace would

restore to Darfur the vitality that has faltered in the

past years due to conflicts fuelled by the proliferation

of arms and by regional and international interventions.

The recent positive developments have enabled the

holding of elections throughout Darfur, helped to

consolidate democratic legitimacy and led to the

establishment of new elected institutions.

These positive transformations, which have

created new conditions on the ground, have encouraged

the Government to develop a new strategy for Darfur,

concerning which we have conducted broad

discussions with the people of Darfur at the individual,

collective and institutional levels, and with all the

national political forces. We have also conducted

consultations on Darfur with our partners in the peace

process, first and foremost the African Union-United

Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) and

the African Union High-Level Implementation Panel

ably and skilfully led by President Thabo Mbeke.

Many of our partners in the peace process and the

international community have also supported and

encouraged this strategy. The new strategy is based on

five key components: the establishment of security; the

consolidation of development; the resettlement of

internally displaced persons and people affected by the

war so they can lead a life of dignity; the

encouragement of internal reconciliation that would

promote social peace; and the pursuit of negotiations

with a view to drafting a settlement document agreed

by the people of Darfur. The strategy envisages the

completion of the negotiations currently under way in

Doha through the sincere efforts and under the auspices

of the sister State of Qatar.

With a view to achieving the strategy’s

development goals, the Government has appropriated

from its own resources the sum of $1.9 billion over the

next four years to cover the costs of development

projects, in addition to what it hopes to raise from

partners and donors.

The strategy is designed to work closely with

UNAMID, the Joint African Union-United Nations

Chief Mediator for Darfur, and the African Union

Executive Council in order to facilitate and arrange

consultations with the people of Darfur so as to

universalize reconciliation and establish justice for all

through national mechanisms and in close consultation

with all sectors of Darfurian society.

It is worth noting that the strategy adopts a

practical approach to implementation based on two

pillars. The first is the adoption of the idea of

partnership. In that context, the Government has

endeavoured to establish partnerships with all States

and organizations that wish to engage with it on the

basis of the strategy. Foremost among those partners

are UNAMID, the United Nations and its agencies and

organizations, the African Union Executive Council,

the African Union itself and its institutions, the League

of Arab States and the Organization of the Islamic

Conference.

The second pillar is the exertion of special efforts to

involve the citizens of Darfur — particularly at the grass-

roots level and including elected representatives, civil

society organizations and the internally displaced — so

that the centre of gravity of the peace process will not be

far removed from Darfurian society. Thus, the

prescriptions for peace will be entrenched in the

conscience of the people, which will facilitate their

acceptance of them. This vision of peace has gathered

powerful momentum from the positive changes in our

relationship with Chad, in addition to our vigorous efforts

to strengthen our regional relations in the interest of

promoting peace in the Sudan.

With a view to bolstering stability in the various

regions of the Sudan and eliminating the causes of

potential armed conflicts, in October 2006 the

Government concluded, in the Eritrean capital,

Asmara, an agreement with the Eastern Front. The

agreement provided for security arrangements that led

to peace and security throughout the territory. In order

to reinforce our efforts to implement the agreement, it

was agreed to convene an international conference on

the development and reconstruction of Eastern Sudan

on 1 December 2010, which the State of Kuwait has

graciously agreed to host. Preparations for the

conference have been jointly undertaken by the United

Nations Development Programme, the Islamic

Development Bank in Jeddah, the Kuwaiti Fund for

Arab Economic Development and the Arab

Development Bank, in addition to the Sudanese

Government. The conference will focus on three

topics: infrastructure, services and investment. From

this rostrum, I appeal to Member States to participate

10-55122 14

actively in that important forum in order to establish

stability in that part of the Sudan.

We are committed to combating impunity, which

is part and parcel of the principle of international

justice and does not admit politicization,

discrimination or selectivity. However, selectivity and

politicization are prevalent in what is known as the

International Criminal Court, which has become a tool

to break the will of the people of the third world and to

impose hegemony over them. We have all witnessed

the hasty steps taken to subject a State non-party to the

Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to its

powers and jurisdiction, as a result of which the

established principles of international law fell victim to

crude and unjust political intervention.

Over the past six years, the Sudan has made

progress towards negotiated political settlements with

armed movements in the South, East and West. The

involvement of the International Criminal Court, in this

context, directly jeopardizes the peaceful settlement

process that the country seeks. Therefore, we

completely reject this intervention, which has no place

in international law, logic or policy, and is wholly

unjustified.

We appreciate and commend the position of the

African Union and other regional organizations to

which the Sudan belongs, and of countries committed

to the rule of international law that have condemned

and strongly rejected the claims of the Court.

Therefore, we call on the Security Council to

reconsider its decision and to withdraw the file

completely from the Court. In the light of the high-

level meeting attended by representatives of all

members of the Security Council and many other

countries, and of the Secretary-General’s communiqué

of 24 September commending the efforts of the

Sudanese Government to fight impunity (see SG/2165),

the Council should refer the entire file to the Sudanese

justice system so that it can deliver justice pursuant to

the established rules of international law and national

legislation.

After the signing of the Comprehensive Peace

Agreement, we hoped that the international community

would show cooperation commensurate with the

Sudan’s many accomplishments. We hoped to be

included in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries

(HIPC) Debt Initiative and to resume receiving much-

needed development aid, like other States emerging

from conflict, as reflected in relevant international

recommendations and resolutions. That should be in

addition to the special treatment that the Sudan should

enjoy as a least developed country.

Similarly, we believe that the announcement by

creditors of their intention to cancel the Sudan’s

foreign debts would dispel concerns about the

referendum on Southern Sudan and the negotiations

between the two parties regarding the post-referendum

arrangements. We therefore call for cancellation of the

Sudan’s debts, on the basis of the same standards

applied to other least developed African countries. That

would help fight trends that lead to confrontations and

instability and the deterioration of development in

developing countries.

The African continent has continued to suffer

from the repercussions of the global economic and

financial crisis, as well as from the adverse effects of

climate change, including their impact on the prices of

food and energy. That has widened the scope of

poverty and hunger and has increased social tensions,

migration, displacement, armed conflict and the

inability of African States, especially the developing

countries, to cope with the humanitarian consequences

of natural disasters.

In that regard, we would like to draw attention to

the need to accord priority, through the New

Partnership for Africa’s Development, to questions

pertaining to the continent on the United Nations

development agenda; to build the capacity of African

and African Union institutions to maintain peace; to

take affirmative action in financing the continent’s

plans for combating poverty, the AIDS pandemic and

malaria; and to provide humanitarian assistance and

upgrade the capacities of African States in order to

strengthen their efforts in realizing the Millennium

Development Goals.

The question of Palestine has been inscribed on

the United Nations agenda for many decades, while the

Palestinian people have continued to suffer. They are

deported, displaced, killed, and driven away from their

homeland, despite the fact that the United Nations has

adopted numerous resolutions that Israel has refused to

implement, in clear defiance of the will of the

international community. We call upon Israel to

implement all international resolutions and return all

occupied Arab lands in Palestine, the Golan Heights

and Lebanon. An independent Palestine is a noble

15 10-55122

demand and is the legitimate right of the people of

Palestine, supported by the calls of all peace-loving

peoples and countries.

We call for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons

and weapons of mass destruction. We underline the

right of States to acquire nuclear technology for

peaceful uses and to settle disputes through dialogue

and negotiation. We also stress the need to renounce

harmful propaganda and the sowing of fear, panic and

tension in the region.

We pinned great hopes on the success of an

international consensus on the issues of the

environment and climate, in view of the direct and

severe effect of climate change on the life of people in

my country and in many others, as confirmed by

studies prepared by experts in this Organization and its

specialized agencies. That has prompted the Secretary-

General to draw attention to the close link between

climate change and a number of armed conflicts on the

African continent and elsewhere, in particular over

Darfur.

We therefore hoped that the efforts to address

climate change would be crowned with success at the

Copenhagen Conference and that the developed

countries would pledge, on the basis of their historical

responsibilities, to adopt strategies and programmes

with clearly defined goals and principles aimed at

addressing the root causes of climate change. We

hoped they would pledge to provide the necessary

financial resources for sharing responsibility for the

preservation of this planet, while fully respecting the

principles agreed on in the 1992 Earth Summit

Declaration in Rio de Janeiro.

I am pleased to recall the laudable attention my

country has given to the problem of mitigating the

effects of climate change through numerous

programmes, plans and institutions, as well as by

promoting the necessary awareness of the gravity of

the problem among wide sectors of the population.

However, that remains a moral obligation and a

humanitarian mission and responsibility that demands

joint international efforts.