The Gambia, 2006

My delegation extends our

heartiest congratulations to Ms. Al-Khalifa on her

election as President of the General Assembly at its

sixty-first session. Her election signifies a most

welcome rebalancing of the General Assembly towards

greater gender parity and will certainly bring a breath

of fresh air to our deliberations. We hope also that it

will help our Organization address those issues of war,

conflict, oppression, deprivation and terrorism that dog

today’s world with the kind of compassion and

sensitivity known only to mothers. I would like to

assure her of my delegation’s fullest cooperation and

support at all times.

The outgoing President, Mr. Jan Eliasson, applied

all his wisdom and vast diplomatic experience in

presiding over a session fraught with difficult and

exceedingly complex organizational reform issues. We

thank him for guiding us deep into the process and

wish him well in his new assignment.

We should not delude ourselves into thinking that

reforming the United Nations is a task that can be

achieved quickly. The issues are contentious and

multifaceted, and only deep reflection and determined

negotiation over time will see us through. For this

reason, we should not feel disheartened that one year

after the World Summit we have still not concluded the

process. We should congratulate ourselves on having

achieved a breakthrough with the establishment of the

Human Rights Council and the Peacebuilding

Commission. Management reform is problematic, but

the desire to achieve it in a fair and balanced manner

will remain a key demand of developing countries. A

selective approach to reforming the Organization will

work in no one’s interest. Some reforms are long

overdue and sorely needed.

For us in Africa, Security Council reform is

urgent and must be concluded as soon as possible.

Recent events have demonstrated that the old

dispensation is ill equipped to grapple with the

complexities of the world we live in today. Reform, I

repeat, is urgent if today’s Security Council is to be

seen as poised to take on the new global peace and

security challenges facing mankind.

We are gathered together at a time of great

uncertainty and, for many, despair because of our

collective inability and lack of will to abide by the

guiding principles of our founding fathers. We have not

been too successful in preventing the scourge of war or

in addressing the factors that give rise to war.

Rather than abating, the situation in the Middle

East continues to fester and, in fact, deteriorate, as the

Road Map leading to a two-State solution to the

Palestinian-Israeli problem eludes us further. My

delegation has repeatedly decried the lack of will on

the part of the protagonists to work towards a speedy

solution to this problem, which continues to spawn

many other conflicts in other regions of the world.

It is a matter of deep regret that this world body

watched almost helplessly as a Member State —

Lebanon — was attacked and made to suffer extensive

destruction to infrastructure, property and human life.

Although we have been able to bring about a cessation

of hostilities, we cannot claim to have achieved peace.

All the conditions for a resumption of the conflict

remain intact. We must address those conditions more

06-53341 26

resolutely. We must also do everything within our

power to ensure that the problem between Hizbollah

and Israel does not pull in other countries of the region

and lead to full scale war between them and Israel. The

consequences would be disastrous for us all.

My delegation condemns in the strongest terms

Israel’s continued illegal occupation of Palestinian

territory and Arab lands, its intensive military

campaign in the West Bank and Gaza, which has

resulted in untold civilian casualties and extensive

destruction of infrastructure, and its arrest and

detention of thousands of Palestinian civilians and their

leaders. The Hamas Government in Palestine was

elected democratically by the Palestinian people, who,

by the tenets of democracy which we all claim to

espouse, are the only ones who may freely choose their

leaders. Or are we to understand that this basic tenet of

democracy should apply only if the leaders chosen are

to our liking and meet with our approval? I urge all

peace-loving and democratic members of the

international community to assist the Hamas

Government to play its role as a representative of its

people in a responsible, democratic and dignified

manner.

In Iraq, the unresolved conflict has now become

uncontrollable and has all but degenerated into civil

war. We must look for imaginative ways of stabilizing

that situation and bringing the widespread killings,

destruction and suffering to an end.

We must show leadership. Double standards have

affected the effectiveness of our response to the peace

and security needs of the Middle East for far too long

and have only muddied the waters further. The people

of the region must now enjoy some respite and be

given the space to pursue their development in an

atmosphere of peace, tranquillity and security. It is

becoming increasingly clear that the only remaining

honest broker that can ensure that this happens is the

United Nations. We must step up to the plate.

Violence in Afghanistan appears to be re-

escalating. The United Nations must join hands with

the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other

partners to engage all concerned in dialogue, with a

view to addressing the factors that are driving the

hostilities to which the long-suffering people of this

great country are subjected.

While we must obviously intervene to contain

and arrest raging conflicts, we must not be oblivious to

the need to pay equal attention to nascent conflict

situations. One such situation is that which is

prevailing across the Taiwan Strait, where the People’s

Republic of China has openly threatened Taiwan with

military intervention, should it as much as express an

intention to declare itself independent. In addition, the

People’s Republic of China has increased its arsenal of

missiles trained on Taiwan to over 800 warheads. It

goes without saying that a deterioration of the situation

into all-out war will only provoke an unwelcome mix

of responses from allies within and without the region,

responses that could cause a conflagration that would

make the Middle East situation pale in comparison.

In Africa, the good news is that peace continues

to spread. From Sierra Leone and Liberia to Uganda

and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we are

witnessing a growing preference for non-violent

approaches to conflict resolution. We should persist so

that this trend continues and embraces countries such

as Somalia and the Sudan, with its Darfur imbroglio.

In Somalia, the central Government should be

assisted to stand firmly on its own two feet and

exercise control over the entire Somali territory. The

international community must take every precaution to

prevent Somalia from becoming a haven for terrorists

and other extremists.

In the case of the Sudan, my delegation appeals

to the brotherly people of that great country to

intensify dialogue with the international community in

its quest for a resolution of the Darfur crisis. In

reaching a final decision on whether or not the African

Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) should pass the

baton to a United Nations peacekeeping force, we are

certain that, with a bit more effort on all sides, a way

will be found out of the present impasse.

While we must all work in concert to fight

terrorism, we must also endeavour not to lose respect

for fundamental human rights and civil liberties in the

process. In addition, we must increase our cooperation

in this fight and strengthen political and diplomatic

interventions in order to win it. No matter how many

resources or how much firepower are committed to

combating the phenomenon, without international

cooperation of this type, our efforts will come to

naught. Recent developments in countries like Iraq

have shown that to be the case.

Last year, we all rededicated ourselves to the full

implementation of the Millennium Declaration. There

27 06-53341

are ample indications today that the Millennium

Development Goals (MDGs) are not likely to be met in

most of sub-Saharan Africa if present trends continue.

It is clear that we must all do more to identify and help

remove the bottlenecks that are inhibiting progress

towards them. We must address the serious capacity

constraints that circumscribe the development efforts

of many an African country. We must help stimulate

economic growth through enabling policy measures

that empower our countries for greater and more

meaningful participation in world trade. We must make

real progress in the Doha round. We must increase

foreign direct investment in the African economy. We

must honour our commitment to increasing official

development assistance to 0.7 per cent of gross

national income. We must, in partnership, attack the

great health scourges of our time, namely, HIV/AIDS

and malaria.

In the Gambia, United Nations and other

independent assessments indicate that, on many fronts,

we are making steady progress. We are committed to

achieving the MDGs, in addition to the goals of the

International Conference on Population and

Development.

We have reversed the spread of HIV/AIDS. We

have already achieved gender parity in education and,

by extension, registered significant progress in gender

equality, equity and the empowerment of women. We

have brought potable water and good sanitation to over

70 per cent of our people. We have reduced the

prevalence of malaria and the incidence of maternal

and under-five mortality. We have attained 100 per cent

child immunization coverage. We have significantly

increased access to education at all levels and shall

meet the basic education goal, God willing, next year

or the year after. Our sharpest focus is on poverty

reduction, and we are determined to attain that goal

before 2015.

We have been able to achieve these gains, in spite

of the severe resource constraints that we face, because

of determined and committed leadership and our strong

resolve to live up to our commitments to the

international community.

According to the expert assessments of the

United Nations agencies, the Gambia is among the very

few African countries that will achieve the MDGs on

target, if present trends continue. Our achievements in

relation to the development agenda have been made

possible only through strong and genuine partnerships,

which we hope will continue and will grow to meet the

task ahead.

The trade policy of our Government continues to

be guided by the principles of liberalization,

deregulation and investment promotion. We have

brought about a progressive reduction of tariffs and

continued improvements in infrastructure to increase

our competitiveness as a production and trade gateway

into West Africa.

We regard the private sector as an important

engine of growth. Therefore, to further enhance its

development, our Government has formulated policies

for the systematic strengthening of the small and

medium-sized enterprise sector of our economy. It is

our hope that implementation of these policies will

lead to the creation of conditions conducive to the

speedy attraction of high levels of foreign direct

investment which will, in turn, stimulate the growth of

employment and incomes and lead to significant

reductions in the incidence of poverty among the

Gambian people.

We are conscious of the need for all our

development partners to speak to us with one voice so

as to increase coherence in the partnership. To this end,

we have this year encouraged our major multilateral

partners — the World Bank, the African Development

Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the

United Nations Development Programme and its

Millennium Project — to work together with us in

crafting a coherent Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

which will form the basis for a coordinated framework

of partnership in development.

The President returned to the Chair.

There are many commendable programmes and

initiatives designed to assist countries like the Gambia.

The Group of Eight initiatives for Africa, the Heavily

Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative of the World

Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Blair

Commission for Africa, the Millennium Challenge

Account and the Third Tokyo International Conference

on African Development, inter alia, will have an

impact only if they do not raise the bar unrealistically

high, such that the countries they are meant to assist

are unable to meet the stringent criteria for gaining

access to the funds. If aid is to be meaningful, it must

be accessible, predictable and not fragmented.

Moreover, a well-designed aid architecture that

06-53341 28

involves recipients in critical aspects of decision-

making is part of the answer for achieving the much-

sought effectiveness of official development assistance,

a subject of concern in the Paris Declaration on Aid

Effectiveness.

Yet, while those programmes and initiatives may

encourage many least developed countries in their

hopes for early relief, in reality, the accompanying

enablers have not been forthcoming. The Doha Round

is in limbo, our modest economic growth is being

threatened by unpredictably high energy prices, and

debt relief is still on the distant horizon. For many of

us, it is one step forward before world economic trends

take us two steps back. Of even greater concern is the

fact that this plethora of initiatives has hardly made a

dent in the poverty situation in our countries. The

blueprints are manifold, the responses too few.

Unfulfilled promises only dash our hopes, leave us

frustrated and diminish our faith in the effectiveness of

international partnerships for development.

We in the Gambia continue to deepen our

democracy. Just four days ago, the Gambian electorate

went to the polls to once again choose their leader in a

free and fair manner. Let me take this opportunity to

convey the thanks and appreciation of His Excellency

Al Hadji Yahya A. J. J. Jammeh to the many

delegations that have expressed to him their

congratulations and best wishes on his resounding

victory at the elections. The President considers that

victory to be a mandate from the Gambian electorate to

continue his service to the Gambian people and,

indeed, to the international community at large. Our

electoral process has been acclaimed throughout the

world for its openness, fairness and transparency.

The subject of the High-level Dialogue held just a

few days ago was international migration and

development. For the very first time, we had the

courage to address that issue within the walls of the

United Nations — and rightly so, for international

migration has been at the core of human history. It has

driven the spread of human knowledge and civilization.

It has enriched cultures and societies and caused

mankind to make great leaps in science, technology,

engineering and overall social and economic

development. We are all migrants. Therefore, let us

approach the issue of international migration with

humanity, tolerance, respect and compassion.

Attempts to penalize or criminalize international

migration will not work. In our globalized village,

international migration is an undeniable, positive and

indispensable force for keeping the wheels of national

economies and human society in motion. We must look

to the positive side of this natural human activity and

desist from actions that trample on the dignity of

migrants, as well as from acts of racism, xenophobia

and abuse of human rights.

As the saying goes, injustice anywhere is a threat

to justice everywhere. For decades, extensive illegal

and extraterritorial measures have been pursued against

Cuba, a small, friendly and democratic nation. They

have not worked and will never work. My delegation

joins the vast majority of the members of the

international community in calling for the lifting of the

decades-long embargo against Cuba in order to enable

the hard-working people of that great country to pursue

their development aspirations in an atmosphere of

peace. Let us all strive to live and let live.

By the same token, we must also urgently address

the question of Taiwan. The legitimate quest of the

people of Taiwan for a voice and standing in the United

Nations must be ignored no longer. Taiwan is an

important actor in our global economy and contributes

immensely to global peace and security. It must be

formally granted recognition as a responsible member

of the international community. A simple way to grant

that recognition would be to give Taiwan its rightful

place in the United Nations.

In that connection, the Government of the

Gambia wishes to strongly protests the General

Committee’s violation of the rules of procedure on

12 September this year by amalgamating two items

proposed by its members into one agenda item, thus

preventing members from participating in the

discussion of those items. We will therefore require a

legal opinion from the United Nations on an expedited

basis to ensure that we are provided with the

opportunity to engage in a debate on that issue, as we

are duly entitled to do.

Before I conclude, let me salute, commend and

bid farewell to one of Africa’s outstanding

personalities, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, since

this will be the last General Assembly session during

his tenure as Secretary-General. President Al Hadji

Yahya Jammeh had the honour to pay tribute to him

during the Summit of Heads of State and Government

29 06-53341

of the African Union held in Banjul in July. Therefore,

I should like to say only that the Government and the

people of the Gambia salute his leadership, his astute

diplomatic skills, his demonstrated commitment to

international peace, security and development, and his

unswerving faith in the international system.

Mr. Annan’s term as Secretary-General may be ending,

but I am sure that he will continue to be there for us

and will willingly come to the rescue when we need his

wisdom and vast experience in mediating complex

global problems. We wish him well in his future

endeavours, and we wish him and his family continued

good health and happiness in their new life.