Timor-Leste, 2010

I have been given such

a bad spot on the speaking list that I feel as if I am in a

Fellini movie, speaking to an empty Hall. Still, because

I believe in ghosts, I believe that the friendly ghosts of

those who are not present are here to listen, and I

profusely thank those who bothered to come on this

Saturday afternoon.

Mr. President, in compensation for my having the

worst possible time slot in the general debate, when I

see you this afternoon I hope you will have a nice box

of Swiss chocolates to give to me.

We will not distribute the written version of my

speech because no one reads them anyway and it is a

waste of paper and money. However, anyone who is

curious enough about my speech will be able to find it

on the General Assembly’s website. It is a lengthy

speech — although I will not compete with Presidents

Obama, Ahmadinejad or Chávez — so I will skip

through much of it, out of respect for the

representatives who have been here for a week

listening to many speeches.

Still, I would fail my upbringing if I were not to

thank the Mayor of New York and New Yorkers for

welcoming us to their city. We sympathize with the

residents of this city for the inconveniences we cause

them by our presence, even if most people would agree

that the United Nations and the numerous meetings

held here throughout the year bring enormous tangible

and non-quantifiable benefits to the city. I also would

like thank the United States federal authorities for their

exceptional efforts and professionalism in providing us

with a secure and friendly environment.

I have never met Mayor Bloomberg, but he has

gone up in our esteem and respect because of his

intellectual clarity and moral courage in standing up

for the rights of American Muslims in building a

cultural centre and a sacred place of worship in lower

Manhattan as a venue for reflection, learning and

fraternity among cultures and religions. What better

place is there than lower Manhattan, near the World

Trade Center, to signal the revulsion of American

Muslims and moderate Muslims all over the world at

the actions of some extremists? I congratulate Mayor

Bloomberg for his moral courage and integrity.

I was not present in this Hall when President

Ahmadinejad of the Islamic Republic of Iran addressed

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this Assembly a few days ago. I was at Columbia

University, addressing an equally important gathering

of young students and academics from many countries,

cultures and religions. So I did not hear President

Ahmadinejad’s latest intellectual concoctions in this

Assembly. I will not question the right of anyone to

speak his mind. President Ahmadinejad is entitled to

believe in and regurgitate whatever intellectual,

philosophical or theological concoctions his unique

mind may fabricate. However, I do not agree that any

of us should disregard the basic rules and practices of

conduct among leaders by uttering obscenities in this

Assembly. What President Ahmadinejad said in this

forum in regard to the terrorist attacks on the World

Trade Center was an obscenity. He went too far, as he

has done many times before in this Assembly and in

other forums, as when he has questioned the facts of

the Holocaust.

Otherwise, we fully subscribe to Iran’s legitimate

right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful

purposes, and we caution the Powers that be not to

hasten in reaching conclusions that may lead to

irreversible, catastrophic decisions. We do have serious

doubts, however, about the reliability and safety of

nuclear energy. Let us not forget the lessons of the

Three Mile Island accident, which occurred at 4 a.m.

on 28 March 1979 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or the

even worse Chernobyl nuclear meltdown of April 1986.

The recent catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

would pale by comparison with the blow-up of a

nuclear energy facility. We do not know whether

Iranian rulers do or do not have the desire to be an

armed nuclear Power. What we do know, however, is

that the possession of nuclear weapons is not a shortcut

to super-Power status, as some in Asia seem to think,

and does not insure anyone against twenty-first century

conventional and non–conventional security threats.

Nuclear weapons were developed as a result of

the tragic experiences of the Second World War and of

mutual suspicion and fears pervasive among the

Powers at that time. They have become obsolete. That

is proven by the fact that the mighty Soviet nuclear and

conventional arsenals were not able to prevent the

implosion of its Empire, the liberation of hundreds of

millions of people or the reunification of Germany.

Nuclear weapons are not going to be of much help in

the ongoing ethnic, religious and border disputes in

Asia. We pray to God the Almighty and the Merciful

that these weapons and others, chemical and biological,

do not ever fall into the hands of extremist non-State

entities.

We gathered here from 20 to 22 September to

review the progress — or lack of it — on the pledges

we solemnly made before our peoples in 2000 to

eliminate or at least halve poverty by 2015. In Timor-

Leste, we regained independence in 2002, and in the

first years of our independence we set out to rebuild

our country from the ashes of the violence of the past,

lay the foundations of a functioning democratic State,

heal our wounds, reconcile our divided communities

and normalize relations with past external adversaries.

In only eight years and in spite of the overwhelming

challenges facing us, we have navigated out of the

storms to a new period of peace, stability and

economic growth.

Timor-Leste is a least developed country, affected

by pervasive poverty. We are still a fragile country,

partly because we are only eight years old, and being

an infant country, all the institutions of the State are

young and fragile. However, the Almighty and the

Merciful has blessed us with generous natural

resources, such as oil and gas, enabling us to accelerate

our overall development.

Timor-Leste was not yet independent in 2000,

and it was not until our first Millennium Development

Goal report was issued in 2004 that the first targets

were set. For the past three years, Timor-Leste has

enjoyed real peace and a robust economic growth of

over 12 per cent. In the past two years, poverty levels

have decreased by as much as 9 per cent. Infant

mortality and under-five mortality rates have been

reduced and have already reached the 2015 target.

School enrolment has increased from 65 per cent in

2007 to 83 per cent in 2009-2010. Adult illiteracy is

being gradually eliminated thanks to a joint programme

between Timor-Leste and Cuba. We anticipate that,

within two to three years, Timor-Leste will be

completely free of illiteracy. About 30 per cent of our

general State budget is allocated to public health and

education. This turn-around is due largely thanks to

aggressive public financing of social such programmes

as direct cash transfers to the elderly, widows, the

handicapped and veterans, and to determined efforts to

expand cultivated areas and increase food production.

The first of the 800 Timorese medical students

studying in Cuba have returned home. In addition to

those studying medicine in Cuba, there are 200 more

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enrolled in the medical school of our national

university. In addition, more than 200 Cuban doctors

have been assigned to Timor-Leste since 2004,

working side by side with Timorese doctors and nurses

delivering services to the remotest corners of the

country and training our medical and health personnel.

The members of the famous Cuban Medical Brigade

are true missionaries, as deserving of the Nobel Peace

Prize as Mother Teresa.

In Timor-Leste, this year we will finalize our own

road map, the 2011-2030 Strategic Development Plan,

which will lift our people from centuries of poverty to

the level of an upper-middle-income country by 2030.

With regard to the management of our petroleum

resources, we are pleased to note that the Extractive

Industries Transparency Initiative in its most recent

report of 1 July, rated Timor-Leste number one in Asia

and number three in the world for sound, transparent

and effective management of our oil and gas revenues.

Women make up almost 30 per cent of the

deputies in our national Parliament. Key cabinet

positions in the executive branch — finance, justice,

social solidarity, prosecutor-general and so on — are

held by women. A youth parliament, comprising

130 youth parliamentarians ranging in ages from 12 to

17 years, has been elected and will have its first formal

sitting in November. I am pleased that our expectations

on balanced gender representation were in fact

exceeded. The youth parliament counts 68 girl and

62 boy deputies.

Timor-Leste is proud to have one of the most

humanist Constitutions in the world. It prohibits the

death penalty and its maximum prison sentence is

25 years. We have also ratified all core international

human rights treaties. Our Constitution gives primacy

to international law over domestic law, such that all our

laws must conform to international law.

As the Head of State guided by humanist beliefs

and the relevant provisions of our Constitution, I have

issued pardons to individuals who have been tried and

found guilty by the courts and have served a number of

years with good behaviour. We believe that the pursuit

of justice cannot be dissociated from other

overwhelming values, such as compassion and

understanding of mitigating circumstances.

I wish now to turn to some international issues.

We appeal to President Barack Obama to sign an

executive order releasing five Cuban citizens who have

languished in United States jails for over 10 years and

denied family visits. Even visits by the International

Committee of the Red Cross have not been authorized.

The United States should likewise lift the draconian

financial and economic sanctions and trade embargo

against Cuba. The Cuban people are among the few in

the world who are still suffering the inequities of the

cold-war era. It would seem that, for some in the

United States and in particular in the State of Florida,

the cold war is not over.

The situation in Myanmar is an immensely

complex one. It is a vast country fragmented along

ethnic lines and plagued by numerous armed groups

fighting with different agendas. Based on our own

experience, we believe that in order to manage such

complex challenges, be it in our own country,

Myanmar or anywhere else, we must all show wisdom

and engage in patient dialogue with those who do not

agree with us so that together we can end conflict and

pull our countries out of poverty.

With respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we

commend the Israeli and Palestinian leaders for their

renewed dialogue under the auspices of the United

States Administration. To those in Palestine who, in

spite of decades of suffering and humiliation, have

resisted the temptation of extremism and violence, I

bow. To those in Israel who have championed the cause

of peace and the rights of the Palestinian people, I will

say that they represent the very best of the Jewish

people — a people who more than anyone else on

Earth should understand the suffering and desire of

others for freedom.

We urge Hamas to show statesmanship by

recognizing the State of Israel. Extremism, fanaticism

and indiscriminate violence do harm to the noble

Palestinian quest for dignity and freedom. At the same

time, we submit that Hamas and Hezbollah are genuine

popular movements deeply rooted in the plight of

millions of poor, dispossessed, alienated and angry in

the Middle East. Labelling them terrorists and refusing

to engage and build bridges with such groups is, in our

view, not a sound policy.

We urge Israel, a country founded on 5,000 years

of history and born of centuries of persecution and war,

to show the wisdom and generosity of the Jews by

ending the Gaza blockade, allowing unhindered access

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for humanitarian assistance, and ending the land-

grabbing and colonization of the West Bank.

On the question of Western Sahara, the aborted

decolonization of that territory and the endless plight

of hundreds of thousands of Saharans in camps in

Algeria constitute an indictment of the international

community. This is not an issue as complex as

Afghanistan or Palestine. How can we believe that

there will be an early resolution of these other

seemingly intractable problems when there seems to be

little political will to solve the Western Sahara

problem?

I believe that I have already exceeded the time

allocated to me by one minute and 35 seconds. I have a

few more words to say about foreign aid and climate

change, but I will skip that in order to respect

everybody else, particularly those following me. Allow

me only to say two words about United Nations

reform.

More than 60 years after its founding, the United

Nations has yet to undertake meaningful reform to

make it more representative of the world of the twenty-

first century and to become more effective. And we are

not talking only about an expanded and more

representative Security Council. We are talking about

making the United Nations and its many agencies and

programmes less bureaucratic and more efficient in

their internal management and service delivery.

In regard to the Security Council, we restate our

view that it has to be expanded to accommodate the

new demographic and economic realities of the twenty-

first century. Major regional Powers like India and

Brazil must be granted permanent member status in the

Security Council.

In concluding, on behalf of our people I thank the

international community for the steady and generous

assistance provided to us in our years of need. We

would not have been able to achieve the progress of the

past years without the understanding of our friends and

partners.

We can all do better in Timor-Leste and

elsewhere, and we must. With humility we

acknowledge our failings and limitations. We are

determined to live up to the expectations of our people

and to lead them towards a peaceful and prosperous

future.