United States, 2003

Twenty-four months ago, and

yesterday in the memory of America, the centre of New

York City became a battlefield, and a graveyard, and

the symbol of an unfinished war. Since that day,

terrorists have struck in Bali, in Mombassa, in

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Casablanca, in Riyadh, in Jakarta, in Jerusalem,

measuring the advance of their cause in the chaos and

innocent suffering they leave behind.

Last month, terrorists brought their war to the

United Nations itself. The United Nations headquarters

in Baghdad stood for order and compassion. For that

reason, the terrorists decided it must be destroyed.

Among the 22 people who were murdered was Sergio

Vieira de Mello. Over the decades, that good and brave

man from Brazil gave help to the afflicted in

Bangladesh, Cyprus, Mozambique, Lebanon,

Cambodia, Central Africa, Kosovo and East Timor, and

was aiding the people of Iraq in their time of need.

America joins you, his colleagues, in honouring the

memory of Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello and the memory

of all those who died with him in the service of the

United Nations.

By the victims they choose and by the means they

use, the terrorists have clarified the struggle we are in.

Those who target relief workers for death have set

themselves against all humanity. Those who incite

murder and celebrate suicide reveal their contempt for

life itself. They have no place in any religious faith,

they have no claim on the world's sympathy, and they

should have no friend in this Hall.

Events during the past two years have set before

us the clearest of divides: between those who seek

order and those who spread chaos, between those who

work for peaceful change and those who adopt the

methods of gangsters, between those who honour the

rights of man and those who deliberately take the lives

of men, women and children without mercy or shame.

Between those alternatives there is no neutral

ground. All Governments that support terror are

complicit in a war against civilization. No Government

should ignore the threat of terror because to look the

other way gives terrorists the chance to regroup, recruit

and prepare. All nations that fight terror as if the lives

of their own people depended on it will earn the

favourable judgement of history.

The former regimes of Afghanistan and Iraq knew

those alternatives and made their choices. The Taliban

was a sponsor and servant of terrorism. When

confronted, that regime chose defiance, and that regime

is no more. Afghanistan's President, who is here today,

now represents a free people who are building a decent

and just society. They are building a nation fully joined

in the war against terror.

The regime of Saddam Hussain cultivated ties to

terror while it built weapons of mass destruction. It

used those weapons in acts of mass murder and refused

to account for them when confronted by the world. The

Security Council was right to be alarmed. The Security

Council was right to demand that Iraq destroy its

illegal weapons and prove that it had done so. The

Security Council was right to vow serious

consequences if Iraq refused to comply. And because

there were consequences because a coalition of

nations acted to defend the peace and the credibility of

the United Nations Iraq is free, and today we are

joined by the representatives of a liberated country.

Saddam Hussain's monuments have been

removed, and not only his statues. The true monuments

of his rule and his character the torture chambers,

the rape rooms and the prison cells for innocent

children are closed. And as we discover the killing

fields and mass graves of Iraq, the true scale of

Saddam's cruelty is being revealed.

The Iraqi people are meeting hardships and

challenges, like every nation that has set out on the

path of democracy. Yet, their future promises lives of

dignity and freedom, and that is a world away from the

squalid, vicious tyranny they have known. Across Iraq,

life is being improved by liberty. Across the Middle

East, people are safer because an unstable aggressor

has been removed from power. Across the world,

nations are more secure because an ally of terror has

fallen.

Our actions in Afghanistan and Iraq were

supported by many Governments, and America is

grateful to each one. I also recognize that some of the

sovereign nations of the Assembly disagreed with our

actions. Yet, there was and there remains unity among

us on the fundamental principles and objectives of the

United Nations. We are dedicated to the defence of our

collective security and to the advance of human rights.

Those permanent commitments call us to great work in

the world, work that we must do together. So, let us

move forward. First, we must stand with the people of

Afghanistan and Iraq as they build free and stable

countries. The terrorists and their allies fear and fight

this progress above all because free people embrace

hope over resentment and choose peace over violence.

The United Nations has been a friend of the

Afghan people, distributing food and medicine, helping

refugees return home, advising on a new constitution

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and helping to prepare the way for nationwide

elections. NATO has taken over the United Nations

mandated security force in Kabul. American and

coalition forces continue to track and defeat al Qaeda

terrorists and the remnants of the Taliban. Our efforts

to rebuild that country go on. I have recently proposed

to spend an additional $1.2 billion for the Afghan

reconstruction effort, and I urge other nations to

continue contributing to that important cause.

In the nation of Iraq, the United Nations is

carrying out vital and effective work every day. By the

end of 2004, more than 90 per cent of Iraqi children

under age five will have been immunized against

preventable diseases such as polio, tuberculosis and

measles, thanks to the hard work and high ideals of

UNICEF. Iraq's food distribution system is operational,

delivering nearly a half million tons of food per month,

thanks to the skill and expertise of the World Food

Programme.

Our international coalition in Iraq is meeting its

responsibilities. We are conducting precision raids

against terrorists and holdouts of the former regime.

Those killers are at war with the Iraqi people. They

have made Iraq the central front in the war on terror.

And they will be defeated. Our coalition has made sure

that Iraq's former dictator will never again use

weapons of mass destruction. We are now interviewing

Iraqi citizens and analysing records of the old regime

to reveal the full extent of its weapons programmes and

its long campaign of deception. We are training Iraqi

police, border guards and a new army so that the Iraqi

people can assume full responsibility for their own

security.

At the same time, our coalition is helping to

improve the daily lives of the Iraqi people. The old

regime built palaces while letting schools decay, so we

are rebuilding more than a thousand schools. The old

regime starved hospitals of resources, so we have

helped to supply and reopen hospitals across Iraq. The

old regime built up armies and weapons while allowing

the nation's infrastructure to crumble, so we are

rehabilitating power plants, water and sanitation

facilities, bridges and airports. I have proposed to

Congress that the United States provide additional

funding for our work in Iraq, the greatest financial

commitment of its kind since the Marshall Plan.

Having helped to liberate Iraq, we will honour

our pledges to Iraq, and by helping the Iraqi people

build a stable and peaceful country we will make our

own countries more secure.

The primary goal of our coalition in Iraq is self-

government for the people of Iraq, reached by an

orderly and democratic process. That process must

unfold according to the needs of Iraqis, neither hurried

nor delayed by the wishes of other parties. And the

United Nations can contribute greatly to the cause of

Iraqi self-government.

America is working with friends and allies on a

new Security Council resolution, which will expand the

United Nation's role in Iraq. As in the aftermath of

other conflicts, the United Nations should assist in

developing a constitution, training civil servants and

conducting free and fair elections. Iraq now has a

Governing Council, the first truly representative

institution in that country. Iraq's new leaders are

showing the openness and tolerance that democracy

requires, and they are also showing courage. Yet every

young democracy needs the help of friends. Now the

nation of Iraq needs and deserves our aid, and all

nations of good will should step forward and provide

that support.

The success of a free Iraq will be watched and

noted throughout the region. Millions will see that

freedom, equality and material progress are possible at

the heart of the Middle East. Leaders in the region will

face the clearest evidence that free institutions and

open societies are the only path to long-term national

success and dignity. And a transformed Middle East

would benefit the entire world by undermining the

ideologies that export violence to other lands.

Iraq as a dictatorship had great power to

destabilize the Middle East. Iraq as a democracy will

have great power to inspire the Middle East. The

advance of democratic institutions in Iraq is setting an

example that others, including the Palestinian people,

would be wise to follow. The Palestinian cause is

betrayed by leaders who cling to power by feeding old

hatreds and destroying the good work of others. The

Palestinian people deserve their own State. They will

gain that State by embracing new leaders committed to

reform, to fighting terror and to building peace.

All parties in the Middle East must meet their

responsibilities and carry out the commitments they

made at Aqaba. Israel must work to create the

conditions that will allow a peaceful Palestinian State

to emerge. Arab nations must cut off funding and other

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support for terrorist organizations. America will work

with every nation in the region that acts boldly for the

sake of peace.

A second challenge we must confront together is

the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Outlaw regimes that possess nuclear, chemical and

biological weapons and the means to deliver them

would be able to use blackmail and create chaos in

entire regions. Those weapons could be used by

terrorists to bring sudden disaster and suffering on a

scale we can scarcely imagine. The deadly combination

of outlaw regimes, terror networks and weapons of

mass murder is a peril that cannot be ignored or wished

away. If such a danger is allowed to fully materialize,

all words, all protests, will come too late.

Nations of the world must have the wisdom and

the will to stop grave threats before they arrive. One

crucial step is to secure the most dangerous materials at

their source. For more than a decade, the United States

has worked with Russia and other States of the former

Soviet Union to dismantle, destroy or secure weapons

and dangerous materials left over from another era.

Last year in Canada, the G-8 nations agreed to

provide up to 20 billion dollars, half of it from the

United States, to fight this proliferation risk over the

next ten years. Since then, six additional countries have

joined the effort. More are needed, and I urge other

nations to help us meet this danger.

We are also improving our capability to interdict

lethal materials in transit. Through our Proliferation

Security Initiative, eleven nations are preparing to

search planes, ships, trains and trucks carrying suspect

cargo and to seize weapons or missile shipments that

raise proliferation concerns. These nations have agreed

on a set of interdiction principles consistent with

current legal authorities, and we are working to expand

the Proliferation Security Initiative to other countries.

We are determined to keep the world's most destructive

weapons away from all our shores and out of the hands

of our common enemies.

Because proliferators will use any route or

channel that is open to them, we need the broadest

possible cooperation to stop them. Today I ask the

United Nations Security Council to adopt a new

antiproliferation resolution. That resolution should call

on all Members of the United Nations to criminalize

the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, to

enact strict export controls consistent with international

standards and to secure any and all sensitive materials

within their own borders. The United States stands

ready to help any nation draft these new laws and to

assist in their enforcement.

A third challenge we share is a challenge to our

conscience. We must act decisively to meet the

humanitarian crises of our time. The United States has

begun to carry out the Emergency Plan for AIDS

Relief, aimed at preventing AIDS on a massive scale

and treating millions who have the disease already. We

have pledged 15 billion dollars over five years to fight

AIDS around the world.

My country is acting to save lives from famine as

well. We are providing more than 1.4 billion dollars in

global emergency food aid, and I have asked our

United States Congress for 200 million dollars for a

new famine fund so that we can act quickly when the

first signs of famine appear. Every nation on every

continent should generously add their resources to the

fight against disease and desperate hunger.

There is another humanitarian crisis, spreading,

yet hidden from view. Each year, an estimated eight to

nine hundred thousand human beings are bought, sold

or forced across the world's borders. Among them are

hundreds of thousands of teenage girls and others as

young as five who fall victim to the sex trade. This

commerce in human life generates billions of dollars

each year, much of which is used to finance organized

crime. There is a special evil in the abuse and

exploitation of the most innocent and vulnerable. The

victims of the sex trade see little of life before they see

the very worst of life an underground of brutality

and lonely fear. Those who create these victims and

profit from their suffering must be severely punished.

Those who patronize this industry debase themselves

and deepen the misery of others, and Governments that

tolerate this trade are tolerating a form of slavery.

This problem has appeared in my own country

and we are working to stop it. The Protect Act, which I

signed into law this year, makes it a crime for any

person to enter the United States or for any citizen to

travel abroad for the purpose of sex tourism involving

children. The Department of Justice is actively

investigating sex tour operators and patrons, who can

face up to 30 years in prison. Under the Trafficking

Victims Protection Act, the United States is using

sanctions against Governments to discourage human

trafficking.

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The victims of this industry also need help from

Members of the United Nations. This begins with clear

standards and the certainty of punishment under the

laws of every country. Today, some nations make it a

crime to sexually abuse children abroad. Such conduct

should be a crime in all nations. Governments should

inform travellers of the harm this industry does and the

severe punishments that will fall on its patrons. The

American Government is committing $50 million to

support the good work of organizations that are

rescuing women and children from exploitation and

giving them shelter, medical treatment and the hope of

a new life. I urge other Governments to do their part.

We must show new energy in fighting back an old

evil. Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the

transatlantic slave trade and more than a century after

slavery was officially ended in its last strongholds, the

trade in human beings for any purpose must not be

allowed to thrive in our time.

All the challenges I have spoken of this morning

require urgent attention and moral clarity. Helping

Afghanistan and Iraq to succeed as free nations in a

transformed region; cutting off the avenues of

proliferation; abolishing modern forms of slavery

these are the kinds of great tasks for which the United

Nations was founded. In each case, careful discussion

is needed and, also, decisive action. Our good

intentions will be credited only if we achieve good

outcomes. As an original signer of the United Nations

Charter, the United States of America is committed to

the United Nations and we show that commitment by

working to fulfil the United Nations stated purposes

and by giving meaning to its ideals.

The founding documents of the United Nations

and the founding documents of America stand in the

same tradition. Both assert that human beings should

never be reduced to objects of power or commerce,

because their dignity is inherent. Both recognize a

moral law that stands above men and nations, but

which must be defended and enforced by men and

nations. And both point the way to peace the peace

that comes when all are free. We secure that peace with

our courage and we must show that courage together.