Zimbabwe, 2005

Allow me to extend to you,

Sir, our sincere congratulations on your assumption of

the presidency of the sixtieth session of the General

Assembly and to express our confidence in your ability

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to guide our work throughout the session. In the same

breath, let me also express our appreciation to your

predecessor, Mr. Jean Ping, for managing successfully

the very difficult business of the fifty-ninth session.

Although we began our last session with a

weighty agenda, we were able to reach general

agreement on a number of important issues in the area

of development. We are yet to agree on other pressing

issues, such as the reform of the Security Council and

the composition of a new Human Rights Council.

For many years we have spoken in favour of an

approach to international peace and security that is

firmly rooted in the principle of multilateralism and the

provisions of the Charter of the United Nations. We

maintain that any diversion from this approach is

unacceptable, undesirable and devoid of legal

justification. We are pleased to note that the majority

of views expressed during the last session reinforced

that principle.

Our expectation is that the Security Council in its

current form, or in whatever character and composition

it will eventually take, will, like all other bodies of the

United Nations, limit itself to what is contained in its

mandate. We do not subscribe to the suggestion that all

problems — social, cultural, economic and health,

among others — are necessarily threats to international

peace and security and should therefore be referred to

the Security Council.

Recently we witnessed the United Kingdom

abusing its privilege and acting dishonestly as a

member of the Council by seeking to score cheap

political points in its bilateral dispute with us. We were

dragged on to the Council’s agenda over an issue that

has no relevance to the maintenance of international

peace and security. Let me pay tribute to those

members of the Security Council who saw through this

cheap politicking and manipulation of procedures —

which the same country, by the way, has vowed to

resume as soon as the Council is appropriately chaired.

It is my hope that other Member countries will join us

in rejecting this neocolonialist attempt and blatant

interference in the internal affairs of Zimbabwe. But

then, is it not obvious, that Britain under the regime of

Tony Blair has ceased to respect the Charter of the

United Nations? Witness its being a principal member

of the illegal anti-Iraq coalition that went on a

devastating campaign in that country in complete

defiance of the United Nations Charter. Any State or

group of States that commits such an act of aggression

on another, justifying it on blatant falsehoods, surely

becomes guilty of State terrorism.

Zimbabwe is a country at peace with itself and

with its neighbours and offers absolutely no threat to

international peace and security. Is it not therefore

surprising that Britain and its Anglo-Saxon allies have

embarked on a vicious campaign of first peddling

blatant lies intended to tarnish it and then appealing to

Europe and America for sanctions against it?

Those imperialist countries have unashamedly

abused the power of the media by hypocritically

portraying themselves as philanthropists and

international saviours of victims of various calamities.

Yet they have remained silent about the shocking

circumstances of obvious State neglect surrounding the

tragic Gulf coast disaster, where a whole community of

mainly non-whites was deliberately abandoned to the

ravages of Hurricane Katrina as sacrificial lambs, and

sacrificed to which god one cannot tell. Most of the

victims were blacks. And we are bound to ask what

transgressions we, the blacks of this world, have

committed? Was it not enough punishment and

suffering in history that we were uprooted and made

helpless slaves, not only in new colonial outposts but

also domestically at home, through a vicious system of

colonialism that made us landless, propertyless and

mere slaves and serfs in our own lands?

Must we again in this day of humanitarian ethics,

this day of the sacred principles of the equality of

mankind and the rights of men and women, this day

that has seen us assemble here to save, enhance and

prolong life, become victims of callous racial neglect?

We of Africa protest that in this day and age we should

continue to be treated as lesser human beings than

other races.

We reiterate our deep sympathies and

condolences over the massive loss of life that occurred

in the Hurricane Katrina disaster. If, as we are told,

many who survived the wrath of Hurricane Katrina are

still dispersed, the question we ask ourselves is where

they are and for how long will they remain where they

are. We ask further whether they will ever get back,

truly rehabilitated, to their original homes — properly

rehabilitated also, homes which at present are mere

wreckages. Where, I ask, are the Zimbabwe-famous

United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-

HABITAT) and the Commission on Human Rights?

6 05-51226

Why should they maintain an ominous silence? For

here is real homeless work for HABITAT and the

Commission on Human Rights. This indeed is where

they rightly belong and not anywhere in Zimbabwe. We

do not need them there.

With reference to the vexatious issue of the

reform of the Security Council, we have made our

views known through the African Union. We seek fair

and equal treatment as partners in this community of

nations and pledge our commitment to work with

others in pursuit of that objective.

The promotion of human rights is one of the

major aims of the United Nations as enshrined in its

Charter. As such, the subject rightly occupies space on

the agenda of each session of the General Assembly,

including this one. We believe that the United Nations

should make every effort to promote and protect the

full enjoyment of human rights, including the right to

development. Regrettably, we have seen over the years

a deliberate tendency to create a distorted hierarchy of

rights, with the sole mischievous purpose of

overplaying civil and political rights while

downplaying economic, social and cultural rights. That

explains why the whole human rights agenda, instead

of being a cooperative exercise, has degenerated into a

Western-managed kangaroo court, always looking out

for “criminals”, as they call them, among developing

countries. Hence, we continue to argue that the human

rights discourse needs to be rid of selectivity and

double standards and to be approached without hidden

political agendas.

The African Union has indicated its support for

the establishment of a Human Rights Council that will

be subordinated to the General Assembly. Zimbabwe

subscribes fully to that position. We believe, however,

that a correctly sized and properly structured Council,

with equitable geographical representation, will be a

major step in addressing the deficiencies of the current

Commission on Human Rights.

At the beginning of the last session (see

A/59/PV.5) I informed the Assembly that despite the

recurrent droughts that we had experienced, Zimbabwe

had the capacity to cope with its situation of hunger

and was thus not appealing for humanitarian

intervention. In spite of that message, our detractors

and ill-wishers have been projecting a false picture of

mass starvation. There has been none of that. Recently,

particularly in the aftermath of our urban clean-up

operation, popularly known at home as Operation

Murambatsvina, or Operation Restore Order, the

familiar noises re-echoed from the same malicious

prophets of doom claiming that there was a

humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe. Those unfounded

alarms are aimed at deliberately tarnishing the image

of Zimbabwe and projecting it as a failed State. We

find it strange and obviously anomalous that the

Government of Zimbabwe should be maligned and

condemned for restoring order and the rule of law in its

municipal areas. Our detractors fail to acknowledge

that Operation Restore Order soon gave way to a well-

planned, vast reconstruction programme through which

properly planned accommodation, factory shells and

vending stalls are being constructed in many areas of

the country for our people. We have rejected the

scandalous demand, as expressed in Special Envoy

Anna Tibaijuka’s report, that we lower our urban

housing standards to allow for mud huts, bush latrines

and pit toilets as suitable for our urban people and for

Africans generally. Nothing can be more insulting and

degrading of a people than that. Surely we do not need

development in reverse.

Let me conclude by making my message to our

detractors very simple and clear. The people of

Zimbabwe came through a protracted guerrilla struggle

to establish themselves as a free — I emphasize

“free” — and sovereign nation. We indeed went

through long and bitter times to get our freedom and

independence, and to be where we are today. We

cherish that hard-won freedom and independence, and

no amount of coercion, political, economic or

otherwise, will make us a colony again. But we also

cherish peace and development and good regional and

international relations. Together with all other nations

of good will, we will continue to work tirelessly for a

just, peaceful and prosperous world.