Malawi

First of all, Sir, allow me to congratulate you on your election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session and also to commend Mr. Jan Kavan for his outstanding and astute leadership in presiding over the fifty-seventh session. I should like also to commend Secretary-General Kofi Annan for his dynamism and for the great leadership qualities he continues to display in steering the affairs of the United Nations. I wish to assure you of Malawi’s continued support and cooperation as we deal with the challenges before us. I would like to express Malawi’s sincere condolences to the families of the victims of the senseless and barbaric attack against the headquarters of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq, which resulted in the loss of a number of lives, including that of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello. The attack should serve as a warning of our need to remain focused on the fight against terrorism to ensure that the 20 war against that scourge proceeds as a multilateral undertaking. We fully support the call for all those responsible for such attacks to be charged with war crimes. Time has demonstrated the cardinal place of multilateral approaches to international issues and problems. The Iraq situation has revealed to us all in the international community the importance of multilateralism under the auspices of the United Nations, whose central role in addressing international conflicts should not be undermined. Let me seize this opportunity to express, on behalf of the Government and the people of Malawi, my gratitude to the United Nations and its agencies, as well as to other multilateral and bilateral donors, for the emergency relief assistance given to Malawi and to other countries of southern Africa during the past two years, when our people faced a critical food shortage that threatened millions of lives. Their timely intervention enabled us to prevent a massive loss of life. We trust that the international community will also assist us in improving our agricultural production so as to prevent the recurrence of famine. Africa continues to experience the effects of the tragedy created by the HIV/AIDS scourge. Our national budgets are seriously overstretched by the demands of care, treatment, support and funerals for HIV/AIDS victims, which occur on an hourly basis in an environment of devastating economic decline and famine. We are losing able-bodied people and professional expertise in all the sectors of our society two and a half times faster than we can replace them. We are grappling with the problem of caring for tens of thousands of orphans, whose numbers are increasing at an alarming rate. The bleak and desperate situation created by HIV/ AIDS urgently calls for concerted and practical international action to implement the Millennium Declaration and Development Goals in the fight against this pandemic. I would like to thank all those partners that continue to assist us in addressing this serious problem. Malawi has paid close attention to the new international debate presently taking shape which advocates a qualitative paradigm shift from policy frameworks and mere commitments in conferences to the concrete implementation of an agreed action programme, or what has become known as the New Multilateralism which aims at addressing the serious shortcomings of existing multilateral policy prescriptions. The debate also seeks to effect a move in the right direction. My Government supports this important innovation and, especially, the newly- launched United Nations system wide integrated framework for least developed countries, jointly worked out by the six core agencies and designed to facilitate the effective integration of the least developed economies into the multilateral trading system. We also support the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) mechanism for effecting increased coordination and collaboration at the national level in the preparation of development plans and programmes. We are keen to see a better- coordinated and integrated follow-up to, and implementation of, not only conference outcomes but also outstanding donor commitments to our development efforts. In the same vein, the Government of Malawi fully endorses the current exercise designed to reform the United Nations. A more representative and democratic United Nations will enhance the efficiency and credibility of this world organization. I cannot overemphasize the centrality of market access and trade to the whole question of poverty eradication, sustainable agriculture and rural development. We need to translate the debate on Western protectionism into a deliberate, broad-ranging global policy against trade barriers. Malawi is concerned at the collapse of the recent World Trade Organization meeting in Cancún, Mexico. We can only hope that the stalemate in the talks is only temporary. In the current unbalanced system of trade, low commodity prices on the international market have allowed a virtual free flow of our primary products to the West with a near-zero return on our agricultural sector, making it all the more difficult to develop the sector into a key catalyst for rural and sustainable development as a strategy for effective poverty reduction. The world today is faced with multiple challenges, which have tested the resilience of the strong, as well as that of the weak. In Africa, the noble objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), geared towards enabling. Africans themselves to assume full responsibility for 21 development challenges, can be meaningfully realised only with the support of the developed countries. So far, not much has been achieved owing to resource constraints. The resource pledges made by the Group of Eight at meetings in Canada and France must be honoured in order for the implementation of the NEPAD programmes to pull Africa out of economic stagnation. We were heartened by the launch, early this year, of the road map for a Middle East peace with the expectation that it had established conditions for an irreversible transition to the establishment of an independent Palestinian State co-existing with the State of Israel. It is, therefore, regrettable that the road map is being frustrated by elements that do not wish to see peace take root in the Middle East. We call upon the Middle East Quartet and the Israeli and the Palestinian sides, in particular, to remain committed to the road map and to do everything in their power to make it succeed. I would like to commend the Secretary-General, jointly with the Assembly and the Security Council, for having taken a number of decisive steps towards the resolution of conflicts in Africa, including through the framework of the open-ended ad hoc Committee. of the Security Council on conflict prevention and recovery in Africa. Malawi reaffirms its alignment with the position of Africa and the Southern African Development Community on preventive diplomacy, and commends, in this regard, the General Assembly work on a draft resolution on the prevention of armed conflict in Africa. We also support the Economic and Social Council resolution establishing an Ad Hoc Advisory Group for mobilizing assistance for African countries emerging from conflict. The humanitarian tragedies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Liberia remain a serious distraction from important national and regional development initiatives. In this regard, we welcome the peaceful handover of the reigns of power in Burundi on 30 April, 2003, in accordance with the terms of the peace accord of August 2000. We also commend the successful establishment and launching of a broad-based Government of national unity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 15 July 2003 and the peaceful and successful elections recently held in Rwanda. However, it is important that war crimes committed in conflict areas be thoroughly investigated so that justice may take its course. This would help to check impunity, a phenomenon of most conflict situations. In this connection, my Government welcomes the announcement, on 16 July 2003, by the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court of plans to investigate war crimes committed in the region of Ituri in the north-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Malawi believes that the United Nations can meaningfully advance the principles upon which it was founded and effectively deal with the multiple challenges that the global community is facing by taking an all-inclusive approach to its membership. It is in this spirit that my country has, time and again, called for the participation of the Republic of China in the affairs of this Organization in line with the principle of universality. Taiwan has a lot to offer in the promotion of the global common good, which the United Nations is here to advance. I therefore hope that the 23 million people of Taiwan will be given sympathetic consideration so that they may, once again, enjoy the right to associate with the world community through this Organization. Next year will be an important one for the people of Malawi, as we will be holding the third general election of the democratic dispensation ushered in 1994. The elections will be tripartite, as they will include presidential, parliamentary and local government elections. The elections could not have been scheduled to take place at a worse time, given that the country has recently experienced a serious food shortage that has further strained the few resources available to it. However, in response to the demands of the country’s constitution, the Government and the people of Malawi remain committed to fulfilling this constitutional requirement for good governance based on free and fair elections. Malawi seeks the cooperation, support and assistance of the international community to facilitate the entire electoral process. May I conclude by conveying to you, Mr. President, to the Secretary-General and, indeed, to the United Nations family, the profound gratitude and appreciation of His Excellency President Bakili Muluzi and the people of Malawi for the support and cooperation extended to the President and his Government since they assumed power in 1994. As President Muluzi prepares to retire next year, after 22 serving the people of Malawi as President for two consecutive five-year terms, he is confident that the United Nations and, indeed, the international community at large, will remain committed to assisting the new leadership and the people of Malawi in their quest for meaningful and effective socio-economic and political development.