Mali

At the outset I should like to congratulate the President most warmly on his election to preside over the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session. I take the opportunity to assure him of my delegation's full support as he carries out his difficult but uplifting task. I feel sure that with his experience and abilities as an able diplomat he will successfully guide our discussions. I should also like to extend my sincere and warm congratulations to his predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Namibia, for the ability and authority he demonstrated throughout the fifty-fourth session. I also take this opportunity of extending once again to Secretary-General Kofi Annan our full appreciation and support for his constant efforts and resolve to find a better world in spite of the many complex challenges in the new millennium. His excellent report, “We the peoples: the role of the United Nations in the twenty-first century”, is evidence of this. Mali welcomes Tuvalu to the Assembly. Its admission to membership further strengthens the universality of the Organization. More than ever before, our world aspires to peace and security and sustainable human development. In this respect, our fifty-fifth session is unprecedentedly important both historically and politically. The exceptional opportunity offered us in the Millennium Summit, which has renewed our hope in humankind, must not be lost. The Millennium Declaration demonstrates our maturity and our elevated sense of responsibility for the future of humanity. Now we must build this better world to which we all aspire. The peoples of the United Nations look to us. They are impatient. More than ever before they want to be actors determining their own future, particularly people who do not have very much, our people. They want to be actors and to benefit from globalization. That is how I see the historical and political meaning of this session, which must give effect to the dynamic now under way. Here, all together, we reaffirm the place and the role of the United Nations in the maintenance of international peace and security and in cooperation for development, which require that the United Nations become more legitimate by being more democratic and stronger. What I say will be set against this backdrop. The maintenance of international peace and security must remain our priority. The Organization is increasingly faced with violent, deadly internal conflicts that have taken the lives of millions of civilians. It is therefore crucial to improve the system of prevention and strengthen our institution's capacity to organize and conduct operations effectively and successfully. Here I pay tribute to the report of the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations, led by Lakhdar Brahimi. It is indeed a milestone in the process of trying to make the United Nations “truly credible as a force for peace” (A/55/305), so we must quickly ensure that it has positive results. As the report rightly emphasizes, United Nations intervention must be decided upon on the basis of uniform criteria, regardless of the region in which conflicts occur. The multidisciplinary nature of new United Nations peacekeeping missions demands clear and precise mandates. Mali welcomes efforts to strengthen cooperation with regional organizations in regard to maintaining peace, while respecting the competence of the Security Council. Recent events in Sierra Leone remind us of this and are a real challenge to us. Efforts by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and subregional organizations must be supported to establish regional capacity. This also applies to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which already has a peacekeeping force and will soon have an early warning system. Peacekeeping operations cannot be a permanent solution to conflicts or an answer to the underlying causes. The international community must move from a culture of reaction to a culture of prevention based on a multidimensional approach, helping to save many human lives and making additional resources available for development. We must also emphasize that the effectiveness of the United Nations in peacekeeping depends largely on its capacity for prevention, crisis management and peace-building. Here I appeal to the international community to provide a stable and healthy financial base for the Organization's peacekeeping activities. 14 I pay tribute to the second Security Council summit held on 7 September, which dealt with the need to give the Council an effective role in the maintenance of international peace and security, particularly in Africa. The resolution that emerged from that summit deserves the support of us all, for it will certainly strengthen our capacity for prevention and crisis management. We must also continue work to free the world from the fear of weapons of mass destruction and face up to the threat of light weapons. With regard to nuclear non-proliferation, the indefinite extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) regime, the entry into force of the Chemical Weapons Convention, the signing and ratification of many other treaties on important aspects of disarmament, and the creation of nuclear-weapon- free zones, are all important contributions to confidence-building and nuclear disarmament. Mali is fully committed to work to halt the plague of the proliferation of light weapons. I appeal for greater coordinated support for regional efforts, including support for moratoriums, respect for embargoes on arms deliveries and the strengthening of controls. The United Nations conference in 2001 on this issue must give the international community an opportunity to take appropriate steps to end the excessive destabilizing accumulation of such weapons. The conference must look at all aspects and be fully transparent. I must mention here the troubling issue of children affected by conflict, child soldiers, for the link between the proliferation of light weapons and the intolerable fate of these children is only too obvious. We have a great responsibility for them, and we must put an end to the destruction of so many hopes. The International Conference on War-affected Children, held in Winnipeg, which ended just a few days ago, was an opportunity for us all to strengthen our commitment to guarantee all children better health, school for all, both boys and girls, free from war, violence and famine. At the beginning of the third millennium one of the most urgent tasks facing humanity is to end the growing inequality between rich and poor countries. We must tackle the underlying causes of conflict — primarily their economic and social dimensions. In an international environment that is increasingly marked by globalization, continuing poverty is our most difficult challenge. The problem of the debt of the developing countries must remain our focus, because it is a major obstacle to their development. Complete cancellation of the debt is needed in the overall framework of finding a new development strategy. This new development strategy involves direct investment, unhampered access to markets through special, differential treatment, fair prices for our goods, and transfers of new technology, all of which are major factors in development. This means that financing development must remain on our agenda. My delegation welcomes the convening in 2001 of a high- level conference to deal with this issue at the intergovernmental level. The challenges of development cannot be taken up unless there is a stable international financial system. My country advocates a reform of the international financial system that takes account of the social dimension of development and does not jeopardize nations' capacity to pursue their national development objectives. Africa has understood full well that its role and place in the emerging world implies a renewed political approach of integration and unity of our continent. That is the backdrop to the creation of the African Union, which calls for a united Africa, strengthened by an integrated development of its full potential and a heightened awareness of its strategic advantages. Mali was the first country to ratify the Constitutive Act of the Union, which we are convinced is the springboard for the development of the continent, and for a responsible Africa, an Africa that counts. We must work together to eradicate poverty. We have a responsibility to guarantee all human beings a life of decency and dignity, with equal opportunities for all peoples. We can do this. It requires enhanced cooperation and international solidarity through a multilateral approach guided by the United Nations. We must promote global social development, for we believe that excessive unshared wealth is a poor kind of wealth, a wealth with no social value and therefore contrary to the essence of our life. The values that give meaning to the wealth of the world are those of democracy. Here I refer to the strong words of President Konaré, who rightly told the community of democracies conference, held in Warsaw, that the development of democracy is the basis for a world of peace, solidarity and social justice, 15 and that only democracy can allow each of us to shoulder the burden, but also the honour, of being a human being and serving humankind. “What an honour it is to be a human being!” he said. The Ministerial Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa said rightly that democracy, good governance, respect for human rights, the rights of peoples, and the rule of law, are prerequisites to achieving security, stability and development in Africa. Nothing must prevent open discussion of ideas and the promotion of political pluralism. Despite inadequacies, difficulties and sometimes violent breakdowns, the democratic process is gaining ground in Africa. A democratic Africa is becoming increasingly real, but it is still a fragile reality that must be supported and helped. Mali welcomes the adoption last June by the [Community of Democracies] of the Warsaw Declaration, advocating the strengthening of cooperation among democratic countries with a view to sharing the best practices, protecting themselves against threats to democratic processes, and promoting the emergence of a partnership forum to help democracies in transition. We must be strong against unconstitutional change of political regimes so that we can strengthen democracy. We must condemn such changes as a matter of principle and there must be consequences. President Konaré said that pressure must be credible and can only attain its goal if the international community adopts a firm consistent and constructive approach in the event of any putsch or attempted coup d'état. It must avoid encouraging those who are tempted to violate republican and democratic rules by removing any ambiguity. In this respect, the international community must be clearer and more rigorous in its approach and support the OAU which seeks to deter putsches by taking a clear position and by imposing political sanctions. Could this position not also be taken up in the United Nations? Along the same lines the establishment of the International Criminal Court with the Rome Statues would be a permanent body to act against impunity. It would allow us to try those responsible for the most horrible crimes and it would also be a tool for deterrence that could contribute to the maintenance of international peace and security. Mali has already ratified the Court's Statute, thus showing that it supports the struggle against the culture of impunity and to ensure respect for human dignity. In view of the progress in achieving some settlement in the Lockerbie matter, we would call for the definitive and immediate lifting of sanctions that are unjustly inflicting suffering on the brother people of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. We must be careful about sanctions because of the humanitarian cost involved. We must use more effective, targeted sanctions. On the Korean peninsula we welcome the recent inter-Korean summit and the exchange visits by peoples of both countries. We welcome and support these initiatives which begin a direct dialogue between the parties involved and promote peace and stability in the Korean peninsula. HIV/AIDS jeopardizes the future of millions of men, women and children in Africa and it is also a threat to international peace and security. A failure to deal with this would be culpable and suicidal indifference. In this connection we fully support the proposal to convene a special session of the General Assembly on AIDS. Adapting the United Nations to the requirements of the age is absolutely essential. The challenges facing us in the political, economic and social areas force us to demonstrate creativity and realism so that we can come up with innovative and constructive suggestions and translate them into action in the true interests of our peoples. My delegation believes in the need to democratize the United Nations further, to restructure all its principal organs. Reform of the Security Council will give effect to our desire to modernize this important organ that the Charter makes primarily responsible for threats to and breaches of international peace and security. A reformed Council must be more transparent in its working methods, more democratic, more representative, more legitimate in its membership, and it must be more credible in the way it is perceived by other member States. Mali reaffirms Africa's demand for equitable distribution of seats in the two categories, pursuant to the Harare Declaration adopted by the OAU Summit of Heads of State or Government. More than ever before the human being must be the very heart of the new millennium. The peoples expect the United Nations to promote and ensure a world of progress for all, a world of peace, a world of sharing. In this respect Mali sees the Millennium 16 Declaration as the fabric we can use to build a better world. Now is the time for action.