Equatorial Guinea is participating in the
debates of the sixty-first session of the General
Assembly in the firm conviction that this world
Organization remains the only forum with the authority
necessary to resolve any situation facing the
international community. Attempting to usurp that
authority is irrational; it means negating the universal
principles of international law, which govern our world
with justice and equity.
That is why, before addressing any of the issues
on our agenda, I wish to pay a well-deserved tribute to
His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General,
and to His Excellency Mr. Jan Eliasson, President of
the General Assembly at its sixtieth session, for the
arduous task that they accomplished in the face of the
conflicts that have threatened the peace and stability of
the planet during 2006.
We should also like to welcome the election of
Her Excellency Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa,
Legal Adviser to the Royal Court of Bahrain, who will
preside over the General Assembly at this session. We
believe that her election is an implicit recognition of
the seriousness, dedication and dynamism that
characterize her country’s quest for global equilibrium
and its respect for the principles of international law,
human freedom, the right of peoples to self-
determination, national independence and sovereignty,
mutual respect among nations, and international
cooperation to promote development and respect for
human rights.
This session opens at a time of uncertainty for
humanity, due to the many conflicts and the increasing
socio-political imbalance threatening the lives of
millions of people throughout the world. Humanity
today finds itself in a complex situation that raises
several questions.
What is the current role of the United Nations,
given the absence of priorities in its decision-making
process? What has been gained since the end of the
cold war? What kind of future can humanity hope for
in a world of so-called globalization, governed by a
political and economic system characterized by
inequality and a lack of cooperation in eradicating
poverty in the weakest nations? What kind of future is
there for the developing countries when the gap in the
acquisition of technology for development continues to
grow, or when sprawling intelligence services are
constantly devising plans to keep the world under the
political dominance and economic influence of the
most powerful nations?
Those and similar questions must be the focus of
attention of politicians and this world body if we are to
straighten this crooked path in international relations.
Presently, there is no judge capable of adjudicating any
international conflict equitably and impartially. From
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our point of view, the authority of the United Nations
has been taken hostage by certain interests that are
monopolizing the world. Nevertheless, I am convinced
that we still have time to rescue the situation if we do
not wish to see the international community completely
derailed, because the results obtained to date are not
satisfactory.
We must first democratize this world
Organization by reinstating its rightful authority on the
international scene. We must also set an objective
value to the globalization of politics by adopting new,
equitable political and economic strategies to protect
the legitimate interests of the weakest States. If we do
not, we must be prepared to endure a world crisis as a
result of our inability to sustain the current pressures
and jarring disparities among nations.
Many conferences held in various political,
economic and social forums have identified a number
of strategies to reduce the gap that separates us all, but
such strategies have always been met with the
complete indifference of those who are supposed to
execute them.
We ought not be surprised, then, by the
phenomenon of terrorism that threatens the world
today, because, although its methods and destructive
effects on humans are condemnable, it remains the
recourse of the oppressed and a reaction of those who
oppose prevailing injustices that have been denounced
throughout the last quarter of a century.
The ongoing mass migration of peoples from the
South to the North is another consequence of the huge
imbalance caused by the present unjust international
economic system. That migration will never cease if
the North does not help the South to develop with
programmes of support and solidarity.
We would like to see democracy, equity and
solidarity in a more harmonious world become the rule
that would enable international relations to function,
especially those governed by the Bretton Woods
institutions, the World Trade Organization, the
relationship between the European Union and the
nations of the African, Caribbean and the Pacific, and
all other economic relations between the North and the
South.
Moreover, nature has endowed the world with
immense natural resources that are perfectly sufficient
to allow all to live in dignity. We do not have to resort
to draconian rules of exchange that favour some and
discriminate against others. Those who seek to
monopolize resources that belong to humanity and who
still believe in the larceny of the past, or rather in their
own ability to perpetuate illegal exploitation by force,
are the same people who today support and maintain
vast mercenary organizations that fall upon the weaker
nations in order to create internal political instabilities
for their own selfish interests.
Indeed, my country has been a victim of such
plotting because we own crude oil, the product that is
today dividing and destroying the world. My country
was able to avert a mercenary invasion on 6 March,
2004, that was organized by powerful countries that
continue to dispute among themselves and to nurture
ambitions to gain free control of the world’s petroleum.
Fortunately, our security services were alerted in time
and were able to prevent the anticipated genocide.
Those directly responsible for the attempted coup are
serving time in prison, while the brains behind the
whole thing are still at large and thumb their noses at
justice.
Nevertheless, my Government does not believe
that this natural resource belongs to us alone. My
country benefits from barely 30 per cent of the
proceeds from that exploitation, because, as we have
explained time and again, due to an unjust system of
exchange, the operating contracts give the lion’s share
of those profits to our partners of the North.
In that regard, I noted at the sixtieth session of
the General Assembly that if the responsibility of
transparency is to be borne equitably, there is a need to
demand the same from the operators of the extracting
industries and compliance with the contracts and
regulations that guarantee equal benefits between the
parties concerned.
To conclude, the message from Equatorial Guinea
is that we must respond as human beings, because we
still have time to make this planet Earth a better place
for human beings. Therefore, let us turn our backs on
greed, hegemonic ambition and the lack of sensitivity
to the sight of such horror and misery that is rife in our
world, so that we can respond to this system of
injustice and inequality, and so that, as human beings,
we will be able to join hands and face, with solidarity,
intelligence and wisdom, the challenge to spare
humanity from the scourges of war, poverty and
underdevelopment.