My delegation extends our
heartiest congratulations to Ms. Al-Khalifa on her
election as President of the General Assembly at its
sixty-first session. Her election signifies a most
welcome rebalancing of the General Assembly towards
greater gender parity and will certainly bring a breath
of fresh air to our deliberations. We hope also that it
will help our Organization address those issues of war,
conflict, oppression, deprivation and terrorism that dog
today’s world with the kind of compassion and
sensitivity known only to mothers. I would like to
assure her of my delegation’s fullest cooperation and
support at all times.
The outgoing President, Mr. Jan Eliasson, applied
all his wisdom and vast diplomatic experience in
presiding over a session fraught with difficult and
exceedingly complex organizational reform issues. We
thank him for guiding us deep into the process and
wish him well in his new assignment.
We should not delude ourselves into thinking that
reforming the United Nations is a task that can be
achieved quickly. The issues are contentious and
multifaceted, and only deep reflection and determined
negotiation over time will see us through. For this
reason, we should not feel disheartened that one year
after the World Summit we have still not concluded the
process. We should congratulate ourselves on having
achieved a breakthrough with the establishment of the
Human Rights Council and the Peacebuilding
Commission. Management reform is problematic, but
the desire to achieve it in a fair and balanced manner
will remain a key demand of developing countries. A
selective approach to reforming the Organization will
work in no one’s interest. Some reforms are long
overdue and sorely needed.
For us in Africa, Security Council reform is
urgent and must be concluded as soon as possible.
Recent events have demonstrated that the old
dispensation is ill equipped to grapple with the
complexities of the world we live in today. Reform, I
repeat, is urgent if today’s Security Council is to be
seen as poised to take on the new global peace and
security challenges facing mankind.
We are gathered together at a time of great
uncertainty and, for many, despair because of our
collective inability and lack of will to abide by the
guiding principles of our founding fathers. We have not
been too successful in preventing the scourge of war or
in addressing the factors that give rise to war.
Rather than abating, the situation in the Middle
East continues to fester and, in fact, deteriorate, as the
Road Map leading to a two-State solution to the
Palestinian-Israeli problem eludes us further. My
delegation has repeatedly decried the lack of will on
the part of the protagonists to work towards a speedy
solution to this problem, which continues to spawn
many other conflicts in other regions of the world.
It is a matter of deep regret that this world body
watched almost helplessly as a Member State —
Lebanon — was attacked and made to suffer extensive
destruction to infrastructure, property and human life.
Although we have been able to bring about a cessation
of hostilities, we cannot claim to have achieved peace.
All the conditions for a resumption of the conflict
remain intact. We must address those conditions more
06-53341 26
resolutely. We must also do everything within our
power to ensure that the problem between Hizbollah
and Israel does not pull in other countries of the region
and lead to full scale war between them and Israel. The
consequences would be disastrous for us all.
My delegation condemns in the strongest terms
Israel’s continued illegal occupation of Palestinian
territory and Arab lands, its intensive military
campaign in the West Bank and Gaza, which has
resulted in untold civilian casualties and extensive
destruction of infrastructure, and its arrest and
detention of thousands of Palestinian civilians and their
leaders. The Hamas Government in Palestine was
elected democratically by the Palestinian people, who,
by the tenets of democracy which we all claim to
espouse, are the only ones who may freely choose their
leaders. Or are we to understand that this basic tenet of
democracy should apply only if the leaders chosen are
to our liking and meet with our approval? I urge all
peace-loving and democratic members of the
international community to assist the Hamas
Government to play its role as a representative of its
people in a responsible, democratic and dignified
manner.
In Iraq, the unresolved conflict has now become
uncontrollable and has all but degenerated into civil
war. We must look for imaginative ways of stabilizing
that situation and bringing the widespread killings,
destruction and suffering to an end.
We must show leadership. Double standards have
affected the effectiveness of our response to the peace
and security needs of the Middle East for far too long
and have only muddied the waters further. The people
of the region must now enjoy some respite and be
given the space to pursue their development in an
atmosphere of peace, tranquillity and security. It is
becoming increasingly clear that the only remaining
honest broker that can ensure that this happens is the
United Nations. We must step up to the plate.
Violence in Afghanistan appears to be re-
escalating. The United Nations must join hands with
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and other
partners to engage all concerned in dialogue, with a
view to addressing the factors that are driving the
hostilities to which the long-suffering people of this
great country are subjected.
While we must obviously intervene to contain
and arrest raging conflicts, we must not be oblivious to
the need to pay equal attention to nascent conflict
situations. One such situation is that which is
prevailing across the Taiwan Strait, where the People’s
Republic of China has openly threatened Taiwan with
military intervention, should it as much as express an
intention to declare itself independent. In addition, the
People’s Republic of China has increased its arsenal of
missiles trained on Taiwan to over 800 warheads. It
goes without saying that a deterioration of the situation
into all-out war will only provoke an unwelcome mix
of responses from allies within and without the region,
responses that could cause a conflagration that would
make the Middle East situation pale in comparison.
In Africa, the good news is that peace continues
to spread. From Sierra Leone and Liberia to Uganda
and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we are
witnessing a growing preference for non-violent
approaches to conflict resolution. We should persist so
that this trend continues and embraces countries such
as Somalia and the Sudan, with its Darfur imbroglio.
In Somalia, the central Government should be
assisted to stand firmly on its own two feet and
exercise control over the entire Somali territory. The
international community must take every precaution to
prevent Somalia from becoming a haven for terrorists
and other extremists.
In the case of the Sudan, my delegation appeals
to the brotherly people of that great country to
intensify dialogue with the international community in
its quest for a resolution of the Darfur crisis. In
reaching a final decision on whether or not the African
Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS) should pass the
baton to a United Nations peacekeeping force, we are
certain that, with a bit more effort on all sides, a way
will be found out of the present impasse.
While we must all work in concert to fight
terrorism, we must also endeavour not to lose respect
for fundamental human rights and civil liberties in the
process. In addition, we must increase our cooperation
in this fight and strengthen political and diplomatic
interventions in order to win it. No matter how many
resources or how much firepower are committed to
combating the phenomenon, without international
cooperation of this type, our efforts will come to
naught. Recent developments in countries like Iraq
have shown that to be the case.
Last year, we all rededicated ourselves to the full
implementation of the Millennium Declaration. There
27 06-53341
are ample indications today that the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs) are not likely to be met in
most of sub-Saharan Africa if present trends continue.
It is clear that we must all do more to identify and help
remove the bottlenecks that are inhibiting progress
towards them. We must address the serious capacity
constraints that circumscribe the development efforts
of many an African country. We must help stimulate
economic growth through enabling policy measures
that empower our countries for greater and more
meaningful participation in world trade. We must make
real progress in the Doha round. We must increase
foreign direct investment in the African economy. We
must honour our commitment to increasing official
development assistance to 0.7 per cent of gross
national income. We must, in partnership, attack the
great health scourges of our time, namely, HIV/AIDS
and malaria.
In the Gambia, United Nations and other
independent assessments indicate that, on many fronts,
we are making steady progress. We are committed to
achieving the MDGs, in addition to the goals of the
International Conference on Population and
Development.
We have reversed the spread of HIV/AIDS. We
have already achieved gender parity in education and,
by extension, registered significant progress in gender
equality, equity and the empowerment of women. We
have brought potable water and good sanitation to over
70 per cent of our people. We have reduced the
prevalence of malaria and the incidence of maternal
and under-five mortality. We have attained 100 per cent
child immunization coverage. We have significantly
increased access to education at all levels and shall
meet the basic education goal, God willing, next year
or the year after. Our sharpest focus is on poverty
reduction, and we are determined to attain that goal
before 2015.
We have been able to achieve these gains, in spite
of the severe resource constraints that we face, because
of determined and committed leadership and our strong
resolve to live up to our commitments to the
international community.
According to the expert assessments of the
United Nations agencies, the Gambia is among the very
few African countries that will achieve the MDGs on
target, if present trends continue. Our achievements in
relation to the development agenda have been made
possible only through strong and genuine partnerships,
which we hope will continue and will grow to meet the
task ahead.
The trade policy of our Government continues to
be guided by the principles of liberalization,
deregulation and investment promotion. We have
brought about a progressive reduction of tariffs and
continued improvements in infrastructure to increase
our competitiveness as a production and trade gateway
into West Africa.
We regard the private sector as an important
engine of growth. Therefore, to further enhance its
development, our Government has formulated policies
for the systematic strengthening of the small and
medium-sized enterprise sector of our economy. It is
our hope that implementation of these policies will
lead to the creation of conditions conducive to the
speedy attraction of high levels of foreign direct
investment which will, in turn, stimulate the growth of
employment and incomes and lead to significant
reductions in the incidence of poverty among the
Gambian people.
We are conscious of the need for all our
development partners to speak to us with one voice so
as to increase coherence in the partnership. To this end,
we have this year encouraged our major multilateral
partners — the World Bank, the African Development
Bank Group, the International Monetary Fund, the
United Nations Development Programme and its
Millennium Project — to work together with us in
crafting a coherent Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper
which will form the basis for a coordinated framework
of partnership in development.
The President returned to the Chair.
There are many commendable programmes and
initiatives designed to assist countries like the Gambia.
The Group of Eight initiatives for Africa, the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative of the World
Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the Blair
Commission for Africa, the Millennium Challenge
Account and the Third Tokyo International Conference
on African Development, inter alia, will have an
impact only if they do not raise the bar unrealistically
high, such that the countries they are meant to assist
are unable to meet the stringent criteria for gaining
access to the funds. If aid is to be meaningful, it must
be accessible, predictable and not fragmented.
Moreover, a well-designed aid architecture that
06-53341 28
involves recipients in critical aspects of decision-
making is part of the answer for achieving the much-
sought effectiveness of official development assistance,
a subject of concern in the Paris Declaration on Aid
Effectiveness.
Yet, while those programmes and initiatives may
encourage many least developed countries in their
hopes for early relief, in reality, the accompanying
enablers have not been forthcoming. The Doha Round
is in limbo, our modest economic growth is being
threatened by unpredictably high energy prices, and
debt relief is still on the distant horizon. For many of
us, it is one step forward before world economic trends
take us two steps back. Of even greater concern is the
fact that this plethora of initiatives has hardly made a
dent in the poverty situation in our countries. The
blueprints are manifold, the responses too few.
Unfulfilled promises only dash our hopes, leave us
frustrated and diminish our faith in the effectiveness of
international partnerships for development.
We in the Gambia continue to deepen our
democracy. Just four days ago, the Gambian electorate
went to the polls to once again choose their leader in a
free and fair manner. Let me take this opportunity to
convey the thanks and appreciation of His Excellency
Al Hadji Yahya A. J. J. Jammeh to the many
delegations that have expressed to him their
congratulations and best wishes on his resounding
victory at the elections. The President considers that
victory to be a mandate from the Gambian electorate to
continue his service to the Gambian people and,
indeed, to the international community at large. Our
electoral process has been acclaimed throughout the
world for its openness, fairness and transparency.
The subject of the High-level Dialogue held just a
few days ago was international migration and
development. For the very first time, we had the
courage to address that issue within the walls of the
United Nations — and rightly so, for international
migration has been at the core of human history. It has
driven the spread of human knowledge and civilization.
It has enriched cultures and societies and caused
mankind to make great leaps in science, technology,
engineering and overall social and economic
development. We are all migrants. Therefore, let us
approach the issue of international migration with
humanity, tolerance, respect and compassion.
Attempts to penalize or criminalize international
migration will not work. In our globalized village,
international migration is an undeniable, positive and
indispensable force for keeping the wheels of national
economies and human society in motion. We must look
to the positive side of this natural human activity and
desist from actions that trample on the dignity of
migrants, as well as from acts of racism, xenophobia
and abuse of human rights.
As the saying goes, injustice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere. For decades, extensive illegal
and extraterritorial measures have been pursued against
Cuba, a small, friendly and democratic nation. They
have not worked and will never work. My delegation
joins the vast majority of the members of the
international community in calling for the lifting of the
decades-long embargo against Cuba in order to enable
the hard-working people of that great country to pursue
their development aspirations in an atmosphere of
peace. Let us all strive to live and let live.
By the same token, we must also urgently address
the question of Taiwan. The legitimate quest of the
people of Taiwan for a voice and standing in the United
Nations must be ignored no longer. Taiwan is an
important actor in our global economy and contributes
immensely to global peace and security. It must be
formally granted recognition as a responsible member
of the international community. A simple way to grant
that recognition would be to give Taiwan its rightful
place in the United Nations.
In that connection, the Government of the
Gambia wishes to strongly protests the General
Committee’s violation of the rules of procedure on
12 September this year by amalgamating two items
proposed by its members into one agenda item, thus
preventing members from participating in the
discussion of those items. We will therefore require a
legal opinion from the United Nations on an expedited
basis to ensure that we are provided with the
opportunity to engage in a debate on that issue, as we
are duly entitled to do.
Before I conclude, let me salute, commend and
bid farewell to one of Africa’s outstanding
personalities, His Excellency Mr. Kofi Annan, since
this will be the last General Assembly session during
his tenure as Secretary-General. President Al Hadji
Yahya Jammeh had the honour to pay tribute to him
during the Summit of Heads of State and Government
29 06-53341
of the African Union held in Banjul in July. Therefore,
I should like to say only that the Government and the
people of the Gambia salute his leadership, his astute
diplomatic skills, his demonstrated commitment to
international peace, security and development, and his
unswerving faith in the international system.
Mr. Annan’s term as Secretary-General may be ending,
but I am sure that he will continue to be there for us
and will willingly come to the rescue when we need his
wisdom and vast experience in mediating complex
global problems. We wish him well in his future
endeavours, and we wish him and his family continued
good health and happiness in their new life.