On behalf of
the President of the Republic, Mr. José Mário Vaz, and
on my own behalf, and in the name of the State and
people of Guinea-Bissau, I would like to congratulate
Mr. Sam Kutesa on his election to the presidency of
the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session. His
election by this most representative institution of the
international system is a tribute not only to his country,
Uganda, but to the entire African continent. I welcome
him and wish him success in guiding the work of the
Assembly.
We are grateful to the United Nations, and to
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in particular, for
the attention given to Guinea-Bissau and for the
important contribution of the Special Representative of
the Secretary-General in our country to our political
normalization process. We would also like to say a
special word of appreciation to the former Special
Representative of the Secretary-General, President
Ramos-Horta, for his friendship with Guinea-Bissau
and his dedication to his mission.
We express our appreciation to and thank the
Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, its Government
and people. When they saw the need of their sister
nation of Guinea-Bissau, they extended the hand of
friendship and provided valuable and extraordinary
support to our country in dealing with our crisis, for
which the entire nation of Guinea-Bissau is grateful.
The subregion contributed financial support
in helping our Government to function, which has
been key in enabling us to reach the point where we
find ourselves today. We would like to express our
appreciation and acknowledgement to the forces of
the Economic Community of West African States
Mission (ECOWAS) in Guinea-Bissau, who carried
out their mission with professionalism and ensured a
peaceful and orderly transition. Similarly, we commend
the efforts of all our national political actors and
international partners to reach the consensus required
to maintain an international stabilization force after the
end of the Mission’s mandate.
We would like to acknowledge and thank all the
member countries of ECOWAS for their support, in
particular my friend and brother President Goodluck
Jonathan of Nigeria, who chaired the Contact Group
on Guinea-Bissau and provided additional and valuable
support to our country. I pray for peace and tranquillity
for his country and for the welfare of his people. We are
also deeply grateful to President Alpha Condé of Guinea,
who mediated the crisis in Guinea-Bissau. Finally, we
would like to express our profound acknowledgement
and gratitude to all our international partners — the
United Nations, the African Union, ECOWAS, the
Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries and its
member States, the European Union, the West African
Economic and Monetary Union and the International
Organization of la Francophonie, whose support was
important in monitoring and managing the political
transition process, as well as in holding free, transparent
and fair general elections in our country.
I would also like to share with the Assembly
that Guinea-Bissau’s society has renewed its hope in
a new political cycle and to assure it that we possess
the political will and deep commitment needed to
consolidate political stability, revitalize and strengthen
the State’s capacity and create the basic conditions that
will enable our people to realize their dreams.
Guinea-Bissau is a post-conflict State with fragile
institutions and scarce financial resources, suffering
from the severe political, economic, environmental and
social consequences of our crisis. We therefore face a
complex and difficult situation, in which we call on the
international community for assistance, that will be
essential if we are to stabilize our country in this post-
election period and achieve our goals of strengthening
the State’s institutional capacity, reducing our people’s
poverty and vulnerabilities, ensuring social stability,
legitimizing the Government, and relaunching our
economy. That approach to international assistance,
at the centre of our dialogue with our international
partners, is based on the Government’s agenda, which
includes three key programmes: Urgent, Contingency
and Medium-Term Development.
Under the Urgent Programme, we must ensure
food safety and social stability through support for
agricultural production and distribution, improve access
to food and income for some sectors of the population,
provide the population with basic health, education and
water and power supply services, and pay civil servants’
overdue salaries. It also includes an emergency health
action plan for preventing and responding to the threat
of an Ebola epidemic. The Contingency Programme’s
objective is essentially to ensure the transparency
and accountability of all natural-resource concession
and exploitation agreements and to end the nefarious
procedures that allowed our country’s forestry and
fishery resources to be plundered over the past two
years. The Medium-Term Development Programme
will be presented to our international partners at a
donor conference to be held at the end of this year or
early next, and for which we are requesting the essential
support of the United Nations and all our multilateral
and bilateral partners.
As we embark on the challenge of rebuilding
Guinea-Bissau anew, we are fully conscious of the
problems but filled with a patriotic spirit of collective
drive and unity joining all Bissau-Guineans and, in
particular, all political actors and sovereign institutions,
with full confidence in an inclusive Government that
incorporates all political parties represented in our
Parliament, as well as civil society and the diaspora.
This confidence was significantly enhanced by our
national Parliament’s recent unanimous approval of the
Government’s programme, which is unprecedented in
the history of our democracy.
While it is true that the ongoing process of political
stabilization and normalization of the democratic
institutions in Guinea-Bissau depends on a major
national effort, it will also require unequivocal and
urgent support from our regional and international
partners. We must structure and coordinate our actions
based on the goals established in the Government’s
programme in order to lay the foundations for our
country to change course and become viable.
In this context, three situations demonstrate how
imperative it is for us to combine our efforts. The first
is the ongoing process of defence and security sector
reform, including extensive steps taken in recent days
towards its reorganization. We need international
support in order to make those steps sustainable and
irreversible. The second is the extension of the State’s
presence throughout the national territory in an effective
and organized manner through decentralization and
local elections. The Government will lay the foundations
for the municipal administrations to become operational
and will adopt the national territory organization policy.
The third is the extremely complex task of combating
drug trafficking and organized crime. Our country’s
efforts will be successful only through a collective and
objective approach.
Guinea-Bissau needs a robust and impactful
intervention from our development partners in order
not only to consolidate the success of our political
transition but also to lay the foundations for a transition
to development. We request the reactivation of the
International Contact Group on Guinea-Bissau under
the auspices of the United Nations, for the purpose of
monitoring the domestic situation in our country and
supporting the mobilization of international aid, which
is key for us to face the challenges in our future.
The new authorities in Guinea-Bissau, our
Parliament, the President of the Republic and our
Government chose an inclusive dialogue and political
coordination as the preferred tools in our efforts
to consolidate political stability and create broad
consensus around the main thrusts of governance.
Therefore, in addition to strengthening the democratic
legitimacy of our political institutions, we wish to
take clear, unequivocal and decisive steps to build
broad consensus on the main issues facing our society.
They would be anchored in a political protocol that
establishes the main areas of legislative and executive
action, including issues related to reforming the State,
revising the Constitution and rebuilding the economy.
A sign of this power-sharing vision for the resolution
of our main problems is the inclusion of the opposition
leader in our delegation to the United Nations, in order
to show the world that Guinea-Bissau has embarked on
a path of harmony and stability.
Our subregion, West Africa, is facing an Ebola
epidemic, which directly threatens several members
of ECOWAS, to which we belong. Allow me to offer
Guinea-Bissau’s solidarity to our sister nations where
cases of contamination have been identified. I would
like to note our appreciation for the international efforts
in providing urgent medical assistance and to call on
the international community to step up its commitment
and support in combating and preventing this epidemic.
We also appeal for the establishment of an effective
international coalition to confront this grave threat to
international security, which was recently recognized
as such by the Security Council.
I reaffirm my country’s position on reforming the
Security Council. The enlargement of this important
United Nations body is required in order to enhance the
legitimacy of its representation and to reflect the new
international order under discussion. Therefore, and in
accordance with the African Union’s position, Guinea-
Bissau calls for the designation of two permanent seats
with the right of veto and five non-permanent seats in
the Security Council for the African continent. We also
voice our support for the designation of permanent seats
on the Security Council for Brazil, Japan, Germany and
India.
I would like to assure the peoples and countries
that have fallen victim to international terrorism of our
solidarity and to renew our Government’s commitment
to combating this scourge within a framework of
coordinated actions undertaken jointly with our
regional and international partners, according to the
specific nature of the actions.
We note with concern that the economic and
financial embargo imposed against Cuba more than
50 years ago constitutes a serious obstacle to that
country’s economic and social development, and we
reiterate our call for it to be lifted.
We commend and encourage the United Nations,
and in particular the Secretary-General, for their
renewed efforts, vision and wisdom with regard to the
issue of climate change and its effects on life on our
planet. The Climate Summit held here on 23 September
was an eloquent testament to this fact. The main areas
that may allow for viable and sustainable development
emerged and seem likely to gather the required
consensus for the establishment of a post-Kyoto global
climate regime designed to promote the well-being of
all.
Sustainable development goals, the new post-
2015 global development paradigm, must be rooted in
the peoples’ cultures and objective realities and must
undoubtedly draw their inspiration from the lessons of
the Millennium Development Goals.
It should be noted that climate change is no longer
simply a future threat; it has now become an unequivocal
threat to the present. The rising incidence of climate
change that exposes our vulnerabilities is now felt and
has increasingly unpredictable consequences. Human,
economic and environmental losses in a vulnerable
country such as Guinea-Bissau are increasing and
threaten our survival and development prospects.
Sea-level rise may irreversibly affect coastal areas,
including entire islands, villages, cities and other seaside
settlements. This situation is particularly worrisome
for our country, which, with its combination of coasts
and archipelagos, is highly vulnerable to the impacts
of climate events and may see its efforts to combat
poverty and achieve development goals compromised.
Despite all the difficulties that have challenged
Guinea-Bissau’s efforts to fulfil our international
commitments holistically, we are pleased to note that
12 per cent of our national territory consists of protected
areas, which should double by 2020. Unfortunately,
most of the population in developing countries with
forests, such as Guinea-Bissau, continues to depend on
these natural resources as their only means of survival.
Therefore, in order to offset the possible loss of those
resources, technological and financial alternatives must
be made available to this population.
I conclude my statement by thanking the United
Nations and expressing our deep appreciation for the
significant role that the Peacebuilding Commission has
played in supporting the consolidation of political and
governance stability in Guinea-Bissau. I also recognize
the United Nations bodies, including the United Nations
Development Programme, UNICEF, the World Food
Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations, the United Nations Population
Fund and the World Health Organization, as well as the
grass-roots groups and non-governmental organizations
working on a day-to-day basis with our Government
in combating poverty and the vulnerabilities of our
population and advocating respect for human dignity.
The people of Guinea-Bissau look forward to the
active engagement of those bodies in assisting in the
new phase of our accelerated efforts to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals. Guinea-Bissau is
poised to transform its territory into an area of peace,
security, and openness for all of those who, together
with our people, wish to build a more brotherly, secure,
welcoming and progress-oriented society with all
peoples and cultures.