Please accept our warm congratulations, Sir, on your well-
deserved election to the presidency of our Assembly.
We are convinced that you possess all the necessary
qualities for the sound direction of our work. My
country assures you of its support as you carry out your
important task.
We also wish to convey our gratitude to your
predecessor, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for the
efficiency with which she guided the work of our
sixty-first session. I also wish to pay a well-deserved
tribute to our Secretary-General, His Excellency
Mr. Ban Ki-moon, who has been constantly playing a
significant role since his election in advancing the
ideals of our Organization.
One important event has caught the attention of
Chad. On 25 September, the Security Council adopted
unanimously resolution 1778 (2007) authorizing an
international operation on the eastern border of Chad
and the north-east border of the Central African
Republic. That operation and we should stress the
defensive nature of its mandate: the protection of
refugees, displaced persons, civilian populations and
humanitarian workers is something that in Chad we
are very satisfied to see since it will lighten the heavy
burden borne thus far by the Chadian local police since
the beginning of the crisis in Darfur.
Chad also wishes to thank the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and
the friendly countries who have supported the local
Chadian police. At this point, I wish also to pay tribute
to their courage and dedication because they did their
best in order to accomplish their sensitive and
dangerous mission.
The new operation will be able to rely on the
availability and cooperation of Chadian authorities. We
venture to hope that it will stabilize and create
conditions for the reconstruction of the eastern part of
our country, which has been destroyed by incursions of
the Janjaweed militias from the Sudan and other armed
groups from Darfur. It will also especially require that
the Chadian displaced persons, who have so far been
neglected by the international community, be
reinstalled in their original localities.
Above and beyond our hopes of stabilization and
reconstruction in the eastern part of our country, we
have the legitimate hope that the Darfur crisis will end.
More than any country, Chad would gain by that,
especially since our populations in the eastern part of
Chad have been the victims of the crisis as often if not
more than our sister populations of the Sudan in
Darfur. For that reason, our country has tirelessly
endeavoured to restore peace and security to Darfur. In
that regard, no one can ignore the extremely important
role played by the President of the Republic, His
Excellency Mr. Idriss Deby Itmo, in supporting the
peacekeeping measures taken by the international
community.
The Republic of Chad has no intention of
departing from that course. For that reason we will
make the fullest possible contribution to the success of
the resumed inter-Sudanese peace talks on Darfur that
are scheduled for Tripoli on 27 October. We have also
contributed to the preparation of the peace talks
through our participation in meetings bringing together
the non-signatory movements of the Abuja Peace
Agreement, including meetings at Abeche in Chad, at
Asmara in Eritrea, at Tripoli in the Libyan Arab
Jamahiriya and at Arusha in Tanzania, as well as the
last Seminar of N’Djaména in Chad all of which has
taken place under the auspices of the joint mediation of
the United Nations and the African Union.
We have just underscored our resolve to work for
peace in Darfur in particular, and of course, in the
Sudan in general, because that work is in the interest of
peace and security in the subregion of Central Africa in
general and of Chad in particular. We all need peace
among our neighbours in order to fend off any risk to
the stabilization of our countries and to continue,
guided by the inspiration of His Excellency Mr. Idriss
Deby Itmo, President of the Republic and Head of
State, to build upon the democratic process that our
country has been committed to since 1990, as well as
to ensure the peace, security and social well-being of
the Chadian people.
In that regard, we should highlight that, since last
year, Chadian political life has witnessed some positive
developments. A number of military and political high
officials of the Chadian rebellion have had their legal
rights restored, individually or in small groups or with
their entire organization.
On 4 March 2007, a new Government was formed
under the leadership of one of the well known figures of
the political opposition to the presidential majority
Prime Minister Sem Nouradine Delwa Kassire
Koumakoye. Moreover, the new Government has
responded to the expectations of the opposition by
deciding to postpone the legislative and communal
elections in order to wait for the conclusions of a
political dialogue begun under the auspices of the
European Union. That dialogue is aimed at
strengthening the rule of law and the democratic
process by organizing the elections under conditions
that are acceptable to all actors in our political life, or
at least by the greater majority, which is devoted to the
peaceful settlement of political conflicts and has
renounced recourse to weapons and anti-constitutional
changes.
That political dialogue led to the signing of a
political agreement on 13 August 2007. The signing of
that important agreement by the parties of the
governmental majority and the democratic opposition
clearly stems from the constant resolve of the President
of the Republic, His Excellency Mr. Idriss Deby Itmo,
to establish a peaceful political life in the country.
Furthermore, we wish also to warmly thank our
development partners, in particular the European
Union, whose valuable assistance enabled us to
produce the agreement that we consider historic. That
new fact in Chad’s political life has enabled us to note
with great satisfaction that a number of political exiles
have returned or intend to return without delay to the
country. We owe that situation to the facilitation of the
heads of State who are friends of Chad and we mention
in particular His Excellency El Hadj Omar Bongo
Ondimba of Gabon and His Excellency Mr. Boni Yayi
of Benin. In addition to the notable progress with the
democratic opposition and the Chadian political exiles
we note that we are looking forward with the
support of the guide to the Libyan revolution and the
mediator of the Community of Sahelo-Saharan States
(CEN-SAD), our brother Muammar Al-Qadhafi to
continuing with the useful discussions taking place in
Tripoli with the armed movements aimed at reaching
agreements with those organizations that have not yet
rejoined the great Chadian family. We hope that those
movements will renounce any recourse to weapons and
express their expectations within the peaceful
framework set by the historic political agreement of 13
August 2007 and with respect for the institutions of the
Republic.
It is our view that all political initiatives having
to do with national reconciliation should fall within the
framework of the political agreement of 13 August and
should contribute to strengthening the State apparatus
for the benefit of the general interest. For we should
not forget that since its independence, Chad has known
only conflict or post-conflict situations, often, indeed,
internal, but including in particular those fuelled from
the outside to weaken the State or to topple the
country’s institutions. This is why we count on the
international community to unreservedly condemn all
attempts to destabilize the Chadian State, and also all
who use unconstitutional means, notably force, to seize
power. The Chadian people, victims of insecurity due
to the interminable armed struggles for power,
condemn these sterile struggles and rely on the
democratic political actors and on the international
community to block the path to violence.
If we must extend a hand to the rebels, whose
causes sometimes seem to be from the world of a
revolutionary utopia, this should not be done to the
detriment of the highest interest of the rule of law and
of democracy. Unhappiness is at the heart of rebellions.
We find mercenaries in the pay of someone from the
exterior, and adventurers who use it as a source of
commerce to gain unwarranted material advantages or
to satisfy personal ambitions in exchange for their
return to legality, in disdain of the authority of the
State apparatus, of the law and of the country’s
regulations.
After this brief overview of Chadian political
questions, allow me to raise some other issues
regarding today’s challenges: globalization with its
hopes and anguishes, poverty, inequitable international
trade, terrorism, the AIDS pandemic, and so forth. A
number of international meetings have been held on
these topics and on others. Resolutions and
recommendations have been adopted. However, no
decisive advances have been made in these areas. We
can only hope that the international community will
honour its commitments and that the richest will keep
their promises vis-à-vis the poorest.
We cannot simply ignore another important event,
the High-level Event on Climate Change and its
consequences, which was held right here. We hope that
the international community will learn lessons with a
view to acting instead of indulging in fine statements,
as was the case after the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change in Kyoto.
Yes, we need to act, and for us the most tragic
case deserving the attention of the international
community is that of the shrinking of Lake Chad,
whose surface has been reduced in a few decades from
25,000 square kilometres to 2,500 square kilometres.
Saving Lake Chad would not only contribute to the
struggle against disastrous climate change on a
planetary level, but would also meet the needs of
25 million people in the countries adjacent to the Lake.
Another issue is just as worrisome, and that is the
conflict situations in Africa and on other continents.
How can we not take a stand? We applaud the efforts
of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations to
find lasting solutions to the conflicts in Africa or
elsewhere in the world.
This prompts us to underscore the importance of
another event that has caught our attention. That is the
Security Council meeting held at the level of heads of
State on 25 September on the question of peace and
security in Africa. We are mindful of the Council’s
steadily growing interest in Africa, and that meeting
seems to pave the way for the strengthening of
cooperation between the United Nations and the AU,
especially with a view to building the capacities of the
AU so that it can accomplish its peace missions in the
best possible conditions. This is the moment to
condemn the recent barbarous attacks on the African
forces in Darfur and to express our condolences to the
families of the missing.
We have great hope for the settlement of all crises
in the framework of the rebirth of multilateralism and
collective security, which our Secretary-General has
very strongly endorsed: hopes for peace in Côte
d’Ivoire, in Western Sahara, in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, in the Horn of Africa, in the
Middle East and so forth.
Before I conclude, I would like to recall that we
have constantly condemned before this Assembly all
forms of violence and intolerance, especially their most
extreme form terrorism. We reaffirm our
condemnation and our commitment to fighting these
phenomena. We would like to reaffirm our commitment
to strive to eliminate all sources of conflicts and all the
threats that jeopardize peace and security around the
world.
In this regard, I wish to recall the need to respect
the principles of peaceful coexistence, which are
respect for the sovereignty and the territorial integrity
of States. This, of course, prompts us to reaffirm our
devotion to respect for internationally recognized
historical borders. We cite as an example our
attachment to the policy of a single China and our
opposition to Taiwan’s attempts to bring about a kind
of accession to the United Nations, under whatever
name they might choose.
This also prompts us to express respect for the
sovereign right of States to develop nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes. And we welcome the good
arrangements to find solutions to the question of
nuclear energy through negotiations and to find a
peaceful solution to the problem of the dissemination
of weapons of mass destruction.
This last prompts us once again to launch a
pressing appeal to our Assembly, especially to the
permanent members of the Security Council, to redress
the injustice of the African continent being the only
continent that does not have a permanent member seat
on the Council, when the bulk of the Council’s agenda
is comprised of African situations.