I
should like at the outset to express our sincere
congratulations to His Excellency Mr. Srgjan Kerim on
his election to the presidency of the General Assembly
at its sixty-second session. I am convinced that, thanks
to his skill as an experienced diplomat, he will ably
carry out his mandate. He can count on the cooperation
of the delegation of Burkina Faso. I should also like to
express our deep gratitude to his predecessor, Her
Excellency Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, for the
ability with which she led the work of the sixty-first
session.
I would like, finally, to pay tribute to the
Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, who has shown, in
the less than a year that he has been at the head of this
Organization, his full-fledged commitment to peace
and development and his firm determination to pursue
the ambitious work of modernizing the United Nations
bequeathed to him by his predecessor, Mr. Kofi Annan.
As I speak to this Assembly, Burkina Faso has
had floods this year, which have bereaved many
families in all regions of the country. The dozens of
death, the thousands of homeless people and displaced
persons, the food crisis and the subsequent epidemics
have implications above and beyond the statistics —
the heavy price that a country, such as Burkina Faso,
pays for global warming and all other phenomenon
linked to climate change. It is my hope that the
conclusions of the important summit on climate change
held here on 24 September will promote the adoption
of appropriate and urgent measures that will shield our
populations from this type of scourge.
All types of tension are shaking the world and, in
particular, the African continent, which gives us
reasons to welcome the role played by our
Organization in the search for and strengthening of
peace and peacebuilding. Burkina Faso, which is the
Chair of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), is mindful that no sustainable
development can be contemplated without an
environment of peace and stability and has made
conflict resolution a key thrust of its diplomacy.
Therefore, President Compaoré has made a
resolute commitment as facilitator to search for
solutions to the crises that have affected the fraternal
and neighbouring countries of Togo and Côte d’Ivoire.
The Inter-Togolese Dialogue, which led in August 2006
to the signing in Lomé of a comprehensive political
agreement. The agreement is bearing fruit, which
pleases all those concerned. The latest session of the
follow-up committee, which was held in Ouagadougou
in August 2007, noted the conclusion of the electoral
roll revision process and the setting of a date for
legislative elections on 14 October 2007.
Prospects are encouraging in Togo and, on behalf
of President Compaoré, facilitator of the Inter-Togolese
Dialogue, I can confirm the sincere will and the real
commitment of the people and the political class of
Togo to get their country out of this crisis and to create
the best conditions conducive to reconstruction, growth
and development. And, in thanking the international
community for their assistance, I would call on them to
pursue their action for institutional reforms,
peacebuilding and economic development in Togo.
In the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, thanks to the
Ouagadougou Political Accord, signed on 4 March
2007 by President Gbagbo and the Secretary-General
of the Forces Nouvelles Guillaume Soro, the end of
hostilities is now a reality. And so we should commend
and encourage them to persevere to a final peace in
Côte d’Ivoire. The facilitator of the direct dialogue in
the Ivorian crisis, President Compaoré, who is
President of the Conference of Heads of State and
Government of ECOWAS at this time, is please to see
all of the political class and the entire population of
Côte d’Ivoire joining in the Ouagadougou Accord. This
Accord translates the will of the parties to proceed with
identifying people for an electoral enumeration and to
organize a free, open and transparent presidential
election. The Security Council, in its resolution 1765
(2007), has endorsed this Accord.
I would like to express our appreciation to the
United Nations, which has supported Burkina Faso in
its efforts to establish peace and security, particularly
in West Africa. In deciding to be a candidate for a non-
permanent seat on the Security Council, for the period
of 2008-2009, Burkina Faso hopes to make its
contribution to the triumph of a world of justice and
peace over the current world, where exclusion,
intolerance and frustrations generate violent acts of
despair. At this time, I would like to reiterate our
thanks to the member States of the ECOWAS and the
African Union (AU) who decided to make the
candidacy of Burkina Faso an African candidacy. Our
hope is that all Members of this Organization will give
us their trust. We will be worthy of it.
Burkina Faso remains concerned by situations of
tension and conflict in Africa and throughout the
world. We welcome the decision of the Security
Council to deploy a hybrid United Nations-African
Union force in Darfur (UNAMIS). Burkina Faso has
decided to participate in it, as we have done in a
number of other theatres of operation. I would call
upon the international community to give peace a
chance in the Sudan by giving this hybrid force the
logistical and financial resources necessary for
accomplishing their mission. As for the protagonists,
they will have to do everything they can to make the
upcoming talks an important milestone in the process
of national reconciliation and in bringing peace to the
country.
We also think about the persistence of conflicts in
Somalia and between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The
Saharan zone, which includes the north of Mali and
Niger, has also been hit by armed conflict. Burkina
Faso has expressed its solidarity to those two
neighbouring countries and hopes that durable
solutions will allow for peace to be re-established and
will allow for the promotion of socio-economic
development.
We are pleased about the political developments
in Sierra Leone, a country which has just had great
success in organizing free, democratic and transparent
general elections. This is the most recent illustration
that democracy and good governance are gradually
taking root in Africa. Throughout the continent, this
principle of good governance is part of the political
agendas.
We also congratulate the Moroccan Government
for having initiated direct talks with the Polisario Front
on the future of the Western Sahara. By this direct
dialogue the two parties are, together, proving their
ability to look for a mutually beneficial political
solution. We would strongly encourage them to do so,
convinced as we have always been that only a
negotiated, political solution will put an end to this
conflict.
Because it is at the heart of any lasting peace in
the region and throughout the world, the settlement of
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must remain an absolute
priority for our Organization. In this respect, it has
been established that the only solution is the creation
of a Palestinian State that is viable with secure and
internationally recognized borders alongside a State of
Israel that is also certain of its security. And this is now
where all efforts should be focused.
In welcoming the existence of nuclear-weapon-
free zones, Burkina Faso is also calling for a
responsible, just and equitable approach to the so-
called nuclear crises. My delegation is very much
concerned by the proliferation and the trafficking of
small arms and light weapons, which for the victims
are truly weapons of mass destruction. In West Africa,
the phenomenon is particularly disturbing and its
eradication requires sustained cooperation among
States, as well as significant support on the part of the
international community. Burkina Faso, which is the
Chair of ECOWAS, has decided to make a priority of
this issue.
The West African region is also in the process of
becoming a key centre of drug trafficking. That
situation requires urgent and appropriate action on our
part, since it is likely to destabilize States, particularly
by disrupting their economies and increasing the level
of organized crime and corruption. Therefore, we call
for solidarity and support from the international
community to help us eradicate this scourge as swiftly
as possible.
Those worrisome issues will certainly be on the
agenda of the conference on peace and security in West
Africa and the role of the joint European Union-Africa
strategy which my country will host in November
2007. A joint initiative of the Republic of Austria and
Burkina Faso, that important meeting will be an
opportunity to identify the underlying causes of
conflict and to formulate solutions capable of ensuring
the sustainable development of countries in the
subregion.
The current situation in many countries reminds
us of the cruel reality of terrorism, which remains
among the most pernicious of challenges and thus the
most difficult to overcome. We must therefore
demonstrate greater solidarity to contain it. In
particular, we call for diligent implementation of the
United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and,
in that connection, effective international cooperation
to strengthen the current legal arsenal and the
conclusion of a comprehensive convention as soon as
possible.
By working for sustainable peace, we offer our
States the best guarantee for their economic
development. Nevertheless, the current international
economic reality, which is characterized by
globalization and excessive liberalization, continues to
batter economies such as that of Burkina Faso. What is
more, these fragile economies must contend with unfair
trade rules.
Several years ago, President Blaise Compaoré, by
launching his crusade against subsidies for Northern
cotton growers — a crusade that was also carried out
on behalf of his peers in Benin, Mali and Chad —
sought to put an end to one of the most cynical
practices of international trade. We hope to see the
conclusion of the Doha Round of negotiations, which
will place development at the heart of international
trade.
Millions of men, women and children —
particularly in Africa — are waiting to benefit from the
positive impact of international trade in the hope that it
will contribute to their development and to the
improvement of their living conditions. For them,
poverty and misery are not statistics or assessments, let
alone projections. They are the mother who, because
there is no drinking water or no health facility within a
distance of 10 kilometres, sees the baby whom she bore
with difficulty die in her arms; they are the child who
is eager for knowledge but who will never go to
school; they are the father who sees his only son
confront the wrath of the sea and jeopardize his life in
search of a supposedly better life on some shore. Those
are the daily tragedies to which all of us here can
attest.
We have the means to act. We must act quickly.
We must act now.
For a number of years, we have engaged the
United Nations in a process of qualitative change to
equip it with the means to deal with the demands of the
modern world and to be able to effectively fulfil the
aspirations of peoples. However, while the
achievements are considerable, the task remains vast
and the expectations pressing. Thus, we must
demonstrate the will and the discernment to give the
Organization viable structures and adequate means.
Burkina Faso hopes that, at the end of this process, the
historical wrongs committed against Africa and other
parts of the world will be corrected, particularly at the
level of the Security Council.
We also deplore the ongoing injustice committed
against the Republic of China on Taiwan, whose
legitimate aspiration to participate fully in world
affairs has been denied. Nevertheless, that country is a
good example of successful democracy and social and
economic development. By depriving 25 million men
and women of the right to make their contribution to
the realization of United Nations principles and
objectives, our Organization is also depriving itself of
its own quest for modernity and universality.
Therefore, it is a new United Nations, open to all, that
Burkina Faso earnestly calls for.
Burkina Faso reaffirms its faith in multilateralism
and in the role of the United Nations as an
irreplaceable instrument for peace, development and
the promotion of dialogue among peoples, which it is
our historic duty to preserve and strengthen.