I am pleased to be able
to address the global community on the first day of the
current session of the General Assembly of the United
Nations.
Please accept my congratulations, Sir, on your
assumption of the high office of the President of the
sixty-second session. To Sheikha Haya Rashed
Al-Khalifa, I wish to convey Sri Lanka’s gratitude for
her astute leadership of the sixty-first session.
Sri Lanka can boast of a very old and advanced
civilization, similar to Greek, Roman and Nile Valley
civilizations. One of the important characteristics of
our civilization is the use of living languages such as
Sinhala and Tamil, two languages used by many even
today. I therefore consider it my obligation to use
Sinhala, a living language, to address the General
Assembly.
Let me begin by quoting the immortal words of
Sir Isaac Newton: “We build too many walls and not
enough bridges”. We all became Members of an
Organization that was created to let all our voices be
heard and to avoid an approach aimed at resolving
problems through violence, revenge and blame. Yet we
see a trend to find fault, to place countries in the dock
and penalize those who do not fall into line. Instead of
seeking solutions through cooperation, we have often
created suspicion and built walls between ourselves
through double standards.
I am proud to inform the Assembly that, despite
the significant challenge posed by the ongoing conflict
with a ruthless terrorist group in the north of our
country, we have freed the Eastern Province from
terrorism and restored law and order there. My
Government has already launched a massive
programme of rehabilitation and reconstruction in the
east. We propose to make the Eastern Province of Sri
Lanka a model for development and rehabilitation,
essentially through our own effort but also with the
assistance of all donors. We are taking steps to return
the usurped rights of the people by conducting
provincial and local Government elections in the east
early next year. There is a clear opportunity for the
international community to play a vital role in breaking
the cycle of conflict by focusing on development.
We launched military operations only to exert
pressure on terrorists in order to convince them that it
would not be possible for them to obtain a military
victory. Our goal remains a negotiated and honourable
end to this unfortunate conflict. I must say that the All
Party Representative Committee is working
successfully towards it.
Sri Lanka was one of the first developing
countries to promote universal health and education,
gender equality and social mobilization. We have been
able to achieve exceptional socio-economic
indicators way ahead of those normally expected of
a country in the lower-middle income range and are
on the way to achieving or surpassing many of the
Millennium Development Goals. It is a beautiful sight
on our rural roads to see thousands of children in clean
white uniforms heading for school. It is a fine example
of our success in achieving education for all.
Despite 25 years of brutal terrorism, we have
been able to continue with this social development. My
Government maintains a policy of openness and
cooperation with all international human rights
mechanisms, and a number of high-level officials have
visited Sri Lanka recently. Sri Lanka’s ancient
civilization was rooted in the Buddhist principles of
metta and ahimsa metta being loving kindness to all
living beings and ahimsa being a deep respect for life.
Human rights have been an essential part of our great
cultural tradition for millennia. It is therefore nothing
new for us to protect human rights. Women in
pre-colonial Sri Lanka enjoyed rights that are
prescribed under the Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women
including rights of property ownership and inheritance
rights. It was certainly no accident that Sri Lanka
produced the first democratically elected woman Prime
Minister in the world in 1960.
Guided by the principles of Buddhism, we have
long respected the rights of our fellow human beings. It
has therefore not been necessary for us to experience
global wars or the deaths of millions to learn to
recognize their value. My country has no record of
inflicting misery on fellow human beings for the
purpose of empire-building, for commercial advantage
or for religious righteousness. Sri Lanka, as one of the
founding members of the Human Rights Council,
believes that human rights are too important to be used
as a tool to victimize States for political advantage. It
is essential that international action to facilitate
compliance with human rights standards be fair and
even-handed. Human rights have to be protected and
advanced for their own sake, not for political gain.
Even as we are gathered here, State sovereignty,
civil society and the rule of law are increasingly being
threatened by terrorism and other illegal and illicit
activities in many countries. We need to be vigilant
about these activities. Although the United Nations
system has set up mechanisms to deal with many of
these problems, the capacity of the United Nations to
address these challenges effectively has been brought
into question. There are many Member States
represented in the Assembly today that have first-hand
experience of the havoc caused by brutish terrorism,
which has stretched out its claws to many corners of
the world to mar innocent lives. All terrorist attacks
whether in New York, Mumbai, Cairo, London or
Colombo are acts that threaten the democratic way
of life, and must be condemned unreservedly.
Terrorism anywhere is terrorism. There is nothing
good in terrorism. Sri Lanka has taken an up-front
position in the global community’s efforts to deal with
terrorism. We have become party to 11 of the 13 United
Nations conventions for the suppression of various acts
of terrorism. We think that the comprehensive
convention on international terrorism which, in our
view, remains a priority is a hostage to endless
discussion. I emphasize that we must conclude those
negotiations soon.
In whatever continent there are conflicts, those
will affect the world economy. Peace in the Middle
East would have a great impact on our economy.
Solutions sought for conflicts in various countries must
be indigenous. Otherwise, even if the international
community is appeased, people in the countries saddled
with conflicts will not be satisfied. That would be a
blow to democracy. At this point, we must focus our
attention on the Palestinians who are striving for an
independent State. The world community must help
them to manage their country without any undue
influence.
We strongly support the strengthening of United
Nations mechanisms for countering fund-raising for
illegal and illicit activities. We encourage the
Secretary-General to allocate more resources to this
area, especially to enhance technical skills in countries
that do not have such skills. Many developing
countries would benefit from such assistance. We need
to have a better mechanism to provide solutions to the
problems confronting us. Support from all Member
States should be obtained for this purpose.
The United Nations has a mixed record of
achievements. As resources received by the United
Nations are limited, it has been only possible to deliver
limited results. We need to focus on these as they often
have been characterized by countless, poorly
coordinated, ineffectively designed, ineptly staffed and
overlapping programmes, with unnecessary inter-
agency competition. The United Nations must always
remember that its primary function is to render
assistance for the well-being of its Member States.
We have rounded the Development Decade
declared by the General Assembly. My country has
declared the “Mahinda Chintana” 10-year vision to
usher in a new Sri Lanka in line with those goals.
Through that we are committed to achieving the
Millennium Development Goals. We have accorded
priority to the areas liberated from terrorism, those that
have been devastated by natural disasters and rural
areas lagging behind in development. However, it is a
huge challenge for us to fill the gap created by the loss
of human lives arising out of disasters.
We are implementing a rural development
initiative based on Maga Neguma, the road
development programme, and “Gama Neguma”, the
rural reawakening programme and a national
infrastructure development initiative. The “Mahinda
Chintana” 10-year development vision includes
continuous qualitative upgrading of education and
health programmes in all areas, livelihood initiatives
for low-income groups, and broad social welfare
programmes covering poor and disadvantaged
members of society, aimed specially at children and
women. We also implement programmes to protect our
people from narcotic drugs and diseases transmitted
through social contact.
The working population, as well as low-income
and poor groups in developing countries such as ours,
face tough challenges due to escalating world oil prices
and increases in the prices of essential food items.
Similarly, we are severely affected by natural disasters
and uncertainties in the world financial markets. For
those reasons, it has become a challenge to achieve the
Millennium Development Goals declared by the
Assembly.
The World Bank, established for economic
development, the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
which was set up for financial stability, and other
regional banks established at the same time as this
world organization, all need to implement new
programmes to assist the countries affected by these
challenges. Priority must be given to providing
resources for this purpose.
I believe that our obligation as global leaders at
these sessions of the General Assembly, is to commit
ourselves to programmes that will eradicate terrorism,
establish human-welfare-oriented development,
establish democracy and ensure there is hope for
low-income groups for economic development.
Accordingly, I appeal to the global community to make
the sixty-second session the beginning of a new
chapter, rather than just another session.