Sudan

It gives me pleasure to extend my delegationís sincere 41 congratulations to Mr. Jean Ping on his deserved election to the presidency of the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly. Given the issues that we must consider during this session, and in view of the important tasks we must face in the coming year, we particularly welcome the Presidentís experience and skills, which are familiar to us in the African arena. We would also like to extend our thanks and appreciation to Mr. Julian R. Hunte, the outgoing President, for the great efforts he made in conducting the work of the Assembly, as well as to the Secretary- General for leading the work of the Organization. Last year from this rostrum I stated that negotiations between the Government and the Sudan Peopleís Liberation Movement/Army, under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and Kenyaís chairmanship, and with the support of the IGAD partners, had made great progress and peace had become imminent. I am glad to say that the last round of negotiations resulted in the signing, in the first week of June 2004, of six protocols dealing with security arrangements, cessation of hostilities, distribution of wealth, power-sharing and the conflict in the Nubian mountains region, the Blue Nile and Abiai. We decided to hold the last round of negotiations on 7 October 2004 to complete the details of a comprehensive peace, which will, it is hoped, be signed at the end of this year. We stand on the threshold of peace. The new challenge before us now is to overcome the differences of the past, start reconstruction and rehabilitation, concentrate on development and strengthen the pillars of peace and national unity on the basis of compatriotism and equality of rights and duties. For that reason, my Government declares its firm intention of conducting a national dialogue with all political forces, inside and outside the Sudan, in order to make peace a national objective that can be achieved through a national charter. It also gives me pleasure to say that in addition to the talks in Naivasha and Abuja my Government started a third forum in Cairo, under the auspices of the Egyptian Government, to engage in dialogue with factions of the national opposition, headquartered in Asmara. Because war has devastated all sectors of the country, reconstruction efforts are especially difficult. We would like to express our appreciation to the international community for the humanitarian assistance they provided during the war. We now appeal to the international community to help in the reconstruction process: to ameliorate the living conditions in the areas devastated by war all over the Sudan; to aid in the resettlement of internally displaced persons and refugees; and to participate in development projects in order to achieve peace and stability. We were at the threshold of peace in the south when another war broke out in Darfur as the result of a rebel movement begun by some tribes and supported by foreign forces. The rebel movementís terrorist action was not directed against the Government only, but against those tribes that refused to join them. That, in turn, pushed those tribes to train and arm militias to defend themselves against the rebels. The rebel movement targeted the security apparatus, sowing death and destruction, which led to the release of criminal Janjaweed groups from prisons. The aggression continued against civilians and Government institutions. The root causes of Darfur go back to conflicts among the tribal communities in the region. Previously, those conflicts were settled according to traditional customs and norms. But the growth in population and the number of livestock, coupled with a decrease in the water supply owing to desertification, led to tense struggles between grazing land tribes and farmers. There were other causes for regional conflict: an influx of arms and the interference of neighbouring countries that tried to exploit the tense situation, encouraging rebellions against the Government by training and arming certain groups. The present conflict in Darfur started in March 2003, when rebels started inciting dissension and strife, attacking highways, plundering livestock and taking international relief workers as hostages. The Government tried to convince them to abandon military action, but they insisted on occupying cities and villages and terrorizing tribes, forcing them into armed service. Everyone had to carry weapons for self- defence. Then, the Government intervened to try to halt the hostilities, impose law and order and prevent civil war. This conflict, which was imposed on the Government, has created extremely complicated and dire humanitarian conditions. The Government took the necessary measures. It sent food relief to Darfur. Next, it eliminated all the administrative, legal and technical 42 arrangements that impeded relief work, it allowed relief organizations to enter Darfur unimpeded, and it curtailed certain regulations, such as visa requirements, in order to provide protection to camps of displaced persons. The Government deployed police and reopened legal offices destroyed by the rebels. The process of bringing all of those accused of violating human rights to justice began. Furthermore, the Government cooperated with the international community by signing a joint communique with the Secretary-General that includes a number of measures to deal with the situation in Darfur and, together with Jan Pronk, Special Representative of the Secretary- General for the Sudan, I headed a Joint Implementation Mechanism mission to the area. Furthermore, out of its belief in a peaceful settlement as a strategic choice, the Government entered into negotiations with the rebels under the auspices of the President of Chad, which culminated in the Abashi agreement in 2003, but that agreement was later violated by the rebels. However, this did not weaken the Governmentís resolve to continue its efforts, until we attained the ceasefire agreement in NíDjamena. In order to cooperate with the African Union, we sent a high-level delegation to the first round of negotiations at Addis Ababa; our delegation was given full authority to reach a peaceful settlement with the rebels. But the rebels boycotted the talks. The Government redoubled its efforts at all levels - political, security and humanitarian - out of its responsibility for the people, and it cooperated fully with the United Nations so as to implement the agreement that had been reached with the Secretary- General. Then, on 30 July 2004, the Security Council adopted resolution 1556 (2004), which gave the Government only one month to deal with the problem and threatened the imposition of sanctions. It is regrettable that this resolution sent an erroneous message, thus encouraging the rebels to give up negotiations with good intention. They insisted on conditions that were impossible to implement. And this led to the collapse of negotiations in Addis Ababa, in spite of the African Unionís great efforts. Notwithstanding the faults and impracticality of this Security Council resolution, my Government, abiding by its international legitimacy and responsibility for its people, will continue to do its utmost to find the shortest way for the return of peace, stability and security to Darfur. My Government signed a working plan for Darfur with the United Nations; this plan included detailed arrangements for humanitarian aid, security and protection of displaced persons and their voluntary return. We assigned extra police forces, numbering 10,000. We also signed an agreement with the International Organization for Migration on the return of refugees. Within the framework of a political settlement, and despite the intransigence and lack of seriousness of the rebels, my Government accepted the invitation extended by President Obasanjo of Nigeria, the current Chairman of the African Union. We then sent another high-ranking delegation to Abuja on 23 August out of our belief in the political settlement as a strategic option. As it happened in the Addis Ababa negotiations, the Security Council adopted its resolution 1564 (2004) last Saturday, 18 September, which gave more incentive to the rebels and sent them an erroneous message to continue their intransigence. This led to the failure of the negotiations. Security Council resolution 1564 (2004) did not consider my Governmentís efforts to contain the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, which led to dÈtente in the situation. It did not pay attention to my Governmentís warning about the negative impact of any measures that would hamper the efforts made by the African Union for the peaceful settlement of the question of Darfur. We call upon the international community to provide assistance to the needy population in Darfur. At the same time, we ask for support and promotion of the African Union's efforts and that the situation on the ground not be further complicated or the Unionís efforts undermined. Believing in our own principles, our sense of responsibility and the attention my Government attaches to human rights questions, we have cooperated with international and voluntary organizations for the development and enhancement of human rights in my country. We have ratified this year the African Children's Initiative and, over the past months, we have received some independent experts and special rapporteurs sent by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). In cooperation with OHCHR, we have deployed a team of human rights observers in Darfur. Sudan's doors will be open for all those who want to know the truth. We have nothing to hide. Our efforts were not limited to 43 cooperating with the international community. We have taken some measures at the local level, and we have established a national independent committee to investigate allegations of human rights violations in Darfur. Also, there are other committees to investigate the other claims of rape in the Darfur region besides our efforts to provide protection, peace and security to our citizens. Since the beginning of the crisis, my Government has not hesitated to recognize that there has been a humanitarian problem in Darfur and a security problem that ought to be dealt with through a comprehensive political solution, despite the fact that the rebel movement led to this problem by starting violence and fighting. Then we resorted to the international community in general and the African Union and the League of Arab States in particular. We hope that the international community, especially the Security Council, will cooperate with us to find a solution instead of issuing threats and condemnations. The last Security Council resolution is a living example of such threats. We welcome the international communityís investigation of the Darfur violations. As I said, we have nothing to hide. What we all want from the Secretary-General, who is responsible for the establishment of this committee, and from the Security Council is confirmation of the credibility of the international organization so that this international committee would be neutral and professional. We do not want a committee like that headed by Richard Butler, who prepared his report at another location where it was signed and submitted to the Security Council indicating that it represented the position of the Organization. We hope that the voices of those who took certain positions regarding Darfur will be silent until the international committeeís report is issued. We face a very delicate situation and developments in the world today, and we need to face such challenges by garnering the political will to enhance the role of the United Nations and its agencies in order to carry out their functions within the framework of a real democracy that would express the interests and hopes of all peoples and confront the challenges of the twenty-first century. We must accelerate our current efforts that have been going on for a decade now for Security Council reform and to develop its methods of work. The body that is responsible for international peace and security is composed of permanent members, whose monopoly of the veto reflects a great imbalance over the simplest criteria of justice. Among the five permanent Members, there are three from one geographical group; two of them are from Western Europe. There is no representation whatsoever for entire continents, such as Africa or Latin America, and vast regions of Asia. Therefore, any discussion about submitting another candidate from Western Europe before taking these continents into consideration would be a consecration of this imbalanced equation and of the Westís hegemony over the affairs of this Organization. Terrorism and extremism are among the challenges facing the world today. We declare our total rejection and condemnation of this destructive phenomenon; but at the same time there is an unacceptable misunderstanding and confusion between terrorism and the struggles of people to achieve their independence and to rid themselves of foreign occupation. This misunderstanding culminates in the extreme when terrorism is linked to followers of a certain religion or culture. Terrorism has no religion or homeland. We stand with the international community and cooperate with it in its fight to eliminate terrorism, and we call for an international agreement on a definition of terrorism and to find the best means to face this plague through collective efforts. The gap between the rich and poor countries is widening within a system of globalization that further enriches the wealthy and impoverishes the poor. It has become an obstacle for the international community and the aspirations to a free and dignified life of billions of people in developing countries. The imbalance in todayís world economy and free trade is obvious. It will have an adverse effect not only on the developing countries but will lead also to total catastrophe in the whole world. We need to have political resolve, as stated by world leaders in the Millennium Declaration four years ago, and later at Monterrey and Johannesburg. Developing and least developed countries are still suffering from hunger and poverty. Let us renew hope for the hundreds of millions of poor and hungry people by translating that political will into concrete action in order to provide them with education and drinking water and to eliminate hunger, 44 destitution and disease by focusing on the goals and programmes that we have repeatedly agreed on. In this connection, we would like to pay tribute to the international initiative on the new Action Against Hunger and Poverty. Israelís oppressive policies against unarmed Palestinian people, the imposition of closures on occupied Palestinian land, the extrajudicial crimes committed there, the demolition of houses, the starvation and intimidation, the increased settlement activities and the besieging of the Palestinian President all require that the international community bring pressure to bear on Israel to stop those acts. The Sudan welcomes the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the separation wall and on compensation for all losses caused by it. We welcome resolution ES-10/15, adopted by the General Assembly at its tenth emergency session, on 20 July 2004, demanding that Israel abide by that opinion. An international, comprehensive and just peace in the Middle East will be reached only when Israel withdraws from all occupied Arab lands, including the Syrian Golan Heights and the Lebanese Shaliía farms. There will be no peace or stability until the Palestinian people recover their legitimate rights, including their right to establish an independent Palestinian State with Jerusalem as its capital and the right of refugees to return to their lands. The difficult situation facing the Iraqi people makes it necessary to assist them to overcome their problems. Here we reaffirm the unity and independence of the Iraqi people and their right to self-determination. We hope that the restoration of those rights will lead to security and stability and to a return to normality in Iraq and that it will enable the Iraqi people to exercise their right to choose their own political leadership through free and fair elections. We call upon the international community to support the Iraqi provisional Government, to help in the reconstruction of Iraq and to support any initiative that would enable the Iraqis to live in dignity in their own country. Our efforts complement those efforts of the African Union to achieve stability and development in our continent, a continent so rich natural and human resources and capabilities. We have resolved to settle our conflicts and crises, which squander such resources and capabilities, and to work instead to promote economic and social development through the New Partnership for Africaís Development (NEPAD). In conclusion, we reaffirm our determination to achieve a comprehensive and just peace that would lead to stability and well-being for the people of the Sudan and would bolster African Union efforts towards economic and social integrity. We look forward to the United Nations playing its role in establishing justice in international relations based on understanding, cooperation and mutual interests and avoiding confrontation and sanctions, which have proven to be harmful to people.