Djibouti

In view of the catastrophic events that took place on 11 September, it is only fitting that first and foremost we once again offer our deepest condolences to the Government and people of the United States. This was a hateful and diabolical act of terrorism that claimed thousands of precious human lives and caused untold physical destruction, without parallel in history. This brutal attack has put us all on notice. It was truly the day the world changed. One way or another, this tragedy affects us all. Not a single country is immune from terrorism, inasmuch as it is beyond the capacity of any one 27 country to counter it. The international community must work together, ideally through the United Nations, so that the counter-measures take the form of legitimacy and acceptability. In this respect, Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) provides us with the necessary framework. We in Djibouti have already established a suitable mechanism to counter terrorism, in all its aspects, that could come from our territory. We are also in the process of examining the existing international conventions and protocols on terrorism with a view to signing and ratifying them all. However, while doing all this, we must not lose sight of the plight of the people of Afghanistan — the terror, the desperation and the starvation facing impoverished people during this grave crisis. Also, we must not squander the extraordinary opportunity we now have to examine all possible or probable causes and deep roots of terrorism, including attitudes, frustrations and current economic and political conditions. May I join the delegations that preceded me to offer the President our congratulations on his brilliant election as President of the General Assembly at its fifty-sixth session. His vast experience and demonstrated capacity and skills will indeed be vital to our deliberations. We also wish to express our appreciation to his predecessor, Mr. Harri Holkeri of Finland, whose leadership at the fifty-fifth session has resulted in tangible achievements. Permit me also to congratulate Secretary-General Kofi Annan on his re-election and for the work he accomplished during his first term, most notably for the extent to which he was able to institute much- needed reforms and restore the relevance and central role of the United Nations, while enhancing its capacity and effectiveness. He has recognized that far too many people live on the margins of society, reduced to silence by endemic poverty, debt, the AIDS pandemic, tuberculosis and malaria. He has, in effect, become the voice of the world’s silent majority. It is not by chance, therefore, that, together with the Organization he heads, he has received the Nobel Peace Prize. We congratulate him wholeheartedly for this distinct and rare honour bestowed upon him and the United Nations system. May I pay tribute to the Secretary-General for the breadth and relevance of his report on the work of the Organization. The United Nations has a vital role to play in today’s rapidly evolving world, and the report offers a comprehensive update on all its activities. With reference to peace and security, as the Secretary- General has stressed, we must all be struck by the number of conflicts raging in the world today. Preventing the recurrence of conflict is a central priority, and this means that our focus needs to shift from a culture of management and control to one of prevention and long-term development. Besides conflict, we are witness to enormous human suffering caused by natural disasters and complex situations that continue to grow in scale, escalating the need for humanitarian assistance. We are pleased to note that the Secretary-General continues to place importance on the fight against endemic poverty and that the international community has launched a sustained campaign to make the right to development a palpable reality for everyone. The participation of the poor must become a priority in order to eradicate rural poverty, to ensure the well- being of children and to strengthen the earning potential of women. If we are to reduce by half the number of people living in poverty by 2015, as called for in the Millennium Declaration, we must substantially increase Official Development Assistance, alleviate the debt burden of the poorest countries and dismantle the protectionist barriers of developed countries. The Least Developed Countries, in particular, face enormous obstacles, such as declining inflows of capital, inadequate social services and the lack of infrastructure, in addition to environmental constraints. In essence, the Brussels Declaration and Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010 call for an increase in foreign capital inflows, including Official Development Assistance; direct foreign investment; an expansion of debt relief; greater preferential market access and increased technical assistance. Silently but very quickly, the world is drifting towards another dangerous crisis: water scarcity. By 2025, one in every three people worldwide will be affected by the lack of water. Some 2.7 billion people live in regions facing severe water shortages and, once again, Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, which are the most densely populated areas and among the areas of least income, will be the hardest hit. Currently, 450 million people living in 29 countries, including my 28 own, Djibouti, are experiencing acute drinking water shortages. Unlike oil and most other strategic resources, drinking water has no substitute. Whether water is needed for drinking, agriculture or environment-related purposes, such as the survival of lakes and rivers, we have on our hands a potential crisis that risks causing an unprecedented disaster for food security and the fight against hunger and poverty. A combination of global warming, wasteful habits, aridity and the lack of rainfall means that the water sources millions traditionally rely on are now slowly drying up. There is no longer enough water for all our needs. Beyond the international treaties and institutional mechanisms, the international community must act to mitigate this crisis. Now is the time to act. While the recent international terrorist attacks in the United States have rightly dominated the world’s attention, other pressing problems, such as the AIDS pandemic, must still be urgently attended to. The special session of the General Assembly devoted to this scourge, held in June, took a decisive step towards finding collective solutions, actions and commitments. However, there is still concern that these non-binding commitments may not be carried out. The global AIDS fund launched by the Secretary-General has made some progress, but contributions to date have fallen far short of the expected target. We are now unfortunately familiar with the statistics of deaths and the social and economic devastation caused by this scourge, particularly in Africa. In the search for a solution and what measures to take, the debate has centred on treatment versus prevention. Ideally, the best hope would be for a preventative vaccine, but that solution does not look promising. As one expert put it, “We are at the end of the beginning of this epidemic, not at the beginning of its end!” The growth and exponential spread of information technology, coupled with the demise of the cold war, have, over the past decade, been determining factors in shaping our views on development and the global economy. With the advent of globalization, trade expanded, capital flowed, investments increased, economies liberalized and barriers to trade were lowered. In addition, the private sector took on a central role. Unfortunately, as many have correctly observed, the number of countries and individuals excluded from the benefits of this phenomenon has risen inexorably. The attempt to explain this dichotomy has led to many troubling conclusions. For the poverty-stricken who live on $1 per day, talk of technology, economic growth, opportunity and prosperity is no more than nice-sounding words. Their greatest daily concern is the fear of not having enough to eat. Finding enough to eat is a daily challenge for more than three billion people on this planet. Despite the conflicts in Africa currently making headlines, it is the precarious existence of those left behind that has defined life on the African continent for more than two generations. Whatever the reasons for this endemic poverty, the fact remains that unless we address the problem of poverty in all its aspects, we will not get to the roots of the problem. It is well known that millions of people in Africa and throughout the world are simply too poor to participate in the phenomenon of globalization and thus miss out on the benefits of globalization. The President of the World Bank has aptly put the issue of poverty in perspective: “... if you cannot deal with the question of poverty, if you cannot deal with the issue of equity, then you are not dealing with the question of peace.” He added: “We will not solve the problems of poverty or global peace or stability unless we change our perception of poor people from the objects of charity to an asset on which you can build a better world.” The persistence and spread of poverty hamper all efforts for peace, security, development, democracy and good governance. Peace and security require increasing and strengthening the United Nations capacity to prevent crises, to react to emerging threats and to implement peace-building programmes. In this regard, the Security Council has a preponderant role. It is obvious that our inability to reform the Council so that it can respond to the needs of the international reality of today can only diminish the legitimacy of its functioning and decisions. During the fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly in September 1999, my President, Ismail Omar Guelleh, outlined a series of proposals on the re- establishment of peace in Somalia. A year later, during the fifty-fifth session, he related to this Assembly the extraordinary sacrifices and burdens borne by the Government and people of Djibouti, together with a 29 number of Governments and organizations of good will, to bring together the true representatives of the Somali people so that they might seize control of their own destiny and forge a new direction for their devastated country. Ultimately, after eight months of intense and difficult negotiations at Arta, Djibouti, in August 2000, the Somali State was reborn through the establishment of the Transitional National Government, the National Assembly and other institutions. The course has not been easy, but the Transitional National Government has persisted and pursued its commitments, gaining the respect, sympathy and support of the international community, despite myriad attempts to undermine its efforts to achieve lasting peace. The Transitional National Government is a reality. It represents the will of the people of Somalia, who have spoken and made their choice. As my President has repeatedly stated, if we wish to save Somalia from disintegration and chaos, we must eschew the standard practice of revolving around a few all-too-familiar individuals who held the Somali people hostage for a decade. He suggested, inter alia, that it was time to move beyond them, to restore power to the people, and for the Somali people to assume leadership and responsibility for their own destiny. We are gratified that the Transitional National Government is fully committed to bringing about lasting peace in Somalia through a constructive spirit of dialogue and tolerance. Building upon the outcome of the Arta process, the Transitional National Government has consistently and tirelessly demonstrated its unwavering commitment to reconciling with its adversaries without preconditions. Its efforts to that end have been greatly appreciated by the Organization of African Unity and by the Security Council. Both entities have recently condemned those individuals and faction leaders who remain outside the Arta peace process and who stubbornly persist in blocking the peace efforts in Somalia. In this respect, the efforts of the President of Kenya, Mr. Daniel Arap Moi, earlier this month to bring some of these recalcitrants into the Arta process are to be strongly commended. That is what is expected of us; it is a moral and political duty we owe to the people of Somalia. That was the message of the Security Council’s presidential statement on Somalia last month: “[T]he situation in Somalia and the objective of long-term regional stability can most effectively be addressed if neighbouring States play a positive role, including in the process of rebuilding national institutions in Somalia.” (S/PRST/2001/30, p. 2) While the Republic of Djibouti is not in the habit of challenging anyone on the veracity of information within their purview, it has nonetheless a moral duty to issue a caution about the source, motivation, accuracy, objectivity and reliability of such information, particularly as it relates to the crucial and sensitive issue of the existence of terrorist cells in one country or another. I am convinced that close consultation and cooperation with all countries in the region on this important issue will yield realistic and impartial information in the assessment of any particular situation. It must be pointed out, however, that haste and rash, uncorroborated conclusions will only harm the unity of the international coalition against terrorism, which we all vigorously support. At a time when the attention of the international community is squarely focused on the issue of terrorism, the brutality and destructive force used against the Palestinians have increased dramatically. Israel has created the conditions for chaos and anarchy to justify its reoccupation and even annexation of Palestinian territory. The recent incursions represent the broadest military operations in years in Palestinian- controlled territory. Each day we drift closer to an unacceptable conflagration between two parties that are unequal in power, means, resources and international influence. Insisting on a ceasefire without offering anything in return, Israel is determined to pursue its defiance of international opinion. Living conditions in the occupied territories continue to be seriously affected by the Israeli blockade. Rising unemployment, failing businesses, falling incomes, restrictions on the movement of goods and people and the banning of construction while Jewish settlement activities continue all combine to inflame an already incendiary situation. One wonders, therefore, what more the Israelis want to hear than the imploring words of President Arafat: “Let us go back to implementing the accords. Let us go back to saving the peace process with no conditions and no military pressures.” 30 We call on Israel to relinquish Orient House and other Palestinian offices in and around Jerusalem. We also urge it to return to the negotiating table and, among other things, to implement the proposals contained in the Mitchell Committee report. Israel must release the millions of dollars in tax money owed to the Palestinian Authority in order to alleviate the economic and financial hardships inflicted upon the Palestinian people. In the final analysis, Israel’s security largely depends on the implementation of the principle of a viable Palestinian State. We hope that the international community will also commit itself to restoring dignity and respect to the Palestinian people. Like all peoples everywhere, they have a right to live in peace and to enjoy a decent existence. In our subregion of the Horn of Africa, there has been some reduction in hostilities despite lingering differences and antagonisms. The people in that area of the world have suffered too long and desire nothing more than a relaxation of tensions, the free movement of people and goods, lasting peace, stability, development and cooperation. It is high time that we devoted our meagre resources to development and to improving the living conditions and meeting the needs of our own people. Let us give our people a break and a better future. Djibouti truly believes in regional cooperation, good-neighbourliness and the opportunities they can afford for all our people. We are committed to working hand in hand with our friends in the subregion to resolve outstanding issues in complete harmony and trust. As a nation, we are challenged by scant resources and declining international assistance, which have been exacerbated by the huge influx of drought-affected people and economic migrants. Our capital city, in particular, is overburdened by an influx of people displaced by drought or political tensions in the region, thus further straining our limited infrastructure and social services. We appeal to the international community to help us overcome these unsustainable challenges and pressures that have been with us for too long and are beyond our limited means.