I have been given such
a bad spot on the speaking list that I feel as if I am in a
Fellini movie, speaking to an empty Hall. Still, because
I believe in ghosts, I believe that the friendly ghosts of
those who are not present are here to listen, and I
profusely thank those who bothered to come on this
Saturday afternoon.
Mr. President, in compensation for my having the
worst possible time slot in the general debate, when I
see you this afternoon I hope you will have a nice box
of Swiss chocolates to give to me.
We will not distribute the written version of my
speech because no one reads them anyway and it is a
waste of paper and money. However, anyone who is
curious enough about my speech will be able to find it
on the General Assembly’s website. It is a lengthy
speech — although I will not compete with Presidents
Obama, Ahmadinejad or Chávez — so I will skip
through much of it, out of respect for the
representatives who have been here for a week
listening to many speeches.
Still, I would fail my upbringing if I were not to
thank the Mayor of New York and New Yorkers for
welcoming us to their city. We sympathize with the
residents of this city for the inconveniences we cause
them by our presence, even if most people would agree
that the United Nations and the numerous meetings
held here throughout the year bring enormous tangible
and non-quantifiable benefits to the city. I also would
like thank the United States federal authorities for their
exceptional efforts and professionalism in providing us
with a secure and friendly environment.
I have never met Mayor Bloomberg, but he has
gone up in our esteem and respect because of his
intellectual clarity and moral courage in standing up
for the rights of American Muslims in building a
cultural centre and a sacred place of worship in lower
Manhattan as a venue for reflection, learning and
fraternity among cultures and religions. What better
place is there than lower Manhattan, near the World
Trade Center, to signal the revulsion of American
Muslims and moderate Muslims all over the world at
the actions of some extremists? I congratulate Mayor
Bloomberg for his moral courage and integrity.
I was not present in this Hall when President
Ahmadinejad of the Islamic Republic of Iran addressed
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this Assembly a few days ago. I was at Columbia
University, addressing an equally important gathering
of young students and academics from many countries,
cultures and religions. So I did not hear President
Ahmadinejad’s latest intellectual concoctions in this
Assembly. I will not question the right of anyone to
speak his mind. President Ahmadinejad is entitled to
believe in and regurgitate whatever intellectual,
philosophical or theological concoctions his unique
mind may fabricate. However, I do not agree that any
of us should disregard the basic rules and practices of
conduct among leaders by uttering obscenities in this
Assembly. What President Ahmadinejad said in this
forum in regard to the terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center was an obscenity. He went too far, as he
has done many times before in this Assembly and in
other forums, as when he has questioned the facts of
the Holocaust.
Otherwise, we fully subscribe to Iran’s legitimate
right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful
purposes, and we caution the Powers that be not to
hasten in reaching conclusions that may lead to
irreversible, catastrophic decisions. We do have serious
doubts, however, about the reliability and safety of
nuclear energy. Let us not forget the lessons of the
Three Mile Island accident, which occurred at 4 a.m.
on 28 March 1979 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or the
even worse Chernobyl nuclear meltdown of April 1986.
The recent catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
would pale by comparison with the blow-up of a
nuclear energy facility. We do not know whether
Iranian rulers do or do not have the desire to be an
armed nuclear Power. What we do know, however, is
that the possession of nuclear weapons is not a shortcut
to super-Power status, as some in Asia seem to think,
and does not insure anyone against twenty-first century
conventional and non–conventional security threats.
Nuclear weapons were developed as a result of
the tragic experiences of the Second World War and of
mutual suspicion and fears pervasive among the
Powers at that time. They have become obsolete. That
is proven by the fact that the mighty Soviet nuclear and
conventional arsenals were not able to prevent the
implosion of its Empire, the liberation of hundreds of
millions of people or the reunification of Germany.
Nuclear weapons are not going to be of much help in
the ongoing ethnic, religious and border disputes in
Asia. We pray to God the Almighty and the Merciful
that these weapons and others, chemical and biological,
do not ever fall into the hands of extremist non-State
entities.
We gathered here from 20 to 22 September to
review the progress — or lack of it — on the pledges
we solemnly made before our peoples in 2000 to
eliminate or at least halve poverty by 2015. In Timor-
Leste, we regained independence in 2002, and in the
first years of our independence we set out to rebuild
our country from the ashes of the violence of the past,
lay the foundations of a functioning democratic State,
heal our wounds, reconcile our divided communities
and normalize relations with past external adversaries.
In only eight years and in spite of the overwhelming
challenges facing us, we have navigated out of the
storms to a new period of peace, stability and
economic growth.
Timor-Leste is a least developed country, affected
by pervasive poverty. We are still a fragile country,
partly because we are only eight years old, and being
an infant country, all the institutions of the State are
young and fragile. However, the Almighty and the
Merciful has blessed us with generous natural
resources, such as oil and gas, enabling us to accelerate
our overall development.
Timor-Leste was not yet independent in 2000,
and it was not until our first Millennium Development
Goal report was issued in 2004 that the first targets
were set. For the past three years, Timor-Leste has
enjoyed real peace and a robust economic growth of
over 12 per cent. In the past two years, poverty levels
have decreased by as much as 9 per cent. Infant
mortality and under-five mortality rates have been
reduced and have already reached the 2015 target.
School enrolment has increased from 65 per cent in
2007 to 83 per cent in 2009-2010. Adult illiteracy is
being gradually eliminated thanks to a joint programme
between Timor-Leste and Cuba. We anticipate that,
within two to three years, Timor-Leste will be
completely free of illiteracy. About 30 per cent of our
general State budget is allocated to public health and
education. This turn-around is due largely thanks to
aggressive public financing of social such programmes
as direct cash transfers to the elderly, widows, the
handicapped and veterans, and to determined efforts to
expand cultivated areas and increase food production.
The first of the 800 Timorese medical students
studying in Cuba have returned home. In addition to
those studying medicine in Cuba, there are 200 more
3 10-55109
enrolled in the medical school of our national
university. In addition, more than 200 Cuban doctors
have been assigned to Timor-Leste since 2004,
working side by side with Timorese doctors and nurses
delivering services to the remotest corners of the
country and training our medical and health personnel.
The members of the famous Cuban Medical Brigade
are true missionaries, as deserving of the Nobel Peace
Prize as Mother Teresa.
In Timor-Leste, this year we will finalize our own
road map, the 2011-2030 Strategic Development Plan,
which will lift our people from centuries of poverty to
the level of an upper-middle-income country by 2030.
With regard to the management of our petroleum
resources, we are pleased to note that the Extractive
Industries Transparency Initiative in its most recent
report of 1 July, rated Timor-Leste number one in Asia
and number three in the world for sound, transparent
and effective management of our oil and gas revenues.
Women make up almost 30 per cent of the
deputies in our national Parliament. Key cabinet
positions in the executive branch — finance, justice,
social solidarity, prosecutor-general and so on — are
held by women. A youth parliament, comprising
130 youth parliamentarians ranging in ages from 12 to
17 years, has been elected and will have its first formal
sitting in November. I am pleased that our expectations
on balanced gender representation were in fact
exceeded. The youth parliament counts 68 girl and
62 boy deputies.
Timor-Leste is proud to have one of the most
humanist Constitutions in the world. It prohibits the
death penalty and its maximum prison sentence is
25 years. We have also ratified all core international
human rights treaties. Our Constitution gives primacy
to international law over domestic law, such that all our
laws must conform to international law.
As the Head of State guided by humanist beliefs
and the relevant provisions of our Constitution, I have
issued pardons to individuals who have been tried and
found guilty by the courts and have served a number of
years with good behaviour. We believe that the pursuit
of justice cannot be dissociated from other
overwhelming values, such as compassion and
understanding of mitigating circumstances.
I wish now to turn to some international issues.
We appeal to President Barack Obama to sign an
executive order releasing five Cuban citizens who have
languished in United States jails for over 10 years and
denied family visits. Even visits by the International
Committee of the Red Cross have not been authorized.
The United States should likewise lift the draconian
financial and economic sanctions and trade embargo
against Cuba. The Cuban people are among the few in
the world who are still suffering the inequities of the
cold-war era. It would seem that, for some in the
United States and in particular in the State of Florida,
the cold war is not over.
The situation in Myanmar is an immensely
complex one. It is a vast country fragmented along
ethnic lines and plagued by numerous armed groups
fighting with different agendas. Based on our own
experience, we believe that in order to manage such
complex challenges, be it in our own country,
Myanmar or anywhere else, we must all show wisdom
and engage in patient dialogue with those who do not
agree with us so that together we can end conflict and
pull our countries out of poverty.
With respect to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we
commend the Israeli and Palestinian leaders for their
renewed dialogue under the auspices of the United
States Administration. To those in Palestine who, in
spite of decades of suffering and humiliation, have
resisted the temptation of extremism and violence, I
bow. To those in Israel who have championed the cause
of peace and the rights of the Palestinian people, I will
say that they represent the very best of the Jewish
people — a people who more than anyone else on
Earth should understand the suffering and desire of
others for freedom.
We urge Hamas to show statesmanship by
recognizing the State of Israel. Extremism, fanaticism
and indiscriminate violence do harm to the noble
Palestinian quest for dignity and freedom. At the same
time, we submit that Hamas and Hezbollah are genuine
popular movements deeply rooted in the plight of
millions of poor, dispossessed, alienated and angry in
the Middle East. Labelling them terrorists and refusing
to engage and build bridges with such groups is, in our
view, not a sound policy.
We urge Israel, a country founded on 5,000 years
of history and born of centuries of persecution and war,
to show the wisdom and generosity of the Jews by
ending the Gaza blockade, allowing unhindered access
10-55109 4
for humanitarian assistance, and ending the land-
grabbing and colonization of the West Bank.
On the question of Western Sahara, the aborted
decolonization of that territory and the endless plight
of hundreds of thousands of Saharans in camps in
Algeria constitute an indictment of the international
community. This is not an issue as complex as
Afghanistan or Palestine. How can we believe that
there will be an early resolution of these other
seemingly intractable problems when there seems to be
little political will to solve the Western Sahara
problem?
I believe that I have already exceeded the time
allocated to me by one minute and 35 seconds. I have a
few more words to say about foreign aid and climate
change, but I will skip that in order to respect
everybody else, particularly those following me. Allow
me only to say two words about United Nations
reform.
More than 60 years after its founding, the United
Nations has yet to undertake meaningful reform to
make it more representative of the world of the twenty-
first century and to become more effective. And we are
not talking only about an expanded and more
representative Security Council. We are talking about
making the United Nations and its many agencies and
programmes less bureaucratic and more efficient in
their internal management and service delivery.
In regard to the Security Council, we restate our
view that it has to be expanded to accommodate the
new demographic and economic realities of the twenty-
first century. Major regional Powers like India and
Brazil must be granted permanent member status in the
Security Council.
In concluding, on behalf of our people I thank the
international community for the steady and generous
assistance provided to us in our years of need. We
would not have been able to achieve the progress of the
past years without the understanding of our friends and
partners.
We can all do better in Timor-Leste and
elsewhere, and we must. With humility we
acknowledge our failings and limitations. We are
determined to live up to the expectations of our people
and to lead them towards a peaceful and prosperous
future.