Cameroon

I should like at the outset to congratulate you, Sir, on your assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-eighth session. You have set in motion a cycle of African presidencies of the Assembly — today, the African diaspora, tomorrow the African motherland. Your election attests to the high esteem in which the Member States hold your country, Saint Lucia, a traditional partner of Cameroon in the great African, Caribbean and Pacific family. It is also testimony to the trust that the representatives of those States place in you and your eminent diplomatic qualities. You may rest assured that my delegation will cooperate fully with you, as we have the pleasure of being a member of your Bureau in our capacity as Chairman of the Third Committee. Allow me to extend my wishes of success to the other members of the Bureau. I also take this opportunity to commend your predecessor, Mr. Jan Kavan, for the skill with which he guided our work at the last session. To Secretary-General Kofi Annan, I wish to reiterate, in the context of the current international scene, Cameroon’s expression of great pride and trust in him and his role as a facilitator in the settlement of inter-African conflicts. I thank him for his energetic and tireless activity in the service of the great ideals of the Organization. Our Organization was created to preserve future generations from the scourge of war, to create conditions in which all can enjoy dignified lives, and to promote respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. The United Nations was created to ensure the reign of peace at the service of humankind. As Pope John XXIII recalled in his encyclical Pacem in Terris, which was addressed to all men of good will and the fortieth anniversary of which we celebrate this year, that peace rests on four indispensable conditions corresponding to four specific necessities of the human spirit: truth, justice, charity and liberty. Our heads of State trod the same path at the Millennium Summit. They undertook to free humankind from warfare and poverty, to promote human rights and to strengthen the United Nations. We felt that it would be useful to recall those principles because the picture of the world that has emerged in this general debate since 23 September is not a very optimistic one. On 19 August, the United Nations was struck by tragedy. The terrorist attack that destroyed the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad and struck and killed dozens of innocent victims, including Sergio Vieira de Mello, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq, posed a great challenge to the principles and values that are the bedrock of our Organization. At the time, President Paul Biya expressed on behalf of Cameroon expressed his profound indignation and firmly condemned that odious, criminal act. Tomorrow, we will weep with the people of Iraq for the tragic death — again in Baghdad — of Akila Al-Hashemi, a highly talented diplomat and eminent member of the Iraqi Governing Council. Cameroon is proud that our Organization did not shirk its responsibilities or even weaken in its resolve to play a central role in the stabilization, orderly restoration of the sovereignty and reconstruction of Iraq and to support the political process under way. Following upon the long series of terrorist acts committed throughout the world since the tragedy of 11 September 2001, the 19 August attack in Baghdad was a timely reminder of the vulnerability of our world today. The complexity of the challenge and the gravity of the danger require us to step up our collective efforts effectively to confront terrorism, which today poses perhaps the most serious threat to international peace and security. Cameroon again calls for a high-level conference to be convened to define a collective organized response by the international community to terrorism. In addition to new threats to international peace and security, such as terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, there are other, equally dangerous, threats: all sorts of pandemics, including HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, and despair stemming from almost endemic poverty. Therefore, our joint mobilization should be aimed primarily at reducing or even eliminating the germs and causes of conflicts and despair. In the Middle East, we must demand that the parties to the conflict — Israel and Palestine — return without delay to the negotiating table to agree on modalities conducive to the rapid and comprehensive implementation of the road map. Cameroon regrets and condemns the escalation of violence, which is seriously 26 endangering any peaceful solution based on the letter and spirit of Security Council resolution 1397 (2002), adopted with no vote against. In it the Council affirmed “the vision of a region where two States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side within secure and recognized borders”. Our Palestinian and Israeli friends must get used to the idea that they are condemned to live side by side, to coexist in the geopolitical configuration forged by their rich, common history. To that end, Israelis and Palestinians will have to disarm — of course, in terms of weapon policies, but primarily disarm at the cultural level by unanimously and sincerely ridding their hearts of fear and the psychosis of war. The axiom that peace results from a balance of war-making ability and weapons should be replaced by the principle that real peace can be built only on mutual trust. The same applies to the peoples of the renowned Mesopotamia, who are emerging from three decades of tyranny, and must very soon, with the help of the international community, have their full dignity and sovereignty restored in a stable and prosperous Iraq, living in peace with all its neighbours. Over the past year, the many conflicts that have bloodied Africa have remained at the centre of the concerns of the United Nations, which has made many efforts to end them. Fortunately, those efforts are beginning to yield results. Some African conflicts are on the way to being resolved, nourishing new and legitimate hopes. Unfortunately, despite everything, there are still deplorable situations where the protagonists are having trouble finding a negotiated political solution or keeping their commitments. We are convinced that there will soon be results, given genuine political will on the part of the major actors. The irreplaceable support they receive from the United Nations deserves to be welcomed and recognized. Africa in general and our subregion in particular are fully aware of the role this important partner plays in our economic development, in consolidating democracy and the rule of law, and, finally, in promoting peace and security within and outside our countries. That is why the member States of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) have forcefully expressed their desire to strengthen their cooperation with the United Nations through a political presence of that Organization in the subregion, which would bolster our subregional capacities, particularly in the area of peace and security. In that connection, Cameroon reiterates its thanks to the Secretary-General for sending a multidisciplinary mission to Central Africa last June at the request of the members of the Security Council. We await with interest its innovative recommendations, which will shortly be made to the Security Council. They will nourish the debate to be held in this Hall on the agenda item entitled “Cooperation between the United Nations and the Economic Community of Central African States”. We welcome the Secretary-General’s suggestions concerning the functioning of the Organization in this constantly changing world. We will fully support any reform that will bring the Organization closer to our peoples, as envisaged by the measures for strengthened cooperation between the United Nations and Central African organizations. In the Millennium Declaration, the political leaders of the world committed themselves to creating a world partnership for development and to respond to the special needs of Africa. The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), whereby Africa has decided to take back the initiative and to control its own fate, can serve as a sound platform for a fruitful partnership between the continent and the international community. Africa is waiting for multiple responses. One, which will play a decisive part in the growth of our continent, is linked to trade. What African States want and aspire to is to play a more important part in the trade of goods and services. That implies in particular standards favouring fair competition. The failure of the recent World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference held at Cancún has raised grave doubts, particularly among African countries that export agricultural products. The tremendous reluctance of wealthy nations to dismantle their agricultural subsidy regimes is puzzling, and seriously threatens the survival of African economies based on agriculture and livestock. The subsidies given to that sector are stifling millions of farmers and cotton producers in Central and West Africa. In the same context, Mr. President, your country, Saint Lucia, and Cameroon have been carrying out an epic battle for almost a decade for the survival of our 27 banana industries, which are up against the giants of the sector. There are many more examples of the need for solidarity and urgent reform of the multilateral economic system. We hope that the Doha round will not deviate from its main objective — development — and that it will take well into consideration the concerns of the poorest in order to integrate them promptly into the global economy. Globalization does not relate only to trade. It also affects human development and new technologies, the protection of the ecosystem and the sustainable development of water and other natural resources. All of those aspects require a concerted approach, given that the sacrifices of some work to everyone’s advantage. Cameroon, which has chosen, for example, to participate in rational and sustainable management of the world forest ecosystem, has established a bold national environmental management plan. It is clear that, in order to effectively implement such policies without exposing its rural populations to extreme poverty, our country needs significant financial assistance, particularly to diversify its production and to ensure systematic transformation of its natural resources. In other words, today, more than ever before, solidarity should rhyme with partnership — and globalization with fair trade — to ensure the comprehensive and orderly development of our world. The United Nations assuredly remains the only universal Organization that not only possesses the necessary competencies and impartiality, but is also the only entity that can confer legitimacy on any multilateral action tackling the great world challenges, a number of which we have just listed. To attain these noble objectives, it urgently needs to consider in depth its current approaches, the way it operates and its implementing mechanisms. Cameroon unreservedly supports the Secretary- General’s initiative to establish a high-level panel of eminent personalities to consider ways to strengthen the United Nations. We hopefully await their contribution to the Organization’s necessary and unavoidable reform to improve its performance, including its missions of an economic and social nature as well as international peace and security. The Secretary-General invites us to go further along the path of reform, to which he has been committed for several years. He is right. What is at stake is the Organization’s very effectiveness, which it needs to tackle the great challenges of our time. He can count on Cameroon’s support. As I have been concluding my remarks, the light has changed from green to yellow and from yellow to red. How can one refrain from prolonging his comments when it is a question of humanity and humanity’s future through peace, a negotiated peace, a concerted peace, a peace that rests on justice and the equitable distribution of benefits and wealth?