At the outset, I would like to convey to the
President, on behalf of His Excellency Army General
François Bozizé, Head of State and President of the
Central African Republic, who it is my honour to
represent here, our heartfelt congratulations on his
election to preside over the General Assembly at its
sixty-sixth session. He can rest assured of our full
readiness to cooperate with him to ensure the success
of his challenging task. I would also like to pay well-
deserved tribute to his predecessor, His Excellency
Mr. Joseph Deiss, for the talent and dedication that he
demonstrated as he steered our work throughout the
sixty-fifth session of the Assembly. To His Excellency
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, I convey my heartfelt
congratulations on his reappointment to the head of the
Organization.
Lastly, the Central African Republic welcomes
the admission of South Sudan, a brotherly
neighbouring country, as the 193rd Member State of
the United Nations.
In proposing “The role of mediation in the
settlement of disputes through peaceful means” as the
central theme of the general debate of the sixty-sixth
session of the Assembly, the President has placed our
deliberations at the very heart of those problems that
are of current concern to the international community.
It must be recalled that the maintenance of
international peace and security around the world
continues to be the primary mission of the
Organization, and that, for Member States, mediation
continues to be an indispensable tool in the peaceful
settlement of conflicts. The Central African Republic
remains committed to the principles of the United
Nations Charter, which enshrines language pertaining
to the peaceful settlement of conflicts — principally
through mediation and prevention.
The international community faces many
challenges to which we need to provide tailored
responses in order to together build a better world.
We attach particular attention to the issue of
climate change and the environment. Protecting the
environment and combating climate change are major
challenges, as well a priority for the international
community, given the many and varied risks that they
pose to ecosystems and economies.
The commemoration, next year, of the twentieth
anniversary of the first Earth Summit on sustainable
development will be devoted to forests. Tropical
forests, including those in the Central African
Republic, are exposed to various harmful and
destructive activities associated with the pressure
exerted by social problems and natural disasters. The
countries concerned have recognized the need to
formulate land-use policies in order to conserve their
biodiversity, both in terms of flora and fauna, in these
regions.
Furthermore, the drought that is currently
afflicting the Horn of Africa, where approximately
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12 million human lives are threatened, is a source of
major concern and requires broad-scale mobilization
by the international community.
That brings me to the issue of food security. The
Central African Republic will support a draft resolution
on food development, some provisions of which would
be incorporated in the various resolutions of the
Assembly and in other United Nations meetings
throughout the year.
Nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament
remain a priority. The Central African Republic
welcomes the renewed interest in disarmament on the
part of the international community. Greatly concerned
by the nuclear threat to all of humankind, non-nuclear-
weapon States are entitled to call upon those who
possess nuclear weapons to fully shoulder their
responsibilities by implementing specific measures to
bring about genuine nuclear disarmament. For its part,
the Central African Republic will spare no effort to
support any United Nations initiative to that end.
Today, terrorism remains a scourge of the
international community. In resolution 1963 (2010), the
Security Council declared its intent to hold a special
meeting of the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC) on
28 September 2011, open to all United Nations
Member States, to mark the tenth anniversary of the
adoption of its resolution 1373 (2001) establishing the
CTC. It should be recalled that the CTC has done a
great deal in assisting Member States in undertaking
actions to combat this scourge by strengthening the
implementation of standards and border controls, as
well as in the fight against the financing of terrorism.
The Central African Republic remains committed
to the universal values of human rights, democracy and
good governance. We reaffirm our commitment to
working throughout this sixty-sixth session with the
other Members of the United Nations to provide
responses that uphold those values.
The fight against impunity and against violations
of human rights is a given for our community. We hope
to see it placed within an overall approach that does
not hinder the process of political crisis and conflict
resolution around the world or undermine regional and
international efforts provided for by the United Nations
Charter.
The Central African Republic attaches special
importance to the reform of this Organization and all
its bodies with regard to their structures, modes of
operation and work methods. For this reason, we
remain committed to the African position regarding the
Security Council. Indeed, in all the ongoing crises in
the world, the Security Council has gradually imposed
the authority of the United Nations, placing it at the
service of international peace and security. Its action is
and remains legitimate. Its authority will be further
strengthened when we reach an agreement on its
expansion, which will enable us to take the emergence
of new Powers into account by giving a more equitable
place to all continents.
Like many African States, my country has been
engaged on the path towards democratic governance
since the 1990s. As part of our democratic process, we
have endeavoured to improve the management of
public policy on the political, economic and social
fronts. We are aware that much remains to be done in
these spheres.
The renewed trust of the Central African in His
Excellency General of the Army François Bozizé
Yangouvonda, President of the Republic and Head of
State, has given him the opportunity to pursue the
successful task he began on 15 March 2003. We are
determined to break with instability and at long last to
turn the page on political-military upheavals. That will
enable him to focus on reconstruction. In other words,
we will do everything to consolidate that peace that
guarantees enduring development. Without peace and
security, there can be no economic development that
benefits the population as a whole.
It is from this standpoint that the Central African
Government held a round table in Brussels with our
development partners on 16 and 17 June in order to
raise the awareness of the international community
with respect to the funding needs of the programmes
outlined in the second poverty reduction strategy paper.
The matter of security remains at the very heart
of our concerns. Part of the population of the Central
African Republic continues to suffer the aggression of
rebels belonging to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)
of Joseph Kony. The activity of the LRA, a cruel and
barbaric rebellion from a country that shares no
borders with the Central African Republic, remains the
source of atrocities, destruction, looting, rape, forced
recruitment and the deportation of men, women and
children. Mobilization on all sides and the shared
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allocation of resources are needed to eradicate that
scourge once and for all.
The Government of the Central African Republic
greatly appreciates the initiatives of the United
Nations, the African Union and the United States on
this issue. We continue to believe that the Republic of
South Sudan will join other affected countries in this
relentless struggle against a cross-border enemy that
harbours vague ambitions harmful to the stability
required for development of our subregion.
The December 2010 withdrawal of the United
Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and
Chad left a security vacuum that my country is trying
to fill despite our limited resources. The same holds
true for Mission for the Consolidation of Peace in the
Central African Republic deployed by the Economic
Community of Central African States, whose mandate
expires at the end of December 2013.
Reinforcing the capacities of our defence and
security forces, which are slated to take over from the
international forces, is still far from complete. I should
like here to thank the United Nations through its
Peacebuilding Fund, which has been supporting the
Central African Republic in its tireless quest for peace
and stability.
In the light of all this, I appeal once again to the
international community to take urgent action in order
to build peace and prevent conflict in the Central
African Republic. We welcome in advance all
commitments that have been or will be made on our
behalf. We are convinced that the dividends of those
efforts will benefit both the Central African Republic,
which lies at the heart of the African continent, and the
entire subregion.