Burundi

At the outset, I would like to join previous speakers, on behalf of His Excellency Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the Republic of Burundi, and our entire delegation, in offering our warmest congratulations to Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann on his outstanding election to the presidency. We congratulate the other members of the Bureau as well. We would also like to pay well-deserved tribute to his predecessor, Mr. Srgjan Kerim, for the skill and wisdom with which he guided the work of the General Assembly at its sixty-second session. We also take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Ban Ki-Moon once again on the skill and dynamism with which he is guiding our Organization. We would also like to pay special tribute to his tireless devotion to the cause of peace and development in Burundi as we attempt to consolidate peace and stability. Finally we wish to thank the United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi. The sixty-third session of the General Assembly is taking place at a time when the people of Burundi are at last enjoying the end of the war between the Government army and the Parti Libération du Peuple Hutu-Forces nationale de libération (PALIPEHUTU- FNL). The representatives of both parties have been sitting at the same table since May, seeking to identify the ways and means to implement the Comprehensive Ceasefire Agreement signed in Tanzania on 7 September 2006. Allow us to also thank the international community, the United Nations, the African Union and the Regional Peace Initiative on Burundi for their participation in the return of the leaders of the PALIPEHUTU movement to Burundi. We also take this opportunity to call on that movement to commit itself resolutely to the peace process, in particular by ending its practice of forcing local populations to supply its fighters. For its part, the Government of Burundi reaffirms that it will spare no effort to ensure progress in the peace process. This session is taking place three years after the establishment of democratically elected institutions in our country, and it is the first time in our history that an elected Government has lasted more than three years. This is an important stage in democracy. The people in general and the Government in particular welcome that milestone. Thanks particularly to the support of the Peacebuilding Commission, the Government of Burundi has just launched, throughout the country, dialogue frameworks between the socio-political partners of Burundi: the leaders of political parties, members of Parliament, civil society and the media. They exchange views on the current challenges to our country in order to reach a consensus on the way democracy should function in Burundi. In the framework of promoting a sound justice system and national reconciliation, the Government will soon organize nationwide elections on the machinery for transitional justice. Our Government is firmly committed to respecting human rights in all their forms. That is no easy task in a country that recently emerged from a civil war that lasted more than 15 years. Nevertheless, a number of measures have been taken and others are under way. An independent national human rights commission and a national children’s forum will soon be launched. Additionally, a new criminal code providing for severe punishment for gender-based 08-52272 10 violence is before Parliament, which is now up and running normally. In the same vein, the Government has established human rights focal points in all ministerial departments and is providing training in that area and in peace education. I note that in Burundi, security is generally good throughout our national territory, but we are encountering certain forms of insecurity linked to attacks and killings as a result of armed robbery and land disputes. In order to control that phenomenon, the Government has begun to disarm the civil population. That is a very important and difficult measure, particularly because there is a large number of weapons in private hands. We are convinced that, unless those weapons are taken out of circulation and destroyed, peace and security will always be under threat. We therefore count on the support of our development partners to recover all weapons and munitions, particularly once the PALIPEHUTU-FNL combatants have completed the integration process. Indeed, although our country is arduously recovering from the devastating effects of civil war, its gross domestic product remains among the lowest in the world. The purchasing power of the population has fallen and inflation has risen apace, particularly given the international phenomenon of the generalized increase in the price of food and oil products. In a different vein, we recently organized a national housing and population census that will provide us with reliable data, without which it would be difficult to carry out sustainable development projects. The results of the census will allow the Government to improve the drafting of school and health policies, to which we pay particular attention, as evidenced by the measures already taken to establish free health care for children under the age of five and women at childbirth, as well as free basic education. The Government has negotiated and launched macroeconomic and structural reforms that our development partners support. Those reforms are aimed at macroeconomic stabilization, the privatization of State enterprises, and bank and monetary management that is compatible with sustainable growth. The Government is determined to fight corruption and tax fraud, and to promote real transparency in the management of public wealth. Allow me to recall that an anti-corruption law has been enacted and that an anti-corruption brigade is now operating. The public oversight body is playing its role and we welcome the considerable contribution made by civil society organizations. Burundi welcomes the ratification of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region by nine members of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. We will, of course, pursue measures to ensure that all member States ratify the Pact. We recall that Burundi joined the East African Community (EAC) in July 2007. As I address this Assembly, nine Burundian members of Parliament represent my country in the Legislative Assembly of the Community. That integration represents certain challenges for the people and Government of Burundi, particularly with respect to the imminent creation of a common market and a customs union, to culminate in the establishment of a political federation. We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the States members of EAC, which understand the difficulties facing a country emerging from conflict, such as Burundi, and have implemented measures to assist our integration. Of course, we also count on the support of our development partners to help us in all areas of integration that we consider to be strategic for the political stability and development of the countries of the subregion. Maintaining peace and security is a multidimensional task subject to the many challenges that our Organization is called upon to address. These include conflict prevention and resolution, combating terrorism, combating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons and combating poverty, hunger and disease, including the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The United Nations is mobilizing many efforts and resources to meet those challenges. While it is true that considerable progress has been achieved, our Organization still has much to do, because the way forward is still long. We should also point out that bloody conflicts and hotbeds of tension remain, including in Somalia, Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, et cetera. Terrorism is gaining ground all the time and is causing more death than conventional war. But we should not be discouraged. On the contrary, our Organization must demonstrate the capacity to prevent this type of conflict and provide effective remedies for the ills threatening humanity. 11 08-52272 In the name of international solidarity, Burundi has decided to make its modest contribution towards resolving some of those crises, by providing military observers and police officers in Darfur and Côte d’Ivoire, and to military peacekeeping contingents in Somalia in the framework of operations established by the African Union. Burundi enthusiastically welcomed the global challenge represented by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were adopted in 2000 and reaffirmed in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document (resolution 60/1). We are pleased to report that, through its policy of free primary education and health care for children under five years and women in childbirth, Burundi is achieving successes that deserve support. While thanking those countries and peoples who have been of such great help to us since the launch of the policy in 2005, we would like to call for international solidarity, because the policy requires considerable Government resources that our country cannot acquire on its own. Indeed, the World Solidarity Fund for the promotion of social and human development and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria do exist, but unfortunately, despite those initiatives the results are still modest. We therefore appeal to developed countries that have not yet done so to keep their promise to allocate 0.7 per cent of gross national income to official development assistance. Special attention should be given to problems including putting order into the international financial markets, the need to increase investment in Africa, the rational management of water and energy resources, technology transfer, international trade agreements, climate change and the management of toxic waste. It is more urgent than ever to harmonize the procedures and instruments for achieving our common objectives, including efforts to counteract hunger, reduce poverty worldwide and to ensure peacebuilding. Otherwise, we will witness the persistence of phenomena including the tragedy of clandestine emigration, the brain drain, heightened crime and other ills. In closing, I wish to say that we hope that a minimum of political will and strengthened international solidarity will enable the United Nations to find appropriate solutions to the scourges affecting our era. Long live international solidarity. Long live the United Nations.