Zimbabwe

I wish to begin by joining those who have congratulated Mr. d’Escoto Brockmann on his election as President of the General Assembly at its sixty-third session. My delegation is confident that, under his able stewardship, the General Assembly will make progress on many issues scheduled for discussion during the current session. I would also like to pay special tribute to his predecessor, Mr. Kerim, who successfully presided over the General Assembly at its sixty-second session. The focus of our discussions at the present session, namely, the impact of the global food crisis on poverty and hunger in the world, as well as the need to democratize the United Nations, relates well to our Millennium Development Goals. For us in the developing world, the eradication of poverty is the first 11 08-51851 of our priorities and should indeed continue to receive serious attention. The current global food crisis, characterized by escalating food prices, is causing untold suffering for the majority of poor people in many developing countries. That has been compounded by the energy crisis, with devastating social and economic consequences, especially for the most vulnerable in society such as women, children, the elderly and people living with HIV and AIDS. The crisis now qualifies as a humanitarian emergency that requires global solidarity to provide post-haste assistance in the form of food, water and energy. For most developing countries, the crisis is competing with other pressing demands for scarce resources for development, including achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), especially as we are faced with declining official development assistance and foreign direct investment. The trend will, regrettably, reverse some of the progress made towards the attainment of the MDGs. It is therefore crucial that national efforts aimed at addressing the global food and energy crises be complemented by appropriate international assistance and interventions, including debt cancellation for low-income, food-deficient developing countries so as to release more resources to fight hunger. Adequate support for food production programmes is absolutely necessary. We call for more research into better seed varieties and assistance in irrigation technology and improved water harvesting methods, necessary to mitigate the effects of climate change on agriculture. Zimbabwe believes that the challenges of climate change should be addressed in the context of development programmes that recognize the three pillars of economic and social thrusts, as well as environmental protection. In the past year, Zimbabwe is proud to have played its modest part in promoting sustainable development through its chairmanship of the sixteenth session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development. The session examined the obstacles and barriers to development in the areas of agriculture, land use and rural development, and to drought-mitigation measures and desertification prevention in Africa. My Government, which was an active participant at the High-Level Conference on World Food Security, held under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome in June this year, will continue to play its active role in formulating policy recommendations on the subject of sustainable development targets. We share the view that trade is an important tool for development, and so we reiterate our call for an open, rule-based, predictable and non-discriminatory trading and financial system that seeks the removal of the main trade barriers. Tariffs have unfortunately remained high on goods from developing economies, such as textiles and farm products. It is therefore disturbing that the Doha Round negotiations have collapsed without any indication of when they will be reconvened. The objectives of the Charter of the United Nations in the economic arena will remain unfulfilled unless all Member States genuinely and seriously participate in efforts to redress challenges that persist in developing countries. Social justice, political stability and sustainable development in most developing countries can best be achieved through genuine and committed support for empowerment programmes through, inter alia, just land ownership patterns. We understand only too well in our context that sustainable development is not possible without agrarian reform. My Government has therefore gone a long way towards laying the foundation for sustainable food production through its land reform programme. The majority of our rural people have been empowered to contribute to household and national food security and, indeed, to be masters of their own destiny. However, the effects of climate change, which have included recurrent droughts and floods in the past seven years, and the illegal, unilaterally imposed sanctions on my country have hindered Zimbabwe’s efforts to increase food production. Once again, I appeal to the world’s collective conscience to apply pressure for the immediate removal of those sanctions by Britain, the United States and their allies, which have brought untold suffering to my people. Zimbabwe has always been and continues to be a firm believer in multilateral approaches to solving disputes, as opposed to the unilateralism favoured by some countries. Our experience has shown that the cooperative and pacific approach often leads to lasting solutions to conflicts. We therefore deplore the vindictive approach, which is often characterized by 08-51851 12 self-righteous finger-pointing, double standards and the imposition of unilateral sanctions, to coerce smaller and weaker countries to bow to the wishes of militarily stronger States. In addition, the unilateral and coercive economic measures that we have witnessed in recent years are again completely at cross purposes with the principles that guide international cooperation, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations. Not long ago, some permanent members of the Security Council sought to invoke Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations so that its weight of sanctions and other measures could be applied against my small country, which, by any stretch of the imagination, is no threat to international peace and security. What insanity is this that has afflicted some world leaders? Should that sacred document, the Charter of the United Nations, be allowed to suffer such undeserved emasculation and disgraceful abuse? And where is the protection of small and innocent countries like mine from threatened and real acts of aggression and punitive acts, often based on completely false allegations of violations of the rule of law, democracy or human rights? By the way, those who falsely accuse us of those violations are themselves international perpetrators of genocide and mass destruction. The innocent masses of men, women and children who have perished in their thousands in Iraq surely demand retribution and vengeance. Who shall heed their cry? Surely those who invaded Iraq under false pretences and on the strength of contrived lies and in complete violation of the Charter of the United Nations and international law must be made liable for them. They must be made to answer for their acts of aggression. Zimbabwe derives solace from the fact that there are some permanent members of the Security Council that have taken principled stands in defending the Charter and protecting our sovereignty by ensuring that the Council acts not only within its mandate, but also impartially, objectively and justly. Indeed, their sense of justice ensured that Zimbabwe — a country that poses no threat to regional or international peace — did not fall prey to the cocktail of lies and machinations that had been designed by our detractors to encourage United Nations sanctions against us under Chapter VII. We thank them for upholding truth and objectivity. While we recognize the important role of the good offices of the Secretary-General in helping Member States to resolve political and other problems, we are of the view that international civil servants should discharge their noble duties with sensitivity and neutrality. At no time should they seek to pander to the whims and caprices of the mighty against the weak. Similarly, we call on certain Security Council members to desist from abusing the Secretariat in an attempt to promote their political interests. It is our firm belief that the Secretary-General and his staff should be allowed to serve all Member States without fear or favour. We reiterate our long-held view that the Security Council as presently constituted is undemocratic. Its present configuration renders it subject to manipulation by the powerful countries that use the Council as a readily available legitimizing forum for their political machinations. Thus, it is imperative that the Security Council be democratized by ensuring equitable geographical representation through an increase in its membership. Zimbabwe remains steadfast in its support for the Ezulwini Consensus, which calls for Africa to have two permanent seats with the same powers and prerogatives as the current permanent members, as well as two non-permanent seats. We share the view that the General Assembly, a body that represents all of us and enjoys a wider representation of States, must continue to be the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations. We call for its revitalization to make it more effective and to enable it to fully carry out its Charter mandate. It is our fervent hope that a revitalized General Assembly will reassert its prestige, its pre-eminent role, its authority and its capacity to guide and direct other organs of the United Nations system. In that context, the tendency of some members of the Security Council to usurp the power and mandates of the General Assembly must be resisted. I am pleased to report that the inter-party talks in Zimbabwe — for which our regional grouping, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), appointed a facilitator — ended with the signing of an agreement on the formation of an all-inclusive Government on 15 September. That was achieved entirely through African mediation, which is clear testimony that Africa is capable of overcoming its own challenges and problems, which, by the way, are often the remnants of colonialism. African leaders, working 13 08-51851 together, were able to find an African solution to an African problem. In that regard, I wish to pay special tribute to President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, whose patience, fortitude, sensitivity, diplomatic skills and painstaking work made it possible for the Zimbabwean parties to overcome what had appeared to be insurmountable and intractable difficulties in reaching an agreement. I would like to extend my thanks to SADC, the African Union and individual African and other leaders who lent their support to that initiative. My party, the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, will abide by the spirit and letter of the agreement to which we have appended our signature. As the Government, we are prepared to cooperate with all other countries that respect Zimbabwe’s sovereignty. I would therefore like to appeal to those members of the international community that have imposed illegal sanctions against Zimbabwe to lift them so that my country can focus undisturbed on its economic turnaround programme. In conclusion, we hope that we will continue to shape an Organization that upholds universal values and interests, attends to the urgent needs of those in need and remains in the service of humanity. Long live the United Nations!