I am honoured to
address the General Assembly on behalf of the
Government and the people of Liberia, the second time
I am doing so since I assumed office in 2006.
I congratulate you, Mr. Miguel d’Escoto
Brockmann, and your country, Nicaragua, on your
election as President of this historic sixty-third session.
There is no doubt that you will bring your vast
experience to bear in guiding this session to a
successful conclusion. You can rest assured of the full
cooperation and support of the Liberian delegation.
Let me also seize this opportunity to pay tribute
to your predecessor, Mr. Srgjan Kerim of the Republic
of Macedonia, for the exemplary leadership he
provided this body over the past year.
By the same token, I would like to commend the
Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his
farsightedness and wisdom in carrying out his mandate.
The Liberian people still recall with fondness his visit
to Monrovia earlier this year, when they shared with
him their respect and appreciation for the United
Nations, which has provided exceptional support as a
guarantor of the peace we now enjoy in our country
after 14 years of war.
In our 161 years as the first independent republic
in Africa, we navigated for nearly a century among the
sharks of racism, colonialism, prejudice, human
degradation and underdevelopment. We have
experienced a war that killed nearly 8 per cent and
displaced 40 per cent of our population, a war that
destroyed our underdeveloped economy and inadequate
infrastructure. Through it all, Liberia has come to
appreciate the United Nations as a truly fundamental,
relevant and important forum and instrument for world
peace.
In its 63 years of existence, the United Nations
has expanded in scope, form and content. It is,
correctly, still primarily concerned with the promotion
of international peace and security. On the basis of our
experience as a founding Member, Liberia is
committed to contributing to the redefinition of that
international peace and security that it is very strongly
linked to and demands the promotion of economic
growth and sustained development, particularly food
security, relief from the debt burden, globalization and
fair trade.
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We believe in a peace and security environment
that combats HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
and that promotes poverty eradication and human
rights, especially the rights of women and children. We
believe in the fight against international terrorism,
drugs and other international crime, and we believe in
disarmament, especially the elimination of nuclear
weapons and the control of small arms and light
weapons.
The history and experience of Liberia have taught
us to have faith in the United Nations, which today
maintains nearly 11,000 men and women from all over
the world helping our country consolidate its newly
won peace. We wish to thank the Security Council,
which has correctly seen the necessity to renew the
mandate of the United Nations Mission in Liberia
(UNMIL). We particularly thank the resource-
contributing countries, for, without them, we would
never be able to save the lives we are saving and
promote the development we are promoting.
Our history and experience have taught us to
believe in regional peace and security and cooperation.
Liberians still say, with passion: “Thank God for
ECOMOG” — the Monitoring Group of the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) —
referring to the period of our war when young men and
women from ECOWAS countries, led by Nigeria and
including Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Mali
and Benin, laid down their lives to save our country.
Subsequently, a Nigerian-led military mission, the
ECOWAS Mission in Liberia. provided the beachhead
for the establishment of UNMIL. We shall always be
grateful to ECOWAS, which is now dedicating itself to
its prime objective of economic integration and
development.
We also believe in our subregional entity, the
Mano River Union, which comprises the countries of
Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone and now, Côte
d’Ivoire, which joined us earlier this year. The Mano
River basin, as is well known, had been the epicentre
of the conflict system in West Africa since 1990. As the
current Chair of the Union, I can say on behalf of my
colleagues that the countries of that basin have
declared never again to war and all forms of armed
violence. The Mano River Union will henceforth be a
net exporter of peace and all the dividends that come
with peace in West Africa.
I am proud to say that Liberian history and
experience have taught us never to shirk in our
opposition to wars and the causes thereof, to man’s
inhumanity to man, to oppression, racism, human
rights abuses, especially those against women and
children, and abuses inflicted on the basis of race,
creed and religion.
In doing so, we know that we may at times not be
seen as following the party line, be it in Africa or on
African issues, or the positions of some close allies.
We continue to ask our friends to realize that we will
be guided by our principles, history and experience to
act in the best interest of our people and of the greater
world community.
It is in this connection that we took a stand on the
situation in Zimbabwe, because we had faith that the
leaders of that wonderful and great country needed to
know that fairness in elections and justice in political
participation were the best ways to ensure durable
peace. My Government wishes to thank the
Zimbabwean leaders and their people for choosing the
path of negotiation for the comprehensive agreement
that has now been reached. We thank the leaders of the
Southern African Development Community —
especially South African President Thabo Mbeki, for
his role in facilitating the peace deal. May all
Zimbabweans work to ensure full implementation of
the agreement.
Over the past year, Africa has registered
unprecedented economic growth and has experienced
relative peace in many hitherto-turbulent regions and
countries. Unfortunately, people in Somalia, in parts of
the Sudan — especially the Darfur region — Chad,
Niger, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other
countries have yet to breathe the air of relief and peace.
They need the concerted efforts and support of the
United Nations for the African Union and subregional
bodies to take the actions necessary for peace. Where
there is evidence of non-cooperation and even
aggression against peace forces, the world must move
into gear under Chapter VII of the United Nations
Charter.
As we have seen in Liberia and throughout the
world, armed conflicts are exacerbated by easy access
to small arms and light weapons. Thus, as part of the
efforts for durable peace in conflict zones, we must put
in place rigid measures to ensure effective control of
such weapons. In that connection, my Government
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supports an arms trade treaty. We continue to champion
the call for total and complete nuclear disarmament in
order to prevent the world from annihilating itself.
Those fears are not unfounded if we imagine such
weapons in the hands of a terrorist. But the threat of
terrorism — the senseless destruction of innocent lives
and property — oftentimes even defies the
imagination. The world must unite to fight that
scourge. No nation or person is protected against it.
Those who feel angry enough to carry out such
dastardly acts defeat their own purposes because they
end up killing those who may be ready to let the world
hear about their causes. They actually end up losing
everything. We grieve with those who lost their loved
ones during the terror attacks in Pakistan even while
the world was meeting here.
While some plot evil deeds, there are those who
are committed to working with Liberia and Africa and
the rest of Africa to fight poverty and to promote
positive, all-around international cooperation. We are
grateful for the many avenues for cooperation that have
been provided. We thank the United States for its
African Growth and Opportunity Act, which aims to
promote trade rather than aid; we thank the European
Union for its Everything but Arms facility; we are
grateful for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation;
we thank the Japanese Government and its partners for
leading the Tokyo International Conference on African
Development; and we thank others to whom the
continent is looking for new avenues for sustained
development. We are pleased to note that our
cooperation efforts have included intra-Africa and
South-South endeavours, with great successes having
been achieved so far.
Beyond Africa, my Government believes, with
great interest, that a durable solution can be found to
the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflict. Late
last year, I had the opportunity to visit and hold talks
with Israeli and Palestinian leaders alike in Tel Aviv
and Ramallah. I gathered from conversations and
reports regarding other sustained efforts in search of
peace that the solution of two States, with secure and
recognizable borders and mutual recognition of each
other, is the way forward. We must never give up
working for a formal end to the conflict and for a
durable peace for all in the region.
I should now like to report briefly on Liberia, the
country for which, we dare say, the United Nations is
most likely to receive its best-ever performance record.
On 19 September 2006, approximately eight months
after I had assumed the presidency of Liberia as the
first woman to have been so elected in Africa, I
addressed this body, laying out my vision for a country
that had suffered near-total devastation — a country
that was the best example of a State that had nearly
collapsed. At that time, I said that Liberia was back,
moving forward on an irreversible path of peace and
development.
Today, I have come to renew that pledge. I have
come to report how much progress has been made in
the light of what we inherited. It should be
remembered that we inherited a situation in which
nearly two thirds of Liberians lived below the poverty
line, with an even higher poverty rate in rural areas.
The economy collapsed, with gross domestic product
falling 90 per cent from 1987 to 1995 — one of the
largest economic free-falls ever recorded in the world.
Indicators in the areas of health, education, water,
sanitation, food security and infrastructure were very
poor and sometimes beyond measure.
My Government, with the support of international
partners, began to take steps to move the whole
country into gear. There was a need, first, for clear
direction in the form of a national vision or agenda,
formulated and contributed to by the people as their
own; secondly, to restore the international reputation
and creditworthiness of the country; and thirdly, to
demonstrate the necessary leadership — strong,
committed and focused — for the people.
The Government, in collaboration with civil
society, undertook broad consultations with people in
all parts of the country. That resulted in a framework
for reducing poverty and making progress towards the
Millennium Development Goals. Our poverty reduction
strategy for the period 2008-2011 is now in place,
anchored on the pillars of consolidating peace and
security, revitalizing the economy, strengthening
governance and the rule of law, and rebuilding
infrastructure and delivering basic services.
Clearly, those three years are not enough time to
accomplish the daunting tasks laid out in our poverty
reduction strategy; they are part of a process aimed at
long-term development that will continue far beyond
2011. They are part of a process that must identify
effective responses to the food and energy crises and to
the as-yet-undetermined effects of climate change.
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However, the Liberian people are gaining confidence in
the strategy, for they are seeing that our national
security policy, supported by the United Nations, is
now producing the desired results.
They also know that, starting at a low base, we
saw growth of more than 9 per cent in 2007. Roads and
buildings are sprouting up in many places; health
clinics are reopening or being established where they
did not exist before; agricultural production is
increasing; and a huge external debt is well on the way
to being cancelled, with exceptional support from our
partners.
We believe that that is truly a success story for a
country emerging from so much destruction in so short
a period of time. But we owe it first to our people —
the Liberian people — and, very strategically and
importantly, to the international community, led by the
United Nations. The presence of the United Nations
Mission in Liberia has given hope to the people that
they need not surrender to the threat to peace and
development represented by the large percentage of
unemployed youth who cannot be absorbed by an
economy that is still too weak, despite its high level of
growth.
I come from a continent where female
leadership — particularly a female head of State or
Government — is still unthinkable in some quarters. I
have only a handful of female colleagues at the global
level. To help sensitize and energize the world with
regard to the reality of female leadership, my friend
and colleague Ms. Tarja Halonen, President of Finland,
and I are organizing an international colloquium on
women’s empowerment, leadership and development
that will be held on International Women’s Day in
March 2009 in Monrovia. I believe that this will
provide us with the opportunity to make special efforts
in support of women who are desirous to seek elective
public office and to encourage other women to seek
such office.
Mr. Golding (Jamaica), Vice-President, took the
Chair.
As I conclude, let me thank the President for the
great work he and his colleagues are doing for a world
meant for succeeding generations. Let me also say
unequivocally that not only is Liberia back, but we are
lifted and we are blessed. We thank all who have
contributed to this progress.