It is an honour to take the floor at the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly. At the outset, on behalf of His Excellency Mr. Pierre Nkurunziza, President of the Republic of Burundi, and our entire delegation, we join preceding speakers in warmly congratulating you, Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki, on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session. Your election is a tribute to you and to your country. My delegation and I personally wish you every success in your noble mission. Our congratulations go also to the other members of the Bureau. We also take this opportunity to pay a well-deserved tribute to your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, for his commitment and for the quality of the work accomplished during his mandate. Here, we wish to reaffirm our support for His Excellency Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Once again, we wish him every success and assure him of the full cooperation of the Republic of Burundi in seeking peaceful and courageous solutions to the problems facing today’s world. We hail him in particular for his devotion to the cause of peace and development, which he has continued to demonstrate for the world in general and for Burundi in particular. Finally, our gratitude goes to the international community, the Peacebuilding Commission, the United Nations Integrated Office in Burundi, the European Union, the Regional Initiative for Burundi and the Republic of South Africa for their efforts to restore peace, which is now a reality and which we hope will be irreversible in Burundi. We urge all States in the Great Lakes region to continue to engage in dialogue and cooperation to ensure comprehensive political stability and development in the region. We take this opportunity to request that consultative status in the General Assembly be granted at this session to the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. The present session of the General Assembly is taking place at a time when the Burundian people are welcoming the progress made on the path of peace. Indeed, the war in Burundi is now over. The last rebel 09-52586 2 movement, the Forces nationales de liberation, has laid down its weapons and has become a political party that is actively participating in the country’s democratic life. The movement’s top leaders have been appointed to posts in the area of public administration. Some former combatants have joined the army or the police, and the others have been demobilized and are benefiting from the process of reintegrating into normal socio-economic life. We wish to thank all our partners for their support for Burundi’s considerable peacebuilding and democratization efforts. With the return of peace and democratically elected institutions, the Burundian people are beginning to regain confidence in the institutions of the Republic. Internally displaced persons (IDPs) are returning to their former villages, and Burundian refugees who were in neighbouring countries have returned. However, the reintegration of former combatants, IDPs and refugees is not taking place without difficulties or constraints. Indeed, Burundi, as an African country with one of the highest population growth rates, has an acute land-shortage problem, which has given rise to property disputes. In order to preserve social harmony, a commission for land and other assets has been established to resolve all disputes arising between repatriated persons and their fellow citizens who have remained in the hills, where land is considered a unique treasure. Burundi is facing the problem of financing the professional reintegration of thousands of men, women and even children who have served as combatants. The international community’s support is thus essential to assist us in the process of socially reintegrating those sectors of the needy population so that the gains of peacebuilding will not be undermined. Furthermore, the Burundian Government recognizes that illegal firearms in the hands of the civilian population constitute a serious threat to peace. In order to address that problem, the Government has established a commission to encourage people to voluntarily turn in their weapons. As the commission has a time-bound mandate, the Government has launched a large-scale programme to recover all weapons and clamp down on crime linked to firearm use. A decree regulating legal firearms possession has just been signed by the President. Judicial reform is being carried out to ensure equitable justice and combat impunity. The Government welcomes the support of the international community in this area. To further consolidate the peace dividend, we must meet the challenges of knowing the truth so that we can achieve national reconciliation. It is imperative that the Burundian people succeed in the transitional justice process. That will enable them to bury the hatchet of war and build their future on a solid foundation of peace and mutual trust. Mindful of the fact that it would not enjoy peace for long in a troubled Africa, our country has responded positively to the international community’s appeal to contribute to peacekeeping in countries at war. Thus, Burundi is participating in the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire, to restore peace to Côte d’Ivoire; the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office in the Central African Republic, in Chad and the Central African Republic; and the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, in Darfur and Somalia. Unfortunately, our contingent deployed in Somalia as part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has, over a two-year period, been the target of three suicide attacks that have claimed the lives of 25 soldiers and left 35 others wounded. To that grisly toll, we must add three victims of the crash of an Ilyushin aircraft into Lake Victoria in March this year. Those facts show that Burundi is paying a heavy price in the international mission to contribute to the quest for peace in Somalia. Because of this loss of life, some in Burundi are calling for a troop withdrawal. We believe that, in its current configuration, the Mission can continue and be completed only with considerable efforts by the international community. To that end, the Government of Burundi believes that AMISOM’s mandate should be changed to allow contingents to protect themselves against deadly attacks and to take the offensive or pursue aggressors, if necessary, in accordance with Chapter VII of the Charter. We believe that contingents must be equipped with sufficient resources in terms of quality and quantity. We believe that strike helicopters and funds for information-gathering on the ground must be provided. We also believe that additional troops should be deployed without delay in order to make the Mission truly continental in character. And we believe that the long-promised sanctions against countries, 3 09-52586 organizations and individuals who support Islamist groups should at last become a reality. The Government of Burundi remains steadfast to its commitments vis-à-vis AMISOM. However, we would like to see the international community respond as soon as possible to the concerns that I have expressed here, which are well-known to all partners who wish to see the return of peace in the Horn of Africa. This meeting is taking place a few months before the holding of general elections in my country aimed at reinvigorating institutions at every level. I would like to underscore here that the Government is committed to making sure that those elections are transparent and that they are held in an atmosphere of calm. An independent national electoral commission has already been put in place, based on a political compromise between the various parties. In addition, a new electoral law has just been promulgated. The Ministry of the Interior has also been strengthened in order to support the commission. The partnership between the electoral commission, the Government and donors has just been formalized through an agreement between the United Nations Development Programme and the Government of Burundi on a project to provide support for the elections. In that regard, the Government will provide the independent national electoral commission a $7 million package for the entire endeavour. We are counting on the varied support of the international community to mobilize all the necessary resources to make the electoral process a success. We welcome the willingness expressed by the Secretary-General to bring BINUB’s mandate in line with the electoral environment. I need not recall that BINUB’s mandate should be agreed between now and the end of December of this year. A successful outcome to the elections will enable us, in coordination with the Secretary-General, to redefine the mission of the United Nations in Burundi by focusing major attention on programmes aimed at lasting development. Burundi must make a success of its electoral process if it is to be able to pursue its economic development. Our strategic framework to combat poverty, which is the point of reference for all efforts in that regard, has been in the process of implementation since 2007. An assessment of that effort over the past two years reveals satisfactory results overall, despite the fact that the performance indicators we wanted to achieve with regard to certain macroeconomic policies have not yet been realized. In an effort to improve the effectiveness of the assistance provided to Burundi, the Government, working in partnership with donors, has put in place a partners’ coordination group that provides a forum for discussion in which development partners are consulted on all technical and policy issues in connection with the implementation of our national strategy on development and peacebuilding. Today, genuine dialogue and active partnership take place throughout the process, from the planning to the results assessment stages. With the support of the World Bank, Burundi hopes to hold a meeting of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on Burundi next month in Paris, with a view to mobilizing funds destined for sectors that have been identified as having the potential for quickly contributing to economic growth and playing a catalysing role — namely, those of the energy, agricultural, private sector, tourism, information technology and communication infrastructure sectors. We count on the existing partnership to provide the necessary financing. The Government has come to understand that, in order to fully restart economic growth, it needs to promote good governance in the management of public affairs and further improve the business environment. To that end, the Government, with the support of its partners, has begun a series of reforms aimed at improving public finance management and facilitating private domestic and foreign investment in our country. A new investment law has therefore been promulgated, which the Government has adapted to bring it in line with the East African Community’s model. A value added tax is already in place and an agency to promote investment will soon become operational. Burundi aims to meet the challenge set at the international level to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, as underscored in the Outcome adopted at the September 2005 World Summit of heads of State or Government (resolution 60/1). We are pleased to inform the Assembly that, thanks to our policy of free primary education and health care for children under the age of five and pregnant women, Burundi is achieving results that merit support. For instance, thanks to that policy, the number of pregnant 09-52586 4 women giving birth in hospitals or health centres increased from 22.9 per cent in 2005 to 56.3 per cent in 2008. In July 2009, the Government of Burundi decided to provide free malaria treatment and mosquito nets for its entire population. The Government has also decided to take responsibility for the medical treatment and follow-up for women beginning in the first month of pregnancy, with a view to better protecting the health of mothers and children. That policy includes an information campaign aimed at curbing the number of births. A national body will soon be established that will be responsible for providing health insurance for people living in rural areas or working in the informal sector. Education for all is another of the Millennium Development Goals that the people of Burundi are working to achieve. Thanks to community development efforts, our people built more than 700 schools and health centres in the course of 2008, so as to allow all school-age children to benefit from free primary education, as decided in 2005 by our country’s President. However, we still face the ongoing problem of providing the necessary financial resources to equip those schools and health centres, provide them with drinking water and pay their staff. I need not point out that these exceptional steps have been taken to contribute to our country’s progress in the run-up to 2015. Moreover, the Government would like donors to mobilize additional resources to ensure the sustainability of our achievements. We would like to take this opportunity to heartily thank partners that have already supported the implementation of our policy to provide free primary education and health services for pregnant women and children under the age of five. We appeal to those who are still hesitant to come to our assistance in order to help us to overcome the numerous challenges to which I have referred here. The global financial crisis has not spared Burundi. While the cost of raw materials has dropped in general, the decrease has been especially sharp in the price of coffee, which is our main export product. The Assembly will of course understand that, when our gross domestic product and our economy’s macroeconomic indicators perform poorly, they undermine the social protection efforts undertaken by the Government. The volatile market for petroleum products also has a destabilizing impact on Burundi’s economy, as it produces external shocks that are difficult to bear. Despite the economic policy interventions that have been taken to counteract the negative effects of disturbances in international markets, the economies of developing countries must nevertheless reiterate the appeal for restoring order with regard to such current issues as those pertaining to the stability of international financial markets, the implementation of trade agreements, technology transfers and the need to increase assistance and investment in Africa. Given the situation, we would like once again to invite developed countries and the Group of Eight in particular to translate into action the commitment they undertook to raise official development assistance contributions to 0.7 per cent of GDP by 2015, as well as to honour the promise made in Scotland to increase development aid by $50 billion per year starting in 2010, with half of this sum allocated to Africa. Climate change constitutes a threat to peace and food security in Africa and around the world. We therefore call for the adoption of courageous measures to limit the production of greenhouse gases and for incentives to encourage reforestation policies, the protection of equatorial forests, the responsible management of water and energy resources, and the use of clean and renewable energies. Burundi endorses the common African Union position that was set out by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia and will be reaffirmed at the Copenhagen Conference. We welcome measures announced by President Barack Obama, the European Union and Japan to considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions, manage toxic waste responsibly and provide financial and technological resources to least- developed and landlocked countries. Burundi renews its pledge to the United Nations to continue working to ensure that the peoples of the entire world cooperate in peace and defend the values of freedom, solidarity and tolerance. These values must guide the international community in resolving the bloody conflicts that threaten some parts of Africa, the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan, and will help us to fight terrorism and other forms of transnational crime effectively. I cannot conclude my address without reaffirming the commitment of my country to multilateralism, 5 09-52586 which represents our single best hope for responding to all threats to peace and security in the world.