Algeria

At this crucial moment, when it is debating questions vital to the United Nations and all humanity, the General Assembly has unanimously decided to elect you, Mr. President, to preside over the deliberations of its sixtieth session. I therefore congratulate you very warmly and offer you my best wishes for success. I also congratulate your predecessor, Mr. Jean Ping, and thank the Secretary-General for his efforts for peace, development and agreement among nations. Our world has been radically transformed since the end of the cold war — that sombre period that still has continuing effects. New threats have appeared, while other, older ones remain. New kinds of challenges loom, even as the international community is falling behind in finding appropriate responses to existing challenges, which are getting worse. New conflicts are erupting violently today, while the international community still struggles with the flashpoints that appeared following the Second World War, as well as those that arose out of the ensuing process of decolonization. Humanitarian disasters, whether man-made or natural, and the problems of refugees, famine, the AIDS pandemic and malaria, exacerbated by persistent underdevelopment have contributed more than ever to stretch beyond strictly military issues our definition of collective security, which our Organization, since its birth, has been asked to promote. The mission to protect remains today an unattainable goal. A vital threat seen daily throughout the world is the growing threat of international terrorism, which respects no borders and violates the most fundamental human rights. It is not enough to vigorously denounce the killing of innocent victims. To combat terrorism, we must oppose it with relentless determination. In that context, there is no alternative to resolute international cooperation that recognizes, above all, that an effective response to transnational terrorism is necessarily a collective effort. Algeria believes it urgent to implement existing agreements on the fight against terrorism and to conclude a comprehensive convention on terrorism that can overcome the difficulties in reaching an agreed definition of terrorism while not providing pretexts for the oppression of peoples seeking to realize their legitimate rights. Active cooperation has been long awaited, but it is not sufficient. Bilateral, regional and multilateral cooperation must be expanded and improved as we strengthen international legal instruments, such as the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism, adopted last April. At the same time, given the justifiable revulsion terrorism provokes, we must guard against attributing such acts to any religion or civilization. On the contrary, we must emphasize that the aspiration to peace and the search for agreement and exchange 13 among peoples are values common to the various civilizations we represent. That leads us to express our complete rejection of terrorism and spurs our collective reaction against it. We cannot hide our concern at growing intolerance and the echoes we sometimes hear of pseudo-theories and false analyses that show ever less restraint in directly blaming Islam, which, for the overwhelming majority of a billion believers, is a religion that calls for fraternity, solidarity and tolerance. To blame Islam - as some small but influential groups do - is to forget that before terrorism was recognized as an international phenomenon, it also struck, in particular, at Muslims who had rejected the perpetrators and denied their claims that they represented all Muslims. I strongly reaffirm that those criminals have placed themselves outside Islam and have no claim to it. I say this on behalf of a country that has suffered a decade of terrorism and which has found precisely in its religion the endurance and the will to triumph over barbarism, staunch its wounds, renew its hope and take the path of reconciliation and brotherhood, which are at the very heart of the community of people and its leaders, as we approach the national referendum of 29 September. Although the situation today confirms some of our earlier doubts and concerns, our only concern now is to see the people of Iraq — the heirs to an ancient civilization that is admired by the whole world — return to peace and stability through the recovery of its full and complete sovereignty over a territory whose integrity is best preserved by exorcising the divisive demons generated by the present circumstances. The Arab world is today the site of promising developments for the development of democracy and economic prosperity for its people. It would be wrong to see in these developments merely a response to external pressure. First and foremost, it comes from peoples wishing to participate, finally and actively, in their future, and who are eager to make their specific contribution to the conduct of affairs in a world where nothing that happens should be alien to them. This desire for reform brought the Arab heads of State together in Algiers, last March for a summit meeting, over which we were honoured to preside. Reaffirming that desire, the leaders made firm commitments and we have proceeded to implement them. As diverse as the Arab countries may be in their political, economic and social realities, we still have the same aspiration, which is bearing us towards a future of peace and progress to be shared by all if possible. In other words, we are fully aware that no peace and no sustainable economic momentum can be built in the Middle East unless the Palestinian people recover their full and complete sovereignty in the occupied territories, including Al-Quds Al-Sharif, capital of their independent State. It is a positive thing that the risks of nuclear proliferation have received heightened international attention in the last few years. The seventh Conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty held last May should have provided us with a special occasion to develop and adopt appropriate measures to deal with the problem on a consensual basis. However, we must note that our expectation was not met, particularly with respect to the 13 measures on nuclear disarmament agreed to at the preceding Conference. Algeria, which has adopted and supported the Additional Protocol on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards regime, also fully supports total and complete disarmament, as well as the total elimination of weapons of mass destruction. But we cannot conceal our concern that an exception to the treaty that has been tolerated, even allowed, in a region as riven by conflict as the Middle East only further underscores the discriminatory approach that prevails with respect to non-proliferation. The African landscape has been profoundly transformed since the formation of the African Union and the launching of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). So it is with new energy that Africa, having established its Peace and Security Council, has decided to tackle the conflicts that afflict it and to take up the resolute promotion of their final settlement. Anyone who looks at Africa objectively cannot ignore the endemic diseases, all of the visible and latent crises, the natural and man-made disasters, the famine and illiteracy. But today’s Africa, we must note, has never had so many democratically elected regimes and so many economies undergoing promising reforms. Much still needs to be done, and the African countries are the first to recognize that. Out of a sense of solidarity and also out of self- interest, developed countries should accompany Africa in its determination to make a radical change in its circumstances so as to allow the African continent to 14 become part of the world economy, gain prosperity and make its contribution to the prosperity of the world in general. This cannot be done unless we take specific actions that have been amply identified by NEPAD, by the Commission for Africa established by Tony Blair and by the report of the Secretary-General of our Organization. As you know, the main points are to erase the debt and raise official development assistance (ODA) from the current $25 billion to $50 billion and then to $75 billion between now and 2010, to establish an international finance facility and to raise ODA from the developed countries to 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product by 2015. It is also in Africa, near Algeria, that we still see one of the last remaining uncompleted processes of decolonization. I am referring to the conflict in the Western Sahara, where Morocco and the Polisario Front are adversaries. The United Nations has identified this territory as being non-autonomous, and it is a situation that is actionable under the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. There is a peace plan that has been approved unanimously by the Security Council, calling for a framework and modalities for a final settlement through a free consultation of the Saharawi people regarding their destiny. My country believes that the Baker Plan is the only framework able to lead to a settlement of the conflict, which pits Moroccans against the Polisario. Algeria fully supports the efforts of the United Nations to this end. We are pleased in this respect to see Mr. Peter van Walsum appointed as Personal Envoy of the Secretary-General and we assure him of our support in his mission, just as we do the new Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Western Sahara. Resolving the conflict in the Western Sahara in keeping with norms of international legality and within the framework of the United Nations would have the positive effect of giving critical momentum to the building of the Greater Arab Maghreb, which Algeria has always called for. We can only agree with the Secretary-General when he puts development at the centre of his concept of a new international economic order and gives it priority attention within the United Nations agenda. A few days ago, Member States evaluated progress made since the September 2000 adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and we must admit that the results are not that encouraging, the case of Africa being rather instructive. With regard to the implementation of the eight goals of the 2000 Declaration, we would say that some of them, such as poverty reduction, have been deferred to a dangerously remote future. The requirement of adapting to new international realities makes reform an obligation for our Organization. Such reform must be thoroughgoing and balanced and serve and preserve the interests of as many as possible. We cannot just have specific amendments for the ambitions of a small number of Members, legitimate though those ambitions may be. The reforms to be undertaken must, above all, satisfy the majority and serve the collective interests and common aspirations of all. The special attention given to the expansion of the Security Council is certainly justified, given the dominant role played by the Council in maintaining international peace and security, but we must not let this cause us to lose sight of the legitimate demands of Africa, nor of the need to maintain balance among the various bodies. Given the fact that most of the African countries were excluded from the Conference for the United Nations at San Francisco because they were colonies, it would be paradoxical, anachronistic and ineffective if developing countries were now invited to validate reform proposals that ignore their interests and concerns. In this exercise that we are undertaking under the watchful eye of our peoples, let us work together and embrace a common vision that will ensure a future of peace and prosperity shared by the Member States that the United Nations has the duty to guarantee.