YouSaid · the spoken record

Rogatien Biaou

lines on the record: 45
first: 2003-09-24
most recent: 2005-09-24
sittings or episodes: 2
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“In that regard, the new Council must become the preferred instrument for identifying cases in which the international community should exercise its responsibility to protect populations. In that regard, the Human Rights Council also has a crucial role to play as an early-warning structure within the United Nations system and as a key element of its conflict-prevention machinery. We cannot conclude without underlining our full support for the excellent idea of the Government of Sweden to create a network of heads of State and other world leaders to monitor effective implementation of United Nations reform.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“The success of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes in all their aspects is decisive for making a peace process irreversible and for guarding against the risk of the spread of conflict caused by the dispersion of former combatants that have not successfully reintegrated into productive civil society. The international community must ensure that the reintegration component of those programmes also receives adequate financing. In the same context, the Human Rights Council must take its place in the machinery of the United Nations. Its mandate, size, structure and operational procedures must take into account the requirements of representativity, credibility and effectiveness by drawing all lessons from the experience and the practices of the Commission on Human Rights, which it is intended to replace.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“The Commission must become operational as soon as possible to strengthen action to assist countries that have undertaken particularly difficult democratic transitions, such as Burundi, the Central African Republic and Guinea-Bissau, if their Governments request such assistance. Countries facing an ongoing state of social emergency can improve their chances for lasting stability only if the international community mobilizes the necessary resources to help restore a minimum of normality by ensuring that those States can exercise their sovereign rights in the areas of security and the provision of essential social services such as health care, child education, transport and access to financial resources.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“To that end, we propose carrying out a rapid evaluation of present worldwide human resources and of Member States’ 14 capacity to train police officers. A rational process in that area would consist of taking best advantage of those capacities and giving all Member States an equal opportunity for participation in the new force. Beyond peacemaking action, the need to help countries emerging from armed conflict remain on the path of peace and overcome the risk of relapse constitutes a real challenge to which we have adequately responded through our reflections on the role of the United Nations. That is the reason behind the Peacebuilding Commission. The consensus on this question does honour to the Organization.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“In that context, it is in the interest of the United Nations to assist the African Union in establishing and organizing its peacekeeping capacities, in particular by strengthening the structures for planning and for training national and subregional contingents of the African standby force. Another essential element to which we attach great importance, and which we hope to see realized promptly, relates to the decision taken by our heads of State or Government on the establishment of a standing police force. The establishment of such a force should take into consideration the need for linguistic balance in accordance with short-term and medium-term deployment needs. The modalities of the force’s composition should be defined promptly.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“In that context, Benin intends to pursue its policy of active participation in peacekeeping operations. Our country stands ready to increase its contribution to the international community’s efforts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to support the democratic transition process under way. In East Africa, the United Nations and the African Union have formed an unprecedented partnership to restore peace in the Sudan and put an end to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, in the spirit of Chapter VIII of the Charter. Such a partnership is essential also in Somalia.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“We invite all Ivorian parties to overcome their differences of view and give peace and stability a chance in the West African subregion. The holding of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region and the remarkable success achieved by the transition processes in the Central African Republic and Burundi have restored the prospects of the entire region. We encourage the countries concerned to reach a regional agreement for peace, security, good governance and development in the framework of the second regional summit, to be held in Nairobi, and to scrupulously implement that agreement in order to promote peace, stability and prosperity in the region. Those regional initiatives require enhanced assistance from the international community if the transition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is to be a success.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“We ask the same of Iraqi leaders and urge them to spare no effort to ensure that all Iraqi communities participate in the transition process leading to the restoration of peace and the strengthening of the country’s unity. We make the same appeal to Afghanistan, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire, among others. In the same spirit of dialogue, we welcome the significant progress made in resolving the conflicts of West Africa through the cooperation between the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States aimed at promoting dynamic peacebuilding processes for the gradual return of normality in the countries affected by conflict and for preventing the spread of conflict, through an integrated, regional approach.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Now that the Security Council has adopted its resolution 1612 (2005), the General Assembly, for its part, should establish an open-ended working group to consider proposals for actions to redefine that scourge as a crime against humanity instead of a war crime. We are counting on everyone’s support to make that initiative a reality. In the Middle East, the withdrawal of the occupying Power from the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank brings us closer, fortunately, to our common vision of an independent State of Palestine living side by side with the State of Israel within secure and internationally recognized borders. We believe that the Quartet’s road map can lead the Israeli and Palestinian peoples to that goal. We call upon their leaders to remain committed to the route of peace.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Benin supports the Alliance of Civilizations initiative, which aims to restore peace in our hearts and among religions so that weapons will fall silent and our peoples will be able to express their aspirations for peace. We join the quest for peace of those peoples who lack peace today. We express our solidarity with peoples suffering armed conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Latin America and Europe. The Organization must redouble its efforts to help them procure national concord, understanding and cohesion. In that context, we are pursuing a thoroughgoing campaign against the recruitment and the use of children in armed conflicts.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“In the context of Security Council reform, the General Assembly should consider the subject of a proactive approach and reflect on how to structure support mechanisms in order to enable the Council to effectively play its role in the prevention of conflicts and of threats to international peace and security. 13 Peace remains an invaluable and incalculable good. We share the concerns expressed recently by the Secretary-General at the launch of his Alliance of Civilizations initiative. That constructive initiative should be made part of the framework of activities to counter threats to our world, including terrorism, whose predominant religious ties lend credence to theories of a clash of civilizations leading to certain chaos.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“If we look at the spirit and the letter of this provision, the Security Council is definitely competent to analyse and monitor situations involving the risk of conflict or a breach of the peace anywhere in the world and to become actively involved in managing crises before conflict breaks out or threats materialize. It is in that light that we must view Security Council resolution 1625 (2005), adopted at the 14 September 2005 Council summit at the initiative of the three African members of the Security Council, led by my country, Benin.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Given the loss of human life and the massive destruction of property as a result of current threats, it is high time for the Security Council to attach higher priority to conflict prevention, in the spirit of Article 34 of the Charter, which states that “The Security Council may investigate any dispute, or any situation which might lead to international friction or give rise to a dispute, in order to determine whether the continuance of the dispute or situation is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security”.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“We urge all members of the Assembly to commit themselves to ensuring that the Security Council is expanded to make it more representative and better able to counter old and new threats to international peace and security. In the 60 years of existence of the United Nations, the Security Council has with varying degrees of success, worked to manage and settle armed conflicts. It has been able to respond to breaches of international peace and security, but it has not always been able to take action to stop or reverse events that have led to an explosion of violence or armed conflict.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“These questions should be considered calmly, with the higher interests of humankind in mind, setting aside the particular interest of any country in pursuing some hypothetical power that would reduce security for each and every one of us. Benin has no objection to the peaceful use of nuclear power to serve the energy needs of the planet, but it feels that any effort to divert peaceful programmes to military programmes runs counter to a vision of collective security based on promoting disarmament and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Our heads of State or Government decided to confirm the Security Council’s key role as the organ with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“We reaffirm that it is indispensable that access to world markets be coupled with measures to strengthen the supply of products from developing countries through adequate support for the local processing of commodities. No initiative, no measure, no activity and no decision in the field of development can be successful without peace. It is of particular concern that, on essential matters such as disarmament and non- proliferation of nuclear weapons, the United Nations cannot forge the required consensus to secure the long- term survival of our planet in view of the potential for self-destruction that has built up.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“In addition to these considerations that directly affect the least developed countries, there is an urgent need to promote and give appropriate weight to the development agenda within the context of multilateral trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization and to translate into deeds the firm commitments by the countries concerned on the elimination of agricultural subsidies, in particular those for cotton, to which my country attaches particular importance. Such a measure would remove a considerable handicap on developing countries’ efforts to fully take advantage of their comparative advantages in order to become fully integrated into the world economy.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“This is the context of the ministerial conference of the least developed countries on remittances from migrant workers. The conference will be held in Cotonou, Benin, in February 2006, not in October 2005 as originally planned. In the context of this conference, the 50 least developed countries are planning to set up an international monitoring body for funds transfers by migrant workers; it will be open to all States. We urge all United Nations Member States to support this initiative, which is intended to strengthen the impact of these transferred resources on the development of recipient countries.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“We are gratified at the decision taken in Gleneagles, Scotland, by the Group of Eight (G-8) to completely cancel the debt of 18 highly indebted poor countries, 13 of which are least developed countries. We urgently appeal to donor countries to seriously consider the possibility of extending the benefit of this new positive measure to all least developed countries. The Coordinating Bureau of the Least Developed Countries, which my country has had the honour of chairing since 2002, will continue consulting with 12 international financial institutions and development partners in close cooperation with the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, to bring about meaningful progress in all these areas.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“These are: substantially reducing the external debt burden of least developed countries so they can devote greater domestic resources to eliminating poverty; strengthening institutional capacity to attract foreign direct investment and develop free enterprise; diversifying the destinations of foreign direct investment; promoting public sector/private sector partnership in least developed countries to promote rural development; strengthening the impact of remittances from our diaspora; the promotion of South- South investment to improve the availability of products on markets; and, strengthening the potential of microcredit to eliminate poverty.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“However, it will still be necessary for the efforts carried out with our bilateral and multilateral development partners to converge to improve the situation in the seven critical areas for making aid to least developed countries effective.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Eliasson presiding over our work: the importance his country attaches to development issues and its very sizeable contribution to the efforts of the international community to eliminate poverty throughout the world. Our two countries, Benin and Sweden, successfully co-chaired the General Assembly’s Open-ended Working Group on an Agenda for Development. All of this bodes well for this session. The eradication of poverty tops the priority list of the Benin Government. In this context, we negotiated and adopted, with the Bretton Woods institutions, a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper. Its effective implementation, jointly with our Government’s plan of action and our national studies on long-term prospects, entitled “Benin 2005: ALAFIA”, should set into motion progress that will bring about the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“Allow me first of all to pay tribute to Mr. Jean Ping, who guided the work of the fifty-ninth session of the General Assembly with great energy. He had the tremendous responsibility of negotiating the United Nations reforms adopted by our heads of State or Government on Friday, 16 September. We commend him on his courage, his faith in the future of the United Nations and the wisdom and vision with which he discharged his functions. The tasks facing Mr. Jan Eliasson are inspiring and crucially important. His presidency marks the beginning of the implementation phase of the major decisions taken by our heads of State or Government on reform. We are grateful to him for focusing the work of the sixtieth session on this topic. My delegation has another good reason to be pleased at seeing Mr.”
2005-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 60 (2005)
“The active and effective participation of Benin in peacekeeping operations decided upon or authorized by the Security Council also makes clear my country’s resolute commitment to democracy, the maintenance of peace and security in the world and international solidarity. It is in that context that Benin’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the Security Council for 2004 and 2005 should be seen. In that context, Benin will resolutely strive to strengthen the crucial partnership that the Security Council is endeavouring to establish with regional and subregional organizations in the area of peacekeeping. Benin is counting on the support of the entire international community so that we can have the privilege of serving, at such a high level, the cause of peace and international security. 17”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“It was in recognition of this firm commitment of Benin’s that the General Assembly entrusted us with the organization, from 4 to 6 December 2000, of the Fourth International Conference of New or Restored Democracies. For nearly three years, Benin chaired the follow-up mechanism to that Conference; it recently transferred that chairmanship to Mongolia, which organized the Fifth Conference from 10 to 12 September 2003. My country welcomes the outcome of the Ulan Bator Conference. We remain committed to the principle of periodic assessment of democratic practices. We will spare no effort in implementing the Ulam Bator Declaration and Plan of Action.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“These two elections were free, transparent and democratic. They took place calmly and peacefully. They made a further contribution to strengthening the democratic rebirth of Benin. These concrete achievements attest to the vitality and stability of our national institutions and to their effective contribution to the ongoing strengthening of the constitutional order in Benin. This historic opportunity for Benin to enjoy peace and stability in a subregion beset by recurring internal armed conflicts implies a certain responsibility with regard to our contribution to the international community’s efforts to promote democracy throughout the world and to restore peace in countries in conflict, particularly in Africa.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“At the national level, since our last session Benin has met two significant challenges in the entrenchment of our democratic process launched in February 1990. The decentralization of our territorial administration was achieved following our municipal and communal elections of December 2002. Those elections marked the conclusion of a fundamental reform of State administration in Benin, which is now structured around decentralized, financially autonomous communes led by elected mayors who are accountable to the people. This reform has created the optimal conditions for grass-roots democracy and has allowed the people to participate actively in public administration and thus to become real stakeholders in local community development. Elections for deputies to the fourth legislature were also held in March 2003.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“While globalization may require considerable structural adjustments, it is increasingly necessary that its concomitant sacrifices be parcelled out fairly. This will require the rich countries to assume their responsibility to give the peoples of the least developed countries a chance at survival. In 2004, the international community will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the International Year of the Family. That will be an important event, to which my delegation should like to draw the attention of the international community in order to spotlight the role of the family in our society and the part it can play in meeting contemporary challenges. To that end, Benin proposes the convening of a regional African conference in 2004 and calls for the support of the Secretariat for such an event.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“This is of tremendous importance to African cotton-producing countries, because the future of a sector that has been developed at great cost, with the assistance of the international community, is at stake. Our Organization would gain in credibility if it could find a way to guarantee our peoples their right to subsistence. Indeed, who on this Earth has never worn a cotton shirt, dress or loincloth? Who among us here has never used cotton to clean or bind a wound? The progressive disappearance of the cotton sector will have unimaginable implications and consequences for our comfort in clothing and other needs of all humankind. The time has come, therefore, for the developed countries to hear the voice of the poor peasants labouring under the sun and rain in Africa.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“It was an opportunity for the least developed countries to state some of their concerns, in particular those related to the practice of subsidizing non-competitive agricultural producers. This practice is literally strangling the cotton growers of the underdeveloped countries, particularly in West Africa. 16 Benin should like to reopen discussions so that the trade negotiations begun in Doha can effectively offer new prospects for the development of the least developed countries. We must establish transparent pricing on the world market and open up markets in order to allow competitive countries to produce and sell their products at remunerative prices.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“My country, Benin, which is the Chairman of the Coordination Bureau for the Least Developed Countries, attended with the firm determination to establish a candid and constructive dialogue with the developed countries. The goal was to find a solution to the dysfunctional free trade system, which prevents the developing countries, particularly the least developed among them, from enjoying their comparative advantages in the agricultural sector. The sectoral initiative on cotton introduced by Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad targeted that specific issue. History will record the Conference as a failure. My delegation nevertheless believes that, despite the difficulties, Cancún moved the negotiations forward.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“There is no doubt, however, that the least developed countries have undertaken extremely courageous economic and political reforms at the cost of enormous sacrifices made by their populations. That is why we remain concerned by the low rate of implementation of the Brussels Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries and call on the international community and our bilateral and multilateral partners to demonstrate greater solidarity and responsibility. My Government strongly favours a substantial increase in resources made available to the various assistance funds, in particular the United Nations Capital Development Fund, which is working to eliminate poverty. The Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) ended less than a month ago in Cancún.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“They must help implement concrete projects that have a real impact on the living and working conditions of peoples with a view to poverty eradication. Indeed, the annual rise in the number of poor people in the world has become increasingly distressing. It makes us question ever more deeply the current world order and the sincerity of the determination of the international community — in particular, that of the development institutions and the rich countries — to combat poverty and to promote genuine sustainable development. It is true that the absence of democracy, corruption and poor governance are tragic scourges in that they exacerbate poverty and impede development.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“It has become increasingly detailed in programme design and in its specific projects for agriculture, the environment, energy and information and communications technologies. The involvement of civil society has been effective in expanding the social basis of NEPAD and as a way of involving peoples in its implementation. Benin urgently appeals to the international community to enhance its support for NEPAD, as it did in Tokyo in the context of the Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development. In this regard, it is important that the United Nations operational activities be buttressed by strategies based on effective partnership with all stakeholders in the development process.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“The impact of these steps is very encouraging, and we welcome the signing, in Accra on 18 August this year, of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Recent political developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have continuously highlighted the importance of the need to hold an international conference on the situation in the Great Lakes region. The complexity of phenomena in Africa requires the Secretary-General to maintain an ongoing dialogue with African leaders and to adopt common approaches to relevant issues. That is why Benin welcomes the establishment of the Office and the appointment of an Under-Secretary-General as the Special Adviser on Africa. The implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), a genuinely African initiative, has made significant progress this year.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Furthermore, the rapid reaction by the Central African States and Nigeria made it possible to put an 15 end to the coup d’état in Sao Tome and Principe and to return to power the democratically elected President. Likewise, just a few weeks ago in Guinea-Bissau, immediate action and initiatives taken by ECOWAS prompted the perpetrators of the coup d’état to enter into a negotiating process aimed at a short transition leading up to the organization of presidential and legislative elections. The authorization to send a multinational force and a United Nations stabilization force to Liberia, under Chapter VII of the Charter, gave a clear signal of the international community’s determination to end the conflict there.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“The speedy reaction of the international community was crucial in the case of Côte d’Ivoire, where Operation Licorne and the deployment of the contingent of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations Mission in Côte d’Ivoire (MINUCI), made it possible to help warring brothers to silence their arms and embark on a dialogue in order to preserve the territorial integrity of Côte d’Ivoire. The restoration of calm should not lead us to underestimate the seriousness of the situation in Côte d’Ivoire, where the political crisis is far from over. Major problems remain to be resolved, and it is important that an international military presence be maintained in Côte d’Ivoire in order to maintain conditions conducive to dialogue regarding implementation of the Linas-Marcoussis agreements for a return to normality.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Benin is prepared to cooperate to establish this work plan so that by 2010 Africa will have an inter-African peacekeeping force, an essential instrument for political stability, without which Africa would be unable to tackle urgent tasks of economic and social development. The Security Council missions to Central Africa and West Africa in June and July this year highlighted the crucial need to have this mechanism as a permanent presence. Developments in Africa since our fifty-seventh session, and the facts gathered on the ground by the Council missions reaffirm one unavoidable fact, that the effective mobilization and rapid deployment of troops to the field is decisive in managing armed conflicts in Africa, as indeed it is everywhere else on our planet.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Benin hopes that this new team will enjoy the trust and support of the international community in order to restore peace on the continent by eliminating various pockets of tension and through the promotion and implementation of development programmes. We also commend the work done in the framework of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), which embodies the hope for the revitalization of the continent through combined synergies produced by implementation of the main points of this programme, which is based upon consensus. The importance accorded by the G-8 to the promotion of peace and stability in Africa is an important step forward. This new commitment will give Africa the means to contain the many conflicts and latent crises that are fraught with serious danger and unimaginable consequences.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Given the seriousness of Africa’s problems, the United Nations and its Member States owe it to themselves to step up their support for African initiatives to reverse negative tendencies and to avoid any prolonged destabilization of the continent. At its recent summit held in Maputo, Mozambique, the African Union gave a forceful demonstration of its resolve to acquire the means to tackle its problems. The conference elected all the senior officials of the African Union Commission. The new team should strive to develop and maintain relations of partnership with the world, based on Africa’s priorities.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“If there is one area in which our Organization has made some progress in strengthening its effectiveness, it is in the prevention, management and settlement of armed conflicts. It has given real meaning to its action in this area by clearly defining modalities for implementing peacekeeping operations. My country endorses the conclusions and recommendations of the Secretary-General on conflict prevention, particularly in the areas of poverty eradication, transparency in the area of arms, the fight against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons and weapons of mass destruction and the peaceful settlement of disputes. The gravity of the situation prevailing in Africa makes the continent a central concern of the international community.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Benin reiterates its sincere condolences to the family of Mr. Sergio Vieira de Mello as well as to the 14 families of all the other victims of the explosion. We once again convey to them our solidarity and support. My country reiterates to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, and his associates our admiration for the courage and conviction with which, every day, they do their jobs. This act should not shake their firm determination to defend the cause of humanity, and should be a new source of commitment to attain the goals of the United Nations. Our support for the United Nations and the Secretary-General is based on Benin’s commitment to multilateralism, which is and must remain the linchpin for the new order that the international community is striving to build.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“He understood how to bring the necessary clear-sightedness, with his unshakeable faith in the ability of the international community, to provide a concerted response to urgent problems of our time while rejecting any confusion of roles. In so doing he saved our Organization from scorn and collapse. Whenever the United Nations has been called into question, faced with a challenge to its very existence, it has stood up and reaffirmed its usefulness in managing situations as the guarantor of international law. The terrorist attacks against the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which caused many casualties, profoundly shocked and enraged the people and Government of Benin. The United Nations does not deserve this kind of gratuitous barbarity perpetrated against its staff, who are devoted to the cause of rebuilding Iraq.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“My delegation would also like to convey a well- deserved tribute, to your predecessor, Mr. Jan Kavan, and to congratulate him on the results obtained during his presidency in defining modalities for implementing the outcomes of the major conferences held under the aegis of the United Nations. Allow me also to congratulate, in particular, the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, on the courage, skill and resolve with which he is guiding our Organization, an irreplaceable instrument for the promotion and maintenance of world peace. My delegation is grateful to him for his constancy in dealing with events that shook our universal Organization during this year.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)
“Mr. President, you have the honour and privilege of guiding the work of the General Assembly at a time when the United Nations is at a crossroads. The international situation is marked today by doubt, anguish and disillusionment. Faced with the many conflicts and acts of terrorism that beset our world, and with the constant disquieting increase in poverty, we must acknowledge that the end of ideological confrontation did not bring the world either peace or the development so hoped for by the founding fathers of this Organization. Therefore, in conveying my heartfelt and warm congratulations to you on your election to the presidency of the fifty- eighth regular session, I would like in particular to convey my wishes for courage and success in discharging this noble mission and assure you of the support of my country, Benin.”
2003-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 58 (2003)