STATEMENT
BY
H.E. SHEIKH PROFESSOR ALHAJI DR. YAHYA A. J. J. JAMMEH
PRESIDENT
OF
THE REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA
AT THE
GENERAL DEBATE
OF THE
64TH SESSION OF THE
UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NEW YORK
24TH SEPTEMBER 2009
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Excellencies Heads of State and Governments,
Royal Majesties
Ladies and Gentlemen
I would like first of all to thank Almighty Allah for granting us yet
another opportunity of the gathering of
world leaders. My delegation would want to thank President Obama and
the Government and people of
the United States of America, and the leadership of the United Nations
for the warm welcome and the
facilities placed at our disposal since our arrival.
Mr. President,
Permit me to felicitate H.E. Father Miguel D’Escoto Brockman for his
inspiring leadership and for
conducting well the affairs of the 63rd Session. By the same token, I
extend warm felicitations to Dr. Ali
Treki, on his election to lead this important 64th Session. He has the
full support of my delegation. Our
special thanks go to H.E Ban Ki Moon the UN Secretary-General for his
stewardship, and the commitment
he has manifested to the welfare of humanity, particularly of Africa.
Mr. President,
The theme “Effective responses to global crises: strengthening
multilaterialism and dialogue among
civilizations for international peace, security and development”
adopted for this year’s Session, is indeed
apt and relevant and demands that all nations big or small must adopt
multilateralism and dialogue in
fostering international partnership, and on all matters of common
concern to global peace and
development.
Mr. President,
The complexities of today’s world are such that no nation can
successfully confront alone. Some issues
cannot even be resolved by regional groupings acting independently.
Much can be achieved only when
we all collaborate and work together within the framework of
multilateralism, based on mutual
understanding and respect but above all sincerity, strong commitment,
universal justice under the same
rule of law and equity.
Mr. President,
Our global body, the United Nations, has indeed adopted countless
resolutions, which if implemented to
the letter would have made this world a better place for all mankind
and indeed other creatures of our
planet.
Unfortunately, there are some member states of the United Nations who
block well meaning resolutions
necessary for the maintenance of world peace and even question or
disregard resolutions passed by this
august body with impunity. As long as this continues to be the order
of the day, the United Nations will
remain united by name only; unable to achieve, in full, the
fundamental objectives for which it was
established. Urgent reforms are therefore needed in the modus operandi
of the United Nations to ensure
that this impunity is abolished and the principle of equality among
nation states irrespective of their
geopolitical size, location, or economic circumstances, race or
religion are safeguarded. Double
standards have no place in the United Nations.
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Mr. President,
There cannot be peace and security in the absence of justice for all.
There cannot be justice in the face
of abject poverty characterized by hunger and starvation, disease, and
lack of basic social services as a
result of exploitation. There cannot be justice if there is merciless
exploitation, suppression and criminal
invasions of sovereign states. There cannot be peace if there is no
development as a result of
marginalization, injustice and racism.
Mr. President,
Unfortunately, injustice, racism, merciless exploitation and
marginalization of especially the Developing
nations by the Developed nations are the order of the Day.
Africa and Africans are the poorest of the poor despite the fact that
the African continent is the richest in
terms of Mineral and other Natural resources! This is the sad fact
that despite the African continent
being the source of 90% of the precious Minerals, gemstones and
strategic raw materials for the
industrialized north we the Africans are the poorest of the poor!
Mr. President, it is no fault of ours if we the Africans are poor today.
This situation is brought about by the perennial locust invasion and
their permanent presence in Africa.
They devour 90% of our useful African resources ranging from
Agricultural to Mineral, Flora and Fauna
resources.
These locusts are present in all African resource rich countries
today. This devastating permanent locust
invasion is exacerbated by another destructive phenomenon, permanent
drought which is affecting all
African countries without exception.
Mr. President,
We cannot do anything about these two deadly scourges in the African
Continent because in the case of
the locusts, they are protected by a one-sided international treaty
that has been imposed on all the third
World countries and not only Africa. For the drought, it is even worse
as no irrigation system in Africa
can eradicate it.
Mr. President,
The locusts I am talking about are the Western Multi National
companies that exploit our Natural
resources as well as agricultural produce taking 95% of their
financial value and leave us the owners of
these resources with only 5% or less at most. Is it not interesting
that with regards to mining of African
mineral resources only four African countries receive more than 3%
royalty from these Multi National
Mining Companies? The rest receive only 3% royalty or even less. In
the case of petroleum exploitation,
few countries receive above 15% royalty etc.
There is nothing African Countries can do about this because these
locusts have absolute monopoly of
the Technologies being used in these extractive industries. The treaty
that makes it impossible for us to
do anything about it is called GLOBALISATION which means the
EXPLOITATION of poor third world
countries’ resources by the Rich First World Countries. With regards
to the drought which is the debt
burden, very few rich countries have cancelled the debt owed to them
by third world countries.
This excruciating debt burden consumes 80% of the 5-3% left by the
Multi national Companies.
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Our Agricultural produce like tea, coffee, cocoa etc are bought at
prices fixed by the buyers in most cases
at an average price of not more than one US Dollar per kilo whilst the
same produce are being sold at
more than fifteen US Dollars per kilo when processed. So for every
kilogram of our agricultural produce
worth fifteen Dollars at the international western market we get only
one Dollar! How can Africa develop
and emerge out of this abject poverty. African resources have been
continuously looted from the 11th
century to date. Everything in Africa that the locusts could set eyes
on are looted uptil today. Even dead
bodies have not been spared by the locusts. Graves were and are being
desecrated and human bodies
called mummies have been stolen from Africa.
In such a situation where even Africans in their graves are not spared
by these locusts on the rampage,
who in his correct state of mind expects us to be rich and developed
in Africa. In Africa, RIP on a
tombstone which normally means Rest In Peace has never been respected.
RIP – means Respected If
Poor, that is the body in the tomb was not buried with any precious jewelry.
The UN must come to the rescue of Africa otherwise we Africans stand
ready to liberate ourselves from
this eternal bondage at any cost. As from now the AU would work
towards ensuring that African Nations
and our Farmers get their rightful share of our God- given natural and
agricultural resources. We will no
longer accept less than 65% royalty for our natural resources.
We the Africans have been suffering for too long at the hands of the
Westerners and we will put an end
to this.
It is African sweat, blood, tears and natural resources that have
built the North throughout almost five
centuries of merciless and racist exploitation uptil today.
Enough is enough. Instead of being respected, we are being called all
sorts of names and given all sorts
of titles, Dictators, Corrupt Leaders, Failed States and even Rogue States.
We the new Generation of African Leaders would put an end to these
humiliating, degrading and racist
treatment by any means necessary. The world will not live in peace and
security as long as this
dehumanizing and racist status quo continue to prevail with regards to
the continent of Africa and
Africans.
We have been forced to endure this for far too long and now we are
going to put an end to it as we have
ended Apartheid in South Africa; by force if need be. We will defend
our humanity, our dignity, our
resources, our interests and our culture as from now.
Mr. President,
HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis are killer diseases. While I would
like to reiterate my delegation’s support
for the work of the Global Fund to fighting these diseases, I wish to
call for concerted efforts at resource
mobilisation to support international research on traditional medicine
and alternative diseases treatment
programmes. These traditional systems are in most instances more
cost-effective, yet abandoned for the
sorts of criticisms that come from multinationals who feel threatened
that certain traditional
breakthroughs would be detrimental to their corporate existence and
interests. These multinationals
value their monetary gains more than human life.
They should not be allowed to hold humanity to ransom. Their
insatiable appetite for massive wealth at
any cost has pushed them to the point of blindness and insensitivity
to human suffering and loss of
human life in the developing world especially in Africa.
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Mr. President,
On international peace and security, my delegation again calls for
more honest and stronger international
cooperation and dialogue in addressing conflict prevention, peaceful
resolution and respect of others
cultural values, norms and ways of life. We must respect the fact that
humanity is created to be diverse
as planet Earth has different regions, each having diverse climatic
and ecosystems. Therefore there is
bound to be diversity in the colours of our skin diversity in the way
we live and differences in our beliefs.
Diverse as we may, we are part and parcel of the one human Family
created by the one and only GOD
Allah. If we accept this principle that we are all human beings equal
before the Only God that created
us, and, that differences in religion and skin colour do not make one
less human than others then we will
all live in perfect peace and harmony in this global village called the World.
The problem is that some play God and believe that by virtue of the
colour of their skin, they are better
than the rest of humanity and therefore should dictate to them how
they should live and how they should
worship God. They impose their value systems on the rest of humanity.
This unacceptable dictatorship
is the source of all the world’s major conflicts and a contributing
factor to the persistent threat to world
peace.
Racism is on the rise, extreme hate mongers are increasing in numbers
and ranks and, instead of
condemning them as criminals and terrorists, they are called the far
right, neo Nazis or supremacists and
tolerated and even encouraged by the same powers who would happily
bomb them back to the stone
age if they were Muslim, black African or Asian.
As long as this status quo does not change, peace and security would
continue to be an elusive dream as
people; rich or poor, Muslim or non Muslim, black or Asian are bound
to defend their human dignity at
any price. My delegation therefore calls for a united front against
this dictatorship of a few over the rest
of humanity. And in the interest of our collective security, the
United Nations should see to the total
elimination of racism and hate in all its forms whatever it takes, so
that we can bequeath to generations
of humanity yet unborn, a very peaceful and prosperous world devoid of
destitution, exploitation and
marginalization.
Mr. President,
In this context, my delegation would like to see a speedy resolution
of the plight of the Palestinians. We
call on the state of Israel to accept and respect the two-state
solution that the international community
has so clearly articulated without preconditions. We also urge the UN
Security Council to ensure that its
resolutions are respected by all states and enforced to the letter and
spirit of the UN and not allow
certain states a choice of not only ignoring these resolutions but
violating them with impunity, while other
states face drastic and devastating military action if such
resolutions are passed against them and they so
much as ask for clarification. The State of Israel has ignored and
violated all UN Resolutions and
conventions with regards to the Israeli Palestinian conflict with not
only impunity but with the support
and protection of certain powers of the world whilst other countries
have paid a very high price for
merely not complying fully with a security council resolution. The UN
Security Council should stop this
unfortunate double standards. The UN must not be turned into an Animal Farm.
Mr. President,
Secondly, there is also the lingering issue of the Republic of China
(Taiwan). My delegation holds the
position that Taiwan should be invited to participate in all the
meetings and activities of the United
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Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the
International Civil Aviation
Organization (ICAO) amongst others. Taiwan has a legitimate right to
full membership of all UN
Specialised agencies since even NGOs have either full membership or
observer status to these UN
Agencies. Taiwan with 23 million people, a democratic state is still
being denied this fundamental human
right that the UN is supposed to uphold and protect in the first
place. My delegation also hereby calls on
the UN to urge the United States of America to immediately and
unconditionally lift the embargo on Cuba
in accordance with the wishes of more than 98% of the membership of
this August Body. This trade
embargo continues to hurt Cuban Women and children. The Cuban children
that are born into these
extreme hardships have committed no crime. The punishment of women and
children because of
political difference is a very serious violation of children’s rights.
Thirdly, my delegation renews its full support for the territorial
integrity and sovereignty of the Kingdom
of Morocco, and on the question of the Moroccan Sahara, we remain
convinced that the proposal of the
Moroccan Government to grant substantive autonomy to the Saharan
Region on the basis of the
negotiations initiated by the Security Council, and conducted and
agreed by the Parties would lead to a
lasting and peaceful resolution of the conflict.
Mr. President,
Finally, my delegation has been following keenly but with deep dismay,
the protracted negotiations and a
seeming connivance to prevent the reform of the Security Council.
Africa would like to see to this Reform
undertaken and a balanced representation of the Continents in the
Security Council. My delegation
therefore urges the President of the General Assembly to exert more
effort on the issue within the term
of this 64th General Assembly, and ensure that the continent of Africa
has at least two permanent seats at
the Security Council with full veto powers or else any resolution
passed by the Security Council will not be
binding on Africa or any AU Member State by the end of 2010. Africa, a
continent ten times the size of
Europe does not have a single permanent seat at the Security Council
whilst Europe has more than one
permanent seat.
Africa has been subjected to discrimination, marginalization,
exploitation and humiliation for a very long
time. We the Africans are no longer going to accept this status quo.
We will put an end to this very
soon.
I wish you all a successful 64th Session.

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