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I would like at the outset to express Pakistan’s thanks and gratitude to all
members of the Council, non-Council members and other speakers for their
participation in today’s meetings. I am especially grateful to Mr. Ibrahim
Gambari, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General, for his enlightening
statement. I would also like to thank Ambassador De La Sablière and Ambassador
Greenstock for their statements and for agreeing to lead the two Security
Council missions to Central Africa and West Africa, respectively. Pakistan
wishes those two important missions every success.
The remarks that have been made in our discussion by representatives from Africa
have enhanced our understanding of the situation on the continent. Clearly,
Africa faces imposing challenges posed by hunger, disease and poverty, as well
as by the conflicts that are continuing in various parts of the continent, with
grave consequences in terms of human suffering, instability and pervasive
underdevelopment. The causes of the conflicts are complex: ethnic and national
rivalries, the illegal exploitation of natural resources, foreign intervention,
the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, the use of mercenaries and
child soldiers, human rights violations, refugee movements and internal
displacement, as well as the spread of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
The root cause of many of the conflicts is, above all, pervasive poverty and
hunger, and the representative of Tanzania provided a timely reminder to the
Council of the importance of the implementation of the Millennium Development
Goals and the Monterrey Consensus. The illegal exploitation of the natural
resources of African countries fuels these conflicts. The control of
resource-rich areas appears to be a major military objective of most of the
warring groups, rebel movements and Governments alike. We have had conflict
diamonds in the case of West Africa and, now, conflict timber in the case of
Liberia. Next, we may perhaps be dealing with conflict gold or platinum, and the
list could be endless.
The Security Council must adopt an active approach designed to create peace in
Africa. The approach of the Council should be comprehensive and it should aim at
durable solutions. Clearly, such durable solutions would need to encompass
several aspects. First, they must generate ownership of the solutions by the
parties concerned. Secondly, they must be accompanied by the political will of
those who support peace at the domestic, national, regional and international
levels. Thirdly, these solutions must be accompanied by the provision of
adequate resources and financial assistance for the purposes of peacebuilding
and peace sustenance. In the long term, the best solutions for conflicts would
be the integration of these nations and regions into the world system of trade
and finance on an equitable and sustainable basis. Fourthly, such solutions must
encompass humanitarian action and respect for humanitarian law. Fifthly, they
should be accompanied by disarmament, demobilization and reintegration actions,
which have been successful in many cases in the recent past. They must encourage
regional approaches, since many of the conflicts are interlinked and
interdependent. Lastly, such solutions must be based on the determination of the
Security Council to implement its decisions and to ensure that agreements that
are concluded are adhered to by the parties concerned. The Council’s sanctions
can be targeted and can be made more effective to ensure such results.
The Council could also consider enhancing the effectiveness of the mechanisms
which it deploys for the resolution of conflicts. First, the mechanism of the
special representatives of the Secretary-General has proved to be valuable not
only in Africa, but elsewhere as well, and this must receive full support from
the Security Council. Secondly, the Security Council’s missions, such as the two
which are going to West and Central Africa, are also increasingly useful in
bringing home to the Council the realities of the conflicts and in bringing home
to those parties concerned the attention and focus of the Security Council on
these conflicts. Thirdly, peacekeeping operations, in Africa as elsewhere, must
be accompanied by a robust mandate and adequate resources. Pakistan, which has
participated actively in peacekeeping operations in Sierra Leone, Africa and
elsewhere, supports the strengthening of the mandate and the size of the United
Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to
effectively achieve its objectives. We welcome the adoption of the resolution on
the Democratic Republic of the Congo this morning for the deployment of the
Interim Emergency Multinational Force, to which Pakistan will positively
consider contributing a contingent with a robust force to achieve the objectives
for which the Multinational Force has been established.
We would suggest consideration of two new possible mechanisms by the Security
Council. First, the Council could create enquiry bodies to establish the facts
in the case of certain crises. These enquiry bodies could work along the lines
of the Counter-Terrorism Committee in order to trace the resources and to chase
the money trail back to those who finance and fuel various conflicts in various
parts of Africa.
Secondly, we would suggest that, since the security, political, economic and
social dimensions of conflicts are interlinked, it is crucial for the United
Nations to enhance coordination and complementarity in the work of its three
principal organs in order to create durable solutions. A way to do this could be
to build on the existing cooperation between the Security Council and the
Economic and Social Council and to establish ad hoc composite committees, with
membership drawn from the Security Council, the General Assembly and the
Economic and Social Council. Such composite committees could generate a coherent
and mutually supportive response to the internecine conflicts and complex crises
in Africa and, perhaps, elsewhere. Such composite committees could look at
complex emergencies from different perspectives and thus generate coherent
solutions. This approach would also reduce the burden on the Security Council,
which is increasingly finding itself preoccupied with internal political,
economic and development issues in various conflict situations. The involvement
of the larger number of States Members of the United Nations in the composite
committees would also promote greater participation and greater transparency in
the work involved in the prevention of conflicts, the management of conflicts
and the solution of conflicts. In this context, the role of the Council would
remain that of an executive branch in promoting the implementation of
comprehensive, coherent and proactive approaches. This could also prove to be an
effective complement for the realization of the objectives of the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development.