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Mr. Chairman,
We really have no cause to
celebrate the 60th anniversary of the
creation of the United Nations. The chaotic,
unequal and unsafe world we live in today does not
exactly pay tribute to those who gathered in San
Francisco on 26 June 1945 to found the United
Nations.
Around the world, since the
conclusion of the Millennium Summit in 2000 to
date, more children have died of preventable
diseases than all of the victims of the Second
World War.
The invasion of Iraq was launched
not only in spite of but also in defiance of the
stance assumed by the international community.
This took place a mere two years after we had
solemnly declared, in the Millennium Summit, that
“we are determined to establish a just and
lasting peace in the entire world, in conformity
with the aims and principles of the Charter”.
The General Assembly was not even able to convene
to discuss this action. The Security Council was
ignored and later stooped to submissively
accepting a predatory war to which the majority of
its members had been opposed.
There is a simple explanation for
this state of things: the bipolar world order and
balance of forces reflected in the Charter no
longer exist.
“We, the
peoples”
—as
the Charter says— suffer the
scourge of a unipolar world, in which a single
superpower imposes its whims and egotistical
interests on the United Nations and the
international community.
Thus, the hope of seeing the
United Nations adhere, in its functioning, to the
principles and objectives enshrined in the Charter
is a mere pipe dream. It is not possible. And it
will not be possible until Third World countries,
the majority of us, unite and struggle, together,
for our rights.
If the government of the United
States abided by resolution 1373 —approved by the
Security Council on 28 September 2001— and by
international conventions on terrorism, it would
extradite terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to
Venezuela and would release the five Cuban
anti-terrorist activists who have been serving
cruel and unjust prison sentences for 7 years.
If the government of the United
States allowed the United Nations to act in
accordance with the Charter, the invasion of Iraq
— launched to rob it of its oil— would not have
taken place, the Palestinian people would have a
sovereign nation in the territory that belongs to
them and Cuba would not still be blockaded.
Neither would there be a billion illiterate nor
900 million hungry people around the world.
All of this explains the failure
of last week’s Summit, called to review the
progress that had been made towards the modest
commitments we had assumed as Millennium
development goals, a Summit which turned out a sad
and poor imitation of the serious debate,
committed to addressing the serious problems faced
by humanity today, which we should have held. The
Summit was a complete farce. It was not something
the powerful were interested in. Their egotistical
and hegemonic interests run contrary to the hope
for a fairer and better world for everyone.
The way in which the Ambassador of
the United States brandished a bludgeon and tried
to shove 750 amendments down the throat of the
United Nations, using scandalous forms of
blackmail and brining pressures to bear upon
member nations, shall go down in history as a
telling testimony, attesting that we need to build
a new world and a new United Nations, which
respect and recognize everyone’s right to peace,
sovereignty and development, a world without
genocidal wars, blockades or injustice. The final
negotiations, from which the majority of UN
members were excluded, and the final document
approved, which omits issues of vital importance
for our countries, vividly attest what we are
saying.
Until the time that a new world
and a new United Nations can be built, we, peoples
of the world, shall continue to struggle and,
holding our ground, shall claim for ourselves the
rights that are today denied us.
The powerful speak only of
preventive military interventions and wars, about
imposing unfair conditions on countries, about the
most efficient ways of exercising control over the
UN, hoping to legitimate concepts such as the
so-called “responsibility to protect”, which could
one day be used to justify acts of aggression
against our countries.
Let us spell it out: weak
countries have no right to peace today.
We Cubans understand this well and
rely on the solidarity of peoples, on the unity
which keeps us abreast and on our rifles, which
have never been used for anything except defending
a just cause. Our brothers in Africa know this
well.
We are not pessimistic. We are
revolutionary. We do not cave in, nor are we
satisfied with today’s world. And we say it today,
more certain of it than we have ever been: we, the
peoples, shall overcome.
Thank
you very much.
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