WE need to invest more on conflict prevention, resolution and mediation efforts by addressing the root causes, precipitating and triggering factors to conflicts.
Peace keeping, peace building and state building are essential to the maintenance and consolidation where peace has been secured. Mr. President, striving for peace is a task for us all governments, international organisations, regional blocs, non-state actors, religious groups, civil societies and individuals.
The renewal of our efforts is paramount to ensure that we achieve sustainable peace and security, which is a perquisite for the achievement of sustainable development. In this regard, we commend our men and women in blue helmets who are sacrificing their lives to serve the heroic cause of peacekeeping.
Tanzania, with other countries, has been contributing troops to UN Peacekeeping Missions. We have paid a high price by the loss of peacekeepers. We nonetheless remain steadfast for this noble and human endeavour.
It is only this week that Tanzania lost its soldier in the DRC following an attack from the ADF rebels. We condemn this cowardly act in the strongest possible terms. We urge the United Nations Security Council to continue strengthening operational capability of FIB in MONUSCO in order to be able to effectively deal with negative forces and asymmetrical warfare in the Eastern DRC.
Mr. President, Tanzania has maintained its record as a peaceful country upholding the rule of law, democracy and other principles of good governance. It has been a country of refuge to many for decades.
At the same time, Tanzania has been actively participating in regional and international peace initiatives, including the ongoing Burundi peace process, an East African Community initiative facilitated by former President Mkapa of Tanzania and mediated by President Museveni of Uganda.
The peace talks are still on track, albeit their slow and halting pace. It is encouraging to note that in some parts of Burundi, the security situation has signifmantly improved to permit the voluntary return of some 12,000 refugees out of almost 250,000 refugees who have been in Tanzania since 2015.
We appreciate the partnership we have with the UNHCR in protecting and assisting the refugees in our country. Mr. President, Tanzania has also intermittently for decades been receiving and hosting refugees from pockets of troubled areas in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
We trust that there will be full implementation of the December 31st Peace Agreement with the promise of timely elections in the country. We urge the DRC leadership to live up to that commitment.
In this regard, we urge the international community to extend both logistical and financial support to DRC to complete the registration of voter’s register and carry out expeditiously the planned elections.
Mr. President, on the agenda of the General Assembly and the Security Council of the United Nations, there are two protracted problems which require decisive action. One is the issue of self-determination of the Sahrawi people.
With the return of Morocco into the African Union fold:, expectations are high in Africa that negotiations on this issue which is on the agenda of the Security Council will receive renewed momentum and agency.
Mr. President, on Palestine, we support the two-state solution living side by side in peaceful co-existence. To that end, the elements of a viable State of Palestine must be ensured and respected.
The long stalled peace process in the Middle East must be rekindled with a series of acceptable confidence building measures by both sides with the support and guarantee of the United Nations and the international community in its entirety.
Mr. President, we have in this Assembly been calling for the cessation of economic, commercial, financial and other embargos imposed on Cuba with infinitesimal results.
The intention of the USA to reverse the agreements between the two countries on normalising relations is a setback to the progress that had been registered and applauded by all of us in this very same Assembly and beyond.
Tanzania continues to call for the total removal of all embargos on Cuba. The people to people contact that has started between the people of Cuba and those of the United States should serve as building blocks for enduring peaceful good neighbourliness in the spirit of dialogue and understanding.
Mr. President, after the end of the cold war, there were new dawn and bright prospects for both conventional and nuclear disarmament. The doctrine of nuclear deterrence was becoming absolute, reduction of nuclear arsenals was making progress towards a nuclear ban treaty, including nuclear testing and some aspirants for nuclear weapons abandoned their ambitions.
However, the recent developments in the DPRK have shattered these optimistic prospects. The world is being dragged back to nuclear brinkmanship. This is the most recent threat to international peace and security.
Tanzania supports all the relevant resolution of the Security Council on the nuclear weapons trends in the DPRK, calls for de-escalation of the political warfare and the renewal of the dialogue under the auspices of the six parties initiative.
On the other hand, Tanzania commends the recent adoption of the Nuclear Ban Treaty which puts nuclear weapons in the same legal ground as other Weapons of Mass Destruction. We should all support this Treaty in order to increase our moral authority in the fight against nuclear weapons proliferation.
Mr, President, the reforms of the United Nations to make the Organization more efficient and relevant to cope with the new trends and challenges must be continuous and progressive. The latest initiative by the Secretary General is a commendable effort which should have received a consensual support by the entire UN membership.
We hope in the process of implementing these latest reform proposals, the debates will be all inclusive and progress will be made on the basis of consensus. The delay in the reforms of the Security Council is testing the political will of the key players on this matter; the debate on this serious matter has now become routine and sterile.
The status quo is undercutting the primary responsibility of the Council in the maintenance of international peace and security. Democratizing the Security Council is good for the Council and the world in this 21st Century.
Mr. President, Excellencies Heads of State and Government, Ladies and Gentlemen In conclusion, I wish to return to the 2030 Agenda by giving a clarion call to the United Nations and its member states to implement the goals contained therein in a measured and agreed benchmarks and intervals.
The economic and social benefits from well implemented goals will enhance democracy, freedom and security at the national, regional and international levels without leaving no one behind.
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