Over the last week, world leaders assembled in New York for the annual UN General Assembly.  Uganda Correspondent’s John Stephen Katende was there and he brings you the highlights.

By John Stephen Katende

27^th Sept 2010

Defer Bashir arrest, says AU Chairman Mutharika

Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, who is also the current Chairman of the African Union has said African leaders were concerned that the ICC indictments for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide brought against Sudan’s President Omar el-Bashir could undermine peace building efforts in Sudan.

“The African Union therefore strongly appeals to the United Nations General Assembly to amend Article 16 of the Rome Statue to enable it to assume the powers of the Security Council to defer the case against President Omar Hassan el-Bashir for one year to allow ongoing negotiations and dialogue to succeed.”

The Rome Statute is the treaty that established the ICC.  He also told the General Assembly that Africa is striving to transform itself politically and economically for the benefit of its people.

“I want to present to you another Africa.  This is the Africa of new hopes and new possibilities; Africa of industrial, mineral, and agro-processing opportunities; Africa with new jobs creation prospects; and Africa that can produce enough food to feed its people”, Mr. Mutharika said.

Speaking of a “new beginning” in Africa, the President said he wanted the UN to “share our belief that Africa is not a poor continent; rather it is its people that are poor.  I have come to inform this world body that Africa has decided to shift from ‘Afro-pessimism’ to ‘Afro-optimism”.

The AU Chairman also said the AU was proposing that Africa be given two permanent seats and five-non permanent seats in the Security Council.  “The African Union should have the right to determine the selection of the Africa’s representative in the Security Council”.

Malaria will be history soon, says Ban Ki-moon

African leaders and global health experts rallied at the United Nations on 22^nd Sept to boost access to life-saving bed-nets and medicines as part of the fight against malaria.  The aim is to reach the goal of near-zero malaria deaths by 2015.

“We have made solid advances in recent years both in reducing deaths and increasing the use of life-saving nets.  The goal of ending malaria deaths is within reach.  I urge all partners to sustain the momentum”, said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Joining Mr. Ban at the UN event were members of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance – a coalition of 35 heads of State committed to working together to end malaria in Africa where the disease claims more than 850,000 lives each year.  The Secretary-General has set the goal of providing life-saving malaria control interventions to the 700 million people at risk of the disease in Sub-Saharan Africa by the end of 2010.

Providing bed-nets to everyone living in malaria-endemic countries by the end of this year has been deemed the most effective way to reach the goal of zero or near-zero deaths by 2015 and ending a scourge that results in an estimated 1 million deaths worldwide every year.

Bed-nets have reached nearly 500 million people in the last two years alone and their impact on saving lives is profound with current levels of intervention saving 200,000 lives per year.

African leaders announced several efforts to help achieve this goal including abolition of taxes and tariffs on bed-nets, medicines, and other life-saving products.  They also pledged to ban artemisinin monotherapies that increases disease resistance.

US could have been behind 9/11, Ahmadinejad

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said questions remained over the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States and in particular over exactly who was responsible for the attacks.   Ahmadinejad said it was mostly US government officials who believed a “powerful and complex terrorist group” was behind the four suicide plane hijackings in 2001.

Another theory, he said, was “that some segments within the American government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime”.  This suggestion of American involvement in the 9/11 attacks later provoked a tough reaction from US President Barack Obama who called them “hateful” and “inexcusable”.

Ahmadinejad also pinned the United Nations’ “ineptitude” on what he called its “unjust structure”, urging that the veto power of the Security Council’s five permanent members be abolished.  “The veto advantage grants impunity to aggression and occupation. How could, therefore, one expect competence while both the judge and the prosecutor are a party to the dispute?” the President asked.

The structure of the UN, he stressed, must be reformed so that all nations can take an active and constructive part in global governance.  “Major power is monopolized in the Security Council due to the veto privilege and the main pillar of the Organization which is the General Assembly is marginalized”, said Ahmadinejad

Decisions on substantive matters in the Security Council require the vote of nine of the body’s 15 members including the concurring votes of the permanent members China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Georgia has a “New Iron Curtain”, Saakashvili

Georgia has had a “new Iron Curtain” running through it since conflict erupted in mid-2008 in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, the country’s President told the General Assembly.  He also called on Russia to withdraw its troops and change its policies.

He stressed to his “fellow citizens of Abkhaz and Ossetian origins who live behind the new Iron Curtain that divides our common nation that we will protect your rights, your culture, and your history”.

“It is never too late to overturn a bad policy”, Mikheil Saakashvili said at UN Headquarters in New York. “The dismemberment of Georgia has failed categorically – and even the Russian Federation will one day need to reverse its disastrous policy”.

Fighting broke out in August 2008 between Georgian forces and South Ossetian and Abkhaz separatists and their Russian allies. South Ossetia and Abkhazia each subsequently declared their independence from Georgia, and those declarations have been recognized by Russia and several other countries.

France gives $1.4billion to Global Fund

France has pledged $1.4billion to United Nations-backed efforts to combat HIV in a move hailed by the world body’s agency coordinating the global AIDS response.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that his country will provide the funds to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria at a General Assembly meeting in New York.  The announcement was part of reports on progress so far made in realizing the Millennium Development Goals.

Halting and reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS by 2015 as well as achieving universal access to treatment for the disease are among the eight MDGs.  “At a time of difficult fiscal space, France has put the interests of people living with HIV first”, said Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS.

He also urged all other countries to follow France’s lead.  During a meeting with UNAIDS chief, Mr. Sarkozy praised the agency’s approach to place the response to the pandemic as part of the broader health and development agenda.  There are nearly 10 million people living with HIV who urgently need treatment today.  END. If it’s Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent.  Never miss out again!