Kufuor calls for collective action to contain global insecurity

From: Kwaku Osei Bonsu, GNA Special Correspondent, New York

New York, Sept. 25, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor on Tuesday called for collective action to rein in the growing threat of global insecurity resulting from the use of small arms and light weapons. This, together with terrorism, he said constituted the real weapons of mass destruction.

President Kufuor who made the call when addressing the formal session of the 62nd United Nation's General Assembly, challenged the world body to study the threat and design the means to contain and eliminate it.

He said in the light of the menace, the 192-member organization should support the UN Secretary General's proposal to establish an Office for Disarmament Affairs to be part of the decision-making process in the Secretariat.

Additionally, it was important that they cooperated in the enforcement of its recommendations.

President Kufuor who is also Chairman of African Union (AU), used the UN platform to draw attention to the serious gap in the official development assistance to the Continent.

He noted that despite the general improvement in the relationship between the developed and developing nations, as reflected in various interventions like the US Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and AGOA, African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Agreements with the EU and the China-African Forum, there was still a yawning gap that needed to be bridged quickly to enable Africa attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

President Kufuor therefore, demanded that development partners fulfilled their support, pledges and in addition, remove trade barriers. He declared that Africa was now making progress with improvement in the macro-management of most of their economies.

Giving statistics, President Kufuor said average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth had increased steadily from 5.2 per cent in 2005 to 5.7 per cent in 2006 to the current six per cent that was expected to be sustained or even exceeded in future.

"The Continent is more than ready for good business and this is evidenced by the increasing interest by both local and foreign investors," he added.

On trouble spots in Africa - Darfur and Somalia, President Kufuor welcomed as refreshing, the Security Council's resolution authorising the deployment of a hybrid operation in Darfur.

However, he pointed out that the peace initiative in Somalia was proving extremely challenging and well beyond the capacity of AU and asked for concerted and timely support from the UN. UN Secretary General, Ban-Ki Moon, in his report said it was time to focus more on results and less on rhetoric. He pledged that everything would be done to bring peace to the Sudan's Darfur crisis.

US President George W. Bush and Brazilian President Inacio Lula da Silva also addressed the Assembly.