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OPENING
STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE MIXED COMMISSION AND SPECIAL
REPRESENTATIVE OF THE SECRETARY-GENERAL OF THE
UNITED NATIONS, MR. AHMEDOU OULD-ABDALLAH
*
Abuja, 29 October
2003
Excellency Chief Akin Olujinmi, Attorney
General and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
Excellency Prince Bola Ajibola, Head of the
Nigerian delegation,
Excellence Monsieur le Ministre d’État
Amadou Ali, Head of the Cameroonian delegation,
Distinguished Delegates to the
Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission,
Distinguished Members of the Diplomatic
Community and the Press,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like first of all to acknowledge
with gratitude the presence among us today of our Guest of Honour, His
Excellency Chief Akin Olujinmi. Given the Nigerian tradition of
hospitality, Excellency, it seems to me that you have come here as a
Special Host rather than Guest of Honour. Whether a Host or a Guest, we
are most appreciative of the honour bestowed upon the Cameroon-Nigerian
Mixed Commission by your participation in this opening ceremony.
I would also like to thank the Heads of
the Nigerian and Cameroonian delegations, His Excellency Prince Bola
Ajibola, former Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria, and His Excellency Mr. Amadou Ali, Ministre d’État
chargé de la Justice, Garde des Sceaux du Cameroun, for their inspiring
speeches and their kind words addressed to the United Nations delegation
and to the work of the Mixed Commission.
It is not often that I have the
privilege of sharing a podium, as I do today, with three current
and former Ministers of Justice. I believe this is a most positive omen
for the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, because no one has a keener
interest than Ministers of Justice to see the rule of law prevail over the
rule of force.
When the members of the Mixed Commission
last met, it was not in the modern, familiar environment of the Abuja or
Yaoundé Hilton, but in the African reality of the Lake Chad area. Our
visit there, on 29 September 2003, represented a major breakthrough in the
mission assigned to us by Their Excellencies President Olusegun Obasanjo
and President Paul Biya one year ago in Geneva. That visit made a strong
impression on me personally, as I am sure it made on all the members of
the Mixed Commission. It also confirmed my sense that the scope of our
mission keeps expanding as we get closer to implementing in the field
the various provisions of the 10 October 2002 judgment of the
International Court of Justice.
I might call it the zoom effect, or the
close-up effect: what seemed like a distant, hazy perspective at our first
meeting at Yaoundé, back in December 2002, has focused now in crisp,
sharp, colourful detail. Details that we could not see then have now grown
to their full, imposing proportions. And as we get a closer view of the
tasks ahead, we might feel daunted by the challenge they pose us.
I, for one, choose the opposite view.
Rather than be daunted by what lies ahead, I am heartened by the
substantial progress we have made over the last eleven months. Being
closer to our goal, we have a clearer, sharper sense of where we are going
and how to get there. Our decisions are increasingly more detailed and
practical. For most aspects of our mandate, we have adopted plans,
schedules, road maps and deadlines. We are even beginning to learn from
our own experiences, applying the lessons thus learned to our current
work, and trusting that those lessons will ease some of the difficulties
we encountered previously.
I would like now to review briefly with
you the work done by our two sub-commissions, the Sub-Commission on
Affected Populations and the Sub-Commission on Demarcation, since our last
meeting in August. I shall begin with the Sub-Commission on Affected
Populations, which has a mandate to: (1) identify the affected
populations; (2) assess their situation on the ground, including
identifying the specific rights that need to be protected; and (3)
consider and propose modalities for the protection of these rights.
The Sub-Commission carried out its first
field visit, to the Lake Chad area, from 13 to 17 September. That visit,
which opened the way to the Mixed Commission’s own visit to the same
area on 29 September, has been a most valuable source of information, and
I trust that it will inspire and shape our future decisions concerning the
area. The three main findings we made there, I believe, were that:
(1) the affected populations
overwhelmingly want peace;
(2) the affected populations fully
support their respective Presidents’ decision to resolve peacefully
any differences that might arise between Cameroon and Nigeria in the
implementation of the judgment of the International Court of Justice;
and
(3) the affected populations are in
dire need of development, social services, and basic infrastructure.
The Sub-Commission on Affected
Populations has also identified the places and dates of its next field
visit, this time to the land boundary area. That visit will be carried out
in two phases, with the first phase taking place from 17 to 25 November
2003, and the second phase taking place before the visit to the Bakassi
Peninsula.
Let me now turn to the other
Sub-Commission, the Sub-Commission on demarcation. It was originally
scheduled to meet over two days, on 24 and 25 October, but had to extend
its meeting to 26 and 27 October due to its heavy agenda, the complex
issues it addressed, and the difficult choices it had to make. I am
pleased to report that the Sub-Commission has adopted the specifications
for all the contracts for the demarcation of the boundary. This is a major
achievement, since we can now launch the bidding process for those
contracts.
I am also encouraged by the first
working sessions of the Joint Technical Team, which were held as part of
the meeting of the Sub-Commission on demarcation. The Joint Technical Team
will play an active and important role in the demarcation process. I call
on its members to display not only the professional skills and experience,
but also the sense of shared responsibility and spirit of compromise
needed to successfully demarcate the border between Cameroon and Nigeria.
I should not fail to acknowledge the
dedication, competence and professionalism of the Heads of the Nigerian
and Cameroonian delegations to the two sub-commissions. For the
Sub-Commission on Affected Populations, they are Professor Anthony Asiwaju
on the Nigerian side and Professor Maurice Kamto on the Cameroonian side.
For the Sub-Commission on Demarcation, they are His Excellency Alhaji
Dahiru Bobbo on the Nigerian side and His Excellency Ambassador Martin-Belinga-Eboutou
on the Cameroonian side. They, as well as their respective teams, richly
deserve our thanks and appreciation for the results they have achieved.
I shall now say a few words of the first
special meeting of the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, which was held
on 28 October here in Abuja to establish a Working Group on Withdrawal
from the Lake Chad Area. The Working Group was given a mandate to consider
all practical matters relating to the withdrawal of civil administration
and military and police forces, as well as to the transfer of authority in
the Lake Chad area, including the deployment of Mixed Commission observer
personnel. It will be chaired by the Executive Secretary of the Mixed
Commission, Mr. Cheick Oumar Diarrah.
In order to meet the 31 December 2003
deadline for completing the withdrawal from the Lake Chad area, the
Working Group will hold its first meeting on 8 and 9 November in Abuja,
carry out its first field trip to the Lake Chad area from 18 to 20
November, and hold a subsequent meeting on 28 and 29 November in Yaoundé.
It will also prepare a draft Operational Plan for Withdrawal and Handover
in the Lake Chad Area to be submitted to the Mixed Commission at the end
of November.
I could not overemphasize the importance
of meeting the 31 December deadline for withdrawal. The entire Programme
of Work of the Mixed Commission hinges on a series of interconnected
actions that need to be carried out in a given order. The deadline can
be met, and a successful withdrawal and transfer of authority in the Lake
Chad area will greatly help the Mixed Commission carry out the subsequent
phases of its work.
At the other end of the land boundary
between Cameroon and Nigeria begins the maritime boundary. The Mixed
Commission is set to address that boundary in the near future. The Parties
have already submitted to the Secretariat and to each other their
respective position papers on the subject, which will be one of the items
on the agenda of our next meeting in December. The Parties ought to think
now about how they plan to consider this item and whether they want to
establish a new sub-commission or working group for the maritime boundary.
Let me turn now to the all-important
subject of funding. At its fifth meeting in August 2003, the Mixed
Commission approved a detailed Application for Funds from the development
partners. That application for funds was subsequently sent by the United
Nations to a short list of donors. We have received a number of positive
answers and expressions of interest, and we are following up with the
donors. I believe that the first of a series of tripartite – Cameroon,
Nigeria, United Nations – visits to donors at the Ministerial level
could be scheduled in the near future. It goes without saying that we are
most grateful for the contributions made or pledged for the demarcation of
the boundary between Cameroon and Nigeria.
At the same time, I cannot fail to find
it ironical that two countries such as Nigeria and Cameroon that have
courageously decided to choose a peaceful way to settle their dispute find
it so difficult to raise funds for the demarcation of their boundary. The
irony is that if they had chosen the other way and waged a war, the
international community would more readily spend hundreds of millions of
dollars on humanitarian relief and other operations in Cameroon and
Nigeria than spend today a considerably lesser amount for demarcating
their border. I sometimes wonder whether Cameroon and Nigeria should not
stage a mock skirmish or military confrontation in the presence of the
media, with a special invitation to global television broadcasters such as
CNN, BBC, etc. in order to attract attention and funding for their peace
effort. But they are too mature and responsible for that.
There was a time when the members of the
Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission would meet only every two months. That
time is gone, and we now seem to have adopted a quasi-monthly schedule,
while our colleagues in the two Sub-Commissions have now embarked on a
twice-monthly schedule of field visits and meetings in Abuja and Yaoundé.
However, unlike what may happen in other bodies or administrations, these
increasingly frequent meetings are anything but an end in themselves. Each
and every of them so far has met a real need, fulfilled a specific
purpose, brought about substantial results, and taken us closer to our
goal of peace and cooperation. We owe this in a large part to the
inspiration we continue to take from the wisdom and statesmanship shown by
Their Excellencies President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Paul Biya
when they decided to establish the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission.
We also owe this effectiveness to the
skills, experience and judgment of the distinguished leaders of the
Nigerian and Cameroonian delegations to the Mixed Commission, His
Excellency Mr. Amadou Ali and His Excellency Prince Bola Ajibola. I have
participated in many think-tank debates about the causes and factors of
conflict. The traditional factors that are mentioned are poor governance,
abuse of power, etc. I personally believe that ignorance and incompetence
among leaders are also a major factor of conflict. Conversely, competence
and professionalism such as those displayed by the Heads of the Nigerian
and Cameroonian delegations are a major factor of peace. Allow me
therefore, Excellencies, to pay tribute to the leadership that you have
shown over the last eleven months. I know that I can count on you and your
delegations to make this sixth regular meeting of the Mixed Commission a
highly productive one, and I look forward to working with you these coming
two days.
Thank you for your attention. |
