Speech by the delegation of Sierra Leon

Mr. Chairman,
Your Majesties,
Your Royal Highnesses,
Your Highness, Your Excellencies,
Ministers,
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all let me take this opportunity to express our appreciation to His Majesty, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdallah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Government and people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the warm welcome and generous hospitality extended to us since our arrival here.

Your Majesty,

May I use this forum to reiterate our expression of sympathy with the Government and people of Pakistan for the massive loss of life and extensive devastation resulting from the earthquake in October this year. We commend all those member states of the OIC and others that offered assistance to Pakistan. We also congratulate the Government and people of Pakistan for the efficient and dignified manner with which they managed this catastrophe.

Your Majesty,

The significance of this Summit is not lost on us, taking place just a few weeks after the United Nations World Summit on development and just days before the Hong Kong Session of the Doha Round of the WTO Trade negotiations, also known as the development Round.

We realize that both the UN and WTO meetings seek to address the gross imbalances that exist in relations between States and the unpleasant consequences that flow from this, including chronic underdevelopment and poverty, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa: ethnic, racial and religious intolerance; terrorism and pervasive social stress in our societies.

We believe that the OIC is uniquely placed to play a vital role in the search for solutions to these problems. Given its wide representation of nations and peoples of diverse economic status and cultures, who are closely bound together by the values of Islam, the OIC can mobilize sufficient leverage to influence the outcome of the ongoing discussions on these matters.

We therefore hope that we can seize the great opportunity offered by this Summit to chart a proper course for the OIC which will ensure that its contribution in this endeavour has maximum impact.

Your Majesty,

The report of the Secretary General entitled, “New Vision for the Muslim World Solidarity in Action” and “The Ten-Year Working Programme to Counter Challenges of Islamic Missions in the 21st Century”, together with other documentation that have been presented to us at this Summit contain key elements which will help us to take measures that will reinvigorate our organization as we face growing challenges to the Muslim Ummah and the world community as a whole.

I would like to commend the Secretary General and his staff for presenting us with documentation that will guide us through our deliberations.

We are fully conscious that reinvigorating the OIC cannot be accomplished overnight or by the efforts of its member states alone. It will be a long term process that will require close collaboration and networking with other international organizations and communities. Above all, it will require strong commitment on the part of each and every member state of the Organization together with a competent and dedicated secretariat that is capable of defining clear goals and developing appropriate strategies for achieving those goals. In this regard, we fully endorse the proposed plan for the reform of the OIC and the restructuring of its general secretariat.

Your Majesty,

With regard to the current challenges facing the Ummah and our respective societies, we are deeply gratified by the wide range of proposals that have been put forward for addressing them.

In particular, we strongly endorse the call to adopt a common position in the face of external threats against any OIC member state and hope that in this context greater solidarity will be extended by all OIC Member States to the Palestinian Authority. We also support the establishment of a special African Solidarity Programme to boost trade, investment and technology transfer, to reduce debts and eradicate diseases along with other priorities.

In this connection my delegation welcomes the establishment of a capacity building programme for Low Income Member Countries of the OIC, from which Sierra Leone is currently benefiting. We express our gratitude to Malaysia and the Islamic Development Bank for playing an active role in this programme through the provision of funds for the Trust Fund for the capacity Building Programme and the provision of technical assistance for the implementation of a vital capacity building project in Sierra Leone. It is our hope that more OIC member states will support this critical agricultural sector project, which currently has funding only for the execution of a pilot phase.

Your Majesty,

We also welcome public and private sector investment from OIC Member States in Sierra Leone. There are excellent investment opportunities in such areas as infrastructure development, agriculture, fisheries and mining. Diamonds, gold, bauxite, coltan and oil exploration are currently some of the most prominent in the mining sector.

I would like to take this opportunity to express our grateful thanks to Kuwait which has been funding vital infrastructural projects in Sierra Leone through the Kuwait Fund. We are also grateful to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the announcement by the Saudi Fund at the recent Consultative Group meeting on Sierra Leone held in London that it will be prepared to finance roads, energy and water projects in Sierra Leone. Such support will enhance my Government’s efforts to promote rapid development in the country and help eradicate poverty, especially following a long and devastating civil war that ended in 2002.

Your Majesty,

With Regard to the question of terrorism we note the important recommendations made at the recent International Conference for Combating Terrorism held in Riyadh. That conference, we may recall, recommended among other things the establishment of an International Centre for Combating Terrorism. This, in our view, is a very good initiative which deserves our full support. We further wish to propose that our organization should consult with other international organizations, including the UN especially on the issue of sharing information where appropriate. We believe that substantial benefit can be derived from such co-operation.

We note the continuing tendency to associate Muslims and Islam with terrorism. This issue was extensively addressed by us both in Iran and Malaysia but its persistence in certain quarters within the international community seems to suggest that our strategies for addressing this problem have not been effective enough. We may therefore need to further review our approach to this issue, consistent with the proposals for the implementation of the COMIAC Plan of Action.

Over the years, terrorism has been used by groups of diverse faiths and political agendas. It is therefore unacceptable to witness the image of Islam and Muslims being tarnished simply because a handful of individuals who happen to be Muslims or claim to be Muslims commit acts of terrorism. True Muslims do not engage in this kind of acts, and certainly these acts do not promote the cause of Islam. Our position on terrorism has always been clear. We condemn unreservedly all acts of terrorism.

We in Sierra Leone suffered gravely from barbaric acts of terrorism committed by rebel elements during the civil war in our country. We are therefore resolute in our support of all measures adopted by the OIC to curb and eradicate the scourge of terrorism.

In conclusion, I pray that the Almighty Allah bless this Summit and crown our deliberations and the OIC with great success.

I thank you all for your kind attention.

Back...