African Caribbean Pacific Ministerial Conference Condemns Terrorism

By Peter Richards
CMC Caribbean Correspondent

BRUSSELS, Belgium CMC – African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries began a two-day meeting here, on Tuesday, condemning the terrorist attacks in Paris and other parts of the world, and calling on developed countries to do more to ensure that there is a successful outcome of the climate change conference in the French capital later this month.

The 79-member grouping, which is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year, also said, it would continue to play a meaningful role in global affairs, with the Secretary General, Guyana-born Dr. Patrick Gomes saying, “We strongly believe that the ambition of the Group must take into account ever evolving and turbulent global dynamics”.

He said, to deepen this awareness and increase the visibility of the ACP, it has participated in various international fora this year.

“While this year is significant, as it marks the 40^th anniversary of the ACP Group, 2016 will also be an enormously important year in the history of the Group. This is primarily because our leaders are expected to make definitive pronouncements, regarding the future direction and structure of the Group and its organs,” Gomes said, as he also appealed to member countries to meet their financial contributions to the Brussels-based Secretariat.

He said, both the ACP and the European Union “have begun a process of consultation and reflection, regarding our future relations beyond 2020”.

Fiji Prime Minister, J.V. Bainimarama, told the 102 nd ACP Ministerial conference that the issue of terrorism must be confronted and that the message to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is simple, “we may flinch, but we will never yield. You have united all of us, from all faiths, in horror, but you have also united us in steely determination”.

He said, there is no excuse for these acts of terror and especially in the name of God, because this is not God’s way.

“The major religions of the world – Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism – are at one on the sanctity of human life. And we must stand up to those who perversely twist the word of God to justify their crimes on earth,” Bainimarama said, noting that the destructive nature of Islamic State “its manipulation of religion to justify its murderous rampages, its suppression and exploitation of the people under its control, and its celebration of death, is in stark contrast to the nobility of our own organisation”.

He added, the ACP has formed the largest trading bloc in the world to empower the estimated one billion people within its borders.

“To bring them the benefits of development, to give them the means to improve their lives and those of their families, to replace poverty with prosperity, to give them a better future, to give them hope.

“We enhance lives while Islamic State and other terrorist groups take them. We create opportunity while they destroy it. We bring people of different backgrounds together to celebrate our common humanity while they advocate division and hatred. In our patient collaboration lies the answer to the world’s challenges while they are a death cult that revels in misery and mass murder,” he reasoned.

The Fiji Prime Minister also said, that the ACP has survived as an organisation for 40 years and are planning even greater cooperation in the years ahead, predicting that the days of the Islamic State “are numbered because they offer nothing but the blood of innocents and blaspheme – the word of God twisted to justify the unjustifiable”.

Prime Minister Bainimarama noted, that many ACP countries now find themselves being heavily impacted by climate change and criticised developed countries that refuse to adapt to the changing environment.

“The extreme weather events, accompanying climate change, are already having a devastating impact on countries such as Fiji – whether they are parching droughts killing our agriculture or howling cyclones coming out of nowhere and killing our people and destroying our infrastructure.

“Rising sea levels are already claiming large reaches of coastal land and forcing the evacuation of entire settlements,” he said, adding “never before in the entire sweep of human history has the Pacific been so threatened.”

He said, small island developing states were not responsible for the environmental crisis and are willing to play their role in ensuring that carbon emissions are cut to a manageable level.

“Our message in Paris next week will be simple. We are doing what we can to help ourselves. It is now time – high time – for the industrialised nations to do what they must do to save us and save our planet. They must cut their carbon emissions and by much more than many of them are planning to do.

“We salute the people of Europe for committing themselves to a 40 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2030. But those nations that are balking at drastic action – what I have called the coalition of the selfish – need to be prodded out of their complacency. It is five minutes to midnight and soon it will be too late.”

Prime Minister Bainimarama said, it is “morally unacceptable to sacrifice our survival to maintain the current status in the developed and emerging nations.

“And history will judge us very harshly if, at this point in time, we fail to act. To do what is necessary to save us. We who have not benefited from the riches of the industrial era, are not polluting the planet ourselves, yet who stand to lose the most,” he said, adding “we need the industrial nations to realise that if they don’t act, it will be to their ultimate cost”.

He warned, that these countries are “merely delaying the inevitable” and must now embrace “a more sustainable energy future now and the pain will be far less than having to do it later.

“Embracing a clean, green future…is actually a huge plus, a selling point for any nation in a world that increasingly values sustainable development. So I appeal to the industrialised nations to examine the clear benefits of acting now, rather than leaving it until it is all too late.”

In his address, Prime Minister Bainimarama expressed disappointment, that the European Union has not agreed to concluding negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the Pacific.

“The Pacific-ACP has an interim agreement but not a comprehensive agreement. Because the EU is adamant that negotiations on a comprehensive EPA cannot be concluded without a review of fisheries conservation and management measures. Whereas our view is that this issue – however important – should not stand in the way of a full agreement being reached,” he said.

Bainimarama said, that there is also need for a high-level ministerial meeting between the Pacific-ACP and EU not only on this issue, but the issue of Papua New Guinea’s withdrawal from the comprehensive EPA negotiations.

He said, because of this impasse, “the Pacific ACP States are effectively the only ACP States left without a comprehensive EPA. Or as some of my officials describe it – “we are EPA orphans”, and from our standpoint, we are being unfairly disadvantaged and our development impeded.”

He said, the intention of the EU’s EPAs with the ACP “was to continue its historical trading relations with these regions after the expiration of the Cotonou Agreement.

“It is all about development. And when one region misses out because the negotiations are dragging on for too long, it obviously has an adverse effect on nations such as Fiji,” he added.