Several delegates addressed regional conflicts and refugee issues during the second day of the general debate at the United Nations General Assembly in United Nations on Wednesday.[Special coverage]
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan said the more than three-and-a-half decades of conflict and chaos in Afghanistan "have had grave security and economic consequences for Pakistan."
"Almost 3 million Afghan refugees, to whom we opened our homes and hearts, remain in Pakistan," he said, "We hope to see them return to Afghanistan, voluntarily and with dignity."
President Donald Tusk of the European Council said no challenge highlighted the power of fear and conflict more clearly than refugee protection and massive displacement across borders, a crisis which the European Union had confronted over the past few months.
The EU's actions had been driven by empathy and a readiness to help those in need and its commitment to assist would remain a top priority, Tusk said. Having spent billions of euros in humanitarian assistance, it would spend much more in years to come.
Aung San Suu Kyi, state councilor and foreign minister of Myanmar, pointed out that recently the world has focused its attention on the situation in her country's Rakhine State troubled by an ethnic and religious conflict.
"We are committed to a sustainable solution that will lead to peace, stability and development for all communities within the state," the Nobel laureate said.
"To buttress our efforts to address the issue ... we have also established an advisory commission on Rakhine State" chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, she said. The mandate of the nine-member commission will cover humanitarian, development, basic rights and security issues in Rakhine State.
President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia initiated his remarks by reminding delegates that after more than half a century of internal armed conflict, "the war in Colombia has ended."
He said that since an Aug. 24 agreement was reached in Havana for a cease-fire beginning Aug. 29, there hasn't been "a single death, a single wound, a single bullet fired."
The conflict-ending agreement is to be officially signed in Colombia's Cartagena on Monday, and is expected to be approved in a plebiscite on Oct. 2.
"America, the vast American continent, with all of its islands, from Patagonia to Alaska, is now a zone of peace!" Santos claimed.
The general debate of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly opened here Tuesday and runs through Sept. 26, with a theme of "The Sustainable Development Goals: a universal push to transform our world."
