The picture is a sombre one, and we are all affected.

Against that sombre background, it is gratifying to note the progress made this year.

Our world has been radically transformed since the end of the cold war that sombre period that still has continuing effects.

This has increased the tensions between those two countries and given the world a sombre reminder that non proliferation cannot be taken for granted.

3. Make an effort to achieve an identical reading of our history and make a break with the sombre past in order to build a better future together

Although the world was currently facing a sombre and tragic situation there was, nonetheless, hope the hope lay in children themselves and in the mobilization that was occurring around children.

17. To this sombre picture of the health situation in Haiti should be added the tragic affair of the contaminated syrups, which caused the deaths of almost 80 Haitian children.

I very much hope that Member States will use this opportunity to bring out their observations and ideas about both the substance of our issues the sombre realities of today's world  and the process and work ahead.

The report of the Commissioner General presented a sombre picture of the economic and humanitarian conditions of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and of the refugees both inside and outside the occupied territories.

Economic turbulence, persistent poverty and environmental degradation provide a sombre background to this session of the General Assembly. So do crises and conflicts, terrorism and nuclear test explosions and, of course, the political and financial realities affecting the United Nations itself.

When we go into that work, we should be reminded of two important realities one, the expectations and dreams of our peoples for this Organization, our United Nations the other, the sombre realities in this world, which we must also feel in these halls.

The joint efforts and cooperation of all the countries falling within the orbit of the Great Silk Road can and must lead to the long awaited peace in that long suffering land and turn forever a sombre page in the history of the region.

Amidst a somewhat sombre vista of the state of education worldwide, particularly in the developing countries, Tunisia stands out generally as one of the countries that are applying a proactive and sustained policy in this area, partly thanks to the reforms of the education system which were brought together in Act No. 91 65 of 29 July 1991 (cited above).

However, as we have been reminded in countless ceremonies over the past year, we must not be complacent. At the dawn of the twenty first century, millions lack the most basic needs for a decent, dignified life. Grave human rights violations of every conceivable kind are all too prevalent. Our celebration today must therefore be tempered by that sombre reality.

Also, the growth and expansion of the incidence of poverty in Africa has contributed to the failure to achieve sustainable development on the continent. The sombre conclusions on the increase of poverty reflect, in a wider sense, the seeming lack of the required commitment by the international community to promote social progress and the qualitative improvement of the human condition, as recommended by the World Summit for Social Development.

Mr. Meyer (Canada) said that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's withdrawal from the Treaty, non compliance by the Islamic Republic of Iran with its obligations, which raised doubts about that country's real intentions, the violations which the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya had admitted to having committed and the black market in nuclear technologies in which Mr. Khan and citizens and entities from several States parties to the Treaty were involved had made the past year a sombre one.

I want to emphasize my country apos s commitment to the Charter ideals of peace, security, democracy, human rights and development. It is for the triumph of those ideals that we have struggled. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is among the few countries that from time immemorial, owing to its geostrategic placement and its vast human and natural resources, has borne the burden of a sombre history of suffering and outrageous violations of human rights and the rights of peoples.

But rather than end on too sombre a note, may I just suggest to you, to those of you who still do not understand the concept of nuclear deterrence, credible only if never used, that it may help to remember the story of the American who went into a smart shop in St. James apos s in London to buy a proper, ultra thin, tightly rolled umbrella not one of those horrid expanding things most of us carry in our briefcases.