Following is the full text of Prime Minister Allawi's address to the United Nations General Assembly.
ALLAWI: Excellencies, Mr. President, General Assembly, ladies and gentlemen: Peace, mercy and blessings from Allah be upon all of you.
It gives me pleasure, Mr. President, to congratulate you warmly on your assumption of the presidency of the 59th session of the General Assembly, It gives me pleasure to speak to the assembly today as the prime minister of a fully sovereign state that seeks meritoriously to restore its stature in the rank of the community of nations.
Iraq has remained isolated from the international community for a very long time. And, therefore, it was apart from the important role it deserves in the community of nations, and the Iraqi people aspire to restore that role today.
Iraq is a wealthy nation in its cultural heritage and rich history that made it a (inaudible) civilization. But the regime of Saddam Hussein and his oppression cast long, grim shadows on the sky of Iraq and traumatized and suppressed the people of Iraq for too many years.
For the change that brought down that the oppressive regime, our country and the world has become safer. And the new, wide vistas have emerged for fruitful and constructive cooperation. Quite a new landscape emerged in Iraq. Iraq now is going through a conflict that has wider-ranging repercussions on the future of our country.
It is a struggle between the Iraqi people and its vision of a future for peace an democracy, and the terrorists and extremists and the remnants of the Saddam regime who are targeting this noble dream that was nurtured by our people for a long time.
It is also a struggle of all civilized nations against those who are working to destroy civilizations and world culture. Therefore, I appeal to all representatives of countries assembled here to help Iraq to defeat forces of terrorism and help Iraq build a better future for the people of Iraq.
Mr. President, the brutal dictatorship imposed by Saddam Hussein on Iraq has wreaked havoc on the Iraqi society and brutalized and traumatized the Iraqi people.
That regime killed hundreds of thousands of the Iraqi citizens, arrested and tortured also thousands, and drove millions of Iraqis to leave their country after having been deprived of their most basic human and civil rights.
It also spoiled relations by sowing seeds of division, religious, racial and all sorts of divisions.
My words today cannot express but a minuscule scale of the oppression and suffering endured by the Iraqi people over three decades.
We have indeed discovered 262 mass graves, and we continue to find more of these graves, which proves the corruption of the Saddam regime and its lack of mercy and respect for life.
During the brutal era of Saddam Hussein, the hopes of the Iraqi people were to build a democratic and free Iraq that would ensure dignified life for its citizens. Today we have a genuine opportunity to fulfill that dream. Iraq has become now a country of laws that respect human rights, human freedom, and there is a government that embodies the diversity of the Iraqi people within the framework of a genuine national unity.
