From: hrcoord@igc.apc.org (Human Rights Coordinator)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: UN: Assistance to Pakistan
Date: 8 Oct 92 17:33:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1474400008:000:24512
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!hrcoord    Oct  8 10:33:00 1992


From: Human Rights Coordinator <hrcoord>
Subject: UN: Assistance to Pakistan

/* Written  2:41 pm  Oct  8, 1992 by unic@peg.apc.org in igc:unic.news */
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Forty-seventh General Assembly                        GA/8365
Plenary                                               7 October
1992 28th Meeting (AM)

     GENERAL ASSEMBLY CALLS FOR UN ASSISTANCE TO FLOOD VICTIMS IN
     PAKISTAN

	     Uganda, Bhutan, Bulgaria Take Part in General Debate

     Expressing "deep concern" about the extensive damage and
     devastation in
Pakistan caused by recent floods in that country, the General
Assembly this morning called upon the Secretary-General to assist
in the Government's rehabilitation efforts.

     The Assembly took that action by adopting, without a vote, a
53-Power draft, which was introduced by the representative of
Turkey.  Following the adoption of the text, explanations of vote
were made by the representatives of India and Pakistan.

     Continuing the general debate, Paul Kawaga Ssemogerere,
Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of
Uganda, appealed to international agencies to earmark resources
for the implementation of the New Agenda for the Development of
Africa in the 1990s.  The international commitment to human rights
and democracy could not be taken seriously if it was not equally
matched with a commitment to addressing the underdevelopment,
poverty and social misery of the overwhelming majority of the
world population.

     Statements in the general debate were also made by the
representatives of Bhutan and Bulgaria.

     The Assembly will continue its general debate at 3 p.m.
today.

     Assembly Work Programme

     The General Assembly met this morning to continue its general
     debate,
hearing statements by Bhutan, Bulgaria and Uganda.

     The Assembly was then to take action on a draft resolution on
emergency assistance to Pakistan (document A/47/L.2).  By that
draft, the Assembly, deeply concerned about the extensive damage
and devastation caused by the unprecedented floods in Pakistan and
noting with concern the destruction of thousands of dwellings and
the damage to major sectors of the national infrastructure, would
note with appreciation the efforts of the Government of Pakistan
to provide speedy relief to the flood victims from national
resources.  It would also commend the efforts of the international
community to supplement the efforts of the Government in relief
operations and emergency assistance.

     The Secretary-General would be called on to assist in the
rehabilitation efforts of the Government of Pakistan, in close
cooperation with United Nations organs and organizations and the
Government authorities.  The Assembly would request all States,
international organizations and other intergovernmental agencies
to extend emergency support to Pakistan to alleviate the plight of
its afflicted people, including their economic and financial
burden.
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     The draft is sponsored by Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina,
Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Cape Verde, China, Colombia,
Comoros, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Grenada, Indonesia,
Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Nepal, New
Zealand, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Suriname,
Sweden, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, United Kingdom and
Uruguay.

     Statements Made

     UGYEN TSHERING (Bhutan) said the supply of arms over the
     years had made
it possible for conflicts in Somalia and other regions of the
world to continue despite major changes in international
relations.  The results had been tragic and he emphasized the
immediate need for humanitarian assistance and resolution to the
problems.  The disappearance of the bipolar world had provided the
best opportunity for ending the arms race and bringing about
complete disarmament.  The chance to direct all efforts and
resources from the production of weapons of mass destruction
towards the service of humanity must not be allowed to slip by.
While there had been a reduction of major weapons, the production
and supply of smaller arms continued to thrive.  Developing
countries could ill-afford to spend on such unproductive and
destructive enterprises.

     The tragedies of war and conflict were not the only factors
contributing to human suffering, he went on to say.  While they
might be dramatic and require immediate attention, more suffering
was taking place daily involving millions of people.  Just as it
was important to end conflict, it was essential that the problems
of poverty be addressed.  The 1980s produced few positive results
in the field of socio-economic development and, consequently, the
livelihood of only a small number of people was better than when
the decade started.  The International Development Strategy for
the 1990s, the Cartagena Commitments agreed upon at the Eighth
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD VIII),
the Earth Summit's Rio Declaration and the Jakarta Message of the
tenth Non-Aligned Summit Conference all had called for renewed
efforts in international development in the decade ahead.

     The Earth Summit had clearly established mankind's common
stake in the well-being of the planet, he said.  It recognized
that while the responsibility for preserving the delicate
ecological balance fell on all nations, those responsible for its
degradation and abuse must be held accountable.  The planet could
no longer sustain a high level of exploitation, and there must be
willingness by those placing a high demand on natural resources to
reduce consumption.  At the same time, more resources were
necessary to improve the conditions and meet the basic needs of
billions of people in developing countries, particularly the 1.1
billion who lived in absolute poverty.
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     The high pace of population growth and the resulting increase
in the demand on resources was also a serious threat to the
environment and to the future, he continued.  Developing
countries, where 4.3 billion of today's world population of 5.5
billion lived, and where nearly all the next billions would be
added in the decades ahead, must take measures to ensure that
population and development were balanced in a sustainable manner.

     The economic strength of developing countries affected
economic opportunities for the North, he said.  The
long-established target of
0.7 per cent of gross national product (GNP) for official
development assistance (ODA) had not been reached by most donor
countries and was not likely to happen during this century.  The
question of debt still awaited comprehensive solution after more
than a decade of discussion.  Both the need for debt relief and
for additional credit must be dealt with in a fair and
comprehensive manner.  The serious imbalances in international
trade, in terms of levels of prices for commodities as well as
volume of trade, must be made more stable.  Trade was one of the
few avenues available to developing countries for progress and
must not be restricted.

     In Bhutan, he said, development activities had started only
in the
1960s.  Since then, major changes had taken place:  an effective
fiscal and financial management system; a basic network of social
services; roads connecting all population centres; and a growing
export sector composed of energy, minerals, agricultural products
had been established.  The development of human resources and the
preservation of the country's rich environment had been given
special attention.  Despite considerable progress, Bhutan's
economic infrastructure remained inadequate, and the country's
communications and transportation systems required expansion.
Bhutan had always taken responsibility for its own development,
but he expressed thanks to the many Member States, agencies and
bodies of the United Nations that had aided his country.

     One of the important issues before the Assembly was the
establishment of
a commission on sustainable development, he said.  His Government
welcomed such a commission, but considered that its mandate and
relationship to existing organizations must be very clear and its
tasks must contribute in a tangible and substantive manner to
socio-economic development.  The strengthening, revitalization and
reorganization of the United Nations must extend to all its organs
and organizations.  Reform and democratization of the United
Nations must take into account the significant historical changes
and the Organization's current membership.  There was need for a
new enlightened
balance among the principal organs of the United Nations.  The
General Assembly must be provided with more responsibility and the
International Court of Justice more authority.
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28th Meeting (AM)                                     7 October
1992

     SLAVI PASHOVSKI (Bulgaria) said that the aggressive communist
system, whose stated goal had been to taint every country on the
planet with its ideas, no longer existed.  However, people had
paid dearly for the experience.  It had ruined State economic and
social structures, worsened the environment and wasted resources
on the maintenance of an enormous military machine. The common
denominator which united those events was the wasting of the lives
of millions of people.  Violence could create empires, but it
could not safeguard them.

     Thoughts, he continued, knew no boundaries, neither local nor
international.  Thus, the best way to revitalize the United
Nations was to transform it into an organization of "united
thoughts".  The individual alone was the creator of thought and it
was individuals who were responsible for maintaining parliamentary
democracy.  Promotion and protection of human rights must be the
fundamental condition of acceptance for each State into the family
of the United Nations.  Any compromise in that regard would cost
the world dearly.

     The Secretary-General's report, "An Agenda for Peace", was
timely, he went on, and was witness to a new atmosphere in the
United Nations.  The fundamental condition of the reforms
contained in the report was the bridging of the gap between the
verbal declarations and the actual policies of States.  The
creation of a special working group to accelerate the assessment
of the responses of States Members would also be useful in that
respect.  When considering the ideas of preventive diplomacy,
peace-keeping and peacemaking, the links between international
peace, development and respect for human rights must remain
fundamental.

     The efforts of the United Nations in those areas should also
include the regional organizations, whose potential should, he
said, be better utilized.  That idea called for the building of a
system to coordinate the efforts of institutions on both global
and regional levels. However, the supreme responsibility for the
maintenance of peace would be mandated to the United Nations.  A
very useful experience for Bulgaria had been its involvement in
the work of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
(CSCE).

     Since the beginning of the Yugoslav crisis, Bulgaria had
adopted a position designed to prevent the conflict from spreading
and to encourage the collaboration of all parties with the
international community in the search for a speedy political
solution.  Bulgaria had recognized all the republics of the former
Yugoslavia and respected their wish to become sovereign States.
No one wanted to take advantage of a neighbour's difficulties for
nationalist
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ends.  It was extremely important to contain that conflict and an
additional, effective means might be the deployment of missions of
international observers.  Bulgaria was willing to accept such
missions on its territory.  The CSCE had taken a decision to send
a mission to Serbia and Montenegro to supervise the Security
Council resolutions which had imposed sanctions and an arms
embargo.

     Sanctions, he continued, also affected countries which
applied them and Bulgaria's economy had suffered considerable
losses.  Compensation programmes should be set up to help avoid
punishing innocent countries.  A Marshall plan for the recovery of
the Balkans should also be set up.

     Bulgaria was in the process of establishing friendly
relations and signing peace agreements with neighbouring States,
even Serbia and Montenegro with whom Bulgaria had historic ties.
However, the suffering, deaths, refugee problems and the barbaric
practice of "ethnic cleansing" eloquently demonstrated the need to
create an international criminal court to judge individuals.

     Bulgaria was also deeply concerned over the fate of the
Bulgarian minority in Serbia, a group which, while not directly
touched by the war, felt insecure about its future.  Bulgaria, for
its part, fully respected the rights of its Turkish minority and
its attitude towards Jews during the Second World War was well
known.

     PAUL KAWANGA SSEMOGERERE, Second Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uganda, said it was critical that
the United Nations be made more representative so that it catered
more meaningfully to the interests and aspirations of all its
Members.  The objective should be to make the decision-making
process in the United Nations, including the Security Council,
more democratic and transparent.  Uganda was prepared to examine
proposals for reform and expansion of the Security Council in
order to reflect contemporary realities which would lead to a more
equitable and balanced representation without sacrificing capacity
and efficiency.  In any restructuring of the Council, it was also
important that consideration be given to providing each major
region with a permanent member who would be designated in
consultation with the relevant regional groups or organizations.

     Conflicts driven by ethnic, religious, racial or other
sectarian differences had resulted in the loss of many lives and
the suffering of many innocent people due to displacement, the
destruction of social and economic infrastructure, the breakdown
of law and order, and the lack of food, medical facilities and
shelter, he said.  In addressing such conflicts, it was legitimate
for the international community to press for their peaceful and
prompt resolution, as well as to resort to practical mechanisms in
coming to the immediate assistance of the suffering ones.
National sovereignty should not be invoked for prevention of the
needed humanitarian assistance.

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     In South Africa, while positive steps had been taken to
dismantle apartheid, the failure of the South African Government
to prevent and contain violence, raised doubts about its
commitment to the process of fully dismantling apartheid and
ushering true democracy, he said.

     The de Klerk Government needed to take drastic steps to
control violence and to release all the remaining political
prisoners without delay.  While Uganda was agreeable to the
phasing out of sanctions in response to the progress registered,
his Government believed the international community should
maintain the necessary pressure to keep the South African
Government negotiating in good faith.

     Events in South Africa had a great impact on development
elsewhere in southern Africa, he went on to say.  Apartheid had
always been a source of destabilization for the region especially
the front-line States, with Angola nd Mozambique being the most
affected.  Uganda called on the international community to render
those States the requisite assistance for their economic recovery
and development.  In Somalia, a major problem was that the
continued fighting was making it extremely difficult to distribute
food.  Uganda appealed to the various groups in Somalia to put an
end to that conflict.  His country supported the call by the
Organization of African Unity (OAU) current Chairman, President
Abdou Diouf of Senegal, for the convening of an international
conference on Somalia.

     In East Africa, he continued, the efforts of the region's
Heads of State had gone a long way to find long-term solutions to
regional problems, in particular that of refugees.  The United
Nations should be supportive of those efforts.  As reqards
Liberia, Uganda would continue to support the initiatives of the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for a peaceful
settlement.  The groups in Liberia should cooperate with the
Economic Community's Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG) and abide
by the terms of the Yamoussoukro Accord, especially with regards
to demobilization and peaceful transition to democratic
governance.  The United Nations needed to assist the subregion in
preventing the situation from getting worse.  The conflict in
southern Sudan has been a source of anguish.  Uganda hoped that
both the Government and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army
would facilitate the international humanitarian relief effort.

     He commended the fruitful regional and international
initiatives for the resolution of the social and armed conflict in
Rwanda.  Uganda acknowledged and supported the ongoing dialogue,
under Tanzanian mediation, between the Rwanda Government and the
Rwandese Patriotic Front, in accordance with accords and
recommendations reached in regional conferences and under OAU
auspices.  Uganda appreciated the constructive and helpful role
played by the international observers in those negotiations.

     On Western Sahara, he continued, Security Council resolution
690 (1991) remained the only agreed basis for solving the problem.
It was Uganda's hope that the obstacles regarding the criteria of
eligibility to vote would soon be resolved so that the way could
be paved for holding the referendum envisaged in the Settlement
Plan.
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     In the field of disarmament, he went on to say, Uganda
welcomed the successful conclusion of the negotiations regarding
the draft convention banning chemical weapons which was due to be
submitted for adoption at the current session.  As a party to the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), Uganda
looked forward to participating in the preparation for the 1995
Review Conference which would decide on the extension of that
Treaty.  Strengthening the Treaty by removing the present
imbalances would result in increased assistance to developing
countries in the peaceful application of nuclear energy.

     Uganda was happy to see that the question of human rights had
a place of price on the international agenda.  Both in domestic
and foreign policies, Uganda gave high priority to that issue.
Uganda had embarked on a process for the enactment of a new
Constitution with built-in safeguards for fundamental human rights
and political freedoms.  Uganda looked forward to the World
Conference on Human Rights scheduled to take place in Vienna next
year.

     His Government's avowed commitment to human rights and
democracy could not be taken seriously if it was not equally
matched with a commitment to address the problem of
underdevelopment, mass poverty and the social misery in which the
overwhelming majority of the world population was trapped, he
said.  Of grave concern, was the critical economic situation in
Africa.  In response to that plight, the forty-sixth session of
the Assembly had adopted the New Agenda for the Development of
Africa in the 1990s whose objective was to accelerate the
transformation, integration and diversification of African
economies.  Uganda, for its part, was committed to the
liberalization of the economy and had enacted an attractive
foreign investment code.  Those reforms could be meaningful only
if the external economic environment was supportive and responded
positively through increased investment and trade.

     The proposed system-wide plan of action provided a framework
for the United Nations system to give a more focused attention to
Africa, he continued.  In that regard, Uganda strongly welcomed
the International Conference on Assistance to the African Child
scheduled to take place in Dakar in November, and commended the
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for the preparatory work
already undertaken.  Uganda appealed to the international agencies
to earmark resources for the implementation of the New Agenda.  In
that regard, Uganda commended the Special Programme for
sub-saharan Africa of the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD).  Also, the African Development Conference to
be held in 1993 would bring together African countries, major aid
donors and international agencies to discuss ways and means of
accelerating African economic development.

     In the report "An Agenda for Peace", the Secretary-General
outlined his proposals for strengthening the United Nations' role
in the maintaining of international peace and security.  Uganda
agreed that regional arrangements in many cases possessed a
potential for early warning, monitoring and diffusing conflict
situations.  The OAU, for example, was in the process of trying to
establish a mechanism for conflict prevention, management and
resolution.  Uganda emphasized that underdevelopment and poverty
were prime sources of conflict.  The United Nations, through its
macro-economic policy formulation
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and implementation, had played a central role in forging global
consensus on development issues.  The Organization must continue
fulfilling that function, as many developing countries were
restructuring in order to integrate their nations in the global
economy.  Clearly, development and peace were so intimately
related that they must be tackled under a common agenda.

     Action on Draft Resolution

     Introducing the draft resolution on emergency assistance to
     Pakistan,
MUSTAFA AKSIN (Turkey) said, last month, a natural disaster of
enormous proportions had struck Pakistan.  The torrential rainfall
in the northern areas had caused extensive flooding, leading to
many deaths and much material damage.  More than a thousand people
had lost their lives and tens of thousands of homes had been
destroyed.  In addition to widespread damage to bridges, roads,
railroads and telecommunication lines, some 6 million people had
been rendered homeless.  Although the Government of Pakistan had
taken urgent measures to alleviate the suffering of the victims,
it was clear that, given the magnitude of the calamity, national
efforts would not suffice.  There is a pressing need for
international assistance by Governments and organizations.

     He added that the following countries would also sponsor the
draft:  Bahamas, Bhutan, Brunei Darussalam, Cyprus, El Salvador,
Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya,
Madagascar, Mali, Russian Federation, Sudan, Uganda, United Arab
Emirates and Yemen.

     After the resolution was adopted, T.P. SREENIVASAN (India)
said his delegation had joined the consensus in support of the
resolution.  Certain parts of India had also been damaged by the
floods.  He expressed disappointment that Pakistan had made
reference to Jammu and Kashmir in its explanatory memorandum on
emergency assistance.  India's position on that question was well
known.  His Government's support for the resolution was without
prejudice to that issue.

     JAMSHEED MARKER (Pakistan) expressed his Government's
appreciation for the support expressed in the resolution.  In
response to the statement by the representative of India, he said
the issues of Jammu and Kashmir remained on the agenda of the
Assembly awaiting a peaceful solution.

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