UN General Assembly
1990

Barely had we witnessed the final throes of the East-West confrontation when we found ourselves at a new turning-point in history. A combination of geopolitics, selfish considerations, half-truths, cunning tricks and flagrant bias have brought us to our present pass. Iraq has invaded Kuwait, and Burkina Faso, like the rest of the international community, condemns that flagrant violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of the sovereign rights of a Member State. Today the situation is at worst an intolerable attack on law and justice and at best a conflict between law and justice. Nevertheless, the clear-sightedness and experience of peoples prevent them from being misled by concealed interests that by their nature are constant and unchanging. Principles that were ignored in similar situations in the past are now being cited for the sake of those interests. In the name of that clear-sightedness and experience, I should like to set forth Burkina Faso’s view of the problems that beset us and that make the struggle for justice and peace so loner and so arduous.