May I at the outset
extend to you, Sir, my own and my country’s warmest
congratulations on your election to the presidency of the
General Assembly at its forty-eighth session. Your
assumption of the presidency is a singular honour for the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM). It marks the first
occasion on which a person from that region has been
elected to preside over the General Assembly. Your
presence here in the Chair therefore provides added
significance to the honour and privilege attached to the
opportunity presented to my country, also a CARICOM
State, to address this body. Knowing you as I do, Sir, I am
certain that your experience, wisdom and diplomatic skills
will guide our deliberations to successful and historic
conclusions.
Forty-eighth session - 11 October l993 17
The end of the cold war and the movement towards
democratization within the former Soviet Union and in
Eastern Europe, accompanied by the new level of entente
between the major Powers in the Security Council, have led
to a new paramountcy of this Organization in the conduct of
relations between nations. Many of the essential principles
of the Charter, too long suppressed in the presence of super-
Power rivalries, are now given the opportunity, within this
more conducive environment, to assume the importance for
which they were designed when first established as a product
of the wisdom of the founding fathers of this Organization.
The tendency towards globalization in economic, if not
in political, terms suggests an era within which consensus
and mutuality of approach will be essential for furthering
balanced and sustained global advancement. The ideal of
universality within the framework of this Organization
becomes even more important in this context. Now that the
grim obstacles which oppose the concepts of equality and
universality are being dismantled in South Africa, we are
hopeful that that country will soon be able to take its place
around this hearth of the family of nations.
It was also in furtherance of the spirit of universality
and its all-embracing purpose that Saint Lucia joined 11
other Member States of the United Nations in proposing the
inclusion of a supplementary item in the agenda aimed at
obtaining General Assembly agreement for the establishment
of an ad hoc committee to study the situation of the
Republic of China in Taiwan. That study would have
focused on the search for an equitable, rational and practical
solution that would enable the Republic of China in Taiwan
to become a full Member of the United Nations.
Unfortunately, this new but overdue initiative suffered a
temporary setback in the General Committee.
However, I find it difficult to envisage that a country of
21 million people, whose industriousness has contributed to
making their country the fourteenth-largest trading nation in
the world, can continue to be impeded from becoming a
Member of this Organization, where they will be afforded
the opportunity to discharge their international obligations
more fully. In keeping with its belief in the concept of
universality, Saint Lucia gives support to the Government
and people of the Republic of China in Taiwan in their
aspiration to become full Members of this world
Organization.
For many years now, the problems associated with the
Middle East have been considered intractable. That
unforgettable handshake, beamed to us in Saint Lucia live by
the wonders of satellite technology, was for us as much a
symbol of relief as it was a signal of hope - relief that it
perhaps marked the beginning of the end of the bloodshed,
suffering and hostility which have so plagued that region,
and hope that their end would bring us one step farther
along the path towards global cooperation through which the
future of humanity may eventually be rescued from a world
which has hitherto been seemingly drifting towards self-
destruction. My country wishes to convey its
congratulations to Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and
Chairman Yasser Arafat on this bold and courageous step in
the cause of peace against odds which, until then, seemed
insurmountable. It is Saint Lucia’s wish that this event will
ignite the spark which kindles a beacon of peace to light the
region along its way to realization of its fullest potential.
The heroic efforts of President F.W. de Klerk and
African National Congress President Nelson Mandela in
South Africa must also be praised. They have remained
unintimidated by violence and endemic opposition in single-
mindedly spearheading the creation of the Transitional
Executive Council, which at long last gives an official say
to a majority too long disenfranchised by official oppressive
dictate. This progress allows Saint Lucia fully to support the
lifting of the remaining sanctions, as called for by Mr.
Mandela. With the recent agreement on Walvis Bay and the
expectation that free and fair elections will be held in April
next year, perhaps we can soon bring to a close this sad
chapter of our history.
However, Saint Lucia is less sanguine over the situation
in some other countries of Africa. The world recession has
had an adverse effect on export revenues and therefore on
their foreign-exchange earnings and debt-settlement ability.
In addition, political strife has tended to exacerbate these
difficulties. The success of globalization in its promotion of
world economic growth depends on development which is
shared. It is important that, in the understandable
enthusiasm to do everything possible to assist with the
transformation of previously centrally managed economies,
Africa not be allowed to become a casualty of the ended
cold war.
Saint Lucia welcomes the finalization of the
demarcation of the boundary between Kuwait and Iraq,
which was accomplished by the Iraq-Kuwait Boundary
Demarcation Commission on 20 May this year. We also
welcome the adoption by the Security Council of
resolution 833 (1993), by which it guaranteed the
inviolability of the boundary between the two States. This
guarantee will serve as a deterrent against future conflict
between Kuwait and Iraq. It will also enhance stability and
security in the region. We call upon Iraq to respect the
terms of Security Council resolution 833 (1993) and other
relevant Security Council resolutions.
18 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
The firm resolve which this Organization, particularly
the Security Council, has shown in dealing with the
problems of the long-suffering people of Haiti is to be
commended. Since the adoption of General Assembly
resolution 45/2 of 10 October 1990, the United Nations has
continued to reflect the international community’s concern
and will in its several action-oriented decisions culminating
in the adoption of Security Council resolution 867 (1993) on
23 September of this year to deploy both military and
paramilitary forces in Haiti. With a return to democracy and
the application of the economic recovery programme
envisaged by the World Bank and the United Nations
Development Programme, it is hoped that Haiti will at last
begin to experience the economic development which has for
so long eluded it and which is an absolute imperative for
alleviating the long suffering of its people.
Saint Lucia is happy to have been able to contribute
actively to the process of democratization in Haiti. A team
of more than 30 Saint Lucians helped with the organization
of the electoral process and assisted in monitoring the
elections. Some 15 Saint Lucians are today serving as
monitors of human-rights abuses in that country. Saint
Lucia is therefore deeply anxious that the restructuring and
recovery process in Haiti should succeed, and we urge the
international community to maintain solidarity with President
Jean-Bertrand Aristide as he returns home to resume the
mantle of leadership of his country.
Saint Lucia is a small Caribbean developing island
State. If developing countries in general are in jeopardy,
then small Caribbean developing island countries are
exposed to double jeopardy. We are all trapped in an
international economic system which yields no quarter to the
problems and needs that are peculiar to us, and additionally
insists upon using a continental measuring rod as a gauge of
our development processes. Like castaways set adrift on the
world’s oceans, we have for some time been desperately
trying to catch the ears of those who happily stand on solid
ground. But our voices have somehow failed to carry in the
face of the biting winds of global change which have, almost
overnight, altered the very environment within which we
have been conditioned by history to survive.
It is true that the small Caribbean island developing
countries have in some cases registered important
development gains over the past 10 to 15 years, a period
which marks the attainment of sovereignty for these small
developing countries. But the gains, where they do exist,
have been achieved only by Herculean effort and should not
be interpreted as evidence that particular or even special
consideration in the granting of economic and technical
assistance is not now still needed to promote sustained
development. These gains are to be seen, rather, in the
context of the maxim: "One should help those who try to
help themselves". The graduation of the small Caribbean
island developing countries from the World Bank’s "soft
window" into net contributor status within the United
Nations Development Programme - a graduation determined
solely on the basis of an index of per capita income - is in
our case tantamount to helping a drowning man onto a raft
and then setting him adrift without a paddle.
Apart from having average per capita incomes that are
only two-thirds that of developing countries in general, the
small Caribbean island developing countries are burdened, as
a factor of scale of operations, by administrative costs which
are proportionately three times as high as that of continental
developing countries. With our natural resources limited in
quantity as well as diversity, the odds between success and
failure become marginal and purely a matter of the quality
of administration. Where no resource surpluses exist, little
room is left for mistakes. Yet, because of our small national
budgets and disproportionately high administrative costs, we
often find ourselves unable to afford the diversity and
quality of expertise required to broaden the odds.
In the case of my country, Saint Lucia, this already
precarious economic situation is now compounded by a
direct attack on the sole item of domestic exports which
virtually keeps us from sinking into the depths of economic
despair. As a primary agricultural state, Saint Lucia is the
largest producer of bananas in the eastern Caribbean. As
used here, however, "largest" is an extremely relative term.
World annual banana production is currently about 10
million tons, of which the small States of the Windward
Islands, comprising Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent and
Saint Lucia, produce less than 300,000, Saint Lucia
producing about half of that quantity. Over 50 per cent of
the working populations of these islands work in banana-
associated enterprises. Both in Dominica and Saint Lucia,
more than 50 per cent of export earnings is derived from
banana exports. Our agricultural production is completely in
the hands of many small private farmers. There is no
Government banana-production ownership and there are no
latifundia. Because of topographical constraints that
adversely affect production costs, our banana industry has
been assisted to survive primarily through the umbrella of
modest preferential arrangements made available under the
various Lomé Conventions.
Today, there are forces at work, urged on by
multinational business interests, which would seek to wrest
from us even the minuscule share - just 2 per cent of the
market - which has enabled our economies barely to weather
an increasingly hostile economic environment. In order to
Forty-eighth session - 11 October l993 19
attempt to secure that end, they have also mounted initiatives
in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), in
the European Court and within various international forums.
Apart from the serious social consequences which cannot but
follow a demise of the banana industry in these islands, it is
also to be recognized that, in order to purchase goods and
services from those very sources which advocate measures
calculated to bring about that demise, we must first earn the
foreign exchange to be able to do this. It can only be hoped
that, in the end, sympathetic understanding will prevail over
intransigence in the determination of this vital issue.
In this post-cold-war era, ideological considerations
have given way to political initiatives in the determination of
the direction of official-aid flows. The weight given to
foreign policy in deciding on foreign-aid flows means that
assistance is not always necessarily directed towards areas of
greater need, but is directed, rather, to areas with issues
which are politically topical. With a modest per capita
income which threatens the little remaining access it has to
concessionary assistance, with official financial flows
directed elsewhere, and with the main export commodity
under attack, Saint Lucia is left to wonder whether there is
in existence a concerted intention to marginalize small island
countries or whether it is merely the accident of present
world conditions that bears this responsibility. In any event,
the effect remains the same.
Political gain cannot be sustained in the absence of
complementary economic progress. Where world economic
advancement is isolated in its impact, political gain in world
terms will continue to prove transitory and incapable of
being sustained. It is true that the world has seen an
impressive political transformation in a rather brief period of
time in terms of a transition to democracy and a new degree
of cooperation in the United Nations at the level of the
Security Council. But if the price of these political gains is
an exacerbated marginalization of the small developing
countries, they will undoubtedly soon be dissipated in a sea
of economic troubles and the social disruption which
experience suggests must follow as a consequence.
The urgency of the international debt crisis may have
been defused, but developing-country debt, after reaching a
brief plateau, is again on the rise, approaching $1.5 trillion.
This situation is made more difficult by the drag on world
economic output, which is being caused partly by the
dislocation of economies of the former Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe. An expansion of world trade, coupled with
the recovery of commodity prices, lies at the foundation of
a solution to this problem. That is why we in CARICOM
are seeking to establish trading and other economic links
with our neighbours in the Latin American region and are
looking to participate in economic-cooperation initiatives
within the Americas and elsewhere.
Population growth in the developing countries, too,
though it has maintained a relatively steady rate for over a
decade, continues to increase in numerical terms, accounting
for 93 per cent global population growth, which is now
about 93 million annually. The balance between economic
and population growth must be stabilized in the interest of
human progress.
We approach the twenty-first century with world
changes which have been as rapid as they have been
bewildering. The ensuing challenge which lies before small
countries such as ours, daunting as it is because of our
slender resources, is to develop the necessary resilience to
enable us to adapt to these changes. I am of the view that
incorporated within the idea of universality is the concept of
common progress and the need to ensure that an
environment is created within which world-embracing
advancement becomes possible.
In this context, the United Nations cannot be expected
to micro-manage global change; as the pre-eminent global
20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
Organization, its resources must be enhanced to allow it to
play an even greater role as a fulcrum, both in the traditional
spheres of activity and in new areas created by the new
order of things. The United Nations is, accordingly, seen as
playing an expanded role in the economic welfare of
developing countries, including the development and
application of further initiatives to address constraints
imposed by smallness and island status.
We look forward to the Secretary-General’s agenda for
development, with the expectation that it will seek to address
the new problems and challenges which have arisen even as
some of the old issues have been, or are in the process of
being, put to bed.
Let me assure the Assembly of Saint Lucia’s pledge to
continue to cooperate fully within the institutions of the
Organization to further its objectives for the betterment of
humanity. What we lack in financial resources we can
perhaps make up in human resources. The fact that Saint
Lucia has produced two Nobel laureates in this generation is
indicative, I believe, of our ability to cooperate in the
common pursuit of the noble purposes of this esteemed
Organization.


On behalf of the delegation of Benin and on behalf of the
Government and the people of Benin, I should like to extend
my warm congratulations to Ambassador Insanally on his
well-deserved election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at this session. His unanimous election as leader
of our deliberations testifies to his abilities; it is also
represents an honour for his country and draws attention to
the role played by Caribbean countries in the international
arena.
I take this opportunity to extend my sincere
congratulations to his predecessor, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, who
Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 43
ably presided over the work of the General Assembly at its
forty-seventh session.
It is also a great pleasure and a privilege for me to pay
a well-deserved tribute to Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali,
Secretary-General of the United Nations, who effectively and
successfully heads this global Organization and who is
working intensively to restore peace and security to the
various hotbeds of tension throughout the world.
The delegation of Benin solemnly welcomes the new
States that have joined the world community to make their
contribution to respect for the common basic values of the
new society which together, we, the people of the world, are
endeavouring to build. I welcome the Czech Republic, the
Slovak Republic, Eritrea, the Principality of Monaco and the
Principality of Andorra, whose admission enhances the
universality of this Organization.
We are meeting here, as we do each year under similar
circumstances, to consider together ways and means of
promoting peace and prosperity for all our peoples.
Since the last session of the General Assembly, we
have witnessed many important events that have given the
international community as a whole new prospects and new
challenges in its quest for peace.
We welcome the fact that the confrontation between the
two blocs, which for so long had created political tension,
has today been replaced by the universal values of
democracy and equality in international relations. These
values are interdependent with economic and social
development and with the security of all States.
It is also encouraging to see that renewed confidence in
the effectiveness of the United Nations in settling conflicts
has strengthened the credibility and the capacity to act of the
Organization, opening up new areas in which it is able to
encourage the settlement of a vast range of problems that
afflict humankind.
In just five years, the tasks of the Organization in the
area of maintaining peace have increased and widened
considerably.
Despite positive developments, changes currently under
way that were designed to provide for greater freedom and
encourage the establishment of more just and more dynamic
societies have unfortunately also become the source of new
challenges and even greater uncertainty in international
relations. Each day, in one place or another on our planet,
civil wars, territorial partition, ethnic confrontations and
tribal or religious struggles demand the urgent intervention
of the United Nations.
We can see, therefore, how difficult is the task of the
Organization, which is obliged to respect a fragile balance
between the sovereignty of States and the duty to intervene.
In Europe, the political picture has changed
dramatically in just a few years. The hopes born of the
disappearance of the Berlin Wall have been virtually dashed
by another, anachronistic war in the former Yugoslavia and
by the situation in some of the States that emerged from the
disintegration of the Soviet Union, thus threatening stability
and security on the old continent.
In Africa, major civil wars continue to rage. These
wars are responsible for the untold suffering and destruction
which are hampering efforts at socio-economic development
and recovery in our continent.
Africa needs peace and security. Without them the
courageous and far-reaching reforms undertaken at the
political and economic levels cannot be successful.
The twenty-ninth summit of the Organization of African
Unity (OAU) held in Cairo in June of this year provided us
with an opportunity to adopt a mechanism for the
prevention, management and settlement of conflicts. That
mechanism is an important step forward in the acceptance of
the imperative of peace, which is so essential to
development. Indeed, conflict management remains a major
concern for our countries, as the massive movements of
refugees that result from conflicts distract us, to our sorrow,
from the paramount task of development.
West Africa, which until now has been a peaceful land
of asylum, welcoming refugees from the rest of the continent
and even beyond, is now living through a particularly
difficult time, with an unprecedented increase in emergency
situations and in the number of refugees, which in less than
four years has risen from 20,000 to 1.2 million.
Here, I would pay a tribute to the humanitarian
activities and the considerable efforts of the United Nations
to settle conflicts in Africa and elsewhere in the world.
Because of the support of the United Nations, the
Liberian conflict today offers encouraging prospects for a
peaceful and lasting settlement. The major protagonists in
44 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
the Liberian tragedy now seem disposed towards dialogue
and agreement. They met in Geneva from 10 to
17 July 1993, with the help of representatives of the
Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity and
the Executive Secretariat of the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS) and of the Acting President
of that Community, to seek ways and means of silencing the
weapons of war and restoring peace to their country. Those
present at the Geneva meeting successfully prepared a
comprehensive agreement that takes account of all aspects of
the Liberian tragedy.
In Cotonou on 25 July 1993, representatives of the
various factions and of the interim Government of Liberia
signed that peace agreement, thanks to the mediation of Mr.
Nicéphore Soglo, President of the Republic of Benin, and
Acting President of ECOWAS. Benin is pleased by the
willingness of our Liberian brothers to enter into this
agreement and by their spirit of constructive and fraternal
dialogue, without which nothing positive could have been
achieved. Benin continues to believe that dialogue is the
only way of restoring peace to this war-torn country.
We welcome the positive results thus far achieved in
the implementation of the agreement, most notably the
observation of the cease-fire by all the warring factions and
the cessation of hostilities.
In particular, the delegation of Benin welcomes the
unanimous adoption by the Security Council of resolution
856 (1993), which supports the efforts of ECOWAS and
approves the deployment in Liberia of an advance team of
30 military observers to participate in the work of the Joint
Cease-fire Monitoring Committee. We also welcome
resolution 866 (1993), which establishes the United Nations
Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL).
This Mission can be made possible only by a
mobilization of the international community to support the
efforts of ECOWAS by, inter alia, contributing to the
special trust fund, which would facilitate the dispatch of
reinforcements to ECOMOG by the African States and help
provide for the upkeep of the contingents made available to
ECOMOG by the participating States, as well as by helping
in carrying out the work of removing mines, providing
humanitarian and developmental assistance and promoting
the healthy evolution of the electoral process.
The three signatories of the 25 July 1993 peace
agreement met in Cotonou from 15 to 18 August 1993 to set
up the Council of State, the transitional executive body. The
25 July peace agreement promises finally to put an end to
the very long, devastating war in Liberia.
From this rostrum, I would like to make an appeal to
all the parties who signed that agreement, urging them to
continue to abide by the commitments entered into during
the Cotonou talks and to work with ECOWAS and the
United Nations for the proper and swift implementation of
those commitments, in order to put an end to the suffering
of the Liberian people and ensure that the national
reconciliation process will proceed to its successful
completion.
Along the lines of the solution under way in Liberia,
we should work to ensure that peace returns to Somalia,
Angola, the Sudan and Mozambique.
In Angola, for example, despite the great hopes and
expectations aroused by the agreements reached in Estoril,
Portugal, we are seriously disturbed and deeply saddened by
the resumption of hostilities following the refusal of UNITA
to recognize the results of the free elections of 29 and
30 September 1992.
Benin welcomes the change in the position taken by the
United States Government, which has now granted
diplomatic recognition to the legal Government of Angola.
This action by the Clinton Administration strengthens the
position of the international community in support of the
verdict of the ballot box rather than the compulsion of the
gun.
In South Africa, developments are encouraging. The
multipartite talks made it possible to reach an agreement on,
inter alia, the establishment of a transitional executive
council and the holding of the first democratic and
non-racial elections in the history of South Africa, scheduled
for 27 April 1994.
The Government of Benin supports the courageous and
responsible appeal by the Chairman of the African National
Congress, Mr. Nelson Mandela, before the Special
Committee against Apartheid in this prestigious Hall of the
General Assembly on 24 September 1993. He invited the
international community to lift all economic sanctions
against South Africa, except for the arms embargo. Given
the positive development that will lead this country, which
is undergoing a process of reform, to implement the
principle of "one man, one vote", the time has come for all
Members of our universal Organization to support the
peaceful transformation of South Africa.
Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 45
Benin wishes to see the African continent free itself of
all fratricidal and internal wars, of all conflicts that impede
its development. It is my firm hope that the logic of war
will now progressively yield to the logic of peace and
development in Africa.
Turning to the Middle East, 26 years after Israel’s
occupation of the Arab territories, Benin cannot but greet
with joy the historic agreement between the Israeli
Government and the Palestine Liberation Organization
granting autonomy to Gaza and Jericho.
That agreement marks the beginning of a just and
lasting peace that will allow every State in the region,
including Palestine and Israel, to live within secure and
internationally recognized borders guaranteed by the
international community. Our duty is thus to encourage the
two essential parties, as well as all parties involved, to
undertake or to continue the dialogue necessary for a
comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
In the Persian Gulf region the full restoration of the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Kuwait helped to
reaffirm the fundamental principles governing inter-State
relations. In this connection we sincerely hope that Security
Council resolution 833 (1993), on the demarcation of the
international border between Iraq and Kuwait, will be
respected by all States. Pending issues such as that of the
Kuwaiti prisoners of war must be settled so as to open the
way to fraternity, cooperation and solidarity in that
subregion.
The atmosphere of relaxation of tension which began
with the end of the cold war and which has made possible
a new spirit of consensus, inter alia in the Security Council,
is still rather uncertain for much remains to be done to
consolidate peace.
We must recognize today that the idea of peace can no
longer be based on a build-up of weapons; it must be based,
rather, on concerted efforts on their reduction and complete
elimination. The balance of terror is now yielding to a
meeting of the minds, the hearts and the actions of man.
That is why the signing of the United Nations
Convention on the Prohibition of the Development,
Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and
on Their Destruction, in Paris on 13-15 January 1993, not
only helps to strengthen international peace and security but
also offers prospects for international cooperation in the area
of using the chemicals industry for peaceful purposes.
Benin, which is dedicated to peace and economic and
social progress, urges the international community to refrain
from any military use of science so that science can be
devoted to development, and international peace and
security.
The decision by Russia, the United States of America,
the United Kingdom and France to extend their moratorium
on nuclear testing until September 1994 proves that the
Governments of those nuclear Powers are increasingly
interested in measures that will make it possible to use
scientific and technical developments exclusively for
peaceful purposes.
My country joins the rest of the international
community in congratulating the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea on the reversal of its decision to
withdraw from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons (NPT), for that withdrawal from the
Treaty would only have weakened it, given that its strength
lies in its universality.
The determination shown by Member States to move
towards the solution of regional conflicts and the new sense
of urgency over new threats to the well-being of the planet
create a historic opportunity for us to tackle the economic
problems facing all of our countries.
Indeed, this forty-eighth session of the General
Assembly is taking place against a background of general
economic crisis. In the new economic order which is
characterized by increased trade between three dominant
groups - Western Europe, North America and the Pacific-
Asia zone - Africa is virtually left out.
The developed North seems to have less and less need
of Africa’s products and Africa for its part no longer has the
means to buy the goods and services of the North. What is
more, the international community does not seem very
anxious to find a better way of dealing with the African
countries’ debt burden.
This situation cannot but lead to a slowing down in
trade on the world market and directly affect African
economies which are already suffering.
In these circumstances our survival necessarily requires
sustained regional integration so that we can be in a better
position to deal with the vicissitudes of the international
economic environment and take up the challenge of how to
develop our own continent.
46 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
In his "An Agenda for Peace" the Secretary-General
emphasized the role of regional organizations in establishing
peace and preventive diplomacy. This role naturally extends
to development too. We cannot overemphasize the
importance of integration for development.
In the case of Africa such integration is a means of
encouraging trade, investment, and research and development
cooperation among African countries.
That is why the Heads of State or Government of the
members of the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS), meeting in Cotonou from 22 to
24 July 1993, adopted and signed a revised Treaty of the
Economic Community of West African States and reaffirmed
their determination to bring a new dynamism to the process
of regional integration.
If the development of Africa is primarily the
responsibility of the Africans themselves, it is no less
important for the international community to recognize the
principle of shared responsibility and full partnership with
Africa.
In this connection we should note that the
implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the
Development of Africa in the 1990s is not living up to all
the hopes that the African countries placed in it. It is
necessary further to strengthen national capacities and to
create a climate that is favourable to development.
While Benin welcomes the study on the need and the
feasibility of the establishment of a fund to diversify African
commodities, we strongly hope that bolder action will be
taken with a view to implementing the new programme and
ensuring the input of the major financial contributions which
are necessary for the establishment of the fund in 1994.
Hence we must increase the quality and the quantity of
assistance to Africa.
In this spirit Benin will in a few days be participating
in the Tokyo International Conference on African
Development. This Conference, to be held against the
backdrop of the new world economic and political order of
the post-cold-war era, will provide the international
community with a new framework for discussing how to
reaffirm the question of Africa’s economic development as
one of the major concerns of the world today.
Our hope, widely shared by African countries, is that
the Conference, apart from adopting a declaration, will
actually lead to specific actions and commitments in support
of Africa.
The African countries also hope that the Tokyo
Declaration of 9 July 1993 of the Group of Seven
industrialized countries - which was designed to replace the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
Structural Adjustment Programme with another mechanism
that would be better adapted to the conditions and realities
of developing countries - will soon take effect.
If this new mechanism is to have some hope of
succeeding, it will have to be drawn up following
consultations with the countries that are actually
experiencing the harsh social consequences of the Structural
Adjustment Programme.
If we are to win this wager for development, to which
Africa aspires, we have to involve women and children, who
represent the majority of the populations of our countries,
and so, above all, we have to educate and train young people
and adults.
In this connection, the Government of the Republic of
Benin is actively preparing for the International Year of the
Family in 1994. We shall also be participating with great
interest in the International Conference on Population and
Development, to be held in Cairo from 5 to
13 September 1994. In addition, we wish to make a real
contribution to the preparatory work for the World
Conference on Women, which will be held in Beijing in
1995.
The fact that these various conferences are to be held
shows that matters relating to social development are
eliciting unprecedented interest in the world. This can also
be seen from the decision to convene a World Summit for
Social Development in 1995. This renewal of interest is
motivated by the profound changes in the social and political
situation in the world, and the shifting of priorities at the
State level.
Democracy cannot become stronger unless there is at
least a minimum level of prosperity for peoples. One
obstacle to this strengthening of democracy and thus the full
development of human rights is poverty, the poverty in
which the majority of our populations live.
The right to development has been ignored for too long.
It must now be regarded as a priority right, a sacred right.
Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 47
This right to development is the right to dignity, to personal
development, and is not compatible with the subhuman
status afflicting millions of human beings, particularly in
Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The right to development is a human right and a
national right, and that is why we welcome the conclusions
of the World Conference on Human Rights, which was held
in Vienna from 14 to 25 June 1993. That Conference
certainly marked the beginning of a new era which, we trust,
will witness the gradual elimination of the current
international economic order, in which two thirds of
mankind cannot meet their basic needs and in which
600 million human beings are living in almost absolute
poverty. The elimination of such poverty is one of the basic
objectives of Agenda 21. The establishment of an
International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, the first of
which will be celebrated on 17 October next, is one step in
this direction.
We can never say often enough that the major
ecological problems facing our countries today have a
planetary dimension that requires a world-wide approach.
This is why the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development, held in Rio in June 1992, made
sustainable development one of the major concerns of the
international community.
That Conference marked a turning-point in the way that
we look at our future. It must now be approached in an
integrated manner as we work on our development policies.
Agenda 21, the basic document that emerged from that
Conference, is an enormous programme of action for the late
twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It requires
Governments to adopt national strategies focused on
sustainable development, in close cooperation with the
private and public sectors.
Here I am happy to draw attention to the major
importance my country attaches to follow-up of the decisions
and recommendations of Rio. Benin welcomes the
establishment of the Commission on Sustainable
Development, which held its first session here in New York
from 14 to 25 June 1993, and we welcome the work of the
Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for the elaboration
of an international convention to combat desertification in
those countries experiencing serious drought and/or
desertification, particularly in Africa. That Committee has
already met, from 24 May to 3 June 1993 in Nairobi and
from 13 to 24 September 1993 in Geneva.
Pursuant to the Rio recommendations, on 9 to
13 August 1993 Benin held a national seminar on follow-up
strategies to implement the results of the United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development, including
consideration of chapter 12 of Agenda 21, on how to combat
desertification and the impact of drought. The seminar was
held at a time when the international community and the
development partners of the third world countries were fully
involved in thinking about what strategies should be used to
make this concept of sustainable development operational.
This seminar was proof of the political will of the
Government of Benin to abide by the commitments we
entered into at Rio.
The Cotonou seminar recommended, inter alia, the
establishment of a national commission on sustainable
development. A drafting committee for a national Agenda
21, the major guidelines for which were decided on by the
seminar, has been set up. It should finish its work by the
end of this year.
In two years, we shall be celebrating the fiftieth
anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.
The years that have passed since 1945 have been
marked by ongoing, fundamental change and by a
considerable increase in the membership of the Organization
as well as by a significant widening of the Organization’s
area of activity.
It is thus obvious that the Organization needs to be
restructured to meet our world’s current requirements. This
is why Benin supports the efforts under way to restructure
and revitalize the United Nations in its economic and social
sectors and related areas.
In the view of the delegation of Benin, the reform
should be designed to ensure better coordination of the
activities of the United Nations and wiser utilization of its
human and financial resources.
Benin, while still open to dialogue in negotiations,
endorses the view of the Group of 77, particularly on the
question of how to allocate seats on the governing bodies of
bodies such as the United Nations Development Programme,
the United Nations Fund for Population Activities and the
United Nations Children’s Fund.
In the political area, my country is willing to consider
all proposals that take account of the concerns and interests
of all the various actors, large and small, in the international
political arena at the end of this second millennium.
48 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
Reform of the Security Council is a matter of particular
importance to all Member States. Benin will follow closely
any proposal for reform that might strengthen the
effectiveness of the Council and avoid transforming it into
a forum for sterile debate or logjams or into an instrument
that benefits only a privileged few.
Before I conclude my statement, I should like to recall
that if we wish to approach the next millennium in
tranquillity, if we wish to draw satisfaction from the efforts
made so far along the tortuous and difficult path towards
development, we must do everything possible to give more
sustained attention to the principle of world-wide partnership
and the duty to show solidarity which is necessarily implied
by the new international order that now governs the
international community.
It is Benin’s wish that mankind, when it draws up its
first balance sheet of this new era, should see a drop in the
number of ills that continue to undermine the twentieth
century, namely poverty, famine, endemic diseases such as
malaria, the AIDS pandemic and its devastating human,
social and economic consequences, illiteracy, environmental
degradation, underdevelopment, and all those other ills that
beset us.
In an increasingly interdependent world, and faced with
this challenge, nations must agree to yield part - only part -
of their national sovereignty to our universal human values,
and to show greater determination to coexist despite cultural,
political, social and economic differences. Only in that way
can the world of the twenty-first century be a more
hospitable one for people, wherever they may live and
whoever they may be.


The Malawi delegation is
pleased to join other delegations in congratulating you, Mr.
President, on your election to preside over the business of
the General Assembly at its forty-eighth session. Guyana is
a sister country which is held in high regard and admiration
by Malawi. You are an illustrious son of Guyana and are
highly qualified and fully prepared to lead and manage the
enormous tasks which must be accomplished at this session
of the General Assembly. My delegation wishes your
presidency great success.
At its forty-seventh session the General Assembly
considered important and, in some cases, intractable issues.
This would not have been possible were it not for the
painstaking patience, efficiency and diplomatic skills of its
President, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, a distinguished international
jurist and former Foreign Minister of Bulgaria. The Malawi
delegation congratulates him on a job well done.
My delegation wishes to express its profound sorrow
for the considerable suffering, loss of life and destruction of
property caused by the earthquake which occurred on 29
September 1993 in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The
heartfelt and sincere condolences of the Government and the
people of Malawi unreservedly go to the Government and
the people of India as they struggle to alleviate the painful
after-effects of this tragedy.
We are thankful to God for giving Malawi good rains
in the season just ended. The drought experienced in the
last two seasons was severe and devastating in its effects.
All of southern Africa suffered terribly from this scourge.
Malawi’s economy was seriously affected by the drought,
beginning in February 1992. In 1991 economic growth was
7.8 per cent in real gross domestic product. It declined in
real terms by 7.9 per cent during 1992, which represented a
precipitous fall in real income for the people. The volume
of maize, our staple food, was only 600,000 tonnes in 1992,
down from the 1991 production level of 1.6 million tonnes.
In 1993 Malawi had a good harvest of close to 2 million
tonnes of maize. However, complete recovery from the
drought will take some time.
My delegation would like to take this opportunity, on
behalf of my Government and the people of Malawi, to
thank the United Nations system and, in particular, the
Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which were the major
catalysts in the United Nations -southern African
Development Community drought relief programme. We
also thank the bilateral donors and the non-governmental
organizations which, together, saved the day for Malawi and
the whole southern African region with massive imports of
food, medicines and other humanitarian assistance supplies.
However, the Malawi economy continues to be confronted
by a major balance-of-payments deficit problem arising from
the large volume of maize imports during the drought.
Malawi has been hosting a large number of refugees
from Mozambique, who started entering Malawi in large
numbers in 1986, and by 1992 the refugee population in the
country had soared to about 1.5 million people. The Office
of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the
World Food Programme, non-governmental organizations
and many other interested parties that have throughout been
intimately involved in this humanitarian task will agree that,
despite the severe adverse impact of hosting such a large
number of people, Malawi is managing one of the most
successful refugee programmes in the world, thanks to the
prevailing peace, which is due to stable political leadership,
good and reliable security structures and a fairly efficient
administration.
Mr. Martini Herrera (Guatemala), Vice-President,
took the Chair.
The problem of the Mozambican refugees in Malawi,
which was a consequence of the civil war between the
Government of Mozambique and RENAMO, will come to an
end as all protocols of the Rome General Peace Accord are
implemented in full. Malawi, which was represented at the
historic signing of the Peace Accord on 4 October 1992,
commends President Chissano of the Republic of
Mozambique and Mr. Dhlakama, President of RENAMO, for
signing the Peace Accord. We strongly encourage them to
continue to work closely together and with the United
Nations to ensure that peace and political stability are firmly
established in Mozambique. This is a prerequisite for the
reconstruction of that great and beautiful country to
commence and for progress to be realized in all areas of
development. My delegation is therefore fully supportive of
Security Council resolution 863 (1993) and calls on all the
parties to implement it speedily.
The Government and people of Malawi wish to see the
uninterrupted repatriation of their brothers and sisters to their
homes in Mozambique in safety and security. We therefore
call for the specific prioritization of the de-mining
programme, the demobilization of the armed forces and their
18 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
placement in the designated assembly areas, and the
finalization of discussions on the draft electoral law. The
people of Mozambique demand this, and it is also in the
vital interests of Malawi, which has suffered tremendously
from the adverse impact of the 16-year civil war in
Mozambique.
My delegation wishes to stress that the cost of hosting
over 1 million refugees not only is very high but, for
Malawi, has reached a crisis point. This cost is paid in the
displacement of Malawians from agricultural land; in
over-grazing, deforestation and environmental degradation;
in tremendous pressures and strain on the Government
administrative infrastructure, budgetary and human resources;
and, not least, in the strain on the socio-economic
infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and
water supplies. My delegation is taking this opportunity to
appeal to the donor community for assistance in all these
areas, which are crucial for the country’s sustainable
development.
The General Peace Accord in Mozambique is close to
the heart of Malawi. I therefore wish to reiterate that
Malawi will continue to collaborate with Mozambique
closely - at the bilateral level, between the Governments of
the two sister countries; through the Tripartite Commission,
whose members are Malawi, the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and
Mozambique; and through the Malawi-Mozambique Security
Commission - until the peace process has been consolidated.
Peace and the return of normal life in Mozambique will
guarantee Malawi the use of its traditional, and shortest,
routes to the sea via the ports of Nacala and Beira. The
reopening and full use of these ports will represent
considerable savings through highly reduced transport costs
and in limited foreign exchange resources.
My country undertook the most historic event since
independence by holding, on 14 June 1993, the national
referendum which was initiated by our President, His
Excellency Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda in order to give the
people of Malawi the opportunity to choose between a
one-party and multi-party system of government. My
delegation is pleased to report to this Assembly that by all
accounts, including those of the United Nations, it was a
peaceful, free and fair exercise. Sixty-three per cent of the
population voted for a multi-party system of government.
Their decision was respected and accepted by my President
in a landmark statement on 17 June 1993, which included an
announcement of his intention to amend the Constitution to
allow for the formation of political parties, to call for a
general election in a year’s time and to declare a general
amnesty to enable political exiles to return home and
participate in the political process.
My delegation takes this opportunity to convey to the
Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the gratitude
of my Government and the people of Malawi for the
assistance the United Nations system provided in making the
national referendum exercise a resounding success.
Intergovernmental organizations such as the European
Community and other bilateral donors also provided Malawi
with invaluable assistance during this period. My
Government is most grateful to all of them. What has
happened in Malawi demonstrates beyond question the
repeatedly stated commitment of my President and his
Government to peaceful reforms, good governance, human
rights and democratization. Those who did not believe in
the seriousness of this commitment have been proved totally
wrong.
For the last 29 years of its independence, Malawi has
been preoccupied with socio-economic development, which
is rural-based in its reality, as a matter of sustained and
deliberate Government policy. The country had no other
choice because it is completely agricultural, with a large
small-holder agriculture component as its backbone. The
political leadership consistently and untiringly preached the
doctrine of respect for the land and farming to the ordinary
people in the villages throughout the country. This has paid
off in the disciplined commitment the Malawi people have
to farming. As a consequence, over the years a large
proportion of donor financing has focused on the agricultural
sector.
Allow me to take this opportunity to thank, on behalf
of my Government, all the multilateral donors - the Bretton
Woods institutions and the African Development Bank,
among others - and the bilateral cooperating partners for the
unremitting assistance they have given Malawi, enabling it
to implement successfully its agricultural programmes and
projects over these past years. Without this assistance, it
would not have been possible to achieve the sense of
discipline and respect for farming that is now consolidated
in the people of Malawi, which confirms a vision that the
Malawi leadership has carried out with practical zeal and
tenacity.
Regrettably, in the very recent past, Malawi’s modest
achievements in the agricultural sector and the economy in
general have had to go through severe and unpalatable
shocks well beyond the Government’s control, such as the
drought and refugee problems. But, more than that, the
economy has had to cope in the past year with the sudden
Forty-eighth session - 12 October l993 19
suspension of donor assistance by the Government’s
developed partners. Consequently, the country’s balance-of-
payments financing requirements were badly affected and
this disproportionately imposed considerable negative results
on the economy’s performance. For example, private-sector
firms performed far below capacity and the financing of
almost all agreed development projects stopped suddenly and
completely. Malawi is small, poor and landlocked. It is
also in the category of least developed countries, with a
population of only about 9 million. Malawi could therefore
hardly sustain or cushion this kind of massive damage to its
economy. Its external debt burden soared, its terms of trade
deteriorated badly and the livelihood of the ordinary men,
women and children in the villages was badly affected.
The issues of human rights, good governance and other
conditionalities that were behind these actions by the donor
community have now, I am happy to say, been dealt with
decisively, each one in an irreversible manner and, where
applicable, by Act of Parliament. For example, due process
of law is firmly established and in practice in Malawi.
There are no political detainees in any of its prisons. The
International Committee of the Red Cross is workinq closely
with the Government, and has already visited all prisons and
made recommendations for improvements where this has
been found to be necessary. There is freedom of expression
in the country. As I speak, over 20 newspapers and
magazines are in circulation. So far, six political parties
have registered and are bracing themselves for the
forthcoming general election.
At present the Malawi Congress Party, which is
continuing to rule the country until the people elect a new
government, has, together with other political parties in the
country, established the National Consultative Council and
the National Executive Committee, which have clearly
defined powers to oversee the transitional process in the run-
up to the general election. Each of the political parties,
including the Malawi Congress Party, has equal
representation on the National Consultative Council and the
National Executive Committee. Those institutions ensure
and guarantee that there is dialogue between and among
Malawians, who discuss and resolve whatever differences
may exist on the issues affecting the transition. Those
institutions replace the President’s Committee on Dialogue
and the Public Affairs Committee, which were established
immediately after the referendum and, in addition, are
designed to work closely with the Government and the
National Parliament. The United Nations, particularly
through its Electoral Assistance Unit in the Secretariat here
in New York and through the Centre for Human Rights in
Geneva, has been a catalyst in this whole transitional
process. My Government is therefore most encouraged,
being convinced that the peace and stability that have existed
since the holding of the national referendum will continue
until and after the forthcoming general election, which is
expected to take place some time in May 1994.
These positive and irreversible developments I have
described give my Government the confidence that all its
bilateral- development partners and its major multilateral
donors will fully resume development assistance flows and
balance-of-payments support to Malawi. This, we hope, will
be done without further delays, in the interests of reviving
the economy quickly and reducing the severe damage it has
sustained and the unnecessary continued suffering of its
people.
The Malawi delegation is grateful to the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), in particular, because it
was the first to confirm, in a report to its Governing Council
at its fortieth session, in June, that there existed in Malawi
an enabling political, economic and social environment to
implement its Fifth Country Programme. The Malawi
Government has no need to prove its abiding commitment to
development. Allow me, therefore, to take this opportunity
to appeal to the donor community not to reduce its pledges
of funding to the UNDP. To do so would have catastrophic
effects on the whole democratization process, on the ongoing
field programmes and projects and also on the successful
projects being implemented under the Fifth Country
Programme.
At this juncture the Malawi delegation wishes to
reaffirm its unwavering support of the recently adopted
Tokyo Declaration on African Development, which
represents the first concrete action and commitment of the
United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa
in the 1990s. Malawi, a least-developed country, would also
like to take this opportunity to lend its unwavering support
to the Programme of Action for Least-Developed Countries,
which found its expression in the Declaration issued by the
Ministers of Foreign Affairs of least-developed countries
when they met here in New York on 30 September 1993,
and to the Declaration of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of
the Group of 77 that was adopted on 5 October 1993. We
hope that the donor community will respond positively and
act accordingly on these specific problems affecting the
developing countries. Their decisive resolutions are pivotal
to the role of the United Nations in development and integral
to the call issued in General Assembly resolution 47/181 for
the Secretary-General to prepare a comprehensive report on
an agenda for development and for the Assembly to discuss
it in its preliminary form at this current session.
20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
Malawi is not oblivious of the wider political
atmosphere that is affecting international relations and
causing serious problems with regard to peace and security.
The desperate situation and horrendous scenes of the civil
war in Bosnia and Herzegovina represent one such example.
It is the strong conviction of the Malawi Government that
peace is the only answer to the unending violence we are
witnessing in the Balkans. There is an extremely urgent
need to end the suffering of the people there - innocent men,
women and children. My delegation strongly supports all
efforts of the United Nations and the European Community,
and those of other parties, to resolve the problem through the
ongoing negotiations in Geneva and elsewhere. The problem
is a human catastrophe, notwithstanding its tragic, historical
roots.
With regard to Somalia, my Government is of the view
that the Somalis should resolve their problems themselves.
However, the prerequisite for realizing that objective is to
establish and consolidate peace throughout Somalia and to
help create processes that will make it possible for the
country to reaffirm its sovereignty. Tremendous
humanitarian-assistance achievements have already been
made to alleviate the plight of the Somali people, who are
suffering from hunger, starvation and death in the midst of
mayhem, anarchy and the complete collapse of civil
authority. The United Nations and the international
community, through the contributions of selfless non-
governmental organizations and all nations - particularly the
United States, which has contributed troops under the United
Nations flag - deserve to be thanked for bringing Somalia
back to life. In the view of my delegation, it is imperative
that the United Nations and the international community be
allowed to complete this wholesome task by establishing
conditions for peace and civil authority based clearly on the
Addis Ababa agreements of 27 March 1993. The Malawi
delegation fully supports the present United Nations role in
Somalia.
Similarly, it is the strong conviction of my Government
that the present situation in Angola calls for strong and
dramatic action by the international community. The United
Nations has been selfless in what it has done in Angola,
where the untold suffering of women, children and the
elderly goes on unabated and is indeed completely
inexplicable and totally unnecessary. The Malawi delegation
calls upon the Organization of African Unity, the United
Nations and the signatory Powers to the Bicesse Peace
Accords to compel the UNITA leadership to come to the
negotiating table with the Angola Government to establish
peace, security and stability in the country. My Government
fully supports Security Council resolution 864 (1993), which
has now been put into effect. Dr. Savimbi and the UNITA
leadership must not ignore international concerns and the
content of that resolution. They must honour and respect the
results of the United Nations-supervised general election,
which by all accounts was free and fair.
With regard to the situation in South Africa, the Malawi
delegation wishes to put on record its complete support for
the historic agreement by the Multi-Party Negotiating
Council in Johannesburg, whose successfully negotiated
transitional institutions have now been enacted into law by
the parliament in Cape Town. Those institutions are
designed to oversee and control the influential factors in the
run-up to the general election on 27 April 1994. I refer in
particular to the Transitional Executive Council and to the
Independent Broadcasting Authority, the Independent Media
Commission and the Independent Electoral Commission.
My delegation takes this opportunity, on behalf of the
Malawi Government, to congratulate all the parties on the
Negotiating Council and, in particular, the African National
Congress and Mr. Nelson Mandela, its President, and the
President of South Africa, Mr. Frederick de Klerk and his
National Party. It has been a very long haul to reach this
historic stage, and the imperative is therefore clear, namely,
that all possible assistance by the United Nations, the
Organization of African Unity, the European Community,
the Commonwealth Secretariat and friendly Governments
and people of good will must now be intensified in order to
remove all forms of violence, ensure that the general election
takes place on 27 April 1994 and that a non-racial,
democratic government is installed in South Africa, based on
the will of the majority of its people.
My delegation welcomes the historic agreement on
mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) which was signed on 13
September 1993 in Washington, D.C. It provides a
framework for lasting peace in the Middle East, and in the
view of the Malawi delegation, it deserves all the support it
can receive from all well-disposed sources. History dictates
that this should be so. This agreement is a prerequisite to
international peace, security and political stability beyond the
Middle East.
The PLO/Israel peace agreement is yet another
demonstration of the dramatic changes in international
relations that have taken place in the last three to four years,
following the collapse of communism and the end of the
cold war. It is in this context, that my Government is
optimistic that the still unresolved major international
political issues will be similarly dealt with, issues such as
Forty-eighth session - 12 October l993 21
the problem of North and South Korea and that of the
People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China on
Taiwan. In the view of the Malawi delegation, the time has
now come for serious consideration to be given to the
eligibility of the Republic of China on Taiwan to become a
Member of the United Nations. We cannot talk about
human rights and the universality of the United Nations
while in the same breath ignoring the existence of over 20
million people in the Republic of China on Taiwan.
Finally, allow me to make observations on two
pertinent issues. First, my delegation welcomes the recent
pronouncement by the United States delegation on
supporting the membership of Japan and Germany in the
Security Council. This announcement is definite recognition
that the time has come for representation in the Security
Council to reflect the changed international political scene
and reality as well as geographical balance. The Security
Council must not only be transparent in its decision-making;
it is a political necessity that it also reflect what the world
is today, and not what it was 48 years ago. There is no
other organ in the United Nations today which makes such
momentous decisions affecting international peace and
security. My delegation is therefore strongly of the view
that Africa equally deserves to have a permanent seat or
equal and balanced representation of some kind, in the
Council. The Malawi delegation looks forward to the
expected deliberations on this issue, which will inevitably go
beyond the life of the forty-eighth session of the General
Assembly.
Representation on governing councils of the respective
United Nations agencies and bodies is another important
subject before the General Assembly at this session, in the
context of the reform, restructuring and revitalization of the
United Nations in all its aspects. My delegation supports a
negotiated approach to the points of disagreement between
the developing countries and their partners in development
as a whole. The only way forward is for the two groups to
work together and arrive at a consensus by the end of
November 1994. My delegation will support the view taken
by the Group of 77 on this issue, when it comes to a
conclusion in due course.
I wish you, Sir, and the Assembly fruitful deliberations.


It is with profound pleasure
that my delegation conveys greetings and best wishes from
the Government and the people of Grenada to the United
Nations General Assembly at its forty-eighth session.
My delegation is pleased to extend sincere
congratulations to you, Mr. President, on your election to the
presidency of the General Assembly during this forty-eighth
session. We are especially pleased because you create
history by being the first person from the region to which
Grenada belongs to hold the prestigious post of General
Assembly Presidency, coming as you do from our sister
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country, the Republic
of Guyana.
My delegation takes this opportunity also to commend
Mr. Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria for the excellent manner in
which he conducted the Assembly’s proceedings at its forty-
seventh session. My Government also wishes to extend its
commendations to the Secretary-General,
Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his indefatigable efforts in
the service of the Organization.
The Grenadian delegation is pleased to extend a warm
welcome to the six new Members of the United Nations:
the Czech Republic; the Republic of Slovakia, Eritrea,
Monaco, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and
Andorra.
Forty-eighth session - 12 October l993 15
The problems of developing countries are still daunting.
Every country must try to help itself. My Government
continues to pursue its own economic structural adjustment
programme, with which the people of Grenada have shown
great understanding and cooperation. But prolonged
difficulties in the economic sector can give rise to attitudes
and conditions that can adversely impact upon social
development and administrative capacities, and so my
delegation calls on the international community to show
greater flexibility in assisting the adjustment process of
Grenada and other countries experiencing economic
conditions similar to Grenada’s.
Poverty, debt, inadequate resources, marginalization and
the lack of secure markets for our products deal serious
blows to social, economic and political stability. Further, the
impact on small, undiversified economies from liberalizing
trade regimes and regional trading blocs has been shocking.
The fact is that free trade is not always synonymous with
fair trade: factors of size, resource endowment and levels of
development must be duly considered in settling trade
relations. This is particularly so with small, open, primary-
producing economies, where one serious natural disaster,
such as a hurricane, can devastate all the fruits of our
national labour invested in bananas, cocoa and nutmeg.
In this scenario, concessioned trade is very much
needed to produce anything like a level playing field.
Developing countries will not progress on sympathy; they
require equity. Small countries such as Grenada cannot do
it all alone. We need assistance for diversification, for
development of our human resources and for the
implementation of sustainable development.
The United Nations Conference on Environment and
Development (UNCED) has placed before the world a wide
range of challenges for managing the environment in a
sustainable way. Developing countries, in particular small
island nation States, like Grenada, are anxious that all
Governments should move faster to effect the programme
laid out by UNCED’s plan of work on sustainable
development, Agenda 21.
Greater emphasis needs to be placed by donor agencies
on training, as well as on technical and financial assistance
to developing countries to aid in sustainable forestry and
agricultural practices. My delegation is convinced that the
problems of the environment cannot wait. Grenada is
particularly pleased with Agenda 21’s special recognition of
the peculiar difficulties confronting the development of small
island developing States and with the Global Conference on
the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing
States (SIDS), arising from that recognition, that will be held
in Barbados in April and May 1994.
It is Grenada’s sincere hope that that Conference will
serve to generate a better understanding of the challenges
and predicaments confronting small island developing States,
and that it will produce the necessary partnership and
establish a sound path to their sustainable development.
Much of the important negotiations preparatory to the
Conference remains incomplete. My delegation is concerned
that the success of the Barbados Conference may be
jeopardized unless an intercessional mechanism is arranged
to provide for the advancement of the negotiations prior to
April 1994.
Grenada joins the rest of the world in rejoicing over the
success of diplomatic perseverance in Afghanistan, El
Salvador, Nicaragua, Cambodia and Haiti. Grenada is,
however, highly disturbed by the renewal of politically
motivated violence in Haiti. Grenada will continue to rally
behind the United Nations and the Organization of American
States in their efforts to restore democracy and stability to
Haiti. Grenada welcomes the Governors Island negotiated
settlement aimed at restoring to Haiti the legitimate
Government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. We
support the establishment of an international constabulary
force in that country. We call on all in Haitian society to
give democracy and peace a chance.
Grenada wishes to record its satisfaction over the
historic attainment of formal recognition between Israel and
the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). We further
applaud the signing of the Palestinian autonomy agreement
between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. It
is a long-awaited peace initiative which will pave the way
for the continued peaceful negotiation of tougher issues.
Such a step will, in the long term, contribute to making the
Middle East and the world a more peaceful place.
Grenada welcomes the peace agreements initialled
between Israel and Morocco and between Israel and Jordan
as steps in the right direction.
Grenada welcomes the finalization of the demarcation
of the boundary between Kuwait and Iraq, which was
accomplished by the Iraq-Kuwait Boundary Demarcation
Commission on 20 May 1993. We also welcome the
adoption by the Security Council of its
resolution 833 (1993), in which it guaranteed the
inviolability of the boundary between the two States and
called for respect for that resolution.
16 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
My Government is, on the other hand, perturbed by the
continuing wars in other parts of the world, such as the
former Yugoslavia, Liberia, Somalia and Angola. We are
alarmed at the lack of respect for United Nations peace--
keepers and aid workers, and call upon all sides in such
conflicts to turn to peaceful negotiation and respect for
human lives.
The promotion of democracy and the enhancement of
human rights must be vigorously pursued. The process of
democratization has to be entrenched. My delegation,
moreover, looks forward to welcoming to the United
Nations, in the near future, the Republic of China on
Taiwan. With its 21 million people, the Republic of China
on Taiwan, has, over the past 20 years, progressed
economically, socially and democratically to the point where
it can no longer properly be kept out of the United Nations.
The Republic of China on Taiwan has established diplomatic
relations with a number of countries and has significantly
contributed to the uplifting of the struggling economies of a
great number of countries and the development of their
peoples. Surely, these impressive achievements eminently
qualify the Republic of China on Taiwan for admission to
this Organization.
Peace and democracy reaching areas new to them has
noticeably been resulting in the deflection of aid to them, at
the expense of traditional stable democracies. That newly
emerging democracies have to be given due attention cannot
be denied, but this cannot be wholly at the expense of the
old democracies. The peace dividend accruing from the end
of the cold war and the halting of the arms race should be
expansive enough to nurture new democracies without
abandoning old ones to unnecessary and far-reaching social
and societal conflicts. After all, the issue of development is
no less important than the issue of peace.
International peace presupposes domestic quietude in
the States making up the community of nations. This
requires continuing emphasis on human-resource
development and the enhancement of cultural and social
amenities in such areas as education, health and housing. In
this regard, Grenada insists on the protection of the rights of
the child, enhancement of the rights of women and the
strengthening of the family unit. The pursuit of the human
race must be the nurturing of peace by the ending of
discrimination and the enhancement of equality, whether
between sexes or races, or with regard to social origins,
religion or whatever other differences might have been
created through ignorance or arrogance. As we in Grenada
say "A child is a child".
My delegation welcomes the establishment of a
criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It is with great
concern that the world has witnessed men, women and
children being massacred in that region in the name of
ethnicity and religion. Grenada takes this opportunity to
encourage the establishment of similar tribunals in areas
where they may be necessary.
Such cooperation as the world is seeing today in
restoring democracy and civil and political rights to citizens
of warring countries ought to be extended to the field of
international criminal activities. Grenada stands ready to
collaborate with other countries in putting a halt to such
activities as illicit drug production, trafficking and
consumption and money-laundering and their associated ills.
These tend to decay the moral fibre of a society and drain
already scant resources in efforts to combat the menace, thus
frustrating national development processes. Grenada has
accordingly enacted legislation giving effect to the United
Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs
and Psychotropic Substances, of 1988, providing for the
forfeiture and confiscation of the proceeds of crime,
outlawing moneylaundering and promoting bilateral and
multilateral cooperation in the fight against these menaces.
Grenada is very pleased that the South African
Parliament has agreed to establish a Transitional Executive
Council, which is expected to allow the black majority to
participate in the governing of their country. We received
with joy the news that 27 April 1994 has been set as the
date for the election of a Government in South Africa in
which South Africans of all races, colours, beliefs and
genders will participate. We applaud the efforts that have
been made by the Government of President De Klerk and
the African National Congress of Nelson Mandela to usher
in genuine democracy in South Africa. We encourage all
South Africans to give full support to that progress.
Throughout the world, people are looking towards the
United Nations for solutions to their political, economic,
ethnic and social problems. The freeing of the United
Nations from ideological tensions has made this possible; but
we are aware that the United Nations must now be
restructured, the better to meet these ends. The composition
of the Security Council should be re-examined, with new
permanent seats on that Council being allotted to such
countries as Japan, without current permanent membership
being affected. Also, additional seats should be added.
Further, an appropriate mechanism is needed to establish
adequate oversight and accountability in the United Nations.
The capability of the United Nations to conduct
peace-keeping should be enhanced and rationalized.
Forty-eighth session - 12 October l993 17
World security requires all of us, nations great as well
as small, to make extra efforts to attain and maintain peace
and democracy for development. As a community of
nations, let us therefore work diligently and tirelessly to
attain these goals.