We were deeply shocked
when we heard about the earthquake that took place last
night in the Republic of Indonesia. On behalf of the
Government and people of Suriname I offer our deepest
sympathy to the victims and their families on this sad
occasion.
On behalf of the Government and people of the
Republic of Suriname, may I first warmly congratulate
you, Sir, on your unanimous and well-deserved election
to the presidency of the fiftieth session of the General
Assembly of the United Nations. We have no doubt that

under your distinguished leadership and with your
experience this session will achieve its aims. As you
preside over our deliberations at this crucial juncture in
history, you can be assured of our wholehearted cooperation
as you fulfil your task.
Permit me also to express our gratitude to your
predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Amara Essy, for the very
able and competent manner in which he presided over the
forty-ninth session.
May I also take this opportunity to express our deep
appreciation to the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-
Ghali, for the exemplary manner in which he is fulfilling
his tasks during these challenging times. He deserves our
admiration and gratitude for the important role he plays in
guiding this unique world Organization.
I am especially pleased and honoured to greet Palau as
a new Member of the United Nations family. Suriname is
looking forward to close cooperation with this friendly
nation in our common efforts to attain the noble goals of
the United Nations Charter.
Before I continue, I should like to express the feelings
of sincere sympathy of the Government and people of the
Republic of Suriname for the Governments and peoples of
Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica,
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and other territories in
the Caribbean for the great destruction sadly caused by
Hurricanes Luis and Marilyn.
We are living in an era in which the ending of the
cold war has removed the risk of a nuclear nightmare and
has given us hope that a new atmosphere of cooperation
between States will emerge. If we could show the necessary
political will, this new atmosphere should provide us, now
and in the coming decades, with a unique opportunity to
focus our attention on the solution of many problems,
problems which pose serious threats to international peace
and security and which hamper efforts to achieve sustained
economic growth and sustainable development.
In some instances the international community has
made good use of these changing circumstances and has
found common approaches to problems affecting us all.
Experience during the last few years, however, has revealed
that our world is still characterized by unfairness and
injustice, and that the gap between the developed countries
and the majority of developing countries is widening. As a
result the number of countries in crisis or in near crisis is
increasing. Consequently, political instability, an increase in
extreme poverty, social exclusion and social disintegration
are on the rise in many developing countries, causing
despair and endangering peace and security both
nationally and internationally.
The developing world has on many occasions
underlined the need to pay particular attention to the
elimination of the ever-widening gap between the
countries of the North and those of the South and to the
establishment of a new equitable and just international
economic order.
During several specifically focused international
conferences organized by the United Nations, an appeal
has been made to the developed countries to fulfil their
obligations to meet official development assistance targets
and to help to create an international economic and
political climate conducive to sustained economic growth
in developing countries.
Unfortunately, the response to our appeal has not
fully met our expectations. It will therefore remain our
priority to continue with concerted efforts to convince our
developed partners that honouring their commitments and
creating favourable economic conditions are also in their
own interest, because there will be no durable peace and
stability in the world as long as the majority of the
world’s population cannot fulfil its basic needs.
Another disturbing event on the present international
scene is the eruption and spread of many serious violent
conflicts and the increasing danger to international peace
and security which these conflicts harbour. Such is the
case as we witness the prolonged violent action in former
Yugoslavia. These conflicts are the cause of terrible
tragedy, as is evidenced by the extermination of tens of
thousands of people, the casualties suffered by the civilian
population, the destruction of the economic and social
infrastructure, the displacement of people from their
homes, and the lack of shelter, food and medical
facilities. Finding a solution to these conflicts which will
serve the common interests of all parties involved will
remain a major challenge for the United Nations.
A few days ago the warring parties in the former
Yugoslavia signed an agreement which we hope will
signal the beginning of the end of the tragic war being
waged in that area. We appeal in the strongest terms to
all parties involved to take advantage of this momentum
and engage in meaningful negotiations in order to reach
a peaceful settlement which will silence the guns now and
for all time.
2

In Mozambique, Angola and, recently, Palestine we
have found proof that seemingly sworn enemies can resolve
their differences through peaceful means. The Government
of Suriname is therefore very pleased with the recently
concluded accord between Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) and commends both for
their efforts to restore peace in the Middle East. We know
that the healing process will be slow and that there are
many obstacles to overcome, but we are sure that peace
will finally prevail over violence, chaos and misery.
The accelerated globalization of the world economy,
dynamized by a technological revolution during the course
of the last decade, has led to important changes in
production structures and world trade. These changes affect
the terms of trade of many developing countries.
Other developments, such as the successful conclusion
of the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations and
the emergence of mega-trading blocs and free trade zones,
have led to changes in the political and economic thinking
in our region in the search for new ways of adapting to
these shifting circumstances. The recent formation of the
Association of Caribbean States and the decision by the
countries of the Western hemisphere to create a continental
free-trade zone by the year 2005 can be seen as proof of a
very strong commitment to regional cooperation by our
respective Governments.
To further our commitment to regional cooperation,
the Government of Suriname took two steps of historic
significance: Suriname became the fourteenth member State
of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in July and was
a co-founder of the Association of Caribbean States.
Suriname is ready to make its contribution in these regional
bodies in order to attain economic prosperity for its people
and to preserve and strengthen its democratic traditions and
values.
Just a few years ago, at the Rio Conference, we, the
Member countries of the United Nations, established as a
primary concern the need to ensure a rational balance
between realizing legitimate national goals and safeguarding
the well-being of future generations through the protection
of the world’s natural resources. Furthermore, we promoted
the awareness that development must be sustainable and
that sustainability requires due attention to both
environmental and economic and social factors. The need
to achieve economic development on terms compatible with
the conservation of the environment is a priority objective
for my country.
Suriname is blessed with an impressive, rich tropical
rain forest covering approximately 80 per cent of its total
territory. This makes our forest one of the main natural
resources for fostering development and guaranteeing
welfare and prosperity for our people. Hence, the
exploitation and alternative uses of the forest have always
been among our primary economic activities.
My Government promotes sustainable management
of the forest, which allows for its economic utilization,
but at the same time our primary concern is to ensure a
rational balance between our legitimate socio-economic
goals and the protection of the health and well-being of
future generations. Within our limited technological
capabilities, we are trying to fulfil our obligations to
preserve the biological wealth of the forest.
Our responsibility and commitment in this area are
reflected in my Government’s policy of stringent
protection for approximately 1 million hectares of forest.
This is accomplished through the creation of 13 nature
reserves and one national park and through additional
plans to add half a million hectares of forest to the nature
reserves in the short term. Hence, in the near future, 10
per cent of all Surinamese territory will be protected.
Another important step taken by the Government in
the sphere of sustainable use of the forest, guaranteeing
the preservation of biodiversity, is evidenced by the
National Assembly’s ratification in July 1995, of the
United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.
Furthermore, the results of the recently concluded
negotiations with potential investors will be submitted to
our National Assembly for approval. In accordance with
the agreements reached, our forest will be exploited only
according to the so-called Celos management system, as
developed in Suriname and accepted internationally as the
best form of forest management.
I should not fail to share with the Assembly our
concerns over the problem of illicit traffic in drugs,
especially since we, unfortunately, as a transit country,
have attracted much of this unlawful and damaging trade
as a consequence of our service economy, the present
financial and economic crisis and our geographical
situation.
Illicit traffic in drugs poses special security problems
for countries like ours, with hundreds of miles of
unguarded shorelines and inadequate resources to match
the super-modern equipment to which drug traffickers
have access. Because of its operational methods, which
3

have no regard for frontiers, this form of modern
aggression has become one of the most serious types of
international crime. It must be combated in all its various
phases and manifestations.
Recent drug enforcement operations in our region have
shown that firm action in the struggle against drug
trafficking at the national level can be successful and that
with concerted action it is possible to break up the main
networks of drug traffickers. Indeed, this success stands out
as a ray of optimism and hope, overcoming the temptation
to yield to discouragement and pessimism in this area.
Unfortunately, it is not enough for one country or a
few countries to be victorious because drug trafficking is an
international crime which threatens mankind in every corner
of the world. It is capable of offsetting the efforts of
Governments to eradicate this scourge. Moreover, it is
linked to activities such as arms trafficking and terrorism,
while its repercussions are no longer merely social and
economic but pose serious threats to political and social
stability. However, to eradicate this multifaceted scourge
once and for all, we need — now more than ever —
enhanced regional and international cooperation that is
effective and constructive and that complements the efforts
of individual countries.
My country will persist in the struggle against illicit
drug trafficking because this struggle represents a moral
commitment, not only to the Surinamese people but to all
people, especially to the children and young people,
affected by this scourge.
The experience gained by the Government of
Suriname in the field of development cooperation reveals
the supportive role of the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund,
the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations
Development Fund for Women and other agencies in the
development efforts of Suriname.
Recently, our per capita income and the adjustment of
the indicative planning figure for 1995 and 1996 were
revised by UNDP. That revision offered us substantive
additional support for the implementation of activities
planned within the framework of the national development
strategy, in particular effective activities related to the
structural adjustment programme, the public sector reform
programme and the regional integration programme.
On behalf of the Government and people of Suriname,
we would like to express our gratitude to the
Secretary-General and his staff for their efforts to
promote greater involvement of the United Nations in
fostering development in Suriname. We are looking
forward to the continuation and enhancement of closer
cooperation with the operational arms of the United
Nations system.
Suriname is aware of the need to make the United
Nations an effective instrument for the international
community in the quest for sustainable development and
durable international peace and security.To this end, the
finances of this world body should be streamlined but,
above all, the restructuring efforts should reflect today’s
international economic and political realities. In this
regard, Suriname favours the enlargement of the Security
Council as regards both permanent and non-permanent
members. The increase in the number of permanent
members should not however involve developed countries
only. Hence we support expansion through the inclusion
of permanent members selected also from developing
countries which are able to contribute to the maintenance
of international peace and security and which have
already expressed their desire to become permanent
members of the Security Council.
Suriname became the 144th Member of the United
Nations family in November 1975. This year we will
celebrate the twentieth anniversary of our independence
and also the twentieth anniversary of our membership of
this world body. Twenty years of experience as an
independent nation and as a Member of the United
Nations have revealed to us that the principles enshrined
in the Charter still remain the cornerstone in relations
between States.
My country has therefore on various occasions
pledged its commitment to the observance of these
principles. In the past, even before we gained
independence, citizens from Suriname were called upon
to defend these principles — in some cases, regrettably,
with their lives. Today, on behalf of the Government and
people of Suriname, on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary
of the United Nations, I would like to acknowledge the
valuable contribution that these brave men and women
have made to the maintenance of international peace and
security.
At present, Suriname is part of the efforts by the
international community, through the United Nations, to
restore order and democracy and to foster prosperity in
Haiti.
4

When called upon to do so, Suriname will always
contribute, through the United Nations, to the endeavours
of the international community to make our world a better
place in which to live.


Allow me at the outset, Sir, to express my
satisfaction and that of my delegation at the President’s
election to guide our deliberations. We have strong ties
with Portugal, based on the many cultural values that we
have historically shared on the fertile soil of the Ibero-
American community. For this reason, it is a great pleasure
for me to offer Don Diogo Freitas do Amaral our sincerest
cooperation and to congratulate him in advance, by virtue
of his well-known qualities, on his successful leadership of
this memorable fiftieth session of the General Assembly.
The delegation of Panama wishes to take this
opportunity to express to the Secretary-General, Mr.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, our recognition of the skill,
intelligence and dedication with which he is fulfilling his
responsibilities at the head of our Organization.
This fiftieth anniversary has been a year rich in
events. Under the leadership of the United Nations, there
have been two major world gatherings — the World
Summit for Social Development at Copenhagen and the
Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing — which
have focused the attention of the world on matters that
are highly complex and difficult because of their cultural,
social and political implications.
It is gratifying to see that these meetings have
fundamentally mobilized women, who are increasingly
occupying their rightful role, and that the Conferences
have contributed enormously to convert the quest for a
solution to the problems of the family and of children into
the responsibility of us all, and into a moral imperative
that transcends the healthy differences between us.
Panama values as a substantive result the hopeful
consensus and the important guidelines agreed upon.
We reiterate the responsibility of Panama in the
Non-Aligned Movement, as well as our readiness to
attend the Summit at Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, to
contribute to the necessary review, just as we greatly
value our participation in the Group of 77. In this context,
we reiterate our deepest solidarity with the least
developed countries, with which we are cooperating
within our means.
My delegation is convinced of the need to bring this
Organization up to the level of its new and growing
responsibilities, and to adapt its functioning, its
procedures and its structures to the new conditions that characterize contemporary international society. We are
convinced that this is a feeling shared by all Member
States, and we believe that existing differences will in due
course be resolved.
Panama is following with great attention the
discussions taking place in the Working Groups on the
Security Council, on the financial situation, on the
supplement to “An Agenda for Peace” and on the “Agenda
for Development”. In particular, and in accordance with
decisions taken in the Rio Group, Panama believes that the
increase in the membership of the Security Council should
aim at correcting existing imbalances in the regional
distribution of membership, as well as changing its
procedures and working methods, so that the Council can
function in a transparent way, in keeping with the letter and
spirit of the Charter. In this context, we support the
admission of Germany and Japan as permanent members of
the expanded Security Council.
We are convinced that the expectations of the
international community for renewed action by the United
Nations can be satisfied only if the financial crisis
confronting the Organization is overcome in such a way as
to allow it to respond to the mandates of Member States.
We are particularly concerned at the consistent trend
towards a reduction in funds for development and
cooperation programmes, as well as proposals to reorient
food programmes towards emergency assistance
programmes.
We consider the review and indefinite extension of the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)
to be of extreme importance, together with the approval of
provisions for its periodic review. As a State party to the
Treaty of Tlatelolco, which establishes the first nuclear-
weapon-free zone, and as a coastal State of the Pacific,
Panama wishes to reiterate the Declaration of the Rio
Group regarding the resumption of nuclear testing, because
that practice has a negative impact on the delicate
compromises that this subject involves, as well as the
Group’s readiness to continue to negotiate treaties for the
total prohibition of such testing, as well as the production
and use of chemical and biological weapons.
Likewise, we vehemently reject all forms of terrorism,
wherever they exist, as well as expressions of racism and
intolerance, which are incompatible with our status as
members of the human race. Respect for human rights is
and must be a fundamental part of the new universal ethics,
which my country has accepted as an integral part of our
value system and which my Government is completely
fulfilling.
We are profoundly concerned at the overall situation
of the African continent, whose peoples deserve the best
of destinies. Nonetheless, we are extremely pleased to
underscore the admirable example offered to us by the
South Africans who, moving beyond racial or cultural
motivations, in a long and heroic effort that has caused so
much suffering, have put an end to the most odious form
of discrimination — apartheid. The difficulties involved
in meeting, living together and working as equals in an
atmosphere of tolerance and cooperation cannot conceal
the important contribution being made today by the
leaders of that Republic under the inspiring leadership of
President Mandela, to whom we wish to accord a special
recognition for having constructed the democratic
foundations of a multiracial and multicultural nation, fully
incorporated into the international community.
In the Middle East, particularly in Palestine and in
Israel, we are delighted to see the efforts of two
Governments and their respective leaders and peoples
who are struggling tirelessly to consolidate the peace
agreements and to move forward in building lasting
peaceful coexistence. Our country wishes to add its voice
of encouragement to all the forces involved in this
exemplary commitment, which contributes so much to the
strength of the United Nations system and to international
ethics. Panama, a defender of the rights of the Palestinian
people and a sincere and constant friend of the Jewish
people, as well as of the Arab peoples, believes it is
appropriate for the international community to begin to
adjust the direction of its own decisions in order to
strengthen what is new, to lend greater force to that
which unites us, in order to encourage those who desire
peace.
Inspired by these events, the Member States of the
United Nations should recognize the recent achievements
that have been made and further encourage the parties to
the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina to find the
political will to arrive at firm, lasting agreements that will
spare their own peoples the suffering and pain of being
innocent victims of war, of racism and of intolerance. The
United Nations peace-keeping forces must be respected
and protected, because this is what their noble mission
demands and because this has been the decision of the
community of nations. The same message applies to other
areas of the world that are threatened by violence, or that
are subject to breaches of the peace.

I believe it is appropriate to refer to the request made
by a large number of States, including Panama, to include
the item of the special situation of the Republic of China in
Taiwan on the agenda of the fiftieth session of the General
Assembly. Panama supports this request because it is
interested in the unification of China. But since that
eventuality is as yet unforeseeable as regards the “when”
and “how”, we are convinced that both parties should
coexist and participate jointly in the international
community with equality and mutual respect. Panama, as a
coastal country of the Pacific, and completely sovereign in
the inter-oceanic Canal whose neutrality opens it to
peaceful use by all nations of the world, desires friendship
with all States and wishes to normalize its relations with all
users of this inter-oceanic passage.
The Torrijos-Carter Treaties provide for the
culmination on 31 December 1999 of the process of the
return to Panama of the inter-oceanic canal and adjacent
facilities and the agreed withdrawal of the troops and
military facilities of the United States. This exceptional
diplomatic and political event constitutes an example of the
peaceful and just settlement of disputes between a world
Power and a small country, which today have excellent
relations of friendship and cooperation based on trust and
mutual respect, as is appropriate for two States committed
to efforts to consolidate prosperity, peace, security and
democracy on the continent.
The regime of neutrality of the Panama Canal, in
establishing freedom of transit for ships, without
discrimination, promotes the strengthening of an
interdependent world with an increasing trend towards
international cooperation. It also provides in our hemisphere
a concrete example of a system of collective security which
ensures the peaceful uses of that inter-oceanic canal,
openly, on equal conditions, both in times of peace and in
times of war, for ships of all flags and nations of the world.
From this rostrum we reiterate the invitation to States
Members of the United Nations to adhere to the Treaty
concerning the Permanent Neutrality and Operation of the
Panama Canal.
We are and shall remain the Western hemisphere’s
key to the immense Pacific. President Ernesto Pérez
Balladares’s recent successful tour of Asia, following his
attendance at the Quito Summit of the Rio Group, and his
acceptance of the invitation of the President of the United
States to go to Washington reflect the desire to reaffirm
clearly our decision to establish the closest political,
diplomatic and commercial relations with all nations in the
geographic arc from Japan to Australia, through the
Philippines, and including all the other coastal States of
the Asian continent. In keeping with this, we are
interested in being admitted to the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation Council, as is appropriate for a country that
is essentially maritime and commercial.
We therefore wish to continue to be the point of
convergence, the meeting-point, of races, cultures and
civilizations. We wish to continue to express our natural
historical and geographical calling, which inspired the
Amphictyonic Congress of Panama of 1826, initiated by
Simón Bolívar, the Liberator, and which later made
possible the emergence of the Organization of American
States, the United Nations, the Contadora Final Act and
the Rio Group — cornerstones of agreement, dialogue,
peace and regional and universal democracy.
This explains that our openness to the Caribbean
basin, in entering the Association of Caribbean States, our
incorporation into the Central American Integration
System and our admission to the Andean Group as a
permanent observer are basic to our foreign policy, which
involves intense activity to create bonds of integration and
cooperation in the framework of fruitful, open
regionalism. In this context, we believe it extremely
important to express our encouragement for the efforts
being made by the Secretary-General and his Group of
Friends in the negotiations aimed at bringing peace at last
to the noble people of Guatemala. We welcome the fact
that Contadora is once again becoming a point of
reference in the painstaking negotiation of national
conciliation for that fraternal people. Panama is honoured
to have hosted very recently the parties that reached the
initial agreements to bring lasting peace to Guatemala.
We welcome the achievements of the European
Union and its members, and recognize the value of its
important contribution to international cooperation. We
encourage it to complement this contribution by
intensifying trade with our own country and our region
through renewed readiness to facilitate access for our
products to its markets. We are conscious that Panama is
a bridge not only to the Pacific, but also to the Atlantic,
which opens up new opportunities with the States of the
European Union. We are following with optimism and
attention developments in the countries in transition, with
which we wish to have close relations and increased
exchanges.
Panama, which is today a stable and secure
democracy respectful of human rights, with a Government
that represents with full legitimacy a people determined
3

to shape for itself a great future of peace and well-being,
wishes to remain the cross-roads of international trade, open
to all parts of the world, where, in an era of globalization
and market integration, the goods and services that are the
principal wealth produced by nations can circulate.
Because of everything we are and everything we wish
to remain, we are here today to share the opportunities that
arise from a new situation, which, because it is not imposed
by the manifest destiny of others, promises to open up
paths towards a great future of cooperation and integration
with the region and the world.
Panama is particularly proud to invite the members of
the international community that use our inter-oceanic
waterway to join us in September 1997 in our capital for
the Universal Congress on the Panama Canal, where all the
direct and indirect beneficiaries of this marvel of the
modern world can see the progress in the smooth transfer
of the administration and control of the Panama waterway
at the end of this century, and consider its modernization
and enlargement so that in the twenty-first century it can
continue to be the most efficient, most competitive and
safest means of maritime transport for the exchange of
merchandise and products vital to the economies of many
countries of the world. Recognizing the importance of this
matter, the General Assembly, at its third plenary meeting,
held on 22 September 1995, made it agenda item 162 for
the fiftieth session, under the title “Universal Congress on
the Panama Canal”.
We invite representatives to participate with us in the
development of the infrastructure of transport and trans-
isthmus communications to serve the continent and the
world, with the creation — already under way — in our
country, on the banks of the inter-oceanic Canal between
the Pacific and the Caribbean, of a large port for the
storage and handling of goods, which will complement the
operation of the modernized Panama Canal. We also invite
representatives to participate in the City of Learning
project, a great international centre for the exchange of
cultures and knowledge, being promoted by our country on
the banks of the Canal.
We also wish to say that we have offered the
American hemisphere our territory and all the infrastructure
and installations necessary to establish a multilateral centre
to combat drug-trafficking and related crimes. Panama
raised this matter at the recent Summit of Heads of State
and Government of the Rio Group, which endorsed the idea
and has put it to the President of the United States, Bill
Clinton, because we believe that we can succeed in this
enormous struggle only if all countries coordinate their
plans and actions. At the same time, we strongly support
the holding of a second international conference against
the use of and illicit trafficking in drugs in order to deal
with a problem that has become universal in scope.
Panama, as a founding Member of this Organization
and a signatory of the San Francisco Charter, has been
with the United Nations for its 50 years, carrying on with
it step by step, day by day, observing its magnificent
achievements and its great difficulties, which for some are
overwhelming. But this is not a time for fear or regrets;
it is a time for new endeavours, a time to promote new
forms, ways and means of international cooperation, with
a view to generating, by cultivating the complementary
development of our national individualities, the cultural,
economic and human resources that can enable us to be
free of poverty and backwardness and to open an ever-
broadening road to understanding, tolerance, peace and
prosperity as we enter the third millennium.


In this changed world that came out of the
Second World War — more global and interdependent —
Uruguay wishes to reaffirm its confidence in the vital role
played by the United Nations in the preservation of peace
and in solving the main problems affecting the world, and
it wishes to confirm the validity of the enlightened
principles of the Charter, as sound today as they were 50
years ago.
During this period of time, Uruguay has brought the
message of its people and its Government to this
Assembly and to the peoples and the Governments of
brotherly countries throughout the world. The content of
that message has never varied: our conviction that
international peace can be achieved only through strict
observance of international law and resort to peaceful
means of resolving conflicts; our certainty that only a
democratic system and scrupulous respect for human
rights can ensure the full spiritual and material fulfilment
of the individual; and our unfailing trust in this
Organization, to whose creation Uruguay contributed half
5

a century ago and to which we have given, and will
continue to give, its broadest support.
Through all these years Uruguay has consistently held
to those principles, contributing with its initiatives and its
votes to consolidating peace and ensuring that law and
justice take precedence over all else. We were the first to
accept without any conditions whatsoever the mandatory
jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. We are a
party to most instruments for the protection of human
rights. We have contributed to peace-keeping operations
since they first began, and Uruguay is the United Nations
Member contributing the greatest number of contingents
relative to its population and the size of its armed forces.
New realities and new international circumstances
mark the post-cold-war world, and the United Nations has
had to adapt its functions to the new demands, responding
to external circumstances through an imaginative
application of the Charter, which has kept the Organization
alive and valid throughout its history and has saved it from
obsolescence.
The international community today faces
unprecedented situations. Ethnic and religious
fundamentalism, international terrorism and drug trafficking
may not be new phenomena, but they have taken on fearful
dimensions by virtue of their access to powerful sources of
financing and the use of weapons of mass destruction. This
makes it necessary for the international community to
organize itself efficiently to combat them, even on the
battlefield of modern technology. In addition, these factors
are combined with new political phenomena, such as the
dismembering of multinational States, which has unleashed
age-old ethnic and religious rivalries. These facts, together
with the increase in the number of members of the
Organization, most of them developing countries, and the
lead roles played by certain States and regions, justify a
reform of certain institutional aspects of the Organization.
All Charter reform or constitutional development
resulting from established practice should tend to increase
the effectiveness of the Organization, avoiding at all costs
resorting to formulas which limit its response capacity or
which enshrine new inequalities among its Members.
On previous occasions, Uruguay has spoken in favour
of an expansion of the Security Council, seeking greater
democratization in that organ, which is vital for the
maintenance of balance and world peace. But the changes
made must ensure that while achieving greater transparency
and representativeness in that body, that do not have a
negative impact on its functioning and efficiency.
In any event, the need to carry out institutional
reforms should not lead us to blame the frustrations and
failures of the Organization on the fact that the
instruments for carrying out its tasks are not appropriate.
Whenever the political will of States was used to resolve
problems, the Organization was able to achieve its
objectives without there being any need to change its
structure or operation. Our efforts at reform,
consequently, should not lead us away from our
immediate duty, which is to face with our current means,
imperfect though they may be, the serious conflicts which
are affecting international peace.
We cannot but refer in the first instance to that
which affects the countries that emerged from the former
Yugoslavia. It has been hard for some of the parties to
understand that while a negotiated solution is difficult, a
military solution is impossible.
In the meantime, the civilian population continues to
suffer through the years — a population which has
become a permanent target of military action and the
victim of brutal manifestations of racial intolerance.
Behind this tragedy, and to a certain extent explaining it,
lies the sad realization that United Nations resolutions are
not being complied with by some of the parties. We
believe that the Organization should step up its action,
making maximum use of the political and legal
mechanisms available to it under the Charter, to prevail
upon Governments and authorities, directly or indirectly
involved in the conflict, to respect and abide by decisions
adopted.
There is no doubt that the road to peace may present
extraordinary difficulties but it is never blocked entirely,
as may be seen from the negotiations to put an end to the
long and exhausting crisis in the Middle East. We must
warmly congratulate those who have decided to replace
weapons with constructive dialogue, and express our
admiration for the intelligence with which these
negotiations are being conducted, especially the
persistence and inspiration with which the parties attempt
to overcome, not only the extreme complexity of the
problem, but also, above all, the violent opposition which
has tried to sabotage the peace process, resorting to the
most cowardly and inhumane of means. The results are
still far from satisfactory but they are also far from being
negligible. The international community is also duty-
bound to encourage these efforts. This General Assembly
6

can contribute to this by avoiding including in its
resolutions on this item language which may have been
appropriate in the past, but which may be irritating at a
time when a genuine spirit of peace prevails among all the
authorities concerned.
The instruments for the second phase of the interim
agreement on Palestinian self-rule has been another
landmark in the peace process, which the parties in question
have been promoting with great resolve. With the signing
of this historic agreement in Washington, we can say that
we are closer to lasting peace in that tormented region.
There is a common thread which runs throughout these
conflict situations. It is an element which makes those
situations possible and which worsens them, and that is the
availability and sophistication of weapons. The international
community will not be able to prevent breaches of the
peace or avoid their far-reaching implications in terms of
the loss of human lives and destruction, unless concrete
measures are adopted with regard to regulation of the
manufacture and traffic in weapons. It is our duty to
revitalize the mechanisms which have been established to
this end, and to create new negotiating bodies, were that to
be necessary, to achieve concrete results.
Many developing countries, including Uruguay, a few
months ago decided on the indefinite extension of the
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as a
way of consolidating the process of progressive
disarmament in this field. We did so in the conviction of
the good faith of the nuclear Powers, which argued in
favour of the extension. Unfortunately, after that,
underground nuclear tests have continued by some Powers,
which has led our countries to lose confidence in the
instruments we signed, and has left us with a feeling of
frustration and perplexity.
A few days ago in New York, concerned over the
seriousness of the situation with regard to those tests, the
countries signatories of the Treaty of Tlateloco in Latin
America and the Caribbean and the countries signatories of
the Treaty of Rarotonga in the South Pacific, which
established nuclear-weapon-free zones, condemned this
situation and reiterated the need to put an end to all types
of nuclear tests so as to create a favourable climate for the
conclusion of the comprehensive nuclear-test ban treaty,
which is being negotiated at the Conference on
Disarmament in Geneva.
While the end of the cold war has reduced political
tension and the risk of global confrontation, there are other
developments today that are more insidious but no less
threatening to the peace and well-being of nations, such
as drug-trafficking and terrorism, and a lethal combination
of the two. Uruguay, where fortunately we have not seen
the worst manifestations of this problem, has taken part
and intends to continue to participate intensively in the
cooperative efforts to prevent and punish such acts and
related crimes, in order to remedy their adverse effects
and to attack their social consequences. We support the
convening of an international conference on narcotic
drugs to focus on a comprehensive approach to the
problem, including the consumption, the production and
the trafficking of drugs, related crimes and the social and
economic aspects of the problem.
We are also undertaking maximum efforts to
promote concrete national actions to counteract and fight
against this problem, which could threaten our peaceful
existence and the stability of our institutions.
On another subject, for some time now the factors
which adversely affect the economic growth of
developing countries have been identified and decried.
Their nature and causes and effect have been examined,
and formulas have been discussed and proposed to solve
those problems, or at least to reduce the intolerable gaps
which exist in today’s economic world. After so many
years of discussion, the overall picture remains
unchanged, although mention could be made of some
isolated cases where dynamic centres of development
have emerged. The situation of the less advanced sectors
of mankind, where poverty and resulting hunger prevail,
where there is illness and illiteracy, this continues to be
an unacceptable idea.
The process of globalization of the world economy
and the economic opening that has been developing at the
global level in recent years have helped us to modernize
some of our production structures. Nevertheless, the
instability of the world’s financial markets poses a
permanent threat to our economies. The transfer of major
financial resources to and from our markets causes great
instability in capital flows in the world, leading to
concern and uncertainty, and threatens the accumulated
efforts of our peoples to establish a more just, more
orderly and more stable economic system.
Given this situation, we need to find new
mechanisms to create a more stable international financial
system and a way to predict potential financial crises that
do not impose regulations that hinder the capital flows
needed for growth and investment.
7

The Group of Seven has pointed to the need to update
the way in which the Bretton Woods Institutions operate in
the financial sphere. Our countries are willing and entitled
to participate in alternative strategies to reform these
institutions that are vital to a world economy as globalized
as it is today.
The establishment of the World Trade Organization
marked the end of the longest and most complex
negotiations of recent years and a new stage of international
trade. If this new stage is going to lead to a more equitable
distribution of international trade, all States, particularly
those with the largest share in trade, must abide by the new
rules of the game. Uruguay hopes that these rules will be
respected, that protectionist policies and subsidies will
disappear and that barriers impeding international trade
liberalization and growth, especially trade in agricultural
products, will be broken down, as agreed in Marrakesh at
the conclusion of the Uruguay Round of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
We recognize that as the international situation stands
our development will largely depend on our own efforts.
We attach great importance to international cooperation for
development, but are aware that our problems will not
disappear merely through external assistance. Today, the
major challenge before us is the need to increase know-how
and to apply it to development. Today, the only
comparative advantages are those derived from scientific
and technological progress, and a country’s relative
competitiveness will be directly linked to its ability to
generate, adapt and apply its know-how and to provide
permanent training for the population.
In this context, the countries of the Common Market
of the South, known as MERCOSUR, are aware that
according to the new world scheme integration processes
are a fundamental aspect of an ability to compete efficiently
with other economic blocs. We are promoting integration in
the context of a philosophy of open regionalism. We are
not trying to turn MERCOSUR into an ivory tower — quite
the contrary, because as we strengthen and expand it we are
trying to promote links with other countries of the region
and looking for common ground while respecting the
particular nature and modalities of each country.
We are also trying to strengthen ties with other areas
of the developing world, in particular with our fellow
countries of the South Atlantic region. In this context,
Uruguay reaffirms the importance of the Zone of Peace and
Cooperation of the South Atlantic that was solemnly
declared pursuant to resolution 41/11 of 27 October 1986.
In this framework, we fully share the aims of this
declaration and see the zone as an important instrument
for promoting cooperation in scientific, political, technical
and cultural areas.
We are convinced that security and development are
inseparable and interrelated, and that any progress in
terms of meeting the objectives of the zone will
strengthen cooperation between the States of Africa and
of the Southern Cone of America. This commitment is all
the more evident in the support given by the States of the
zone for the peace processes in Angola and Liberia and
the Bicesse and Abuja agreements respectively.
Unsolved global problems continue to weigh heavily
on our agendas. There is general solidarity with regard to
environmental protection, because we have clearly seen
what is at stake, namely our common destiny, and have
recognized that this is a task we must work at together.
Unfortunately, this solidarity has still not been translated
into concrete and effective action with a real ecological
impact. The physical deterioration of the planet continues
unabated.
Showing its concern for environmental matters and
its willingness to cooperate effectively and tangibly with
the joint efforts of the international community, the
Government of Uruguay has offered to host the second
meeting of the contracting parties of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held
during the second half of 1996.
As a coastal country in the southern part of the
planet, Uruguay is particularly sensitive to certain forms
of environmental degradation such as the depletion of the
ozone layer, climate change and the contamination and
improper exploitation of the resources of the South
Atlantic.
Uruguay views the results of the Conference on
Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks
as highly auspicious. We hope that the draft convention
adopted will be approved in the near future and obtain the
ratifications needed to secure its entry into force, in
particular by the countries most heavily involved in
catching the fish covered by the convention. In this
context, Uruguay expresses the hope that the 1982 United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which our
country is a party, will be ratified as soon as possible by
the countries that have not yet done so. The general
application of the new law of the sea embodied in the
Convention can only be of benefit to all States. The
8

system of protection and preservation of the marine
environment and conservation and exploitation of its
resources are just two of the many benefits to be expected
from its universal application.
In conclusion, Uruguay reiterates its opposition to the
unilateral application by one State of economic or trading
measures against another State and therefore urges that an
end be put to the economic, trade and financial blockade of
Cuba.
I wish to end by conveying the Government of
Uruguay’s pleasure to the President at his election to
preside over the work of the General Assembly in the
fiftieth anniversary year. We congratulate him on his
eloquent address on the assumption of his post and share
the views expressed therein. We are aware of the
Organization’s financial situation, but let us not make the
mistake of thinking that savings should be made by cutting
assistance and cooperation in the sphere of development,
taking development in the broadest sense of the word. For
every dollar we take away from this field, we shall have to
spend two on peace-keeping operations.
If we wish to speak in economic terms, it is cheaper
to prevent conflict than to have to resolve it later. Clearly,
the primary responsibility of the United Nations is to
resolve conflicts, but it is much more important to prevent
and avoid them. Can a price be put on human life?
I wish to reiterate that Uruguay, faithful to its peace-
loving and democratic tradition, will continue to participate
in the task of building a world free from violence, poverty
and intolerance — the world envisioned 50 years ago by
the founders of this Organization.


On the eve of the
fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, the
representatives of the world’s nations are gathered here
with hearts full of hope for a better future, as well as for
the cause of the peace and prosperity of mankind, in an
atmosphere of great enthusiasm and animation.
The Afghan nation, in spite of the immense
difficulties it has encountered, shares that optimism with
many of the nations represented here, as well as
confidence in its ability to overcome those challenges.
War and conflict always bring with them miseries
and devastation. The last 17 years have taught our
children only to differentiate the various sounds of guns,
rockets, tanks and mortars, rather than teaching them
literacy or providing them with basic nutrition, security
and peace of mind.
We turn to this world family, as an institution
dedicated to the cause of humanity, the self-determination
of nations, human rights and democracy, to pronounce
6

itself opposed to the forces aiming to create a bloodbath in
an already devastated Afghanistan.
When I return to my homeland — the home of 1.7
million martyr graves, tens of millions of unexploded land-
mines, 2 million disabled people, hundreds of thousands of
orphans and widows — I am expected to be carrying
answers as to why this world, which claims to be
committed to human rights and justice, has remained a
spectator of the sufferings of Afghans, brought about by
foreign interference. Why, in spite of the complete peace,
security and tranquillity prevailing in the capital for many
months past, have the United Nations offices unjustifiably
abandoned us by remaining outside?
Our people find it astonishing that in an era of such
developed mass communication, which leaves no distance
between different corners of the globe, the apparently
insurmountable difficulties — in particular, the actual
causes of the continuing imposed war — are not
understood. I am confident that there are people who
clearly see the factors contributing to the continuation of
the conflict. There are forces that insist on seeing our
political system subordinated to their political and economic
designs and policies. This is the actual source of the
conflict.
The crisis in Afghanistan is often perceived as a
subject of academic studies. Some call this a civil war in a
society that they consider “fragmented”. Others look at it as
the scene of a contest, a struggle for power. Yet others try
to find the roots of the conflict in the ethnic and tribal
composition of the country. The truth is far more clear:
whatever it is, it is not a civil war; nor is it a tribal or
ethnic conflict; it is an imposed war.
We have learned from history that our existence
depends on our unity. We, like many other nations, want to
live in peace and security, as well as benefit from economic
development, welfare and democracy, which will be
available only in peaceful circumstances. We want to live
in peace with our neighbours and to engage in good-
neighbourly relations. We leave it up to the astute observers
of the United Nations and the impartial analysts of the
world community to judge the efficacy of the United
Nations in alleviating the sufferings in Afghanistan.
The year 1995 opened with good omens for
Afghanistan. The country witnessed positive changes
towards peace and political stability. Following the removal
of the sources of danger from the southern part of the
capital, the people of Kabul found a moment of peace after
years of being rocketed indiscriminately. Every day since
mid-March an average of about 3,500 refugees
returned home — mostly to the capital — according to
the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR). Prices fell sharply. Goods and
services became plentiful in the markets. The Government
reopened 156 schools for girls and boys, and the
universities reopened in an atmosphere of security and
peace.
Official delegations from the United States,
Switzerland, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the
Republic of Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan,
Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Tajikistan, the Russian Federation,
Uzbekistan, the People’s Republic of China and the
Sudan, as well as many international organizations and
others, came to Kabul. High-ranking Afghan delegations
also travelled abroad.
The Islamic State of Afghanistan even won an
opportunity to take steps towards peace and regional
security. Among the Tajikistan peace mediators, Professor
Burhan-ud-din Rabbani, the President of the Islamic State
of Afghanistan, accomplished the most. We remember
that his peace initiative conduced to unprecedented and
positive changes regarding the civil strife in Tajikistan.
Kabul city, for the first time, hosted direct talks between
His Excellency Imam Ali Rakhmanov, the President of
Tajikistan, and Sayed Abdullah Nouri, the leader of the
Islamic Revival Movement, representing all the Tajik
opposition. In a historic press conference the two leaders
embraced each other and agreed on a longer-term cease-
fire.
Confidence-building measures were taken on the
basis of domestic endeavours between Afghanistan and
the opposition. The Islamic State of Afghanistan, with the
aim of putting an end to all problems in the country,
presented to the United Nations a peace plan, on most of
whose items there emerged, for the first time, a sense of
agreement among all sides. The plan pledged to the nation
the convening of a Grand National Assembly — Loya
Jirga, as we call it — within a year. The Islamic State of
Afghanistan, while leaving to the United Nations Special
Mission the question of the creation of an appropriate
mechanism for the convening of the Grand National
Assembly, promised to agree to the participation of the
opposition groups in the current Supreme State Council
and in the present one-year-term transitional Government
until the convening of the Grand National Assembly.
7

As a result of these proposals the people of our
country and of the region felt more optimistic about the
return of peace to Afghanistan. However, those needlessly
afraid of an independent, stable and self-reliant Afghanistan
sought to change the course of events to coincide with their
own interests. They once again used the made-up Taliban
group — whose actual identity and character and the
sources of whose funding and arming are yet to be made
known to most of the members in this Hall — equipped
with arms, light and heavy, from across the border of our
country and with air power. Ironically enough, they recently
chose to target the west of Afghanistan, which, according
to earlier statements of Ambassador Mahmoud Mestiri,
head of the United Nation Special Mission to Afghanistan,
was the best model of healthy administration, order,
stability and people’s welfare.
Intent on exposing the Islamic State to instability,
military intelligence services across the border tried hard to
unite the opponents of the State under a single command.
They boosted the Taliban mercenaries with their own
frontier militia. Thousands of those being trained across
Afghan borders launched attacks against the Shindand air
base and a number of other western provinces of the
country, including Herat, as a result of which the peaceful
city of Herat was on 5 September turned into a place of
occupation, chaos and insecurity. A great number of
civilians lost their lives. Tens of thousands were forced to
leave their houses. The bands of the so-called Taliban, or
religious students, began their rule by closing schools for
girls and the universities, as well as banning women from
working in offices or teaching in schools. They have even
forbidden the use of televisions and videos, and all movie
theatres are closed down in the areas under their
occupation.
As the so-called Taliban are said to have the capability
of jeopardizing any viable peace process in the country, I
deem it necessary to register some basic facts about this
mysterious movement.
In Islamic countries there are many religious schools
or “Madrasas” where several subjects related to Islam are
taught. The purpose of these schools is to prepare Muslim
youth for religious service to their countrymen. In no
“Madrasa” in the world is the subject of modern warfare,
such as the use of artillery and rockets, or the flying of
warplanes, taught. That is the work of military academies.
The only modern items the Taliban mercenaries are
aware of are advanced armaments. As for their links with
the outside, the most pertinent and very important question
is: if their numbers are about 30,000, as they claim, and
each of them would require $100 for daily and military
expenses, who is paying the more than $88 million a
month for their expenses?
As for logistical support, for instance, it is calculated
that in order for the Taliban to keep their transport
vehicles, tanks and other armoured vehicles running they
need more than 15,000 gallons of fuel each day. That is
separate from almost the same amount of fuel that they
require as reserve. Again, who is providing them with
such huge logistical support?
The Taliban have no single leader. They claim to
have a Central Council in Kandahar. However, no
platform or political agenda has been made known yet.
The declarations of their many leaders are not consistent.
On 20 September one of their leaders, Mullah Mishr, told
Peter Greste, a correspondent of the Reuters news agency,
that the problem of Afghanistan could only be solved
through war.
The Islamic State of Afghanistan expressed the
intense indignation of its people and Government in its
letters of 5 September 1995 (S/1995/767) and 14
September 1995 (S/1995/795) addressed to the Secretary-
General, calling for immediate measures to end the state
of occupation in western Afghanistan. We specifically
requested the United Nations to send a fact-finding
mission to the western part of the country to investigate
and assess the reality of the state of occupation. That is
the responsibility of the Security Council.
The resistance of our people together with the forces
of the Islamic State of Afghanistan, against the
mercenaries and foreign militia, has been further
strengthened. As a result, the Province of Ghowr, east of
Herat, once occupied, has been liberated. The foreign
armed intervention, however, reached a new dimension.
The bands of mercenaries were reinforced west of Kabul
to attack the capital, the plan of attack being engineered
and guided from abroad.
We strongly demand that the United Nations Special
Mission break its silence regarding those mercenaries and
answer the relevant questions, including whether this band
is a threat to peace. This is particularly pertinent because
the Special Mission once considered the Taliban to be a
positive factor for peace. Is it not time for the Special
Mission to find out the intentions of the Taliban in
relation to General Assembly resolutions on Afghanistan?

Events have proved that the United Nations Special
Mission encountered many difficulties and challenges,
owing to the lack of an adequate capability to carry out the
mandate entrusted to it by General Assembly resolutions
48/208 and 49/140. To enhance the capabilities of the
Special Mission, the Islamic State of Afghanistan submits
the following five-point proposal.
First, the necessity to reinforce the Mission requires
the formation of a contact group on Afghanistan to speed
up the peace process. The contact group on Afghanistan
should be composed of one representative of the United
Nations Special Mission; one representative of the
Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference, which is already active in the peace process in
Afghanistan; one representative from among the member
States of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, but
not a country directly involved; one representative from
among the members of the European Union; and one
representative from among the members of the Non-
Aligned Movement.
Secondly, the contact group would promote the peace
process in Afghanistan by focusing its endeavours in the
light of information, evidence and documents provided to
the Special Mission pertaining to the violation of the
sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan.
Thirdly, the contact group on Afghanistan would
search for ways and means to end foreign intervention and
interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, and make
effective and appropriate recommendations to the Secretary-
General of the United Nations and to the Security Council.
Fourthly, the various proposed programmes to bring
peace to Afghanistan should be studied by the contact
group in consultation with the involved Afghan parties.
These endeavours would have the following objectives:
Creation of a commission for the convening of the
Grand National Assembly, or “Loya Jirga”; this
commission would also have the mandate to draft the
Constitution, to include a firm disposition guaranteeing
democracy and human rights for the future
Afghanistan.
Convening of the Grand National Assembly, or “Loya
Jirga”, within one year.
Election of the future leader of Afghanistan for a
subsequent fixed term of office.
Adoption of the Constitution.
Formation of the first parliament from among the
members of the Grand National Assembly, which
could represent the administrative units of the
country on the basis of their proportion of
population.
Fifthly, the contact group on Afghanistan would
immediately approach all Afghan groups and invite them
to participate in the Supreme State Council and
Government, until the formation of the Grand National
Assembly, or “Loya Jirga”.
The contact group on Afghanistan would also play
a crucial role in the reconstruction of the country, as
required by General Assembly resolution 49/140, adopted
on 20 December 1994.
We consider that proposal, which has already been
submitted to the Secretary-General of the United Nations,
to be a secure and short path towards peace, national
rapprochement and stability, through the cessation of
hostilities.
To those who refuse to accept the one-year lapse of
time for that peace process, insisting on an unconditional
and immediate transfer of power, we say that a period of
one year is not long in the life of a nation. Had there
been an agreement a year ago for the transfer of power
and for the consolidation of the political process, we
would by now have been in the process of transferring
power.
We solemnly ask the General Assembly to take this
proposal into consideration when discussing the agenda
item on Afghanistan during this historic fiftieth session.
Having said this, we would like to state — for those
who insist on the need for a military solution to the
problem — that the Islamic State of Afghanistan, while
willing to transfer power to a legitimate and lawful
authority, has the capacity and capability to respond to the
terrorist acts of mercenaries linked to foreign quarters.
Afghanistan would not allow any circles to
undermine the process of the peaceful transfer of power
and the normal political process that is to be implemented
under the supervision of the United Nations and the
9

Organization of the Islamic Conference. Those cliques of
outsiders who are recruiting, training, arming, and providing
financial assistance to the mercenaries — as well as
reinforcing them with their own militia — and using such
reactionary groups to destabilize a moderate Islamic system
which believes in democracy and human rights, are wrong
in their assessments and calculations. Such foreign circles
may think that after the usurpation of power by the Taliban
all will go well for them. In fact, they will add a further
problem, especially by bringing onto the scene a faction
which has no factual presence on Afghanistan’s political
scene. These circles should be aware that the peace and
security in the capital, the actual relative peace and stability
in the country and in the region, would be jeopardized by
such an erroneous miscalculation. The same error was made
by the former Soviet Union in 1979.
For the record, we would like to emphasize that those
who ignite a fire in our country will burn themselves. It
would then be too late to return to the peaceful political
process on which we are now trying to embark.
The statement made by His Excellency the Foreign
Minister of Pakistan on 27 September 1995 before this
Assembly pertaining to the relation between Afghanistan
and Pakistan was itself a clear illustration of his
Government’s unfriendly intentions towards my country.
The assertions of His Excellency the Foreign Minister of
Pakistan, as contained in his statement, need to be
responded to for the sake of the record.
First, the Pakistani Foreign Minister was trying to
confuse our friends and to divert the attention of world
public opinion from his country’s own acts of blatant
interference in Afghanistan and from the invasion by its
militia in assisting the so-called Taliban in Western
Afghanistan to the tragic incident in the Pakistani Embassy
at Kabul.
In this regard the following explanations are necessary.
I express, on behalf of His Excellency the President and the
Government and the people of Afghanistan, profound regret
about the very sad and grievous incident that occurred in
the Embassy of Pakistan at Kabul on 6 September 1995.
This message has also been forwarded by an official note
of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan to the
Foreign Ministry of Pakistan. Furthermore, I have conveyed
two messages by telephone from Kabul to His Excellency
Mr. Najmuddin Sheikh, Foreign Secretary of Pakistan.
The tragic incident contradicts the traditional
hospitality of the Afghan people. While we express our
grief at the incident, which we consider unjustifiable, at
the same time we say that some aspects of the events
have been overlooked by the Foreign Minister of
Pakistan, whose Government tried to use different forums
for political gains through a distortion of the facts.
Allow me, for the sake of the record, to point out
the sequence of incidents as they occurred. On 6
September 1995, on the morrow of the occupation of
Herat City by the so-called Taliban mercenaries, with the
help of foreign militias, the people of Kabul held a
peaceful demonstration. Tens of thousands of peaceful
demonstrators gathered outside the compound of the
Embassy of Pakistan at Kabul chanting anti-Pakistani
slogans. The staff of the Embassy, contrary to all
recognized principles of international law, used a firearm
from inside the Embassy premises against the peaceful
demonstrators. This caused the death of one of the
students, a student by the name of Badruddin Muslim, an
eleventh grader in the Naderia High School of Kabul.
This highly unjustifiable and provocative act of the
Embassy staff incited the fury of the demonstrators, who
in the beginning were non-violent and peaceful, gathered
only to express their deep resentment at the occupation of
part of their country.
It is noteworthy that the security forces of the
Government were already active in the early morning,
having observed the spontaneous gathering of people in
different parts of Kabul city. The security forces formed
two security belts around the Embassy premises.
However, the death of the young demonstrator caused a
sudden reaction and, unfortunately, the crowd got out of
control. The security forces tried their utmost to prevent
the upsurge of violence and to protect the Embassy and
its staff. Regrettably, despite the losses suffered by the
security forces, five of whose personnel were killed while
protecting the Embassy, they did not succeed in
preventing this tragic event. Mr. Ejaz Ali, the Third
Secretary of the Pakistani Embassy at Kabul, a witness to
the event, acknowledged in an interview at Islamabad
airport on 7 September 1995 that the security forces of
the Afghan Government exerted efforts to avert the tragic
happening.
We declare from this rostrum that the Afghan nation
never had recourse to terrorism, even during the long
years of resistance against the invasion of their country by
the former Soviet Union. That fact clearly shows that,
despite heavy sacrifices by the Afghan nation, it never
had recourse to terrorist acts against any consulate or
embassy of the former Soviet Union.
10

Secondly, in his statement the Foreign Minister of
Pakistan referred nine times to the Islamic State of
Afghanistan as the “Kabul regime” or the “Rabbani
regime”. We do not intend to reciprocate with similar unfair
language because of our sincerity and commitment to
friendship towards Pakistan.
Thirdly, it is ironic to witness His Excellency the
Foreign Minister of Pakistan prescribing the type, nature
and characteristics of a government that he would like to
see in Afghanistan. My delegation, however, reciprocates
the sense of good will and brotherhood he expressed
regarding our two nations. Moreover, we recall with
appreciation the strong sense of brotherhood and Islamic
solidarity by which the fraternal nation of Pakistan extended
its support to the just struggle, the Jihad of the Afghan
nation, against the invading forces of the former Soviet
Union. We trust that our Pakistani brothers are also fully
aware of the sacrifices we made when Afghanistan served
as a shield for the protection of Pakistan territories against
the most important mobilization of an army since the war
in Viet Nam.
However, our complaint is addressed, not to the nation
of Pakistan, but against the manifest interferences of
Pakistani authorities, especially the Inter-Service
Intelligence (ISI), which is the Pakistani military
intelligence. Sometimes the explanations of the Pakistani
Government, which claims to remain impartial, seem to be
justified owing to the fact that the Pakistani civilian
administration is not capable of containing the operations of
the ISI, a powerful military-intelligence body which has
emerged as a State within the State.
Secondly, we wonder which of the internationally
accepted norms and principles governing relations between
nations justify the Pakistani desire to prescribe the type and
characteristics of government for a sovereign and
independent neighbour. Could there be any clearer example
of Pakistani interference in our internal affairs?
The Foreign Minister of Pakistan has repeatedly
claimed that Pakistan is not interfering in the internal
affairs of Afghanistan. Let us leave aside all evidence
pertaining to the aggression of the Pakistani frontier militia
on Afghan territory, as set out in the documents of the
Security Council that we have submitted, as well as the
comments and statements of independent international
reporters and scholarly analysts on Afghanistan identifying
and highlighting the interference of Pakistani military
intelligence in the internal affairs of Afghanistan as the only
source of the present-day conflict in Afghanistan. We need
only refer to internationally recognized newspapers: The
Washington Times, in its issue of 24 September 1995, The
Times of London, 26 September 1995, and The Canberra
Times, 11 September 1995.
Both The Washington Times and The Times of
London quote Ambassador Mestiri’s comments regarding
the so-called Taliban and Pakistan’s involvement in
supporting them.
The Times of London of Tuesday, 26 September
1995, under the headline “Student army gives notice of
attack on Kabul”, states,
“Mahmoud Mestiri, who heads the United Nations
peace efforts in Afghanistan, said he was convinced
Pakistan was behind the Taliban group”.
The Washington Times of 24 September 1995, in an
article entitled “Pakistan aid to rebels has Kabul talking
war”, states,
“Even the United Nations special envoy to
Afghanistan is suspicious ... The power of Taliban
is mysterious', envoy Mahmoud Mestiri said. I
think they are getting money and help, maybe from
Pakistan'.”
The same article, written by Ian Stewart of the Associated
Press, contains a description of a Taliban fighter:
“One of a new breed of noble fighter in
Afghanistan, the dust-caked 19-year-old is armed
with a Kalashnikov and the writings of the Muslim
Prophet Mohammed and trained, he says, in
Pakistan”.
In his statement, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan
cannot conceal the true intention of his Government with
respect to Afghanistan. He inadvertently uncovers the
intention:
“provocation will not deter us from our steadfast
path of neutrality towards the Afghan people and the
unity of Afghanistan or from non-interference in
Afghanistan’s internal affairs, nor will it affect our
abiding friendship and brotherhood with the Afghan
nation”. (Official Records of the General Assembly,
Fiftieth Session, Plenary Meetings, 8th meeting,
p. 22)
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However, subsequently the Foreign Minister of Pakistan
negates the spirit of the above by saying,
“In the meantime, we would like to assure the people
of Afghanistan that we shall stand by them in their
hour of trial. We shall not abandon them.” (ibid.)
I am certain that the words “we shall stand by them in their
hour of trial” will raise a question in the minds of the
Members of the Assembly: what could Pakistan’s intention
be in making such a statement?
The former Soviet Union’s aggression in Afghanistan
is long over. Our nation would like our neighbours and the
world to assist us in our endeavours towards national
reconciliation and peace.
Moreover, His Excellency the Foreign Minister of
Pakistan promises that they will not abandon the Afghans.
The Assembly should realize that this amounts to assuring
the opposition of the Afghan Government that Pakistan will
continue interfering in Afghanistan’s affairs in their favour
until the Islamic State is destabilized and a proxy
Government obedient to the will of Pakistan’s Government
is brought to power.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Pakistan has cast
into doubt the legitimacy and legality of the Afghan
Government and the territory governed by it. We call on
His Excellency the Foreign Minister of Pakistan to allow
any impartial observer to visit the north-western agencies
and find out if the central Government of Pakistan has any
administrative authority over them. Is it not a fact that the
production of firearms has continued, as an ongoing
traditional trade, ever since the establishment of Pakistan?
Where is heroin, the most dangerous enemy of humanity,
produced and refined? John F. Burns of The New York
Times wrote,
“Top army officers have been accused in the past of
conniving with drug lords, to the extent of running
heroin shipments to Karachi aboard army-owned
trucks”. (“Heroin scourges million Pakistanis”, The
New York Times, 5 April 1995, Section A, p. 12)
The Islamic State of Afghanistan and Pakistan will
both be losers if they try to confront each other. The only
way leading towards securing both countries’ highest
interests is to re-establish, broaden and consolidate their
mutual brotherly relations on the basis of equality of States,
respect for each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty
and the right of each to determine its own future.
President Rabbani is a strong believer in the
perpetual necessity for both countries to establish ties of
fraternity and cooperation. Both countries, and the entire
region of Asia where they live side by side, will gain
through Afghan-Pakistani friendship.
While the international community is deploying
efforts to prevent conflicts and wars, the peace and
security of individuals and of human communities are
under the threat of an undeclared and inhumane war
waged by the world’s terrorists. This year the world has
witnessed terrible terrorist acts, such as the tragedies in
Oklahoma City, Paris and Tokyo, in which many innocent
civilians lost their lives.
Prosperity and the welfare of the human being
cannot be secured without tranquillity and peace of mind.
If the international community does not take drastic
measures to eradicate terrorism, people in different
regions of the world will continue to live in fear and
under the menace of terrorist acts. Islam teaches the
principle of the rights of innocents to live in safety and
dignity. The Islamic State of Afghanistan considers that
there is a great need for the signing of an international
treaty ensuring meaningful cooperation between States, in
the form of a convention to combat terrorism.
Afghanistan, as one of the early Members of the
United Nations, contributed to the drafting, discussion and
adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and participated in the drafting of both Covenants of
Human Rights. We once again reaffirm our deep
commitment to these international instruments.
The Islamic State of Afghanistan considers respect
for human rights one of its fundamental objectives.
During the year under consideration, however, the human
rights of a number of Afghan citizens in the country, as
well as international humanitarian law, have,
unfortunately, been violated as a result of the continued
terror perpetrated by the so-called Taliban. The Taliban
mercenaries’ closing of schools for girls and depriving
women of their right to work has been a major violation
of human rights. The Islamic State of Afghanistan has the
conviction that taking appropriate and effective
international measures towards putting an end to foreign
interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan would
serve as a major step towards the realization of human
rights in the country.
As far as the issue of women’s rights in Afghanistan
is concerned, as brought to the attention of Mr. Paik, the
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new United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights
in Afghanistan, during his recent trip to Kabul, such
concerns do not seem to be appropriate in the case of a
country where 383 women army officers, ranking from the
position of Lieutenant-General to lower positions, defend
their people and country; where women are serving as
pilots in the Army, as well as parachutists; and where
women are representing their country at Afghanistan
diplomatic missions and are serving in various branches of
the Administration. Women’s rights are guaranteed in the
presently enforced laws and regulations governing the life
of our nation.
I turn now to the question of land-mines. For the first
time, an international meeting was held in Geneva on mine
clearance. This meeting further enhanced international
awareness of different dimensions of the land-mine crisis
and contributed to strengthening international cooperation.
It is an alarming fact that every year, while 100,000 land-
mines are removed, more than 2 million land-mines are
laid. An estimated 30 people are killed by land-mines, and
as many as 60 are maimed, every single day. The slow
pace of demining operations is another major concern to be
noted. According to the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC), at the current pace of the mine-removal
process, it will take 1,100 years to get rid of existing mines
- and the laying of mines continues in different regions of
the world.
As we already stated in the Geneva meeting on mine
clearance, only the adoption of a convention which would
ban the production, sale and stockpiling of all varieties of
land-mines, and especially a sincere commitment on the
part of mine-producing countries to such an instrument,
would serve effectively to put an end to this problem.
Afghanistan, a war-stricken country, where the largest
number of land-mines have been laid, needs further
assistance from the international community. This assistance
would further help the cause of the repatriation of refugees
and the revitalization of agricultural activities all over the
country.
The Islamic State of Afghanistan expresses its serious
concern at the acts of aggression and genocide that continue
to be committed against the people of the Republic of
Bosnia and Herzegovina. Effective measures should be
taken to put an end, once and for all, to this tragic crisis.
Srebrenica and Zepa must be restored as safe areas and the
siege of Sarajevo must be ended. The International Tribunal
on war crimes in the former Yugoslavia should bring to
justice those Serbian civil and military individuals who
perpetrated crimes of war and genocide, and crimes against
humanity. Afghanistan has repeatedly maintained the view
that the arms embargo against the Republic of Bosnia and
Herzegovina is not applicable de jure. The right of the
victim to self-defence has to be respected and restored.
I would like to draw the Assembly’s attention to one
of the great threats to the life, health and well-being of
present and future generations. This man-made plague is
narcotic drugs, and its production, sale and smuggling.
The expansion of the poppy fields in my country,
Afghanistan, as one of the legacies of war, is unfortunate.
Statistics show that the cultivation of poppy increased
during 1994, as compared to 1993. This is in spite of the
allocation of about $25 million, which the international
community spent in Afghanistan through non-
governmental organizations. The Islamic State of
Afghanistan cannot agree to the procedure through which
the assistance was channeled. Perhaps an evaluation is
needed to correct the procedure. The Islamic State of
Afghanistan declares its sincere readiness to cooperate
effectively with regional and international organizations.
We are working for the preparation of a master plan to
effectively combat narcotic drugs on the regional and
international levels. We have invited Mr. Giacomelli, the
Executive Director of the United Nations International
Drug Control Programme, to visit Afghanistan and speed
up the drawing up of such a master plan.
We have had critical episodes in our life, but we
have a vision of a peaceful and stable Afghanistan; an
Afghanistan which it is hoped this Assembly will render
free of foreign interference in its internal affairs; an
Afghanistan where our people come to be blessed with
brotherhood and understanding, national conciliation and
unity; a country to which its 3 million refugees will have
returned with confidence and assurance, and where our
intellectuals, as a source of hope, will dedicate their vast
energy and experience and their scientific and physical
potential to the cause of rebuilding their country; a
country that will once again serve as a major factor in the
strengthening of regional peace and stability; a country
that will be actively involved in the common efforts of
this world family in combating extremism, adhering to a
positive and dynamic impartial and non-aligned policy,
and firmly participating in combating terrorism and drug
abuse. Such a vision takes its source from the heart of our
nation.
Our expectation of the world community is that it
assist us in achieving these goals. The objectives of the
reconstruction and economic development of Afghanistan
cannot be achieved without economic assistance from
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industrialized nations and other countries that are able to
furnish such assistance. Afghanistan has enormous
economic capabilities. During the time the former Soviet
Union thought of our country as its strategic backyard, the
world’s major corporations were prevented from becoming
involved in the exploration of Afghanistan’s natural
resources and wealth. At the threshold of Afghanistan’s
reconstruction and rehabilitation, possibilities exist for the
exploration of our natural wealth, such as natural gas, oil,
copper, iron, precious stones and even uranium.
Afghanistan can become a major producer and exporter of
fruit. Once the crisis is over, Afghanistan will emerge as
one of the most attractive sites for private investment.
Afghanistan, a land-locked country, is now vitally important
at the heart of Asia, connecting Central Asia to the south
and the Middle East as a historical transit route.
From this rostrum, we invite the industrialized
countries, as well as private sectors, to benefit from the
enormous investment opportunities in our country. In this
context, the Islamic State of Afghanistan warmly welcomes
delegations determined to conduct relevant studies, as it is
expecting a number of potential investors in the coming
month. This move would itself contribute towards the
further strengthening of stability and an early return of
peace to Afghanistan.