1.	The great English writer, Charles Dickens, began one of his celebrated novels thus: "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.. .". I suggest that these words form the theme of this session of the General Assembly. But 1 should amend them to read that if this is not the worst of times, it is also not the best of times.
2.	At every session of the Assembly, we do in fact hover between the brink of hope and the abyss of despair in a recurrent schizoid pattern symbolic of the profound readjustments in the ongoing relations among nations. Reduced to the simplest level, the problems which face this Assembly can be described as the struggle for supremacy among the "haves", and the struggle for equality between the "haves" and the "have-nots". But the two are not unrelated since the consequences of one impinge on the other and suggest strongly that it is not nations but rather issues which are interdependent.
3.	We open this, the thirty-third session of the General Assembly, in the afterglow of the agreements on the Middle East reached at Camp David.  One of the most intractable and danger-fraught questions of our century may have been moved substantially toward a solution as the result of the extraordinary leadership and personal skill of the President of the United States, Mr. Jimmy Carter. Great credit is also due to the President of Egypt, Mr. Anwar El-Sadat and the Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Menachem Begin, whose goodwill and earnestness enabled them to discover their common interest in the search for lasting peace. As with every breakthrough, how it is pursued will determine its ultimate fruits. It is our earnest hope that the road which led to Camp David shall in the future lead to the final healing of wounds caused by a full generation of unremitting confrontation in the Middle East.
4.	But we should note two things about the Camp David agreements-the first with pleasure and the second with caution. The first is that the spirit of Camp David reflects the spirit of Security Council resolution 242 (1967) and in that respect proves the validity and wisdom of that resolution. The second is that the Camp David agreements do not represent a final settlement, but rather a necessary framework.
5.	The same note of guarded optimism applies to the situation in black Africa as a whole, with the exceptions of the intractable problems in Zimbabwe and Namibia. Although agreements have been reached in principle, these have not notably diminished tensions.
6.	In Asia, the signing of the Treaty of Friendship between Japan and the People's Republic of China has added a new dimension to efforts to strengthen the stability of the region. At the same time it has aroused misgivings in some quarters, raising the possibility of fresh tensions in the future.
7.	Of more proximate interest to the Philippines and to its partners in the Association of South-East Asian Nations [ASEAN/ are the conflicts which, unexpectedly as well as dangerously, have flared into armed skirmishes in our region. We feel that these should be settled as quickly as possible at the negotiating table on terms mutually acceptable to the parties concerned. Within ASEAN itself progress has accelerated markedly in the past year, both in terms of regional economic co-operation and in increased political cohesion. The external relations of ASEAN have also progressed in satisfactory fashion with additional prospects for further co-operation with other countries and international organizations.
8.	But this Assembly is faced with two persistent problems which concern the whole of mankind. The first is the problem of disarmament, and the second is the North- South dialogue, most fittingly exemplified in the quest for a New International Economic Order.
9.	The apparent lack of progress in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks between the principal actors in the nuclear drama is the dramatic symbol of the hazards which confront us daily. While the talks continue to lag, vast sums of money are being spent in the development of another generation of weapons infinitely more sophisticated and therefore more deadly than the older engines of destruction.
10.	Admitting that disarmament is a slow process, there still are a number of confidence-building measures which could be taken in an effort to halt the runaway race for arms superiority.

11.	Last year I proposed three measures which could lead to the establishment of a climate of trust among the nuclear Powers. Because they continue to be relevant today, I reiterate them now: first, the achievement of the long- sought comprehensive nuclear test ban among Governments willing to participate; secondly, an ancillary moratorium on the testing or use of non-weapon nuclear devices pending the completion of a comprehensive study of their impact on the nuclear-arms race; thirdly, an agreement among major weapons-supplying nations to reduce, progressively and in a balanced manner, the conventional arms race.

12.	At the same time, more direct measures could be taken once a climate of confidence had been established based on the principle of reciprocal initiatives in which an initiative by one party could be reciprocated in kind by the other parties.
13.	The following measures deserve to be examined: first, an undertaking not to produce or deploy new weapons systems, which add a new dimension of escalation to the nuclear-arms race, as has been the case, for instance, with multiple missiles; secondly, an announcement that the most lethal chemical weapons, the dreaded nerve gases, would be removed from stockpiles, destroyed and no longer produced; thirdly, a moratorium on the production of fissionable material for weapons purposes, and a reduction of stockpiles; fourthly, a percentage or quantitative reduction in military budgets, nuclear-weapons stockpiles and delivery systems; and fifthly, an undertaking to suspend sales and delivery of nuclear reprocessing plants which have the capability for concentration of weapons-grade material, and to forgo such arrangements in the future.
14.	The need for confidence-building measures was nowhere more evident than at the tenth special session, on disarmament. It was not a total loss, for it reaffirmed the principle that, since disarmament is a global problem, the proper venue for discussions is the General Assembly. It also resulted in the creation of a committee,  now in session in Geneva, to study the question of the reallocation of savings from disarmament to the establishment of a New International Economic Order. Such a study should dramatize, and, it is hoped, convince the nuclear club of, the enormous waste of resources devoted to the mission of death which could be applied to the nobler purpose of enhancing life.
15.	The connexion between disarmament and a New International Economic Order is not accidental, for the restructuring of the world economic system is itself a central preoccupation of mankind. Yet progress is slow. Since the landmark sixth special session on this subject, a fundamental resistance to changes in world economic relations has begun to resurface, which leads to the painful suspicion that in fact the developed countries are impeding the progress of the dialogue in an effort to maintain the status quo.
16.	To the developing countries this position is incomprehensible. The desideratum is to establish a just balance in the interest of both developed and developing countries. The goal is not to rob the rich to pay the poor, but to create international mechanisms for the redistribution of growth opportunities. Since the developing countries are an integral part of the human community and their economic progress or decline affects the whole, it is not only fair but prudent to allow them to participate actively in the processes of economic decision-making which affect the whole world.
17.	While a certain amount of disruption in the economic systems of the developed countries is to be expected, the developing countries feel that the costs of such disruption are far outweighed by the profits of accommodation. Surely the rise of the third world is the principal and most dramatic historical event of the last quarter of this century. Its requirements can be ignored only at the peril of world peace.
18.	If world interdependence is to acquire real meaning it must be based on equality, fairness and justice. Interdependence based on the status quo perpetuates the relationship of dependency between developed and developing countries. While assistance and resource transfers are welcome, they are interim measures and do not constitute a solid basis for the continued growth and progress of developing countries. What is needed, and needed urgently, is a restructuring of the existing system to permit the equitable sharing of world economic growth.
19.	The heart of the two problems of disarmament and of the North-South dialogue lies in the most elemental human right, the right to survive. Nothing more vividly illustrates the mortal danger to the human race than the prospect of a nuclear holocaust—a prospect that will continue to haunt mankind as long as the arms race continues.
20.	But there are other, less apocalyptic, dangers. The prospect of creeping death from disease, malnutrition or outright starvation is, if not as dramatic in impact, as surely fatal for the future of mankind.
21.	Though these two problems differ in degree, they are both aspects of human rights. Yet how many of us, seated complacently before our colour television sets, eating instant television dinners, understand what it means to be deprived of food and shelter or to await inevitable death without the necessary medical attention? A 10 cent increase in the price of meat can cause a food riot in an affluent metropolis, yet the absence of meat, and indeed of food of any kind, in deprived areas causes hardly a ripple of concern among the same citizens.
22.	Everyone in this Assembly subscribes to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; nobody can doubt that, although it is a matter for regret that some have delayed ratification of the implementing Covenants. What is in question is not so much human rights as the priority of choice in the hierarchy of human rights.
23.	Any Government worthy of the name will accord priority to the preservation of human life. This does not mean forswearing the other human rights; it means relegating them to their appropriate place in the scale of that society's values. For most of us the ideal remains the promotion of human rights coextensively. But few societies would be able to do this even in the best of all possible worlds.
24.	The fact is that we remain prisoners of the ideals of the nineteenth century. Emotionally and intellectually we reject the lessons of the great revolution of our own time, for the revolution of the third world requires adjustments, not in our ideals, but in priorities made necessary by inevitable constraints.
25.	Yet it should be obvious that civil and political rights cannot flourish in an environment of economic and social deprivation. Indeed, economic and social progress is the necessary pre-condition for the growth of civil and political rights. There is no more eloquent testimony to this fact than the history of the developed countries. 1 dare say (hat if human rights, in the restricted meaning current today, had been applied in an inflexible manner one or two centuries ago in those now advanced countries which were then struggling with the critical problems of survival-just as the third world is struggling today-most nations now advanced would have remained not nations but fragmented tribes.
26.	The ideal of human rights is hardly new. It was there, just as was the Pacific before Magellan braved its vast waters. But the confused emphasis on human rights today raises serious questions, and 1 ask them. Are we interested in human rights as such, or are we interested in human rights for their presumed political utility? If human rights are intended to apply to the length and breadth of our planet, why are some countries singled out as alleged "violators" while others are conveniently ignored? If it is accepted that the seed-bed of civil and political rights is economic and social progress, how is it possible to explain the sudden and unpredictable withholding or withdrawal of assistance which impeded the development of the very rights economic aid is intended to promote?
27.	And who among us, I ask, is without sin in respect of human rights? Who among us? Let us look at the mote in our eyes and reflect that, in the name of public order, civil and political rights are periodically violated in the very societies which champion the cause of human rights.
28.	But one should not condemn too quickly the regulation of civil and political rights when this is rendered necessary by the need of the community to defend itself from the depredations of a few. To give free rein to the nihilist few in the name of human rights would mean the ultimate folly of collective suicide. In war every country defends itself through extraordinary measures. Today many countries find themselves lighting internal wars as desperate and real as the traditional wars between nation-States. These are wars against terrorists and subversives and separatists, wars against the scourges of hunger, social and economic deprivation and stagnation, illiteracy, pestilence. To overcome these extraordinary adversaries each country must calculate and apply the right blend of extraordinary measures that will be effective in protecting and promote the well-being of the majority without tearing apart the entire social fabric. It is not only possible but essential to construct such carefully calibrated measures, and those compelled to devise them act in the highest Interest of human rights and rational conduct,
29.	We inhabit a plural universe and must learn to accept the diversity of customs, values and specific sets of economic and political circumstances. To compel other nations to conform to another country's values is itself an unpardonable violation of human rights. With some justification, many of us begin to wonder if a subtle form of exerting leverage is on the rise and whether the show-the- flag diplomacy of another era is being revived in the name of morality. The great pity is that naked intervention in other people's affairs could ultimately rob the noble ideal of human rights of any true worth or meaning.
30.	In the increasingly interdependent world we live in, we must constantly be on guard against confusing interdependence with interference in the internal affairs of sovereign States. One is as healthy and desirable as the other is reprehensible and unacceptable. Today interference may take many subtle forms, from supranational crusades for causes that on their face are altruistic to gestures of helpfulness that sometimes blur the line between goodwill and good faith on one side and undue, if well-intentioned, meddling on the other. The climate of interdependence can flourish only where nation-States are secure and strong in their sense of independence. Then they can interact with others in confidence and serenity.
31.	Mr. President, we face a crowded and multifaceted agenda at this thirty-third session of the General Assembly. We are fortunate that, through the next three months of intensive work that lie ahead, this Assembly will be steered by one such as you, who is so rich in experience, patience and wisdom. Thus, Sir, in offering you my congratulations and those of the Philippine delegation on the occasion of your election to the presidency of this session, I also congratulate the Assembly on its good fortune in having you at the helm.
32.	Inasmuch as the work of the United Nations is a saga of continuity, I believe 1 express the general sentiment when I say that we approach our new tasks with confidence and buoyant spirits because of what we accomplished last year under the able leadership of our past President, Mr. Lazar Mojsov, who guided us through unprecedented multiple sessions with great skill, serenity and goodwill, and the momentum generated under his stewardship will prove useful to all of us at this session.
33.	The Philippines happily associates itself with the remarks of welcome that have been addressed to Solomon Islands on the occasion of its accession to membership in the United Nations. It was our privilege to be one of the sponsors of its membership, and this adds a special sense of satisfaction to the fond welcome that we extend to our newest nation-colleague and co-worker in the unceasing effort to build a better and happier world.
34.	May 1 also be allowed to say that the Assembly once again finds itself hugely in debt to Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim for the substantive report that he has written for our thirty-third session [A/33/1]. This report is a model of conciseness, clarity, perceptiveness and realism, leavened with hope, faith and confidence. It logs what we have done and where we have been as clearly and crisply as it charts the course we are on and the various directions we may opt for. I wish to single out his statesmanlike reference to spheres of influence, and particularly his wise counsel that we should not expect instant and total solutions to our problems, or dramatic results from all our plans and programmes, I agree with him that it is cause enough for thanks and rejoicing that we constantly move forward and make progress-substantial if possible, modest if that is all that is possible-towards our goals and ideals. The important thing is that we never give up trying, working and striving to construct the best of all possible worlds and bring about the best of all possible times for all mankind. Mr. Secretary-General, we are beholden to you, and you have our profound gratitude.


The convening in the splendid
metropolis of New York of this last General Assembly
session of the millennium affords me the happy
opportunity, on behalf of the people, the Government of
Public Salvation and the head of State, His Excellency
President Laurent-Désiré Kabila, of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, to convey our warmest greetings to
all people the world over who love peace and justice.
It is my pleasant duty also to congratulate the
President of the General Assembly and the other Assembly
officers on their unanimous election to the leadership of the
Assembly at its fifty-fourth session. My country views the
election to the presidency of Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab as
recognition of his many sterling qualities, both human and
professional, and as an acknowledgement by the
international community of the important role played by his
country, Namibia, in building an Africa and a world that
will be marked by peace, political stability and economic
prosperity. The President may be sure that the delegation of
the Democratic Republic of the Congo will unreservedly
support him in fulfilling his mandate and in guiding the
work of the Assembly to a successful conclusion.
I also extend to his predecessor, Mr. Didier Opertti,
our full appreciation of the extremely important work he
did during his presidency, as well as the commitment he
showed throughout to the triumph of the ideals embodied
in the United Nations Charter.
Finally, my delegation would like to welcome here in
our world Organization three new Members: the Republic
of Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru and the Kingdom of
Tonga.
I invite Members to read my prepared text at their
leisure, so that I may say a few other things. I begin with
a good quotation, from Article 2 of the United Nations
Charter:
“The Organization and its Members, in pursuit of
the Purposes stated in Article 1, shall act in
accordance with the following Principles.
“1. The Organization is based on the principle
of the sovereign equality of all its Members.
“2. All Members, in order to ensure to all of
them the rights and benefits resulting from
membership, shall fulfil in good faith the obligations
assumed by them in accordance with the present
Charter.
“3. All Members shall settle their international
disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that
international peach and security, and justice, are not
endangered.
“4. All Members shall refrain in their
international relations from the threat or use of force
against the territorial integrity or political
independence of any state, or in any other manner
inconsistent with the Purposes of the United
Nations”.
I say to representatives: This is the United Nations
Charter, your Charter. Are there represented in this Hall
— yes or no — Members that violate these principles
governing relations between nations? Are there
represented in this Hall — yes or no — Members that do
worse than those that do not pay their dues, or pay them
late, regarding which immediate reminders are sent, and
rightly so, since the rules of procedure of the
Organization of which they are Members prescribe that
for its proper functioning each Member must pay its
dues? Failing to do so even means being stripped of the
right to speak here at the United Nations. So, if you have
your right to speak taken away, if you are punished as a
Member of the United Nations because you do not pay
your dues, what about those who violate Article 2 of the
Charter, who cross the boundaries of another State with
their armies, sow hardship in that country, occupy vast
portions of its territory, plunder its natural resources, steal
the fauna and rare species of animals which international
organizations recognize as being received by other
countries, carry out a blitzkrieg such as the one in the
early 1940s, without warning, without provocation,
entering the country of another people with their arms and
everything else they need, under pretexts which I shall
expose in a little while.
On 2 August 1998, some two years ago, our brothers
from the hills of Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda invaded
our country in an unprovoked blitzkrieg, without having
declared war, and it continues to this very day. For two
years now those Members of the United Nations have
been violating Article 2, and they continue to violate it,
with arrogance and total impunity, which is not the case
for those who fail to pay their dues.
28

It is perhaps better to violate Article 2, occupy other
countries, pillage them, deport their inhabitants and torture
children, women and old persons, than it is to commit the
mortal sin of failing to pay up. There are two yardsticks,
double standards, which we regard as an immense injustice.
As I speak I feel the presence of illustrious persons
who have spoken from this rostrum in the past, such as
Cabral, Nkrumah and — I say this with a great deal of
emotion — Lumumba, who came here to denounce what
was being set in train more than 30 years ago, under United
Nations banners which is now being repeated. We know the
United Nations. The French rightly say “A cat that has been
scalded is even afraid of cold water.” They have already
come, those United Nations forces; they came to restore
peace, and the result was that for one of the most illustrious
sons of our people, the most admired African nationalist
President Patrice Lumumba, the flag of the United Nations
served as a shroud. We do not wish, we will not allow, that
same flag to be a shroud for those who have taken up the
torch that fell from Lumumba's hands and who carried it,
with some help of course, as far as lying down — with
their boots on — in Mobutu's bed. This is something with
which the Assembly is familiar.
It is on behalf of my President, my friend, my long-
time comrade, that I speak. As representatives will see, and
as I often say, we will have no more charming “Rastas”,
because we lost our hair waiting for President Kabila to
return to relight the torch that fell from Lumumba's hands.
If people do not watch out, if they let things slide
along, if they tolerate arrogance and do not stand up to
impunity, there are those who will begin to dream of
wrapping Kabila up in the United Nations flag, as was done
in the case of Patrice Lumumba not long ago.
When events are repeated, they do not always happen
in exactly the same way, but sometimes the repetition
strikes a familiar chord. Now we see the United Nations
delaying putting an end to what it calls euphemistically the
“conflict” in the Great Lakes region. This terminology is
being used for some reason — but what? A foreign army
crosses the border, occupies the country, a part of the
country; it pillages the country's wealth — and the United
Nations calls this a “conflict”? We should check our
dictionaries. This is a war. Instead of shouting themselves
hoarse about sending peacekeepers, Member States must
send people who can put an end to the war. This is what I
am waiting for. Our Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundi
brothers must be solemnly requested here and now to go
back home. They have no business being in our country.
They are undermining all national reconstruction efforts.
This should be clear to those who understand the
condition in which we found this country, which used to
be called Zaire and which we now call, as Lumumba
called it, the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The presence of these outsiders, their occupation,
impedes our efforts to reconstruct our country. They came
upon us like thieves who attack without warning. They
attacked while we were busy sowing corn, peanuts and
beans, and we were doing so because that was what we
was needed in this country that is overflowing with
diamonds, gold, cobalt, copper and so forth. In order to
help our people we had begun by planting peanuts, corn
and beans, but our efforts were stopped cold by these
people who are now in our territory, who came from the
hills, who came to defend their borders — their borders
that, according to them, were threatened by genocidal
bands in our country.
I ask the Assembly to look at a map of Africa, a
map of the Congo in particular. I come from the Atlantic
Coast province of Bas-Congo. Do you know where these
people who began the war came from, in order to secure
their borders? They came from 2,000 kilometres away
from my province. They began in my province in order
to secure borders 2,000 kilometres away. They brought
soldiers 2,000 kilometres from their borders in order to
begin the occupation of our country. Luckily, they took a
licking, and they would all have been wiped out if the
Americans had not asked us to allow them to return home
along a designated route. They retreated after their
thrashing and tried their luck in the east of our country.
After the ceasefire requested by Secretary-General
Kofi Annan, United Nations staff went to the area to
carry out an order of the World Health Organization to
vaccinate all children up to five years of age. We have
vaccinated them in the part of the country that we
continue to control. But these others — who only have
two hands, both of which are busy pillaging — have yet
to vaccinate the children in this age group. Thus, these
children are in danger not only of polio, but also of other
diseases that the agencies of our Organization have been
striving to eliminate from our continent.
These soldiers do not have time to vaccinate our
children. They do not even have time to pillage
effectively because these Horatii and Curiatii have taken
to fighting each other on our soil. They came to take
control of our country, but now, how strange, they are
fighting each other, these people who came to teach us
29

democracy, these people who came to restore peace. In
order to have a break from their looting, they are enjoying
a little war on our land, and in the process destroying the
3 million doses of vaccine that the United Nations, through
the World Health Organization, sent to Kisangani. They
shoot at each other, each band allied with this or that local.
This is what is happening.
And then these people take their place here as United
Nations Members — after having treated us like that, and
as they continue to do so. They are building up their
arsenals, bringing in troops, taking towns. What reassures
us is the teaching of the Marquis de Sade that taking is not
the same as possessing. Thus, these people are taking towns
but they do not possess them. And they will not posses
them because, just as in erotic relations, there is no
possession without consent — that consent that has been
given to us. Otherwise, our people would not have fled to
the forests to escape from these people who come from the
hills. Our citizens' lengthy stay in the forests has led to the
reappearance of some diseases that were eradicated as long
ago as the Belgian colonial era.
Having to flee the invaders like the plague makes our
citizens' lives more difficult. And these people from the
hills continue to advance even though they signed with us,
last 10 July, a Ceasefire Agreement that lacks both fire and
a cease, as they continue to advance and lay siege to our
cities.
Their latest exploit, which they are now engaged in, is
to lay siege to the city of Mbuji-Mayi, the world diamond
capital, but also the world capital of children afflicted with
polio. I do not think that their haste and willingness to
return to Mbuji-Mayi are out of desire to vaccinate the poor
Congolese children who are infected with or at risk of
getting polio. These people from the hills do not have a
third hand, as I said earlier, yet I am sure that, driven by
their greed, they are going to take as many diamonds and
as much copper and cobalt as they can — and at the risk of
fighting each other for these minerals, since Uganda also
wants to take them. The statistics on sales of diamonds
indicate that last month our Rwandan brothers sold more
than a million carats of diamonds — a mineral not mined
in their country — and with the money from the sales they
are buying weapons so as to be able to fight us. Then they
take more diamonds, buy more weapons and continue to
fight us.
In this Hall speeches have been made against dirty
money. Therefore, we are outraged to see bloodstained
cobalt, bloodstained copper, bloodstained gold and
bloodstained diamonds for sale on the international
market, and to see that it does not occur to the buyers of
this booty to put a stop to this practice by refusing to buy
it — even though they oppose dirty money. Double
standards continue to prevail.
Dirty money poses a threat to the world. And yet,
while the blood of the Congolese people is spattered on
our cobalt, our copper and our gold, that doesn't seem to
bother those from all over the world who buy them and
give money to the pillagers and occupiers our country. If
we revisit this issue, I reserve the right to address it
again.
I wish, however, to speak out loud and clear against
the infamous pretext that has aroused the world's
prurience and sensitivity about genocide. Those who are
guilty of genocide are in our country right now. Let them
leave and go on sowing misery in their own countries:
Rwanda, Uganda or Burundi.
As I said at the outset, President Kabila has raised
Lumumba's torch and welcomed those who sought refuge
in our country, because over there you do not seek
refuge — you get your throat slit. I was just a schoolboy
when I saw Hutus fleeing cutthroat Tutsi and Tutsi
fleeing cutthroat Hutus. They all sought refuge with us.
That is how those who helped us, who walked with us on
our march on Kinshasa, came to be refugees in our
country — they fled Hutus who would have cut their
throats. That is at the heart of the current instability and
reflects the values of our brothers in Rwanda. We must
help our Rwandese to change their political culture.
When the “one man one vote” law was enacted in
1960, the obsession of each of these groups was to seize
power and abuse it in order to hasten the carnage. This
carnage has been alternating and reciprocal and did not
begin in 1994. I cited a date when I was in short pants,
and I can assure the Assembly that it was not yesterday.
It is the open faucet that produced the interahamwe that
we must close. Rwanda must become democratic;
Rwanda must adopt a culture of politics and abandon its
culture of carnage. Rwanda must leave our country;
Uganda must leave our country; Burundi must leave our
country and turn over the task of providing security to
United Nations observers, who will take their place and
serve as a buffer force between us. Those people are our
neighbours and we can never replace our neighbours, but
they are on our territory, which means they are no longer
our neighbours. I ask the Assembly to help us to resume
our status as neighbours. Let them go back home and if
30

there are problems that we must settle among ourselves, we
shall settle them by peaceful means.
I am speaking without acrimony. We hold out our
hands to our brothers from Rwanda, who have been here
for several days. I offer them signals of friendship when we
pass, and they respond. We are here so that in three
months, when the new millennium dawns, we will not still
be fighting. One must deal with urgent matters quickly.
The Lusaka process, in which I participated, raised
hopes that have been dashed by dilatory tactics. One
moment the Congolese and Rwandese affiliates who refuse
to come; the next, it is the Ugandans or their Congolese
puppets. Here we are on 29 September and nothing has yet
been done seriously to implement an Agreement that was
reached on 10 July.
That is why we ask the Assembly, if only out of
respect for the Articles of the Charter, to do something
about it. It is intolerable and incomprehensible that these
people remain, and may even take the floor here, while
they continue to violate the United Nations Charter and the
principles that bring us together here. If you violate the
principles of an organization to which you belong, you are
no longer worthy of belonging.
We must remind our brothers that, as Members of the
United Nations, they are bound to respect the Charter. This
cannot be done by occupying other people's countries. If
differences must be settled by invasion and plunder, there
will no longer be a United Nations, because there will no
longer be any rules to unite us. That prompts my request to
the Assembly, because the suffering being endured by the
Congolese people and the atrocities being visited upon us
are unimaginable.
Under the very nose of the Vatican, in the Italian
mission of Kasika, these new-style Huns entered, tore open
the chest of a traditional chief, pulled out his heart,
shredded it and distributed the pieces like hosts. The killers
who did this sucked on the bloody heart as if it were an
ice-cream cone. We have seen this and continue to witness
such acts. Our United Nations mission is at Members'
disposal to provide irrefutable testimony, which we have
published in a three-volume white paper that could easily
grow into further volumes describing similar incidents. We
have requested that this white paper be issued as a working
document of the Security Council. All are invited to study
it in order to understand precisely what is happening and to
put an end to this situation — to save the United Nations
itself, to help us Africans, and the Congolese in particular,
who had to wait 32 years to defeat and eliminate a regime
of notorious satraps, only to see new satraps step in two
months later to occupy our country and put it to the
sword.
Help us to make our Rwandese, Ugandan and
Burundian brothers understand that they must go home.
They have no business in our country; let them relinquish
their place to United Nations forces, which will secure
their borders. That is in itself a fiction that we have not
had an opportunity to dwell on. They helped us to raise
Lumumba's torch. They were in our army. Most officers
in our army were from Rwanda, as was the Chief of
Staff, who dispatched his troops on the basis of his
particular military skills. Moreover, these people have
occupied that region of our country for two years and are
still hunting the Interahamwe, as the Incas were once
hunted here. They will not stop until Joe the Ugandan and
Bill the Rwandese have extended their hunting grounds to
the entire territory of our country while they prance after
the Interahamwe.
This is just a pretext. If they were not able to catch
a single Interahamwe while their officers were in our
army; if they have been unable to stop the interahamwe
in their two-year occupation of that region, then the task
is beyond them. It must be left to the United Nations to
unseat these Interahamwe, if they exist, and let us pursue
our national reconstruction.
I have a great deal more to say and believe that we
will have further opportunities in due course.


Mr. President, on behalf
of the Government of the Republic of San Marino, I wish
to congratulate you on your election to the presidency of
21

the fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly. You
represent a geographical region, the African continent,
which can significantly contribute to identifying the major
causes of world problems and help to evaluate their effects.
You can lead this Organization towards desirable and
concrete results.
A particular acknowledgment goes to President Didier
Opertti. San Marino had the opportunity and privilege to
work in close cooperation with him and to ascertain his
undeniable and extraordinary skills and the remarkable
accomplishments reached during his mandate.
Finally, I would like to congratulate the three new
States which have recently joined the big family of the
United Nations. I am deeply convinced that countries never
involved in wars possess an inestimable richness and can
transmit to the whole world their history of peace and
tolerance, helping us reach the goals set forth in the
preambular paragraphs of the Charter.
The Republic of San Marino believes that the United
Nations is, and must remain, the forum for international
negotiations best suited to the nations’ expectations. We
reiterate its central role in the prevention and management
of international crises, particularly in the field of peace and
security, through the necessary updating process of its main
operative organs, and primarily the Security Council, which
should never be delegitimized.
The Council’s reform, in the context of a larger reform
of the United Nations system, is a fundamental step in the
construction of the new international structure. The reform
originated from the need to update the composition and the
modus operandi of the most important United Nations
organ to operate in a deeply changed international
environment.
We are particularly thankful to the Secretary-General
for courageously proposing, and partly already
accomplishing, a complete, wide-ranging programme of
reforms to strengthen the United Nations. This programme
will progress because only an Organization in constant
evolution will be able to prevent, in some cases, and to
tackle, in others, the challenges of the next millennium.
San Marino feels internationally responsible and it
feels the need to mobilize all its strength to find solutions
of solidarity to the serious problem of the external debt of
developing countries.
Faced with 3 billion people who still live with less
than $2 a day, faced with 130 million children without
access to education and 1.5 billion people without
drinking water, we must support action aimed at creating
sustainable development and healthy economic policies.
The imbalance between rich and poor countries must not
become irreversible, with tragic consequences for all
humankind.
San Marino shares and supports the series of
programmes and plans announced and applied by creditor
countries and by the major world financial institutions to
tackle this serious emergency. Programmes and plans
have so far shown themselves to be insufficient to tackle
the problem of debt in a decisive way.
We hope that the United Nations will intensify the
debate aimed at an equitable and durable solution to the
problem. In particular, we hope that the General
Assembly and the Economic and Social Council will
represent the best laboratory of ideas for its definition.
San Marino shares the ethical approach to the situation
through solidarity and development. We believe this will
give more hope to the people affected by this heavy
burden.
In the past year the Republic of San Marino was one
of the first countries to ratify the Statute of the
International Criminal Court, convinced that such an
institution is indispensable for the future world order. In
international society, it represents not only a political
advance, but moral progress, too.
The Republic of San Marino has recently established
a permanent court of arbitration, trusting it will become
a trustworthy and impartial international instrument for
the resolution of national and international disputes. We
are convinced that such an instrument will be duly
evaluated by all Member States of the United Nations and
that they will shortly be able to subscribe to a proper
convention. We further believe that this initiative could
represent a significant contribution by our country to the
international community.
At the outset of the third millennium, we still find
disconcerting the coexistence of a large, consolidated
corpus of humanitarian laws and human rights and the
spread of atrocities beyond all limits, affecting almost
exclusively civil populations, mainly women and children.
The international community can rightly state that it
has reached goals in the field of humanitarian law and
22

human rights that were unimaginable 50 years ago.
However, these considerable goals have been reached only
with the simultaneous application of established rules. In
this regard, we appreciate the tireless work of the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and
Armed Conflict, aimed at filling the deep gap between
legality and accepted practice, and at underlining the
absolute need in the community of States for the full
application of and respect for, international law. San
Marino has great expectations of the future World Summit
for Children.
In every country and in every culture there are
messages of peace which are often forgotten, neglected or
ignored. It is the responsibility of the United Nations, its
specialized agencies, and all of us to rehabilitate those
messages through the awakening of our conscience and the
application of a universal culture of peace. This will happen
if we are able to courageously identify and defeat the seeds
of violence.
Therefore, we have to decide now what culture we
want to defend: a culture where violence is considered an
inevitable evil from which we can only protect ourselves,
or a culture where violence can and must be eradicated.
The preamble to the Constitution of the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), which includes the words,
“since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in
the minds of men that the defences of peace
must be constructed”,
remains today, in our opinion, the right perspective, because
peace-building through dialogue, education and acceptance
of differences is the best guarantee for the survival of
humanity.
We all know that there are 45 armed conflicts going
on at this very moment all over the world. Sadly, the
spilling of stains of hate and violence constantly destroys
the hope that humanity will soon prepare to use the so-
called “peace dividend”, resulting from the end of the
balance of terror between the super-Powers, for positive
goals.
The Republic of San Marino deeply appreciates the
recent Security Council resolution expeditiously
establishing a multinational peace force to change the
situation in the East Timor crisis. What the United
Nations is starting is a risky mission, but it will contribute
to increasing the role and dignity of the United Nations,
underlining its force as an impartial and neutral institution
deploying itself as a bulwark against prevarication to
defend the life and the dignity of humankind.
It is with great satisfaction that the Government of
San Marino acknowledges the renewed impetus and
momentum of the Arab-Israeli peace process negotiations.
San Marino regards with equal satisfaction the present
search for political solutions at the end of the Balkans
conflict, activating a channel of concrete solidarity for the
population of Kosovo.
The people of San Marino sadly regret to see that
the important and topical question of the death penalty
has not been included in the General Assembly’s agenda.
San Marino intends to continue to voice its protest against
capital punishment, firmly convinced that the abhorrent
instrument of death consciously and legally inflicted by
one human being on another can be considered neither a
valid and effective answer to defend society nor a
deterrent against the spreading of criminality.
On behalf of the Government of San Marino, I wish
to acknowledge once more the focal role of the United
Nations with respect to the major challenges at the end of
this millennium and the momentum that the greatest
international Organization can provide for a new century,
in which the supremacy of a culture of peace over a
culture of war, of a culture of life over a culture of death,
of the full realization of human dignity over its systematic
violation, will prevail.
It is in this spirit that I wish good work to you, Sir,
and to all the members of the Assembly.


Allow me first of all to
sincerely congratulate Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab on his
unanimous election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at its fifty-fourth session and to express
confidence that under his skilful leadership the Assembly
will cope successfully with the complex issues before it.
I would like also to commend the President of the
previous session of the General Assembly, Mr. Didier
Opertti, on his remarkable commitment to the success of
the session.
I wish also to congratulate and to welcome the new
Members of our Organization — the Republic of Kiribati,
the Republic of Nauru and the Kingdom of Tonga.
Speaking from this lofty rostrum, representatives of
the States Members of the United Nations are trying to
communicate to their colleagues and the international
community the most pressing problems that their
countries face. The truth, which is not always pleasant, is
expressed here with hope for justice, understanding and
support.
States, including the Republic of Azerbaijan, that
have regained their freedom and now face threats to their
independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, count
on the support of the international community. They are
also deeply concerned about the current difficulties of the
Organization. Member States look to the United Nations
with trust and hope. This places on the Organization an
important responsibility for finding a way out of the
current complex situation.
In this connection, the Republic of Azerbaijan
actively supports the United Nations reform process,
which our times demand. We believe that a transformed
Organization, adapted to modern realities, will be in a
position to cope with an increasing number of challenges
and risks to international peace and security.
Threats to the sovereignty, territorial integrity and
security of the Member States of the United Nations have
become appallingly routine. States often face aggression,
military occupation, “ethnic cleansing”, separatism and
terrorism. A conflict that is not dealt with in a timely and
resolute manner is later transformed into a humanitarian
disaster that brings about a very sensitive reaction on the
part of the international community.
Given the resolute action by the international
community in the Balkans, the situation with regard to the
unresolved or frozen conflicts in other regions seems
especially tragic. We consider it unacceptable to set
priorities in this respect, and wish to draw the attention of
the international community to the intolerable fact that
15

one fifth of the territory of a sovereign Member State of the
United Nations — the Republic of Azerbaijan — has
continued to be under foreign occupation for more than six
years and that, as a result of “ethnic cleansing”, one out of
seven of its citizens is a refugee or displaced person in his
own country.
The clear trend towards putting up with the behaviour
of the aggressor and sometimes even conniving at his
attempts to legalize the situation in the conflict zone, as
well as the eagerness of some mediators to reach an easy
settlement on the basis that the “ethnic cleansing” of the
Azerbaijani population and the occupation of its territories
is a fait accompli, will only lead to continued tension and
further delay the prospects for a settlement of the conflict
and the restoration of durable peace and stability in the
region, based on the norms and principles of international
law.
The only valid premise for a lasting settlement of
conflicts is a timely display of determination and solidarity
by the international community, first and foremost by the
United Nations, which has primary responsibility for the
maintenance of international peace and security, for the
protection and observation of the norms and principles of
international law and for making every effort to secure the
implementation of decisions taken.
Like other countries facing aggression and militant
separatism, Azerbaijan rejects settlement models that
infringe on its sovereignty, territorial integrity and the unity
of its State and run counter to its national interests. An
example is the concept of the common State, which was
proposed as a model for settlement in the context of certain
conflicts, but failed to find the support of the countries
concerned. That concept is pernicious, because it attempts
to distort the notion of statehood and State sovereignty; in
fact, it is an attempt to provide a legal framework for the
ideology of militant separatism.
It goes without saying that an important factor in any
settlement is the readiness of the parties involved to find a
compromise. At the same time, by definition, compromise
implies reciprocity and clear limits. Seeking a realistic
formula for a compromise based on adherence to the norms
and principles of international law, taking into account
national and State interests, the President of Azerbaijan,
Heydar Aliyev, has maintained direct contact and held talks
with the President of Armenia, Robert Kocharian. It is
Azerbaijan’s hope that this approach can open new
possibilities to steer the settlement process out of the
deadlock that we have witnessed during the past year.
It is now possible to speak about the achievement of
a positive climate, which should be complemented with
more active work by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, which is
responsible for the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan
conflict, so that the negotiation process can be resumed in
the near future. We regard it as absolutely unjustified that
some members of the Minsk Group use the fact that there
are direct contacts between Azerbaijan and Armenia as an
excuse for their stepping aside from the process and for
their inactivity. In this connection, we call upon the
Co-Chairmen of the Minsk Group to make every effort
necessary to bring about in the near future a revised
proposal for the settlement of the conflict that would
represent an acceptable combination of elements.
It will be necessary effectively to use the time
remaining before the OSCE summit in Istanbul in order
to come closer to achieving concrete results. It is
extremely important that the consistency and
determination of the international community be
maintained in advocating its declared positions on the
settlement of the conflict between Armenia and
Azerbaijan. We believe, in particular, that the sequence of
steps provided for in the Security Council resolutions on
the conflict continues to be optimal.
Azerbaijan reaffirms its commitment to a peaceful
settlement and unconditional implementation of the
ceasefire until a political agreement on the cessation of
the conflict is concluded. Guided by a spirit of goodwill
and a sincere desire to reach progress in the settlement
process, on 18 September 1999, during the visit of Knut
Vollebaek, the Chairman-in-office of the OSCE, the
President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, announced the
unilateral release of all Armenian prisoners of war held in
Azerbaijan. We expect an adequate reaction from the
Armenian side in the near future.
Azerbaijan supports the reform process in the
Organization, based on the proposals of the
Secretary-General and the decisions of the General
Assembly. Reform of the Security Council continues to
be the priority problem. Azerbaijan fully agrees with the
approach reflected in resolution 53/30, in accordance with
which any decisions on this issue would require the
positive vote of a minimum of two thirds of the Member
States.
We still believe that the representation of the States
of Asia, Africa and Latin America in all membership
categories of the Security Council should reflect modern
16

political realities. Azerbaijan reconfirms its support for the
election of Germany and Japan as permanent members of
the Security Council. We continue to believe that, together
with that, objective reality calls for the allocation of one
additional non-permanent seat to the Eastern European
Group.
With regard to the reform and strengthening of the
effectiveness of the work of the Security Council, I cannot
fail to draw the attention of the Assembly to the fact that
the four resolutions adopted by the Security Council on the
Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, resolutions 822 (1993), 853
(1993), 874 (1993) and 884 (1993), have still not been
implemented. We believe that the lack of an adequate
reaction to the violation of the principles of the United
Nations Charter and the non-compliance with decisions
adopted within the United Nations is seriously undermining
the image of the world Organization.
Azerbaijan welcomes the increased attention of the
Security Council to acute humanitarian problems in conflict
situations, and supports the inclusion in the mandate of
peacekeeping forces of concrete and adequate provisions for
the demilitarization of conflict zones and the disarmament
of combatants, as well as of special provisions on the
protection of and support for the civilian population,
including women and children.
Illegal arms transfers to conflict zones make the
prospects for settlement more remote and aggravate
humanitarian disasters. Recently this has become a pressing
problem which requires special attention and specific joint
action by the international community. In this context,
breaches of the relevant provisions of Security Council
resolutions, especially by some of the Council’s own
members, are unacceptable. Azerbaijan supports convening
an international conference on the illicit arms trade in all its
aspects not later than 2001.
We attach great importance to the timely convening of
a fourth special session of the General Assembly devoted
to disarmament, which could determine the future course of
action in the field of disarmament, arms control and related
international security matters.
Azerbaijan stands by the Convention on the
Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer
of Anti-personnel Mines and on Their Destruction, and
welcomes its entry into force; we welcome also the
outcome of the First Meeting of States Parties, held in
Maputo. A national agency in this sphere has been created
in Azerbaijan; it has begun its activities and has started to
establish cooperation with its international counterparts.
Azerbaijan’s formal accession to the Convention is
directly dependent on the issue of the continuing
occupation of its territory by Armenia.
Azerbaijan has a highly positive view of the
establishment of the International Criminal Court, and
supports the work of the Preparatory Commission for the
International Criminal Court on a number of provisions of
its Statute. We regard as very important the work being
done by the Commission to define the crime of
aggression, and believe that the definition should be clear
and viable, and that it should make provision for a norm
establishing personal criminal responsibility. As a victim
of aggression, Azerbaijan maintains that the Court should
become an effective organ for the prosecution of those
who commit crimes against humanity.
My country is interested in taking an active part in
combatting international terrorism, organized crime and
illegal drug trafficking. The fight against these evils can
be effective only if it is based on joint efforts by all
countries, at both the regional and the global levels. We
support the idea of convening in 2000 an anti-terrorist
conference or a special session of the General Assembly
on this issue, and the elaboration of a declaration of
principles on the interaction of States in combatting
terrorism. We hope that the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) will be able to mobilize additional
resources to continue the joint project on drug-abuse
control of the UNDP, the United Nations International
Drug Control Programme and the Government of
Azerbaijan.
Another emerging topical area of activities is the
provision of humanitarian relief assistance in emergency
situations and periods of natural disasters, such as those
that we have witnessed in recent months. In this
connection, Azerbaijan calls for increased assistance to
the victims of the tragic earthquake in brotherly Turkey,
which claimed thousands of human lives.
Despite the objective difficulties caused by the
armed conflict and the transitional period, Azerbaijan
believes that there is no alternative to its chosen course of
reform aimed at building a democratic society with a
market economy. As a State located at a key point
between Europe and Asia, Azerbaijan is keenly interested
in securing access to trans-European and trans-Asian
communication networks; this would facilitate the
development of industrial and trade links among
participating countries, improved access to markets,
17

increased integration links, and closer cooperation among
the economies of European and Asian countries.
Unfortunately, the process of the profound
transformation of the national economy is facing the serious
consequences of the presence in the country of 1 million
refugees and internally displaced persons. Coping with this
emergency situation has been a primary concern of the
Azerbaijan State for many years. Given the limited financial
resources of our State, humanitarian assistance from the
United Nations and other international organizations is a
necessary element not only of the physical, but also of the
moral survival of people who have lost their homes. We
would like to express our most sincere gratitude to the
United Nations, to the relevant United Nations agencies and
to donor countries providing humanitarian assistance to
Azerbaijan, and we call upon them not to reduce the
volume of that assistance.
Allow me to touch briefly upon the role that the
United Nations and its agencies are playing in Azerbaijan.
At the last session, I spoke about the constructive work
being done with respect to the social and economic
development of our country by the United Nations
Development Programme. The UNDP is actively assisting
the Government of Azerbaijan and bilateral and multilateral
humanitarian organizations in addressing development
issues. At the same time, my Government is deeply
concerned at the fact that UNDP is entering the new
millennium with an extremely decreased financial base. We
all need a UNDP able to cope with the development
problems that we are not in a position to solve alone. All
participants in this process — donors and recipients of
assistance — should provide sincere and solid support to
the development activities of the United Nations.
In this context, I would like to call upon all concerned
to improve significantly the very difficult current financial
situation of the Organization.
With reference to relations between my country and
the United Nations in general, I would like again to draw
attention to the fact that Azerbaijan is still not represented
in the United Nations Secretariat.
The world is tired of crises and wars. Mankind
deserves a peaceful, prosperous and happy new millennium.
Our Organization is designed to play a leading role in
overcoming obstacles to global peace and progress. It must
be in a position to implement that noble mission. This is
not an abstract desire, but a realistic task based on an
assessment of the situation and an awareness of both
needs and possibilities.


Allow
me first to congratulate the President most sincerely on
his election to the presidency of the fifty—fourth session
of the General Assembly. I take this opportunity to assure
him of the full support of the Hungarian delegation in the
exercise of his responsibilities as the head of our
Assembly.
Humanity has reached the threshold of the
twenty—first century. Therefore, no Member State can
remain indifferent to the way in which we discharge our
tasks at this session, held as the twentieth century ends.
One of the most urgent tasks of States and
international organizations at the turn of the century is to
end the ever—growing disparities between the various
regions of the world. In this regard, special attention
27

should be paid to the African continent, which is fraught
with various crises and conflicts.
The persistence of poverty, still one of our major
challenges, is exacerbated by the process of globalization.
Inequality is a major source of the emergence and
proliferation of all kinds of extremism and of intolerance,
with its concomitant violence, which threaten the very
foundations of contemporary civilization.
At the dawn of this new century, we are called upon
to exploit further the advantages of globalization, a salient
feature of our era, while being aware of the attendant risks.
All of us in the international community must become
aware of the paramount importance of dealing adequately
with global problems, such as the growing gap between the
levels of economic development; environmental
degradation; the dangers posed by organized crime;
uncontrolled migration; disease and so on.
In this context, we must take note of the relationship
between globalization and regional integration. Integration
can adjust itself to the process of globalization, draw the
lessons of the process's inevitable consequences, absorb its
related risks and assist the struggle against transboundary
scourges, thereby becoming the engine of the universal
system of economic cooperation.
Most conflicts today are not between States, but within
States, essentially as major ethnic or religious
confrontations that too often lead to humanitarian crises of
unprecedented dimensions. Entire ethnic groups and
communities and national and linguistic minorities are
falling victim to “ethnic cleansing”. Dictatorial regimes do
not hesitate to resort to nationalist extremism and
xenophobia, and to unspeakable violence, exterminating
hundreds of thousands of people, terrorizing others in their
ancestral lands and expelling millions of people from their
homes. We cannot remain indifferent to such acts.
A great debate is therefore going on in the
international arena, as demonstrated in this very Hall, about
how the world should react to tragic situations involving
massive and flagrant violations of human rights at a time
when, for all kinds of reasons, our world Organization finds
itself paralysed. We are convinced that, given the terrible
upheavals we are witnessing throughout the world, the
international community cannot fail to respond effectively
to this major present-day challenge.
The traditional concept of the principle of national
sovereignty is undergoing a progressive evolution in inter-
State relations and within multilateral organizations.
Because of developments in the area of international law,
national sovereignty is becoming less acceptable as a
justification for Governments in cases of serious
violations within their countries of universally recognized
international legal standards. As the Secretary-General
rightly said, in our era of globalization the collective
interest represents national interests. Fortunately, today
the principles of good governance are prevailing and
flourishing in an ever-growing number of countries.
In the immediate vicinity of my country, a regime
based on extreme nationalism has sparked four wars in
the last decade. The international community, albeit after
hesitation and delay, took the necessary measures. In the
case of Kosovo, it did so with great resolve and
consistency. In the wake of the action undertaken to
defend universally recognized values, and thanks to the
presence of international military forces and the United
Nations mission, a fragile peace reigns today in that
martyred region, and considerable, increasingly effective
efforts are being deployed there with a view to establish
peace and stability.
In the light of the events of the past decade in this
part of Europe, let us state clearly and unambiguously
that it would be pointless to expect democratization in the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia if things remain
unchanged in Belgrade. However, a new Serbia, emerging
from tragedy and destruction, free of the burdens of the
past, would no doubt be able to rely on the understanding
and effective assistance of the international community.
In this context, we would underscore the importance of
the implementation of the judgments of the International
Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The Stability Pact,
devised with a view to responding to the needs of the
countries of South-Eastern Europe, will play a primary
role in the rehabilitation and development of the region.
It will also contribute to promoting respect for democratic
standards and human rights by proposing, inter alia,
institutional arrangements aimed at improving relations
between majority and minority communities within the
region.
The international community is again being put to
the test in the case of East Timor. Hungary shares the
profound concerns of all nations in the wake of recent
events, which represent a brutal violation of the right of
the people of that country to self-determination. The
atrocities committed against the civilian population of
East Timor represent a serious blow to human rights.
Those responsible for these acts will be brought to justice.
28

We welcome the decision of the Security Council
authorizing the deployment to East Timor of a multinational
force to restore peace and security on the island as well as
the enactment of all necessary measures for the
implementation of that force's mandate.
The tragic events in Kosovo and East Timor only
confirm the universality of human rights and the importance
of a timely resolution of conflict by appropriate means.
They also demonstrate the value of harmonious cooperation
between the United Nations, regional organizations and
particular groups of States, a cooperation that is becoming
increasingly important in dealing with the diverse and
varied conflicts that are erupting — and, unfortunately, will
continue to erupt — throughout the world. Hungary is
prepared, with its own means, to take part in this great
enterprise of safeguarding and restoring international peace
and security.
Among the phenomena that threaten peace and
security throughout the world, the question of the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction will require
sustained attention in future. Regional conflicts having
nuclear ramifications only aggravate the destabilizing effect
of certain crisis areas.
Against this backdrop, the pillars of the global non-
proliferation system — such as the Treaty on the Non-
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, whose Review
Conference will be one of the major events on next year's
diplomatic calendar, or the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-
Ban Treaty (CTBT) — take on additional significance. We
regret that the CTBT has not yet been able to exert its
favourable influence on the process of nuclear disarmament
and non-proliferation. We would like here to underscore the
responsibility of the 44 States whose ratification is needed
for this key instrument to enter into force. My country, as
one of the States in question, has already ratified the Treaty
and thereby discharged its obligations. The international
conference to be convened next October in Vienna is likely
to play an important role in speeding up the process leading
to the entry into force of this instrument. We would be
gratified if those States that have not yet acceded to the
Treaty participated in that conference and decided, in the
near future, to sign and ratify the Treaty.
We would underscore also the need to commence, as
soon as possible, negotiations on a fissile material cut-off
treaty. The entry into force of the Ottawa Convention on
anti-personnel mines could contribute tangibly to resolving
the humanitarian, economic and social problems stemming
from the massive and irresponsible use of these mines. In
that connection, we note with satisfaction the outcome of
the Maputo meeting. Hungary was one of the first
countries to join the Ottawa process and recently
completed the destruction of its stocks of anti-personnel
mines. We hope that other countries in the region will
follow our example, as this could contribute to the
elimination of all of these lethal devices in the crisis area
along our southern border.
We would also note the importance of speeding up
negotiations to conclude a verification protocol annexed
to the Biological Weapons Convention. We believe that
these negotiations could be completed sometime between
now and next summer. As Chairman of the ad hoc Group
mandated to draft a verification protocol, Hungary is
prepared to contribute to any political initiative that could
promote its implementation.
I cannot fail to mention the establishment of an
International Criminal Court — a deeply significant
undertaking. In our view, the Court is an indispensable
institution if we are to take action against crimes against
humanity and war crimes. The Court will not only bring
to justice people who have been accused of serious
crimes, but will also act as a deterrent, thereby
contributing to the maintenance of regional and
international peace and security. We hope that the number
of signatures and ratifications of the Rome Statute will
continue to grow and that disputed questions relating to
the universal acceptance of the Court will be resolved as
soon as possible.
Acts of terrorism in recent weeks sadly remind us of
the great challenge involved in combating this
phenomenon. They underscore the importance of making
new efforts and the imperative need for concerted
international action in this area. We hope that at this
session of the General Assembly we will be able to go
beyond the universal introduction and complete
implementation of international agreements relating to
terrorism that are already in force, and move forward the
work of finalizing international agreements relating to
nuclear terrorism and the prevention of financing for
terrorism.
The authority and prestige of the United Nations
depend to a large extent on the capacity of its Member
States to reform the Organization. In the light of the
experience of recent years, it is very clear that reform is
a long-term process and will be probably consist of
various interconnected stages. The achievements thus far,
though insufficient in themselves, are valuable elements
29

that must be built upon if we are to go further along this
long road leading to the transformation and revitalization of
the world Organization, including the reform of the Security
Council. What is certain is that if we are to succeed, all
Member States, without exception, will have to get to work
with a greater sense of commitment. We expect the
millennium summit, to be held next year, to give the
necessary impetus to the dynamic continuation of United
Nations reform.
As has been repeated on many occasions, our
paramount task today is to make this unique Organization,
the United Nations, capable of preserving the values of our
civilization in a twenty-first century that promises to be
turbulent. At the dawn of the year 2000, which also marks
the thousandth anniversary of the foundation of our State,
it is up to all of us — Governments, the business world and
civil society — to make our planet a decent and habitable
place for future generations.


Allow me at the outset to
congratulate the President heartily on his election. His post
is a challenging one, and I am particularly pleased that this
session is being chaired by a colleague from Namibia,
which is an important partner for my country.
The crucial role of the United Nations in the global
community can never be overstated. As this millennium
draws to a close, it is natural to take stock of the past and
try to foresee what the future holds in store. The
Organization's reform measures have included an inward
look at the organizational structure and personnel matters
and, last but not least, its financial make-up. In this respect,
many feel that more needs to be done. We must have the
courage to scrutinize not only the Organization itself, but
also the manner in which the Member States conduct their
business inside these walls. While we are going through
this process, the utmost care should be taken to prevent the
discussion from negatively affecting the public image of the
Organization. Moreover, we should make sure that it does
not have detrimental effects on the morale of the United
Nations international staff, whom we depend upon for the
smooth operation of the difficult and often dangerous tasks
we assign to them. A constructive approach to reform is
vital for the future of the United Nations.
There is a real need to strengthen the ability of the
United Nations to tackle the complex challenges of the
modern world. A case in point is the Working Group on
the reform of the Security Council, which has deliberated
for years without tangible results, with no end in sight.
This constant repetition can serve only to weaken the
United Nations, which has proved itself on many
occasions to be of fundamental importance to mankind.
But it is not only the organizational structures that
need to be adapted. We need also to look at the
substance. In this regard, I welcome the emphasis placed
by the Secretary-General in his recent report on creating
a culture of prevention. As he correctly points out, our
political and organizational cultures and practices remain
oriented far more towards reaction than prevention. This
needs to be changed; the efficiency of the United Nations
might thereby be greatly enhanced.
During a recent meeting of the Foreign Ministers of
the five Nordic countries held in Iceland, we issued a
joint declaration against the use of child soldiers. In the
declaration it is noted that the current protection of
children in armed conflicts is insufficient and that
international standards must be raised. On the occasion of
the tenth anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of
the Child this year, the Nordic Ministers support the
urgent finalization of an optional protocol to ensure that
persons below the age of 18 years are not recruited into
armed forces or into armed groups distinct from
governmental forces. Children should not be forced to
take part in hostilities under any circumstances.
In this regard, I would like to express my
satisfaction with the work carried out by the Special
Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and
Armed Conflict, especially for his efforts to make non-
governmental forces around the world refrain from using
child soldiers.
The vast majority of United Nations Member States
have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
We have committed ourselves to certain actions to
promote children's rights. Causing children to take part in
armed conflicts or otherwise putting them at risk of
becoming victims of such hostilities is clearly against the
best interests of the child, which should always be our
primary consideration. There is another powerful reason
to protect children: they are our future. Protecting today's
children is in itself an important contribution towards
peace and towards creating a culture of prevention. We
should also strive to ensure that children are able to enjoy
their rights during transitional periods following armed
30

conflicts or other emergency situations until enough
stability has been achieved to start reconstruction.
It seems that not a week goes by in our world without
countries and indeed the international community having to
watch in horror as cowardly terrorists target people going
about the business of their everyday lives. The murdering
of innocents will never further any cause or put an end to
any conflict; it will only add names to the roster of the
dead. We urge States to sign and ratify counter-terrorism
conventions.
In this connection, I would further like to reiterate our
resolve in combatting transnational crime and the
international trade in drugs. No country is immune from
these modern evils. Given their global scope and the
resources available to criminals, Governments the world
over must work together to put an end to these activities.
This year we have recognized the importance of the
elderly and their contributions to our lives and society by
observing 1999 as the International Year of Older Persons.
The Icelandic authorities have done their utmost to enhance
the visibility of issues facing the elderly in today's society.
This has been done through a number of projects, including
projects designed to bridge the generation gap by
encouraging interaction between age groups.
At a time of unparalleled economic growth spurred on
by the globalization of the world's economy, the fruits of
this growth, unfortunately, are not evenly distributed. We
are witnessing a growing gap in the distribution of wealth
within societies as well as between the North and the
South. Moreover, we have been witnessing an appalling
trend whereby the curse of poverty has increasingly been
falling upon the shoulders of women. There are no easy
answers on how to tackle this problem in the short term,
but two long-term approaches stand out regarding the
empowerment and advancement of women. They are
education and respect for human rights.
An educated woman passes knowledge to her children,
which is not as often the case with men. It is universally
accepted that education and social development go hand in
hand and are conditions for a peaceful and prosperous
world. In this age of globalization and technology, it
becomes ever more important to ensure universal education.
Therefore, it is crucial to incorporate education into
development projects. For the past few years we have been
doing that through training in the fisheries sector as well as
by conducting adult literacy programmes for women in
countries such as Namibia. Similar programmes are being
prepared for Malawi and Mozambique.
Vigorous efforts also have to be made to end other
forms of discrimination against women. This applies not
only at the national level but also at the international
level, where the actions of international organizations are
increasingly having a direct impact on peoples' lives, for
example through crisis management. When carrying out
such tasks, it is the duty of the organizations concerned
to ensure that women and their interests are represented
at the negotiating table.
During the high-level segment of this year's session
of the Economic and Social Council, the Icelandic
delegation paid special attention to the plight of the urban
poor who inhabit coastal regions around the world.
Today, my country, Iceland, has a thriving economy
based on our fishing industry. The development of a
viable fishing industry has strengthened the economy by
creating employment opportunities and prosperity, which
in turn have benefitted the population at large. It is self-
evident that a developed fisheries sector can be a crucial
factor in enhancing the food security of developing
countries. The Icelandic authorities have urged private
companies to invest in the fisheries sectors of many
developing countries. Partnerships forged in this manner
between firms in my country and a number of developing
countries have led to transfer of technology in this field,
thereby spurring economic growth and development in the
coastal regions in question.
We believe that many developing countries can
benefit much more from rational utilization of the
resources of the oceans. Therefore, approximately half of
our development cooperation has been concentrated on
research and training in the fisheries sector, putting an
emphasis on the sustainable utilization of natural
resources.
Through the years, Iceland has placed particular
importance on the work of the Commission on
Sustainable Development. During its seventh session,
earlier this year, the Icelandic Government noted the
necessity of abolishing State subsidies that contribute to
overcapacity in the fisheries sector worldwide, and
participated actively in discussions on the need for
improved coordination within the United Nations system
in the field of ocean affairs. It is our view that the overall
debate on the oceans can be improved. It is, however, our
firm belief that efforts to improve the handling of ocean
issues should draw upon existing institutional resources.
31

These efforts should also carefully take into account the
principle that global bodies should not try to solve local or
regional problems of fisheries management. The
management of living marine resources is a very complex
and sensitive task that has to be dealt with using the most
advanced scientific knowledge available and in harmony
with local socio-economic and environmental
circumstances.
Conflicts where the civilian population is expressly
targeted are abhorrent and leave scars that take generations
to heal. Once again, we have witnessed the emergence of
the dark and evil side of human nature in the horrible
ethnic cleansing that took place in the recent conflict in
Kosovo. It would have been desirable if the United Nations
could have played an all-encompassing role in the
settlement of that conflict.
In this regard, I would like to endorse the position put
forward on humanitarian intervention by the Secretary-
General. When a State not only stops protecting the rights
of its citizens but turns against them through gross
violations of human rights, the international community
cannot and should not stand idly by.
Iceland currently holds the chair of the Council of
Europe, which encompasses 41 European countries. I would
like to take this opportunity to stress the value and
importance of close cooperation between the Council and
the United Nations in the field of human rights. We have
recent examples of such practical cooperation in Kosovo,
where the Council of Europe is working together with the
United Nations and other organizations in fulfilment of
Security Council resolution 1244 (1999) and the European
Union-led Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.
Referring again to the benefits of prevention, I should say
that prevention is at the very centre of the Council of
Europe's work on human rights, democracy and the rule of
law.
The agreement between Portugal and Indonesia on the
future of East Timor was historic, as was the referendum
which took place. The appalling violence that followed is
a cause of great concern. Every effort has to be made to
halt it and to punish those responsible. My Government
fully supports Security Council resolution 1264 (1999) and
welcomes the speedy deployment of the multinational force.
Nothing should be allowed to delay the process towards the
independence of East Timor.
We welcome also the change of pace in the Middle
East peace process. The positive developments in the last
few months between the Israelis and the Palestinians have
been very encouraging, and we sincerely hope that this
renewed momentum will carry us towards a lasting peace
in the region. We urge other countries in the region to
seize this particular moment and to start the healing of
wounds that have been festering for so long.
Icelanders are no strangers to natural disasters, and
we know the devastation they can unleash upon countries
and peoples. Our hearts and sympathy go out to our
friends in Turkey, Greece and now, most recently, on the
island of Taiwan, who face the aftermath of earthquakes
that claimed the lives of a great number of people. We
have now decided to join the United Nations Disaster
Assessment and Coordination Stand-by Team because we
believe we can make a contribution.
During this century we have witnessed mankind's
greatest achievements as well as its greatest failures.
While many countries have gone from war to peace and
from poverty to prosperity, others have been unable to
grasp these often elusive goals of humanity. It is clear
that we will be entering the new millennium with
unsolved problems and with challenges of such a
magnitude that they will continue to confront us into an
unforeseen future.
I would like, in closing, to stress what I said in the
beginning — that only with a renewed and revitalized
United Nations can we hope to deal with the threats and
challenges that lie ahead. If we, the Member States,
shoulder our responsibilities and implement the changes
necessary, then the United Nations will always be at the
forefront of the quest for peace and prosperity. If we do
not have the courage to adopt the necessary changes, we
cannot expect our children to do so.


This is the sixth time that I have had the
honour to address the General Assembly, and it is a great
pleasure for me to be back here in this body.
I would, at the outset, like to congratulate Mr.
Gurirab warmly on his election to the presidency of the
General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session. Both
Liechtenstein and Namibia figure among the younger
Members of this Organization, since both our countries
were admitted to the United Nations in 1990. The
32

President can count on Liechtenstein's support as he guides
the Assembly to fruitful outcomes.
I would also like to extend our warm welcome to the
Kingdom of Tonga, the Republic of Kiribati and the
Republic of Nauru.
The general debate is an important opportunity for all
of us to take stock, to comment on the state of the
Organization, to voice our concerns and, if necessary,
dissatisfaction and, most important, to offer constructive
thoughts and ideas for the future.
At the time when Liechtenstein became a Member of
the United Nations, nine years ago, the cold war had just
come to an end, and we tried to identify the challenges and
opportunities created by the new situation. The hopes and
expectations were high, the concerns and problems
manifold. It was clear to many of us that our Organization
was not fully equipped to face the upcoming challenges,
and, indeed, mistakes have happened along the way.
Today, we can say that the somewhat perverse order
of the cold war has been replaced by the era of
globalization. Some of us welcome this new era, some of
us fear it. However different our opinions, there can and
should be one common denominator: that we acknowledge
the arrival of this new era and that we join our forces to
face its challenges.
Globalization has two faces: it offers a potential, from
which — if properly explored — mankind as a whole can
benefit. It also contains risks, especially for those who are
already in a perilous position.
In order to be able to face these two enormous tasks
efficiently, we have to work together, because that is the
only way for us to succeed. The United Nations is the sole
forum that is of truly global range, and thus it offers the
only opportunity for us to address these issues — assuming
we are equipped with the right tools.
The past years have been characterized by important
and far-reaching reform efforts. The challenges of
globalization make further measures necessary, such as the
enhanced inclusion, participation and accountability of non-
State actors. In a globalized world, such actors play
increasingly influential roles, both positive and negative.
Persons and organizations that constitute significant
economic forces have to be involved in our considerations
and decision-making processes. Actors such as terrorists
and parties to internal armed conflicts have to be held
accountable for their actions and for the consequences
thereof.
The public at large often mistakenly equates the
United Nations with the work of only the Security
Council. This is factually wrong, and we should use every
opportunity to inform people worldwide about the wide
range of activities carried out by our Organization and its
specialized agencies. But we also have to bear in mind
the immense importance of the work of the Council and
must have a certain appreciation of why the public
focuses only on the Council's work, erroneous as this
approach may be. It is simply a fact that the credibility of
the United Nations depends to a very large extent on the
credibility of the work of the Security Council. This
credibility has suffered serious blows in the recent past,
and we cannot afford to ignore the root causes of the
problem.
We have to address the existing problems and to
design ways and means to avoid further, perhaps
irreversible, damage. Strict observance of the key
provisions of the Charter is one essential element in this
respect, and reform of the Security Council is another.
For a long time we have talked about all aspects of such
a reform, including the composition of the Council. The
moment has come for us to recognize that the question of
the veto is at the core of every credible and sustainable
Security Council reform.
My country has long expressed concern about the
situation in Kosovo and has asked for preventive efforts
in order to avoid an escalation of this situation. In
solidarity with the victims and wanting to take some
responsibility for them, Liechtenstein has given temporary
shelter to a large number of Kosovar refugees, has
participated in the provision of humanitarian assistance,
in particular through the relevant United Nations agencies,
and has expressed full support to the United Nations
Mission in Kosovo and to the ongoing efforts of
reconstruction.
At the same time, we also have questions, and we
notice that others do too. How can we reconcile the role
given to the Security Council under the Charter of the
United Nations with a “humanitarian intervention” not
mandated by the Council? What does this mean for the
future of the Security Council and of the Organization as
a whole? Are regional organizations to assume a leading
role that goes beyond what is contained in Chapter VIII
of the Charter? It will be important to discuss these
33

questions, though finding satisfactory answers is certainly
difficult.
To our mind, Kosovo has made it very clear once
more that the prevention of conflicts must be the key
concept in conflict-resolution as well as in other areas.
Preventive measures are the best means of saving lives and
resources of every kind, and they can be carried out quickly
and with discretion. Prevention does not make big news
headlines, but it reduces the number of headlines on
disasters, of which we continue to see just too many. The
potential of prevention is enormous, but its application so
far is too modest and far too limited.
We know that there is still reluctance and hesitation,
but we feel a sense of urgency, a pressing need to enhance
preventive activities and to replace a classical concept of
sovereignty — a concept that is outdated in many aspects
— with a new one which enables us to tackle situations of
potential and actual crisis with determination and efficiency.
We thus welcome the report of the Secretary-General on
the work of the Organization and his very inspiring and
timely remarks on a “culture of prevention”. We are
convinced that this is the right way for the international
community to go.
Kosovo has been and somewhat sadly remains a prime
example of the need for prevention. Liechtenstein has for
several years now promoted ideas and suggestions on a
preventive approach with regard to problems arising from
the application of the right of self-determination. The
international community remains stuck in a situation in
which the exercise of the right of self-determination —
which is the prerequisite for the enjoyment of all human
rights — is denied because it is misunderstood as a claim
to independence and statehood. We all have known for very
long, since the adoption by the General Assembly of the
Friendly Relations Declaration in 1970, that this is not
correct. Self-determination can mean many other things, if
exercised in a flexible manner and based on a dialogue
between the parties concerned. It does not have to lead to
the break-up of States; it should rather facilitate the
peaceful coexistence of States and communities which are
provided a degree of self-administration or self-governance
as an expression of their right of self-determination.
It is time to free ourselves from biased and obsolete
thinking and to recognize that the effective application and
exercise of the right of self-determination is the basis for
preventing violent disintegration of States as well as
internal armed conflicts with all their gruesome aspects and
endless human suffering.