The year that has elapsed since the forty-
seventh session of the General Assembly was noteworthy for
the further growth in the authority and the effectiveness of
the United Nations. It testifies, in our view, to the deep
understanding that the members of the world community
have about the need for close, constructive cooperation in
the name of a better future. As I look around this Hall, in
which, for the first time, a Head of State of a sovereign
Tajikistan is speaking, the words of the great poet Saadi
come to my mind:
"The sons of Man are but one body
For the Creator made us all from but one beginning".
Now that I find myself here, in the centre for settling
the problems of the whole world, I should first of all like to
congratulate Mr. Samuel Insanally, the Permanent
Representative of Guyana, on his election to the presidency
of the General Assembly. Allow me to express the hope
Forty-eighth session - 30 September l993 5
that this session, under your skilful leadership, Mr. President,
will achieve tangible, successful results for the good of all
mankind. I should also like to draw attention to the
excellent work done by Mr. Stoyan Ganev, President of the
General Assembly at its last session; Mr. Ganev both
energetically and effectively guided the deliberations on
complex political problems.
It is with great satisfaction that I greet
Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United
Nations, and express to him our sincere gratitude for his
tireless efforts to resolve the conflicts in various parts of the
world, not excluding my own country.
The Republic of Tajikistan is taking its first steps as a
subject of international law. It is with deep satisfaction that
I note that we have been granted an equal voice in the
commonwealth of nations, and we are aware that this
honourable right imposes significant duties on us.
The two years of our independence, in addition to
moments that are undoubtedly positive, have also entailed
the harsh trials that my patient and peace-loving people are
now going through. It is for the historians to study the root
causes, the reasons for the situation in Tajikistan today. I
think that my job is to point out just one thing: those whom
we believe, on the basis of the law in force in the Republic
of Tajikistan, to be guilty of unleashing civil war are guilty
of grossly violating the very foundations of any modern
society, namely the primacy of law.
As in any civil war, in the civil war in Tajikistan there
can be no victors. Our urgent task as a nation is to heal, as
quickly as possible, the bloody wounds that it has inflicted
on our country.
The attention the community of nations is paying
Tajikistan is understandable. Nor should we be surprised at
the variety of opinions we hear when events in the Republic
are being analysed. I should like to shed some necessary
light on a number of issues.
Now that we have set out on the path of independent
development, we have run up against the enormous political
and socio-economic problems of the transitional period.
Our national economy was built up as just one small
part of the enormous economic complex of the former
USSR, and was basically a provider of raw materials. With
the collapse of those economic ties, our Republic has come
face to face with many almost insoluble problems. There
has been a catastrophic drop in the standard of living, which
could hardly fail to lead to an increase in social tension.
The power struggle that developed at the same time and
the attempts to seize power illegally, by force and
undemocratically, have split society apart and led to a
senseless, fratricidal war. The results of this we know:
thousands of broken lives, thousands of dead and wounded,
refugees and missing. Immeasurable political, social and
economic harm has been done to the Republic.
The internal instability has become the main reason for
the economic and political chaos, the total legal confusion
and the sharp drop in production. The future of our people -
the future of Tajik statehood - has been put in jeopardy.
The sixteenth session of the Supreme Council of the
Republic of Tajikistan, which was held in these conditions,
laid fundamentally new foundations for establishing peace
and civil harmony in our country. The Supreme Council has
decided in favour of solving all political, social and
economic problems solely within the framework of the
constitution. A number of important laws have been adopted
that are designed to afford citizens social protection and to
return them to their homes and peace-time jobs.
In accordance with the Constitution, we have elected a
leadership for the Supreme Council and formed a
Government. Today our society and our people have
become aware that the highest power in the State should be
the law, and only the law.
As the Head of State, I declare, from this rostrum, that
we shall adhere to the fundamental principles of the Final
Act of the Helsinki Conference and the Paris Charter and
other international instruments for the defence of law. We
are determined to carry out democratic transformations in
our country and to acknowledge and respect philosophical,
religious, ideological and political choice as an inalienable
right of the individual.
Working under the constant pressure of political and
socio-economic problems, we have succeeded in a short time
in removing the economic blockade from all the regions of
the Republic and have begun rebuilding our destroyed
national economy and instituting economic reforms in order
gradually to introduce a free market.
From the beginning of the restoration of our Republic,
our Parliament has adhered to the principle of the primacy
of law, and in so doing has passed a number of measures,
while the Presidium of the Supreme Council has laid down
6 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
three special decrees on amnesty. Does not this show that
we are acting to resolve through political means the
problems that have accumulated in our country? We are
prepared for dialogue with all the social forces in our
country to achieve national reconciliation, civil harmony and
stability in Tajikistan.
We would like to cooperate constructively with forces
of any political orientation acting within the framework of
existing law and respecting generally accepted principles of
democracy. I would like to inform the world community
that Tajikistan is actively working to improve its election
laws and to prepare a draft new Constitution in which
maximum attention will be given to all problems related to
guaranteeing and protecting inalienable human rights.
In terms of settling our domestic political problems, we
are seriously concerned over the attempts at regionalization
of the internal conflict in Tajikistan, a conflict which is still
going on in a number of areas along the Tajik-Afghan
border. The outbreak of the conflict this summer brought
dozens of deaths.
Allow me briefly to tell the Assembly my view of the
essential reasons for the tensions along and inside the border.
Everyone knows that until recently Tajikistan had been
systematically subjected to unprovoked acts of armed
intervention from the territory of a neighbouring country.
Naturally, we understand its internal difficulties related to
establishing a centralized State administration. But facts
cannot be denied, and we have now been faced with the
need seriously to deal with the question of self-defence.
We are not hatching any hostile plan with regard to
Afghanistan. The measures which we have taken and are
taken to strengthen the defence of our border - which is also
a border of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) -
do not go beyond what is laid down in Article 51 of the
United Nations Charter and are fully in keeping with
generally accepted norms of international relations.
But this, of course, does not mean that that is the only
way to solve the problem. And here we are encouraged by
the notable speed-up in the negotiating process with the
authorities in Kabul. We have achieved a number of
positive agreements on a broad spectrum of questions,
including normalizing the situation along the Tajik-Afghan
border. We think that a permanent, substantive dialogue
with the leadership of the Islamic State of Afghanistan will
help us remove some other well-known irritants.
It is most unfortunate that huge resources are still being
spent to support destructive elements based on the territory
of Afghanistan. Having gone there from Tajikistan, they are,
with the help of extremist groups and the forces of
international terrorism, hatching plans forcibly to change the
State structure in our country. A legitimate question arises:
is it not wiser to use these resources to build rather than to
destroy?
Another of our problems is that of the Tajik refugees in
Afghanistan. There are many versions of how they ended up
on the territory of Afghanistan, but that is not the main
point, which is that they should return to their homeland as
quickly as possible. We express our sincere thanks to the
Administration of Afghanistan and to the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees, who are giving serious
attention to those people. As of the middle of September,
more than 35,000 Tajik refugees - more than half the total -
had returned to their permanent homes from Afghanistan.
We hope that the process of voluntary return will continue
and that with the support of the authorities of Afghanistan
and of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,
we shall in the near future be able to put an end once and
for all to this painful question.
We have already completed our preparation for signing
a trilateral agreement between Tajikistan, Afghanistan and
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. We
hope that the agreement will be signed as soon as possible.
From this United Nations rostrum, I should like to say
one more thing in this regard. We are firmly convinced that
the support of the Administration of Afghanistan in efforts
to restore peace to the Afghan land, which has suffered so
much, would be in the interests not only of that country but
of the region and of the entire world. There was a time
when some States spent a great deal of resources on war in
Afghanistan. In my view, the time has come to help restore
a peaceful life there. A restless, unstable Afghanistan is a
threat - and not only to Tajikistan.
Regarding our participation in the CIS, I must
emphasize that Tajikistan is in favour of strengthening the
Commonwealth while observing full respect for the
sovereignty and independence of its member States. In this
context, I should like to point out the significance of two
areas of our activities within the framework of the CIS,
activities which are critically important for Tajikistan. I am
talking about relations with Russia and with the Central
Asian States.
Forty-eighth session - 30 September l993 7
Russia, as a permanent member of the Security Council,
has undergone great trials in taking upon itself the
maintenance of peace and stability in virtually all the space
and territory of the former Soviet Union. Therefore, the
peoples of the former Soviet Union, including Tajikistan,
commend and welcome the peace-keeping efforts made by
Russia.
A positive role in stabilizing the situation in our country
has been played by the brotherly support of Uzbekistan,
Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Tajikistan also thanks
the United States and all the other countries of Europe and
Asia that extended the hand of assistance to us during
terrible and dark days.
We hope that Tajikistan will quickly be removed from
the blacklist of conflict areas. In this respect, we count upon
the tangible assistance of the world community in restoring
our national economy, which has been destroyed by war and
by natural disasters. A country which is rich in natural
resources, which has an attraction in terms of its economic
prospects, needs purposeful assistance in order to be reborn.
Allow me to express the hope that that assistance and that
support will naturally, in accordance with generally accepted
principles in world practice, be given to my country.
Tajikistan, which has gone through the horrors of a
civil war, views with great concern the course of events in
the hot spots of our planet. We know of the pain and
suffering of the people of Somalia. We feel the full depth
and senselessness of the tragedy of the peoples of the former
Yugoslavia, the deadlocked events which have taken place
in the Caucasus of the post-Soviet era. We also know
firsthand how destructive is the force of local conflicts. That
is why we make an urgent appeal to the world community
to multiply its efforts to end, and to prevent, that type of
conflict. We are firmly convinced that the force of arms, no
matter how threatening and frightening they may be, cannot
solve a single contentious issue.
In this connection, we are seriously concerned by the
uncontrolled and unsanctioned trade in arms in areas of
intense instability. Essentially, what is happening is a
massive arming of entire regions. Indeed, we can imagine
how unbelievably difficult it is to take away from a
population weapons that they have illegally obtained. On
the basis of our own bitter experience, we loudly speak out
about the danger of that fateful trend.
Today, this destructive impact on our economy has
been joined by another: the aspiration of a number of
countries to acquire nuclear weapons or the technology to
produce them. As a country which has the technology for
mining and initially processing uranium, we categorically
oppose the use of that priceless source of energy for
non-peaceful purposes.
We state our unconditional support for the
Non-Proliferation Treaty, and we hope that the conference of
the States parties to that Treaty, scheduled for 1995, will
decide to extend it indefinitely.
As the Assembly knows, the end of the cold war and
bipolar confrontation gave rise to great hopes on the part of
the peoples of the world. Unfortunately, events have not yet
justified many of these hopes. None the less, there is one
place in the world where notable political events have been
observed. We are deeply satisfied with the historic
agreements reached between the Palestine Liberation
Organization and the State of Israel on mutual recognition.
We welcome the decision of the United States of
America to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization,
and we commend that great country for its role in supporting
peace and stability on earth.
The questions which the General Assembly will be
discussing at its forty-eighth session show that there is now
an onward rush towards the interdependence of nations. In
Tajikistan we are convinced of this.
We commend the peace-keeping and humanitarian
efforts of the United Nations. We are especially proud of
Tajikistan’s initiative to include institutions of the
Commonwealth of Nations in the broad peace-keeping
activities on the territory of our country; that initiative has
not been ignored.
The mandate for the presence in Tajikistan of the
Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, Mr. Ismat Kittani,
has been extended. The Republic has fruitfully worked with
the United Nations Observer Mission, the representative of
the High Commissioner for Refugees, and the representatives
of other international non-governmental organizations.
Our special gratitude goes to the Security Council of
the United Nations, which constantly monitors developments
in the situation in and around Tajikistan. We sincerely hope
that the efforts of the community of nations will be
increasingly focused on ensuring the conditions for
sustainable development.
8 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
We wholeheartedly support the principles and
recommendations of Agenda 21. We feel that accomplishing
that Agenda’s important goals, such as the transfer of
technology and resources, will have a favourable impact on
disaster areas such as the Aral Sea and areas of great
poverty.
In conclusion, I would like to assure the Assembly that
my people, who have now embarked upon establishing their
own statehood and have overcome considerable difficulties
in so doing, look to the future with a feeling of great and, I
hope, justified optimism.
We will spare no effort, we shall use all our energy, in
building a genuinely legal, democratic and enlightened State
which will not fail to take a worthy place among the
civilized countries of the world.


 In 1965 three of
the Caribbean’s most outstanding statesmen created an
institution to foster cooperation and to quicken the pace of
their countries’ development. Errol Barrow of Barbados,
Forbes Burnham of Guyana and V.C. Bird of Antigua and
Barbuda met at Dickenson Bay, Antigua. There, they signed
a historic document creating the Caribbean Free Trade
Association (CARIFTA).
Although the three countries they led were not yet
sovereign States, those enlightened statesmen envisioned the
emergence of an independent, English-speaking Caribbean
capable of playing a meaningful role in international affairs.
The entire Caribbean, beginning in 1492 and continuing
throughout its modern history, had been an object of
international intrigue and international competition. How
fitting, then, for that region to help shape world history once
it had taken hold of its own ambitions and aspirations.
In 1973, CARIFTA was transformed into a more
extensive institution called the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM). Today, exactly 20 years after its
establishment, all citizens of the 13 countries of CARICOM,
whether living in the Caribbean or in the diaspora, celebrate
this historic moment when a most able son of Guyana is
elected to preside over the forty-eighth session of the
General Assembly of the United Nations.
Your brilliant academic career, your outstanding
diplomatic skills and your warm, personable style of
leadership assured your unanimous election. Antiguans and
Barbudans rejoice with you and your country, and my
delegation pledges its fullest support and cooperation.
My delegation is appreciative of the role played by the
non-English-speaking countries that are members of the
Latin American and Caribbean Group of States, whose full
support was necessary to achieve this noble objective. The
12 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
33 States of the region have quietly made tremendous
progress, in this and other forums, in strengthening the
bonds of cooperation and friendship that bind us. And
though we are divided on a single but important trade issue,
we expect that an amicable solution will shortly be found to
the satisfaction of both sides.
During the past year, our regional group of States
worked together to find a solution to the Haitian crisis. The
delegations of Brazil and Venezuela, regional members of
the Security Council, made every attempt to include the
entire region in the Council’s decision-making process as it
pertained to Haiti, another regional member. The United
States must also be congratulated in that regard.
The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean now
eagerly await the return of President Aristide to Haiti on 30
October three weeks from today, when history will reverse
itself. Despite the violence and the dilatory tactics employed
by the military leaders in Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda is
confident that the forces of good will, decency and
democracy will prevail.
I wish to point out that no previous Security Council
embargo intended to compel compliance with the will of the
international community was ever as swiftly effective as was
the embargo imposed on the illegitimate regime in Haiti.
My delegation regards this episode as a turning-point in the
history of Security Council actions to safeguard international
peace and security.
Threats to international peace and security, up until the
Security Council action on Haiti, have been narrowly defined
as the use of force by one sovereign State against another,
or some form of violent confrontation between or among
States. A small State like mine, incapable of waging war
and no longer an object of conquest, defines international
peace and security more broadly.
Grinding poverty and the resultant ecological disaster
which characterize Haiti are threats to the peace and security
of that sovereign State and its neighbours. Not force, not
violent threats, but poverty and its attendant consequences
threaten international peace and security. Antigua and
Barbuda, a small island State and an ally of democracy and
legitimacy in the Americas and certainly in this forum, takes
great pride in knowing that all of CARICOM pressed this
cause here at the United Nations and elsewhere and that
Haiti can count on us never to relent.
Antigua and Barbuda will never relent in its struggle
against illegal drug trafficking, either. Located between the
suppliers of the South and the markets of the North, we have
been thrust by geography into the battle against this scourge.
We pledge our slender resources in the global struggle
against this global enemy.
Apartheid, another global enemy, is in its death throes.
My small country takes pride in knowing that our voice has
helped to topple that evil system in South Africa. From the
moment of our independence 12 years ago, in 1981, my
small country has supported the legitimate aspirations of
oppressed peoples everywhere, but especially those of the
majority population in South Africa.
In April of next year, when democratic elections are
held to choose a representative government in South Africa,
Antigua and Barbuda will also be able to celebrate a victory
of right over wrong, of democratic ideals over dictatorship,
of good over evil. The international community must begin
preparing to come to the assistance of an anaemic South
Africa whose need for economic good health in a
post-apartheid world is even now apparent.
In April of next year, as apartheid suffers its final
defeat, the Global Conference on the Sustainable
Development of Small Island Developing States will convene
in Barbados. This Conference is the first test of the will of
the international community since the Earth Summit
convened in Rio last June. You will recall, Mr. President,
that the most significant conclusion of last year’s Earth
Summit was the determination that industrial civilization is
fundamentally flawed.
Development based on the current model of
consumption, distribution and disposal practised by the
developed world is unsustainable. Abundant quantities of
harmful gases and toxins, emitted into the atmosphere, are
altering our global environment, and fatal consequences have
been forecast for the Earth’s climate, its biodiverse flora and
fauna, its agriculture, all living animals and human health
and well-being.
It should be borne in mind that while the contribution
by small island States to climate change, global warming and
sea-level rise is zero, the effects of climate change, global
warming and sea-level rise will reduce small island States
like mine to zero. Our very existence is at stake; our peace
and security are threatened by the actions of large and
wealthy States whose presumptions about the Earth’s
resources need to be completely revised.
The Barbados Conference will articulate a programme
of action intended to eliminate these man-induced, looming
catastrophes and to achieve sustainable development
beginning in small island States. The international
Forty-eighth session - 8 October l993 13
community’s support and good will are required if
sustainable development is to be made real and disaster is to
be prevented.
Small island States are the foot-soldiers in this battle to
save the planet. We will be the first casualties but we will
not be the last if drastic changes are not quickly brought
about in the developed world.
On Earth’s last uninhabited continent, disaster can also
be avoided. Antarctica, a pristine and icy wilderness whose
waters abound with the most significant link in the oceans’
food chain, whose winds control the earth’s weather systems,
whose tundras conceal the secrets of the Earth’s past, and
whose icebergs determine sea-levels world wide, must never
become the possession of large States alone. Antigua and
Barbuda will never acknowledge sovereignty over Antarctica
by any State.
In fact, working alongside like-minded delegations, we
will continue to press for a mining and oil exploration ban
in perpetuity, certain that any other arrangement will lead to
a precipitation of ecological decline worldwide, to the
detriment of small island States among others. In our view,
Antarctica must be declared a world park, control over
which should be exercised by our world body.
The world’s many peoples must learn to live in
harmony with the Earth’s environment and peaceably among
ourselves. Ethnic strife and wars have taken more lives in
the last year than comprise the entire population of my
country and several other CARICOM States combined. All
multiracial and multi-ethnic societies must learn to settle
historic and current rivalries peacefully; when they fail to do
so, resources which could well be spent on development are
necessarily diverted to peace-keeping.
The peace-keeping missions now undertaken by the
United Nations cost more than $3.5 billion annually; as a
consequence, development assistance is severely restricted.
Peaceful States like mine therefore have an economic
interest in seeing a decline in the need for peace-keeping.
Sadly, it is anticipated that more civil strife and many more
ethnic and religious conflicts will occur in the near future
and that the United Nations will be called on to help.
My delegation therefore applauds Liechtenstein for the
role it has decided to play in this forum. That small
European State is attempting to find a structured solution to
the unyielding demand by rival groups within States for a
measure of self-determination. The size of a country bears
no relation to the intellectual capacity of its statesmen or to
its capacity for generating great ideas. Antigua and Barbuda
will work alongside this small State in promoting a
permanent solution to destructive ethnic conflicts within
States.
The world’s indigenous peoples must also find
permanent protection, and the injustices they have long
endured must also quickly cease. Towards that end, our
United Nations declared 1993 the International Year of the
World’s Indigenous People. It is not yet clear just how
much impact the declaration has had; a fund has been
established in the Americas to support the indigenous
peoples of my region, and Brazil and Venezuela have shown
courage in their support for the Yanomami, an Amazonian
forest people.
Antigua and Barbuda also supports the establishment of
an annual International Day of the World’s Indigenous
People. Having lost the indigenous Arawaks and Caribs of
Antigua and Barbuda, beginning in 1492, my country is
duty-bound to ensure that powerless indigenous people the
world over, who have inhabited the lands of their ancestors
for many generations, are adequately remembered and
protected by our United Nations.
The people of Antigua and Barbuda condemn the
perpetrators of the fierce conflict which continues to rage in
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we deplore the attacks on
United Nations peace-keepers in Somalia as much as we
abhor the destructive campaign waged by mercenaries in
Angola. The civil wars in Liberia and Mozambique are
brutish and unyielding, and the civil strife which has erupted
in Georgia will likely match both in ferocity and
destructiveness.
In the Middle East, the slow trickle of peace has turned
into a gushing stream with many tributaries. It is our hope
that the Israelis and until the Palestinians will be able to find
the source of a lasting flow of peace. Until Israel is allowed
to exist within secure borders and until the Palestinians
achieve a sovereign State of their own, peace in that region
may slowly evaporate.
We rejoice at the wave of peace which has engulfed
Lebanon. Its very industrious citizens, flung far and wide by
a conflict that seemed unending, can now give back to their
homeland some of the talent and wealth which their rich
culture bestowed upon them. Lebanon can surely count on
its prodigious sons and daughters in the diaspora for every
assistance; their generosity is as legendary as their love for
their old country.
We welcome the finalization of the demarcation of the
boundary between Kuwait and Iraq which was accomplished
14 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
by the Iraq-Kuwait Boundary Commission in May 1993.
We also welcome the adoption by the Security Council of
resolution 833 (1993) in which it guaranteed the inviolability
of the boundary between the two States. This guarantee
shall serve as a deterrent against future conflict between
these two neighbours while enhancing stability and security
in the region.
My people celebrate with the countries of the Central
American region as peace rains down upon them. If future
civil wars are to be prevented, however, the economic
systems which prevail in Central America must become far
more inclusive. In distributing wealth, methods must be
found to direct more than a trickle towards the poor.
We note that the impoverishment of Cuba’s people is
due overwhelmingly to exogenous circumstances, and so our
sympathies lie with the people of this sister Caribbean State.
In the early decades of this century, Cubans welcomed poor
workers from neighbouring Antigua to their shores. Today,
standing in solidarity with the Cuban people, Antiguans and
Barbudans seek a speedy end to their suffering.
I would be remiss in my duty, as I conclude, if I did
not convey to the outgoing President, Mr. Stoyan Ganev of
Bulgaria, the gratitude of my delegation for the important
role he played during the preceding session of the General
Assembly. It was under his watch that six new Members
joined our Organization. I welcome to membership the
Czech Republic, the Republic of Slovakia, Eritrea, Monaco,
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Andorra.
Their presence greatly enhances our institution’s legitimate
claim of universality, as membership climbs to 184.
In that regard, my delegation would note that Antigua
and Barbuda supports a manageable enlargement of the
Security Council to reflect the new realities. However, our
delegation will not join any consensus on enlargement if the
qualifying criteria for new membership implicitly require a
certain level of wealth and/or a certain population size.
Although we harbour no ambitions to sit on the Security
Council, my small country cannot agree to be excluded from
the Council in perpetuity. Such exclusion would make us
less sovereign than larger States.
The moral conscience of our institution can best be
articulated frequently by small States with no material
interest in the outcome of disputes. But even more
important is the fact that our own survival requires us to
contribute to the construction of a new world order that will
have its basis in Security Council decision-making. We
wish merely to retain our option, for we know not what
future generations will encounter.
My delegation concludes by recalling that on 31 March
1918 - 75 years ago - another generation of Antiguans and
Barbudans challenged an unconscionable system of
exploitation that left us materially impoverished. Our
grandmothers and grandfathers, then youthful and vigorous,
were determined to fashion for themselves and their progeny
a future that would be superior to their own inheritance. In
1918, brutality was the response to their legitimate cry for
workers’ rights.
Twenty years later - in 1938 - a sympathetic
Commission was to determine that the deplorable conditions
then extant in my country required massive infusions of
public finance and good will in order to achieve a marked
turn-around. When, in 1943 - 50 years ago, and 25 years
after the 1918 revolt - a nationalist named V. C. Bird picked
up the mantle of leadership of the workers’ organization, my
small country began its metamorphosis in earnest.
Seventy-five years after March 1918, the Antigua and
Barbuda that has evolved bears no resemblance to the
Antigua and Barbuda that history left behind. When
V. C. Bird and his trade-union colleagues quickened our
stride towards freedom and an improved material condition,
beginning in 1943, they had a vision of an Antigua and
Barbuda which, 50 years later, has become virtual reality.
As V. C. Bird and his generation pass the mantle of
leadership to their successor generation, our old men have
visions, and our young women have dreams. Antiguans and
Barbudans are aware that there are detractors abroad who
may wish to see our freedom snatched from us. We have
paid a price for our freedom, which we will for ever defend.
And we are aware of the role played by the United Nations
and international law in safeguarding the sovereignty of
small States.
We shall therefore for ever remain wedded to
multilateral institutions like the Caribbean Community, the
Organization of East Caribbean States, the Organization of
American States, the Commonwealth and this body - the
United Nations - which, together, strengthen our sovereignty.
Multilateralism is the greatest ally of our freedom, and the
United Nations the greatest guarantor.
As Antiguans and Barbudans recall the courage of the
heroes of 1918, we pledge never again - never again - to
allow injustice and brute force to raise their ugly heads in
our beautiful, beloved Antigua and Barbuda. My generation
will continue to do all that is necessary to bequeath to future
generations a peaceful legacy, where justice rules, ignorance
is banished, and legitimate leadership springs from the
people’s choice. That is our pledge.


Mr. President, it is with great
pleasure that I congratulate you on your election as President
of the General Assembly. This is not merely a recognition
of your long experience and your outstanding ability and
diplomatic skill, but also a reflection of the esteem in which
your country, Guyana, is held in the United Nations. We are
certain that, under your able guidance, the work of this
session of the General Assembly will be a landmark in the
new international scene and in facing the new challenges for
peace, democracy and progress.
I should like also to pay a warm tribute to the
Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Boutros
Boutros-Ghali, for the determined leadership that he has
demonstrated on vital international issues and for his
excellent report on the work of the Organization, which
provides much food for thought and indicates various areas
of important activities that are the object of soul-searching
consideration in this debate.
May I remind Members that, from the beginning of its
existence as an independent State after many years of
colonial rule until its admission to the United Nations in
1960, Cyprus has consciously made the principles of the
United Nations Charter central to its foreign policy, and,
within its limited possibilities, has endeavoured in every
possible way to be supportive of the Organization.
Frankly, I have to admit that we followed this approach
in our foreign policy both as a matter of principle and as a
matter of self-interest. We have always believed that the
United Nations was mankind’s best hope for a system of
international order, despite the fact that we were aware of
the possibilities of non-adherence to it and of the limitations
to the effectiveness of the world Organization resulting from
the existence of military blocs. Our self-interest as a small
and militarily weak country made us feel the need for the
protection of the world Organization, and, as a developing
country, we stood to benefit from multilateral technical
assistance and know-how.
The Secretary-General’s excellent report testifies to the
fact that, in today’s post-cold-war era, the United Nations is
at a crossroads. Some years ago, in the context of the
East-West divide and the continuing build-up of nuclear
arsenals, we were agonizing in international forums over the
future of our civilization. The cold war is finally over,
opening up new prospects for positive change in
international policies. New prospects are also opening up
for concerted action and a global approach to the problems
we face.

In some parts of the world, the old regimes have
collapsed and a move to pluralistic societies and the free
market economy is being made. However, the newly
acquired freedom has revived old enmities. This is not a
strange phenomenon because, as the eminent, late Prime
Minister of India, Mr. Nehru, said, the walk to freedom is
not an easy one. World developments indicate, and clearly
demonstrate, that unless the international community adopts
a more unified approach in its understanding of the
challenges it faces and promotes the necessary solutions,
human rights abuses, increasing insecurity and hunger and
suffering will create an explosive situation that will spare no
one; we are, though, gradually becoming aware of the
complexity and scope that even minor issues acquire in an
interdependent world.
The world is full of challenges and opportunities. Our
common responsibility is to strengthen the world
Organization in order best to respond to these challenges and
increase mankind’s expectations of peace, prosperity and
democracy. These expectations can be met only by making
the United Nations more effective, through the
implementation of its own resolutions and the mandatory
provisions of the Charter.
The General Assembly, based on the principle of
sovereign equality, has much to offer and must continue to
play its important role under the Charter.
Nowadays, however, the Security Council has a
substantially enlarged agenda. As the Charter envisages, it
is able to decide and act. At present it is able to act in a
more effective manner in the crucial areas of international
peace and security. It is evident that the Security Council
can now play a much more important role than ever before.
This is a welcome development, and within the context of
this expanded role a review of its membership to reflect the
realities of today’s world is highly appropriate.
However, the effectiveness of the Security Council, the
highest organ of the United Nations, can be achieved only if
it applies the practice of acting with determination.
Experience has demonstrated that in those cases where the
international community has shown determination to uphold
the principles of international instruments and fully apply
their provisions, progress can be made. In those cases where
unity of purpose has not been shown or interests of nations
have been placed above universal principles and rule of law,
the problems remain, and peace is elusive.
I wish to point out with emphasis that gaps in
international law and practice - failure to uphold
international law and human rights, or upholding them in
one situation and closing our eyes to their violation in others
- must no longer be acceptable behaviour, particularly in the
new world order to which we all aspire.
In today’s world, where economics plays an
increasingly important role, the United Nations, through the
Secretariat, the United Nations Development Programme and
the various specialized agencies, carries out multi-purpose
activities for the betterment and economic well-being of
people throughout the world. These activities are outlined
in the Secretary-General’s report, and in the interest of
saving time I do not intend to comment on them other than
to declare that we fully recognize their importance and
support them. We look forward to receiving later in this
session the Secretary-General’s integrated approach to
development issues in his forthcoming agenda for
development, which will no doubt appropriately complement
his groundbreaking "An Agenda for Peace" in matters of
peace and security.
In the light of our overall philosophy, as I indicated
earlier, we attach much importance to the effective
functioning of the principal judicial organ of the United
Nations, the International Court of Justice. The increase of
its jurisdiction in contentious cases is encouraging, and we
also attach importance to the possibility of clarifying legal
points in political disputes through advisory opinions. The
International Court of Justice is indeed an integral part of
United Nations peace efforts and we support the
Secretary-General’s proposal that he be authorized to seek
advisory opinions from the Court as an important component
of the United Nations peacemaking apparatus as a whole.
The Secretariat’s role in an improved and more
effective United Nations is indisputable, and we pay tribute
to the many men and women in the international civil
service whose competence and dedication enable the
Organization to respond to the ever-increasing demands
made of it in today’s world conditions. The
Secretary-General has already done much in the direction of
rationalizing and streamlining the Secretariat, as well as in
putting in place effective machinery for inspections and
investigations whenever necessary, and he certainly has our
support in the additional measures needed to carry out this
Herculean task. We join in recognizing the undoubted need
for an adequate financial basis for the Organization and for
assessed contributions to be paid early and in full by
Member States, in terms of both the regular budget and the
costs of peace-keeping. Voluntary contributions are also to
be encouraged in order to carry out the tasks at hand, and I
might recall that Cyprus, besides endeavouring to play its
Forty-eighth session - 5 October l993 3
modest role in as many such cases as its means allow, has
also undertaken to make, on a continuous basis, a major
contribution towards the financing of the United Nations
Peace-keeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
Past and recent experience in every region of the world
has demonstrated that the protection and promotion of
human rights is an indispensable ingredient of a stable world
order. Over the years the United Nations has played its full
part in affirming human equality, which is, indeed, the heart
of all rights, and in building bridges across the divides of
race, ethnicity, culture, socio-economic disparities and
political philosophies. Democracy and human rights are two
of the United Nations Charter’s most cherished principles,
and they have always figured prominently in United Nations
conferences.
Democracy is the only system of government that can
safeguard the liberty of the people, respect for human rights
and quality of life. We have a duty to remain vigilant and
continue to look for ways in which these new opportunities
presented by world developments may be used for the
promotion of international peace, the advancement of the
rule of law and the protection of human rights.
The world community must clearly oppose chauvinistic
nationalism, take a clear-cut stand against policies of "ethnic
cleansing" and unequivocally continue making all efforts
until we achieve the complete dismantlement of the unjust
and inhumane social systems based on ethnic political
segregation and the development and consolidation of a
non-racial, democratic South Africa.
The effective promotion of human rights cannot be
separated from the global trend towards democratization.
Cyprus is in the forefront of States that have become party
to treaties for the protection of human rights, both at the
global level, within the United Nations, and at the regional
level, primarily through the Council of Europe. We are
especially sensitive on this subject, since one large
component of the Cyprus problem in its present dimensions
is the massive violation of the human rights of the displaced
persons who have been evicted by force from their homes by
the Turkish forces of occupation. Their homes and
properties have been usurped by illegal settlers imported
from Turkey to Cyprus in an effort by the aggressor to
change the demographic composition of the population of
Cyprus.
All these flagrant violations of human rights have been
committed by Turkey, a Member of the United Nations,
despite General Assembly and Security Council resolutions
calling on all United Nations Members to respect the
independence and territorial integrity of the Republic, avoid
any actions which could change the demographic
composition of the population of Cyprus, withdraw all
foreign forces from the territory of the Republic and allow
the return of the refugees to their homes under conditions of
safety.
Cyprus is a case in point of the complete defiance of
General Assembly and Security Council resolutions by one
of its members. In reality, the intransigence of the Turkish
side, which has rendered every effort to find a solution
impossible, accounts for the hesitation of the Security
Council to adopt measures for compliance with its
resolutions. If a viable and lasting solution of the Cyprus
problem is to be arrived at without further delay and a
federally united State is to be established without occupation
troops and settlers, concerted action is required by the
international community as a whole.
It is not only in the solution of the Cyprus problem that
Turkey shows intransigence. The Turkish intransigence
extends to purely humanitarian issues, such as cooperation
in ascertaining the fate of missing persons and in
implementing the third Vienna agreement regarding persons
enclaved in occupied areas.
I wish to express appreciation for the support extended
to Cyprus by the General Assembly, the Secretary-General
and the Security Council. We consider a good omen of
further determined action the declaration of the
Secretary-General in his most recent report to the Security
Council on Cyprus, and the Council’s positive response to it,
that unless progress is made on the Cyprus problem he will
request the Security Council to consider alternative ways of
securing compliance with the many resolutions of the United
Nations on Cyprus.
We have had occasion in the past to express our
support for the constructive suggestions of the
Secretary-General for improving the potential of United
Nations peace-keeping operations in today’s increasing
demand for them, including the training of personnel, the
strengthening of the Department of Peace-keeping
Operations and the earmarking of appropriate equipment and
personnel for use by the United Nations. We are encouraged
that progress has been made in all these areas and in the
setting up of a peace-keeping Reserve Fund, but, in view of
the ever-increasing demands and the worsening of financial
problems associated with these operations, complacency is
not justified and we should all continue to do our best to
4 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
assist in discharging this major responsibility thrust on our
Organization.
With regard to peace-keeping, it has been said - not
without justification - that the United Nations should avoid
open-ended involvement in peace-keeping operations.
Cyprus has been pointed out as an example of over-long
United Nations peace-keeping involvement. The broader
lesson to be drawn from the experience of United Nations
involvement in peace-keeping and peacemaking in Cyprus is
that, so long as one of the parties concerned is not willing to
comply with the dictates of the international community as
spelt out in unanimously adopted and binding resolutions of
the Security Council; and so long as the members of the
international community, and more particularly the
permanent members of the Security Council, are not willing
or able to act effectively in order to implement resolutions
for which they voted, peacemaking will lag behind peace-
keeping, resulting in the indefinite perpetuation of the
problem and of the peace-keeping operation concerned. This
is, obviously, an unsatisfactory situation - unsatisfactory to
the Government and the country directly concerned;
unsatisfactory to the countries contributing to the cost of the
peace-keeping operation; and of course, unsatisfactory to the
United Nations. I submit that the answer lies not in
abandoning the peace-keeping effort and thereby abdicating
responsibility, leaving the weak at the mercy of the strong
and striking a blow against longstanding efforts to solve the
problem, but in pressing on with effective peacemaking
through the implementation of the relevant Security Council
resolutions by all available means, so as to reach a solution
consistent with the Charter and the United Nations
resolutions. Cyprus is indeed a test-case, not, however, with
regard to peace-keeping, but with regard to the effectiveness
of the United Nations in peacemaking.
If I set out at some length our views on "An Agenda
for Peace", I did so not only because it is very important,
but also because Cyprus is itself a case-study of most of the
problems it raises. I shall refrain from commenting on the
long litany listed in this year’s report of international
problems in which the Organization is actively engaged and
which extend to all five continents. Each presents its own
complications and special characteristics. They provide a
measure of the enormous expectations placed upon the
United Nations, the awesome burden of the Secretary-
General’s responsibilities, and the respect and admiration he
deserves in carrying out these responsibilities. As he rightly
points out:
"The United Nations, by undertaking a range of
problems as wide as the globe itself, must be expected
to achieve successes but also to experience failure."
(A/48/1, para. 512)
While in the past few years the world has witnessed the
creation of new areas of tension and conflict through the
unleashing of destructive and centrifugal forces of excessive
nationalism and ethnic strife, there have also been some
notable successes through the solution of several regional
issues and the withdrawal of foreign forces following the
end of cold-war antagonism. We have witnessed in many
parts of the world the triumph of democracy and the
emergence of free-market economies. More concretely,
there has been the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the
historic reunification of Germany; major progress towards
ending the odious practice of apartheid in South Africa has
been achieved; and, as recently as last month, the historic
accord between Israel and the PLO was signed at the White
House, marking a new era in the Middle East. All three
situations had appeared to present the insurmountable
problems of unending and seemingly irreconcilable conflicts.
And yet, with vision and imagination, the political will for
solutions was found.
In contrast, the problem with which my own country
has been confronted for too long has remained intractable,
despite the existence of unanimously adopted United Nations
resolutions and despite the mutually acceptable procedure of
the good offices of the United Nations Secretary-General.
In our view, the problem is solvable and must be solved, yet
the efforts of many years have come to no result owing to
Turkish intransigence backed by Turkish military might.
We remain committed to reaching a peaceful solution
on the basis of the United Nations resolutions and the high-
level agreements. As clearly emerges from successive
reports of the Secretary-General, we have cooperated with
him in all sincerity in the exercise of his good offices for an
overall solution, and we have responded positively to his
proposals for the adoption, as a first step, of the confidence-
building measures and in particular the placing of Famagusta
and the opening of the Nicosia airport under United Nations
administration.
In 1945, the founding fathers signed the Charter in San
Francisco, in the aftermath of a devastating war, with the
vision of establishing the foundations of a better and more
peaceful world. As it nears its fiftieth anniversary, a
watershed in its history, the United Nations is again facing
a major challenge in a rapidly changing international climate.
Peoples and nations all over the world place growing
expectations in the Organization’s response to the new
summons for a universal alliance for peace and justice, for
Forty-eighth session - 5 October l993 5
democracy, development and international legal order. At
the same time, the ominous phenomena of ethnic strife,
destructive nationalism, widespread poverty and social
injustice are undermining the vital role of the United Nations
in opposing aggression and maintaining international peace,
and are thus posing new challenges.
As the Organization is restructuring itself in order to
meet these challenges more effectively, it is clear that, by
and large, the Charter has stood the test of time. As we
approach the milestone of the fiftieth anniversary of the
Organization, let us agree to spare no effort to make it more
effective, and let us look upon the Charter not merely as a
code of international behaviour that is difficult to live up to
and comply with, but as a reasonable and practical model for
everyday international behaviour and political ethics.


Like previous speakers, I would like to seek your
indulgence before I start my statement as I associate my
delegation’s voice with those who have spoken here and
convey our very profound condolences to the delegation of
India and to the Indian people and Government for the
disastrous earthquake which has brought death to thousands.
It is a particular pleasure for me to extend to
Ambassador Insanally my sincere congratulations on his
well-deserved election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at its forty-eighth session. I am convinced that his
wealth of experience will guarantee the success of our work.
To his predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Stoyan Ganev of the
Republic of Bulgaria, we wish also to express our
appreciation for the way in which he performed his duties.
I would also like to pay a tribute to the Secretary-General,
Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his dynamism and for the
numerous initiatives he has taken in order to promote
international peace and cooperation. Finally, my delegation
welcomes the presence among us of new States, whose
admission to membership has strengthened the universality
of our Organization.
As we do every year, we have once again reached the
time when we assess the international situation.
The end of East-West confrontation, by reducing
already-existing tensions and by promoting the settlement of
certain conflicts, has engendered great hopes for peace and
cooperation. But at the same time, it has unleashed forces
that need to be channelled in order to avoid new excesses
which will lead to fresh tensions.
"An Agenda for Peace" - very aptly reminds us of the
existence of other serious issues threatening international
peace and security as well as the future of mankind, such as
poverty, the deterioration of the environment and the debt
crisis. These various evils are indeed scourges which,
because of the anguish and despair they generate, can
destabilize many societies. Nevertheless, laudable efforts are
increasingly being made to build a new world order based
not only on democracy and development but also on the
absolute need for respect for human rights.
Many countries have begun to democratize their
political and social systems. These changes are accompanied
40 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
by difficulties and shocks, for democracy is a difficult lesson
to learn, requiring a lengthy apprenticeship that is made all
the more challenging by a fragile economic and social
context. The confusion of certain mentalities which are illprepared for change must be added to this, as well. Here,
patience, good will and even the assistance of the
international community are necessary if the worst is to be
avoided.
In the Congo, the democratic process has been
extremely bumpy. After the national conference which led
to a laborious period of transition, elections were organized,
as a result of which a Head of State, Mr. Pascal Lissouba,
was democratically elected by 61 per cent of the votes cast.
One might then have believed that the country was embarked
upon the right course, but, alas, 25 years of totalitarian
regimes took their toll. Dissensions within the new
parliamentary majority are about to give rise to a motion of
censure, which is to say the very least premature - scarcely
three weeks after the formation of the first Government.
After numerous vain attempts at reconciliation, the
President of the Republic was moved to dissolve the
National Assembly to allow the sovereign people to give the
country a clear-cut majority by which he could govern. This
constitutional prerogative was challenged by the opposition
parties, which further exacerbated the political crisis. The
express will of the President of the Republic to opt for
peaceful means, the mediation of the high command of the
Congolese armed forces, as well as the good offices of the
President of the Gabonese Republic, Mr. Omar Bongo, made
it possible for an agreement to be concluded on
3 December 1992. This agreement not only enshrines the
formation of a Government with a majority participation of
the opposition - more than 60 per cent - but also entrusts the
political parties with organizing elections to the legislature
on an equitable basis.
The first round of these elections was thus organized
last May without any major incidents and in the presence of
foreign observers, who did not fail to attest to the
correctness of the balloting procedures. The opposition,
which found itself in a minority as a result of that vote,
systematically challenged those results, demanding that the
vote be invalidated by the organ in charge of organizing the
balloting, whereas Congolese electoral law states that
electoral disputes are the purview of the Supreme Court,
which is the only competent jurisdiction pending the creation
of a Constitutional Council.
Because of certain subterfuges, clever sabotage,
delaying tactics and high-handed manoeuvres that ignored
the best interests of the nation, the Congolese opposition
deliberately infringed the institutional process which should
lead to democracy and development. After the memorable
national conference, no one would have imagined that the
Congolese would find themselves in the situation of refugees
in their own country. If the people’s right to civil
disobedience would appear to be a natural outcome of the
Constitution of our country, civil disobedience should not be
regarded as a synonym for destruction of the social and
economic fabric. Even if the conditions for such
disobedience had been present, the acquisition or the
large-scale distribution of arms and weapons of war can
hardly be understood, and even less their being used for the
purposes of mass destruction and blind terrorism.
Is it conceivable that, when the vote has not turned out
favourably, the streets, urban communities and innocent
people taken hostage become pawns which are used in
bargaining over political decisions? Plundering the property
of peaceful citizens - is this something which can validate
lost causes?
The acts of sabotage and systematic destruction
perpetrated by bands armed by the opposition last July
caused a massive loss of human life. To this we should add
considerable physical and material damages. Today,
3,000 families - in other words approximately 15,000
Congolese - are homeless and their sole refuge are
classrooms and student dormitories. Such a situation poses
a serious threat to the new school year which begins in a
few weeks.
Of course, the Government is making tremendous
efforts in order to meet the vital needs of the displaced
families and to reintegrate them into Congolese society.
But, unfortunately, in a Republic with a ramshackle
economy and which is financially bereft, it is impossible for
this challenge to be met. That is why the Government of
my country appeals to the international community in order
to obtain emergency aid to assist all those Congolese who
have been deprived of their property or who have been
physically harmed.
Despite this tragic situation, which might indeed have
elicited a rigid attitude from the authorities, the Republic’s
Government threw open the doors to negotiation. Thus,
once again through the mediation of President Bongo of
Gabon, an agreement - the so-called Libreville Agreement -
was signed in the presence of foreign observers on 4 August
last. This agreement, which confirmed the results of the first
round, calls for the resumption of the second round of
elections to the legislature initially boycotted by the
Forty-eighth session - 1 October l993 41
opposition. As for the electoral dispute, it is to be decided
by an international arbitral college which is made up as
follows: two judges appointed by the Organization of
African Unity, two judges appointed by the European
Economic Community, two judges appointed by the French
Government and one judge appointed by the Gabonese
Government.
The Government thus has every hope that following
upon this vote and the resolution of the electoral dispute, it
will be able to lay the definitive groundwork for a real rule
of law with the establishment of all constitutional organs.
This is the situation in the Congo today. I would like
to take this opportunity to thank all those countries and all
those agencies which have been kind enough to help the
Congolese people resolve a crisis which seriously threatens
peace in the country and which could erode national unity
and compromise the future of the democratic process itself.
The Congolese Government would like to reiterate here,
through me, its commitment to abide by the decision of the
arbitral college and the verdict of the ballot boxes.
The Congo is going through a very difficult stage. The
desperate state of its economy and its social fabric has led
the Government to undertake economic reforms. These
reforms have so far been unfortunately frustrated by political
and social instability. These reforms deal, inter alia, with
restructuring the State productive sector by the total or
partial withdrawal of the State, the financing of economic
recovery, the reorganization and renegotiation of the external
debt and finally the defrayment of the social costs of this
adjustment.
If they are to bear fruit, these efforts and the sacrifices
they will entail must be sustained by financial aid, otherwise
the Congo will remain mired in poverty and instability.
Far from being unique, the critical economic and social
situation in Congo is but one illustration of a crisis that
affects almost all African countries and many developing
countries. Thus, to the political factors involved we must
add major economic and social challenges. It is quite clear
that poverty threatens the cohesiveness of States and brings
about profound imbalances in the developing countries,
endangering the very foundation of human rights. But there
is one basic human right that continues to have pride of
place: the right to development. Despite the numerous steps
taken to date, the developing countries remain weighed down
by the heavy burden of debt, and the increasing cost of
servicing that debt is becoming unbearable for economies
which are already in great trouble.
My delegation believes that resolving the foreign-debt
crisis requires bold steps. Nevertheless, we are very much
aware of all those efforts which are contributing to the
settlement of that crisis. That is why we greatly appreciate
the expression of solidarity from the French Government,
which decided last year in Libreville partially to cancel the
debt of medium-income countries, including the Congo.
After many initiatives which proved ineffective, the
international community must finally give priority to growth
and development in the poor countries by building, on the
ruins of the former East-West order, a new order based on
more dynamic and more innovative North-South relations
that would promote attainment of the objectives of the
International Development Strategy enshrined in this body.
This Strategy should receive all the support necessary to
promote the creation of an international trade system that is
both open and non-discriminatory, with the successful
outcome of the negotiations of the Uruguay Round; to
encourage the conclusion of specific agreements to readjust
commodity prices; and, finally, to find lasting solutions to
the external-debt crisis.
It is acknowledged that improving the situation in
Africa necessarily involves economic reform. Nevertheless,
efforts undertaken nationally, subregionally and regionally
have unfortunately not enjoyed the international support
expected. The adoption of the New Agenda for the
Development of Africa in the 1990s signified the failure of
the United Nations Programme of Action for African
Economic Recovery and Development. Unfortunately, we
cannot but conclude that so far, this new development
programme has fallen far short of expectations.
That being the case, my delegation welcomes the
decision taken by the Japanese Government to convene, in
cooperation with the United Nations and the Global
Coalition for Africa, on 5 and 6 October next in Tokyo an
International Conference on African Development, and we
voice the hope that this Conference will lead to concrete
measures.
The economic crisis which besets our countries is
particularly damaging to young people. Juvenile
delinquency, illicit drug trafficking, drug abuse and AIDS
are all serious threats to our societies. It is essential that
they be given close attention. In this connection, more
solidarity should be displayed in order to eradicate these
scourges.
My delegation supports the conclusions reached by the
most recent session of the Economic and Social Council on
42 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
efforts to combat malaria, dysentery and, particularly,
cholera. The United Nations system must attach a high
priority to Africa, taking into account the serious
consequences these scourges have for development
programmes.
There can be lasting economic and social development
only in a healthy environment. The results reached by the
Rio Conference, enshrined in Agenda 21, are extremely
heartening. They undoubtedly reflect a global consensus as
well as a political commitment at the highest level to
cooperation for the purposes of development and the
environment. But the key to their success resides in the
financial resources made available.
Today, more than ever before, the increase in natural
disasters is a matter of concern to us all. That is why my
delegation welcomes the Japanese Government’s offer to
host, in 1994, a World Conference on Natural Disaster
Reduction, which will deal with the various dangers these
disasters entail and identify the necessary guidelines under
which they can be taken into account by the United Nations
in its development projects.
Since we have boldly struck out on the path to building
a State of law, my Government supports the international
community’s action to promote and develop human rights.
That is why we welcome the results of the World
Conference on Human Rights, held last June in Vienna, and
reiterate our appeal to fund-raisers to help finance the
various action programmes which were drawn up in that
context.
The current session has started at a time when the
persistence of local conflicts and the resurgence of hotbeds
of tension are a daily concern of our Organization in its
mission to build and preserve peace. Nevertheless, although
we can welcome the favourable developments in certain
situations, it must be recognized that a large number of them
remain subjects of grave concern.
Among the former, we have the situation in South
Africa. A number of factors today indicate that the
abhorrent system of apartheid will inevitably be eradicated,
even if tensions are still rife and there are still scenes of
violence. The process of democratization in South Africa
can no longer be in question. The fact that 27 April 1994
has been fixed for the first multiracial elections is proof of
this. My delegation gives their due value to the efforts
which have been constantly made by the South African
Government to eradicate apartheid and to democratize the
country. Furthermore, we support the request for the lifting
of sanctions formulated by Nelson Mandela.
My Government believes that peace in Somalia can be
restored only if Security Council resolutions 751 (1992), 794
(1992) and 814 (1993) are implemented, resolutions which,
inter alia, call for the organization of a reconciliation
conference and a national-unity conference.
Turning to the question of Angola, we regret to note
that the refusal of UNITA to accept the result of the voting
and the free choice of a sovereign people has once again
plunged the country into hostilities, further complicating not
only the process of democratization that had been embarked
upon but also the peace negotiations which are currently
taking place under the aegis of the United Nations. My
delegation welcomes the adoption by the Security Council of
resolutions 851 (1993) and 864 (1993) and supports recent
initiatives by the King of Morocco, the President of Côte
d’Ivoire and the President of the African National Congress.
The agreement recently reached between the
Government of Rwanda and the Rwandese Patriotic Front
gives us reason to hope that an era of peace will come to
that country, contributing to the strengthening of the bases
of national unity. We hope that the Rwandese people, after
recovering peace and unity, will be able to get down to the
difficult task of rebuilding their country.
Regarding the cases of Liberia, Mozambique and
Western Sahara, in which my delegation fully and firmly
supports initiatives of the United Nations, we call upon the
parties to the conflicts to have recourse to negotiation, to
dialogue and to other peaceful means in order to restore
peace and security in that area.
The Washington Agreement of 13 September 1993
represents a decisive turning-point towards settlement of the
Palestinian problem, and it will contribute to an
improvement of the situation in the Middle East. The
signing of this agreement promises a new era of peace and
cooperation for the peoples of that region.
Nor can we fail to commend the very fortunate
outcome of the situation in Cambodia, where elections,
organized under the auspices of the United Nations, led to
the creation of a government of national unity.
Despite the involvement of the United Nations, the
situation in the former Yugoslavia has not basically changed.
My country supports all the initiatives taken by the United
Nations - in particular, those that encourage dialogue and
Forty-eighth session - 1 October l993 43
negotiation - with a view to ensuring the success of the talks
in Geneva.
As in the past, the process of the peaceful reunification
of the Korean peninsula enjoys the support of my delegation
and my Government.
It is very pleasing to note that considerable progress has
been made in the process of disarmament and the control of
armaments. Unfortunately, the danger of war has not yet
been eliminated, as there still exist a number of arsenals of
weapons of mass destruction - in particular, nuclear
weapons. For this reason my Government will continue to
appeal urgently for general and complete disarmament.
Peace and development are complementary. Each
depends on the other. Thus, the promotion of confidence
and security, which are the prerequisites for the achievement
of development targets, is becoming a new priority in Africa.
Aware of this, the members of the Economic Community of
Central African States, with the assistance of the United
Nations, are now addressing themselves to progressive
implementation of the work programme of the Standing
Advisory Committee on Security Questions in Central
Africa, which was adopted by the General Assembly last
year. That Committee, which adopted a draft non-aggression
pact following its third meeting, held in Libreville, will hold
its fourth meeting in Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo.
This indicates the political commitment of the States of
Central Africa to the creation of a system of collective
security through the promotion of confidence, security and
development. These actions of the States of Central Africa
must be seen as part and parcel of the machinery for the
prevention, management and settlement of conflicts that was
set up at the most recent Summit of Heads of State and
Government of the Organization of African Unity (OAU),
which was held in Cairo in June of this year. The
international community - particularly the United Nations -
should give these initiatives the support that is necessary if
their noble objectives are to be accomplished.
In recent years the United Nations has been working
very positively on a number of fronts. Its efforts have lent
it undoubted authority, especially in the settlement of
conflicts and in the shaping of the new order, which
mankind hopes will be more democratic and will generate
prosperity for all. Nevertheless, there is now a pressing
need to restructure the United Nations. This is especially
true with regard to the question of enlargement of the
Security Council and an increase in the number of its
permanent members. Such a reform would tend to increase
the effectiveness of that vital body, which is responsible for
the maintenance of international peace and security. This is
one of the fundamental aspects of the necessary process of
democratizing international relations.
The Government of the Republic of Congo attaches
major importance to strengthening the role of the United
Nations, as well as to increasing respect for the principles of
the Charter, which is a sine qua non for the advent of a new
order based on justice for all, peace, prosperity and
international solidarity.


First of all, I should like to congratulate you,
Mr. President, on your election to your important post. I see
it as a manifestation of respect for the peace-loving policy
of Guyana, and as a tribute to the growing role of Latin
American and Caribbean countries in international affairs.
Last year demonstrated the great potential for drama
inherent in the post-confrontational and post-communist
world. We have seen that the very highest levels of
cooperation are achievable. We see truly exciting prospects
in yesterday’s address by President Bill Clinton of the
United States and in other statements already delivered from
this rostrum.
At the same time, developments in the former
Yugoslavia, Abkhazia and Karabakh have also revealed the
true depths of barbarism and the significant new threat of
aggressive nationalism.
Outbursts of violence caused by xenophobia, even in
traditionally prosperous countries, have shown that no one is
safe from this danger. It is no less serious a threat to peace
today than nuclear war was yesterday. The world
community mustered the strength to stave off the nuclear
danger. An important guarantee against this was the
Russian-American START II Treaty. Nowadays we all
confront the equally formidable challenge of a new
generation of conflicts and wars triggered by nationalist,
political and religious intolerance. That is why democracy
and peacemaking must be the key terms defining the strategy
of the world community as it moves into the twenty-first
century.
The United Nations is now turning to face this new
challenge. The successful United Nations operation in
Cambodia was one of the largest in the history of the
Organization. Life is returning to normal in a country so
long torn by civil war. We stand ready, together with other
members of the international community, to help the people
of Cambodia to rebuild their country.
Forty-eighth session - 28 September l993 15
We have seen a political and psychological
breakthrough in the solution of the key problem of the
Middle East settlement, which is the problem of Palestine.
We pay tribute to the courageous leaders of Israel and the
PLO who have taken the first and most difficult step towards
mutual recognition and reconciliation. We are ready to
participate in an international conference on the economic
development of self-governing Palestinian territories.
Russia, as a co-sponsor of the Conference on the Middle
East, will spare no effort to advance the peace process in all
other areas.
However, the key to the settlement of many conflicts
has not yet been found. Russia will continue to encourage
the parties to the Bosnian conflict not to lose the chance of
a peaceful settlement and will contribute to the operation for
its implementation under United Nations command.
Twice during wartime I have had occasion to visit
Sarajevo. I propose that the United Nations should place the
city under its moral and political protection and that it
should be declared a centre of coexistence and a meeting
point for Islam, the Orthodox Church, Catholicism and other
religions. The city should become a symbol for the whole
world, a reminder that political violence and intolerance
under the banner of religion are the worst possible crimes
against religion itself and the human spirit. In any case, it
is surely time to think of establishing closer contacts
between the United Nations and the world’s leading
religions.
The international community seems to have turned a
blind eye to Afghanistan and Angola as soon as they ceased
to be pawns in the cold war. The United Nations has no
right to leave millions of people who live there in the grip
of an epidemic of ethnic, clan and religious extremism and
to forget their economic and humanitarian problems,
including that of the liberation of former Soviet prisoners of
war.
We must learn the lessons of the United Nations
operation in Somalia and considerably improve its
effectiveness. Conscious of its special responsibility for
maintaining peace, Russia has made peacemaking and the
protection of human rights, particularly those of national
minorities, the priority of its foreign policy, first and
foremost in the territory of the former USSR.
We will spare no effort to strengthen the
Commonwealth of Independent States and make it a positive
factor, not only regionally, but globally. I call upon
Members of the United Nations to support proposals
submitted jointly by the members of the Commonwealth of
Independent States to the present session, relating in
particular to the non-proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction, the struggle against international terrorism and
the protection of the environment.
Our peacemaking efforts are already yielding their first
results. For more than a year now there have been no
hostilities in the Transdniester region and South Ossetia.
With our participation, the process of normalization of the
situation and national dialogue has started in Tajikistan.
Russia is making active efforts to put an end to the
Abkhazian and Karabakh conflicts and to render
humanitarian assistance to their victims.
All these problems are too serious and too tragic for
speculation about neo-imperial plans of Russia, diplomatic
rivalry, or the search for new spheres of influence by
neighbouring and distant Powers. The United Nations, the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE),
and all States truly interested in peace, along with Russia,
will have enough work to do together. We want to see
much more active assistance for our peacemaking efforts,
not in words, but in deeds.
In most cases this means that the United Nations should
give a mandate for operations conducted at the request of
conflicting parties on the basis of appropriate agreements.
For this, close interaction with the United Nations and the
CSCE missions is essential. Also, our minds should be open
to non-traditional methods, such as the participation of
contingents of the conflicting parties themselves and those
of a neighbouring mediating State. The pragmatic nature of
such a model was shown in particular in the Transdniester
region and in South Ossetia. This model should be used,
and not disregarded, in other regions, in the interests of the
United Nations, which is facing an overload of peace-
keeping operations. The collective peacemaking forces of
the Commonwealth of Independent States could also interact
with the United Nations itself. It is in any case time to
establish closer relations between the two organizations.
In material and financial terms the burden of
peacemaking borne by Russia alone today in the territory of
the former USSR must be lightened. This could mean
establishing a voluntary fund for this purpose. Of course,
Russia realizes that no international organization or group of
States can replace our peacemaking efforts in this specific
post-Soviet area.
16 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
By and large, taking into consideration the wide
experience gained throughout the world, it is time to think
of a modern overall strategy of peacemaking which would
be integrated with "An Agenda for Peace" proposed by the
Secretary-General.
The Russian Federation, as an initiator of the statement
of the President of the Security Council on peacemaking and
peace-keeping issues, made on 28 May 1993, makes the
following proposals.
The first is to define a clear-cut concept of political
leadership by the Security Council, create an effective
military command under the supervision of the Secretary-
General and establish a procedure for involving, on that
basis, regional organizations.
The second is to establish under Article 29 of the
United Nations Charter a special Security Council committee
on improving peace-keeping operation practices. This could
include those States which have already gained considerable
experience in this area of United Nations activity.
Our third proposal is to set up United Nations stand-by
forces which would be at the disposal of Member States and
used in peacemaking operations with the consent of their
Governments on a case-by-case basis at the request of the
Secretary-General.
All these questions directly relate to the process of
renewal of the United Nations. The reform of United
Nations bodies, including the Security Council, will make
sense and be effective if it allows for a more adequate
response to new challenges in the field of peacemaking.
The settlement of conflicts should go hand in hand with
the international protection of their victims. As a follow-up
to the Geneva International Conference on the Protection of
Victims of War, we propose that international legal
restrictions be imposed on the use in internal conflicts of the
most destructive and indiscriminate types of weapons,
primarily military aircraft and artillery-rocket systems. We
should also eliminate or call a halt to the use of mercenaries
and volunteers both in domestic and international conflicts.
We propose the establishment of a permanent
international tribunal to deal with crimes against humanity.
The inevitability of punishment will help to prevent the
recurrence of such atrocities.
It has become crucially important to address
comprehensively the problem of refugees and to specify the
relevant principles of international law at a special
conference.
Peacemaking cannot be separated from the protection
of human rights. The international community is duty-bound
to condemn strongly "double" or lower standards of human
rights protection, the theory and practice of the superiority
of rights of an "indigenous" nation and the creation of mono-
ethnic States. The time has come to establish a United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Following
the example of the Conference on Security and Cooperation
in Europe, it is time for the United Nations also to have a
Special Rapporteur on National Minorities. We support the
proposals of the Secretary-General in the field of human
rights protection.
The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction would
directly contradict the peacemaking efforts of the United
Nations. This poses an ever growing threat not only in the
future but even at the present. We are ready to cooperate
with the United States and other countries in solving the
problems connected with cutting off fissionable material
production and banning the construction of facilities for such
production, particularly in conflict areas.
We are in favour of transforming the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty into a universal agreement of
unlimited duration. The United Nations should also work to
ensure the universality of and strict compliance with the
Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Russia reiterates, from this rostrum of the General
Assembly, its intention to adhere to the international regime
of non-proliferation of missile technology. In the very near
future, we intend to take concrete steps to strengthen our
relevant domestic legislation, going so far as to envisage
criminal prosecution for violations of the rules governing the
export of missile equipment and technology. We call on all
States that possess such technology to join the Missile
Technology Control Regime (MTCR). It is also necessary
to provide for equality of rights and obligations of the
participants, so as to enable them freely to export peaceful
space technology.
Successful economic reform is one of the guarantees of
peace. This is of particular relevance to the many developing
countries and to the post-communist States. Easier access to
world markets for countries with transitional economies,
including Russia, and the lifting of all discriminatory
restrictions is becoming an issue of the highest priority. We
Forty-eighth session - 28 September l993 17
believe that the General Assembly should express its support
for efforts in this direction. We also propose the
establishment of a mechanism to coordinate programmes
carried out by the institutions of the United Nations system
in support of economic reforms in countries in transition.
The strengthening of democracy is the principal
guarantee of security and socio-economic development in the
world today. This has been true in Europe, Asia, Africa and
Latin America, although the process is not proceeding easily
and automatically everywhere. Peoples who have risen up
against totalitarianism are threatened by the risk of political
violence and ultra-nationalism.
We categorically reject such an alternative. Russia is
peacefully transforming itself in accordance with the
fundamental principle of democracy: free elections. In 1991,
the people of Russia elected their country’s first democratic
President, and they confirmed their confidence in his policies
at the April referendum this year. On the basis of this
twofold mandate, the President has taken decisive measures
to ensure democratic elections to the Parliament in
December of this year. Thus, the old totalitarian system of
power will be definitively dismantled and replaced by a new
system of power elected by the people and responsible only
to the people. We invite international observers to monitor
the elections to the Parliament.
In building a new democratic Russia, we of course must
first of all rely on our own potential. Yet we very much
appreciate the solidarity the democratic community has
shown us. Such solidarity is neither an act of interference
in our domestic affairs nor the whimsical gesture of
romanticists in international politics. It is simply an
expression of the human duty to protect the rights of
individuals in other countries.
Next month will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the
Moscow Conference when, in the turbulent year of 1943, the
foundation was laid for the establishment of the United
Nations, which was conceived as an organization of
democratic countries having triumphed over Nazi
totalitarianism. Half a century later, the success of
democracy in Russia and many other countries has made it
possible for the first time to realize fully the lofty destiny of
the United Nations and to help it become a truly efficient
peacemaking Organization.
We should not allow political short-sightedness, current
economic difficulties, egoism and conceit to make us lose
the chance to transform the still fragile post-communist
world into a democratic one. I hope that this session will
move us closer to an understanding of this goal and of the
ways of reaching it in the interests of all States and nations.