In my address to this noble
Assembly last year, I drew attention to the significance of
virtue and, furthermore, to the enhancement of the release
11

of the power which resides in virtue, through the supply of
appropriate means. Moreover, I invited reflection on the
quintessential sameness of all humankind and urged that
this, together with a genuine commitment to virtue, be
adopted as the guiding principles of the General Assembly
as it addresses and deliberates upon the realities of human
interaction in our contemporary world.
As it is for any individual society or nation, so it is for
the international global community. Ethics is the science
whose aim is to produce the good man and woman, while
politics is the science which aims at fashioning the good
society. Thus, politics must be founded upon and
unceasingly informed by ethics.
Doubtless this is an ideal. Nonetheless, it is an ideal
we must constantly strive to achieve if we are to realize
peace within and among our nations — peace, which was
described by Thomas Aquinas as the tranquillity of order.
In this era of accelerating change in so many areas in
every portion of our diverse global community, it is of
singular importance to the well-being of each of our
individual national communities, as it is for the overall
international global community, that we recognize, observe
and be faithful to those values and principles which,
inherently, are unchanging.
One such unchanging value is that of right — moral
right: what Plato conceived of as the virtue of justice, and
what in Roman law was characterized as the jus, or moral
law. Indeed, it is rather significant that Plato perceived the
whole function of education as being to elicit the best
things that are latent in the soul, and to do so by directing
the soul to the right things.
I am highly honoured and deeply pleased to address,
on behalf of the Government and the people of Grenada,
this Assembly at its fifty-second regular session, during the
course of which change must be a transcending theme, as
also must be the initiation, institution and prudent
management of change in the pursuit and conduct of
international affairs.
On behalf of my delegation, I express to this
Assembly the warm greetings of the Government and the
people of Grenada. I also express our sincere
congratulations to Mr. Kofi Annan on his accession to the
office of Secretary-General, as well as on his manner of
addressing the duties deriving therefrom. We rejoice in his
demonstration of virtue, and we believe that his profound
knowledge of the United Nations augurs well for his
leadership in pursuance of international peace and
security.
My Government is heartened by his commitment to
the reform of the Organization and is reassured by his
efforts to fashion a more effective and efficient United
Nations system. We are hopeful that one of the benefits
which will accrue from such an improved system will be
the enhancement of the economic viability of small
developing States, such as ours; and we further hope that
his efforts to realize the system envisaged will not be
frustrated by the withholding of the substantial overall
payments which are due.
My delegation joins me in extending warm
congratulations to Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko of Ukraine on
his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at
its fifty-second session. We commend Mr. Razali Ismail
of Malaysia for his exemplary conduct of the proceedings
of the fifty-first session.
The rapidly changing global environment presents
grave challenges to small States, especially small island
States such as Grenada. It also does so for the United
Nations, whose very institution was prompted by the
adoption of the ethic of a confraternity of nations
informed by a common subscription to the concept of the
empowerment of virtue through the furnishing of adequate
and appropriate means in order that right might prevail in
the international community.
In this latter regard, attention is especially invited to
the notion of global trade and liberalization as it is
currently regulated by the World Trade Organization
(WTO), with its inherent inconsistencies, which operate
to the disadvantage of the smaller economies. The WTO
rules relating now to the products of agriculture and agro-
industry bear testimony to the injustice inflicted upon
those of us who live and labour within the confines of
small economies — witness the recent ruling on bananas,
which underscores the insensitivity displayed by way of
the challenge which triggered it.
Moreover, the Uruguay Round Agreements require
a massive legislative agenda on Grenada’s part — as they
undoubtedly do for most developing countries. Our
national laws in the areas of trade in goods and services
as well as intellectual property must be reviewed and
extensive legislative changes made. Thus we must acquire
the necessary legal expertise to work on this project until
implementation is fully accomplished - and all this by the
end of the year 2000.
12

We shall, of course, make full use of the assistance
that is available through WTO as well as that offered by
international bodies such as the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO).
Nonetheless, it must be explicitly stated that, in
Grenada’s view, the Uruguay Round Agreements have
created for small developing States significantly more
burdens than the benefits they are proclaimed to bring
under the banner of global free trade — at least now, and
for the foreseeable future, unless corrective measures are
soon instituted.
My Government continues in its efforts to restructure
the Grenada economy and is pursuing a programme of
economic diversification. This involves broadening and
enhancing sectors such as agro-processing, light
manufacturing, crafts, services — including offshore
financial services — tourism and agriculture.
Nevertheless, my Government is deeply aware that the
success of its economic policies will depend significantly
on the support of the multilateral financial institutions and
also of friendly countries in respect of training and the
dissemination of knowledge and skills, as well as the
setting up of enterprises and facilities that are strategic to
secondary economic growth.
Accordingly, my Government is pleased to have
recorded in the annals of the Assembly, its gratitude for,
and appreciation of, the assistance which Grenada has so
far received, as well as that which we are currently
receiving, from the European Union through the Lomé
Agreement, and from other friendly countries.
Despite constraints such as I have referred to, as well
as others, my Government continues in its efforts to
stimulate employment and enhance employability. In the
latter regard, we are now in the process of institutionalizing
on-the-job training for our unemployed youth, whilst
expanding our formal programmes for skills training. As for
stimulating employment, special emphasis is being placed
on self-employment — and this by way of fostering the
small enterprise and micro-enterprise sectors. For we are
convinced that the development of these sectors is crucial
to our preferred process for national development. We
believe that through such endeavours our people will grow
in dignity and self-reliance.
My Government will continue to provide an enabling
environment for the private sector to thrive and expand.
And we seek the active partnership of the multilateral
institutions as well as of the international community,
through joint ventures, technological transfers and
financial and technical assistance to provide the impetus
to sustained economic growth.
Democracy and good governance can flourish only
in an environment of peace — an environment
characterized by the tranquillity of order; not an order that
is imposed, but an order which springs from mutual trust
and mutual regard amongst the individuals who compose
the particular society; an order which is constantly
revitalized and continually enhanced by mutual love; an
order which resonates to the truth that “My origin is their
origin, my conscience is their conscience, my contention
is their contention, and my pilgrimage is their
pilgrimage”. In this context, we invite attention to the
apparent emergence recently of terrorism in the Caribbean
region, with the bombings in Cuba.
The kind of order referred to would inherently
involve individual social and economic well-being: true
prosperity, individual and societal.
At the international global community level, such
order is realizable only by way of a concept and praxis
for a new global human order such as was enunciated by
the late President Cheddi Jagan of Guyana and
corroborated by the leaders of the Group of 7 countries in
their communiqué “Making a Success of Globalization for
the Benefit of All” (A/51/208, annex II).
The pursuit of true politics in relation to the
fashioning of the confraternity of nations requires that we
strive to institute such a new global human order.
Within the compass of such a global human order,
there inevitably would be the eradication of the crippling
and strangulating debt burden which afflicts so
devastatingly the very poor and so dehumanizingly the
poorest countries of our world. So also would be action
against environmental degradation, and towards
sustainable economic development, especially in the
poorer countries and particularly in small island
developing States.
Similarly, as to the eradication of poverty
worldwide — and, in this regard it is fitting that I repeat
here the observation of the Right Honourable Clare Short,
United Kingdom Secretary of State for International
Development:
13

“A world that has one in five of its people living
in abject poverty is certainly not just and it is also
dangerously unstable”.
Natural disasters, particularly in small island States,
require special concern on the part of the confraternity of
nations. The devastation recently experienced in Montserrat
trumpets the need for a United Nations programme to deal
with the aftermath of such natural destruction.
Grenada welcomes the recent United Nations initiative
in respect of Haiti, and salutes every country participating
in this noble endeavour, as well as the United Nations and
its officers, whose vision informed that initiative.
We welcome also the steps towards achieving peace
between parties in countries in Central America, and we
applaud them. Indeed, as the current Chairman of the
Association of Caribbean States, Grenada rejoices in such
action. For, through the Association, we in the Caribbean
region seek to widen and deepen the process of integration
amongst the island States of the Caribbean and those
mainland States whose shores are lapped by the Caribbean
Sea — and this includes Cuba.
My Government is acutely mindful that poor States are
peculiarly vulnerable to the violation of their territorial
integrity, since they can ill afford the wherewithal to ensure
non-encroachment in the vicinity of their borders. And the
larger such poor continental States are, the greater that
particular vulnerability.
Similarly, for small island States, in particular those of
the Caribbean, where the threat is not so much to territorial
integrity but to security, that threat is posed by those
engaged in the illicit business of narcotics trafficking, both
by way of buying and selling. Our small island States of
the Caribbean have become primary and secondary
transshipment centres en route from the large producers to
the commensurately large consumers. My Government
therefore asks earnestly that this noble Assembly address
this matter in accordance with the ethic of the true politics
relating to the overall international community of
humankind.
The current United Nations International Drug Control
Programme is indeed commendable, and Grenada is pleased
to be actively participating in it at the pace we can best
afford.
Nonetheless, it cannot but be admitted that this
Programme does not offer, much less provide, the
protection which is needed for our people — particularly
our youth — against the ravishment of drug use and the
blight which eventually afflicts the small-scale
transporters, or so-called mules. Surely this process of
transshipment can be severely curtailed, if not completely
eradicated, through planned, concerted international
action.
My Government’s concern for youth and children is
not confined to Grenada. Nor is it limited to our brothers
and sisters in the Caribbean Community or in the
Association of Caribbean States. Our concern embraces
youth and children everywhere. Accordingly, we condemn
the exploitation of youth and children in any form. We
say no to the abuse of children for pornography and
prostitution.
My Government welcomes the recent conclusion of
the Convention on the comprehensive banning of anti-
personnel landmines, and we urge a significant
acceleration in the controlled destruction of those mines
which are relics of campaigns of war of one scale or
another.
In relation to the Security Council, Grenada
unequivocally supports its expansion in a manner such as
would facilitate the realization of true politics in the
overall international community. This, we believe, would
involve an increase in both the permanent and non-
permanent categories of membership.
Both such increases, in our view, should be
characterized by a significant presence of developing
countries. For, in Grenada’s view, what is required in the
reformed Security Council is not more of the same kind
of distribution of perception, but more equity among the
component parts of the spectrum of perception.
The very notion of equity inevitably calls forth the
notion of justice. In the context of justice in the United
Nations, there arises quite effortlessly the case of the
Republic of China on Taiwan. To all who subscribe to the
principle of the right of a people to self-determination, the
case for membership in the United Nations for the
Republic of China on Taiwan is a compelling one.
Indeed, it is incontestable. For, some 50 years ago, these
people chose self-determination. They voted with their
feet as they moved from their homes on mainland China
to the island of Taiwan, and today 21.3 million people
practise democracy in the Republic of China on Taiwan.
Their economic achievements are well and widely known,
14

as is their willingness to participate in the international
community as a Member of the United Nations.
What more is required for the Republic of China to be
admitted to United Nations membership? One may well
ask. My answer: justice. The mention of justice evokes
recollection of two very insightful observations which
deserve to be shared in this noble Assembly. First,
Reinhold Niebur, in his Foreword to “The Children of Light
and the Children of Darkness”, offered the following
comment on justice:
“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy
possible; but Man’s inclination to injustice makes
democracy necessary.”
Well might we enquire as to the origin of this
inclination to injustice. But the success or failure to identify
that origin notwithstanding, an effective manner of dealing
with that inclination is provided by Plato’s construct for
education, which is centred on exposure of the soul to the
right things.
And second, in his Foreword to Allan Bloom’s
thought-provoking study on American higher education —
the number-one bestseller of its time, one decade ago, Saul
Bellow offered a view that is particularly pertinent to the
notion of exposure of the soul to the right things. Saul
Bellow contends that:
“In the greatest confusion there is an open channel to
the soul ... The channel is always there, and it is our
business to keep it open, to have access to the deepest
part of ourselves — to that part of us which is
conscious of a higher consciousness ... The soul has to
find and hold its ground against hostile forces,
sometimes embodied in ideas which frequently deny
its very existence, and which indeed often seem to be
trying to annul it altogether.”
The Assembly may well ask, “How does the soul hold
its ground?” My reply: through virtue and constant
exposure to the right things. Let right prevail.
May God bless the President of, and everyone
participating in, this fifty-second regular session of this
noble Assembly, which through His grace will be a
transforming blessing to our world.


I have the pleasure at the outset to extend to the
President and his friendly country, Ukraine, my sincere
congratulations on his election as President of the fifty-
second session of the General Assembly. In wishing him
success in conducting the proceedings of this session, I
would like to assure him of my delegation's readiness to
cooperate with him in making his task a success and in
achieving the desired objectives of the session.
It is also my pleasure to commend the dedicated
efforts of the President's predecessor, Mr. Razali Ismail, in
presiding over the fifty-first session of the General
Assembly, and to express the thanks and appreciation of the
State of Bahrain to him and to his friendly country,
Malaysia.
I would like to take this opportunity to express the
State of Bahrain's appreciation for the tireless and sincere
efforts that the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, has
made since his appointment and of the great attention he
pays to international issues and, to the reform of the
Organization and strengthening its role in the maintenance
of international peace and security. By virtue of his
extensive experience in the United Nations, he has gained
expertise in both international politics and the management
of the Organization.
I would be remiss in this connection if I did not
express appreciation for the endeavours of the former
Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and for his
efforts and accomplishments with regard to reform of the
Organization.
We do not believe there has been in the history of our
modern world a period more harmonious with the spirit of
the United Nations or more expressive of its orientation
than the current period. Had the Organization not been
established half a century ago by a farsighted initiative of
the founding Member States, it would have been incumbent
upon the international community to proceed to create it
now, at this important juncture in history. This is because
current international developments relevant to various
aspects of human life require the existence of such an
Organization, which, by its composition and nature, and
guided by its Charter, is equipped to handle world affairs,
in the spirit of one great family. Not a single international
issue is now beyond the scope of the Organization.
The impression that the role of the United Nations
has become marginal or marginalized in the wake of the
cold war — true as it might be in certain isolated and
limited situations and cases of international action — does
not, in our conviction, reflect thoroughly and
comprehensively the current stage of our world's history
or the aspirations of all its States. Such aspirations require
the existence of a world organization that is active and
effective, not only in political and security affairs, but
also, and increasingly so, in civilizational, developmental,
economic, environmental, cultural and intellectual affairs.
For increasingly, now that they have become the focus of
attention of all nations, big and small, those non-political
matters influence world affairs and the life and direction
of peoples much more than political matters do.
We have followed with interest the work of the
General Assembly's Open-ended High-level Working
Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System
and carefully studied the Secretary-General's report
(A/51/950) to the General Assembly, “Renewing the
United Nations: A Programme for Reform”, which he
submitted on 14 July. We express our appreciation for the
Secretary-General's invaluable efforts regarding the
reform process, and the measures and recommendations
contained in his report, and we would also welcome any
General Assembly actions that would reflect the general
attitude of Member States vis-à-vis the reform process
that meets the current requirements and desires of
Member States. My country is both interested in, and
appreciative of, the work of the Open-ended Working
Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on
and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council
and Other Matters Related to the Security Council, in
view of the great increase in the United Nations
membership. It should also be pointed out that it is in the
interest of the reform process that the work of the
Security Council be transparent so that all other Member
States which are not members of the Council are aware
of the latter's proceedings with regard to the reform
process.
Bahrain has presented its candidacy for Security
Council membership for the period 1998-1999 in the
elections that will take place during this session, based on
the provisions of the Charter that allow participation for
all Member States. The history of civilization has shown
us that a number of smaller countries and peoples have,
not less than the larger nations, taken the lead in progress,
12

development and creativity. The independent policy which
the State of Bahrain has pursued throughout the 26 years
that it has been a Member of the United Nations, has
qualified its candidacy as meriting the support of the Group
of Asian States for the non-permanent seat allocated to that
Group.
Moreover, Bahrain has a long record of constructive
participation in support of United Nations activities and in
support of the rights of peoples to independence, freedom
and self-determination, in opposing apartheid and in
supporting decolonization. It has also been actively
involved in the work of the United Nations system and
organs dealing with the fields of disarmament and
economic and social development. In addition, Bahrain has
bolstered Security Council efforts in the field of
international peace and security, particularly in the Arab
Gulf region, which prompted the Secretary-General to pay
tribute to that role to which he referred in paragraph 816 of
his 1996 annual report on the work of the Organization. He
said:
“The Government of Bahrain's support for the
Commission's [the United Nations Special
Commission] Field Office has been outstanding and
remains essential to the continued logistics lifeline to
the activities of the Commission” (A/51/1, para. 816).
Furthermore, the State of Bahrain hosts a number of
United Nations regional offices, including, in addition to the
United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) Field
Office, the offices of the United Nations Development
Programme, the United Nations Environmental Programme,
and the United Nations Information Centre.
The State of Bahrain welcomes the endorsement its
candidature for Council membership has received from the
Asian Group, the Group of Arab States and the member
States of the Gulf Cooperation Council, to which it belongs.
Bahrain, noting the overwhelming support of the Member
States, will have the pleasure to declare, when elected to
the membership of the Council, that it will do its utmost, in
cooperation with other Member States, to fulfil its duties
towards the achievement of international peace and security
and the upholding of the principles embodied in the Charter
of the United Nations.
Through its experience in its region and larger area,
my country has played, since the early years of the
twentieth century, a significant and leading role in the
development of civilization, culture and society, in
modernizing management and the economy, and in
consolidating the bases of an advanced civil society — a
pioneering role to which any objective historian of the
development of civilization in the Gulf region will attest.
The question of regional security remains of crucial
importance to the State of Bahrain, in view of the
dangerous ramifications and impacts it has on the
security, stability and safety of peoples and nations. The
situation in the Gulf region, which has witnessed in recent
years two devastating wars that have upset the region's
peace and stability and delayed the implementation of
numerous development and construction projects, requires
that all the States of the region and the world Powers
with vital interests in the region promote and strengthen
relations among the States of the region on the basis of
good neighbourliness, mutual respect, non-interference in
the internal affairs of others and recognition of every
State's national sovereignty.
The territorial and boundary claims currently
witnessed in the Gulf region, aim at changing the
established and traditionally accepted boundaries,
disturbing the security and stability of the region. We
believe that the optimum and most judicious course to
avoid that prospect is to respect the status quo; to refrain
from any claims, total or partial; and to settle any
consequential disagreements by peaceful means acceptable
to the parties to the dispute.
Insofar as the situation between Iraq and Kuwait is
concerned, the State of Bahrain, being keen on the
maintenance of security and stability in the Gulf region,
stresses that Iraq should fully comply with the
requirements of international legitimacy and uphold its
commitments under relevant Security Council resolutions,
including those relating to the release of prisoners and
detainees of Kuwaiti and other nationalities. Bahrain is
also keen on ensuring the unity and territorial integrity of
Iraq and opposes any interference in Iraqi internal affairs,
as any such interference is considered a violation of the
sovereignty of a Member State of the Organization.
The State of Bahrain also expresses its satisfaction
that the oil-for-food agreement between the United
Nations and Iraq is alleviating the suffering of the
brotherly Iraqi people.
In the same context, the continued occupation by the
Islamic Republic of Iran of the three islands, Greater
Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, all of which belong to
the United Arab Emirates, constitutes an important cause
for anxiety and concern to the State of Bahrain and the
13

other member States of the Gulf Cooperation Council, in
view of the occupation's serious consequences for the
security and stability of the region and the effect it has on
good-neighbourly relations among the States of the region.
Consequently, the State of Bahrain calls upon the
Islamic Republic of Iran to respond urgently to the calls of
the United Arab Emirates to resolve the question of the
islands through serious bilateral negotiations or through any
other available peaceful means for the settlement of
disputes through reconciliation among States.
The ominous setbacks and impediments that have
beset the Middle East peace process which threaten that
process and pose dangers to the entire region are but the
result of Israel's non-adherence to the basic premises
underlying the process since the Madrid Conference in 1991
and to the agreements which emerged from the negotiations
that followed between the parties concerned. Only through
compliance with those commitments, which are based on
Security Council resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and
425 (1978), the implementation of the land-for-peace
principle, and refraining from any actions that contravene
those commitments, can there be a viable basis for getting
the peace process back on its proper track and the
achievement of progress on the Syrian and Lebanese tracks
as well. A just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the
region is not conceivable without the return of the occupied
territories to their owners and the recognition of the
Palestinian people's right to have their own independent
state on their own national soil, with Jerusalem as its
capital.
For a just and comprehensive peace to be attained, it
is essential that Arab rights be restored, in accordance with
the relevant United Nations resolutions, which call for the
complete withdrawal of Israel from the occupied Syrian
Golan, southern Lebanon and the occupied Palestinian
territories, including, most importantly, Jerusalem.
The State of Bahrain has endorsed the peace process
since its inception in Madrid in 1991. It has participated in
all the committees that have been established in connection
with the process and has hosted a meeting of the
environmental committee. This was in support of
endeavours to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in
the region, which should be the strategic option of all States
of that region. A just peace which can guarantee that
people's legitimate rights are restored is what will ensure
security, stability and prosperity for the region's peoples.
The continued strife in Somalia has brought
destruction and devastation to the Somali people. We
reiterate our appeal to all warring factions to implement
all agreements reached so far and to exert concerted
efforts with a view to reaching a genuine and durable
solution to the problem in order to preserve the unity,
sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence
of Somalia. With respect to the situation in Afghanistan,
we call for an immediate end to the fighting among the
sons who belong to the same homeland, for support of the
efforts being made to this end, and for the achievement of
national reconciliation with a view to preserving the
sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of
Afghanistan without any external interference.
The State of Bahrain reiterates its support for the
Dayton Agreement concerning peace in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. It calls for full and complete
implementation of that Agreement and for the creation of
conditions that allow for the voluntary return of refugees
and displaced persons in complete safety and security.
Such steps would enhance national reconciliation and help
preserve peace and stability in the region as a whole.
As we reiterate our support for the unity,
independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of
Cyprus, we welcome the efforts of the Secretary-General
aimed at the achievement of a just and practicable
settlement in accordance with relevant Security Council
resolutions.
The international arena has witnessed terrorist acts
whose repercussions have gone beyond the boundaries of
the countries concerned. Violence has become so rampant
and ferocious that it is possible to say that terrorist acts
constitute crimes against the world order, the vital
interests of nations, the peace and security of humanity
and the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals.
The spread of terrorism has caused the death of hundreds
of innocent people and the destruction of public and
private property, thus shaking internal stability and
impeding the normal development of relations between
States. Consequently, my country calls upon the
international community to seek the best possible ways
and means for the elimination of all serious crimes of a
terrorist nature.
In this connection, the State of Bahrain expresses its
support for the provisions adopted by the General
Assembly in its relevant resolutions 49/60 and 51/210,
and hopes that the international community will cooperate
in the elaboration of a strategy for cooperation between
14

States with a view to combating terrorism and not providing
havens to terrorist organizations. Furthermore, States should
allow neither their territories nor their media to be used, nor
their civil liberties systems to be exploited, to the detriment
of other States.
Bahrain, being a party to the Treaty on the Non-
Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, is of the view that the
Treaty should achieve universality without any
considerations or exceptions restricting it. At the same time,
it would like to stress that the Treaty, as a vital pillar for
the maintenance of international peace and security, should
be upheld, its provisions respected and its purposes pursued
till fulfilment. It considers Security Council resolution
984 (1995), albeit limited in terms of safeguards, a first
positive step towards the achievement of comprehensive
security safeguards for all non-nuclear-weapon States.
Because it believes that international cooperation is
essential for ridding our world of all weapons of mass
destruction, the State of Bahrain ratified last April the
Convention on the Prohibition of the Development,
Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and
on Their Destruction. Convinced of the importance of
peace, stability and mutual confidence in the Middle East,
it has also endorsed the initiative aimed at establishing the
region as a zone free of nuclear and all other weapons of
mass destruction.
The world economy is currently experiencing a period
of growth which, according to the estimates of this year's
World Economic and Social Survey, is expected to reach
3 per cent this year. An observer of the economic
conditions in developing countries, however, can perceive
the extent of the difficulties faced by those countries in
their endeavours to raise their economic level to the bare
minimum and so enable their citizens to live with dignity.
The close link between economic development and social
development has become a cornerstone of the security and
stability of societies, both in developing and developed
countries. Yet the rising social tensions that we witness in
numerous societies in developing countries, emanating from
economic problems, underlines the need to address and deal
with that phenomenon at the international level.
When developed countries contribute to the
development of the economic systems in developing
countries they do not, in so doing, merely assist those
countries; they also enable the developing countries to
become an effective economic partner, which can assist the
developed countries in combating the scourge of
unemployment, inflation and economic stagnation.
The inability to strike a balance between social and
economic issues and the preservation and management of
the resources needed for development, coupled with an
increasing emphasis on environmental protection, has
undermined development, a cornerstone of Agenda 21,
which was adopted by the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in
1992. It is therefore imperative that international
agreements reached and commitments made during that
Conference be implemented, and that measures to speed
up the implementation of the Agenda be identified
without any need to reopen discussions on matters already
agreed upon. The issues addressed by the nineteenth
special session of the General Assembly last June, in
which Bahrain took part, for the purpose of an overall
review and appraisal of the implementation of Agenda 21,
were more detailed and specific in so far as poverty
eradication and environmental protection are concerned,
although the desired results have not been attained.
The destructive effects on humanity of drug and
psychotropic substance abuse, production and illicit traffic
are among the most serious challenges we face. We
therefore welcome the convening of a special session of
the General Assembly in 1998 to be devoted to this
question and related crimes and to the achievement of
tangible results in relation to the objectives envisaged in
resolution 51/64 concerning the negative and destructive
implications of drug abuse, on the basis of the principle
of joint responsibility in confronting the illicit drug trade.
Collective measures should also be taken to solve this
problem, which constitutes a common threat to the
international community.
In the light of the new world realities, the United
Nations should play a more effective role in providing
organizational frameworks and appropriate forums to
enable various Member States to contribute within their
capacities and capabilities to the reshaping of our modern
world, tending towards increased closeness and interaction
on various planes of human activity.
The current period, characterized by cascading
changes, requires a joint intellectual vision on the part of
all Member States of the Organization and their peoples
with respect to what should be done for the common
good of mankind and to prepare for it. Such a vision
should transcend visions of conflicting ideologies, which
characterized the world of the cold war as well as the
predictions of future clashes of civilizations.
15

It is also vital that the United Nations create a
favourable climate and appropriate management whereby it
can provide, in addition to the basic functions it undertakes,
a veritable forum for world thought, into which will flow
a variety of opinions, emanating from various regions,
civilizations and experiences. Thus, the Organization may
help crystallize an overall human vision conducive to
understanding, peace and cooperation, rather than a
situation in which new adversaries and enemies are sought
for one side or another.
The current period also requires us to bring about
cohesion and integration among the various elements in the
flow of information and satellite transmissions from every
corner of the Earth. The volume of this information is
enormous, its sources diverse and its objectives conflicting;
it has deluged societies. It is difficult to absorb all this
information, and perceptions of it are often confused.
Unless a common, comprehensive and inclusive vision
is found to restore cohesion and compatibility to this great
mass of information, the world will be threatened with
intellectual chaos that could take it back to a time when
disorder and contradictions held sway in mankind's vision.
No global mechanism is better suited to be the proper
means and the appropriate international forum for this
universal intellectual task than the United Nations. It should
at this stage provide direction and guidance for all aspects
of international cooperation, both within the framework of
the Organization and at the regional and national levels.
While we look forward to such a comprehensive
vision for our modern world, we must stress that it would
be prudent not to let globalization — which is a natural and
acceptable phenomenon in the context of technology,
science, production, economic and information systems and
the related material components of our common human
civilization — be imposed, especially through coercion or
pressure, on special spiritual, religious, cultural and political
attributes. If it is, the world will fall into the abyss of futile
ethnic, cultural and religious feuds. Development of the
moral aspects of civilizations and systems can only occur
gradually, through inner conviction, and in tandem with the
logical internal development of each structure and system
rather than through technological development that spreads
rapidly from civilization to civilization. Coerced imposition
of globalization on any spiritual or moral facet of a society,
especially through external sources, would constitute a
wrongful revival of political and cultural colonialism,
whose cumbersome legacy and adverse effects the world
has barely eradicated. It is our hope that if it builds on the
remarkable role it played in the elimination of the old form
of colonialism, the United Nations will be able to play a
positive part in steering the process of globalization in the
right direction and in preventing the unilateral takeover of
a world of diverse spiritual cultures and civilizations.
In view of the Organization's contribution to the
preservation of world peace and security and the role it
continues to play in support of the causes of peace and
justice and in the implementation of the principles of
international legitimacy, its activities in the field of
preventive diplomacy and peacekeeping operations, and
its constructive role in resolving numerous questions and
crises, it is incumbent upon us to make available to the
United Nations all possible moral and material support
and to cooperate with it and with its specialized agencies.
Hence the importance, in our view, of formulating
within the framework of the United Nations a balanced
intellectual vision which, in addition to bringing out
elements which are common to all peoples, would be
based on respect for legitimate pluralism as it relates to
special spiritual, moral and political attributes. In the
absence of such a balanced vision, our world is apt to
continue to be threatened with imbalance, instability and
a lack of security.


I should like first
to thank for his work the outgoing President, Ismail Razali.
My Ambassador, the Andorran Vice-President for the fifty-
first session of the General Assembly, was a firsthand
witness to both the diplomatic skill and dedication of his
Malaysian counterpart. On behalf of the Government of
Andorra and the Andorran people, I should like to pay
tribute to his work and to thank him publicly for the trust
he placed in my representative to the United Nations during
this year — a year of great change and enormous
challenges for the Organization.
Allow me to congratulate you, Sir, on your election
to the fifty-second session of the General Assembly.
Andorra recognizes your reputation as a diplomat and
your extensive experience. I have no doubt, therefore, that
your presidency will be a great success and will bring
about the consolidation of the reform of the United
Nations, which we are beginning this year. Likewise, I
extend my congratulations to the members of the General
Committee, who are beginning their term as Vice-
Presidents.
On 16 July, in this same Hall, I spoke after
Secretary-General Annan for some minutes in order to
show Andorra’s support for his call for reform. The
Principality of Andorra supports unconditionally the
proposed reform of the United Nations, since we believe
the Organization to be indispensable. As a small State,
weak in a world of stronger Powers, it is in line with our
national interest for us to desire that law and dialogue
prevail over force and military strength. We also have
more liberty than many other States to dedicate ourselves
to the goals of peace and progress that were set, in a
utopian spirit, by our forefathers in San Francisco.
For we are small and humble, and have no vast
territories across the seas, no uranium mines on the other
side of the world, no reserves of oil beneath our soil. Our
interests go no farther than our own boundaries. After all,
we possess the record for peace in the world — some 700
years. For all these reasons, Andorra and other small
countries have the liberty to reflect on the future of
mankind and the well-being of peoples as we approach

the third millennium — without, I hope, any suggestion of
the occult.
Indeed, many people have been surprised to discover
that we have for centuries democratically elected our
Government, and that we last used the death penalty over
50 years ago. In short, Andorrans are capable of resolving
their problems without the use of force. And thanks to this
legacy, without any misplaced pride or privilege, we wish
to promote those reforms that will enable the United
Nations to be the best hope for our peoples.
Immanuel Kant, in an essay dated 1784, stated:
“If it is now asked whether we at present live in an
enlightened age, the answer is: No, but we live in an
age of enlightenment'.”
At the end of the twentieth century, are we now living
in an enlightened age? The crises of development and the
military conflicts that still afflict our planet make us believe
the opposite. To reach our goal of an age of enlightenment,
we must count on the United Nations and its ideals, and we
must also count on the small countries, which will never
fail to defend it.
The proposals for the reform of the United Nations
presented by the Secretary-General are conscientious, fair,
innovative and practical. I will not comment at length on
the new administrative structure proposed by Mr. Kofi
Annan. To benefit from the assistance of a Deputy-
Secretary-General appears to us a natural aspiration. All of
those who serve a country at the highest level know how
much time must be allotted to issues of protocol and to
small meetings. It is necessary for the United Nations that
the agenda of the Secretary-General be lightened so that he
can concentrate on larger problems. This innovation will
probably have the following consequences: the Secretary-
General will be considered as the statesman and the
Deputy-Secretary-General as the manager. This seems to
me to be a good division of labour. What must be avoided,
however, is that the Deputy-Secretary-General become a
counter-force to the Secretary-General. The Deputy-
Secretary-General must always be a faithful representative
of the ideas of the Secretary-General in order to avoid
administrative tension at the United Nations.
The reorganization of the management structure of the
United Nations is a prerogative that we must recognize as
belonging to the Secretary-General. I therefore lend my
support, on behalf of Andorra, to reinforcing the role of the
Executive Committees established in January of this year,
as well as to the creation of a forerunner to an executive
cabinet, the Senior Management Group. I share the
Secretary-General’s desire to see an evolution towards
greater efficiency and productivity in the management of
the United Nations.
As many others have done, I take this opportunity to
congratulate Under-Secretary-General Joseph Connor for
having brought a spirit of good management to our
Organization. It seems that during this decade in which
budgets have imposed the need for cutbacks, many
Governments have learned that it was necessary to
reorganize resources, establish the proper relationship
between work and goals and find the means to reorganize
their bureaucracies and render them more efficient with
regard to the work of their administrations. This was
often inspired by the strategies used in private enterprise.
I thank the Secretary-General for having had the
courage to begin this difficult task in the Organization.
We in Andorra will try to find inspiration in the
principles which will lead the Secretary-General in his
reforms in order to make our own administration in
Andorra more efficient.
Another point which I would like to emphasize
concerns the decision of Secretary-General Annan to shift
the work of the United Nations towards concrete
objectives within specific time-frames. This strategy of
working towards objectives will probably save money for
the United Nations and serve as a model for the efforts
needed to achieve development. That is the strategy which
we follow in Andorra in the area of administration, and
which every day becomes more accepted by many
countries throughout the world.
It is well understood that these structural and
functional reforms will lead to significant savings in the
budget of the United Nations. However, it is of primary
importance that Member States pay their debts to the
Organization as they agreed to do in acceding to the
Charter of the United Nations. Let us be clear: the delay
in making payments to the United Nations acts as such a
heavy weight on any attempt at reform that it will be
nearly impossible to make progress if the conditions of
payment are not met.
I would like to emphasize that my country, Andorra,
pays its assessments to the budget of the Organization
dependably and on a per capita basis, as do many other
countries. If each citizen of my country contributes almost
$2 annually to the regular budget of the Organization,
2

why can the people of other developed countries not do the
same, even when the per capita amount that is asked of
them is significantly less than that of Andorra? Happily,
there are admirable and exemplary citizens who are able to
make up for the insufficiencies of their own countries.
We are, after all, touching on an important topic: the
confidence that we have or do not have in the United
Nations. Andorra has full confidence in the United Nations.
Even though we believe that the creation of a revolving
fund of $1 billion is only a temporary remedy for a
financial situation that should never have existed, we are
prepared to add an additional 10 per cent of our annual
contribution to this emergency fund if the other Member
States are equally supportive and on the condition that the
debtors — whether they be large or small — pay their
debts in the future.
The Secretary-General asks us to consider the
promotion of sustainable development as a central priority
of the reform of the United Nations. On a planet that is
capable before the third millennium of producing machines
that travel to the moon and to Mars, sophisticated
computers to help us, travel networks that link Ulan Bator
with Johannesburg or Andorra La Vella with Lima in the
space of a few hours — on this planet of limitless
advances — the dawn of the year 2000 reveals the
existence of hundreds of millions of poor people and a
worrisome decline in our environment. How can we go
from speeches to acts, from bemoaning the problems of the
world to commitment, and undertake those actions which
will bring an end to the present degradation?
Only the United Nations, as a global Organization,
possesses the structure to realize those projects needed to
bring about global development in the long term. We
therefore applaud the Secretary-General’s initiative to
reform those practices leading towards development.
Andorra supports him in his goal of reducing duplication
and increasing the coordination of resources. In the next
decade we must bring to the United Nations the most
brilliant minds on the planet and put them to work in a
shared spirit of rationalization in order to understand both
the causes of underdevelopment and the path to follow in
order eradicate it in the twenty-first century. Just as the
World Health Organization eradicates diseases that afflict
the citizens of the world, so too must the United Nations
serve as a catalyst for the eradication of those evils that
afflict the world’s peoples.
We share the Secretary-General’s particular concern
for the natural environment, which is the common
denominator of the world. If the Earth dies during the
coming centuries, it will take all of us with it, rich and
poor, peoples of the North and the South.
In his inaugural speech last week the President
pointed to the nuclear disaster of Chernobyl as a disaster
that continues to haunt not only his own country, but all
of us as well. We therefore approve of the Secretary-
General’s plan to transform the Trusteeship Council into
a body for protecting the integrity of the global
environment and of shared areas such as the atmosphere
and outer space.
We also believe in the mission of peace that the
Secretary-General has foreseen for the United Nations.
For every conflict there is a “before”, a “middle”, and an
“after”. Andorra has learned during its seven centuries of
peace that it is better to take action during the “before”
stage. The world calls such action preventive diplomacy.
It is all too easy to dismiss the existence of small
countries as improbable and irrelevant accidents brought
about by historical providence. We do not appreciate
sufficiently the troubles through which many of those
States — Andorra among them — have struggled at
certain historic moments and that might have resulted in
their disappearance from the face of the Earth. Not having
an army and not using force, we have learned by
necessity the importance of diplomacy. In the United
Nations we must use such diplomacy by choice and by
desire.
Why should we not consider, among other
possibilities, the establishment of a reliable and discreet
system of information to measure the political temperature
of points of tension throughout the world? Why do we
not empower the Security Council to examine in its
debates these difficult questions before a conflict arises
and temperatures become inflamed beyond the burning
point? Indeed, as we consider the reform of the Security
Council, why do we not concentrate more on its deeper
action, with a view to giving it the means to accomplish
preventative diplomacy, as we consider its size and
structure?
It is truly a matter of regret that the United Nations
is not the best instrument for armed intervention during a
conflict, unless it is for humanitarian reasons. Perhaps this
situation will change if we succeed in establishing a
greater force with a greater capacity for military reaction.
The United Nations can help the healing after a conflict.
If we give it the means, the United Nations may become
3

a humanitarian and preventive force of the highest order.
Andorra, which does not have and does not wish to have an
army, is in the process of considering the establishment of
a humanitarian force that will align itself with these
objectives and with the words of international solidarity
inscribed in our Constitution.
There is no better way to prevent conflicts than to
teach and advance human rights and democracy. Political
scientists tell us that democracies do not make war with
each other. Common sense tells us that people who respect
and revere the articles of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights will always find a peaceful way to negotiate
their differences. For this reason, I have asked my
Ambassador to the United Nations to devote, as he has
before, a large part of his efforts at Headquarters to the
Third Committee of the General Assembly. I have also
asked him to study carefully the ways in which the Third
Committee might strengthen its procedures in order that the
spirit of reform which permeates the United Nations during
this time might extend to all its forums of deliberation.
Andorra believes in the United Nations and, at the
global level, supports the desire of the Secretary-General
for reform. I have just explained our reasons for this, but,
because people and States believe in the United Nations, we
must better understand its functioning and its
weaknesses — which are similar to those of any
humanitarian organization — and especially its goals and its
strengths.
Today, I would like to stress the need for a general
and ongoing effort to present the United Nations to the
world. We live in a world of images, as the events of
recent weeks clearly demonstrate. During this time, two
great humanitarian figures have died: one who selflessly
dedicated her life to the poor, the other who dared to
embrace the sick whom nobody dared to touch. These two
women, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Diana, Princess of
Wales, both lived under the light of public interest and used
it to spread their humanitarian messages. In Great Britain,
the Princess of Wales Fund is becoming one of the largest
in the world. And yet, it is difficult for us to gain public
sympathy and donations for the United Nations, although it
is the first and most important instrument for works
beneficial to all humanity.
Why is this so? Perhaps because it has an image
problem. In these closing years of the century, let us link
the United Nations to the peoples to which its Charter
refers. Let us show these peoples that the diplomats of 1997
are not a club of ladies and gentlemen with little work who
wander through the halls of this building. It might be a
good idea — in emulation of the United Nations
Children’s Fund, which has established a lively and
effective presence in Andorra through its National
Committee — for us to ask celebrities and leaders of
opinion to serve as spokespeople for the United Nations
in their countries and across the world. We have the
message, the mandate, and indeed the successes, but have
been less successful in communicating them and allow the
public to forget our actions. Let us consider together the
appropriate public relations and communication strategies
for the United Nations at this fifty-second session, a
session of reform.
Two months ago, during my participation in the
General Assembly when the Secretary-General announced
his reform, I wanted to underline two points of special
importance for the Andorran delegation. Today I should
like to reaffirm these two aspects. First, I emphasized the
importance of the small countries during this process of
reform. If the reform leads to a shift away from the
founding principles of the United Nations, our
Organization will cease to be universal. I concede that,
without the bigger countries, reform is not possible, but
without the support of small countries reform will only be
partial. Secondly, I called for the greater participation of
youth in the process of reform and the workings of the
United Nations. This is a priority for our delegation: Let
us make the future with those who will inherit it.
I conclude my speech today with a call of hope and
a vote of faith: faith in the United Nations and its
capacity for transformation and improvement in its pursuit
of peace and development; confidence in its Secretary-
General, who has begun his mandate with firmness and
decision, as he should; and, finally, an unshakeable belief
in the irrepressibility of human progress. Through the
United Nations, let us make the new millennium an age
of enlightenment.


At the outset I should like to convey to you, Sir, the
warm congratulations of the Government of Gabon and of
my delegation on your outstanding election as President
of the General Assembly at its fifty-second session. I
should also like to congratulate the other members of the
Bureau.
In selecting you, Mr. President, our Assembly
acknowledged your country’s role in world politics and,
above all, your personal qualities, which augur well for
the success of this session. I am indeed convinced that
under your guidance our work will be directed towards
continuing our discussions in greater depth, taking
common positions on important issues and adopting
resolutions with the broadest possible consensus.
14

I should like to express our appreciation to your
predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Razali, for the excellent
work he did during his presidency.
This is also the first opportunity I have had to express
my heartfelt congratulations to the Secretary-General,
Mr. Kofi Annan, on his election as head of our
Organization. I assure him of Gabon’s full support for all
the efforts he will need to make to ensure the success of
the action he takes in the service of the United Nations.
It is often said that the international context has
changed, that the fields of activity of the States that we
represent are being subjected to attacks on all sides as
science and technology progress. The globalization of our
economies, based on the proclaimed virtues of liberalism,
has not yet yielded all that it could.
The new world order that we have so long hoped for
has not yet arrived, because so many contradictions are
woven into the fabric of international relations. Yet no one
can fail to see that it represents both the matrix and the
support essential to carrying out the reform of the United
Nations so that it can better serve peace among nations and
the development of their peoples.
I should like first to speak about peace, the chief
wealth of nations, and I shall do so, of course, in the light
of our own experience.
In Gabon our understanding of peace underlies all the
political developments we have experienced and are still
experiencing today. The organization of successive local,
legislative and senatorial elections in a calm political and
social context at the end of 1996 and early this year
provided proof of the fundamental role of the democratic
legitimacy sorely needed today for the exercise of political
power.
This same perception underlies all the activities of
which we are the beneficiaries and which have made
Gabon, through the personal presence of its President,
Omar Bongo, a country that enjoys the great friendship and
trust of other members of the international community,
especially its neighbours.
In fact, Gabon has contributed in a substantial and
significant manner to easing the tension in many parts of
Africa.
Gabon, together with Chad, Burkina Faso, Senegal
and Mali, sent almost 300 soldiers as part of an African
peacekeeping force to restore institutional stability in the
Central African Republic.
On behalf of my country I should like to pay tribute
to the Inter-African Mission to Monitor the
Implementation of the Bangui Agreements, established by
the Security Council.
Given the very disturbing situation in Congo
(Brazzavile), and at the request of the Congolese parties,
Gabon agreed to take charge of the international
mediation committee, under the leadership of His
Excellency El Hadj Omar Bongo, assisted by the joint
United Nations/Organization of African Unity Special
Representative, Ambassador Mohamed Sahnoun. A
similar request had already been made to President Bongo
by our Congolese brothers during earlier crises, in 1992
and 1993. The current crisis, which erupted in early July
1997, is the longest and the most bloody — the official
death toll is 4,000 to 5,000 — and the most complex.
Despite the many obstacles that this mediation effort
is encountering, Gabon is doing its utmost to find a
positive solution to this conflict. It is essentially a
political and internal conflict, but it must be clear to
everyone that the situation could drift out of control, with
repercussions at the subregional and international levels.
Even so, as the French writer Beaumarchais said,
“As success becomes more difficult to achieve, the
need for action becomes more pressing.”
In this connection, I am pleased to note the
encouraging reaction of the international community in
general, and more specifically, of the European Union and
France, which have voiced their support and renewed
their expression of trust in international mediation and in
the Head of State of Gabon, and have urged him to
continue his efforts.
To give the Assembly an idea of what has been
done, I would just like briefly to mention that President
Bongo has proposed, on the one hand, a ceasefire
agreement and, on the other, a political agreement to
cover the transitional period from now until the
presidential elections.
The draft political agreement is the fifth one
proposed since the negotiations began. It is based on the
idea of power-sharing and the balanced participation of all
15

political forces in terms of holding power during the
transitional period. The breakdown is as follows.
Mr. Lissouba will remain as President of the Republic and
Head of State. To counterbalance this, as it were, a Prime
Minister, the Head of Government, will be appointed by the
President from among the members of the Opposition. In
addition, three Vice-Presidents of the Republic are to be
appointed by the Head of State.
We were unable to finalize this draft agreement during
the discussions. Things started to happen quickly in
Brazzaville: fighting continued; Mr. Kolelas, the Mayor of
Brazzaville, who had been heading the national mediation
efforts, was appointed Prime Minister; and a Government
was set up. Of course, all this has meant that negotiations
are on hold.
Against this background of uncertainty, President
Bongo invited nine Heads of State of Central and Western
Africa to a special meeting on the Congo which was held
in Libreville on 14 and 15 September 1997. President
Lissouba was unable to join his colleagues but he sent his
Prime Minister, Mr. Kolelas.
The Libreville summit reaffirmed support for
international mediation efforts led by President Bongo. It
also made an urgent appeal to the warring factions to stop
fighting and resolutely to continue with negotiations to try
and find a political settlement to the crisis. So far, I have
to say, the appeal has not met with the reaction on the
ground we had hoped for. But we are still hopeful that
discussions will soon be resumed, for this is the only way
we are going to find a lasting and constructive settlement.
Faced with this situation, what have we done here in
the United Nations? I should remind the Assembly that very
soon after international mediation began, the President of
the Republic of Gabon called for a commitment from the
international community in terms of deploying an
international force to separate the warring factions in Congo
(Brazzaville).
Several African countries in a commendable upsurge
of solidarity, responded favourably, expressing their
willingness to provide troops for the international force.
President Bongo brought the matter before the Security
Council, which said it accepted the principle, but which
imposed various conditions that, when analysed, leave one
with the impression that if they were met there would be
practically no point in sending the force.
Time is passing. Time is of the essence. Congolese
people are still dying; others are fleeing their country; and
thousands more are still wandering, distraught and
desperate, in the forests of the Congo, seeking makeshift
shelter.
Can we really continue calmly to sit in Manhattan or
in the offices of our capitals and discuss what is going
on? We know that in the recent past in other parts of the
world the same cunning preventive measures — I was
going to say the same procrastination — did not prevail.
No, we must do something for the Congolese people.
They are citizens of the world, our world, as well.
I must emphasize this: the impact of armed conflicts
is so great that it is more necessary than ever to stress
specific measures to prevent them. For developing
countries, like mine, that cannot and must not afford the
luxury of high military expenditure, the maintenance of
international peace and security must be provided for
“upstream” on the basis of preventive measures. It is
because we believe deeply in this principle that the States
in our subregion, Members of the United Nations
Standing Advisory Committee on Security Questions in
Central Africa have been cooperating and taking action
since 1992 to strengthen mutual trust and security at the
subregional level.
These contacts have led, inter alia, to the signing in
Yaoundé in July 1996, by virtually all the members of
this Committee — except one — of a non-aggression
pact, which is an important measure to strengthen peace.
More recently, at its ninth Ministerial Meeting, last
July in Libreville, attended by four out of five
representatives of the permanent members of the Security
Council, we adopted a major plan of action whose main
thrust is: the establishment of an early-warning
mechanism as a way of preventing conflict in Central
Africa; the organization in the medium term of a regional
conference on democratic institutions and peace in Central
Africa; and training seminars for law enforcement
personnel on peacekeeping operations, with the goal of
preparing countries of the subregion to participate, with
United Nations assistance, in possible future peacekeeping
operations.
In my capacity as Chairman of the Bureau of that
Committee, I should like to draw the keen attention of all
executive bodies operating under the aegis of the United
Nations and the European Union, and our partners in the
16

subregion, to the benefits of effectively establishing this
early-warning mechanism before the end of 1997.
Still in that capacity, I wish to appeal to all Member
States and to the international community as a whole to
contribute to the Trust Fund set up by the Secretary-
General to finance the work of the Committee.
Looking at the crises that have erupted recently in
Central Africa, I have to say that today the subregion is
facing the possibility of many conflicts flaring up, involving
populations beyond our national boundaries, threatening the
stability of our States and even calling into question the
principle of the inviolability of borders — a principle that
the Organization of African Unity has held dear since its
inception. The danger is real. We must ward it off.
Through me, Gabon welcomes the United States
initiative to convene a special meeting of the Security
Council on the situation in Africa, the first of its kind. We
are grateful for the fact that on that solemn occasion, on 25
September 1997, the Security Council reaffirmed its
principal responsibility for the preservation of peace on our
continent.
But how can we forget that United Nations files are
bursting with piles of reports, declarations and resolutions
on Africa, all of them equally relevant?
Everyone here will recall that some 10 years ago the
General Assembly held a special session on Africa. Yes, I
know — they say that now that the cold war has ended
Africa is no longer of prime strategic importance. Too bad
for us! For my part, I would say “So much the better for
us”, because we Africans have no reason to cry over the
fall of the Berlin Wall. That was a tremendously important
event for us too; it opened up new prospects. Today,
however, the African peoples, just like others, are no longer
willing to be paid in words and slogans. They thus expect
concrete measures to emerge from the special meeting that
was held by the Security Council last week.
Although Africa is no longer of prime strategic
importance, is Africa not today, where the United Nations
is concerned, its real challenge, I might even say its guilty
conscience — because of the Organization’s underlying
philosophy and vocation?
Looking beyond Africa, Gabon is also greatly
concerned over the blockage in the Middle East process,
and we invite all the parties there to resume the dialogue,
with the support of the whole of the international
community, for there, as elsewhere, no lasting solution
can be achieved through force.
The wars and conflicts we all deplore are made
possible by the devastating force of weapons. We must
therefore patiently and resolutely succeed in disarming the
nations of the world.
Thus, we welcome the progress made in this area by
the entry into force of the Convention on the prohibition
of chemical weapons, which demonstrates the will of the
international community to eliminate that category of
weapons of mass destruction.
In the same connection, my country supports the
Ottawa process aimed at a complete ban on anti-personnel
landmines. The recent Oslo Diplomatic Conference on
that subject worked along the lines we had hoped it
would. We regret, however, that some countries were
unable to join in the powerful and promising consensus
that emerged there. We trust that in the near future they
will be able to do so. The representative I sent to Oslo
told me that some of those present had tried to establish
for those weapons a special category that they would be
able to retain, a category of what they called “intelligent”
anti-personnel mines. I do not know what that means.
Intelligent or stupid, anti-personnel mines kill, and they
often kill the innocent. They must therefore be banned. If
while playing in a field your child’s leg is torn off by a
so-called intelligent mine, you would find no consolation
in the thought that the mine was an intelligent one.
In any event, Gabon urges all United Nations
Member States to bend all their efforts towards adopting
a plan of action for general and complete disarmament.
Humanity will be the better for it.
We are not sufficiently aware of the human suffering
that underlies armed conflicts, particularly the suffering of
the victims, and especially of women, the elderly and
children, for killing them means killing the life, the past
and the future of the human race. In that connection, one
can only employ the word “abominable” in describing the
growing use of children in conflicts.
Over the past decade a million children have been
killed, 6 million have been seriously wounded or
handicapped for life, more than a million have been
orphaned or separated from their families, and millions of
others are suffering serious psychological damage. This
dark picture is even darker in Africa than in other
continents. That is why Gabon, a party to the United
17

Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and a
signatory of the Charter of the Rights and Welfare of the
African Child, joins the United Nations Children’s Fund
(UNICEF) in condemning the use of children as soldiers
and urges Governments and all combatants on the
battlefield to halt a number of particularly shameful
practices, namely, the recruitment of children into the
armed forces, the participation of children in combat, and
violations and abuses to which they are often subjected.
In another area, the Gabonese authorities are deeply
concerned by the struggle against the scourges of crime and
drug proliferation, which are other sources of human
suffering. We have taken a number of initiatives to combat
them, including the reorganization of our security services
and the creation of an interministerial commission to
combat drug addiction. However, combating those
phenomena clearly calls for resolution and determined acts
of solidarity and cooperation at the international level.
Turning now to the question of development, I should
like to recall that the final goal of government is the well-
being of peoples.
Against that background, the international community
has evidenced its will to improve the human condition by
organizing various workshops, seminars and conferences. I
would just mention the Rio Conference on the environment,
the Vienna Conference on human rights, the Beijing
Conference on women, the Cairo Conference on population,
the Copenhagen Conference on social development and the
Stockholm Conference on the sexual exploitation of
children, as well as the very latest special session of the
General Assembly devoted to the mid-term review of
Agenda 21.
However, even after all those meetings that aroused
such hopes, it looks as though our community is not truly
determined to fulfil the obligations it has freely entered
into. It seems to be difficult to translate proclaimed
intentions into action.
Gabon therefore hopes that there will be greater
movement towards action at the forthcoming Kyoto
Conference on climate change, which will be a test of the
industrialized countries’ commitments to sustainable
development.
Similarly, we would encourage the International
Seabed Authority to continue its work, particularly on the
elaboration of a balanced mining code that takes into
account the interests of all States as well as environmental
questions.
The importance of the eight most developed
countries and their real ability to have an impact on the
international economy give us ground to hope that the
commitments entered into at the recent Denver summit
will enable us to work towards strengthening an
international economy at the service of humanity.
This may sound like a litany of ills, but until the
situation improves we must continue to repeat that Africa
is suffering from very serious structural problems. These
consist, inter alia, of economies, often based on a single
crop, that are dependent on the outside world;
deterioration in the terms of trade; reverse finance flow;
the lowest level of development; the largest number of
least developed countries and of displaced persons and
refugees.
However, I think it is important to highlight the fact
that in addition to its potential, which it owes to raw
materials, Africa also represents an effective market of
more than 700 million inhabitants.
We know that if it is to develop, our continent must
first and foremost rely on itself. Yet there is so much to
be done. We are familiar with the slogan, “Trade, not
aid”. It is not entirely untrue. But would it be outrageous
to say that it is not completely true either, because it is
obvious that in Africa there exist countries whose
development level is already allowing them to cherish
some legitimate commercial and trade ambitions on the
international market as well as countries that still require
assistance, at least in certain areas, and particularly in the
social area. To the latter countries, it would be better to
say: “Trade and aid”.
It is in that spirit that Gabon will attend the ninth
summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States
(ACP) associated with the European Union in the context
of the Lomé Convention. My country will have the
honour of hosting this summit in its capital on 6 and 7
November 1997. I take this opportunity to say to the ACP
countries — and all of them are here at the General
Assembly — that we are ready to welcome them next
month and that we await them all.
Gabon is a beneficiary of the international economic
environment, and I would therefore like to share with the
Assembly our experience in this area.
18

Since mid-1995, Gabon’s economic performance has
improved considerably. The rate of growth has increased
significantly; inflation has been reduced to a very low level;
and our situation outside the country has been strengthened.
Structural measures and administrative reform are
accelerating. The Government is stepping up the
liberalization of the economy and the cleaning up of the
business environment. A vast programme of privatizing
public enterprises has already been put into effect. It began
with the Gabon Water and Energy Company. The
privatization was carried out in very orderly and transparent
conditions — to the surprise of not a few — and the
programme will be continued in other spheres.
Aware of the decisive role the private sector has to
play in Gabon’s prosperity and in increasing the standard of
living of its people, our Government is trying to establish
a legal and regulatory environment which will facilitate
private investment and open up various sectors of the
economy to competition. We sincerely state that Gabon is
open to all private investment. As President Bongo likes to
say, “Gabon is not the private reserve of anybody”.
The Gabonese authorities are making sure that our
commitments in the area of loans and repayments are
realistic and viable. They call for appropriate treatment in
respect of our foreign public debt, because the strict
deadlines for repayment often hamper our efforts to
revitalize our economy.
Finally, partnership in all areas must be strengthened
and the transfer of technologies encouraged, so that the
national capacities of our countries can be revitalized.
In his speech to the General Assembly, the Secretary-
General expressed the hope that this session will be known
as the Reform Assembly. Indeed, the world today is not
what it was in 1945. Our Organization must adapt to the
new realities. Gabon therefore welcomes the
recommendations of the Secretary-General for the reform
of the Organization.
The current discussions must result in consensus
machinery that will safeguard the various interests of the
Member States. But it remains true that no reform plan can
be successful until the financial situation of the United
Nations is cured.
My country recalls that we attach great priority to the
recommendations formulated by the Organization of
African Unity at its last summit, in Harare, and to the
proposals made by the Non-Aligned Movement at its
Ministerial Conference in New Delhi in April 1997.
President Bongo spoke as long ago as 1977 on the
question of an increase in the membership of the Security
Council, and I had the occasion to repeat his position
before the General Assembly in 1995 and 1996. Let me
repeat it one more time. Gabon suggests that we can
reconcile the seemingly contradictory requirements in this
way: by eliminating the geographical imbalance in the
Security Council so as to consolidate its legitimacy and
effectiveness; by making the decision-making process in
the Council more democratic; and by allowing for a fairer
representation of Africa. Africa calls for two permanent
seats, with the same rights the other permanent members
have; the seats would be rotated in accordance with
principles that the African Group will submit in due time
to the General Assembly.
Gabon reaffirms here its commitment to the
principles of universality and the sovereign equality of
States. These should underlie all the thinking in regard to
reform.
It is my hope that this session of the General
Assembly will enable us to take another step towards
strengthening the ideals we all share.
This transition towards a more humane world will
not be without perils. We will have to combat
simultaneously the upsurge of selfishness and the
development of false solidarity, which can lead our
peoples to fratricidal struggle.
I am convinced that, united, we will take up the
challenge to build a better world.


It is a special privilege and
honour for me to address the General Assembly at the
beginning of its fifty-second session.
At the outset I would like to extend my sincere
congratulations to you, Sir, as the new President of the
General Assembly, confident that your extensive and
proven diplomatic experience and skills will play an
important role in the work of the Assembly.
I should also like to express our gratitude to the
President of the General Assembly at its fifty-first session,
His Excellency Mr. Razali Ismail, whose devoted and
vigorous work has shown that United Nations reform is
much more than mere rhetoric, and who set a new standard
of performance in the General Assembly.
As a Central European and Mediterranean country,
Croatia highlights as its strategic priorities overall stability
in the region, full integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions
and the assertion of its position in the new post-cold-war
Europe. Hence the special attention my Government pays
to the policy of good neighbourliness and the development
of stable relations with all neighbouring countries, based
on the principles of full respect for the existing
internationally recognized borders, for minority rights and
for the peaceful resolution of existing and possible
disputes in the spirit of the United Nations Charter. Today
I can point out with satisfaction that Croatia has
concluded dozens of bilateral agreements with its
neighbours, and relations with each of our immediate
neighbours are being fully regulated and are steadily
improving.
Croatia hosted two large-scale United Nations peace
operations: the United Nations Protection Force
(UNPROFOR) and the United Nations Confidence
Restoration Operation in Croatia (UNCRO). The United
Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia,
Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES), in the
Danubian area, and the United Nations Mission of
Observers in Prevlaka (UNMOP) are still present. Croatia
has also played an important role in facilitating the
Stabilization Force (SFOR) operation in Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
I should like to take this opportunity to reiterate my
Government’s sincere gratitude for all the efforts that
were made by the United Nations to stop the war in
Croatia and alleviate its consequences, as well as to
express my country’s sincere sympathies to the families
of the “blue helmets” who have fallen while attending to
their lofty duties.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to express our
appreciation and thanks to the United Nations Secretary-
General, Mr. Kofi Annan, for his peace efforts in Croatia.
As a United Nations official in the field and as Under-
Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations he made
a major personal contribution to overcoming the crisis.
Our great thanks go to UNTAES and Mr. Jacques Klein,
until recently Transitional Administrator in Eastern
Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium, whose vigorous
work, leadership skill and successful cooperation with the
Croatian Government have been instrumental in the
peaceful reintegration of these areas into Croatia.
During the many months of the United Nations
presence in Croatia and elsewhere in the area of the
former Yugoslavia, my country had a chance to see for
itself all the potential and the weaknesses of peacekeeping
operations. It has been proven beyond any doubt that a
peace operation can be successful only if its mandate is
clearly defined, in terms of its goal as well as its time-
frame, and if it is actively and fully supported by the
12

Security Council and the Secretary-General, and
spearheaded by an uncompromising leadership explicitly
determined to use all means required for the completion of
its mission.
This knowledge has been gained at a high political,
material and, worst of all, human price, so it is to be hoped
that it will be wisely exploited in the future. For its part,
Croatia is anxious to step out of its role as a country
hosting peacekeeping operations and instead assume the
role of an active participant in such operations elsewhere.
Here and now I can confirm the readiness of my country to
join the roster of United Nations Member States whose
troops participate in international peace endeavours.
The fifty-second session of the General Assembly is
taking place against a background of great obligations and
equally great expectations regarding the reform of the
United Nations system. The timely and far-reaching
proposals put forward by the Secretary-General have
opened the door for reforms. Croatia gives its firm support
to his proposals, and we are ready to render any assistance
needed in introducing the kind of changes we owe both to
those who laid the foundations of this Organization and to
future generations. As for the need to rationalize the work
of the General Assembly and reduce its huge agenda,
Croatia has put forward a proposal to delete the item on the
General Assembly’s agenda entitled “The situation in the
occupied territories of Croatia”, as its title and topic no
longer correspond to the situation on the ground, which
makes it obsolete.
In view of the geopolitical realities, Croatia advocates
an increase in the number of Security Council members,
both permanent and non-permanent. Half a century of old
stereotypes ought to be phased out. Croatia supports the
idea of granting permanent member status to Germany and
Japan, with the right to permanent membership being kept
in mind for those parts of the world, primarily Africa,
which for more than 50 years, without any justification,
have been deprived of permanent Security Council
representation. Furthermore, my country supports the idea
of assigning one more seat on the Security Council to the
Eastern European Group.
Croatia strongly supports the reaffirmation and full
implementation of the universality of the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). My country
was pleased to note that during this year’s NPT Preparatory
Committee sessions some progress was achieved with
regard to the principle of non-first use, especially against
non-nuclear-weapon States, and it calls on the nuclear
States to give due consideration to proposals to have this
principle codified in a legally binding document.
In May 1996, the Review Conference of the States
Parties to the Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions
on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May
Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or To Have
Indiscriminate Effects amended Protocol II on landmines.
Croatia, which has played an active role during the
Ottawa process from the beginning, and which has
already put in place its own unilateral moratorium on
landmines, fully supports all the efforts which ultimately
led to the decision at the recent Oslo conference to adopt
the text of a global treaty banning anti-personnel
landmines.
Croatia’s preoccupation with the global landmine
problem is also motivated by personal affliction. Millions
of mines laid in the formerly occupied territories of
Croatia during the war continue to pose a direct threat,
especially to the most vulnerable: civilians. It is also a
great impediment to the reconstruction of war-affected
areas. The clearing of mines in these areas is a
painstaking process, and, in spite of our best efforts, it
will take many years to complete. Unfortunately, a lack
of specialized equipment means that the process cannot
move any faster. Having said this, allow me to take this
opportunity to express my gratitude to all those who have
thus far provided financial and other aid towards
alleviating the landmine problem in my country, and to
make a further appeal for any aid — material, financial or
professional — which could help us expedite the mine-
clearing process. In this context, I would like to express
my Government’s appreciation for the efforts of the
United Nations Mine Action Centre in Zagreb and the
United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs for
their efforts in helping us launch this process.
Quality of life, today and in the future, will greatly
depend on success in the protection of human rights it
both international and national levels. Protection and
promotion of human rights — a cause in which the
United Nations has played an indispensable role — is
necessary in order to guarantee international stability and
security. The Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights has successfully enhanced the role of the
United Nations in this important field and, at this
juncture, I would like, on behalf of the Croatian
Government, to congratulate Mrs. Mary Robinson upon
her appointment to this post. Because of her excellent
qualifications and personal integrity, we are confident that
she will perform her duties admirably.
Croatia’s own human rights situation should be
evaluated in the context of the exceptional circumstances of
its recent history. Despite the trying circumstances of its
inception, the Republic of Croatia has managed to build the
foundations of a democratic society based on respect for
human rights. In this regard, I can announce that in the
coming month of October Croatia will ratify the European
Convention on Human Rights. There are, of course, many
outstanding issues, largely stemming from the war of
aggression waged against Croatia. These include the return
of displaced persons and refugees; identification of missing
persons; the rights of ethnic Croats in neighbouring States;
and the return of all Croatian Serbs who left Croatia at the
instigation and under the orders of their leaders and who
wish to return to Croatia. The Government of the Republic
of Croatia intends to continue to deal with all these issues
in keeping with its international human rights obligations as
well as its legitimate concerns for the security of the State
and the safety and welfare of all its citizens.
As a victim of aggression, Croatia advocates the
need — and has even come up with its own initiatives —
to set up an international tribunal for the prosecution of war
crimes committed in Croatia and Bosnian and Herzegovina.
Croatia has been cooperating with the International
Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia since its
foundation. The Tribunal’s Office has opened in Zagreb.
The Croatian Government has established its own Office
for Cooperation with the Tribunal and appointed observers
to the Tribunal. Moreover, the Constitutional Law on
Cooperation with the International Tribunal has been
adopted. Croatia’s principled position is to cooperate with
the Tribunal within its obligations as defined in
international law and in accordance with the relevant
resolutions and the statute of the Tribunal adopted by the
Security Council.
However, Croatia cannot be completely satisfied with
the work of the Hague Tribunal to date. The charges raised
so far, and the ethnic composition of the persons being tried
in The Hague at present, do not properly reflect the
responsibility of the sides involved in the conflict or the
extent of the war crimes committed. On the other hand, by
trying to subpoena the States and their high officials, the
Tribunal has gone beyond its own statute and international
law.
Current peace operations in the territory of Croatia —
UNTAES and UNMOP — are considered successful by my
Government. Under the Basic Agreement signed between
the central authorities of the Republic of Croatia and the
Serbs from the Croatian Danubian region, and pursuant to
relevant Security Council resolutions, the two-year
UNTAES mandate expires on 15 January 1998. Croatia
holds that at this moment there are no reasons whatsoever
for any prolongation of the UNTAES mandate beyond 15
January 1998. We are also firmly convinced that this
mission will be fully completed on time and will go down
in history as one of the most successful United Nations
peacekeeping operations.
The results achieved under the auspices of the
United Nations and with the full cooperation of the
Croatian authorities can be described as highly
satisfactory. Demobilization has been completed. Local
elections have been held through which the Croatian
Danubian region has been reintegrated into the legal and
political system of the country. Local Government has
largely been transferred to the newly elected and
constituted bodies.
Rules have been defined and designed in cooperation
between the Republic of Croatia, UNTAES and UNHCR
to enable a dignified, safe and organized return of
displaced persons and refugees to their homes in and out
of the Croatian Danubian region. So far a total of 1,500
displaced Croats have returned to the Croatian Danubian
region, and a total of 8,000 Serbs have returned from the
region to their homes elsewhere in Croatia. The return of
displaced persons and the international presence will
continue after the departure of UNTAES. At the invitation
of the Croatian authorities, the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has undertaken to
monitor the developments in the Croatian Danubian
region after 15 January 1998.
The reintegration of the Croatian Danubian region
has never been an easy or simple process. The Republic
of Croatia and all its citizens, especially the population of
the Croatian Danubian region, including the persons
expelled from it, owe a debt of gratitude to UNTAES and
all the States whose troops have participated in this highly
successful operation.
The mandate of UNMOP, which has been given the
task of monitoring the demilitarization of the area from
both sides of the southernmost border between the
Republic of Croatia and the Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia, has been helpful in stabilizing security in that
area and in creating conditions for a lasting settlement
there through bilateral talks. The Republic of Croatia has
shown full understanding for the interests of the Federal
14

Republic of Yugoslavia with regard to the security of the
Boka Kotorska Bay, while being concerned for its own
security in the Dubrovnik hinterland. In this regard,
UNMOP has played an important role, but it will not be
possible to deal with the outstanding problems through
endless prolongations of the United Nations mandate.
With relief and satisfaction, Croatia welcomes the
easing of the crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and remains
firmly committed to the principles and implementation of
the Washington and Dayton Accords. My Government
gives its active support to preserving the integrity of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, as well as to the consolidation of the
federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina as a foothold and
framework for the survival and well-being of the Croatian
people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The role of the international community, especially
that of the United Nations and the countries participating in
SFOR, in the creation of peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina
is irreplaceable at this stage of the peace process. Too much
effort, resources and prestige have been invested in peace
in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and too much suffering has
been experienced by the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina,
to allow any risk which may undermine what has been
achieved in Dayton and in its wake. Croatia will persist and
persevere in its role as an active peace agent in the region,
expecting other parties involved in the peace process to
fulfil their obligations.
Those standing in the way of the Dayton Accords and
continuing to defy the integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina
as a community of two equal entities and three constituent
peoples have to be confronted with the same
uncompromising determination of the international
community, and, if required, with the same measures as
were earlier applied in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which
proved to be entirely necessary and productive. The
economic reconstruction of the country — in which the
international community should play an even more vital
role — is also of special importance.
The agenda of the fifty-second session of the General
Assembly is extensive, and a great deal of work lies ahead
of us. There is also an opportunity before us to have this
session of the General Assembly recorded in the annals of
the Organization as a landmark in the Organization's
development. Croatia will be only too glad to help make
this come true.