Before commencing my address, I
would like to express, on behalf of my nation and myself,
my sincere sympathy with the people of India on this day of
great tragedy.
Let me convey to you, Mr. President, my
congratulations on your election to the presidency of the
United Nations General Assembly at its forty-eighth session.
Your election is a fitting tribute to your personal and
professional qualities, and also to your country, the Republic
of Guyana. As an Estonian, I have a special empathy with
your homeland: much like Estonia, your
country was liberated from colonial dependence and became
a Member State of the United Nations. Like Estonia, your
country remembers that independence is the decisive factor
which permits small countries to share with great Powers
equal responsibility for creating a better world, towards
which all of us, seated here in this Hall, are striving.
To your predecessor, His Excellency Mr. Stoyan Ganev,
I express my recognition for his proficiency in chairing the
forty-seventh session. We also express our deep gratitude to
Mr. Ganev for visiting Estonia and her sister States Latvia
and Lithuania, and for his efforts to apply the moral
authority of the United Nations towards removing the
remaining vestiges of colonialism from the Baltic States.
To our neighbour in the General Assembly, the State of
Eritrea, I express my sincerest welcome and congratulations
on its finally joining the family of nations.
I would, however, like to take this opportunity to
extend especially warm thanks to the Secretary-General, His
Excellency Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who has given the
United Nations and the whole world new hope through his
strong moral conviction that we need not passively wait for
conflicts to arise, but that conflicts should be prevented from
arising; that the United Nations is, in the first place, an
architect, whose building must not be allowed to be engulfed
in flames; that the Organization is only secondarily a fire-
fighter who rushes to extinguish fires still burning from the
past. This is so even and perhaps especially when,
metaphorically speaking, it happens that only a poor man’s
cowshed has caught fire - for after all, that was enough to
burn down all of Chicago.
Let me express my appreciation and gratitude for
Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s radiant moral sense of
responsibility and for the steadfastness with which he has
defended the principle of preventive diplomacy. As a small
State, Estonia well understands and desires to support the
Secretary-General fully in his defence of the purposes and
principles of the United Nations and in the implementation
of preventive diplomacy.
Three years ago, in 1990, I visited the New York
meeting of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe as a foreign minister whose entry into the conference
room was strictly prohibited. I was interviewed by
television journalists in front of United Nations
Headquarters, as chance had it. I stated then that the next
time I would be here it would be for the raising of the
Estonian flag. The journalists did not even attempt to hide
their polite sympathy nor their desire to bring the interview
quickly to an end. Did they even attempt to present such an
"unrealistic" interview on their television programme?
One year later, in September 1991, I watched the
raising of the Estonian flag on a United Nations flagpole and
concluded that my mission had been completed. Today I am
here to tell the Assembly, and perhaps also those
sympathetic journalists, that my work as the first
democratically elected post-war Estonian President has only
just begun.
Today my words are infused with self-confidence and
hope. Estonia has been and is once again a State; Estonia
has re-established its place under the sun. In this sense we
share common attributes, experiences and goals with the vast
majority of States represented here today. The majority of
the States Members of the Assembly are only slightly larger
or slightly smaller than Estonia, with its 47,000 square
kilometres and 1.5 million inhabitants living on the shores of
the Baltic Sea. Estonia was robbed of its independence and
forced to be the colonial subject of an imperial Power, as
was the case with the majority of the Members here today.
Just as they did, so have we restored our independence at the
cost of untold suffering. For Estonia, as for most of the
Members here, this work is still incomplete. The United
Nations General Assembly is the best place for uniting our
forces, so that we can work together.
This however requires that the Second World War
finally end for Estonia. For the Second World War is still
continuing in Estonia in a rather peculiar way, because the
foreign armed forces which occupied Estonia in 1940 still
remain on our territory, regardless of General Assembly
resolution 47/21. Estonia has for two years patiently
conducted negotiations on the withdrawal of these forces, but
without positive results. Of course, we were aware that
behind this rigid position stood the Soviet nomenklatura and
the Russian so-called parliament, which acted on the basis of
the Brezhnevite Soviet so-called constitution and whose goal
was to restore the Soviet Union in a modernized form.
President Yeltsin was a prisoner of this imperialistically
minded parliament.
For this reason, we consider the present moment
especially opportune for President Yeltsin to strengthen the
world’s confidence in democracy by withdrawing the
remaining armed forces from Estonia and Latvia and by
signing international agreements to this effect. This would
guarantee stability and security for the Baltic region, which
is an inseparable part of Europe’s Nordic region - and that
region, in turn, is an inseparable part of Europe.
In my correspondence with President Yeltsin I have
emphasized my readiness to meet him in the nearest future.
I would be grateful to the General Assembly, to the Security
Council and to Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali if,
with all their collective moral authority, they would help us
rapidly to cut this Gordian knot. This is, after all, not only
a problem for Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania: with this effort
they would also be supporting the democratization of Russia.
With the implementation of preventive diplomacy, they
would be removing a potential source of conflict and would
thereby strengthen the prestige of the United Nations itself.
And last, but not least, by implementing international law
equally in the interests of great Powers and of small States
they would give back to all of us the hope that, even in
terms of realpolitik, justice is singular and indivisible.
The United Nations could mandate such a mission, to
be led by an authoritative European politician, one in whom
both Russia and the Baltic States could feel equally
confident. The time is ripe for action. The rapid preparation
of an international agreement is in the interests of both sides.
When two years of negotiations conducted between a great
Power and a small State remain unproductive, it is a sign of
danger. Preventive diplomacy consists in the ability to
recognize danger signals at an early stage and resolve them
in a lightning-rod fashion. This is our first problem and our
primary task.
At different stages, two different arguments were used
in stalling and detouring the negotiations. First, the Russian
side claimed it would be unable to find housing for forces
withdrawn from the Baltic States. From a legal standpoint,
this argument lacks any content whatsoever. The stationing
of foreign forces on the territory of a sovereign State against
the express will of that State and its people is in
contradiction with international law and cannot be an item
Forty-eighth session - 30 September l993 3
for negotiation. At the same time, I would like to repeat
again that Estonia is ready, together with its Nordic
neighbours and other partners, and to the extent that its
resources permit, to assist in the solution of this essentially
humanitarian problem. We are grateful to our friends, who
have promised housing construction aid in excess of
$200 million, and we are prepared, with the help of these
partners, to mobilize our construction industry towards this
end. We have on several occasions publicly repeated and
confirmed this readiness to our Russian partner.
The second argument for the maintenance of foreign
armed forces and their installation on the territory of the
Baltic States is in a curious way linked to human rights.
According to this line of thinking, which has been
promulgated primarily in the Western media, the continued
presence of ex-Soviet armed forces in the Baltic States is
required for the defence of the human rights of the Russians
residing there. However, the Russian residents of Estonia
have never supported this argument, since they have not
wished to become pawns in a political game.
In this connection, I should like to take the opportunity
to thank you, Mr. President, and you, Mr. Secretary-
General, for the assistance of the United Nations. The
Republic of Estonia had already enunciated, during the time
of the League of Nations, and now it does so even more
clearly, the basic principle that human rights are not the
"internal affair" of any State. For this reason, on the
question of human rights in Estonia we turned for expert
opinions and advice not only to the United Nations, but also
to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe,
the Council of Europe and the Nordic Council. Thus, I can
confirm that not one of the 15 missions invited by Estonia
to inspect the situation firsthand has found human rights
violations in Estonia. This has also been emphasized by
many speakers during this General Assembly session. It was
also, I am happy to note, emphasized by President Clinton
in our recent meeting.
I am disappointed that the idea of human rights -
which, for Estonia, is self-evident and sacrosanct, and for the
lack of which Estonians themselves, during five decades of
Communist totalitarianism, had to pay with the loss of their
pride, their freedom and their blood in Soviet and Nazi
concentration camps - has been cynically
exploited. The Republic of Estonia was the first State in the
world to guarantee Jews and other minorities, as early as
1925, the right to cultural autonomy. Estonia will never
stand idly by while anyone tries to manipulate human rights.
For this reason, Estonia supports the creation of the post of
a United Nations high commissioner for human rights and
the expansion of the United Nations budget earmarked for
the defence of human rights.
We wish to work to defend the human rights of all
indigenous peoples. We defended the rights of some
Siberian peoples during the decades of Soviet totalitarianism,
although we had to do it alone and quietly. Now we intend
to join forces and to do it, with the help of the United
Nations, publicly.
I like to speak of the future in optimistic terms on the
assumption that we are capable of finding resolutions to our
pessimistic present, or to be more precise, that we are
capable of applying these resolutions, since they are already
outlined in Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s report "An Agenda
for Peace" (A/47/277). Allow me, Mr. Secretary- General,
to thank you wholeheartedly for the clear analysis and sober
recommendations on the implementation of such key
concepts as preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and
peace-keeping. The tragedy in Yugoslavia has reconfirmed
the fact that fire-fighting is much more difficult than
fire-prevention. This lesson, which is written in the Torah,
the Bible and the Koran, is, thanks to the Secretary- General,
now slowly penetrating the consciousness of international
organizations. Preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and
peace-keeping can be a real hope for the United Nations on
the condition that we learn to recognize danger, where and
when it becomes manifest.
However, in a potential zone of conflict, peace-keeping
must be strictly neutral. We must remember the proverb
that "You should not let a fox mind the henhouse", that
peace-keeping in a particular area cannot be turned over to
those parties that have an obvious interest in the outcome of
a conflict. Estonia supports the principles of democracy, the
inviolability of borders and non-interference in the internal
affairs of other countries, principles enshrined in the United
Nations Charter and in other international agreements.
Consequently, we were disturbed - as, I am sure, many
representatives were - by the suggestion of one national
representative that the troops of one country should be
allowed to intervene up to the borders of a State that no
longer exists. I do not have in mind the former
Austro-Hungarian Empire.
4 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
Estonia can only support a position whereby the choice
of peace-keeping forces by the Security Council meets the
approval of broad international opinion. On this condition,
Estonia also feels a moral responsibility to participate in
international peace-keeping according to its capabilities, as
well as in other related activities.
This brings me to the consolidation of democracy and
the free market economy in Estonia after 50 years of an
absurd colonial command economy. Estonia has already
been successful, but, together with other Members of the
Organization, we could be even more successful.
Democracy and the free market economy are interconnected,
because they presuppose the right and the responsibility to
freely choose. The former Soviet Union spent more money
on repressing free thought than it ever did on the creation of
a nuclear arsenal. The murder of freedom and the birth of
aggression are two sides of the same coin. The first enemy
of every totalitarian regime is the domestic enemy, and its
first object of attack is free thought. Everyone present
knows Adam Michnik’s wonderful metaphor about how easy
it is to make fish soup from an aquarium, but how difficult
it is to make an aquarium from fish soup.
The main resource from which we have drawn the
energy for the transformation of Estonia’s economy has been
the idealism of the Estonian people. This is a large
resource, but it is not endless. I want to prevent exhaustion
from setting in, exhaustion which could be followed by
political apathy and thereby by a desire to be free both of
rights and obligations. The replacement of a command
economy by a market economy is a disintegrative process
both at the State and individual level as long as the market
has not started working. Once the market is working, it
works for economic and political integration. Therefore,
Estonia is more interested in trade, not aid, and therefore we
work actively to keep and expand our free trade agreements
through negotiations with Brussels.
My aim has been to suggest that the international
community has gained new members - the countries in
transition. Here the question arises whether the United
Nations has realized our special possibilities and our special
needs. Estonia does not belong in either the first, second or
third world. Do we really need a fourth world, or do we
need the ability to react more sensitively to a world which
is in constant dynamic change?
I offer as an example an issue that is as unpleasant to
the Assembly as it is to me: the division by 15 of the
financial commitments of the former Soviet Union, including
its United Nations assessment. Estonia has stated repeatedly,
and I do not hesitate to state here again, that we cannot and
we will not accept this, as we were never legally part of the
Soviet Union. Times have changed; our world community
must realize this.
We also feel a responsibility to assist others as we have
been assisted during the past few years. While Estonia is
still reeling from the disastrous consequences of a 50-year
occupation, we do have well-educated specialists who could
be of service to the United Nations in parts of the world
where their skills would be welcome. And I should like to
offer the experience we have gained in starting up a country
and in creating a new, stable currency.
Allow me to close with some very personal comments.
The United Nations is approaching its fiftieth anniversary.
The post-war world is approaching its fiftieth anniversary.
The United Nations is acting on the basis of an unaltered
Charter. But, as I mentioned above, the world has been
altered totally. This ever-increasing contrast is most strongly
felt by some of the most sensitive United Nations Members,
the majority, the small States. I believe that small States
have the obligation to redefine the international order. The
large nations have the larger obligations, the small States the
larger possibilities. This is not a contradiction, but a
balance. After all, an Inuit kayak can change its course
immediately, while a supertanker needs perilously much time
and space to do so.
The best place to redefine the world order is the
General Assembly of the United Nations. I am deeply
grateful to Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali who,
sensing this need, has entrusted into our hands his vision of
a stable world, entitled "An Agenda for Peace". As a
representative of one of Europe’s smallest countries and
oldest nations, I should like to suggest that the prevalent
tendency of the past century, and especially the past decades,
has been an increase in the numbers of small countries and
a reduction in the number of large ones. The issue of
increasing the number of permanent members of the Security
Council has been introduced into the agenda, and Estonia
supports this as a step towards accepting today’s new
realities. Personally, I should like to put to you, members
of the General Assembly, the following question: should the
Security Council not also include as a member with veto
power a representative of the world’s majority, the small
nations?
I do not have an answer to this question and neither do
you. This is not tragic. The opposite would be tragic.
Seeking for answers is the United Nations future and our
common hope. Today we speak of the fatal differences
Forty-eighth session - 30 September l993 5
between cultures. Thereby the inevitability of conflicts is
suggested.
Conflicts are not fatal only because someone believes
in Buddha, another in Jehovah, another in Christ or Allah or
the shamans of Siberia. Cultures have to be different to
allow man, with his rights and duties, to look like man, to
look like hope. The day before coming here I read a book
by the famous Finnish philosopher Matti Kuusi on what
hope means to man. The Mexican says that you cannot fill
your stomach with hope, but it will keep the soul in your
mouth; a Kanuri African will say that hope is the pillar; the
Filipino says that daring is the fruit of hope and the Maltese
says that he who gives up hope dies.
This diversity is the unity of mankind. And to make it
easier for you to keep the unity of man and the world, I will
add for salt, pepper and enjoyment a proverb from my
shores, the shores of the Baltic: do not lose your
hopelessness. Hopelessness is the inevitable shadow of
hope, and the ever-persevering United Nations is the
collective hope of mankind.
I thank you for your hopeful patience.


It is with great pleasure that
I extend to the President of the General Assembly the
felicitations of the Pakistan delegation on his election to
preside over the forty-eighth session. His diplomatic skills
and wide experience, particularly in the United Nations, will
be a valuable asset for the success of this important session
of the Assembly.
We express our appreciation and gratitude also to the
previous President, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, for his memorable
contribution in guiding the forty-seventh session of the
Assembly.
A special tribute is due to the Secretary-General of our
organization, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his dedication
and dynamism. We agree with the Secretary-General that
peace, development and democracy are interlinked and that
"Cooperative global integration is now an inescapable
fact and requirement for all the world’s peoples."
(A/48/1, para. 13)
Pakistan is happy to welcome the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Eritrea, the former Yugoslav Republic of
Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 13
Macedonia, the Principality of Monaco and the Principality
of Andorra as Members of our Organization. We look
forward to close cooperation with them in efforts to
accomplish the aims of the United Nations.
To that objective, and to the noble vision of the
Charter, Pakistan has been committed ever since its
independence. We have throughout sought to abide by its
principles, and we reaffirm our faith in their timeless
validity. As in the past, so also in the future Pakistan will
extend its wholehearted cooperation to all other States in
common efforts aimed at realizing the ideals that inspired
the establishment of the United Nations.
Nearly half a century later retrospection evokes mixed
feelings. The Organization’s failures and acts of omission
haunt and depress; yet Members of the United Nations have
much to celebrate. Some of the achievements during these
decades have been monumental.
Over 130 nations have emerged from the dark era of
colonialism and alien domination, each bringing its unique
genius to enrich world civilization, and to advance the cause
of human dignity.
The nightmare of a nuclear Armageddon has been
averted. Weapons of mass destruction are being reduced.
Ideological rivalry and confrontation have yielded to peace
and cooperation.
Democracy continues to triumph. People in large parts
of the world have achieved economic and social progress,
and better standards of living in peace and freedom.
In moments of optimism, we even perceive the glimmer
of a new dawn, of a more equitable and tranquil era, when
power will have been civilized, when differences and
disputes between States will be resolved, not through
aggression or intimidation, but by peaceful means on the
basis of law and justice, as they are between individuals.
That vision appears tantalizingly close, yet it eludes our
grasp. The world community’s progress towards peace and
prosperity is both slow and meandering. We have witnessed
many setbacks and reverses. At such times the vision of
peace seems to recede to the far horizon.
Respect for fundamental rights has been severely
undermined. Some States have exhibited blatant disregard
and contempt for international norms, allowing and even
encouraging their forces to perpetrate barbarous acts that
outrage the conscience of decent people.
Instead of civility and the practice of tolerance being
promoted, chauvinism and the evils of bigotry and hatred are
encouraged in some countries. The consequence has been
pogroms against minorities and destruction and desecration
of their places of worship.
The number of people in the world who have been
forced to flee their homes as refugees has risen to a record
level, straining the resources available for their relief.
The problem of poverty has intensified. A billion
people live in penury, without adequate food and shelter.
For them, life is short and brutish.
Manifestly, the United Nations has a long road to
travel, and many old and new obstacles to overcome, before
it fulfills the aims and purposes set for it in the Charter. But
even as we count the multifarious challenges, we can draw
some solace from recent successes.
A remarkable transition has taken place in Cambodia,
a transition in which the United Nations Transitional
Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) played a pivotal role. The
commendable contribution of the Secretary General’s Special
Representative, Mr. Yasushi Akashi, and his collaborators,
is a source of satisfaction for the Organization and its
members. Committed to the promotion of peace and
stability, Pakistan is happy to have provided 1,500 personnel
for UNTAC during the transition.
The Declaration of Principles signed by the Palestine
Liberation Organization and Israel is a positive development.
Implemented in good faith, it could go down in history as an
important first step towards peace and coexistence in the
Middle East. Vital to the realization of that aim will be
respect for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and
an equitable settlement of the outstanding issues. The status
of Al-Quds-el-Sharif remains a crucial issue of interest to us
in Pakistan and, indeed, to Muslims all over the world.
We hope that the Declaration, evolved with the
commendable contribution of Norway, and the agenda
agreed between Jordan and Israel will give a fillip to the
negotiations for a comprehensive peace in the Middle East,
for which Security Council resolutions 242 (1967) and
338 (1973) provide an agreed and necessary basis.
14 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
In Afghanistan the accommodation achieved by the
mujahidin leaders, and the formation of a coalition
government, is reason for satisfaction. Consolidation of
peace will allow the Afghan people to enjoy the fruits of
their epic victory. Meanwhile, a programme for the
reconstruction of this war-ravaged country needs to be
launched immediately. By providing employment, it will
reinforce the peace process. Pakistan is prepared to join in
international efforts for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
Assistance is needed also for the million and a half Afghan
refugees in Pakistan who are still unable to return to their
homeland, pending the creation of conducive economic and
political conditions.
The political evolution in South Africa holds the
welcome promise of peace and freedom for all its people.
They and the world at large applaud the valiant freedom
fighter and statesman, Nelson Mandela, for his sagacious
leadership. Pakistan will respond positively to his proposals
to bring South Africa back into the comity of nations. The
formation of a pluralist, democratic Government is in sight.
Pakistan looks forward to developing close and friendly
relations with the new South Africa.
In Somalia, too, notable progress has been made
towards the restoration of law and order and the
rehabilitation of its polity, though, regrettably, the process
has been slow and painful. We in Pakistan are deeply
grieved because our troops have suffered heavy casualties on
account of the misguided acts of a Somali faction. Yet
Pakistan will not abandon the United Nations Mission. Our
contingent will continue to hold high the United Nations
flag, assist relief operations and promote the re-establishment
of peace and harmony in Somalia, for whose people we
cherish abiding goodwill and fraternal affection.
We welcome the progress achieved in Mozambique,
Liberia and Rwanda, and hope that the relevant agreements
will be implemented in letter and in spirit. The unfortunate
developments in Angola must be reversed. We urge the
parties concerned to seek dialogue and national
reconciliation. The international community must assist
these countries in restoring peace and normalcy.
The optimism generated by the end of the cold war has
been blighted by the colossal tragedy in Bosnia and
Herzegovina. A member of the United Nations has been
carved up by the use of force and its people brutalized
through aggression and cold-blooded genocide. Crimes
against humanity have been perpetrated on a scale not seen
since the Holocaust. The conscience of mankind has been
outraged. Yet the community of States failed to act in
defence of a small State. It has succeeded, instead, in
denying the inherent right of a State to self-defence. Indeed,
some of the members of the Security Council even
obstructed moves to assist the victims of aggression and
slaughter, knowing full well that the perpetrators of
aggression were being aided and abetted by their ethnic
neighbours.
With their hands tied behind their backs, the Bosnians
have been forced to negotiate a so-called agreement. They
have been obliged to submit to a diktat in disregard of equity
and even the resolutions of the Security Council. A plan
that would reward aggression and legalize acquisition of
territory by force cannot, and should not, win the
approbation of the world community.
The General Assembly can still act, even at this
eleventh hour, to salvage the hope that has been invested by
the people of the world in the United Nations. Its voice
must rise in defence of law and justice, in order to preserve
the sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina; to ensure an
equitable apportionment of territory among its different
ethnic components; to strengthen the United Nations force so
that it can keep and enforce the peace; to protect the safe
areas to provide relief against hunger and the rigour of the
approaching winter; and to punish those responsible for the
bestial crimes committed in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Azerbaijan is yet another victim of aggression.
Armenians have occupied Azeri territory and expelled
hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. We call
for an end to this aggression and for the withdrawal of
Armenian forces. Also, the Azeri refugees need the
assistance of the world community for the relief of their
suffering.
The crisis in Kashmir calls for urgent action by the
United Nations. India has unleashed a brutal reign of terror
and repression in the occupied State in an unconscionable
attempt to bludgeon the Kashmiri people into submission and
to thwart their legitimate struggle for the realization of their
right to decide their own future. This is, of course, an
inherent right, but in the case of Kashmir it has been
specifically pledged to them by Pakistan, by India and by the
United Nations. It is sanctified in the resolutions of the
Security Council pertaining to Kashmir.
Internationally respected non-governmental human
rights organizations have graphically documented the brutal
crimes committed by the Indian occupation forces.
Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 15
Since 1990 Amnesty International has been reporting on
the massive violations of human rights in Kashmir by Indian
forces, on the practice of arbitrary imprisonment, torture and
killings of Kashmiris in custody, and on the perpetration of
rape as a matter of policy.
"Rape is not uncommon and there is evidence of its
employment as an instrument of terror", says
P. M. Vandarajan, a University of Oxford lecturer, who
visited Kashmir in September 1992. In his report,
published by the International Federation of Human
Rights, Paris, the author recalls:
"The infamous mass rape by the Indian Army at
Kunan Poshpora was reported widely in the press, both
in India and abroad. It is, to date, the most sickening
example by far of the brutal excesses of the Security
Forces against the women of the region".
It is the most sickening, but it is by no means a solitary
incident.
Also catalogued in the report are cases of
"disappearances" of people, and of young men who "are
tortured in Kashmir every day", and of extra-judicial, or
illegal, executions, which "are alarmingly frequent".
The very titles of the reports issued by international
human rights organizations and by reputable journals depict
the grave conditions in Kashmir. Headlines and titles of
reports issued during 1993 include: "Heaven on Fire", a
report by Tim Gopsill on behalf of the British Parliamentary
Group; "India’s Shame", a London Sunday newspaper, 17
January 1993; "The crackdown in Kashmir - Torture of
Detainees and Assaults on the Medical Community", Asia
Watch and Physicians for Human Rights; "Extra-Judicial
Executions, Rape, Arbitrary Arrests, Disappearances and
other violations of Basic Human Rights by the Indian
Security Forces in Indian-administered Kashmir", a report by
the International Federation of Lawyers for Human Rights;
"Violations of human rights committed by the Indian
security forces in Jammu and Kashmir", by the same
Organization; "Rape in Kashmir: A Crime of War", by Asia
Watch and Physicians for Human Rights.
The report by Asia Watch, a division of Human Rights
Watch, New York and Washington, and Physicians for
Human Rights, Boston, released in June 1993, concludes:
"In their efforts to crush the militant separatist
movement in Kashmir, Indian government forces have
systematically violated international human rights and
humanitarian law. Among the worst of these violations
have been the summary executions of hundreds of
detainees in the custody of the security forces in
Kashmir. Such killings are carried out as a matter of
policy ...
"Methods of torture include severe beatings,
electric shock, suspension by the feet or hands,
stretching the legs apart, burning with heated objects,
sexual molestation and psychological deprivation and
humiliation. One common form of torture involves
crushing the leg muscles with a heavy wooden roller ...
Tens of thousands of Kashmiris have been killed by
Indian forces in the nearly four years since India began the
brutal repression in January 1990. Many more have been
maimed and incapacitated.
No statistics can illustrate the agony of a people or
portray their anguish and pain. But they do illustrate the
iron resolve of the people to recover their birthright. Now,
in the fourth year, the Kashmiri struggle continues to gather
internal strength. It has been established beyond doubt that
the Kashmiri people have not acquiesced and will not
acquiesce in Indian occupation. They have not accepted and
will not accept Indian rule.
India’s position on the Kashmir question, and its policy
in the occupied territory, constitute a fundamental defiance
of international law and morality. India claims that Jammu
and Kashmir is part of India; this claim is legally and
historically baseless. The future of the State remains to be
determined. The resolutions of the Security Council on this
question, providing for a plebiscite to decide the accession
of the State to India or Pakistan, have yet to be
implemented. A member of the United Nations cannot be
allowed to refuse to implement a resolution of the Security
Council. The resolutions in question were, moreover,
accepted by Pakistan as well as India. Law does not permit
a party to unilaterally renounce an international agreement.
The struggle of the Kashmiri people to recover their
freedom of choice is a righteous struggle for a fundamental
right. It merits the support of all members of the United
Nations. For Pakistan, a party to the dispute, such support
is a matter of duty as well as right. The Government and
people of Pakistan remain steadfast in their adherence to the
Security Council resolutions and in our strong support for
the Kashmiri right to self-determination. Pakistan calls upon
India to fulfil its obligations under law. We request all other
members of the United Nations to take appropriate action to
halt the Indian violations of human rights in Kashmir and to
16 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
ensure the implementation of the Security Council
resolutions.
Recent reports testify to an alarming escalation in
human rights abuses by the Indian forces in Kashmir. In
order to investigate this human rights emergency, we
addressed a letter to the President of the Security Council
last week and reiterated our suggestion that a fact-finding
mission be dispatched to Jammu and Kashmir. If India has
nothing to conceal, it should accept our suggestion.
Along with the resolution of conflicts, disarmament
offers a real option for States, large and small, to enhance
their security and expand the frontiers of regional and global
peace. The end of the cold war has removed the threat of
nuclear Armageddon. We welcome the agreements on the
reduction of strategic arms. Even so, thousands of nuclear
weapons will remain in the arsenals of the nuclear-weapon
States. We hope they will act to further reduce and
eventually eliminate all nuclear weapons. The Geneva
Conference on Disarmament should renew its work on a
programme for nuclear disarmament to be achieved within
a specific time-frame.
Until nuclear disarmament is realized, the non-nuclear-
weapon States have the right to be assured by the nuclear-
weapon States that there will be no use or threat of the use
of nuclear weapons. The disappearance of the rival military
blocs which relied on nuclear deterrence for security against
each other should make it possible for the nuclear Powers to
undertake not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons
against non-nuclear States.
For over 20 years Pakistan has advocated the
conclusion of a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty. We
are therefore happy that negotiations are to open in Geneva
for the conclusion of such a treaty. Pakistan will participate
actively in this endeavour. We have also consistently
supported a global ban on the production of fissile material
which should be realized on a non-discriminatory basis.
The regional approach has proved to be an effective
avenue to promote nuclear non-proliferation. The concept of
nuclear-weapon-free zones is finally being translated into
reality. The Latin American nuclear-weapon-free zone came
into force this year. Mutual arrangements for
non-proliferation have also been worked out by Brazil and
Argentina. The dramatic reversal in South Africa’s nuclear
weapons programme has created the conditions for
establishing a nuclear-weapon-free zone in Africa. In the
Middle East, too, the progress towards peace may create
political momentum for non-proliferation.
Unfortunately, the hopes for non-proliferation in South
Asia received a serious setback when India exploded a
nuclear bomb in 1974. Nevertheless, Pakistan has continued
to advocate efforts to eliminate the danger of proliferation in
South Asia. To that end, we have put forward several
proposals. These include a South Asia nuclear-weapon-free
zone; the simultaneous signature of the Treaty on the
Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) by India and
Pakistan; mutual verification by these countries of each
other’s nuclear facilities; a bilateral nuclear-test-ban treaty;
a conference with the participation of India, Pakistan, the
United States, Russia and China to elaborate
non-proliferation and security arrangements in our region.
Regrettably, these proposals have not yet been accepted.
Conventional disarmament can also be promoted most
effectively in the regional context. The Geneva Conference
on Disarmament should elaborate principles to promote such
regional arms control and disarmament in the conventional
field. The United Nations arms transfer Register has proved
to be a successful experiment. Pakistan has provided the
required information on its arms acquisition and sales.
However, this Register may not provide a complete picture
of the dangers to peace in various regions. It is only when
both the transfer and the indigenous production of
armaments are taken into account that a comprehensive
evaluation of arms balances or imbalances can be made.
To promote peace and prosperity, it is essential to
facilitate rather than restrain the application of modern
technology for economic and social development. The
United Nations should consider preparing a comprehensive
study of the impediments placed arbitrarily in the way of the
application of advanced technology for the promotion of
economic and social development in the developing
countries.
The global recession of the past few years has brought
severe hardship to many of the poorest countries and
especially to the poorest within these countries. The
growing number of people living in absolute poverty
threatens political stability in many developing countries. A
comprehensive programme for development should be
accorded high priority by the world community.
The forces of protectionism must be resisted. The
Uruguay Round must be concluded by the end of 1993.
Adequate official resources should be channelled to those
developing countries which are implementing far-reaching
economic reform and liberalization measures. The desperate
needs of Africa require urgent attention. A new flow of
official assistance should be directed in particular to the
Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 17
eradication of poverty, to human and social development
programmes and to sustainable growth in the developing
countries.
The developing countries need urgently to address the
inexorable and unsustainable growth in their populations.
We greatly appreciate the dedication and efforts of Mr. Nafis
Sadik, the indefatigable head of the United Nations
Population Fund. We hope the forthcoming population
Conference in Cairo will devise a comprehensive long-term
strategy to meet the challenge of burgeoning populations. At
the same time, the needs of the world’s children must
assume priority on national and international agendas.
With the collapse of the Iron Curtain, there are now no
political or ideological obstacles in the way of creating a
truly global economy based on the principles of the market.
We hope that regional economic groupings will produce a
momentum towards global economic interaction and
integration, and not the reverse. Pakistan stands at the
crossroads of South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia and the
Gulf, and can serve as a link for mutually beneficial
economic, commercial and industrial cooperation between
these adjacent regions.
The United Nations is the only forum where the nations
of the world can concert their policies to construct the new
structures for global peace and progress. The Secretary
General has pointed in the right direction in his report
entitled "An Agenda for Peace".
It is essential to strengthen the mechanisms for
dispute-settlement and the resolution of conflicts provided
for in the Charter of the United Nations. At the same time,
the Security Council must exhibit a more uniform and
consistent resolve to implement its own decisions and
resolutions. Only thus can the goal of collective security
become a living reality.
Pakistan agrees that an appropriate enlargement of the
membership of the Security Council is required to enhance
its representative character. Its procedures should also be
made more transparent. The guiding principles for reform
must be democracy and the sovereign equality of Member
States. We cannot contemplate according privileged status
to those countries which have a record of defying the
principles of the United Nations Charter and refusing to
implement the resolutions of the Security Council.
The demands made on the United Nations for
peace-keeping and peacemaking have increased significantly.
Today there are 80,000 United Nations peace-keepers
engaged in some 17 operations. Their missions are often
difficult and dangerous. Yet the Members of the United
Nations have to accept the risks and assist States and
communities threatened by more powerful neighbours and
adversaries. Pakistan is among the largest contributors to
United Nations peace-keeping operations, with more than
6,000 personnel committed to United Nations operations at
present.
If the United Nations is to discharge its growing
responsibilities, it must be assured of stable and adequate
resources to finance its activities. The cost of alternatives
would be immensely higher.
The forty-eighth session of the General Assembly
should mark a watershed - a transition from the habits of the
cold war to an endeavour to construct peace and universal
prosperity in a new multipolar era. To succeed in this
endeavour, we shall need to arrest the dangerous
proliferation of national and ethnic conflicts and disputes;
establish the supremacy of human rights, democracy and
freedom; prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass
destruction and move towards nuclear and conventional
disarmament, and arrest the forces of trade protectionism and
mercantilism to foster global and sustainable development.
The challenges that the Member States of the United
Nations confront are imposing indeed. Yet, the opportunities
for genuine peace and universal prosperity are also most
promising. With goodwill and cooperation, Member States
can make significant progress at this session towards the
vision of peace, progress and human solidarity envisaged in
the Charter.


At
the outset, I should like, on behalf of the Government and
people of Mali, to convey to the people of India our
profound grief at the heavy loss of life and the massive
material damage caused by the earthquake that has just
struck their country.
I have pleasure in expressing to Mr. Insanally the
heartfelt and cordial congratulations of the delegation of
Mali on his election to the presidency of the General
Assembly at its forty-eighth session. I wish him every
success and assure him of my delegation’s fullest
cooperation.
Let me take this opportunity also to express our
satisfaction at the exemplary manner in which Mr. Stoyan
Ganev presided over the Assembly’s work at the last session.
It is also a pleasure to congratulate the United Nations
Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, on the
constant efforts he has made since he became head of the
Organization.
The United Nations now consists of 184 Member
States. This confirms its universality, gives it further
credibility and explains the renewed interest in seeing it
fulfil its promise. Our warmest congratulations go to all the
new Members. We assure them of our full readiness to
cooperate with them.
The world is most certainly living through times of
great change. Ever since the events of 26 March 1991, Mali
has been resolutely embarked on a process of
democratization. However, this process is unfolding in
especially trying circumstances.
In strictly national terms, the transition to democracy,
which was achieved through the elections of 1992, though
essentially a success, is being prolonged by new
44 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
uncertainties. With regard to social values, one finds a
serious identity crisis and a lack of orientation among the
young, in the workplace and among the traditional players in
the private-sector economy. There is uncertainty also about
the way in which the new political institutions operate, as
these need to go through a period of apprenticeship in a
democratic context, where impatience and violence coexist
with a readiness for dialogue and for solidarity. Uncertainty
is to be found also with regard to the new mission, size,
operation and performance of an administration in transition,
which must be more transparent and accessible to people at
the grass roots. Uncertainty is to found, finally, in economic
development programmes characterized by the urgent need
for in-depth structural adjustment and the need to reallocate
public resources to satisfy priority necessities: a basic
education, public health provision, village water supplies and
maintenance of the infrastructure.
At the subregional level, which for Mali encompasses
both western Africa south of the Sahara and the Arab
Maghreb, we are dealing with such complex and difficult
problems as instability borne of local conflicts, followed by
human tragedy, because the number of refugees in the
subregion has risen from approximately 20,000 in 1989 to
more than 1.2 million in 1993; the slow pace of economic
integration, despite all the very vocal declarations of
goodwill, which is restricting growth in the subregion; and
religious questions which are daily gaining more ground and
subjecting political institutions to new trials that are more
delicate, more difficult to define and cope with and more
terrible.
The Government of Mali believes that to cope
effectively and efficiently with those problems and the many
challenges in the process of democratization, we will have
quickly to restore economic growth and then develop human
resources, the true way to a successful future, achieve
medium-term and long-term stability and thus find the
economic key to development. Finally, we shall have to
guarantee balanced development and comprehensive
financing for development.
In all this, our Government does not forget and, indeed,
it is meeting its international obligations as well.
By the same token, we continue to advocate and to
work internationally for a world of peace and concord where
it should be possible to find a solution to all problems by
dialogue and negotiation.
This courageous political evolution should be strongly
supported because the adverse impact of a disadvantageous
economic situation, along with drastic structural adjustment
measures and problems linked to debt, compounded by
socio-political tension, is having an adverse impact on the
entire democratic process.
The international environment in which this session is
being held is marked by many uncertainties linked to the life
of the Organization and of the international community in
general. The post-war period saw the emergence of new
democracies and the strengthening of protection for human
rights the world over.
Over the past three years the Organization has taken on
a number of commitments. In terms of peace-keeping, the
declaration made on 31 January 1992 at the Summit of the
Heads of State or Government of the member States of the
Security Council, set milestones to be reached in establishing
a new international order.
While remaining committed to the quest for
international peace and security, we believe that any peacekeeping operation must come within a precise framework
defined by the Security Council. Any loss of control may
jeopardize the very credibility of the Organization.
Notwithstanding the Organization’s efforts in the search
for international peace and security, hotbeds of tension, alas,
persist around the world.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina inter-ethnic confrontation
and clashes have reached unimaginable proportions. The
international community seems, paradoxically, to be
watching passively the breakup of a country upon
exclusively ethnic and religious grounds. That is setting
alarming precedents.
In Angola, despite the many efforts by the United
Nations, the situation remains alarming. My delegation
appeals to all the parties to commit themselves more
intensively to seeking a just and lasting resolution of this
conflict.
The situation prevailing in Somalia is a threat to peace
and security in that region. The presence of the United
Nations, through the United Nations Operation in Somalia
(UNOSOM II), should in principle hold out the promise of
bringing peace to the country and a negotiated political
resolution of the crisis. Humanitarian aid has made it
possible to avoid irreparable damage being done, but we
believe that UNOSOM II must attempt to silence the guns
and create a climate favourable to reconciliation among all
Somalis.
Forty-eighth session - 1 October l993 45
Whilst areas of serious tension persist, we would do
well to welcome the positive turn of events in the settlement
of other conflicts.
In Liberia hope has been rekindled, with the recent
signing of the Cotonou Agreement, the entry into force of
the cease-fire and the setting up of the high Council of State.
The expansion of the Economic Community of West
African States (ECOWAS) Military Observer
Group (ECOMOG) and greater involvement by the United
Nations in implementing the agreement might lead to the
rebirth of the Liberian State. This is the time and place to
appeal to the international community immediately to create
support funds and to implement the Cotonou Agreement.
In Mozambique the acceptance of a new timetable to
implement the Peace Agreements will promote the
implementation of the United Nations Operation in
Mozambique (ONUMOZ). We pay tribute to the parties for
respecting the cease-fire.
As to the conflict in Rwanda, we are reassured by the
sense of responsibility being displayed by the Government
and the Rwanda Patriotic Front. The signature in Arusha on
4 August last of an agreement between the two parties
proves that a political settlement of a conflict is always
possible if all sides have the will. We therefore welcome
this determination of the parties concerned and encourage
them to pursue dialogue and strictly and scrupulously to
implement the requirements of the Agreement in observing
the cease-fire. The United Nations and the Organization of
African Unity (OAU) should strive, for their part, to
consolidate this major achievement.
In South Africa the multiracial negotiations will
certainly see the advent of a democratic, non-racial and
united South Africa. The United Nations must pursue its
cooperation with the Organization of African Unity to
support the process. However, the Government in place
must take forceful measures to put an end to the wave of
violence sweeping the country. The insecurity is fertile
ground for anarchy and disorder.
We welcome the turn events have taken in the
referendum process under way in Western Sahara with the
cooperation of all parties. The joint efforts of the United
Nations and the Organization of African Unity to bring about
a negotiated settlement can, we are convinced, succeed if the
parties directly concerned continue their cooperation. It is
therefore necessary for their decision-making bodies to work
closely with the United Nations Identification Commission
to resolve the last remaining obstacles linked to criteria for
identifying electors and establishing proof of identity. My
delegation reaffirms its support for the process.
Mali has been following with keen interest the latest
developments on the question of Palestine. The mutual
recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)
and the State of Israel, followed by the signing of a
declaration of principles on Palestinian autonomy in Gaza
and Jericho, mark a major step towards a just and lasting
settlement of the question of Palestine and the establishment
of relations of trust between the peoples of that region.
My delegation hails the Israeli-Palestinian
rapprochement, fruit of the courage and political realism of
the leaders of both parties and the praiseworthy efforts
around the world to make the negotiations a success. We
invite all the parties concerned to give tangible expression to
this remarkable spirit so as to bring about a definitive peace
in the Middle East in accordance with the relevant United
Nations resolutions.
In Haiti the signing of the Governors Island Agreement
and the New York Pact should soon make it possible for the
legitimate President of that country to return. We hail the
steps taken by the Secretary-General and his Special Envoy,
which have made it possible to attain the results achieved so
far.
Elsewhere - in Cambodia, Afghanistan and El Salvador
- we praise the efforts to bring about progressive
normalization.
With regard to the dispute pitting Libya against certain
other Member States, the Government of Mali reaffirms its
support for implementation of Security Council resolutions
731 (1992) and 748 (1992). We condemn terrorism in all its
forms. In supporting the resolutions adopted in this context
by the Organization of African Unity, the Arab Maghreb
Union and the Organization of the Islamic Conference,
among others, the Government of Mali hopes for continued
negotiation and action from the Secretary-General. A just
and equitable resolution of this crisis and a rapid lifting of
the embargo would contribute to creating a climate of peace
and security in the subregion and to removing a major factor
preventing the economic development of the peoples
concerned.
As to the Korean peninsula, my delegation encourages
the pursuit of the negotiation process set in train and
strongly hopes that it will lead to the peaceful reunification
of the two Koreas.
46 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
I now revert to development issues of particular
importance to the African continent: the situation of the
least developed countries; the problems of children and
women and population issues; and environmental problems -
in particular, desertification.
The adoption in Paris in 1990 of a programme of action
for the least developed countries rightly gave rise to a great
deal of hope. We cannot but note, however, that three years
after its adoption, the economic results have not come up to
expectations. According to a 1992 report of the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD):
"For the least developed countries as a whole, per
capita income declined in 1990 and again in 1991.
There is little hope that 1992 will be better, and the
prospects for 1993 are scarcely promising."
It is therefore important to abide by the commitments made
at the Paris Conference aimed at improving the economic
situation of the least developed countries.
By the same token, so far as the land-locked countries
are concerned, steps must be taken to follow through on the
conclusions and recommendations of the Meeting of
Governmental Experts from Land-Locked Countries and
Transit Developing Countries and Representatives of Donor
Countries and Financial and Development Institutions, held
in New York in May 1993, in implementation of resolution
46/212.
The Declaration and Plan of Action adopted at the
World Summit for Children and the goals spelled out for the
1990s on that occasion have set new targets for improving
the living conditions of children the world over. All
members of the international community are called upon to
contribute to the implementation of commitments made at
that Summit. In this connection, we must also see to the
implementation of the Consensus of Dakar of 1992, which
emerged from the International Conference on Assistance to
African Children.
My delegation has high hopes of international meetings
to be held over the next several years on resolving social
problems, both at the individual State level and
internationally.
The World Summit for Social Development, scheduled
for 1995 in Copenhagen, will be a key event for our
Organization. We expect good results from that Summit and
hope that it will contribute to narrowing the gap between
social groups within a single entity, North and South.
The World Conference on Women, scheduled to be
held in 1995 in Beijing, will also afford us an opportunity to
review the various programmes and initiate further action
aimed at establishing an effective policy to bring women into
the development process.
Another important gathering will be the World
Conference on Population and Development, scheduled for
1994 in Cairo. This Conference will make it possible to
define a new strategy for developing human resources,
having regard to economic and environmental factors.
Environmental problems now occupy an important place
in national, regional and international development
programmes. The United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro in
June 1992, laid the groundwork for sound joint management
of development.
Agenda 21, the Convention on Climate Change and the
Convention on Biological Diversity demonstrated the
readiness of the signatories of those historic documents to
move away from current production and consumption
patterns. Implementing commitments made in Rio requires
mobilizing substantial financial resources for developing
countries and strengthening their scientific, technical and
institutional capabilities.
Mali welcomes the creation by the Economic and
Social Council (ECOSOC) of the Commission on
Sustainable Development, in accordance with resolution
47/191. At its first session, held in June 1993, the
Commission dealt with fundamental problems which must be
solved if Agenda 21 is to become a reality.
One of the chief goals is to mobilize financial
resources. Restructuring the Global Environment Facility
(GEF), democratizing its management rules and decisionmaking rules and mobilizing additional resources must
facilitate the execution of the various chapters of Agenda 21.
Fighting drought and desertification is one of the main
goals that African countries have set for themselves. My
country, two thirds of whose surface is desert, and which has
suffered the terrible impact of drought over the last 20 years,
welcomes the setting up of the Intergovernmental
Negotiating Committee for the elaboration of an international
convention to combat drought and desertification. At the
two substantive Committee sessions held respectively in
Forty-eighth session - 1 October l993 47
Nairobi, in June this year, and in Geneva, in September this
year, there was an evaluation of the problem of
desertification. Information was exchanged and data that can
be taken into account in future negotiations were collected.
My delegation hopes that the current negotiations on the
convention to fight drought and desertification will lead to
a real commitment so that the international conference
scheduled for Paris will be a real success.
The issues I have just raised show that the problems of
keeping peace and maintaining international security, as well
as the problems of economic, social and environmental
development, are all major challenges that continue to face
mankind as it approaches the threshold of the third
millennium.
My delegation feels that to meet these challenges we
must, in view of the fundamental changes since the 1960s,
promote greater democratization and a fairer division of
international responsibility. Thus developing countries that
have won international sovereignty, and that represent nearly
two thirds of the population of our planet, rightly call for
representation on the Security Council as permanent
members.
Meeting these challenges also requires close cooperation
and real solidarity amongst all the players on the world
stage. This means that it is more than ever necessary to
reflect deeply on and re-examine, the principles and rules for
international cooperation.
The restructuring exercise to revitalize the economic
and social sectors of the United Nations affords us an
opportunity to make our Organization more dynamic in
development matters and to ensure that it plays a central
role, in keeping with the provisions of its Charter and the
relevant General Assembly resolutions.
My delegation, while welcoming the progress made in
reforming the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and
certain of its subsidiary bodies, believes that our thinking
must go beyond strictly institutional terms. In any event, my
country feels that the imperative of restructuring is to
maintain and indeed strengthen the United Nations capacity
for intervention in development matters.
In implementing this policy we must pay particular
attention to furthering and strengthening South-South
cooperation through socio-economic programmes based upon
the realities within the developing countries. Indeed, the
revival of economic and technical cooperation between
developing countries is an integral part of a strategy aimed
at restoring growth and development worldwide.
Finally, my country supports the efforts of the
Secretary-General to make the administrative machinery of
the United Nations more efficient by avoiding duplication
and minimizing operating costs.
For several years now the world has been going
through major changes. If these profound transformations
are to benefit all mankind, they must be accompanied and
supported by concrete action making it possible to guide
them in the right direction. While these upheavals have
been managed successfully by some States, their extent has
taken others by surprise, and the problems have exceeded
their ability to contain and control them. Lacking the
means, they find aid from the international community
indispensable. It is at this level that many expect
intervention from our Organization, and we can indeed help.
The people and Government of Mali have made
important, clear choices: first, to consolidate the strong suits
of a Malian nation that is united, though diverse in its
cultural and racial composition, as it is carefully and
irreversibly building a progressive democracy; secondly, to
carry out in-depth economic reform in harmony with the
needs of worldwide free trade and with the concerns of our
partners in the international community; thirdly, to
implement a bold policy of involving our people in
managing their own affairs and simplifying legislation and
public programmes; and fourthly, to pursue long-term
sustainable development in a framework of institutions for
subregional and regional economic integration and in
partnership with all our friends across Africa. We believe
that the United Nations and the international community
have everything to gain from supporting our original and
exciting experiment, the hallmark of a new kind of
international relations, at once nobler and more rewarding.


I
should like first to say, Mr. President, that France is pleased
to see the General Assembly meeting under your guidance
this year. Your election is just testimony to the esteem in
which the international community holds your country. It
also affords us the opportunity to welcome the "silent
revolution" that has been taking place in Latin America over
the past few years, which has put many States back on the
path of national reconciliation, democracy and economic
development.
22 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
The year which is ending will have been as rich in
promise as it has been fraught with danger. Conflicts once
thought to be insoluble suddenly seem to be on track
towards resolution. On behalf of my country, I should like
to pay tribute to the men in the Middle East, in South Africa
and in Cambodia who found the courage to take the path
towards reconciliation and peace: Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser
Arafat, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, His Majesty
King Norodom Sihanouk and all those, known and unknown,
who accompanied or even preceded them on this courageous
path.
The agreement between Israel and the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) opens the way to the
settlement of a conflict which some had despaired of seeing
resolved, and makes it possible to conceive of a radically
new future for the entire region. This revolution gives us
new reason to believe in human will and encourages us
never to consider the hope for peace as a chimera. From us,
it calls for collective effort, including financial effort, in
order to translate this hope into reality as soon as possible.
It also invites us to erase the aftermath of conflicts as
reflected in past resolutions of this Assembly.
But the end of what was for years called the balance of
terror has also led to new kinds of uncertainty and disorder.
Russia is going through a political and economic
transition that could lead to serious internal difficulties, as
the events of the past few days have shown. In that context,
I should like to reaffirm France’s support for the process of
democratization and reform courageously undertaken by
President Yeltsin.
In the former Yugoslavia war has been raging for two
years, with its attendant death, suffering and destruction.
Other regions in Africa, Central Asia, the Balkans and the
Caucasus are falling or could fall victim to this new type of
conflict, resulting from the break-up of States and the
resurgence of nationalist, ethnic or religious passions.
Elsewhere, States put under a sanctions regime by our
Organization for failing to comply with the obligations of
international law or with commitments they have made
persist in refusing to take the measures that would permit
them to regain their place in the international community.
Almost everywhere, the proliferation of weapons is a
fearsome factor for instability.
In the face of the promises and dangers I have just
outlined, France bases its foreign policy on a few guiding
principles. Whether they are found reassuring or disturbing,
I should like to recall them to the Assembly.
The first principle is the desire for independence.
France has amply demonstrated that it is ready to act in
concert with others where the ends are genuinely collective.
But, needless to say, it does so in complete sovereignty.
Exercising freedom of judgement and choice, France refuses
to follow the orthodoxy of the moment or to succumb to
pressures resulting from relative material strengths.
The second principle, shared by many in this Hall, is a
commitment to our fundamental interests. Like every other
State in this Organization, France has its own strategic,
commercial and cultural interests which it seeks to preserve.
While we are open to negotiation and to the mutual
concessions it implies, we cannot be made to give up
anything we consider to be an essential element of our
security, our prosperity or our culture.
The third principle is devotion to law and justice.
Beyond its own interests, France aspires to help ensure that
certain fundamental principles first inspired by France,
among others, triumph throughout the world: the right of
peoples to self-determination and security, human rights and
the right to development.
Finally, one last aspect of our diplomacy, in the service
of the others, is France’s perseverance, and at times
stubbornness. May I recall our resolve - despite obstacles -
in opening up the path that would eventually lead to the
restoration of peace in Cambodia, and our determination to
see institutional legality restored in Haiti.
These unchanging principles dictate the two main lines
of the policy which my country hopes to implement on the
international stage.
Our ambition concerns Europe first of all.
Whatever the present difficulties, whatever the
prevailing scepticism, France will not falter in its resolve to
build with its neighbours a strong, prosperous, democratic
and generous Europe, capable of making its voice heard and
of contributing to world peace. This is an irrevocable choice
for us because the peoples of Europe need a plan that brings
them together, and European unity is the only goal that
measures up to the values they share. Moreover, the
building of a united Europe is the only way to avert the
dangers threatening our continent at this time: dangers
arising from the resurgence of the most implacable forms of
nationalism and from the persistence of unacceptable
economic disparities. Europe’s success will serve as an
example for other regions of the world as did in its day the
Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 23
reconciliation between France and Germany sought by
General de Gaulle and Chancellor Adenauer.
I have already spoken of the conflict raging in the
former Yugoslavia.
France has spared no effort to put an end to it. As you
know, France initiated most of the Security Council
resolutions designed to discourage or punish aggressors.
Together with its partners, France provides an essential part
of the humanitarian aid sent there. Its soldiers represent the
largest of the contingents made available to the United
Nations Protection Force (UNPROFOR), and more than a
dozen of them have paid for their generous presence there
with their lives. It has so far been the only country to send
reinforcements in accordance with resolution 836 (1993) in
order to contribute to the security of the protected areas and
the Muslim populations there. France was, as well, the first
nation to deplore the inadequacy of the actions taken by the
international community in regard to the former Yugoslavia.
The efforts it has made entitled it to tell those who have
been free with their advice and lessons that they might be
better heard if they were agreeing, when they are able to do
so, to commit their own troops to the field. Once in contact
with the realities of the situation, they would undoubtedly
better appreciate the fact that between negotiated peace and
chaos there is no middle ground.
Let us learn the lessons of this painful experience. It
is essential for us to acquire the means to avoid the
repetition of such a conflict, and to ensure, without waiting
for future progress in the construction of a united Europe,
that preventive diplomacy, military openness and respect for
the rule of law prevail wherever latent tensions remain. This
is the intent of the proposed pact on European stability
which France has submitted to its European partners and to
which it would like to associate Russia, as well as its allies
across the Atlantic, Canada and the United States.
Europe is, of course, far from being the sole horizon of
France’s action. My country has long-standing, close
relations with many parts of the world. For the long-term
organization of the international scene in the aftermath of the
cold war, France naturally turns to the United Nations.
Because it believes in the mission of the United
Nations, France wants a strong and effective Organization.
This goal involves, first of all, the reforming of the
Security Council. Its enlargement, which has become
necessary today in the light of the world’s evolution, must
be envisioned as the way to increase its effectiveness.
France understands and supports the aspirations of some
of its partners to exercise their international responsibilities
more actively, provided that they are ready to commit
themselves in the field. However, the expansion of the
Council should not be achieved at the expense of one or
another group of States; in particular, it must preserve the
capacity of the developing countries to make their voices
heard. In our view, this is an essential requirement.
In their wisdom, those who drafted the Charter
recognized that only a group of limited size could take
prompt measures to restore peace when confronted with an
urgent crisis. We should therefore take care that the
projected enlargement does not lead to a paralysis of the
Council.
France hopes that at its present session the General
Assembly will decide to open discussions on ways to reform
the Security Council. A solution will have to be found that
reconciles the will to reform with the desire for
effectiveness. This is why enlargement, in our view, will
have to be decided according to a formula combining new
permanent members and additional non-permanent members.
The Secretary-General is a key institution of the United
Nations. France would like him to be given the means to
carry through the innovative action he has undertaken.
Allow me to pay a tribute to the energy, authority and
courage with which our Secretary-General is carrying out his
missions.
France approves not only of his political initiatives but
also of his tireless efforts to rationalize the functioning of
our Organization. We must combat the proliferation of
institutions, which consumes our resources and threatens the
coherence of our efforts. We must improve the coordination
of activities linked to development and restore to the
Economic and Social Council its role as a provider of
stimulus and organization. We must combat administrative
waste wherever it exists, without hesitating to punish any
abuses that may be uncovered. Lastly, we must have more
supervision and greater transparency in peace-keeping
operations.
The Secretary-General still does not have all the means
to exercise his responsibility to the full. France calls on the
Member States to provide him with those means without
delay. Strengthening the Department of Peace-keeping
Operations, establishing a mechanism for a true general
inspection, and setting up a court for budgetary discipline
are, in our eyes, indispensable measures.
24 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
The third requirement for strengthening the
Organization is a clean-up of its finances.
Perhaps I should have begun with this point.
According to an old French saying, money is "the sinew of
war". It is also the sinew of peace. Our projects for this
Organization will be no more than empty words unless we
have the courage to adopt the new measures that its financial
bankruptcy requires.
First, Member States which do not pay their
contributions within 30 days following the
Secretary-General’s call for contributions should be
penalized. France proposes that market-rate interest should
be imposed on all late payments. This firm stance seems
particularly necessary because the payment of accumulated
arrears alone would suffice to resolve the financial crisis. It
is also consistent with considerations of fairness and political
morality. One cannot simultaneously speak of United
Nations reform, justice and international development and
exempt oneself from the primary financial obligation
resulting from adherence to our Charter. It is high time to
measure the generosity of words against the yardstick of
arrears due our Organization.
The establishment of a mechanism for a true general
inspection will, as I have said, make it possible to rationalize
the functioning and costs of the United Nations. France will
support all initiatives to supplement the existing procedures
of internal assessment, which have already shown their
limitations despite the judicious reorganization recently
introduced by the Secretary-General.
Lastly, we must adopt an exemplary budget for the
1994-1995 period. We must not hesitate to reduce
expenditures for obsolete activities. We will also have to
provide sufficient funding for the new mandates entrusted to
the Organization. If, from that, it is necessary to consider a
reasonable increase in the ordinary budget, France, which
has never espoused a dogmatic idea of zero growth, will
readily accept this.
These are concrete measures. They require a collective
effort on the part of Member States. But France is
convinced that we can no longer be satisfied, as in previous
years, with marginal adjustments. The very ability of the
United Nations to carry out its mandate is at stake.
France, as you will have realized, is ambitious for the
United Nations. With the support of renovated institutions
and reorganized financing, the United Nations will be able
to meet the great responsibilities incumbent on it: to preserve
peace and collective security, to promote development and
to address global problems whose international scale
removes them from the individual action of States.
Peace is of course the first of our responsibilities.
The present instability in several parts of the world
compels the United Nations to intervene more and more
frequently in order to check the spread of conflicts and allow
a negotiated solution to be sought. France, for its part, has
wished to participate fully in this effort and is today in the
front rank of States participating in peace-keeping
operations.
This commitment obviously does not confer any
privilege on us. But our experience enables us to cast a lucid
eye over the operations in which we have participated and
encourages us to reaffirm certain principles and to propose
certain common-sense measures that might help increase the
future effectiveness of our action.
First, greater political control is needed over operations
that have become increasingly complex. Purely military
considerations should never thwart - or even obscure -
political ends. Naturally, regional or defence organizations
may make useful contributions in terms of expertise,
personnel or matériel. But the use of force presupposes that
the guardian of the law - that is, the Security Council -
exercises its authority in the name of the international
community. This it cannot relinquish. That is why France
insisted that the Secretary-General’s Special Representative
to the former Yugoslavia should have authority over all
operations under international mandate. It is important, it
seems to me, that we should maintain this requirement at all
times. By the same token, France insists that the political
ends of the operation in Somalia should not be lost sight of.
Next, we should systematically consider the question of
the timetable of operations.
As a matter of principle, time-frames should be
explicitly assigned to each operation in the actual resolution
that institutes it. It is also important to know when to
terminate operations that go on and on, needlessly dipping
into the means of the Organization and its Member States.
France fully supports the Secretary-General’s efforts on this
score.
Lastly, we must expand the capacity of the
Organization to react. The time that elapses between our
decision to create a force and the implementation of that
decision is far too long. How many weeks did we have to
Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 25
wait before the air power authorized by resolution
836 (1993) on Bosnia was eventually deployed? And how
many weeks for the ground reinforcements that had been
announced to reach Sarajevo?
We cannot but note that the current procedures do not
meet the criteria for rapid reaction and flexible use which
are called for in this area.
France does not, however, believe that the Organization
should have its own force. On the other hand, it has
participated in discussions organized by the
Secretariat-General on the concept of stand-by units. These
discussions have resulted in original proposals for "tailormade" forces for the United Nations. In this way, the
Organization could have at its disposal support, transport and
communications capabilities which it currently lacks for
carrying out military actions speedily.
France, which has already offered, in a statement made
by the President of the French Republic, to make available
to the Secretary-General a 1,000-strong contingent for peacekeeping operations at 48 hours’ notice, will take part in this
effort.
These measures will have another advantage. They will
add an extra degree of effectiveness to preventive diplomacy,
which has to be central to the ambitions we have for the
Organization. This policy requires us to develop and put in
place mechanisms for crisis alert, evaluation and prevention.
Several ideas were put forward in the "Agenda for
Peace" - they included use of fact-finding missions and the
effective deployment of United Nations forces - and have
already been applied to certain difficult situations in Africa,
Central Asia and the Balkans.
In this spirit, the United Kingdom and France are ready
to submit to the Secretary-General proposals for compiling
a list of prominent individuals who could intervene promptly
at his request, in liaison with appropriate regional
organizations, and provide them with equipment -
specifically in the communications field - necessary for
carrying out their mission completely.
It is through concrete initiatives of this sort, which may
seem modest at first, that preventive diplomacy will
gradually assume its rightful place in the maintenance of
peace.
The effort made in relation to disarmament in the past
few years, finally, should continue.
Considerable progress has already been made with the
reduction of stockpiles from the cold-war era. But a new
priority is becoming evident: the struggle against the
proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. To attain this
goal, we must be extremely vigilant in the threefold domain
of nuclear weapons, chemical weapons and ballistic
technologies.
In this light, France welcomes the signing in Paris by
nearly 150 States of the Convention banning chemical
weapons, the first real multilateral disarmament pact of
general scope, and calls on the States which have not yet
ratified this Convention to do so. It supports the efforts
being made by several groups of countries to institute
systems of control of missile technology, nuclear exports and
the sale of so-called sensitive products.
France asks, finally, that the non-proliferation regimes
be strengthened. It reaffirms in particular its desire to see
the Non-Proliferation Treaty prolonged indefinitely and
unconditionally. It continues to believe that it is only the
Security Council that can decide on sanctions against
irresponsible behaviour. This would be the case if North
Korea were to fail to respect its commitments to the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
What guarantees can be given for collective security
and peace if nothing is done to try to resolve the economic
and social disparities that are so often the source of conflict?
We know that there can be no lasting peace without lasting
economic development. That is why the "Agenda for Peace"
unquestionably requires also an "agenda for development".
France, as is known, has consistently spoken for the
interests of the developing countries, particularly the least
developed, in discussion with its industrialized partners. It
has tirelessly pleaded - sometimes as a voice crying in the
wilderness - for a substantial increase in the level of official
development assistance in order to permit these countries to
enjoy trade advantages without reciprocity, to ease their debt
burden and stabilize raw-material prices. Our resolve in this
matter will not weaken: how can we accept, for example, a
situation in which every year the African countries pay the
World Bank more than they receive from it?
Nor can we accept the persistence, and sometimes the
worsening, of the most glaring situations of distress. France
has not forgotten the depth of the crisis in sub-Saharan
Africa, with which it has so many ties. It believes it is
26 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
essential that the basic achievements of cooperation between
the European Community and the African, Caribbean and
Pacific countries, should be maintained, especially with
regard to trade.
Lastly, our third ambition for the United Nations
concerns the vast issue of societal questions, linked naturally
to the requirements of development but distinct from it.
The protection of human rights, the preservation of the
environment, aid to refugees, the struggle against full-scale
epidemics, organized crime and drug trafficking all have a
worldwide dimension. The Organization must address these
problems with the same energy it expends in the search for
peace and the promotion of development.
Several important dates lie ahead of us. Let us apply
without delay the recommendations unanimously adopted at
the Vienna Conference on Human Rights, particularly the
creation of a post of high commissioner for human rights.
Let us prepare for the conferences in Cairo and Beijing and
the social development summit in Copenhagen with all the
necessary determination, so as to reinforce the cooperation
required in addressing demographic problems, the promotion
of women’s rights and the demands for social development.
Great epidemics have always been a threat to the
world’s nations. But the need for full-scale international
mobilization is becoming particularly acute in the case of
AIDS in view of the havoc of all kinds caused by the spread
of this malady. I earnestly hope that, as we approach the
second decade of this struggle, the coherence of United
Nations action, and that of its specialized agencies and of all
States and interested organizations, will be equal to this new
challenge. In this context, France proposes the convening of
a conference next year to bring together the main contributor
countries in the war against this scourge in order to improve
coordination of their efforts and give them a new impetus.
In most cases, these phenomena are not new. However,
the challenge they pose to our societies, in the North and in
the South, is of unprecedented seriousness. They affect
underdevelopment as much as they do the excesses of the
consumer society, and our traditional responses are proving
to be inadequate or ineffective. We need new ideas in this
area. The Secretary-General should have broad power to
take initiatives and make proposals in this matter. France
therefore suggests the formation of a group of prominent
figures chosen for their intellectual and scientific abilities
and moral influence to assist him in this vital task at the end
of our century.
Forty-eighth session - 29 September l993 27
Setting forth such ambitions for the United Nations
might have made the sceptics smile a few years ago. With
the end of the cold war the international community has a
historic opportunity: no longer to dismiss problems but
perhaps to solve them; no longer to limit conflicts but
perhaps to settle them.
Let us remain clear-sighted. This period could be
merely a brief interlude. If we were to hesitate, would it be
long before peoples succumbed to their basest inclinations,
cast off the rules of international law or put themselves - in
the best of cases - under the sole protection of regional,
competing and potentially hostile solidarities?
We do not have unlimited time. It is therefore our duty
to undertake without delay the reforms required to strengthen
our Organization and to realize its new objectives.
I should like to assure the Assembly that in the pursuit
of these twin goals, the United Nations can count on
France’s firm resolve.