The General Assembly’s annual convening in New York is
a world event which, each year, expresses the hope of
nations and peoples to find common ground, through
dialogue and joint effort, in order to live together their
shared destiny. In a world that is becoming daily more
diverse and in which peoples are witness to so many
contradictions, is it not here and now, in close friendship and
fraternal dialogue, that humanity, with its boundless
intellectual and ethical potential, can embark on a process of
self-examination and be reconciled with the universal
conscience, which is also the foundation of our human
calling to live together and in harmony?
It is in that belief that the delegation of Senegal - which
participated in your election, Mr. President, aware of your
brilliant political record and the outstanding role your
country plays on the international scene - extends to you
through me the warm congratulations of my country, our
people and its leaders. We have no doubt about your
mastery of international practice, for we know that your vast
experience as a statesman will make it possible for you to
conduct, with effectiveness, intelligence and skill the work
of this session of the General Assembly. My best wishes
are thus with you in your election and with the task you
have been called upon to accomplish, until September 1994,
from this historic and lofty rostrum.
Your predecessor, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, former Minister
for Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, guided the proceedings of
the forty-seventh session of our General Assembly with a
competence and effectiveness that deserve our appreciation
and gratitude. We wish heartily to congratulate him.
I should like to pay a special tribute to our Secretary-
General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the enormous
energy that he has expended with such foresight and courage
to ensure the implementation of the principles and the
realization of the objectives of the Charter of our
Organization. The personal friendship that I have shared
with that eminent citizen of the world for almost 25 years
allows me to reiterate the esteem and admiration that I have
always felt towards him.
Finally, I should like to extend my country’s
congratulations to all the new States Members of our
Organization - the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, the
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the Principality of
Monaco, the Principality of Andorra and Eritrea. I welcome
all of them to the United Nations family.
Some 15 years ago, in September 1978, I had the
honour for the first time, in my capacity as the new Minister
for Foreign Affairs of Senegal, to address this Assembly.
As the young head of the diplomatic corps of an African
country, I referred to the many problems then confronting
the international community and which revolved around two
basic focal points.
The first of these was the accession to political
sovereignty of peoples that had not yet experienced freedom,
that had been denied the full exercise of inalienable rights
inherent to every human being on Earth. Those rights had
been denied them by other men, other peoples, other States
and other nations in the name of a system that was imposed
on them and to which they had been subjected. Hope in
their fellow man was their only defence.
The other focal point of attention was the grave
inequality of conditions for the economic, social, human and
cultural development of nations. Some of these nations had
near-total control of scientific developments, industrial
technology, transport and communications, the cultural media
and world trade networks. They even controlled the raw
materials that were produced, to a great extent, in the
underdeveloped regions.

At the same time, while the prices of these raw
materials were falling year after year at a dizzying pace,
other nations were forced to buy at a high price and with
reduced resources the consumer goods produced in the
industrialized countries. Those nations were devoting all of
their export income to these transactions and were therefore
unable to invest in order to ensure their own development.
Thus doomed to indebtedness, they lost a significant part of
Forty-eighth session - 6 October l993 9
their own sovereignty just as they were taking their first
tentative steps onto the international scene.
And here we are today, 15 years later, gathered together
to evaluate, in an outpouring of solidarity, the distance we
have covered.
The fact is that the world has changed - yes, it has
changed - and the transformations that characterize this end
of the twentieth century are so profound that the
international community at large feels the need to reform
radically the way the United Nations functions, as regards,
particularly, the composition of the Security Council, the
financial management of the United Nations and cooperation
for development, to mention just a few of the most acute
needs of the present day.
The world has changed. As for the African continent -
to take this as a point of reference - most of the peoples
formerly under foreign domination have acceded to
independence. States have been created; the structures of an
economy have been established; and political and economic
leaders have been trained and set to work to help these
peoples fulfil their destinies.
But inequalities remain, even though an unprecedented
global crisis today affects the economies of all countries,
including even those of the most highly industrialized
nations. The world economy seems to have become
dislocated. It has lost its balance. New rules are established
and developed day by day in the quest for new balances and
new solutions. And all this is done in a situation that
increasingly jeopardizes international peace. This situation
could, if we are not careful, lead to impatience, to
intolerance, to irritation, to a lack of dialogue - in short, to
inevitable confrontation. Such a threat is unacceptable, and
we must not accept it.
That is why, together with my colleagues the other
heads of delegations, I would like on behalf of my country -
an African country, a Sahelian country, a developing country
- to join other delegations in repeating to the nations
gathered here that, in spite of all these problems, we do not
have the right to despair.
For it is obvious today that the salvation of humankind
resides in solidarity and in friendship and cooperation
between human beings. The fundamental and logical
underpinnings of relations between peoples are, more than
ever before, dialogue and agreement, expressed through firm
language that translates our thoughts about the human being
and about life.
It is fortunate that a country such as France - which I
am pleased to mention, together with other industrialized
countries that are supporting Africa - reaffirmed just a few
days ago in Paris, through Mr. Alain Juppé, Minister for
Foreign Affairs, that the West in general and the European
countries in particular must be aware that if the majority of
the populations of the world remain hungry, poor, bearing
the weight of the distortions in the international economy,
and if, in addition, they see their efforts to achieve political
and social democracy destroyed by difficulties of all types,
then there will always be a risk that international peace will
be destabilized.
The industrialized countries must move in the right
direction. They must understand that international solidarity
can be expressed only through the mutual support that
nations must give each other. In this respect, our continent,
Africa, and many Asian countries should receive this support
in a context of mutual respect. In other words, the proposal
for an "agenda for development" initiated by the Brazilian
delegation, with the support of the Group of 77, to
accompany the "Agenda for Peace" submitted by our
Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, deserves the
international community’s attention. This important measure
reflects the concerns of the Head of State of Senegal,
President Abdou Diouf, who, when he addressed this
Assembly last year, on this very date, launched the idea of
a general agreement on solidarity as the foundation for
fruitful international economic cooperation, the driving force
of North-South solidarity in a renewed form.
Ancient African wisdom - the ancient wisdom of our
continent -teaches us that human beings, who alone can
change and improve their own environment, are endowed
with prodigious intellectual and moral resources, resources
based on intelligence, imagination and the ability to rise to
a situation in a way that makes it possible for them to fulfil
their destiny. We must remain united and mutually
supportive.
In this connection, the delegation of Senegal solemnly
commends the international community for the efforts that
made possible the signing in Washington on
13 September 1993 of the agreement between the State of
Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. This
historic event put an end to many decades of hostility and
rancour, which cost thousands of lives and left many
wounded and many alone, orphaned or widowed - all
because of a lack of understanding which itself led to the
destruction of the conditions for development in the Middle
Eastern countries as a whole. And, what is more, there was
the flare-up in oil prices which began in October 1973 and
10 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
which led to the inflationary curves that have since then
characterized the global economy everywhere in the world.
It is now up to the international community to work to
consolidate this important step in the direction of a just and
comprehensive peace in the Middle East. In this endeavour,
the United Nations family can rely, as in the past, on the
constant and active support of my country to ensure that in
that holy land Israelis and Palestinians can bring humankind
into harmony with its profound values of tolerance, wisdom
and concord.
That is also the way we view the efforts made to
resolve conflicts that in the past seemed beyond any human
solution. I have in mind, inter alia, Cambodia, where the
settlement plan designed by the United Nations led to the
holding in May 1993 of general, orderly and democratic
elections, as a result of which a legitimate Government was
established; El Salvador, where, after several years of civil
war, negotiations conducted under the auspices of the United
Nations led to the signing, at the beginning of last year, of
the Mexico Agreement, which initiated a period of transition
towards general elections planned for the beginning of 1994;
Liberia, where repeated initiatives pursued by the members
of the Economic Community of West African States,
supported by the United Nations and by the Organization of
African Unity, made it possible to conclude, in July 1993, a
new peace agreement which should, as we fervently hope,
lead to a definitive settlement of that fratricidal conflict; and
Mozambique and Rwanda, where similar agreements have
been concluded and where the United Nations has been
meaningfully involved in their practical and complete
implementation.
I also have in mind South Africa, where considerable
progress has been made toward eliminating a system which
the entire world rejected and condemned, and where peoples,
united in fruitful diversity, must work together for the
emergence of a human community characterized by justice
and equality. My country, Senegal, will respond to the
appeal made in this Hall a few days ago by President Nelson
Mandela, when, from this very rostrum, he invited the
international community to take a new approach consistent
with the evolution of the situation in his country.
All of these are excellent examples of the fact that
these new times bear new hopes, even though we still have
grounds for legitimate concern. In fact, despite the victories
that freedom has won, when peoples are liberated peace is
not always the result. The legacy of the collapsing old order
is in fact often an unwieldy one, difficult to manage. On the
ruins of oppression which lasted for far too long we must
build a new world, a world of freedom and peace, of justice
and progress.
During this uncertain period of transition, border
conflicts, problems between neighbours and religious
tensions bring a return to the conflicts - civil war, genocide,
rivalry among members of the same national community - of
an era we thought past. Yugoslavia, Somalia, Angola:
there are many examples that show that universal peace, that
primary objective of the United Nations, is yet but an
aspiration.
The challenge, therefore, is to do all in our power so
that in all parts of the world the freedoms regained will open
the way to peace. My country, Senegal, which has always
and in every way been committed to strengthening peace and
promoting security, feels that working towards this objective
means, first and foremost, affirming forcefully the rule of
law in international relations. Lasting peace and security, in
fact, can be guaranteed only if all nations of the world
comply with the rule of law in their relations with other
nations. That law must be the same for all if justice is to
prevail.
In this context, and in connection with the tragedy of
the fraternal people of Kuwait, I welcome the happy
conclusions that have been reached by the Iraq-Kuwait
Boundary Demarcation Commission. The international
community must continue to protect all States from any
external threat to their independence and sovereignty.
My thoughts turn also to Bosnia and Herzegovina, a
martyred State and a State Member of the United Nations.
I believe the international community has endeavoured in
every stage of the evolution of the situation in the former
Yugoslavia to guarantee the territorial integrity and
sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the international
community has committed itself to enforcing, above all, the
rights of the Bosnian people, a people today undeniably the
victim of true genocide. This commitment must be
respected because the very credibility of our Organization is
at stake.
In any event, it is in order to uphold respect for that
commitment that my country, whose Head of State is
Chairman of the Sixth Islamic Summit Conference, intends
to continue the efforts he has already begun to contribute to
the promotion of peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in close
cooperation with all countries that cherish the same ideals of
peace and justice.
Forty-eighth session - 6 October l993 11
I also have in mind the painful situation prevailing in
Angola. The Bicesse Accords, although freely entered into
by the parties to the conflict, seem today to have collapsed.
By calling into question the validity of the elections
organized a year ago under those same Bicesse Accords,
UNITA has once again plunged Angola into an atmosphere
fraught with danger and uncertainty. The magnitude of the
destruction and suffering caused by this situation warrants
urgent efforts to arrive at a definitive cease-fire and a
resumption of negotiations. The framework already exists:
the Bicesse Accords, endorsed by the United Nations. The
principles on which any solution to the conflict must be
based are also very clear: the safeguarding of Angola’s
territorial integrity and national unity and also, above all,
respect for the will of the Angolan people, freely expressed
in the elections a year ago.
On these bases, my country would here like to send out
a solemn appeal to all our Angolan brothers and sisters,
above all those of UNITA, to understand that it is not in the
interests of the Angolan people to continue the fighting. The
interests of the Angolan people reside exclusively in the
national effort that all must make to restore peace and
harmony to Angola. We Senegalese, for our part, support all
efforts to help them in this regard.
There is also the situation in Somalia, where a great
deal remains to be done to restore peace and organize a
viable State. The United Nations there is on the right path,
conducting the most ambitious and largest operation ever
organized in Africa. My country would like to express its
pleasure once again over the organization of this operation
in a country that is today experiencing a tragic and complex
situation. The infrastructure has been devastated, the State
has collapsed and fratricidal internal strife has engendered
massive displacements of the population.
In the face of this tragic situation and in support of the
Addis Ababa Agreement, which was the result on last 28
March of the Conference on National Reconciliation in
Somalia, the international community, through the United
Nations, gave the United Nations Operation in Somalia
(UNOSOM II) a mandate to continue the disarmament and
to work towards national reconciliation, and at the same
time, and most important, towards the strengthening of
political institutions.
We are pleased to note that today, in spite of the
sporadic turmoil of recent months, UNOSOM II has begun
to help the Somali people restore the sovereignty and
integrity of the State. It is in Somalia’s and the whole
international community’s interests for this mission to
continue and that it achieve the desired results.
I wish at this point to conclude my statement on a
hopeful note.
There is a clear awareness today that our planetary
community is inextricably interrelated, that it rests on a
natural unity based on scientific and medical discoveries and
the speed of communications. But despite, and perhaps
because of, this very progress there remains a certain
fragility in the balance of our world.
Our calling as human beings endowed with reason is
therefore to remain united and to ensure together, hand in
hand, the survival of humankind. It is our duty to see to it
that our populations live long and in good health, to see to
it that future generations derive the greatest benefit from the
experiences we have had and that we are having now, so
that, tomorrow, our legacy to them will be a world that has
not been destroyed, a generous nature, a land united on the
solid foundations of friendship, brotherhood, love and peace.


It gives me pleasure to convey to you, Sir, on my
own behalf and on behalf of the delegation of Yemen, my
most sincere congratulations on your election to the
presidency of the forty-eighth session of the General
Assembly. I have no doubt that you deserve the trust that
has been placed in you by the Member States of this great
international Organization. Your personal qualities, long
experience, sagacity and tact make you eminently qualified
to conduct the deliberations of this session with excellence
and effectiveness. Just as your election attests to your high
standing at the international level, it bespeaks the esteem in
which your country is held by other countries the world
over. We wish you every success in the important tasks
assigned to you and trust this session will achieve its
important goals so as to strengthen the functioning of the
United Nations and its organs and enhance their
effectiveness.
I should also like to take this opportunity to express our
thanks and appreciation to your predecessor, Mr. Ganev of
Bulgaria, for the important role he played in guiding the
work and deliberations of the forty-seventh session of the
General Assembly.
I cannot fail to extend my best wishes to the Secretary-
General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his tireless efforts
aimed at strengthening the work of our great Organization,
upholding the principles and achieving the goals of its
Charter. We should also like to express our appreciation for
his annual report (A/48/1) on the work of the United
Nations, in which he deals with the most important items on
the agenda of this session.
We should also like to avail ourselves of this
opportunity to welcome those States that have recently
joined the United Nations and wish them every success.
Their presence here among us attests to the international and
universal nature of the Organization and contributes to the
attainment of our common goals, in accordance with the
purposes and principles of the Charter.
This is the fourth session in which the Republic of
Yemen is represented by one delegation, whereas in the past
it was represented by two. On 22 May 1990, our country
regained its unity after about two centuries of disunity in the
course of which a power struggle raged between the
occupiers of various parts of the country. This reached its
peak on 30 November 1967, when Yemen was divided into
two States.
Although that miraculous unitary achievement of four
years ago seemed impossible, our people and its wise leaders
were able to bring it about, and other peoples that are still
divided may look upon our example with hope. Our people
fought and made many sacrifices over many generations for
the attainment of that objective. The unity of our homeland
has been characterized by pluralism, multilateralism and
democracy.
Furthermore, on 27 April of this year the Republic of
Yemen crowned its march towards democracy with general
parliamentary elections that were free, impartial and honest.
Representatives of international organizations that defend
democratic ideals participated by following those elections
closely and monitoring their proper procedure. Western and
Arab monitors welcomed that democratic exercise in Yemen,
and The New York Times described the events in our country
as "a true Arab revolution". In the light of all this, we
believe we are justified in feeling a sense of pride as we
take part in this session against the backdrop of such
achievement by a country that has worked two miracles
which no one thought possible only four years ago.
Our success in opting for democracy on the basis of
pluralism and the multiparty system clearly demonstrates that
the seeds of democracy can germinate in any soil once it is
planted and is not the preserve of any special soil. No one
should marvel, however, at the success of democracy in our
country. Yemen, as historians know, was the first cradle of
the practice of "Shura", that is to say parliamentary activity,
from as far back as the days of the Kingdom of Sabã 2,800
years ago. This is attested to in the Holy Koran and other
earlier books of revelation.
Three years have passed since the unfortunate invasion
of Kuwait by Iraq and the second Gulf crisis that ensued.
My country continues to suffer the terrible consequences of
that crisis. One million of our expatriate countrymen had to
return to Yemen as a result of that war, and yet we have not
received any external assistance from any quarter whatever
to lighten the burden of that return. The Republic of Yemen
is and has always been against the use of armed force in
resolving conflicts. We reject the idea of the acquisition of
the territories of others by force. That is why our position
on this situation remains unchanged. We consider that
Kuwait is a sovereign, independent State and not part of any
other State. Since the Republic of Yemen is an Arab
country that, geographically, is part of the Arabian
Peninsula, we have been deeply chagrined by what happened
between the two neighbouring, sister countries of Iraq and
Kuwait, and by the resultant deep cracks in the edifice of
Arab solidarity. For that reason, the Republic of Yemen has
12 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
continued to urge the Iraqi leaders to carry out all that is
called for in international resolutions. In that context the
responsiveness and readiness to cooperate demonstrated until
now by the Government of Iraq are cause for optimism and
should lead us to review the sanctions that are now in place.
Similarly, ensuring the territorial integrity and
safeguarding the sovereignty and independence of the
Republic of Kuwait are an absolute necessity. None the
less, this can never be achieved in a lasting and definitive
manner unless the two countries reach a mutually acceptable
formula of agreement and the Arab countries, in particular,
as well as the international community as a whole, guarantee
strict adherence to such agreement so that neither of the two
countries may breach it. Such agreement should make it
possible to reassure the State of Kuwait that the events of
2 August 1990 will not recur and also make it possible to
resolve all outstanding issues so as to prevent any future
dispute.
There is no doubt that our Kuwaiti brethren are well
aware of the fact that the sovereignty, independence and
security of Kuwait cannot be guaranteed indefinitely by
dependence on international protection alone but must have
its solid basis in sound and equitable relations between their
country and Iraq in the framework of a climate of security
and fraternal reconciliation in the region.
Given Iraq’s readiness to cooperate in the
implementation of Security Council resolutions, we believe
that the blockade against Iraq is no longer justified. Indeed,
the suffering of the Iraqi people has reached an intolerable
level, and we do not believe that the international
community is prepared to accept the death of innocent
women, children and old people because of lack of
medication. At the same time, my country reaffirms the
need to preserve the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq,
and we ask that there be no further destruction of Iraq’s
economic, scientific and social infrastructures.
Following the establishment of the Republic of Yemen,
my country declared that one of the goals of Yemeni unity
is to contribute to the security and stability of our region and
to promote cooperation and integration between all its
countries. In pursuance of that objective, relations between
Oman and Yemen have been strengthened and have become
a model to be followed. However, this sound beginning is
but a key, albeit an important key, to the doors which, when
fully opened, will allow movement on the economic, security
and trade tracks towards economic integration and security
cooperation between all the region’s countries especially now
that between Yemen and Oman there are the initial steps
towards easy access for passengers and goods. There is no
doubt that Yemeni-Omani relations are of special
significance to the future stability and prosperity of the
region. They represent a practical and important beginning
to the much needed process of putting the Arab house in
order both at the regional and the Arab levels. They are also
relations that pose no threat to the interests of others as they
are open, transparent and well-defined as regards their ends
and means.
Similarly, Yemen’s relations with other sister countries
are based on historic kinship and religious links and on the
fact that we all belong to one and the same Nation. That is
the reason why Yemen has always stood by its brethren in
neighbouring countries and in the Arab world in general and
has always endeavoured to raise such relations to the level
that would enable it to perform its role vis-à-vis Arab and
international issues.
As regards the border issues between Yemen and Saudi
Arabia, Yemen has been engaged since November 1972 in
talks with our brethren in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in
a climate of goodwill and with a genuine desire to turn a
new leaf. Following initial contacts last year in Geneva, a
joint committee of experts was set up to negotiate the border
problem that lies at the forefront of the two countries’
bilateral concerns. That committee has held five rounds of
negotiations, the most recent of which was held at T’az two
months ago. In the meantime, other contacts have been
taking place between President Ali Abdullah Saleh and
King Fahd, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, through an
exchange of letters, the last of which was the letter I
delivered to His Majesty King Fahd. Notwithstanding the
complexities of the border problem between the two sister
countries, we continue to be optimistic as to the outcome of
negotiations, since both countries are desirous of seeing the
talks crowned with success and since good intentions exist
on both sides. This makes it easier and possible to resolve
problems. Everyone is well aware that factors tending to
rapprochement between the two countries outweigh the
factors of discord. I can say that my last contact with
King Fahd, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, was
positive and that I found him to be aware of the need for
fraternity and cooperation between our two countries.
The deplorable situation in Somalia demands that, in
addition to what the international forces are doing to
establish peace and security there and in addition to
international support, further efforts should be deployed to
initiate national reconciliation between the various factions.
We urge the international community to redouble its efforts
at the humanitarian level and we invite the factions in
Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 13
Somalia to rise to the level of their responsibilities and to
work on a basis conducive to reconciliation, to reject
factionalism and false sensitivities and to see that the
country’s interests triumph over narrow, factional ones so
that it may be possible to rebuild what has been destroyed
by that cruel war and pursue the path of development and
progress.
Although Yemen previously had the honour of taking
part in the efforts deployed to achieve national reconciliation
through the Conference held in Djibouti two years ago, and
although the national groups in Somalia have not committed
themselves to implementing the resolutions of that
Conference, we shall spare no effort in working for the
desired comprehensive national reconciliation in Somalia. It
is only fair to commend here the role performed by our
Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and the
interest he takes in the Somalia tragedy. Let us pray that
God the all-powerful will guide the leaders of the various
factions in Somalia towards reconciliation so that peace may
prevail over all parts of that sister country and enable it to
work towards reconstruction and development and to resume
its place as an active member of the international
community.
Any observer who is familiar with the history of the
Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East region will be
certainly aware of the fact that the identity and destiny of
Palestine have been at the core of the Arab-Israeli problem
from the very outset, and the fuse that detonated the terrible
explosion of conflict from as far back as the British
mandate. Since then, the Palestinian cause has continued to
be the focal point of the conflict, which has lasted for
decades and has led to three bloody wars; taken thousands
of lives and caused millions to leave their homes; broken
apart thousands of families; destroyed property; and caused
incalculable losses. Therefore, it is no wonder that the just
settlement of the question of Palestine is the key to resolving
the conflict and restoring peace.
Our country’s prompt support for the agreement
between the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel in
Washington on 13 September stemmed from our
commitment to the Rabat Arab Summit Conference
resolution which recognized the Palestine Liberation
Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the
Palestinian people as well as our respect for the right of
every people to choose its own course and exercise its own
will in full freedom. Having said all this, we view the
agreement as an important first step towards a just, lasting
and comprehensive peace in the region, as was stated by the
Council of Ministers of the Arab Nations in Cairo last
month. None the less, this step by itself and in itself will
not bring about peace unless it is followed by more
significant steps at the levels of other Arab-Israeli
negotiating tracks. This will depend on Israel’s earnestness
with regard to withdrawal from all the Palestinian and Arab
territories it has continued to occupy since June 1967.
If we tell ourselves that Israel, at long last, has come to
the realization that it is unrealistic to hold on to the policy
of depending on naked force due to the military superiority
it enjoys, as a means of guaranteeing its continued existence,
imposing its hegemony over the Arab people in Palestine
and the neighbouring Arab States and imposing a peace that
would be tantamount to capitulation - I say that if we tell
ourselves anything of the sort, we shall be indulging in
wishful thinking until such time as Israel demonstrates the
truthfulness of its declared intentions and passes the test by
adopting sound positions in current and future negotiations
with the Syrians, Jordanians and Lebanese and by
withdrawing from all the territories it now occupies. It must
also accept the establishment of the independent State of
Palestine, which would include Gaza and the West Bank,
with Jerusalem as its capital, while the Republic of Yemen
appreciates the important role played by the two co-sponsors
of the Arab-Israeli negotiations and, in particular, the role of
the United States of America, it hopes that this role will be
such as to prompt Israel to abandon the policy of force and
arrogance which it has pursued out of its feelings of military
superiority, and because of the international support and
protection it has always enjoyed as well as the special
treatment extended to it by the Western Powers. It is time
the States of the world at large, and in particular the United
States, shouldered the responsibility of curbing Israeli
arrogance, especially after the crimes, killings, acts of
intimidation and terrorization, the bombings, destruction and
atrocities it has perpetrated for decades in Palestine and
other Arab countries. Those are acts that will shame
mankind for a long time to come and that will torture the
human conscience.
We do hope that the Gaza-Jericho agreement between
the PLO and Israel and the agenda between Jordan and
Israel will be accompanied by Israeli-Syrian agreements and
Israeli-Lebanese agreements in the near future. This should
lead to the return of the Golan to Syria and to Israel’s
withdrawal from southern Lebanon. We also hope that such
agreements will be followed by others that would lead to
Israel’s total withdrawal from all the Palestinian territories,
including Al-Quds and all the other Arab territories that are
still under occupation. It is also our hope that the Israeli
authorities will finally desist from the arbitrary measures and
acts of criminality against all our brethren in Palestine, in
14 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
Lebanon and in the other occupied territories. If the battle
for peace has been joined, it shall not be won unless Israel
shows a great deal of courage, abandons its arrogance and
realizes that this is the most difficult battle of all.
The end of the cold war and the emergence of the
beginnings of a new international order that is beginning to
take shape to rid the world of wars and conflicts require that
lasting, total peace should prevail in the Middle Eastern
region on a fair and stable basis so that its peoples may
tackle the task of development and improve their standards
of living. This requires that all the States and peoples of the
world should take a firm stand in opposing any attempt to
create obstacles in the path of peace, or to impose peace by
force. Our world will not enjoy peace until peace embraces
every part of the globe.
Like many other countries, Yemen has followed with
deep concern the attacks against southern Lebanon and the
Bekaa Valley by Israel in the month of July, in full sight of
the international community. Yemen, while stressing the
importance of respecting Lebanon’s independence, territorial
integrity and sovereignty and safeguarding its right to live
within recognized international borders, condemns Israel’s
continued occupation of southern Lebanon, and demands
unconditional Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in
implementation of Security Council resolution 425 (1978).
The international community should take a firm stand in
order to compel Israel to refrain from these acts of
aggression and to compensate the people of Lebanon for the
enormous losses they have sustained.
It is inadmissible, illegal and immoral for peoples, on
the eve of the twenty-first century, to suffer from injustice
and to be exposed to physical liquidation for ethnic or
religious reasons. The most horrendous example of this is
the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The United Nations,
since it was created, has never faced a more serious
challenge than the one that confronts it now in that peaceful
European Muslim country. It is very difficult indeed to
understand the stance of the international community with
regard to that situation. In practice, all the slogans have
turned out to be no more than hot air. Developments in
Bosnia and Herzegovina squarely put a heavy burden of guilt
on the shoulders of the international community and
especially the major Powers, with regard to the collective
massacring of Muslims at the hands of the Serb and Croat
fascists. As long as we, as an international community,
continue to fail to face up to such a situation, and to
safeguard the right to life of the unarmed people of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, how could we pretend to champion human
rights on this planet? In the most restrained terms, we can
only say that the world’s stance vis-à-vis what is happening
in Bosnia and Herzegovina will be a stigma, a brand of Cain
on the brow of the age and of the human race, for all
eternity.
Consequently, this blatant defiance calls for practical
measures by the international community to deter aggression,
to intensify moral support and humanitarian assistance and
to strengthen the steadfastness of the people of Bosnia and
Herzegovina with a view to ending this tragedy. We in
Yemen join the other countries of the world in calling for an
end to this aggression that Belgrade supports, and for a halt
to the genocidal atrocities perpetrated by the Serb aggressors
in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We support the request by the Non-Aligned Movement
for the venue of the negotiations to be moved from Geneva
to United Nations Headquarters here in New York as those
negotiations are now at a critical juncture, and moving them
to New York would strengthen the parties’ confidence,
especially that of the Bosnia and Herzegovina side, which is
the party that has to make the biggest sacrifice.
The World Conference on Human Rights held in
Vienna in June 1993 has studied the question of human
rights, reviewed the fundamental precepts relating to those
rights and underscored the need to implement them and to
provide humanitarian assistance to the victims of war and
natural disasters. Unfortunately, many of the tragic
situations which afflict people arise from certain crises and
political conflicts that degenerate into armed confrontations.
The use of force and economic blockades that ensue result
in untold suffering for innocent civilians, especially the most
vulnerable, namely, women, children and the elderly, who
are always the principal victims of such wars and blockades.
The situation in South Africa continues to be cause for
concern for most Member States of this Organization. The
latest news does not justify too much optimism. Over the
past two months, there have been several massacres and
killings. That is why the most recent events should prompt
us - and the United Nations - to monitor this situation
closely so that the goals contained in the 14 December 1989
United Nations Declaration on Apartheid and its Destructive
Consequences in Southern Africa may be implemented.
The decision to deploy a peace-keeping force in South
Africa, a decision that has been welcomed by Inkatha, is a
major step in leaving behind the cycle of violence, murder
and massacre in the country, and may well make it possible
to establish a democratic and non-racial regime. Here we
should like to emphasize the importance of having all the
Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 15
parties understand the need for peace, especially in view of
the forthcoming democratic, non-racial elections scheduled
for next year. We hope that the elections will be successful,
and that they will mark a positive turning-point.
Just a few days ago, we had the honour of hearing
Mr. Nelson Mandela address the Special Committee against
Apartheid, and we could feel his confidence in the future.
We hope that the dialogue that has now begun in South
Africa will make it possible to establish a democratic, non-
racial regime.
The Secretary-General, in his annual report on the
activities of the United Nations, declared that political
progress and economic development are inseparable. Yemen
believes that, to revitalize economic growth in the
developing countries and enable those countries to continue
their political and economic adjustment programmes, the
donor countries and the industrialized countries must provide
economic and technical support, and the United Nations
must continue to play its role in promoting cooperation
between the developing and the industrialized countries in
order to achieve the objective of economic integration on an
equitable basis. It is also important to lighten the poor
countries’ debt burdens, to increase financial flows towards
them and to provide them with technical assistance in order
to enable them to continue their programmes of adjustment
and to achieve economic and social development.
As underscored by the meeting of the Ministerial
committee for the economic development of the countries of
the Non-Aligned Movement held last May in Bali, Indonesia,
the economic situation in the developing countries has
worsened. World economic growth is suffering from a
grave imbalance and the gap between the developing and the
developed countries has widened. The economic recession
has led to the growth of protectionism and declining
development assistance. Furthermore, the increase in
indebtedness and the burdens of debt servicing have resulted
in capital outflows in the case of the developing countries.
This is a situation that threatens the very existence of those
countries and not only the prospects of economic and social
development. We must refer in this respect to failure by the
industrialized countries to honour their commitments in line
with the agreements, strategies and international resolutions
relating to the inflows of development assistance to the
developing countries, especially those included in the
international strategy for the eighties which called for the
allocation by the industrialized countries of 0.7 per cent of
their Gross National Product to development assistance.
Instead of implementing those resolutions, the industrialized
countries have resisted every attempt to formulate and adopt
a new strategy for the 1990s. They have also failed to
implement the programme for the 1990s that had been
agreed upon at the Paris Conference. This has been a real
setback for the economic and social development of the least
developed countries.
We do say that the principal responsibility for
development lies with the developing countries themselves,
but national efforts alone are not enough: there must also be
a degree of international support and assistance. National
efforts must be backed up by appropriate international
efforts.
We feel that the international economic system must be
fair and equitable towards the developing countries. This
cannot be the so without political will, wisdom and courage.
A great deal of work awaits the United Nations, and
this is why this session of the General Assembly is of
special importance. The international community must avail
itself of this opportunity to develop a concept of cooperation
between countries, within the framework of the United
Nations, with a view to strengthening international peace and
security and economic stability the world over. This should
also help to strengthen the Organization, because the
Organization is the ideal framework for building that world
of peace and stability on the basis of international legality.
In this connection, the United Nations must implement
the Charter without selectivity or double standards, for the
Charter is the ideal framework for coordinating international
efforts. As the international community must build a better
world within the framework of the United Nations to ensure
peace and development, we, the family of nations, must have
the foresight and resolve to face up to the problems that
arise with the universal character of the United Nations in
mind.


Mr. President, it gives
me great pleasure to see you, a son of the Caribbean,
presiding over the General Assembly at this forty-eight
session with the skill, competence and wealth of experience
we have come to associate with you. My delegation is
confident that under your leadership this session of the
General Assembly will complete its vitally important agenda.
I also wish to express to your predecessor,
His Excellency Mr. Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria, our
appreciation for the most able manner in which he presided
over the forty-seventh session.
16 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
May I take this opportunity also to welcome
formally to the United Nations the six countries - the Czech
Republic, Eritrea, Monaco, the Slovak Republic, The Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and Andorra - which
joined the Organization this year.
Today the global community is at a crossroads in
history, poised between the prospect of peaceful economic
progress through globalization and technological
advancement and a relapse into conflict fuelled by poverty,
political tyranny and ethnic strife. This situation has
emerged with the end of the cold war, which has ushered in
ideological détente, and where the threat of nuclear conflict
between super-Powers has receded. This is not, however, a
cause for complacency, because unsupervised economic
globalization coupled with an escalation of political
fragmentation could ignite fierce conflict between economic
blocs and social groups world wide. The present dilemma
is how we can capitalize collectively on the advantage
offered by economic globalization, while avoiding political
fragmentation owing to the resurgence of religious and
ethnic intolerance and chauvinistic nationalism.
Globalization, if not complemented by a comprehensive
global economic framework, could lead to wider disparities
between developed and developing countries, leaving a
growing portion of the world’s population mired in poverty
as entire productive sectors and economic activities are
marginalized from the dynamic of economic growth in the
world economy. The United Nations is the only forum that
can forge a global institutional consensus, a multilateral
regulatory regime, and commonly subscribe to goals and
understandings that will reduce the tendency to economic
inequities. A shared economic development consensus could
provide the basis for more equitable participation for the less
developed countries.
Whether mankind succeeds in seizing the present
opportunity for peace and economic progress depends
crucially on the United Nations as a mechanism for a new
global dialogue based on genuine partnership between States
with widely differing philosophies, policies and practices.
The United Nations, with severe constraints of financial and
human resources, has in the past year courageously
attempted to meet these challenges, understandably with
mixed results.
We therefore wish to pay tribute to the
Secretary-General and his dedicated staff of professionals
who have played a critical role in the search for resolution
of bitter conflicts in every region - conflicts which have
inflicted massive human suffering and devastation of the
land.
In Cambodia, elections have taken place and a new
Government has been installed. That achievement in
Cambodia will, we hope, mark the beginning of a new era
of peace and stability in South-East Asia.
On the African continent, we welcome the signing of
the Cotonou Peace Agreement on 25 July, and we urge that
all the parties to the conflict in Liberia remain committed to
this Agreement and work with the United Nations and the
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
to bring lasting peace to that country. Unfortunately, the
situation in Somalia continues to be tragic and dangerous.
We hope that, through the efforts of the United Nations
Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM) and others, there will be
a speedy return of peace to this land fractured and
devastated by civil strife. Jamaica regrets the continuing
loss of life of members of the UNOSOM forces.
Developments in South Africa are moving in a positive
direction. We welcome the decision to hold, on
27 April 1994, elections open to all parties which will mark
the transition of South Africa to a democratic and non-racial
society, and we eagerly anticipate the establishment of the
Transitional Executive Council. The call by Mr. Mandela
for the removal of sanctions is a welcome one. Jamaica has
participated in building consensus for the United Nations
resolution to lift sanctions, and it intends to lift them
immediately upon the adoption of the resolution.
The situation in the States of the former Yugoslavia is
also an agonizing chronicle of tragic strife, suffering and
abuses. We continue to hope for a just settlement on the
basis of Security Council resolution 859 (1993), which
affirms the fundamental principles on which such a
settlement should be based.
Jamaica too hails the signing of the peace accord
between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization on
13 September 1993, while fully recognizing that the progress
achieved, despite its significance, is but an initial step.
Indeed, there are complex matters that will face negotiators
in the months and years ahead.
Nearer to home, in the Caribbean, the Government of
Jamaica and its partners in the Caribbean Community
(CARICOM) have placed the resolution of the Haitian crisis
high among their priorities. CARICOM has been actively
involved at the United Nations in the effort to bring the issue
of Haiti before the Security Council, and I express my
Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 17
Government’s appreciation to the member States of the Latin
American and Caribbean Group for their support in this
process.
We also commend the Special Envoy of the
Secretaries-General of the United Nations and the
Organization of American States, Mr. Dante Caputo, for his
untiring commitment to this issue. However, in the light of
the grim evidence that dangerous elements are at work in
Haiti, clearly determined to deny the Haitian people security,
democracy and development, the international community
cannot relax its vigilance. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide
is scheduled to return to Haiti on 30 October. His return
will mark the beginning of a long and difficult period of
reconstruction. He will need the full support and
commitment of our Organization, as well as of the entire
international community. There is urgency in the call for
economic and technical assistance. Indeed, the Government
of Jamaica has already offered, within our means, to provide
Haiti with some technical assistance.
This new era following the cold war presents mankind
with new opportunities for a more rational and equitable
management of problems at the global level. I refer, in
particular, to the struggle against poverty and ethnic strife,
human-rights violations and environmental degradation. The
end of cold-war confrontations - political as well as military
and ideological - should not be replaced by economic
conflict. We must grasp the opportunity for constructive
action and now work towards an era of cooperation that is
not distorted by ideological and political tensions.
The Security Council Summit meeting on
31 January 1992 concluded with a statement in which it was
said that its members recognized
"that peace and prosperity are indivisible and that
lasting peace and stability require effective international
cooperation for the eradication of poverty and the
promotion of a better life for all in larger freedom".
(S/23500, p. 5)
We strongly support that view.
For many developing countries, including my own,
market-oriented reforms have been a high priority. We have
made fundamental changes in economic policy, including
monetary and fiscal austerity, trade liberalization, divestment
of public enterprises to the private sector, liberalization of
foreign-exchange markets and general deregulation of
economies. In short, we have undertaken a thoroughgoing
process of structural adjustment, which has created a private-
sector-led, market-driven economy.
For countries that are undertaking economic structural
adjustment the social consequences are high indeed. Tight
monetary and fiscal management reduces the capacity to
provide basic social services, such as health, education and
housing. Yet, if human needs are not adequately met, if
human resources are not developed, we destroy the very
basis of sustained development: our people. Migration -
national and international - is one of the clearest
manifestations of social ills. If people do not find economic
security in their native land, they go wherever they can find
it - from rural to urban area; from one country or one
continent to another. So today there are some 35 million
displaced persons. And such people are to be found in every
region.
The processes of structural adjustment are rendered
extremely difficult in the absence of sustained international
support - either directly, through the sustained infusion of
external resources by way of development assistance and
debt relief, or indirectly, through reduced protectionism in
industrialized countries. Let me give an example related to
debt. Although my Government has managed to reduce the
stock of external debt, debt servicing remains the most
debilitating constraint on the country’s economic
development. The fact that international financial
institutions, to which much of Jamaica’s debt is owed, refuse
to consider the rescheduling of loans continues to be a major
concern of my Government. The consequence of this policy
is that even those resources generated by developing
countries themselves are not available for the pursuit of
national development objectives, as they are pre-empted by
debt-servicing.
I should like to refer to trade liberalization and trade
arrangements, especially with regard to countries undergoing
structural adjustment. In my own region, the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) has put in place mechanisms to
enhance regional trade. At the same time, however, the
Community is faced with the Herculean task of avoiding or
minimizing the likely short-term to medium-term adverse
impacts on its members of the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) when it takes effect. We have had to
make vigorous efforts to ensure that the gains achieved
under existing agreements are not eroded.
Similarly, conditionality applied to loans by
international financial institutions must be designed to be
more appropriate to developing economies. More
specifically, adjustment must take place over an extended
18 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
period, must minimize social distress and must be growth-
oriented.
My delegation therefore attaches great importance to
the formulation of an agenda for development. That process
should proceed with the sense of urgency and vision with
which the undeniably constructive "Agenda for Peace" has
been promoted. Such an agenda must be forward-looking
and must address fully the wide range of issues pertaining to
development, taking into account the specific circumstances
and needs of developing countries and groups of countries.
It must first establish, as its basic premise, the need for a
favourable international economic environment and a non--
discriminatory trading system, the latter being dependent on
a speedy, balanced and comprehensive outcome to the
Uruguay Round of trade negotiations. Without these
conditions, the efforts of developing countries to build
self-sustaining economies - efforts often accompanied by
painful adjustment strategies and difficult economic-
liberalization programmes - will be frustrated.
The need for a constructive North-South dialogue to be
reactivated has therefore become urgent, and has certainly
become one of the most pressing challenges we face in
elaborating our agenda for development. We were
consequently appreciative of the initiative taken by the
Chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement to meet with the
Chairman of the Group of 7 in Tokyo. We regard this as an
encouraging beginning.
The agenda for development cannot be complete if it
does not include consideration of the problem of external
indebtedness and formulation of specific solutions for its
resolution. A review of the role and functions of the Bretton
Woods institutions is therefore necessary. Similarly, the
reality and inevitability of regional economic integration
processes must be confronted in the agenda for development,
as well as the protection of the environment, following the
ground-breaking achievements of the historic United Nations
Conference on Environment and Development last year in
Rio de Janeiro.
The goal of sustainable development provides a holistic
framework for the United Nations and its Member States to
shape a world in which care and respect for human beings
is equalled only by care and respect for the planet which we
inhabit. At the Earth Summit in Rio, we undertook to
implement measures that would safeguard our natural
habitat. Some of the decisions taken in Rio have already
begun to take effect. These include the establishment of the
Commission on Sustainable Development and the
preparations for the convening of the first Global Conference
on Sustainable Development of Small Island States. My
delegation wishes to stress the importance of this
Conference, which is to be held in Barbados next year. We
take this opportunity to call upon the Members of the
Assembly to give full support to the adoption by the
Conference of a plan of action for the sustainable
development of small island developing States. This will be
the first test of our readiness and commitment to implement
the decisions taken at the Earth Summit.
Equally, Jamaica fully supports the World Conference
on Population and Development, to be held in Cairo in 1994;
the World Summit for Social Development, to be held in
Copenhagen in 1995; and the Fourth World Conference on
Women, to be held in Beijing in 1995.
It gives me great pleasure to allude to the 1982 law of
the sea Convention, which was signed in Montego Bay,
Jamaica, 11 years ago and has now been ratified by 58
countries. I expect that before the end of this forty-eighth
session of the General Assembly the sixtieth ratification will
be deposited with the Secretary-General, thus setting the
stage for the Convention’s entry into force. There can be no
question that support for the Convention continues to be
overwhelming. Our ultimate goal must be to achieve
universal participation in a Convention which is designed for
mankind as a whole. It is therefore appropriate that all the
Convention as soon as possible. As the pace of ratification
intensifies, it could serve as a catalyst for deepening the
process of universalizing the Convention by addressing
creatively the manner in which the provisions of the
Convention are to be implemented on an ongoing,
contemporary basis.
We must pay a tribute, as well, to the Secretary-General
and his predecessor for the initiative they took to promote a
dialogue aimed at addressing issues of concern to some
States in order to achieve universal participation in the
Convention. The integrity of the Convention as a whole
must be maintained, and our search for universality must
recognize the overwhelming support for the Convention by
the international community as a whole and the need to
preserve its fundamental aspects. Let us therefore in our
noble quest for universality concentrate on the manner of the
implementation of the Convention in those areas of concern
to some States.
If the United Nations is to play an active and dynamic
role in promoting a new global partnership, it must examine
its capacity and capability. For that reason, my delegation
agrees that the reform processes now under way should aim
at maximizing the efficiency and effectiveness of the
Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 19
Organization. Further, my delegation intends to participate
fully in the work of the open-ended ad hoc working group
which will continue to consider the process of revitalizing
the General Assembly. Other discussions related to the
restructuring of the United Nations system must be
transparent and informed by the principles of democracy and
the rules of international law and by those principles
enshrined in the Charter.
My Government wishes to address the issue of the
Security Council in the context of the increased membership
of the United Nations, which rose to 184 this year. The
surging tide of change over the past five years has seen the
responsibilities of the Security Council increase, with the
establishment of 17 peace-keeping operations and the
Council’s further involvement in conflict resolution through
the good offices of the Secretary-General and the dispatch of
fact-finding missions. The time has therefore obviously
come for a review of the Security Council’s composition to
ensure that it is truly representative of the increased
membership of the United Nations and reflects the
democratic principle on which the United Nations is founded -
that is, the sovereign equality of all States.
The reform process in which we are now engaged
within the United Nations must clearly include the Security
Council, the body charged with the responsibility for the
maintenance of international peace and security. A Security
Council which is truly representative and functions
effectively has to be a priority for all of us, because peace
and security, in the military and political sense, are
interwoven with our economic and social security. We in
the Caribbean cannot, and have no desire to, remain aloof
from this debate. We must ensure that a strengthened
United Nations is placed in a position to play a dominant
role in the elaboration of processes of peace and
development and in their implementation based on genuine
interdependence, global partnership and shared responsibility.
We are gathered here because we all have pressing
national concerns and we believe there remains an enduring
faith in multilateralism, which carries the potential for
stronger, more broadly based development over the longer
term, if only all players agree to reaffirm their commitment
and play fully their roles within the global framework of
cooperation.
There is no doubt that this will be difficult, but shared
objectives, shared commitment and shared responsibilities
will ensure a better world for all mankind. As we
contemplate the challenges posed by the present global,
economic and political environment, we must commit
ourselves to a new dialogue within the United Nations
system to forge a global partnership for peace, democracy
and economic progress.


Allow me to begin by extending to you, Sir, my sincere
congratulations on your election as President of the General
Assembly at its forty-eighth session. I am confident that
your solid diplomatic background and rich experience will
effectively contribute to the success of the work of this
session.
More than ever before, our Organization today needs
cooperation between its Member States if it is to save itself
from attempts to divert its course from the spirit and
principles of its Charter and thereby turn it into a tool for
serving the selfish interests of certain dominant Powers, first
among which is the United States of America.
The world has attached great importance to the end of
the bipolarity that overshadowed the international situation
20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
until recently and restricted the ability of the United Nations
to address and resolve international problems. The new era,
however, has failed to provide the United Nations with the
opportunity to apply the principles, objectives and
mechanisms of the Charter. A single Power - the United
States of America - has sought to control the manner in
which the United Nations addresses international issues and
to steer it in accordance with United States interests.
The selectivity and double standard that characterize the
role currently played by the United Nations make it crystal
clear that the United Nations and the Security Council in
particular have become tools that execute the policies of the
Powers that dominate the Organization. The United Nations
is no longer a world Organization capable of resolving the
problems and addressing the crises which beset many
countries and peoples of the world in a manner that is
consonant with the objectives and principles of its own
Charter.

What did the Security Council ever do to implement its
resolution 487 (1981), on the military aggression perpetrated
by Israel against an Iraqi nuclear reactor devoted to peaceful
purposes? That resolution was adopted 12 years ago and the
Security Council has done absolutely nothing to implement
it. Indeed, we have reached the point today at which the
Israeli Deputy Defence Minister, Mordechai Gur, can
arrogantly declare, as he did on 6 June 1993, that Israel does
possess nuclear weapons and that it has the capacity to bomb
the Arab States with those devices. At the same time, Israel
continues to adamantly refuse to sign the non-proliferation
Treaty and the United Nations and the Security Council have
done absolutely nothing to halt the Israeli programmes of
mass destruction weapons, which include the production and
stockpiling of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons
together with the means of their delivery, regardless of the
fact that those programmes constitute a grave threat to the
security and stability of the region and the whole world.
While the United Nations is being forced to engage in
a military operation in Somalia under the pretext of
providing humanitarian assistance, the United Nations stands
helpless and incapable of taking any appropriate action to
put an end to the carnage or to alleviate the bitter human
suffering in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other parts of
former Yugoslavia. This paralysis takes place against the
backdrop of the shifting tides of the positions of the
dominant Powers in line with their own selfish interests and
schemes and their backing away from any measure that
would help in reaching a solution or put an end to this
tragedy.
Because of the climate prevailing in the international
community - a climate of selectivity and double standards -
the gap between North and South continues to widen at the
expense of the interests of the developing countries and Iraq
finds itself in a situation that has never been witnessed
before by any other founding State Member of the United
Nations. This is due to the complications and unfair
treatment meted to Iraq by the resolutions of the Security
Council under pressure exerted by the United States of
America and its hegemonistic policies towards others.
The most telling example of the hegemony exercised by
the United States of America over the United Nations and of
United States monopoly of the interpretation and
implementation of the provisions of the Charter, and use of
the mechanisms related thereto in the service of purely
American rather than common international interests, is what
has been done and continues to be done to Iraq at a time
when it has declared its commitment to the resolutions of the
Security Council which it fully implements. In return, Iraq
continues to be subjected to acts of aggression which
threaten its security and territorial integrity and infringe upon
its sovereignty.
Iraq also remains deprived of its natural right to obtain
its needs, including those described in international legal
terms as basic human and civilian needs. Those needs are
essential for the people of Iraq if they are to continue to lead
a normal life. Iraq also remains deprived of the right to
export its natural resources while its assets remain frozen.
Iraq continues to be denied the right to use its civil aircraft
and ships and continues to be subjected to flagrant military
intervention in its internal affairs, to daily acts of violation
of its airspace, and to the perpetration of a declared
conspiracy against its political system.
Iraq has endeavoured, despite all these adverse
circumstances and difficulties, to contain the crises which
certain powers have so skilfully orchestrated in order to
perpetrate further aggression against Iraq and create pretexts
for continuing to impose the iniquitous comprehensive
blockade against it. Within the framework of Iraq’s serious,
continuous attempts to reveal the truth, close the door on the
forces of ill-intent and expose their objectives, and driven by
its desire to find solutions to the outstanding issues through
a serious responsible dialogue based on justice and fairness
and consistent with international law and the United Nations
Charter, Iraq has called, in a letter dated 30 May 1993 from
the Foreign Minister of Iraq to the President of the Security
Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 21
Council, for constructive and comprehensive dialogue with
the Security Council within the framework of the legal and
practical interrelationship between Iraq’s implementation of
its obligations and the text of resolution 687 (1991) on the
one hand, and the Security Council’s implementation of its
own obligations towards Iraq according to the provisions of
the said resolution, particularly paragraphs 21 and 22, on the
other.
Iraq calls for the Security Council to adopt fair and just
positions which would reflect the Council’s respect for its
own obligations and commitments as enshrined in the United
Nations Charter, and thereby to respect the sovereignty,
independence, internal security and territorial integrity of
Iraq, lift the unjust blockade that has been imposed upon the
people of Iraq for three years now, and which has inflicted,
and continues to inflict, untold suffering upon them and to
lift all the restrictions that are still imposed without
justification on normal, legitimate Iraqi activities.
Iraq has cooperated objectively with all the inspection
teams and missions dispatched by the United Nations, in
order to fulfil its obligations according to the resolutions of
the Security Council, regardless of how unjust and indeed
how extremely iniquitous those resolutions are. In fact many
of the officials of those teams and missions have confirmed
that Iraq has honoured its obligations in implementation of
the Security Council resolutions.
May I refer here, by way of example, to the statement
made by the United Nations Special Commission
(UNSCOM) Executive Chairman, Mr. Rolf Ekeus, on
13 January 1993, in which he said, "Iraq’s compliance has
been a success so far, and it would be tragic if the last 5 per
cent of implementation could not to be carried out." Earlier,
on 2 September 1992, Mr. Maurizio Zifferero, the head of
the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection
team, said, "Iraq’s nuclear programme stands at zero now."
Convinced that Iraq has met all its obligations under
resolution 687 (1991), we called upon the Security Council,
both as a collective body and as individual Member States,
just as we had long been calling upon the Special
Commission, to conduct a technical, professional and legal
dialogue with Iraq in order to specify the extent to which
resolution 687 (1991) in general, and section C thereof in
particular, have been implemented, so that the Council may
consider implementing paragraphs 21 and 22 of the
resolution, which pertain to the lifting of the economic
sanctions imposed on Iraq. The dialogue proposed by Iraq
was also meant to strip away all the pretexts that have
continued to be used to mask the illegal and aggressive
measures unilaterally taken by certain individual States
against Iraq and its territorial integrity. The most flagrant of
those measures are the so-called "no-fly zones" imposed on
northern and southern Iraq and the military acts of
aggression perpetrated by the United States against Iraq on
17 January 1993 and 27 June 1993.
When the Security Council responded, in July 1993, to
our call for dialogue and sent the Executive Chairman of the
Special Commission to Baghdad to conduct talks with the
Iraqi side, we welcomed the visit and held intensive, frank
and constructive discussions with Mr. Ekeus, through which
we reached an agreement to resolve a number of issues and
to continue our dialogue in earnest on grounds that are just,
fair, logical and consistent with international law and the
United Nations Charter.
We presented to Mr. Ekeus, and through him to the
Security Council, a position paper clearly expressing the way
in which Iraq envisages the relationship between Iraq’s
responsibilities towards the Security Council and its
resolutions, on the one hand, and the responsibilities of the
Security Council, both as a body and as Member States,
towards Iraq’s firm rights and legitimate demands, foremost
among which are the following: to respect the sovereignty,
internal security and dignity of the people and State of Iraq;
to guarantee Iraq’s right to development and to industrial,
scientific and technological progress; to implement
paragraph 22 of Security Council resolution 687 (1991),
pertaining to the lifting of the embargo on Iraq now that Iraq
has accomplished what is required of it under the provisions
of section C of that resolution; to work in earnest towards
the implementation of paragraph 14 of resolution 687 (1991),
pertaining to the establishment in the Middle East of a zone
free of weapons of mass destruction and the means of their
delivery and to bring to an immediate end the so-called
"no-fly zones" imposed on northern and southern Iraq, which
constitute an illegal use of armed force by three permanent
member States of the Security Council, aimed at interfering
in the internal affairs of a Member State of the United
Nations.
Iraq reiterated its positive positions and its desire for
dialogue during the meetings held last month here in New
York by the Iraqi high-level technical delegation. We have
also endeavoured to ensure that this positive spirit prevails
in the current round of meetings which started in Baghdad
on 2 October 1993. We look forward to seeing this round
22 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
succeed in solving all outstanding issues in a complete and
final manner so that the Security Council may begin in
earnest to implement paragraph 22 of resolution 687 (1991)
which states that the Security Council:
"Decides that upon the approval by the Security
Council of the programme called for in paragraph 19
above and upon Council agreement that Iraq has
completed all actions contemplated in paragraphs 8, 9,
10, 11, 12 and 13 above, the prohibitions against the
import of commodities and products originating in Iraq
and the prohibitions against financial transactions
related thereto contained in resolution 661 (1990) shall
have no further force or effect".
In view of these developments, and in order for the
principles of justice and equity and of the mutuality of rights
and obligations between Iraq and the Security Council to
prevail, we hereby call upon all countries of the world to
support our initiative for dialogue and understanding between
the Council and Iraq so that such dialogue may lead without
delay to the lifting of the unjust and iniquitous blockade
imposed on our country, and thereby to put an end to the
methods of coercion, threats and aggression being used
against our country.
We also call upon the countries of the world to urge the
Security Council, both as a collective body and as individual
Member States, to consider Iraq’s legitimate demands as
expressed in the Iraqi position paper submitted to the
Security Council in July 1993. The paper deals with the
most important issues, especially respect for Iraq’s
sovereignty, internal security and territorial integrity, the
lifting of the iniquitous blockade, the removal of the "no-fly
zones" illegally imposed on parts of Iraq and abstaining from
any further aggression against Iraq.
The people of Iraq are being subjected to inhumane
policies and practices that have further aggravated their
suffering which increases from one day to the next. The
domination by the United States and its allies over the
activities of the Sanctions Committee, which was set up in
accordance with Security Council resolution 661 (1990), has
made that Committee hostage to premeditated political
objectives and ill intentions against Iraq and its people. The
Committee has ignored the basic civilian and human needs
of the Iraqi people to the extent that it has refused to allow
Iraq to obtain much needed medical supplies as well as
equipment and educational supplies for its schools. The
Committee has gone as far as to consider paint for school
desks and blackboards as well as ink as proscribed materials
that the Iraqi people should not be permitted to obtain.
In refusing to grant the permission to obtain any of
those essential civilian requirements, it resorts to flimsy
pretexts and unacceptable justifications. For instance, the
Committee has refused to allow pencils and notebooks to be
supplied to Iraq’s schoolchildren, claiming that the quantity
requested was too large. The Committee has also rejected
a request for the supply of medical equipment, beds and
air-conditioning systems for Iraqi hospitals. The reason
given for that refusal was that the end user was not known.
What irony! The Sanctions Committee has refused to allow
water purification materials to be supplied to Iraq, rejected
a request submitted by a company for the reconstruction of
a factory producing medical syringes in Iraq and refused to
allow the importation of spare parts for a baby-food factory
in Iraq under the pretext that such spare parts would
contribute to the expansion of the country’s industrial
capability.
The practices of a limited number of Member States in
the Sanctions Committee which seems to have inherited the
veto privilege under the cover of general consensus, have
demonstrated beyond all doubt that the embargo is geared
towards destroying Iraqi society with premeditated
persistence and through organized and calculated efforts
driven by political motives that are contrary to all values,
laws and norms acceptable to the international community
now or in the past.
The war of destruction launched against Iraq by the
United States and its allies, the continued imposition of the
comprehensive blockade and the denial of Iraq’s right to
export its oil and use its frozen assets in foreign banks have
all combined to make Iraq unable to provide even the most
elementary of its people’s basic humanitarian needs, such as
food and medication. The result has been a huge increase in
mortality among children and the elderly, due to the grave
shortage of medicines. On top of all its other difficulties in
various fields, Iraq suffers from, for example, an acute
shortage of medicines for the treatment of cancer, kidney
problems, heart disease, diabetes, blood pressure disorders,
eye diseases, diarrhoea, tuberculosis and other serious
diseases. Over the months that have elapsed in 1993,
tuberculosis-related fatalities among children have risen by
81 times over the figure registered for the corresponding
period in 1989; and this is but one example.
I do not wish to elaborate on the difficult humanitarian
conditions of the Iraqi people. The reports by the various
missions and agencies of the United Nations have warned
against the dangerous results of the deteriorating food and
health situation brought upon the Iraqi people as a result of
the blockade.
Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 23
The most recent of those reports is Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO) document 237, issued in
July 1993 under the title "Special Warning". This document
depicts the deterioration of Iraq’s food situation as a result
of the difficulties facing the agricultural sector because of
acute shortages of equipment and pesticides and the spread
of agricultural epidemics. The FAO report also points out
that the economic sanctions imposed upon Iraq have led to
the spread of deprivation on a massive scale, thus exposing
the vast majority of the Iraqi population to acute food
shortages and malnutrition, particularly children under five
years of age. The report also states that the economic
blockade has practically paralysed the country’s economy
and led to continued deprivation and the spread of massive
human suffering.
Not content with its military aggression against Iraq on
17 January 1991 or with all the inhuman practices it has
pursued against the Iraqi people, the United States of
America has continued to perpetuate direct and unilateral
acts of military aggression against Iraq under various false
pretexts and flimsy justifications. In addition to the first
colossal aggression of 1991, the United States perpetrated
two further acts of aggression against Iraq’s civilian
population and civilian installations on 17 January 1993 and
27 June 1993. These two additional acts of aggression
resulted in the loss of many innocent civilian lives among
children, women and elderly people.
As a permanent member of the Security Council, the
United States of America has a double responsibility to
abide by international law and the United Nations Charter.
The United States should be the last country to resort to the
use of force in resolving disputes, yet it perpetrated
aggression against Iraq on the basis of unfounded and absurd
allegations that there was a conspiracy against the life of the
former United States President. In so doing, the United
States Government justified its action by a twisted
interpretation of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter
that was totally alien to that article’s letter and spirit.
This behaviour constitutes a grave escalation of a policy
that has been and will certainly continue to be a threat to
international peace and security, a policy that violates the
right of States to self-defence, as enshrined in the Charter of
the United Nations. The behaviour of the United States, in
particular its aggression of 27 June 1993, has met with
rejection and condemnation from many countries round the
world, including some allies of the United States itself.
As regards the issue of human rights, Iraq proceeds
from a complete belief in those rights and in the fact that
respect for, and protection of, human rights remains an
unquestionable element upon which the internal structure of
society is established and an element that contributes
positively to the establishment of peace and justice at the
international level. It is on the basis of such conviction and
such understanding that Iraq has acceded to many
international covenants on human rights. Iraq has also
honoured its obligations by submitting regular reports
regarding the situation of human rights. While we realize
that many positive developments have taken place in the
field of human rights, reflecting the widespread recognition
of their importance, a recognition further cemented by legal
provisions in the various international covenants, these
developments have not been accompanied, in terms of real
application, by an earnest endeavour to help create the right
climate for the declared legal provisions to be implemented
in accordance with the greatly varying circumstances
prevailing in various States, according to each one’s cultural
background, religious beliefs and level of progress and
development. On the contrary: it can be seen that the
concept of human rights has become a weapon used by
certain States possessing the means of influence with which
to exert discriminatory pressure on other States for selfish
political objectives and interests rather than for the
realization of common objectives and interests of the
international community. What is particularly worrying to
us is the neglect shown towards basic rights upheld by the
international community and declared as governing principles
such as the right to self-determination, the right to
development, the right of States to respect for their
sovereignty, stability and territorial integrity as well as
non-interference in their internal affairs.
The great challenges facing the United Nations put the
Organization at a decisive crossroads, beyond which we shall
see the will of the international community either totally
paralysed under the influence of dominant Powers, or
searching for an outlet through an endeavour to restore
balance to the mechanisms governing the process of
decision-making and decision-implementation in the various
United Nations agencies, with a view to ensuring the
effectiveness of the Organization and guaranteeing its ability
to resolve international problems in accordance with rules of
fairness, justice and international law, as well as ensuring the
revitalization of the role of the United Nations on the basis
of compatible and unified concepts and criteria and away
from double standards.
The enhancement of the United Nations ability to
maintain peace requires, above all, strict adherence to the
objectives and principles of the Charter, particularly the
principles of the sovereign equality of States, the right of
24 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session
peoples to self-determination, to non-interference in the
internal affairs of States and to observance of the rules of
international law.
Iraq, as a founding Member of the United Nations, is
extremely anxious that the Organization’s name and emblem
remain worthy of respect and continue to be regarded as a
beacon of hope by all peoples of the world. We believe that
membership in the Security Council should go hand in hand
with the new realities brought about by the increased
membership of the United Nations, and that this should be
done in a manner that would bring about a more equitable
and balanced representation of all United Nations Member
States. The Council should abide by the principles of clarity
and openness in its decision-making process; it should also
operate with due regard to respect for the sovereign rights of
all States.
My country supports the thesis put forth by the
Secretary-General in his report "An Agenda for Peace"
regarding the importance of the role assigned to the General
Assembly by the United Nations Charter, especially in the
field of the maintenance of international peace and security.
The achievement of the United Nations objectives
requires that the mechanisms of the General Assembly
should be strengthened within the framework of its spheres
of competence stipulated by the Charter and that this should
be done through discussion and the adoption of resolutions
on subjects of international importance.
The strength and vitality of the United Nations are
closely linked to the extent of participation by its Member
States in the process of decision-making and to their
equitable representation in the various specialized organs and
agencies.
The United Nations Secretary-General, in his report
"An Agenda for Peace", highlights the fundamental fact that
social peace is just as important as strategic and political
peace. He stresses that peace cannot be guaranteed within
the framework of narrow military concept, as there are
several economic and environmental factors that play their
part in the maintenance of peace and that those factors can
themselves become the fuel for the eruption of conflicts and
wars between peoples.
The need to maintain international peace and security
puts the United Nations face to face with the responsibility
of removing the causes of conflict in which economic factors
play the vital role.
If it is said today that the world has put the dangers of
the cold war behind it, we must remind ourselves that our
world faces very real dangers that arise from the grave
deterioration in the world economic situation, particularly the
bitter suffering of the developing countries, their increasing
poverty and the frustration of their development
programmes.
The gap has been growing wider and wider between the
rich industrial North and the poor South which is seeking an
opportunity for survival as it witnesses the prices of its basic
commodities tumble, its foreign trade deteriorate, and its
resources become prey to plunder and extortion.
Peace is a concept that cannot be divided. It is a
fundamental right for mankind, recognized by all religions
as well as by international covenants. That indivisible
concept of peace must combine all dimensions, especially
the economic which, if missing, exposes the international
community to grave problems and dangerous conflicts.
To really guarantee international peace and security, we
must realize that this depends on the extent to which the
inherent causes of conflict are removed and that economic
and social development constitute the most important
foundation upon which to establish international peace and
security.
Once we realize this, we shall find that many of the
causes of instability arise from economic and social factors.
The United Nations should address such factors in all
seriousness and should give them priority in the activities of
its various organs, particularly the General Assembly and its
specialized agencies, in a manner that would heighten the
efficacy of the United Nations and the role it plays in
facilitating cooperation between States in the fields of
economic and social development and in other areas of
international cooperation.
This responsibility should be shouldered by the United
Nations on the basis of the principles enshrined in its
Charter for the enhancement of the factors of economic
development and progress and the establishment of
multilateral non-discriminatory international economic order
which would be based on respect for the choices made by
countries and peoples and which would encourage respect
for mutual interests and put an end to exploitation and
hegemony.
The United Nations should focus its efforts on the
search for the practical formulae that would lead to
consolidating the national infrastructures and enhancing the
Forty-eighth session - 7 October l993 25
capabilities of the poorer and developing countries and help
them overcome their difficulties, implement their
development programmes and narrow the huge gap existing
at present between the rich industrial countries and the
developing countries. Such an effort will no doubt serve the
cause of stability, security and peace in the world.