SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES POLAND'S CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH UN IN REMARKS AT STATE BANQUET IN WARSAW ON 9 NOVEMBER
Press Release
SG/SM/5808
SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES POLAND'S CLOSE RELATIONSHIP WITH UN IN REMARKS AT STATE BANQUET IN WARSAW ON 9 NOVEMBER
19951110 Following is the text of Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's remarks at a State Banquet in Warsaw on 9 November:To be in Poland is an ennobling experience. The mind is given vigour, the heart hope, the spirit courage. In the words of Cardinal Jan Mazur, the great people of Poland "have won through goodness". It is a tangible virtue from which the world has drawn strength.
Throughout its history, Poland has seen so much of what the United Nations was created to help prevent. It has known war and hunger. It has seen foreign domination and a long loss of national identity. It has known fear and the denial of popular rights.
But it has seen also the realization of many of the ideals the United Nations holds dear. It has seen the assertion of popular will and the joys of labour. It has seen renaissance upon renaissance of cultural excellence. It has seen the talent and intellect of man given root in secure spiritual foundations.
This is why your great country and the United Nations enjoy so close a relationship. Your presence in San Francisco in June, Mr. President, was a symbol of that friendship. Poland's election to the Security Council yesterday is an affirmation of your long involvement with the maintenance of international peace. You have taken part in United Nations peace-keeping operations for more than 40 years. Almost a thousand Polish soldiers participate in these missions today. A Polish General heads the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. Another Polish national heads the United Nations civilian mission in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
You have established a peace-keeping centre at Kielce. You have made available to the United Nations specific details of capabilities you can place at the disposal of our Stand-by Arrangements System. On questions of disarmament, your contribution has been vital. Your Ambassador chairs the Ad Hoc Committee on a Nuclear Test Ban in the Conference on Disarmament. You have ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention.
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And, although these are not matters that should be discussed on a social occasion, your contribution to the United Nations regular budget has been fully paid!
Mr. President, I have dwelt on Poland's contribution to the United Nations in some detail. I have done so advisedly. The United Nations is nothing but the total of such national contributions, the harmony of their collective aspirations and the pursuit of their common ideals.
Fifteen years ago, the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Wyszynski, had defined this truth eloquently. "When the soil is covered with grass, the fiercest whirlwinds will not easily blow it away. But when the soil becomes a desert it is very easily conquered." The United Nations is the soil upon which the grass of its Member States blooms. Without the strength of that grass, it cannnot survive. Without the security of the soil, the grass cannot thrive. We need, and depend upon, each other.
As we look back upon 50 years, and gaze into our future, the United Nations becomes more and more aware of the enormity and continuing relevance of the mandate with which it is invested. It was established by the determination of peoples, peoples who were prepared, in the phrase of His Holiness the Pope, to take "the risk of freedom". It is incumbent upon us to compensate that risk with the rewards that true and interdependent freedom offers, where a globalization of concerns does not lead to a fragmentation of opportunity. It is incumbent upon us to compensate that risk with true calmness of mind and reassurance of spirit -- the serenity of the Jasna Gora Monastery at twilight, the grace of a nocturne by Chopin.
For the United Nations is much more than an arrangement and accommodation of national interests. It is an association of peoples' hearts. Few know this better, or have expressed it more vividly, than the Polish people. The qualities of tolerance and respect have been a vital part of the Polish tradition. Their reflection in the conduct of international relations between nations and peoples will stand our world well.
Allow me, Mr. President, to propose a toast to Your Excellency and your distinguished colleagues gathered here tonight; to the brave and resurgent people of Poland and to their continued and strengthened association with the Organization they helped found: the United Nations.
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