SECRETARY-GENERAL INAUGURATES RALPH BUNCHE CENTER AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY
Press Release
SG/SM/5953
SECRETARY-GENERAL INAUGURATES RALPH BUNCHE CENTER AT HOWARD UNIVERSITY
19960411 Following is the text of a lecture delivered by Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali on the occasion of the inauguration of the Ralph Bunche Center at Howard University in Washington, D.C.:I have come here to remember and to honour Ralph Bunche. A great international civil servant. A distinguished African-American. An outstanding human being.
When I was a very young professor, just starting out at Cairo University in my native land of Egypt, the most prominent crisis was the search for peace in the Middle East. The Palestinian struggle was close to my heart. I had studied diplomacy and international law in hope of contributing to its solution.
The United Nations mediator, Count Folke Bernadotte, had been assassinated in Jerusalem for trying to find peace. His place was taken by Ralph Bunche. By brilliant negotiation on the Island of Rhodes, Ralph Bunche brought forth armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria in 1949. This was the first step in the Middle East peace process -- 30 years before President Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem. For this, Ralph Bunche was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.
In the 1960's, I taught a university course on inter-African relations. I read the book entitled The World and Africa, by the great African-American intellectual and leader W.E.B. Dubois. I discovered the important role of African culture to Egyptian culture. Egypt was, above all, African. Five dynasties of Egyptian Pharaohs were Black African. In a paper on Egypt's foreign policy, I quoted "In Ethiopia the sunrise of human culture took place, spreading down into the Nile Valley ...."
Egypt would seek conquest in Asia and then, when Asia overwhelmed Egypt, Egypt would always seek refuge in Africa "as a child returns to its mother". W.E.B. Dubois made me hear the voice of African-America, and recognize the role of African-Americans in the development of Pan-Africanism.
This, of course, led me to recall Ralph Bunche, and Howard University. Ralph Bunche came to Howard to organize the first political science department
in any black university. He was a brilliant participant in the intellectual life on this campus in the 1930s, when a remarkable group of scholars and creative people made Howard University the "Black Athens", and an intellectual force in the great Black Renaissance of America.
As the Second World War was coming to an end, the Charter of the United Nations was being drafted. Ralph Bunche, by himself, drafted the sections of the United Nations Charter dealing with decolonization and trusteeship. No other person singlehandedly wrote so much of what today is recognized as a document of genius. When the war was over, Ralph Bunche was offered high positions in the United States Government. He declined these offers because he did not want to work in segregated Washington. He chose instead to work for the United Nations, because the United Nations was an anti-segregation Organization based on equality.
There is no doubt that Ralph Bunche was one of this century's great African-Americans, great Americans and great leaders of the international community. His life was hard but what he did has benefitted us all.
In 1992, I was the first African elected to the job of Secretary- General. My first thought was for all the Africans and African-Americans who had worked for the United Nations over the years. Especially, I thought of Ralph Bunche. I felt his presence. I felt that we shared Africa, so far away. I felt that we shared a commitment to the academic life of the university: I at Cairo, he at Howard. I felt our shared dedication to peace.
I felt as well that we shared the special agony that so often accompanies the work of diplomacy. The work seems endless. The powers of concentration must be totally focused. Negotiations may often go on around the clock. And all this must take place in most cases far from home and family. We know how hard this was for Ruth Bunche, the Howard University student who married Ralph Bunche. We know that the family is aware of the personal price that must be paid for peacemaking.
The ancient Romans said that a statesman should be suaviter in modo; fortiter in re: soft in manner; strong in action. Ralph Bunche had these qualities, but in addition he had other essential qualities needed by a peacemaker. He was completely honest and straightforward. He totally mastered the details of the problem. He tirelessly endeavoured to find a solution. And he relentlessly followed up to solidify what he had achieved. Few statesman ever worked harder than Ralph Bunche.
Being African, I am doing all that I can to ensure that the United Nations is working hard for Africa. The United Nations record of support for Africa is unsurpassed. The United Nations great effort for decolonization was finally fulfilled when Namibia gained independence and was admitted to the
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United Nations in 1990. The United Nations played a crucial role in helping South Africa bring an end to apartheid only a year ago.
Most United Nations peace-keeping takes place in Africa. Mozambique is a United Nations peace-keeping success story. Even where there have been setbacks, as in Somalia, the United Nations continues to serve the needs of the Somali people. In Angola, new hope for peace and reconciliation is justified. And the United Nations is seeking to deal with the terrible and urgent crisis in Liberia today.
The United Nations has made great progress for disarmament in Africa. Today, the signing in Cairo of the treaty declaring Africa to be a Nuclear- Weapon-Free Zone is a major international achievement. I have urged nations to work for what I call "micro-disarmament", to reduce the flood of light weapons that make conflict in Africa almost perpetual. My call for a world- wide ban on land-mines has received widespread support. Land-mines make development impossible for large areas of territory, and must be banished entirely.
The United Nations saved thousands of lives among Rwanda's refugees, and has helped millions of refugees and displaced persons across the continent. I am making every possible effort to prevent the horrible events in Rwanda from being repeated in Burundi.
In the context of international law, United Nations efforts have worked to resolve difficult territorial disputes involving Libya and Chad, and most recently Nigeria and Cameroon.
To strengthen African development, the United Nations Development Program provides the widest network for basic economic support all over the African continent. Africa continues to receive the largest share of United Nations development assistance. At the end of this month I will be in South Africa to open the Ninth Session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. We will address the critical factors of growth and globalization as they affect Africa.
The United Nations is also assisting African States in their transition towards democracy. The United Nations has responded to over 30 requests for electoral assistance from African countries. And United Nations experts are helping with other key elements of democratization such as a free press, judicial institutions, and constructing a political party system.
Just a few weeks ago the United Nations launched a coordinated, system- wide Special Initiative for Africa, to draw together these various programmes of support. At the deepest level, the Special Initiative will expand basic education and health care across the continent. Billions of dollars will be
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needed. If the international community will support the Special Initiative as it deserves to be supported, Africa's prospects, which are brighter than ever before, may actually be realized within the next decades.
Thus I believe that Ralph Bunche would feel that I have carried forward his mission -- to ensure that the United Nations serves as a special voice for Africa.
You too have a mission. It was also Ralph Bunche's mission. It is a mission to serve not only the cause of black America, but also the cause of all the marginalized peoples of the world. As we take up our mission, let us remember that the United Nations is a legacy left to us by Ralph Bunche. Let us rededicate ourselves to make his work continue to live and serve all peoples in the century to come.
Today, across the avenue from United Nations Headquarters is a small plaza. Steps rise up from it to a place high above, where visitors can look out and see the entire United Nations complex spread out before them. This place has been named "Ralph Bunche Park". The man we honour today was present in San Francisco when the United Nations was created in 1945. He was responsible for the United Nation's first great peacemaking effort. He was the architect and engineer of United Nations peace-keeping. He became the symbol of United Nations international service for the common good of all humanity.
On the wall that encloses Ralph Bunche Park there is carved, in foot- high letters, the words of Isaiah which were Ralph Bunche's favourite text. They are the creed of the United Nations: "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not rise up against nation; and they will study war no more."
Those words of prophesy will not come true by themselves. To turn swords into ploughshares requires great effort. The effort must be cooperative and it must include the needs of all the peoples of the world. That was the mission of the United Nations of Ralph Bunche's United Nations. That is the mission of the United Nations today.
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