REGIONAL STABILITY IS KEY TO GLOBAL PEACE AND SECURITY, FOREIGN MINISTERS TELL GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Press Release
GA/9115
REGIONAL STABILITY IS KEY TO GLOBAL PEACE AND SECURITY, FOREIGN MINISTERS TELL GENERAL ASSEMBLY
19961003 Problems in Afghanistan, Africa, Middle East Cited; Statements By Zaire, Slovakia, Solomon Islands, Hungary, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, GuineaRegional stability was seen as a key to international peace and security by several speakers in this afternoon's continuation of the general debate in the General Assembly.
Abdulaziz Kamilov, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, said regional conflicts often turned out to be the direct source of such threats as terrorism, illicit weapons trade and drug trafficking. That was why his country's foremost goal in the region was to help settle the conflict in Afghanistan and to stabilize the situation in Tajikistan. An indispensable condition for any peace process should be the stopping of arms deliveries to Afghanistan, not with sanctions against Afghanistan but an embargo directed at those who kept supplying armaments to the conflict area.
The European continent had been the theatre of two world wars, and therefore it was of utmost importance to pay great attention to the issues of peace and security in Europe, according to Pavol Hamzik, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Underestimating the gravity of the situation had caused an immense human tragedy for millions of innocent people in the territory of former Yugoslavia. Slovakia was ready to get fully involved in the reconstruction of the destroyed economies of the countries of that region.
No region in the world was more afflicted by conflicts than Africa, said Tom Ikimi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria. The individual and collective efforts of African States at achieving socio-political transformation had been threatened by these conflicts. The unique role being played by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Central Mechanism of Conflict Prevention and Management was important and should be supported by the international community. He said the human rights situation in Nigeria had been misrepresented by the international media.
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Jean-Marie Kititwa Tumansi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Zaire, told the Assembly that his country was not responsible for the tragedies of Rwanda and Burundi, but had been suffering the consequences of the conflict and had even been accused of promoting it. Zaire would never be anyone's scapegoat, and would defend by any means the security of its people and of its frontiers. It was ready to cooperate in the voluntary return of Rwandan refugees; otherwise, as European governments had done with illegal immigrants, the Government of Zaire would have no choice but to resort to unconditional expulsions of these persons to their country of origin.
Statements were also made by the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Solomon Islands, Hungary and Guinea.
The Observer for Palestine made a statement in exercise of the right of reply.
The Assembly will meet again at 10 a.m., Friday, 4 October, to continue its general debate.
Assembly Work Programme
The General Assembly met this afternoon to continue its general debate. Scheduled to make statements were the Foreign Ministers of the Slovak Republic, Solomon Islands, Hungary, Nigeria, Zaire, Uzbekistan and Guinea.
Statements
PAVOL HAMZIK, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, said he supported the European Union proposal for financial reform of the United Nations, based on a new formula for determining more adequate scales of assessments based on a country's capacity to pay. Slovakia had paid its contributions to the regular budget in full and on time, and was also ready to bear its full share of responsibilities in financing the United Nations peace- keeping operations. It was now high time to fairly allocate Slovakia to a respective group for peace-keeping financing. There was no reason for further postponing that decision.
He said the greatest attention in the process of institutional reform was being focused on the Security Council. Expansion of its membership should reflect the principle of equitable geographical representation. The fact that membership in the Group of Eastern European States had recently more than doubled should be duly taken into account. Countries able to bear global responsibility should be accorded the status they deserved. Membership expansion should not, however, hamper the efficiency or the decision-making processes of the Council.
He said the European continent had been the theatre of two world wars, and therefore it was of utmost importance to pay great attention to the issues of peace and security in Europe. Underestimating the gravity of the situation had caused an immense human tragedy for millions of innocent people in the territory of former Yugoslavia. Slovakia was ready to get fully involved in the reconstruction of the destroyed economies of the countries of that region.
Another threat to the security and stability of States were acts of terrorism and organized transnational criminal activities, which undermined democratic societies. Slovakia strongly supported international cooperation aimed at the suppression and elimination of those threats, and would study with interest the initiatives of Poland, United Kingdom and the United States in that area.
He said the Economic and Social Council should play a key role in fostering international activities for sustainable economic and social development. He supported efforts to enhance the Council's efficiency; its sessions should be more focused on topical issues. Unnecessary duplication in the work of the Assembly and the Economic and Social Council should be avoided. The separate consideration of economic issues in the Second
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Committee, and social ones in the Third Committee, seemed more and more artificial. A proper remedy for that artificiality should be found, which might require the redistribution of responsibilities among Main Committees.
DANNY PHILIP, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Solomon Islands, said nuclear testing and disarmament were critical issues for his people, so he was pleased to sign the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty. He welcomed the end of the tests, and asked when the States who conducted them would accept their responsibility for long-term damage assessments, aid for resettlement and the restoration of economic productivity. He also welcomed recent signatures of the South Pacific Nuclear-Free-Zone Treaty, and the signing of its Protocols by France, United Kingdom and the United States.
He proposed the creation of a forum of non-nuclear-weapon States to seek agreement on a unified approach to the full implementation of article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and to monitor progress in that direction. It would work to give effect to arrangements such as a southern hemisphere nuclear-weapon-free zone that could evolve into a global nuclear-weapon-free system.
He said the environment, development and international trade were matters of critical concern to the small island States of the Pacific. They urgently needed the development of comprehensive arrangements for the sustainable management of the region's fisheries. On climatic issues, he noted that if lower greenhouse gas emissions were not achieved soon, the very survival of Small Island Developing States was threatened. Moreover, the sustainable management and conservation of their forests were essential for the biological diversity and economy of Solomon Islands.
He said the future of the Solomon Islands must depend on a people- centred development strategy that used a bottom-up and top-down process of decision-making. The Internet had just reached the Islands and they were now using the World Wide Web to seek potential investors and tourists.
He said he encouraged the efforts of Papua New Guinea to resolve its Bougainville crisis through constructive dialogue with all the parties concerned. The confidence-building measures had reduced the tension between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Turning to United Nations reform, he said Solomon Islands supported an increase in the non-permanent membership of the Security Council on a regional basis. If the number of permanent members was also to be enlarged, the responsibilities of permanent membership and the criteria for the use of the veto must be established and made transparent. The Charter permitted the General Assembly a much larger role in the selection of the Secretary-General than it had exercised in the past. Confronted with the public action in this matter by one of the great Powers, he asked, was it not now time to make the process truly democratic and open?
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Whatever its weaknesses, he went on, the United Nations was indispensable, but without sufficient resources and a decisive commitment to true multilateralism, it could not fulfil its obligations. He hoped unification negotiations between the Republic of China on Taiwan and the People's Republic of China, based on the proposals from each party, could begin in the near future. Through a commitment to equity, democracy and tolerance based on multilateralism and universality, an effective United Nations would serve the world for generations.
LASZLO KOVACS, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Hungary, said that, by building on its relations with the European Union, Hungary looked forward to becoming a member of the Union. In addition, an enlarged North Atlantic alliance would provide stability and security in Europe and strengthen transatlantic partnership. The efforts of the United Nations would become more effective if there were an enlarged North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and an expanded European Union.
The United Nations Transitional Administration for Eastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Sirmium (UNTAES) was making progress on the road to the peaceful reintegration of the region into Croatia, while securing respect for human rights, he continued. In Bosnia, NATO Implementation Force (IFOR) was vital to guaranteeing the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement. A solid international presence was required to allow democracy and stability to firmly take hold in the region. Hungary continued to provide logistical and transit facilities to IFOR and United Nations peace-keepers. The return and reintegration of refugees and displaced persons -- including those sheltered in Hungary -- challenged the international community. Establishment of democracy and the rule of law must be accompanied by reconstruction and rehabilitation, thus facilitating safe and orderly return of civilians.
The international community should help the people of the Balkans in the creation of democratic institutions, he said. War criminals must be forced out of the political mainstream. The work of the Tribunal at The Hague was an essential component of the peace process. Hungary noted with concern the ethnically divided voting results of the recent election in Bosnia. To counter that concern, he called for the speedy establishment of institutional infrastructure which could provide stability.
Despite results in establishing machinery to protect human rights, there were still many abuses, he continued. Chronic under-funding, lack of coordination and the impact of uncooperative governments interfered with the working of that machinery. The need to safeguard and monitor the rights of national or ethnic minorities was too often disregarded, or recognized only when politically expedient. Lack of full respect for the rights of minorities and the absence of necessary political, legal, institutional and administrative guarantees were the root causes of many of the conflicts on the United Nations agenda. In addition to enhancing human rights protection and monitoring capacities, the United Nations must strengthen its early warning
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ability. The international community should consider financing some human rights field operations through the peace-keeping budget, and establishing a greater coordination role of the High Commissioner.
TOM IKIMI, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, noted globalization, the upsurge in market economies and democratization as being among the changes which had occurred on the international scene. He said the growing incidence of conflicts, and the slow pace of their resolution, were raising tension and undermining peace.
No region in the world suffered more from conflicts than Africa. The individual and collective efforts of African States to achieve socio-political transformation had thus been threatened. The unique role being played by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) Central Mechanism of Conflict Prevention and Management was important and should be supported by the international community. He pointed out that, through the efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the revised Peace Agreement on Liberia was on course, and the new Council of States headed by Ruth Perry had been installed.
He said he regretted that the end of the cold war had not brought with it any appreciable reduction in the global arms build-up. Nigeria supported the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban-Treaty (CTBT) in spite of its imperfections. Its adoption, which put an end to the further qualitative improvement of nuclear weapons, represented a significant first step towards the goal of nuclear disarmament. The adoption of the African Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (Pelindaba) Treaty had been an important contribution to confidence- building in Africa, besides being a collateral disarmament measure. He recommended that other regions undertake similar efforts by establishing nuclear-weapon-free zones or zones of peace.
He said peace and development were mutually-reinforcing. Africa had continued to experience the crippling impact of external debt, deteriorating terms of trade, increasing barriers to trade, declining investment and financial inflows, as well as capital flight. African countries, recognizing that the primary responsibility of finding a solution to the economic difficulties facing the continent lay with themselves, had sought to enact sound macroeconomic policies with painful programmes of reform. Development cooperation, he went on, should lead to genuine interdependence, mutual interest and benefits in the context of global partnership, rather than the old mode of donor-recipient relationship.
There was a need, he said, to establish a new world information order, which respected the mutual sensitivities of States and protected the values of their differing cultures. Most developing nations lacked the resources and technological capacity for the requisite information delivery, and this constrained their ability to project events in their society promptly and effectively, away from the tendentious reporting of the media in the developed countries. He expressed surprise that, in December last year, the Assembly
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adopted resolution 50/199 on the human rights situation in his country. He thought this was based largely on media reporting, without any investigation of the facts of the matter. On the question of human rights, he said Nigeria took strong exception to Canada's recent statement to the Assembly which carried "malicious falsehood" against his country.
The Government, he added, had continued to make steady progress in the implementation of its transition to democratic rule and had also made economic reforms aimed at promoting rapid growth and sustainable development.
For the United Nations to fully respond to the purpose for which it was established, he went on, there was need to strengthen the Organization and reform its principal organs. The failure of Member States to pay their assessed contributions was a dereliction of their obligations and a threat to the Organization's survival. The Assembly must take steps to eradicate the scourge of terrorism. Reform of the Security Council should seek to correct the current anomaly of non-representation of Africa among the permanent membership.
He paid tribute to Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali and said the African position was that he should be given the opportunity to serve a second term.
JEAN-MARIE KITITWA TUMANSI, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Zaire, told the Assembly his country supported a second term for Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
He said Zaire had lived the tragedies of Burundi and Rwanda for the past two years. It was not responsible for the situation, but had been suffering the ecological, material and human consequences of the conflict. The reaction of the international community had been "timid", as if his country must bear such a burden indefinitely. He said Zaire had even been accused of promoting the armed conflict in those two countries. A few days ago, the cities of Bukava, Uvira and their environments had been bombarded by armed elements from Rwanda.
He said Rwanda had presented the facts in a deliberately distorted fashion. It had had inter-ethnic massacres in 1959, 1962 and, of course, in 1994; that genocide was conceived, digested and executed by the Rwandese and against the Rwandese, meaning the leaders in power -- then and now -- in Kigali. This was the reason behind Rwanda's refusal to sign the Non-Aggression Pact negotiated by all Central African countries, including Rwanda itself.
Zaire would not accept to be anyone's scapegoat, he added, and from now on, would defend by any means the security of its people and its frontiers. Zaire was ready to cooperate in the efforts to return Rwandan refugees voluntarily to their country; otherwise, as European governments had done with
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illegal immigrants, the Government of Zaire would have no choice but to resort to unconditional expulsions of these persons to their country of origin. Zaire also wished to remind the international community of the provisions of resolution 49/24 (1994) on special assistance to countries harbouring refugees.
Despite its present difficulties, Zaire was bent on pursuing its own "irreversible" democratic process. It had established the National Electoral Commission to ensure free, democratic and transparent elections. It deplored the misuse "for political aims" of the whole question of human rights within the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, as well as the unfounded accusations made against Zaire at each of the Commission's annual sessions.
ABDULAZIZ KAMILOV, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uzbekistan, said the safeguarding of peace and stability in Central Asia and the sustainable development of the region represented his country's most important task in cooperation with the United Nations and its specialized agencies. Global peace could be achieved primarily through stability in the separate regions of the world. Regional conflicts more often turned out to be the direct source of such threats as terrorism, illicit weapons trade and drug trafficking.
That was why Uzbekistan's primary regional goal, in safeguarding security, was to find ways to settle the conflict in Afghanistan, and to stabilize the situation in Tajikistan. An important element of those initiatives was the imposition of an embargo on arms deliveries in Afghanistan. He was glad the Security Council was beginning to consider the problem, and he supported proposals on the need for a comprehensive approach and the convening of an international conference, with the main role played by the United Nations. The stopping of arms deliveries to Afghanistan was an indispensable condition for any peace process. An embargo did not mean sanctions against Afghanistan. It had to be directed at those who kept on supplying armaments to the conflict area.
Since Afghanistan could not control its own borders, the elimination of arms deliveries required the efforts of the international community. Uzbekistan, with old and traditional ties with neighbouring Afghanistan, wanted to see that country as a stable, indivisible State, open to the external world for the sake of progress and prosperity.
Discussing regional and international affiliations, he said it must be understood that each sovereign State had the right to decide on its own, in accordance with its national interests and regional identity, whether or not to enter into any particular union. There should be no place for domination or monopoly on the part of other, more powerful countries. The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries could successfully cooperate within the framework of the Commonwealth on a multilateral and bilateral basis; at the
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same time, it was fundamentally unacceptable to Uzbekistan to let the CIS transform itself into a political or military-political pact. It could lead the world community back to global antagonism and confrontation.
LAMINE KAMARA, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Guinea, told the Assembly his country was prepared to take an active part in the Second International Conference on African Development, in Tokyo next year.
He said Guinea had signed the CTBT, which was an important step towards total disarmament. Terrorism, organized crime and international drug trafficking were among other major threats to global peace and security.
He said that despite some obstacles the situation in Liberia and Sierra Leone had improved significantly, within the framework of ECOWAS and its peace force, the Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG).
Guinea, with a total population of 7 million, today sheltered more than 650,000 refugees, to which it offered assistance and protection. It was a heavy burden on Guinea's economy and affected its development projects.
He said his country supported the recent decisions taken by both the OAU and the summit meeting at Arusha, Tanzania, against the coup in Burundi. On Western Sahara, the Government of Guinea supported the plan drawn up by the United Nations. It expressed the hope that the Government of Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) would persevere in the implementation of the Lusaka Accords. With regard to Somalia, he said that to leave Somalians to their fate would be contrary to United Nations ideals.
It was regrettable, he said, that Africa did not play a more important part in international negotiations. A country like Guinea, which pursued peace and had no interests contrary to those of other States, and which belonged to several geopolitical and cultural organizations, both African and beyond the continent, might play a discreet but useful role in such negotiations.
Right of Reply
NASSER AL-KIDWA, Observer for Palestine, responding to the statement by the Israeli Foreign Minister, said Israel had repeated the myths of thousands of years concerning Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Israel made its claim in spite of United Nations resolutions which confirmed that East Jerusalem was an integral part of the Palestinian territory. All States had agreed not to recognize any of the illegal measures taken by Israel in Jerusalem. As a point of fact, General Assembly resolution 181 of 1947, often cited by Israel, considered Jerusalem as an international and separate entity. Any measures taken by Israel to establish a fait accompli in Jerusalem were a violation of the agreements between the two parties.
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Other policies by the new Israeli Government to blockade Jericho and other Palestinian areas, and its continued illegal settlement activities, revealed the Israeli position on the peace process, he said. The meetings in Washington D.C. had not achieved any change in the fundamental Israeli positions. Those positions were extremely dangerous and caused great suffering for the Palestinian people. The international community and the sponsors of the peace process should ensure that the tunnel in Jerusalem was closed, that the closures in Palestinian cities and towns were ended and that commitments made in the peace agreements were implemented.
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