COMMITMENT TO FIGHT POVERTY NEEDED TO SECURE GLOBAL SECURITY, SAY SPEAKERS IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

4 October 1996

Press Release
GA/9116

COMMITMENT TO FIGHT POVERTY NEEDED TO SECURE GLOBAL SECURITY, SAY SPEAKERS IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

19961004 Tanzania's President Says Those in Poverty Live in 'World of War'; Two Prime Ministers, Four Foreign Ministers, Also Address Assembly

Without an international commitment to fight lingering poverty through equitable development, global peace and security would never be secured, several speakers told the General Assembly this morning during its continuing opening debate. The speakers urged the international community to frustrate the plans of multinational corporations that threatened the livelihood of people in small and vulnerable countries.

President Benjamin William Mkapa of the United Republic of Tanzania called for a comprehensive international approach to confront poverty. Although a third world war had been avoided, he said, those that subsisted in unremitting poverty, those menaced by regional conflict and those subjected to oppression and injustice continued to live in a world of war. "Our collective shame at poverty amidst riches must now find expression in our joint action to promote development", the President said.

The Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, Vaughn A. Lewis, said the economy of his country -- heavily reliant on revenues from banana exports -- faced a desperate plight due to activities in the European Banana Market and the unconscionable market pressure exerted by United States corporations. He called upon the United Nations to build a framework of international review to regulate the international trading activities and policies of transnational corporations.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique, Leonardo Santos Simao, said that his country's debt burden, coupled with the structural adjustment programme undertaken 10 years ago, had negatively affected the performance of the economy. Unless measures were taken to address the situation, it would be difficult for Mozambique to sustain political, economic and social policies to uplift the standard of living.

Statements were also made by the Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and the Foreign Ministers of India, Kazakstan and Botswana.

The Assembly meets again this afternoon at 3 p.m. to continue its debate.

Assembly Work Programme

The General Assembly met this morning to continue its general debate. It was scheduled to hear addresses by the President of the United Republic of Tanzania, as well as the Prime Minister of Saint Lucia and the Prime Minister of Saint Kitts and Nevis. Others scheduled to make statements were the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Mozambique, India, Kazakstan and Botswana.

Statements

BENJAMIN WILLIAM MKAPA, President of the United Republic of Tanzania, said he was at the Assembly to reaffirm his country's commitment and abiding faith in the United Nations. The Organization stood at a crossroads owing to the new challenges that kept demanding its undivided attention. The challenge was to invigorate and reinforce the United Nations. The international community wanted an efficient and revitalized Organization, more attuned to the world realities and capable of meeting new challenges. Any reform, however, would have to preserve and enhance the Organization's basic principles. He noted the United Nations could not be expected to fulfil the hopes invested in it if it was not given the means with which to work.

The achievements of the United Nations deserved applause, he went on, but the international community also needed the courage to concede that the Organization had yet to make a dent in the scourge of abject poverty which afflicted the greater part of its membership. Unless that issue was addressed comprehensively, meaningful and enduring peace could not be achieved. The world was largely peaceful because there had not been a third world war. To those who were menaced by regional conflicts, however, to the victims of oppression and injustice, to those who subsisted in unremitting poverty amidst a world of plenty, their world was at war. The international community's collective shame at poverty amidst the riches must find expression in joint action to promote development.

The developing world recognized that it must "take the bull by the horns", he continued. But its capacity to benefit from the markets of the developed world was constrained by such factors as underdevelopment and the deteriorating terms of trade. A mutually beneficial partnership between the North and South was needed. To help the South recover was not an act of simple charity, but of building the foundations for a more secure and stable world. His country, like the rest of the developing world, could make no meaningful progress while the millstone of external debt continued to hang around its neck. Another burden for developing countries was the cost input of energy for development. There was no way Tanzania could protect the natural forests unless alternative, affordable energy sources were available.

Turning to the situation in Burundi, he said his country's role there was not one of benevolence, but rather of duty to its brothers and sisters.

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The coup d'état of July 1996 was unacceptable to all regional leaders, and they had imposed economic sanctions on the country. The sanctions would remain in place until all the conditions set at Arusha -- including the restoration of the National Assembly and the unbanning of political parties -- were met. Citing the massive refugee problem, he drew attention to the fragility of the situation in the Great Lakes as a whole, and called on the international community for greater help. Whether in Liberia, Somalia or elsewhere, courage and altruistic statesmanship were needed. Solidarity had inspired the founding of the United Nations, and today, more than ever, the world needed that solidarity to deal with the myriad problems it faced.

VAUGHAN A. LEWIS, Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Saint Lucia, said that at the last session of the Assembly his country had spelt out the very serious consequences which would befall the small Caribbean economies if certain countries pursued their intention to challenge the European banana regime through the World Trade Organization (WTO). His country and its sister islands of the Caribbean had begun to feel "the full blast of hostility towards the arrangements for the marketing of our main export commodity, bananas, in the European Union" -- arrangements which, he said, were enshrined in a treaty.

The United States was now pursuing action through the WTO in response to an application by certain American multinational companies involved in the trade. Other large banana-producing countries had followed their lead. The battle was now fully engaged within the WTO, but the "conditions of war" were anything but equal, and the playing field was anything but even. For example, the small countries of the Caribbean were denied full participation in the hearings of the WTO panel, despite the fact that they were the ones who would be most affected by the WTO ruling.

He said the diplomatic war being waged against the marketing arrangements for bananas from the small Caribbean countries, in the name of free trade, emphasized to those nations the monumental insensitivity of some of those participating in the process of globalization and trade liberalization that was sweeping the international community. In a process that ignored the special circumstances of the small and vulnerable nations like Saint Lucia, regions like the Caribbean could quickly become marginalized. His country was not against the process of change in world trade and the globalization of the world economy. But it had the right to point out the dangers which those trends posed for small, developing economies if compensating mechanisms were not in place. Those trends had not lessened the vulnerability of small developing States but had, in some respects, accentuated them.

Unbridled free trade, which relegated some Member States to the position of suffering spectators, could not be acceptable, he went on. It was even less acceptable when some of the very nations who championed unrestricted

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trade liberalization did not themselves scrupulously observe that philosophy. Some of them granted subsidies to their farmers to allow them to continue in production, yet they complained that the small farmers in the small developing countries were not efficient producers. In the creation of free trade areas, there must be provisions for the very small economies of some countries.

He stressed that the plight of Saint Lucia, resulting from the European banana market and the unconscionable pressures exerted by the activities of the United States on that market, was desperate. He said his country relied on the principles and ideals of the Assembly to stand firmly in the corner of the small and vulnerable, to frustrate the designs of the multinational corporations which threatened the livelihood of the citizens of Saint Lucia. The United Nations should develop a framework of international review and regulation regarding the activities and policies of transnational corporations which were assuming "leviathan proportions" in world trade.

LEONARDO SANTOS SIMAO, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Mozambique, said his country had been at peace for four years. The Assembly and Parliament met regularly, and preparations were being made for municipal elections that could be held next year. Efforts were under way to increase the effectiveness of the judicial system, to strengthen the rule of law and democracy and respect for individual freedoms. Committed to public safety and security, his Government had concluded agreements with donor countries to begin the process of upgrading the technical capacity of the police.

Continuing demining efforts were also vital to national development, he continued. In areas where demining had been completed, programmes had been undertaken to stimulate agricultural production. However, given the magnitude of land-mine proliferation throughout Mozambique, additional resources were needed to continue to effectively address the problem. He reiterated his Government's full support for an international agreement against the production, stockpiling and use of anti-personnel land-mines.

In cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Government of Mozambique had completed the repatriations and resettlement of all citizens who had sought refuge in neighbouring countries, he said. Under the UNHCR programme, nearly 1.7 million people of Mozambique had been safely and voluntarily returned to their places of origin. With the completion of that programme, agricultural production had significantly progressed and, in certain areas, agricultural output had been the highest levels since independence. However, Mozambique lacked the financial capacity to buy and store surplus production.

Mozambique's debt burden, coupled with the structural adjustment programme undertaken 10 years ago, negatively affected the performance of the national economy, he continued. Unless measures were taken to address the situation, it would be difficult for Mozambique to sustain political, economic

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and social policies that would uplift the standard of living. Comprehensive efforts, including close cooperation between debtors and creditors, must effectively address the external debt of developing countries. He welcomed a growing understanding of developing countries' concerns over the debt crisis. That understanding must now be turned into tangible results. Existing instruments must be used with flexibility, and new mechanisms were needed to support and assist the least developed countries.

INDER KUMAR GUJRAL, Minister for External Affairs of India, said international cooperation was necessary to meet the vast development needs of the developing countries, to eliminate weapons of mass destruction and to fight terrorism and crime. Unilateral action and the evident decline in the commitment to Charter obligations were a cause for concern. The financial crisis of the United Nations was the result of the unwillingness of certain countries to pay their dues in full and on time. Such deliberate targeting of the United Nations represented the most acute threat to multilateral cooperation.

Beyond the financial crisis of the Organization itself was the critical issue of financing global cooperation, he continued. It was unfortunate that voices continued to be raised questioning the role of the United Nations in the economic growth and social development of developing countries. It was necessary to restore to the United Nations the important role of eradicating poverty and all its associated ills. The multinational economic system needed to be reformed and the partnership of the United Nations and other relevant institutions strengthened.

He went on to say that India was unreservedly committed to protection and promotion of human rights. Violation of human rights took many forms; amongst the most pernicious was terrorism. It had to be combated by firm action at the national and international level. His country had taken the lead in raising the issue of terrorism almost five years ago and, despite initial opposition from some Western countries, it was now accepted as the most important threat to human rights today.

India's security, he said, as indeed of all countries, lay in a nuclear- free world. The only way to achieve that ultimate security was to ban production, possession and use of nuclear weapons within an agreed time-frame. Partial and half-hearted measures of arms control, such as the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) or the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- Ban Treaty (CTBT), defeated that objective, by legitimizing possession of nuclear weapons and permitting non-explosive testing on nuclear weapons by nuclear-weapon countries. India, therefore, could not be a party to such flawed arrangements.

Any effective disarmament regime needed to be universal in approach and scope, he said. Partial or regional approaches did not serve any useful

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purpose. India would work with all like-minded countries in beginning negotiations through an ad hoc committee within the Conference on Disarmament on a treaty banning nuclear weapons in a time-bound framework. India would again present the convention on the non-use of nuclear weapons at the current session of the Assembly.

Regarding the reform of the Organization, he said the Security Council must be made more representative. A comprehensive proposal by the countries of the Non-Aligned Movement for the reform and restructuring of the Council was already on the table. India supported the expansion of both permanent and non-permanent categories and was against piecemeal or temporary solutions which discriminated against developing countries. The same yardstick must be applied to all countries, developed and developing, from all regions or groups, for induction as permanent members. Under any objectively derived criteria for the expansion of permanent members, India would be the obvious candidate. India had also offered its candidature for the non-permanent seat on the Council from Asia for 1997-1998.

DENZIL L. DOUGLAS, Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Saint Kitts and Nevis, said the problems facing small developing States were increasing. He mentioned narco-trafficking, youth unemployment and poverty. He said the developed countries must pursue policies allowing the economies of developing nations to grow through increased exports. Trade barriers erected in the developed world must be abolished. The Bretton Woods institutions must aid small States in their efforts to create adequate structures for economic development.

Developing countries must avoid outmoded perceptions suggesting that they could best prescribe strategies for growth in the developing countries. Development efforts should take into account the particular problems of small States. The Prime Minister expressed concern over actions of "friendly countries" which, while aware of the limited access his region enjoyed, pursued policies contrary to the development and growth of small countries. The international aid strategy which based aid simply on a country's gross national product did not take into account the high per capita cost of infrastructure development. In addition, threats to the banana exports of the windward islands threatened the economies of the region.

He said the fragility of his region's ecosystem, the reliance on food imports and the susceptibility of tourist revenues left the region at the mercy of external forces. The international community must respect the region's determination to establish a Caribbean nuclear-free zone and to prevent the spread of toxic pollutants. Since the region suffered from the effects of rising sea levels, coastal erosion and natural disasters, long-term environmental protection assistance was needed. The developing countries should cooperate to develop indigenous strategies and innovative approaches to solve the problems of development.

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He said his Government welcomed the extension of the United Nations Special Mission in Haiti (UNSMIH) as crucial to the consolidation of democracy and human resource development in that country. The systemic roots of the problems of poverty, illiteracy and violence, and the absence of democratic institutions, must be confronted. KASYMJOMART K. TOKAEV, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Kazakstan, said that recently his country had finished dismantling the nuclear infrastructure on its territory, thereby eliminating a capability which had previously been the fourth largest in the world. However, such progress in disarmament did not guarantee the stability of the world order. Thus, the United Nations must be reformed to give it the ability to respond to the conflicting realities of international relations. Criticism of the United Nations could hardly be reason for doubting its ability to function or for shifting blame on the Secretary-General. And despite the piles of studies on the legal framework of the United Nations, the Charter itself contained enormous unexplored potential for the renewal of the Organization.

He said it was necessary to take a closer look at the Charter's provisions that deal with cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations. Such interaction would be extremely effective for the development of an early warning system and preventive diplomacy. It would also be beneficial when dealing with economic problems. Kazakstan was making every effort to guarantee tranquillity in its own region of central Asia. However, the situation in the region defied a straightforward assessment. There were zones of tranquillity, but there were also situations like Afghanistan. The recent action by the Security Council was significant in addressing the conflict in that country. Kazakstan's quest for peace and security on the Asian continent was being supported by an ever-increasing number of States. Experts were working on a permanent basis, and there was a conference on Asian security at the level of deputy foreign minister.

It was impossible to ignore the alarming trend of secessionism, he continued. That growing phenomenon had become one of the major causes of crisis situations in the world and particularly in the region of the former Soviet Union. The United Nations had to pay close attention to the destructive consequences of aggressive secessionism. The time had come to put an end to the absolute right to self-determination. Basically, the world had already realized the right to self-determination. Further continuation of that process would create new trouble spots and lead to more bloodshed.

Environmental disasters presented another major problem for his country in particular, he stated. More than half of Kazakstan's territory could be declared an environmental disaster area. Areas of the Semipalatinsk nuclear- test site and the Aral Sea had become disasters of global dimensions. It should also be remembered that the territory of his country had been the site of chemical and biological weapons tests. Those problems required priority attention by the United Nations.

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During economic transitions, even large States could not cope alone with environmental problems of such magnitude, he said. The innocent people who suffered were not the ones who created the lethal weapons, or tested them. Rather, they were the victims of the arms race between two opposing systems. They had the right to demand the attention of international organizations and donor countries. While the United Nations had not been indifferent to the environmental disasters in Kazakstan, his country was looking forward to a more active execution of planned programmes.

MOMPATI S. MERAFHE, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Botswana, noted that Africa had continued to make commendable progress in the consolidation of freedom and democracy, with recent successful elections in Benin, Sierra Leone and the United Republic of Tanzania. He called on those responsible for the stalemate in Angola to show greater commitment to the peace process. In Burundi, no amount of reasoning and persuasion had managed to bring the political leaders there to the path of accommodation and reconciliation. Even so, he saluted the efforts of regional leaders and the international community aimed at restoring democracy and constitutional order. There were also encouraging signs in Rwanda. Liberia, however, had so far eluded solution.

Continuing on a number of issues, he said he was committed to a free, fair and impartial referendum in the Western Sahara, in accordance with the Settlement Plan. Somalia continued to haunt the conscience of the world, but the United Nations should not consider it a lost cause. He looked forward to the resumption of negotiations between Israel and her Arab neighbours. Recent events in the occupied territories were a stark indicator of what could happen to the peace process if things were allowed to drag on and on.

The Foreign Minister said that land-mines were a major threat to humanity. The solution to the menace of anti-personnel land-mines lay in the total ban of their production, stockpile, export and use. On nuclear weapons, he noted that the security of non-nuclear-weapon States from the threat or use of the weapons could only be guaranteed by the institution of a legally binding international instrument. Unfortunately, the nuclear-weapon States were resolutely opposed to the total elimination of the weapons.

Five years ago the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s was adopted by the General Assembly, he said. Yet the necessary operational framework was never put in place to ensure effective mobilization and disbursement of the target resources. The United Nations System-Wide Special Initiative, which was launched this year, envisaged an expenditure of $25 billion over a 10-year period to address sectoral development priorities. That was a laudable initiative which should help Africa address the problems of food security, population and the environment.

The responsibility for reform in the United Nations lay squarely with Member States, not with the Secretary-General, he said. Member States should

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take responsibility for the inability to reach agreement on the different aspects of the reform process. On drug trafficking, he pointed out that the heads of State and government of the Southern African Development Conference had signed a protocol to pool resources to fight the drug menace and other cross-border crimes.

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