ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS TO SMALL NATIONS IN CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC REGIONS AMONG ISSUES HIGHLIGHTED, AS ASSEMBLY DEBATE CONTINUES

2 October 1997

Press Release
GA/9320

ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS TO SMALL NATIONS IN CARIBBEAN AND PACIFIC REGIONS AMONG ISSUES HIGHLIGHTED, AS ASSEMBLY DEBATE CONTINUES

19971002 Prime Minister of Dominica; Foreign Ministers of Qatar, Belarus, Mali, Gabon, Marshall Islands, Liberia; Zambia's Minister of Tourism Make Statements

Pollution of the seas, destruction of marine life by waste from ocean liners, and transshipment of drugs and arms posed serious threats to the development of the Caribbean region, the Prime Minister of Dominica, Edison C. James, told the General Assembly this morning, as it continued its general debate. He said a regime under the auspices of the United Nations was needed to stem such practices.

Peace and security in the region were also being threatened by economic terrorism, he said. Recent decisions by the World Trade Organization were threatening the livelihood of small nations in the Caribbean by putting the banana industry on the shakiest of ground. He appealed to the international community to persuade the European banana-marketing regime to consider the consequences of its action.

The Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands, Phillip Muller, also spoke about environmental threats to his region. He said Pacific Island communities adversely affected by nuclear weapons tests were not expendable populations. The 67 tests in his country and neighbouring islands had contaminated every inch of their environment and exposed every citizen. His Government was seeking resources to address the direct medical and environmental consequences of radiation exposure.

He added that rising sea levels, erosion from storms and tide surges also threatened his country. Developed nations should improve efficiency, reduce waste and develop alternative sources of energy to address the impact of climate change. However, proposals to halt the waste of natural resources and fossil fuels were being undermined by certain countries for short-term gain.

Statements were also made by the Foreign Ministers of Qatar, Belarus, Mali, Gabon, Liberia and the Minister of Tourism and Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs of Zambia.

The Assembly will meet again at 3 p.m. today to continue its general debate.

Assembly Work Programme

The General Assembly met this morning to continue its general debate. The scheduled list of speakers includes the Prime Minister of Dominica; the Foreign Ministers of Qatar, Belarus, Mali, Gabon, Marshall Islands and Liberia; and the Minister for Tourism and Acting Foreign Minister of Zambia.

Statements

HAMAD BIN JASSIM BIN JABOR AL-THANI, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Qatar, said reform of the United Nations must begin by activating the role of the General Assembly and to give its resolutions strength and credibility. The Security Council reform efforts should lead to a general agreement on streamlining the use of the veto power and limiting its use to cases covered by Chapter VII of the Charter. The number of non-permanent members in the Council must be increased to provide balanced representation, which would enable it to deal with the new international realities. The Council should become more democratic through the adoption of a rotation system. All States should have the opportunity to participate in its work and assume their share of international responsibility.

The proposals to increase the number of permanent Council members, some of which would have the power of veto while some would not, along with non- permanent members, ran counter to the concepts of equality among States, and equal geographical and cultural representation and international participation, he said. Equality and reason called for an increase in Security Council membership which would include Asia, Africa and Latin America. To carry out reforms, the financial crisis must be addressed. Member States must honour their legal commitments and pay their dues without delay.

More attention should be given to appropriate and timely preventive diplomacy, he said. Early measures adopted by the international community were the best way to avert the outbreak of conflicts and wars.

Turning to the question of disarmament, he said it was necessary for Israel to adhere to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and for it to place its nuclear facilities under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards regime. That would be a major step towards establishing a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East and contribute to peace and stability in that region.

The Middle East peace process was in crisis, he said. The Israeli Government was stalling the implementation of past agreements and impeding achievement of a just and comprehensive peace. Israel was undermining the peace process by building colonial settlements, ignoring agreements and commitments reached with the Palestinian Authority, and by besieging the Palestinian people and depriving them of their rights. The Israeli policy ran

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counter to General Assembly and Security Council resolutions which made all Israeli efforts aimed at altering the legal status and demographic composition of the occupied Arab territories, including the city of Jerusalem, null and void. He called upon the international community to exert pressure on the Israeli Government to refrain immediately from implementing policies that jeopardized the peace process.

The Arab leaders had underlined the importance of a peace based on the principle of "land for peace". Israel must withdraw completely from all the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, including East Jerusalem, to enable the Palestinian people to establish their independent state, with Arab Jerusalem as its capital. It must also withdraw completely from the Syrian Golan and from south Lebanon.

Noting the arrangements to hold a fourth economic summit for the Middle East and North Africa in Doha, next November, he said Qatar had no special interest in hosting that conference. Qatar was keen to hold it because it believed that peace was the strategic choice adopted by the Arab countries and that such a conference was a manifestation of Arab nations' desire for the peace process to continue. Failure of the peace process would threaten regional and international peace. Qatar had committed itself at the Economic Summit of Amman in 1995 to hosting the fourth summit, and honouring that commitment was a question of credibility. Some thought the conference should be cancelled because of the current Israeli policy. While understanding that view, Qatar respected its international commitments and believed that no State should have the power to veto the peace process. If the conference was not successful, only the Government of Israel would be responsible.

He said Qatar views with a sense of satisfaction and appreciation the positions of the States that support the Middle East peace process, including the United States and those of the European Union, while they rejected Israeli settlement policies that hampered the peace process. He stressed the importance of the role of the United Nation in the Middle East peace process; Qatar objected to any attempts to exclude it.

Qatar joined the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council in their endeavour to promote security and stability in the Gulf, he said. Qatar was establishing good and constructive relations with all the countries of the region. It supported the settlement of the dispute between the United Arab Emirates and Iran over the three islands of Abu Mousa and the Greater and the Lesser Tomb through peaceful means. Welcoming the oil-for-food agreement between the United Nations and Iraq, he emphasized the importance of respecting Iraq's sovereignty, territorial integrity and regional safety, and deplored any foreign interference in its internal affairs. It was important for Iraq to implement the relevant Security Council resolutions, in particular those concerning the release of Kuwaiti prisoners and the detainees and other nationals in the same condition. Qatar was concerned about the suffering of

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the people of Libya due to the sanctions imposed on it. He called for the creation of a uniform agreed to regime to impose sanctions and the creation of mechanisms for lifting them subsequently.

EDISON C. JAMES, Prime Minister of Dominica, said recent decisions taken by the World Trade Organization were threatening the livelihood of small nations, such as the countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The decision of the World Trade Organization had placed their main means of livelihood -- bananas -- on the shakiest of ground. He appealed to Member States to persuade the complainants against the European banana-marketing regime to consider the consequences of their action and to think again.

Peace and security could also be threatened by economic terrorism and the CARICOM region was now being threatened by economic terrorism, he stated. The United Nations had a responsibility and a duty to ensure that no form of terrorism succeeded in undermining the region's peace and security. In May of this year, CARICOM and the United States had entered into a Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean and the region's ability to meet its obligations for implementation of the Plan of Action would be compromised by the World Trade Organization's decision which sought to deny it the opportunity to earn a living.

Member States of CARICOM had come to the assistance of Montserrat, whose slow destruction by volcanic eruptions had been going on for over two years, he said. There continued to be, however, a great need for humanitarian assistance, and his region looked for Members of the United Nations for contributions to rebuild Montserrat.

Man-made threats such as the transshipment of hazardous waste through the Caribbean Sea also plagued his region, he said. The pollution of the sea, the destruction of marine life by the discharge of waste by ocean liners, and the transshipment of drugs and arms posed serious threats to the development of the region. There was a need to establish a regime under the auspices of the United Nations to stem such practices. He congratulated the 100 nations which had signed the Treaty banning the production and dissemination of landmines and trusted that nations which were still hesitating would soon come around to sign and eventually ratify the Treaty.

Noting that this decade was the International Decade of the World's Indigenous People, he told the Assembly that in his country the first peoples of the Caribbean, the Caribs, coexisted peacefully with the rest of the population. He said it was their intention to work diligently with the Secretary-General so that before the end of the decade, there would be some tangible and positive impact on the lives of those indigenous people.

The Government and the people of Dominica called again on the world body not to continually close its ears to the pleas of Taiwan Province of China for

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international recognition, he said. As a founding Member of the Organization, it had been a member for the greater part of its existence. His country, therefore, urged Member States not to continue to ignore and block the efforts being made to admit Taiwan Province of China to membership of the United Nations and other international bodies.

Globalization and trade liberalization, combined with natural disasters, had increased the urgency to diversify his country's economy, he said. Attention was being paid to its human resource capacity and to the advantages that could be taken from the advances in technology and communication. A major thrust in the process of diversification was eco-tourism. Dominica had much to offer to visitors who wanted to enjoy nature and was working hard to make itself the eco-tourism destination of the Caribbean. It was making itself more accessible to visits by the construction of a 24-hour landing facility for long-range aircraft. He trusted that his country's approach to friendly nations and institutions for assistance would receive favourable consideration.

IVAN ANTONOVICH, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Belarus, said United Nations reforms should be directed at strengthening the Organization's potentials in peacekeeping, humanitarian and information services. They should seek to enhance the functional efficiency of the United Nations system, including effective distribution of resources, streamlining administrative and organizational structures, structural and budgetary changes at the Secretariat, as well as personnel adjustment to meet the challenges of a modern world.

Calling for regional balance in the proposed Security Council reform, he said allocating one more non-permanent seat to the Eastern European Group, whose membership had more than doubled in recent years, would run counter to the principle of equitable geographical representation contained in the United Nations Charter.

Reiterating Belarus' opposition to the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), he said his country favoured NATO's transformation into a universal European organization for peace and security. Belarus had entered into negotiations with NATO for its participation in the "Partnership for Peace".

Expressing support for peaceful resolution of regional conflicts throughout the world, he said continued dialogue should be encouraged in the Middle East and the Balkans to end the frequent blood-letting and terrorism in those regions. Belarus was disappointed by the tepid response to its call for the creation of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the centre of Europe, as only such zones would eventually lead to the elimination of the nuclear threat.

Pledging his country's support for sustainable development programmes launched by the United Nations, he said those programmes should provide reliable mechanisms for the prevention or for dealing with international

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catastrophes, such as the Chernobyl accident. Conceding that some of the criticisms of Belarus' slow rate of political and economic reforms were justified, he stressed that his country would continue to act within the limits of international standards of behaviour, including respect for human rights and personal freedoms.

MODIBO SIDIBE, Minister for Foreign Affairs and for Malians living abroad of Mali, said the United Nations had embarked on an ambitious reform programme. Substantial progress had been made in 1997 by the working groups on the "Agenda for Development" and also the one on the strengthening of the Organization. Unanimous adoption of their recommendation would help to lay the groundwork of the reform process. The working group on the reform of the Security Council had made progress although it had not come up with concrete measures on such important issues as expansion of the Council and the use of the veto.

He believed Member States would ultimately be successful in restructuring the Council to make it more modern and democratic and give it greater viability, legitimacy and transparency. The preservation of peace and security by the prevention of crisis was a main occupation of the international community, particularly in Africa, where certain countries continued to be affected by multiple conflicts. Mali was, therefore, pleased with the re-establishment of democratic institutions in Liberia. Mali had taken an active part in the settlement in Liberia through its participation in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Economic Community of West African States' Monitoring Observer Group (ECOMOG). He stressed that development was the only way to help Liberia to reconstruct its country and consolidate peace.

In respect to the Western Sahara, Mali was pleased with progress achieved in the fourth round of talks towards the implementation of the Settlement Plan. In Sierra Leone, the situation had become even more confusing because of the obstinacy of the coup leaders despite pressures by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and particularly ECOWAS. They had all appealed to the parties to embark on a political settlement-process, to re-establish constitutional order and democratic presidential elections. He went on to review the situation in the Middle East and appealed to the parties to return to the negotiating process. His country was also concerned with continuing sanctions against Libya.

He welcomed the Convention on chemical weapons. Mali was committed to the goal of universal disarmament as evidenced by its concrete initiatives at the regional and international levels. For example, in 1994 it had initiated a resolution on assistance to States to stop the illicit circulation and collection of small arms. The international community must support African countries to stop the proliferation of small arms across borders. Mali supported the Ottawa process which aimed to eliminate anti-personnel landmines.

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He said sustainable development was the common denominator on which the international community based its search for better social and economic conditions for people worldwide. The consensus achieved in the "Agenda for Development" showed the world's determination to forge new partnerships to cooperate on building better societies. A reorganized, modernized United Nations could help that process.

CASIMIR OYE MBA, Minister of State and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Gabon, said peace was the cornerstone of the international community's wealth. In his country, peace was the underpinning of all political action. At the end of 1996, Mali organized legislative elections, which took place in a more relaxed mood. In collaboration with Chad, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Mali, Gabon had sent 300 soldiers to help restore institutional stability in the Central African Republic.

Turning to the "disturbing crisis" in Congo-Brazzaville, he said Gabon had agreed to lead the international mediation committee, under President Omar Bongo, along with the joint United Nations/OAU mission. The latest crisis, which erupted in July 1997, was the most lethal with an official death toll of 4,000 to 5,000. The crisis was a clear threat at the subregional and regional level. There had been encouraging support for mediation efforts from the international community, particularly the European Union and France. President Bongo had proposed a ceasefire agreement and a political draft agreement for the interim period leading up to presidential elections. The political draft agreement was based on a power-sharing arrangement which would have Pascal Lissouba as President and Chief of State, and a prime minister chosen from the opposition. The Chief of State would chose three vice-presidents.

President Bongo convened a meeting of a African heads of State in Libreville on 14 and 15 September, which reaffirmed the international mediation efforts led by President Bongo, rejected fighting and appealed for negotiations. Unfortunately, their appeal had gone unheeded. President Bongo had appealed for an international intervention force, and several African countries had indicated a willingness to send troops. However, the Security Council said it would endorse the force only if certain conditions were met. Meanwhile, the crisis continued, with people dying and fleeing their homes. In other parts of the world, the same delaying tactics had not been applied. Something must be done for the Congolese people, who were suffering so much.

He said specific measures were needed to prevent armed conflict. For developing countries like his own, which could not afford large-standing armies, preventive measures were particularly important. A plan of action was needed to provide early warning system for Central Africa. His Government wanted the establishment of an early warning mechanism by the end of 1997. The crisis in Central Africa had caused disruptive refugee movements and called into question the mobility of national borders. He welcomed the special meeting of the Security Council on Africa last week.

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He went on to review the situation in the Middle East, where he said force would not work any more than in other regions. He welcomed the international efforts to ban anti-personnel landmines and regretted that some countries had not been able to join in the powerful international consensus. Referring to some attempts to exclude the so-called "intelligent" landmines, he said if one's child lost a leg while playing in the fields, it did not matter if the landmine was "intelligent". The increasing participation of children in wars was abominable, and African children had suffered more than anywhere else from that phenomena. Gabon, as a party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, joined with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in calling for an end to certain deadly practices, such as letting children join armed forces and take part in fighting.

Africa suffered from serious structural problems, including over- dependence on crops, low investment rates and a crushing debt burden, he said. But the continent also represented an enormous market of 200 million. There were countries whose situation allowed them to have legitimate goals of participating in world trade, but others needed aid. His country was stepping up the liberalization of its economy, was cleaning up certain practices, and undertaking a privatization programme of public utilities. It had also opened up various sections of the economy to private investment.

AMUSAA K. MWANAMWAMBWA, Minister of Tourism and Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs of Zambia, said United Nations reform should not only be geared at improving the Organization's efficiency and effectiveness, but should ensure that programmes of action adopted at its global conferences were fully implemented. Major United Nations conferences, such as the recent ones in Rio, Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing and Istanbul, should provide a starting point for global efforts in advancing sustainable development, set goals and define broad plans for national and international actions. Reforms should have significant impact on economic and social development, he said, stressing that Zambia would like the United Nations to accord priority to its development mandate.

Reaffirming Zambia's support for the position of the OAU and the Movement of Non-Aligned Countries that Security Council membership should be expanded to 26, he said the Council should be made more representative and democratic. Both the Council's permanent and non-permanent membership should be raised. Africa, Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean deserved permanent seats. Africa, which had 30 per cent of the United Nations membership, deserved two permanent seats and three non-permanent seats in the new Council.

Reiterating Zambia's commitment to general and complete disarmament, he welcomed the recent agreement in Oslo to ban anti-personnel landmines. He hoped that all nations would be able to sign the agreement in Ottawa in December this year.

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Expressing Zambia's concerns for the threats posed by regional conflicts to international peace and security, he appealed to the warring parties in the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, the Republic of Congo, in the Sudan and elsewhere in Africa to commit themselves to the principle of negotiated and peaceful settlement of disputes. He called on the international community to provide all necessary assistance for the early resolution of those conflicts.

Expressing Zambia's disappointment over the failure of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to comply with its obligation under the Lusaka Protocol and relevant Security Council resolutions, he said his country would continue to work with other members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to promote peace and security in Angola. Peace in Angola would enlarge the parameters of peace in southern Africa and enable the region to concentrate its efforts on social and economic development within a democratic environment.

Reaffirming the position of the OAU on the situation in Sierra Leone, he appealed to the international community to continue to deny recognition to the military junta in that country. The junta must hand over power to the democratically elected Government of Sierra Leone.

Noting that the Democratic Republic of the Congo had just emerged from a seven-month civil war, he called on the international community to provide unconditional assistance to the new administration in its efforts to rehabilitate infrastructure, build capacity and consolidate political and economic stability in that country. He called on the international community to support the OAU's Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution, adding that Africa had the primary responsibility for resolving its own conflicts, as was recently demonstrated in Liberia by ECOWAS.

He noted with satisfaction that sub-Saharan Africa had begun to record positive growth rates averaging 5 per cent in 1996, adding, however, that the heavy external debt continued to strain Africa's economic and social reforms. He called on the United Nations to provide leadership in redressing widening development disparities among nations, as well as unfair trade practices and protectionism. He expressed Zambia's concern over the continued decline in official development assistance (ODA). Zambia would like to see progress on the proposal to convene an international conference on the financing of development at the end of the current Assembly session.

PHILLIP MULLER, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Marshall Islands, said sustainable development was not the easiest path to travel for a small country like the Marshall Islands, since numerous obstacles impeded its progress. Population growth in his country and many parts of the Pacific was of great concern to regional governments. With limited resource bases to begin with, it was difficult to imagine what job opportunities would have to be created for the new generation. While methods of increasing private sector

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investment to increase private sector employment were being examined, population growth was also having negative impacts on the local environment.

There was a growing trend of migration to the two main urban centres of his country, he continued. Those areas were becoming increasingly crowded necessitating an urgent need for local solutions. There was a great need to improve urban conditions, but, at the same time, there was also a wish to reduce the rate at which the urban centre population grew. One idea that had been tried was the creation of jobs in outer islands. Giant clam farming met with limited success, and the more traditional copra production was in decline. His Government was looking at reform of existing structures and better utilization of resources and was interested in new innovations that could help, but there continued to be a need for external assistance.

Nuclear weapons testing in the Marshall Islands had helped the international community to understand the effects of nuclear weapons on people and the environment and was a contributing factor to the prevention of nuclear war during the cold war era, he said. Pacific island communities which had been adversely affected by the weapons testing of external Powers were not expendable populations. The 67 nuclear weapons tests conducted in his country and neighbouring Pacific islands contaminated every inch of their environment and exposed each one of their citizens. His Government was seeking resources to address the direct medical and environmental consequences of radiation exposure. His country was also struggling to deal with the indirect problems of displacement and the lack of adequate medical care for the affected population.

While it was encouraging that the IAEA was in the process of conducting a survey in the northern areas of the Marshall Islands, the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation could have a much greater role, he said. There was no reason why they could not undertake studies that could in the future assist populations who were suffering from the effects of atomic radiation. He requested that the Scientific Committee expanded its scope of work to look into areas affected by nuclear tests like the Marshall Islands.

His country was also facing the threat of sea-level rise and was already feeling the effects of erosion, storms and tide surges, he said. The scientific proof by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change about that troubling issue had led his country to at least expect that developed countries would accept to undertake so-called "no-regrets measures". Such measures would seek to improve efficiency, reduce waste and develop alternative sources of energy. Such an initiative was a perfectly sensible way to address climate change, but trying to halt the irresponsible waste of natural resources and fossil fuels was, in the negotiating process, being undermined by certain countries for their own short- term gains. His Government was saddened by the attitude of those countries and had been warned by a Pacific regional expert group that it may have to look at migration rather than adaptation problems.

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Turning to reform of the United Nations, he expressed his displeasure that the major contributor had not fully paid up its arrears. Not only was the trust placed in the Organization being disrespected, but the principle of capacity to pay was being ignored. In the area of Security Council expansion, his country supported Fiji's proposal of giving more prominence to the Pacific as a subregion of the Asian Group, since it captured a very important facet of the reason why expansion was needed -- to facilitate the participation of all countries in the Council. There was also a need to review the use and extent of the veto power, and whether there should in fact be any new permanent members of the Council. It could well be that a more equitable rotation structure would suffice. MONIE CAPTAN, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Liberia, said during July elections the Liberian people voted for democracy, representative government within a constitutional order, and for peace and prosperity. In August, the newly elected administration set out to form a government of inclusion and embarked on a process of national reconciliation. All Liberians, irrespective of political party affiliation, religious orientation and ethnic origin, had joined in rebuilding the country. The new Government was promoting a credible and independent judiciary. It was committed to protecting human rights and freedom of the press, and it would endeavour to promote internal stability through a government of inclusion and national unity.

Conflicts in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Asia continued to threaten international peace and security, he said. In addition, the situation in neighbouring Sierra Leone was of great concern. It was in the interest of Liberia and its neighbours that peace be established in Sierra Leone and its people reconciled. Liberia, a member of the ECOWAS Committee of Five on Sierra Leone was committed to a peaceful negotiated settlement of the crisis. Notwithstanding the individual and collective efforts of African States to achieving socio-political transformation, acts of destabilization continued to pose a serious threat to those countries. African countries had intensified cooperation at the regional and subregional levels to stem that trend. Liberia welcomed the growing cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations and the renewed commitment to conflict resolution through preventive diplomacy, peacekeeping and peacemaking.

Although the economies of developing countries had contributed 70 per cent to recent growth in the global gross domestic product and half of the growth in world trade, the gap between developed and developing countries continued to grow, he said. While nations of the African continent were primarily responsible for their people, Africa's development should remain an area of concern to the international community. Further, drug trafficking was undermining the integrity of many governments. He welcomed the Secretary- General's proposal to merge the Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Programme and the United Nations International Drug Control Programme. Liberia would work closely with the international community to undermine the production and trafficking of illicit drugs.

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Security Council reform should result in the optimum utilization of the resources of those Member States that could contribute significantly to peacekeeping operations, he continued. The right of veto was against the principle of universality and left the fate of the world up to a few members. As the region with the single largest number of members, Africa should be given two permanent seats on the Council and the veto should be eliminated.

His Government was heartened by the Secretary-General's indication that savings accrued through administrative and operational reforms would be utilized to establish an economic and social development account to finance United Nations development programmes. On the subject of sanctions, he said they both succeeded and failed as a means of encouraging change. Nations singled out for punitive sanctions had often been able to circumvent restrictions and obtain the goods -- or the weapons -- they sought. Worse, the leaders of those nations often felt no pain. It was the innocent people, already the victims of those regimes, who suffered the most. Liberia was, thus, sceptical about sanctions as a tool for change. Unless universally adopted, strictly enforced and carefully designed to achieve specific political goals, sanctions could too easily end up harming those they were designed to help.

At the end of seven years of civil war in Liberia, the need to consolidate peace was of the highest priority, he said. The post-war reconciliation policy was focused on developing a culture and tradition consistent with international norms of respect for basic human rights. A national commission on human rights that would operate independently and investigate and report cases of human rights violations was being created. The post of Deputy Minister for Human Rights had also been created. Prompt and appropriate steps had been taken to protect the rights of all citizens or aliens residing in the country.

After years of economic mismanagement and civil strife, the Liberian economy had collapsed and the livelihood of ordinary people had been impaired, he continued. Determined that the benefits of prosperity should reach all the people of Liberia, the Government's management of the economy would be transparent and cost-effective and address the inherited burden of external debt. The new Government was establishing positive relationships with the international financial institutions. An early infusion of financial resources on favourable terms was needed to launch the post-war reconstruction programmes. His Government intended to manage public finances according to the high standards expected of good government. However, it could not consolidate the transition from war to peace without funds to run the machinery of government and to start up the reintegration programme designed by donors, in consultation with the Government.

Only 75 days ago, his country had held a free, fair and peaceful election, he said. Liberia hoped that the experience of conflict resolution in that country and the engagement of the United Nations, the international community and ECOMOG would enlighten the international community when it addressed future civil conflicts.

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