CITING RESOLUTION OF UNSCOM CRISIS AS MOST RECENT EXAMPLE, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS 'MUCH MORE CAN BE ACHIEVED BY ACTING TOGETHER THAN BY ACTING ALONE'
Press Release
SG/SM/6509
CITING RESOLUTION OF UNSCOM CRISIS AS MOST RECENT EXAMPLE, SECRETARY-GENERAL SAYS 'MUCH MORE CAN BE ACHIEVED BY ACTING TOGETHER THAN BY ACTING ALONE'
19980330 Addressing Members of Duma, Refers to Russian Federation As 'Indispensable Anchor' in UN Efforts for Peace and SecurityFollowing is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement, delivered in Moscow today at the State Duma:
I am very pleased to be back in Moscow at this time; and I am also greatly honoured to have this opportunity to address the State Duma of the Russian Federation which, since its very first days, has demonstrated unwavering support for the United Nations. Russia's permanent membership of the Security Council has provided your nation with a unique role and responsibility throughout the history of the United Nations. It is a role that Russia, most recently during the Iraq crisis, has filled admirably.
As the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in Iraq began to meet greater and greater difficulty in completing its mission, and the threat of military action loomed ever larger, it became clear that a diplomatic intervention was needed. It was my privilege to work closely with the Russian Government throughout the difficult and complicated negotiations which led to the solution that the world was hoping for and, thus, forestalled a potentially devastating military confrontation.
President Yeltsin, Foreign Minister Primakov and his deputy, Mr. Posuvalyuk, worked tirelessly in the weeks ahead of my mission to Baghdad to convince the Iraqi leadership to allow UNSCOM to finish its disarmament mission. Their efforts helped lay the foundations for our common achievement; and they have since reiterated and underscored the need for Iraq's full and unconditional compliance with the demands of the Security Council.
I am in their debt. Together, we proved, once again, the wisdom of the credo saying that prevention is always better than cure. Immediately upon my return from Baghdad, I had the opportunity to discuss my mission with a delegation from the Duma, led by Mr. Vladimir Lukin [Chief of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Lower House of the Duma]. I was encouraged by his expression of support. Now, I am very pleased to have this opportunity today to brief a cross-section of the membership of the Duma about my mission.
For the Middle East, as a whole, this is a time of challenge and fragile progress that requires patience, determination and courage. If the agreement that I reached with the Iraqi leadership is sustained, there will be concrete progress towards long-term peace and stability in the Gulf subregion of the Middle East.
Now, we must see similar progress on the Arab-Israeli front which is as vital to the future of the region as it has ever been. My visit to the region last week confirmed that no one is under any illusion about the steps that must be taken, or about the compromises that must be made, or about the concessions that must be granted, if peace is to flourish. It must be a peace that restores dignity, self-determination and security to all sides. Only then will all the peoples of the Middle East have a stake in this peace -- a stake worth fighting for, a stake worth living for.
I would like to take this opportunity to make clear to you the nature, the demands and the promise of the agreement I reached with the Government of Iraq.
I went to Baghdad, with the full authorization of all members of the Security Council, in search of a peaceful solution to the crisis. That crisis is over. The mandate of the Security Council has now been reaffirmed. The access of United Nations inspectors has not only been restored, but expanded to include any and all sites. Indeed, in the weeks since the agreement, UNSCOM has, for the first time in seven years, been able to enter a number of sites declared by the Iraqis to be "sensitive", including so-called presidential sites.
Whether the threat to international peace and security has been averted for all time is now in the hands of the Iraqi leadership. Iraq's complete compliance with the Security Council's demands is the one and only aim of this agreement.
Nothing more and nothing less will make possible the completion of the United Nations-mandated disarmament process and, thus, speed the lifting of sanctions in accordance with the previous resolutions of the Security Council. This agreement tests as never before the will of the Iraqi leadership to keep its word. But it also serves as a call for the region and the international community to look to the future, beyond the horizon and to the time when the disarmament process in Iraq has been completed. All of us can agree that sanctions have added greatly to the Iraqi people's suffering; that the expansion of the "oil-for-food" programme will reduce that suffering without diluting the disarmament regime; and that someday, sooner or later -- and we pray sooner -- a fully disarmed and peaceable Iraq would be able once again to take its rightful place among the family of nations.
- 3 - Press Release SG/SM/6509 30 March 1998
The agreement reached in Baghdad was neither a "victory" nor a "defeat" for any one person, nation or group of nations. Certainly, the United Nations and the world community lost nothing, gave away nothing and conceded nothing of substance. But by halting, at least for now, the renewal of military hostilities in the Gulf, it was a victory for peace, for reason, for the resolution of conflict by diplomacy.
If this agreement is fully implemented and leads over time to a new day in the Gulf, if this exercise in diplomacy, backed by fairness, firmness and force, stands the test of time, it will serve as an enduring and invaluable precedent for the United Nations and the world community. It will prove that acting united, the world can prevent conflict.
I know that the international community can count on the State Duma to support the current efforts towards the realization of this goal.
For the United Nations, there is no higher goal, no deeper commitment and no greater ambition than preventing armed conflict. The Russian Federation has, over the last decade, become an indispensable anchor of all that the United Nations seeks to achieve in the area of peace and security.
In peacekeeping, Russian soldiers have served courageously both in United Nations operations worldwide and under Commonwealth of Independent States' (CIS) auspices, as in Georgia and Tajikistan, to ensure the peace. Allow me today to pay tribute to these soldiers of peace, to their devotion, selflessness and courage, and let me especially salute those Russians peacekeepers who made the ultimate sacrifice for peace. Russia currently contributes more that 1,000 troops, police officers and observers to United Nations operations in Angola, Bosnia, Croatia, Georgia, Western Sahara, the Middle East and along the Iraq-Kuwait border. The world is in their debt.
As the international community seeks to solve the conflicts and disputes of the future, we will rely, more than ever, on the commitment of States such as Russia to strengthen the credibility and legitimacy of United Nations action. At the same time, we at the United Nations are well aware of the economic hardships that currently face the Russian people. Allow me, therefore, to express a special appreciation for the determination of the Russian Parliament to meet its commitments to the United Nations.
In a world of plural interests and plural powers, we must recognize that much more can be achieved by acting together than by acting alone. The resolution of the UNSCOM crisis is only the most recent example.
Let us, together, make it a true model for the future.
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