PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF CZECH REPUBLIC

Press Briefing

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF CZECH REPUBLIC

While the international system could not directly be accused of pursuing global apartheid policies, it exhibited inequalities that must be recognized with a view to eliminating them, said Vaclav Havel, the President of the Czech Republic. He was speaking at a Headquarters press conference today and responding to a question from a reporter who had asked whether he agreed with South African President Thabo Mbeki’s assertion that such a system existed.

The issue of the equality of States, on the one hand, and of a recognition of their differing levels of power and resources, on the other, was a matter that the United Nations had been grappling with for many years, Mr. Havel said. The situation arose because it had Member States with populations ranging from a few thousand to 1 billion people, and rich and poor nations. It was in an effort to get around that problem that he had proposed a restructuring of the United Nations into a body that rested on two pillars. One would be a forum of the equal representation of States, much like the current General Assembly, while the other would reflect the sizes of nations. The two bodies would then create and guarantee global legislation.

In an opening statement at the press conference, Mr. Havel said that the Millennium Summit’s statements made him believe that things had changed for the better since the last such majestic event: the United Nations fiftieth anniversary summit of 1995. The international community had moved forward, even if slowly. And the Summit addressed global problems profoundly.

Politicians were today more keenly aware and concerned with the contradictions in the world, President Havel continued. That proved to be the case despite the differences in their types of government and economic station. Political leaders were also more aware of the need to change the international system of values -– from which everything else, including politics, had sprung -- for the better.

A major and obvious shift from the United Nations fiftieth anniversary meeting, President Havel said, was the relative absence of the sometimes shrill criticism of intervention in other nations’ internal affairs. That development showed that there was but one humanity, and that everyone was responsible for preserving the rights and dignity of all of that humanity’s members. That trend, he said, was significant progress, which would be reflected in the Summit’s declaration.

In response to a question as to whether he expected violence to accompany the impending Prague meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), President Havel listed several options. Those who did not want to take part in the talks could stay away, while those who intended to protest could do so, but peacefully. However, it was more important, he stressed, to pay attention to the substance and outcome of the meeting, another opportunity to discuss the world’s economies.

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