DEBT FORGIVENESS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR STIMULATION IN DEPRESSED AND STAGNANT PARTS OF WORLD, ASSEMBLY TOLD
Press Release
GA/9778
DEBT FORGIVENESS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR STIMULATION IN DEPRESSED AND STAGNANT PARTS OF WORLD, ASSEMBLY TOLD
20000921Assembly Continues General Debate
Debt forgiveness provided an opportunity for stimulation in the depressed and stagnant parts of the worlds economy, Elvin Nimrod, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Grenada, told the General Assembly this afternoon as it continued its general debate. Investing the dividends realized by debt forgiveness in the economy of the debtor countries - especially the least developed and those with economies in transition - would be a major investment in global development.
For the banana-exporting countries of the Caribbean subregion, the export of bananas accounted for a significant percentage of foreign exchange, he said. However, their economies were threatened by the callous ruling of the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the European Union banana regime of assistance to small growers. The struggling farmers, with limited acreage, found it difficult, if not impossible, to compete with transnational corporations. The farmers needed an adjustment period in order to effect the requisite structural changes needed by the new trade regime.
The Economic and Social Council's decision to defer consideration of the recommendation to graduate Maldives from the least developed countries (LDCs) list had been comforting, that countrys representative said. The structural impediments facing the country's developmental efforts were formidable. Moreover, while their socio-economic and ecological challenges continued to mount, Maldives and other small island developing States had been waiting for the international community to meet the pledges agreed to in the Barbados Plan of Action. He was happy that the world leaders at the Millennium Summit had highlighted the special needs of such States and had resolved to fully implement the Plan of Action.
The Acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah, said that with the spread of Talibanism, which had led to abject misery of the Afghan nation, as well as massive insurgency and turmoil in the region and beyond, it was high time the international community put a stop to the Pakistani operated Taliban processing machine. The result of Talibanization had been a reign of terror imposed by religious police, massive violation of human rights, degrading and tormenting treatment of men and women, and widespread terrorism,
General Assembly Plenary - 1a - Press Release GA/9778 27th Meeting (PM) 21 September 2000
He appealed to the Security Council to mandate the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA) to dispatch an investigation team to verify and report on the presence of Pakistani armed men and Arab fighters in Afghanistan. He highly appreciated and supported the indefatigable efforts by Francesc Vendrell, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan and Head of UNSMA, who had left no stone unturned in finding a peaceful solution to the Afghan conflict.
Mohammed Said Al-Sahaf, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iraq, said the comprehensive sanctions imposed on his country, now in its eleventh year, constituted a flagrant violation of the United Nations Charter and of international law and international humanitarian law. That had been confirmed by reports of United Nations agencies and humanitarian and human rights organizations. The United States and British claims that the oil-for-food programme alleviated the impact of sanctions against Iraq were baseless when set against United Nations figures, he added.
I.S.G. Mudenge, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Zimbabwe, said the country's land reform programme was meant to correct the wrongs of colonialism and to restore the people's heritage and basic means of subsistence and economic participation. In that endeavour, the Government had received neither the cooperation of those sectors of society to whom colonialism had bequeathed special privileges, nor the acknowledgement or support of former colonizers who had willed those privileges.
Statements were also made by Janet Bostwick, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Bahamas, Enrique Candioti, Secretary of State and Vice- Minister for Foreign Affairs of Argentina, and Allan Cruickshank, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tourism and Information of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
Representatives from the delegations of Burundi, Niger and Marshall Islands also spoke this afternoon.
The representatives of Kuwait, Iraq, Argentina and the United Kingdom exercised their right of reply.
The General Assembly will reconvene tomorrow, Friday 22 September, at 10 a.m. to continue its general debate.
General Assembly Plenary - 3 - Press Release GA/9778 27th Meeting (PM) 21 September 2000
Assembly Work Programme
The fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly met this afternoon to continue its general debate.
Statements were expected to be made by representatives of Grenada, Afghanistan, Iraq, Burundi, Maldives, Zimbabwe, Bahamas, Argentina, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Niger and Marshall Islands.
Statements
ELVIN NIMROD, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Grenada, said trade was vital to the livelihood of Grenadians. In the banana-exporting countries of the Caribbean subregion, the export of bananas accounted for a significant percentage of foreign exchange. However, their economies were threatened by the callous ruling of the World Trade Organization (WTO) against the European Union banana regime of assistance to small growers. The struggling farmers, with limited acreages, found it difficult, if not impossible, to compete with transnational corporations. The farmers needed an adjustment period in order to effect the requisite structural changes needed by the new trade regime. The small banana producers of the Caribbean looked to the United Nations to urge the WTO to take into consideration the special structural problems faced.
Debt forgiveness was not a financial loss to the global economy, he said. Rather, it provided an opportunity for stimulation in the depressed and stagnant part of the worlds economy. Investing the dividends realized by debt forgiveness in the economy of the debtor countries - especially the least developed and those with economies in transition - would be a major investment in global development. Another area urgently needing assistance from the international community was that of natural disaster. The costly restoration of infrastructure and rehabilitation of the productive sectors, especially agriculture and tourism, and the high cost of recovering and rebuilding, made the attainment of sustainable development a monumental task.
Removing some of the barriers to trade and capital flow were prerequisites to successful reduction of poverty and disease in the developing countries, he said. This could be mutually beneficial to developed and developing countries. Trade had been the engine of economic growth and development from the days of bartering to the present day of e-commerce and globalization. The unilateral interference in Grenadas offshore services sector was unacceptable. This was fiscal imperialism, and it trampled on the principle of sovereign equality. Furthermore, it was against international law, undermining freedom of competition, global investment and trade liberalism.
The role of education in poverty alleviation, in the application of science and technology, and in the vast area of information sharing and communications, was vital. Recognizing the social, cultural and economic potential of education, the Government was investing an increasing proportion of its limited resources to prepare its people to participate in, and benefit from, the information and technology revolution. Unless the basics of life - food, clothing, shelter, health and employment - were attained, human rights and the Universal Declaration were meaningless.
ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan, said that with the spread of Talibanism, which had led to abject misery of the Afghan nation, as well as massive insurgency and turmoil in the region and beyond, it was high time the international community put a stop to the Pakistani-operated Taliban processing machine. In an age of information and globalization, the result of Talibanization had been a reign of terror imposed by a religious police, abuse in the name of religion, massive violation of human rights, degrading and tormenting treatment of men and women, forced separation of women from their menfolk and widespread terrorism.
The objective of the Pakistani military intelligence, through the imposition of the so-called Islamic Emirate of the Taliban, had been to create instability in Central and South Asia by means of terrorism, he said. Pakistan wanted to turn Afghanistan into its false front to mask illicit activities of narcotics trafficking and terrorism, as well as religious extremism. As the world was gradually awakening to the creeping Taliban threat, it was a matter of dismay that some civilized nations on certain occasions had dealt with the reclusive and defiant Taliban, an entity which had failed the minimum standard of being considered civilized, he said.
Security Council resolution 1267 (1999) had explicitly demanded that the Taliban mercenaries refrain from sheltering, supporting and training terrorists. The recent upsurge of terrorist activities in Central Asia and beyond, emanating from the Taliban occupied parts of Afghanistan, required drastic measures. He welcomed Uzbekistans proposal for an international conference to debate the evil phenomenon of terrorism. Consideration of further targeted sanctions could serve the cause of peace and security in the region. It was significant to note that the Taliban continued to deprive women of their fundamental rights, including that of education.
Afghanistan appealed to the Security Council to mandate the United Nations Special Mission to Afghanistan (UNSMA) to dispatch an investigation team to verify and report on the presence of Pakistani armed men and Arab fighters. The failure of the Jeddah indirect negotiations and other peace initiatives had derived from the sad reality that peace had had no place on the Taliban agenda. He highly appreciated and supported the indefatigable efforts by Francesc Vendrell, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan and Head of UNSMA, who had left no stone unturned in finding a peaceful solution to the Afghan conflict.
MOHAMMED SAID AL-SAHAF, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Iraq, said the comprehensive sanctions imposed on his country, now in their eleventh year, amounted to genocide. They constituted a flagrant violation of the Charter and of international law and international humanitarian law. That had been confirmed by reports of United Nations agencies and humanitarian and human rights organizations, the most recent being a working paper adopted by the Subcommission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights at its fifty- second session held in Geneva from 31 July to 18 August this year.
The United States and British claims that the oil-for-food programme alleviated the impact of sanctions against Iraq proved baseless when set against United Nations figures, he said. Of the $31.6 billion worth of oil exported by Iraq since the start of the programme, $9.5 billion had been allocated to the Compensation Fund in Geneva and $1 billion for United Nations administrative expenses. He said $8.3 billion had been disbursed for purchases to cover the needs of the Iraqi people. There were "floating and semi-frozen allocations" for certain needs of Iraq amounting to $10 billion that had not been disbursed because of the obstructions placed by the United States and the United Kingdom. "Such egregious obstructions" had resulted in 1,173 contracts for construction materials valued at more than $2 billion being put on hold.
He said the Security Council, in applying comprehensive sanctions against Iraq, had gone far beyond the purposes and principles of the Charter, so as to turn itself into a cover for perpetrating a policy of genocide against an entire people. His country was being subjected to "a continued daily aggression by American and British aircraft" in the no-flight zone imposed on Iraq by "a unilateral decision of the Washington and London Governments". The continued military action had no basis in law or in any binding resolution passed by the competent organ of the United Nations. Those American and British acts of aggression had inflicted huge material losses and a loss of more than 300 martyrs and injuries to 900 civilians.
Iraq had discharged its obligations under the relevant Security Council resolutions, he said, adding that, consequently, the logical result was for the embargo imposed on it to be lifted. Iraq could not, under any circumstances, have anything to do with an unjust position that ignored the record of the fulfilment of its obligations and denied it of its legitimate right to have the embargo lifted. It would also have nothing to do with Security Council resolution 1284 (1999) which was "a deliberate ploy" to perpetuate the embargo.
MARC NTETURUYE (Burundi) said that the end of the war was supposed to have been negotiated yesterday between the Government and the rebels as agreed at a meeting held in Nairobi. However, the two rebel movements had refused to negotiate anything at all and had merely repeated their prior conditions, rendering the meeting a failure. Before they denounced the August peace agreement they had taken refuge behind preconditions. The first was the dismantling of regroupment camps, which the Government had done. The second was the release of political prisoners whose existence the Government had always denied.
Burundians were suffering enormously from the war and wished to breathe the air of peace, he said. Setting conditions to halt violence was cruel, and the international community must condemn this attitude and those responsible for it. In the absence of a ceasefire, not only did the innocent continue to die, but refugees could not return home and assistance to rebuild could not start. Why was the international community silent when two armed movements were holding hostage a population pinning so many hopes on a peace agreement signed by 19 countries, the total that were needed? he asked.
It would be foolish to believe that Burundi could achieve peace and security without a favorable environment in the subregion, and on the African continent as a whole, he said. Unfortunately, nothing indicated that peace would materialize soon in the Great Lakes region. Contrary to the allegations made by the representative of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on 16 September, he wished to reaffirm that the only interest of his country was to retain the security of its borders. Although sanctions were something that only the Security Council could decide on, Burundi had been living under sanctions imposed by other countries, because the Council took no action against them. They were unfair and the people who suffered were the innocent, elderly and children.
HUSSAIN SHIHAB (Maldives) said that for over 20 years, the Maldives had managed to make significant economic and social progress in spite of limited resources. A stable political environment, supportive international community and creative input from the people of his nation had all combined to spur economic growth. Even with a narrow economic base, centred on tourism and the fishing industry, his nation continued to make progress. Unfortunately, national pride did not feed the population nor educate its children.
For that reason, his country was against its removal from the Economic and Social Council's list of least developed countries (LDCs), he said. De-listing would undoubtedly "pull the rug from under our feet". Indeed the country's successes in national development to date had been due to the developmental assistance it enjoyed under LDC status.
Therefore, the Economic and Social Council's decision to defer consideration of the recommendation to graduate the Maldives from the LDC list had been comforting, he continued. The structural impediments facing the country's developmental efforts were formidable. Moreover, while their socio- economic and ecological challenges continued to mount, the Maldives and other small island Developing States (SIDS) had been waiting for the international community to meet the pledges agreed to in the Barbados Plan of Action. He was happy that the world leaders at the Millennium Summit had highlighted the special needs of SIDS and had resolved to fully implement the Plan of Action.
He went on to say that he believed that the myriad challenges facing the world today could only be effectively addressed through a multilateral framework, in which the United Nations must play the central role. Despite the United Nations many shortcomings, it remained the only truly universal organization where global issues could be addressed.
I.S.G. MUDENGE, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Zimbabwe, said the country's land reform programme was meant to correct the wrongs of colonialism and to restore the people's heritage and basic means of subsistence and economic participation. In that endeavour, the Government had received neither the cooperation of those sectors of society to whom colonialism had bequeathed special privileges, nor the acknowledgement or support of former colonizers who had willed those privileges. In pursuit of their policies, those powerful interests had employed their financial might and control of the media not only to choke Zimbabwe's economy, but also to demonize the Government before the world.
The Government's determination to undertake land reform in Zimbabwe was one of the "crimes" cited in a so-called "Zimbabwe Democracy Act 2000", which had been passed by the United States Senate last June, and was now before the House of Representatives, he said. The "Democracy Act" proposed to authorize the investment of about 300 million Zimbabwe dollars worth of United States funds in "the breeding of opposition in Zimbabwe".
He said the amount, which was exclusively for opposition parties, was more than four times the 70 million Zimbabwe dollars distributed by the Zimbabwean fiscus [treasury] among all political parties that had a stipulated threshold in Parliament. He said the bill sought to hurt Zimbabwe's fortunes even further by issuing United States directors at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank with standing directives to vote against Zimbabwe at every opportunity.
Zimbabwe's involvement in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to help prevent mayhem, bloodshed and the overthrow of a legitimate Government was another "crime" cited in the "Zimbabwe Democracy Act 2000", he said. The "responsive intervention" of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) allies had effectively contained the situation and established relative calm and stability in the country. Zimbabwe was committed to the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement and to relevant Security Council resolutions on the question.
Zimbabwe was ready to immediately withdraw its troops from the country as soon as the United Nations deployed peacekeepers in that country, he added. Noting that Africa was probably the world's most fragmented region, he called upon the international community to support efforts at regional integration.
He said hesitant and half-spirited interventions by the Security Council in several African conflicts had neither done the job nor enhanced the credibility of the United Nations. The Security Council should make itself equally attentive to the needs of the world's family of nations, including cooperation with regional arrangements everywhere, as provided for in Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter.
JANET G. BOSTWICK, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Attorney General of the Bahamas, noted that the Millennium Declaration had placed globalization high on its agenda. Unfortunately, globalization had never been challenged, despite the fact that few had profited from it and some smaller economies had become marginalized and even more vulnerable. She pointed to many of the SIDS of the Caribbean and the fact that their mainstay industries, particularly bananas and financial services, had come under extreme pressure in the rapidly globalizing world.
The Bahamas had always cooperated, and would continue to cooperate, with international efforts to combat money laundering, she said. However, concerned financial services established by developed countries must immediately adopt open and transparent procedures. In addition, the Bahamas was concerned that one group of countries, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), had sought unilaterally to determine what constituted harmful tax competition in respect to financial services.
She believed that the intensity of protests in Seattle and in Washington, D.C., had mirrored the frustration of many developing countries in a globalization process which appeared to be biased towards the rich and powerful, widening the gap between haves and have-nots. Still, no country could opt out of globalization, nor could any ignore the challenge of its potentially devastating consequences for peace and security. The United Nations resolve that globalization be fully inclusive and equitable should be buttressed with effective action to ensure a vibrant global economic order in which all countries, large and small, developed and undeveloped, mutually benefited.
The Bahamas now had observer status in the WTO and would move purposefully towards full membership and active participation, making globalization and trade liberalization inclusive and equitable instruments for development. She added that the Millennium Declaration had reaffirmed the United Nations resolve to address the special needs of the SIDS by implementing both the Barbados Plan of Action, and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly on this plan. The SIDS expected action, through initiatives such as global disaster management strategies and a vulnerability index. Such initiatives must take into account the socio-economic development and survival of SIDS.
She said world leaders were committed to overcoming many seemingly intractable problems, for which effective responses could only be of a global nature, specifically, the worlds drug problem and trafficking in small arms and light weapons. The United Nations faced a formidable agenda, which required adequate and predictable resources. It must arrest the process whereby many issues, including some of critical concern to developing countries, had been moved out of the ambit of the Organization into narrower, special interest organizations. She closed by expressing concern for the safety and security of the international civil service, whose dedicated men and women were the embodiment of the United Nations global outreach.
ENRIQUE CANDIOTI, Secretary of State and Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Argentina, said on the basis of permanent interests, his Government had made political and economical integration with Member States of the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) (Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, together with Chile and Bolivia) a priority. Those countries had agreed to take the necessary actions for major integration based on stability and equity. The creation of MERCOSUR had been a political decision that transcended the economic sphere.
As a consequence of the deepening economic and political dimensions of the integration, a regional convergence of defence and security, contributing to a continental perspective based on trust and cooperation was now being witnessed, he said. A zone of peace had been created and his country was part of a nuclear-free Latin America. As a member of the Rio Group, Argentina had continued its efforts to preserve peace and representative democracy. The consolidation of democratic stability in Latin America continued to be a central policy of his country. Argentina was in favour of free trade, he said. Protectionism constituted a form of discrimination. He therefore urged the international community to eliminate trade distortions. Progress had been made in free trade negotiations in the hemisphere. In the WTO, Argentina had provided new impetus for the launching of a new round of trade liberalization, in particular in the field of agriculture. Continuous innovation required developing countries to adapt, but access to the new technologies must be ensured. Without adequate dissemination of new technologies, there would be a wider gap between rich and poor.
The Security Council should be strengthened, he said. A new Council had to allow for greater participation by all, something that could not be done by creating new permanent seats. He supported an increase of non-permanent members, and a restriction on the veto right. He reiterated his Countrys willingness to participate in bilateral negotiations with the United Kingdom to find a just and definitive solution to the sovereignty dispute about the Malvinas/Falkland Islands, Georgias del Sur and Sandwich del Sur.
ALLAN CRUICKSHANK, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, said that his country, like other small island States in the Caribbean region, continued to be plagued by endemic problems of the production, trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs. This modern day scourge continued to pose serious problems, which threatened to destroy the social and moral fabric of their communities. He reiterated his support for the Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism and urged that more resources be allocated by the international community to woo farmers away from the production of illicit crops.
Turning to the Caribbean banana trade with the European Union, he said that banana exports from his country and other African, Caribbean and Pacific producing countries represented over half of all export earnings in some cases. He was concerned that, should the tariff quota regime be eliminated, as a means of ensuring conformity with the 1999 WTO ruling, it would lead to the destruction of the Caribbean banana industry. The solutions being proposed by the European Commission -- a first come, first served system along with a tariff rate quota or a tariff only system -- would prove to be disastrous. He asked that an equitable system be sought to allow his people to engage meaningfully in trade and development, rather than forever being subjected to the aid and dependency syndrome.
His country and others in the Caribbean Community were deeply concerned that the OECDs so-called harmful tax initiative was designed to frustrate tax competition, and threatened the sovereignty of small island States. Such action on the part of the OECD could encourage the creation of a tax cartel, thereby removing the possibility of lower taxes from those who wished to legitimately escape them, through the exercise of free choice. It would also close off an area of diversification and economic activity in which poor developing countries could be competitive and which they had actively promoted for a long time.
The small island developing States of the Caribbean were among those countries most at risk from the adverse effects of the climate change, he said. On many Caribbean islands, were experiencing the effects in areas that directly impacted on the important tourism sector of their economies. The Caribbean was also prone to extremely damaging natural disasters, especially hurricanes. There were also droughts and floods, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The continued committed support of the international community was crucial to complementing the work of these States in addressing these problems. His regions physical and economic limitations should not be further burdened by the trans-shipment of hazardous waste through its waterways. Such actions were a flagrant violation of human rights and an affront to sovereign dignity. The Caribbean Sea should be a nuclear free zone in the context of sustainable development.
OUSMANE MOUTARI (Niger) said that in order to remodel the United Nations according to todays reality, more was needed than a simple reform of the Organizations main bodies, subsidiary bodies and agencies. More active partnerships were required with parliaments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the media and the private sector, without losing sight of the main vocation of the United Nations to execute the will of the Member States. Active partnerships would increase the capacity of the international community to tackle issues as varied as international peace and security, the fight against pandemics such as HIV/AIDS, the eradication of poverty, the question of external debt and the promotion of sustainable development worldwide.
For many countries, including Niger, the chief source of anguish was the lack of basic physical safety of citizens due to armed conflicts and the unacceptable illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons. The proliferation of illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons was one of the major challenges facing the international community. Concrete and sustained measures must be taken on national, regional and international levels to stop this practice. The return, in January, of weapons from the rebels and their friends would hopefully lead to a calm and peaceful Niger. The United Nations conference on the proliferation of small arms and light weapons must develop and reinforce national, regional and international efforts with a view to prevent, fight, restrict and eradicate the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons.
The treatment of the question of external debts was a barometer for the measurement of the real degree of commitment by the international community in the search for practical ways to eradicate poverty, he said. The initiative to cancel the external debts of the LDCs was moving too slowly. The efforts of the United Nations in promoting and consolidating new democracies deserved to be supported, he added. After more than a decade of instability in its political institutions, Niger, one of the LDCs, was experiencing a return to democracy. This return to democracy was occurring despite the heavy burden of foreign external debts and the considerable drop in official development aid (ODA).
JACKEO RELANG (Marshall Islands) cited the "immutable law of change" as the reason for the United Nations to critically examine its performances and structures in search of practical solutions to the issues of the time. The fact that the current political landscape was vastly different from 50 years ago; that there had been a threefold increase in the number of Member States; and that there was an increase in the desire of civil society and corporations to participate in the process of change, made it imperative that those elements and structures which were antiquated be swept away and relegated to the currents of history. A comprehensive review and restructuring of the Security Council was in line with the spirit of achieving a broader base for decision-making, through consensus and confidence-building, was clearly long overdue.
His country was keen to further develop its ongoing active role and cooperation with the United Nations specialized agencies and programmes, he said. He hoped that their operational activities would become more effective and responsive to the special needs of SIDS.
Global environmental degradation was society's own creation, he said. The issue of "hot air" was a real threat to the Marshall Islands and SIDS, placing the survival of populations and cultures at stake. Increasingly, the Marshall Islands had lost meters of usable and habitable land due to climate change and the rising sea level. The implementation of the legally binding commitments agreed on in the Kyoto Protocol was the only significant step forward in ensuring effective global action to combat climate change. A terrible tragedy might occur unless there were international cooperation.
Marshall Islands had taken bold steps toward the improvement of its education and health systems and appealed for the interest and support of the international community in this endeavour, he said. He was pleased to convey deep appreciation to the Government of Italy for its generous support.
Right of Reply
The representative of Kuwait, speaking in right of reply, said that Iraq had accused Kuwait of providing logistical support to the United States and the United Kingdom aircraft. Those accusations were inaccurate and came from a campaign of misinformation against Kuwait by Iraq. Second, the presence of foreign troops in Kuwait was governed by bilateral agreements signed by Kuwait and five other Member States. Third, while Kuwait had not hosted any foreign forces before August 1990, the Iraqi invasion, as well as continuing threats, had made it necessary for Kuwait to take such a step to preserve peace. Fourth, Iraq claimed that it had fulfilled its commitments under Security Council resolutions, but much remained to be done. For example, freeing Kuwaiti prisoners of war and returning Kuwaiti property. The international community recognized the fact that Iraq had yet to fulfil its obligations. He called on it to fulfil all Security Council obligations.
The representative of United Kingdom, speaking in right of reply, said his Government did not accept Argentinas Foreign Ministers remarks concerning the Falkland Islands about sovereignty. He had no doubt about Britains sovereignty over the Falkland Islands and the other British dependencies in the South Atlantic. He stressed the need to respect the right of self-determination of the people of those islands, who had made clear their wish to remain British. The elected representatives of the Islanders had expressed their views clearly when they had visited the United Nations for the debate in the Committee of 24 on 11 July, and had reiterated their view that they did not want to be part of Argentina.
Despite differences with Argentina, his Government continued to strengthen bilateral relations and to build on the agreement signed last year on practical arrangements on matters of common interest in the South Atlantic, he said. He was confident that the relations would continue to flourish in that spirit of cooperation and mutual interest.
The representative of Iraq, also exercising his right of reply, said Iraqs earlier statement had been clear in reviewing the phenomena of the Anglo- American aggression and the Kuwaiti role in that aggression. Kuwait bore the same legal responsibility as the United States, United Kingdom and Turkey. Iraq had not threatened Kuwait in his statements. Iraq did not threaten. It had informed the international community of the effect of Kuwaits involvement in daily aggression against Iraq. The no-fly zones were an illegitimate use of force against an independent State and a breach of the United Nations Charter. The no-fly zones were a unilateral decision unrelated to the United Nations, according to a spokesperson for the Organization. They had no basis in Security Council resolutions. Kuwaits legal responsibilities were clear and irrefutable.
The representative of Kuwait had raised the issue of the disappeared persons again to politicize the issue, he said. Iraq had no interest in holding prisoners. There had been Iraqi nationals who had disappeared and the tripartite committee had been hampered in its efforts to address that issue.
Iraq had fulfiled its obligations under the Security Council resolutions, he stressed. The Security Council had now, in turn, to fulfil its obligations.
The representative of Argentina, speaking in right of reply, said that he wished to reaffirm the statement made by his country earlier during the general debate.
The representative of Kuwait, speaking in right of reply, again denied the allegations made by the representative of Iraq. Concerning the threats, for some weeks now a campaign had been undertaken by Iraq, increasing the instability of the region. A letter had been sent to the Secretary-General concerning the accusations made on the day of the anniversary of the Iraqi invasion. The Oil Minister of Iraq had also accused Kuwait of sabotaging Iraqi oil installation. Regarding the question of Kuwaiti prisoners, all that was asked of Iraq was to comply with the Security Council resolutions 686, 1284 and 687, and to cooperate with the International Red Cross.
The representative of Iraq, using his second right of reply, said that his Country had not waged a campaign against Kuwait, but had pointed out daily Kuwaiti and Saudi aggression since 1991. The representative of Kuwait had raised the issue of Kuwaiti disappeared persons and he had responded to that. As for Kuwaits raising the matter of Security Council Resolution 1284 (1999), he thought that was done at the behest of Kuwaits masters.
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