We have come here to renew
our faith and confidence in the world Organization. In a way, especially to
us in Africa, the United Nations has assumed a unique position. This is the
first time since the founding of the United Nations in 1945 that the
Organization has a Secretary-General from Africa. The Tanzanian delegation
congratulates Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali on his well-deserved election. The
United Nations has assumed great significance because this change in the
leadership of the United Nations has come at a time when the changes in the
international system during the last few years have imposed upon all countries
the need to reassess familiar attitudes and policies.
I congratulate the President upon his taking office during this period of
change. His wealth of experience, skill and commitment are not only a
valuable asset to the forty-seventh session, but also speak volubly of the
capabilities of his own country, Bulgaria, with which Tanzania enjoys
excellent relations. I am confident that he will ably adorn the position,
bringing to it prestige and impartiality. His predecessor.
Ambassador Samir Shihabi of Saudi Arabia, presided over the forty-sixth
session with great skill. My delegation joins in the expressions of
appreciation addressed to him.
In any human history, there are certain historical conjunctures which
distinguish one period from another. The five-year period between 1987 and
1992 will be regarded as an important period in world history. This phase
coincided with the ending of the cold war and witnessed the expansion of the
boundaries of the international system through the birth of 21 additional
States in the period 1991-1992 alone. I am delighted to join the warm welcome
extended to the newest Members of our Organization.
The nature of governments has been transformed by increased
democratization of their domestic political orders; the structures of power
and influence in the world have been altered by the disintegration of the
Soviet Union. These developments call for a transformation of the pattern of
diplomatic interactions, especially in the United Nations, and the
refashioning of the basic structure underlying the international system so
that the emerging new order may be based on right rather than might, on
justice rather than expediency.
In retrospect, the political landscape of the international system has
been profoundly and positively altered in the last five years. Yet it has
also opened up new instabilities, more challenges to international peace and
security, greater uncertainties - especially for developing countries and
more danger of armed conflicts, as reflected in the killings in Liberia,
Somalia and the former Yugoslavia. These conflicts pose a grave danger to the
very life of human civilization.
The forty-seventh session of the General Assembly is being held at a
critical juncture: we are between two worlds one dead, the other powerless
to be born. We are overshadowed by the dangers of unipolarity, economic
decadence in the developing countries, ecological dangers in the developed
countries, and the persistence of old injustices in Palestine and South Africa.
This diagnosis of the state of the world applies to the contemporary
global configuration and to regional scenes alike. In the global setting, a -
period of deep-seated, intense East-West conflict has ended with the
conclusion of the cold war. As a result, an established order has given way
to an as yet undefined future. At the regional level, there are equally mixed
results. For example, in South Africa, not long ago, the progress made in the
last two years in eradicating apartheid all of a sudden appeared to be on the
brink of collapse as the apartheid regime not only retrenched, but also
perpetuated township violence and refused to concede the major demands of the
African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress and other democratic
forces.
Looking at the areas of conflict, it appears as if, all of a sudden, the
conclusion of the cold war has given way to a kind of Hobbesian state of
nature in which peoples and nations are caught in perpetual conflict and
competition over land, resources, food, labour and markets.
In the last two years alone, Africa has witnessed several intra-State
conflicts which have resulted in heavy human costs, in terms of casualties and
dislocations; direct material costs, in terms of property damage; and
opportunity costs. Neighbouring States have also paid heavily through their
efforts to strengthen their security on common borders, through caring for
refugees and through the diversion of their Governments' attention away from
developmental efforts to crisis management related to wars, armed conflicts
and insecurity.
In short, these conflicts have thwarted African efforts towards economic
recovery and peaceful transformation to a democratic order. Thus, while
encouraging Africa to transform its political and economic systems, the
developed nations have a moral and historical duty to assist the continent in
pursuing a sustainable development strategy that is people-oriented. Such
assistance will ensure that Africa pursues genuine development and rids itself
of a major cause of internal conflicts.
In the last year, Tanzania has been host and facilitator to mediation
efforts in the conflict in Rwanda. I am pleased to inform the Assembly that
the Government of Rwanda and the Rwandese Patriotic Front have been able to
achieve a cease-fire to set the stage for a lasting political solution.
Tanzania would like to congratulate them upon this great achievement, and to
pay tribute to the Chairman and Secretary-General of the Organization of
African Unity, to neighbouring States and to other countries for their
contributions to these efforts.
Angola and Mozambique have endured long periods of internal conflict. As
we meet here today, Angola has successfully completed a crucial multi-party
general election and Mozambique has recently signed a joint declaration with
RENAMO. These developments will determine the peace and security interests of
the two countries. Tanzania commends the Governments and peoples of Angola
and Mozambique for having taken the path of reconciliation and accommodation.
Unfortunately, the optimism expressed on Angola and Mozambique cannot be
extended to the intractable problems of the Middle East. Since the Madrid
Conference, several rounds of talks have been held. There have been at least
two outstanding obstacles to successful negotiations: Israel's refusal to
accept a Palestinian delegation composed of members of the Palestine
Liberation Organization, and Jewish refusal to freeze settlements in occupied
areas.
There can be no successful mediation in which the Palestinians, as one of
the parties, are continuously denied legitimacy. While Tanzania supports all
international efforts to resolve the conflict in the Middle East, the
mediation process must be based on the presumed equality of the parties to the
conflict. Effective mediation must also proceed from a clear consent and
valid representation of all the parties to the conflict.
What has been said of regional conflicts can also be stated of the
environment. As witnessed at the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro,
humanity now faces one of its most serious sources of insecurity, the
ecological ill-health of the planet itself. Asymmetries in non-sustainable
development and industrialization, economic development and resource politics
are at the heart of the environmental debate.
Tanzania, like most other developing nations, has four major concerns
over the environment, namely: environmental space; environmental growth;
environmental conditionally; and environmental democracy. To explain these
concerns, we have to emphasize that the developed nations must reduce pressure
on the environment through corrective action to enable developing countries,
including Tanzania, to achieve environmental space for industrialization.
Environmental growth, that is, the provisions of resources to raise
living standards, is necessary to eradicate poverty.
Environmental conditionality must, by and large, be eradicated. Without
ignoring the relationship between technology and environmental degradation,
the present conditionalities on the provision of foreign assistance is a
diversion which tends to conceal real issues that hinder development efforts.
The developing countries are responsible for only a small part of the
pressures on the global environment.
Environmental democracy refers to participation by the developing
countries in the decision-making procedures in multilateral institutions
involving finance for the environment. Another component of environmental
democracy is to ensure that the question of economic development is not
subsumed under environmental concerns. Thus, the task for the international
community after the historic Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro will be to merge,
wisely, environmental policies with socio-economic development.
Tanzania looks to the establishment of a high-level commission on
sustainable development under Article 68 of the Charter.
The period from 1987 to 1992 could be regarded as an extraordinary
moment, one which has opened up opportunities to confront and surmount the old
and new instabilities and challenges to peace and security. Typical of the
period of transition in the international system, negotiations, as a
peace-making and policy-making instrument, have assumed renewed significance
in resolving old and new issues.
Indeed, the debate in the United Nations during the last two sessions of
the General Assembly has been dominated by one theme: the unprecedented
opportunity created by the end of the cold war to create a new world order.
There is no doubt that the end of super-Power rivalry has contributed
significantly to the ending of a number of conflicts, including those in
Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Namibia. This historic opportunity has
facilitated increased United Nations involvement in peace-keeping and
peacemaking activities in many parts of the world.
However, a new world Older must be based on the linkage between freedom
and development, justice, peace, security and democracy within nations and
among nations. From time immemorial, philosophers have reminded practitioners
of the primacy of human freedom that is possible in society and through
society only when structural inequalities and injustices have been eradicated.
Any new world order ought to be based on the greatest good, and in the
guarantee of equality and freedom for all. It must be based on the genuine
maintenance of peace and security in the broader sense of preventive
diplomacy, peacemaking, peace-keeping and peace-fostering. For one can
maintain security without necessarily maintaining peace, as the former may
require measures that uphold the status quo, while the latter could require
actions aimed at altering the existing situation. While security refers to
the absence of direct violence, peace focuses on the absence of the structural
violence of institutionalized injustice and inequalities. This approach is a
sine qua non for development, democracy and justice, and for peace and
security in general.
The conception of a new world order must begin with the reforms in the
United Nations and emphasize the important role of regional organizations such
as the Organization of African Unity and the Non-Aligned Movement. The role
of the United Nations must be reinterpreted to foster emancipation from
underdevelopment, injustice, inequalities and political domination. It must
spearhead both democracy and liberty in general, and the economic capacity to
enjoy that liberty meaningfully.
I reiterate that the United Nations, and especially the Security Council,
must be reformed because it is based on an outmoded concept of international
peace and security. The maintenance of peace and security cannot be
exclusively focused on traditional peace-keeping or peacemaking, nor can it be
left the exclusive domain of the Security Council. There is also an economic,
social and moral obligation to the international community as a whole.
The tragic conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Somalia indicate that
the traditional United Nations peace-keeping methods have outlived their
utility. Where the very survival of humanity is at stake, where the outbreaks
and the level of violence reach enormous proportions, threatening the very
fabric of human civilization, and where ethnic conflicts might necessitate
external intervention and thus threaten international peace and security, the
United Nations must be able to act promptly and decisively.
Somalia is a typical example. My delegation calls upon all parties
involved in the conflict to exercise restraint, to cooperate in facilitating
the distribution of humanitarian assistance and to set up a government of
national reconciliation. Tanzania applauds the efforts of the
Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Secretary-General of the
Organization of African Unity, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the
Arab League and individual Governments in providing humanitarian assistance
and in searching for a political solution in Somalia.
In January this year the Security Council requested the Secretary-General
to study and make recommendations on ways to strengthen and make more
efficient the United Nations capacity for preventive diplomacy, peacemaking
and peace-keeping in accordance with the United Nations Charter. Tanzania
commends the Secretary-General on his prompt, comprehensive and
thought-provoking response.
Any durable international system must have a sound legal regime,
including respect for and compliance with the rule of law at domestic and
international levels and a democratic pattern of interaction. It is in this
context that the General Assembly's declaration of the United Nations Decade
of International Law, from 1990 to 1999, must be supported. This declaration
is a clear indication of the concerted efforts of the United Nations in the
legal field to advance the search for a new world order. The
Secretary-General has underlined this very important point in his
recommendation for a much more effective use of the International Court of
Justice, including acceptance of the Court's compulsory jurisdiction.
However, an effective global legal regime presupposes the existence of
sound economic and political institutions: there is a mutually reinforcing
relationship.
The end of the cold war has tended to strengthen international concern
over a systematic policy framework for human development, and has provided the
opportunity for a greater range of sophisticated analyses and strategies on
the question of development. As I have stated previously, a sound new world
order based on human freedom is possible only in a reorganized global society
where structural inequalities and injustices are systematically eradicated.
Yet the Fourth United Nations Development Decade is beginning from an
unpromising base. Global macroeconomic indicators for the last 18 months
reveal a bleak picture. World per capita output remained unchanged in 1990,
fell by 2 per cent in 1991 and is expected to fall again, by about 1 per cent,
in 1992. Developing countries as a whole have for two consecutive years have
undergone an unprecedented decline in their per capita incomes. As the Group
of 77 has consistently pointed out, economic growth in the South has been
countered by inequality in the global monetary, financial and trade systems
and by dwindling resource flows, debt burdens, restrictions on the transfer of
technology, denial of market access, adverse terms of trade and declines in
the prices of the primary commodities that the South produces.
Among the developing countries, the African region was the worst hit.
Total African-region output increased by only 1.9 per cent in 1991, compared
with 3.2 per cent in 1990, while the non-oil-exporting countries' average rate
of growth of combined output! fell from 1.7 per cent to 0.5 per cent in 1991.
Southern Africa has the added problem of the worst drought in recent memory,
which threatens about 100 million people.
The gloomy economic indicators coincide with the post-cold-war
development of changes in the domestic policies of many developing countries,
including Tanzania. Restructuring is designed to enhance the dynamism of
national economies through the provision of economic enterprise and innovation
and opening up to the operation of market forces. The soundness and efficacy
of the policies aside, many of the domestic reforms also depend on a
supportive external environment at regional and global levels on such
important issues as debt-servicing burdens, capital flows, market access and
commodity prices.
Several conclusions can be drawn from an analysis of the global economy,
amongst which are, first, that economic divisions and rivalries inevitably
produce political conflicts; and, secondly, that there is a lopsided global
interdependence of growing inequalities within and between nations, which
cannot be resolved through narrow conceptions of power politics.
There can be no genuine democracy where development strategies do not
centre on humankind. As the South Commission report aptly defines it,
development
"... is a process which enables human beings to realize their potential,
build self-confidence, and lead lives of dignity and fulfilment. It is a
process which frees people from fear of want and exploitation, and is
also a process of growth, a society that is developing development is
people-centred efforts of the people, by and for the people".
This correct conception of development covers the essential variables of human
development, such as putting people at the centre of any development, the
correlation between human development and human freedom, advanced levels of
economic activity, and equitable domestic and global distributions of income
and opportunity. Indeed, questions such as how the disparities between the
poor and the rich can be reduced or why global markets fail to meet the needs
of the world's poorest focus on the restraining problem of human development.
Tanzania has followed with great interest the efforts by the
Secretary-General to restructure the United Nations. Tanzania believes that
reform and restructuring of the United Nations, involving both the
intergovernmental machinery and the Secretariat, should foster a more
efficient and effective structure without marginalizing the interests of the
Member States, and especially the developing countries.
As I stated earlier, the United Nations alone cannot succeed unless it
cooperates with regional organizations such as the Non-Aligned Movement and
the Organization of African Unity, which represent the aspirations of
developing nations. The roles of the Non-Aligned Movement and the
Organization of African Unity are not unique to modern third-world or African
conditions. The modern State system has historically been characterized by
the struggle for human freedom and development. This resolve has emanated
from two concurrent historical tendencies: on the one hand, great-Power
hegemony and exploitation; and, on the other hand, the opposition of the
overwhelming majority of the medium and small States to that exploitation.
None of the present changes in the international system has undermined these
central features of the 400-year-old State system. The number and identity of
hegemonies may change over time, but the existence and nature of the
struggle namely, the demand for the State system to function according to
the universality principle and for equality and justice between States has
not changed.
The plight of developing nations underscores the significance of the
Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of African Unity in the struggle to
bring equality and justice for the affairs of humanity. Tanzania believes that
these regional organizations provide the foundation for collective action in
fostering South-South economic cooperation, enhancing the democratization of
international relations, and renewing democratic debate and dialogue between
nations, especially North-South multilateral negotiations, which are currently
at a stalemate.
The end of the cold war should enhance rather than confuse our resolve to
build a new world order based on freedom, justice, equality and the
development of humanity as a single family. This approach is the one we must
take in the present period, when poor States and peoples are becoming poorer
and the rich are becoming richer, and must be seen as the real meaning of
democracy at national and global levels. Viewed from this perspective, it is
intolerable that any section of the same human family should not enjoy basic
economic, social, cultural, political and civil rights.
The human family of nations must not only examine the underlying causes
of conflicts, injustice and underdevelopment, it must also seek to change
social relationships and transform social structures in such a way that a more
just, equal and dignified world emerges. That new world order awaits us.
That world order beckons to us. It is a world order we must strive to achieve.