Zimbabwe

I congratulate Mr. Razali on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-first session. We are more than convinced that his vast experience and diplomatic skills will prove to be vital assets at this session of the Assembly. I assure him that my delegation will cooperate fully with him in the fulfilment of his onerous responsibilities. Furthermore, I would like to pay tribute to his predecessor, Professor Diogo Freitas do Amaral, who steered the work of the Assembly through its historic fiftieth anniversary in a commendable and honourable way. Our tribute also goes to the Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali for his distinguished leadership of our Organization during the past year. We are especially grateful to him for his tireless efforts to enhance the Organization’s role in maintaining international peace and security as well as in promoting international economic development and cooperation. At the last session of the General Assembly, when we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, we witnessed the largest-ever gathering of Heads of State and Government. On that occasion, the world leaders made a historic reaffirmation of our commitment to the purposes and principles of this Organization as enshrined in the Charter. Besides taking stock of the progress made and the lessons learnt during the past 50 years, the world leaders endeavoured not only to recapture the vision of the founding fathers of the United Nations, but also to chart the institutional framework and operational parameters that could enhance the Organization’s relevance and effectiveness in a changed international landscape. My delegation sincerely hopes that we will all be able to take full advantage of this renewed commitment to the Organization to ensure that the United Nations system as a whole is reformed, revitalized and rendered more efficacious, transparent, accountable and democratic. The United Nations, as the universally accepted matrix of multilateralism, must, in the post-cold-war era, play a vastly expanded role in the domain of peace- keeping and make a positive contribution to the new phenomenon of globalization and its increased levels of economic and social interdependence, as well as the technologically fuelled transnational linkages among the countries of the world. The Organization therefore faces an inescapable imperative for reform and revitalization. 16 In this regard, my delegation is deeply perturbed by the slow progress made by the Open-ended Working Group on the Question of Equitable Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the Security Council. We in Africa maintain that the present arrangement, in which Africa and Latin America have no permanent representatives on the Security Council, while Asia has only one, is unjust and antidemocratic and must not be allowed to continue. Those three regions should each have at least two permanent seats, with incumbents enjoying the same rights and privileges as the present permanent members. Additional non-permanent seats should also be allocated to each of those regions so as to ensure equitable geographical representation proportionate to the numerical strength of each region in this Organization. In other areas of reform, our primary objective should be to reaffirm the role of the General Assembly as the highest decision-making body in the entire United Nations system. Any process of restructuring, revitalization or strengthening should necessarily redress the erosion of the principle of the accountability of all principal and subsidiary organs and specialized agencies of the United Nations to the General Assembly. My delegation will therefore seek resolutely to uphold the authority of the General Assembly as enshrined in the Charter and, consequently, will oppose any proposals or recommendations that might lead to the usurpation of the authority of the General Assembly under any guise or form. Accordingly, we will not agree to authorizing the Secretariat to amend, postpone or cancel any official programme activities without the express approval of the General Assembly, whose prerogative it is to give, change or withdraw the mandates of such programme activities. My delegation is of the strong view that reform should not necessarily be equated with the downsizing of the United Nations system. We also feel that an optimally streamlined and strengthened United Nations system will not necessarily be responsive to the needs of its membership as long as it is subjected to chronic cash-flow problems. The appalling record of some Member States that dishonour their financial obligations to the United Nations and our endless lamentations over the resultant financial crises have clearly brought into question the credibility of the Organization and the commitment of its membership. In our view, the time is long past for us to re-examine all the efforts that we have been exerting in an endeavour to identify and agree on the formulation and mechanisms to deal with the current financial crisis that has beset the Organization. Unless Member States take serious steps to clear their arrears and improve their payment pattern by remitting their assessed contributions promptly, in full and without conditions, the United Nations will continue to dither on the brink of bankruptcy and its efficacy will be totally compromised. It is imperative that we, the Member States, create a capacity for the Organization to fulfil the mandate we have given to it. The United Nations’ role in maintaining international peace and security must of necessity have a global thrust in both the geographical sense and the conceptual framework. Peace-threatening conflicts in any part of our global village should never be seen to attract differential attention depending upon their geographical location, strategic interest, ethnic complexion or such other narrow considerations of the big Powers. The much-belated intervention and subsequent failure of the United Nations in Somalia and its half- hearted interventions in Rwanda, Burundi and Liberia have exposed the Organization to harmful criticism, which has led to a further decline in its credibility. United Nations peacekeeping efforts in Africa have generally met with mixed fortunes. We have yet to see the Namibian and Mozambican success stories repeat themselves in several other trouble spots on the continent. Although the peace process in Angola continues to run behind schedule, we are persuaded that the seeds of lasting peace have been sown in that country. We need to redouble our efforts in urging the Angolans to persevere along the present bumpy road of peace on the basis of national reconciliation and unity. Although the humanitarian situation in Somalia has improved somewhat since the intervention of the United Nations, that country remains in political turmoil from which it cannot rescue itself fully without the sustained involvement of the international community. We therefore call upon the international community, through the United Nations, to review its current minimalist approach to Somalia, explore new possibilities for constructive engagement and give peace another chance. In Burundi, the fundamental challenge of having democracy with security has now been compounded by the need to stop generalized violence and to return the country to constitutionality. The United Nations should support the sterling efforts of Burundi’s neighbours to assist that country to achieve peace and stability. The tragedy of genocide in Rwanda must not be allowed to repeat itself in Burundi. No! 17 In Liberia, brute force and violence must not be allowed to triumph. The parties should be made to honour the peace agreement already reached through the good offices of the Economic Community of West African States. The people of Liberia have suffered enough. The United Nations must send a clear message to the warlords in that country that our common humanity may soon impel us to try them for war crimes and crimes against humanity. With regard to the stalled peace process in Western Sahara, it is imperative that the international community, through the United Nations, honour the spirit and letter of the commitment it made to the disenfranchised people of that territory and ensure that a free and fair United Nations- supervised referendum takes place there on the basis of the United Nations Settlement Plan for Western Sahara. In the Middle East, we appeal to the new Government of Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization to continue on the path of peace and reason, as espoused by the late Prime Minister of Israel, Mr. Yitzhak Rabin, who paid with his life that the two peoples might live together in peace and harmony. Renewing the construction of settlements on Palestinian land is no contribution to peace. It undermines the peace process. There is no alternative to peace. We therefore urge the parties to remain committed to the peace process until Palestinian self-determination and a Palestinian State become realities. It is only in this context that the security of Israel can be guaranteed. Commitment to peace has remained the centrepiece of the Non-Aligned Movement. Thirty-five years ago, the founding fathers of this Movement had a vision of a world, inter alia, living in peace and harmony, free of nuclear threat and super-Power rivalry. Two days ago, we had occasion to commemorate that vision. We found it to be as relevant and powerful today as when it was first articulated 35 years ago. We recommitted ourselves, among other things, to pursuing the goal of a world at peace, free from the threat of weapons of mass destruction. We reaffirmed that complete nuclear disarmament is a sine qua non for the survival of humanity on our planet. We therefore appeal to all nuclear Powers to agree to ban the production, testing and use or threat of use of nuclear weapons and other weapons of Armageddon. To enhance this Organization’s accountability and credibility, the decision-making process with regard to United Nations peace-keeping mandates must cater to an increased role for the general membership of the Organization, starting with troop-contributing countries. Furthermore, efforts such as those which entail preventive diplomacy and post-conflict peace-building, as spelled out in the Secretary-General’s report, “Supplement to an Agenda for Peace”, clearly fall within the domain of the General Assembly. Moreover, it is our view that the United Nations is the only Organization which is uniquely charged with a global mandate to maintain international peace and security. This means therefore that regional peace-keeping efforts can only complement and not substitute the leading role of the United Nations. The United Nations should also enhance its role in promoting international cooperation in other spheres of its competence, particularly that of trade. Only a few months ago, the international community celebrated the successful launching of the World Trade Organization, following protracted multilateral trade negotiations. For this new multilateral trade regime to work, it is imperative that member States resist the temptation to initiate practices or policies that seek to compromise the sovereignty of other member States or to reintroduce colonialism in another guise. Developed countries should live up to their commitments and abandon protectionist policies if all countries are to benefit from the new trading arrangements. Improved market access and increased foreign direct investment must be accompanied by new and innovative ways to tackle the debt burden of developing countries, with a view to finding a comprehensive and once-and-for-all solution to the debt problem. Given the negative economic trends in some of our countries, the developed countries and international financial institutions should seriously consider debt- forgiveness for low-income developing countries. Such a course of action would stop the flight of much-needed resources from these countries and create new possibilities for real savings for investment and growth. I wish to affirm that we, the developing countries, fully accept and recognize that we bear the primary responsibility for our own development; we have accordingly undertaken various economic structural adjustment reforms, often at enormous social and political cost. These ambitious and painful reforms could flounder if developed countries fail to complement these sterling efforts by taking decisive measures to reduce the stock of our debt and by removing the wall of protectionist barriers. We also call on the developed countries to take decisive measures, as a matter or urgency, to increase the flow of official development assistance, private investment and the transfer of technologies to developing nations. 18 In a few days, world leaders will assemble in Rome for yet another world summit. This time, the international community will focus its attention on the important question of food security and the good health of the people of the world. Unfortunately, even the increased food supplies in the world are inaccessible to more than 1.5 billion hungry people who are acknowledged to be living in abject poverty. We cannot accept that the legacy of hungry and malnourished people is what our generation will bequeath to the twenty-first century. We expect development to bring food to our dining tables, clean water into our homes, better housing, improved health and security to all our children. The present trend towards globalization and the deepening interdependence among economies should foster a universal feeling and sense of belonging to the global village whose concept we have now come to take for granted, but whose benefits accrue to only a few countries. Only last week, this Assembly carried out a review of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. In the statements made by representatives of African countries, it was made abundantly clear that the international commitments made in 1991, like those made at the launching of United Nations Programme of Action for African Economic Recovery and Development 1986-1990 earlier, had not been fulfilled. We therefore call on the international community, and our development partners in particular, to mobilize the requisite financial resources to augment our efforts and give fresh impetus to the realization of the goals set out in United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. When the founding fathers of the United Nations outlined the purposes and principles of this Organization, they envisioned a United Nations that would “be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends.” As we seek to enhance the relevance of this Organization to the world today, it is imperative that we understand that the vast majority of the people of this world expect the United Nations to be a principal actor for progress and change, and to be equipped to play an effective and leading role in improving the economic and social situation of the world’s citizens. As we commemorate the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty, we are alarmed at the growing extent of abject poverty, which now engulfs 20 per cent of the world’s population. That poverty is the root cause of most of the world’s social ills, including strife and peace-threatening conflicts, cannot be overemphasized. We appeal to Governments the world over to respond in earnest to the clarion call of the Copenhagen world social summit and to spare no effort at both the national and international levels, to roll back the advancing scourge of poverty. It is needless to stress that the elimination of poverty and the attainment of the broader goal of sustainable development will remain impossible to achieve unless nations show renewed political resolve to implement policies aimed at enabling humankind to better manage and live with its environment, as agreed to at the Rio de Janeiro summit and at subsequent Conferences. The ever-dwindling natural resource base, global warming, persistent droughts and desertification are eloquent reminders that humankind’s current destructive processes of growth are pushing our planet towards the precipice. Under these circumstances, the search for safer, environmentally sound and sustainable approaches to development, including the utilization of new and renewable resources, has become more urgent now than ever before. Only last week, leaders from 103 countries, from all regions of the world, heeding this historic challenge of our time, gathered in Harare, Zimbabwe, for the first-ever World Solar Summit to map out strategies aimed at promoting the development and utilization of solar and other forms of renewable energy. In recognition of the important role that solar energy can play in the advancement of socio-economic development and in reducing environmental degradation, the Summit adopted a comprehensive World Solar Programme 1996-2005 with a view to creating effective mechanisms to speed up and facilitate the use of solar energy. We call upon the United Nations Secretary-General, the specialized agencies of the United Nations, non-governmental organizations and the international community at large to lend the necessary financial and other forms of support to the Programme to enable it to succeed. In June 1997 another conference of equal environmental significance, the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), will convene in Harare. The challenges facing this conference will by no means be small. Global conservation strategies and policies have to be implemented in the national interest and within the means available for the benefit of each country. We in southern Africa have adopted effective conservation policies over the years that have seen the 19 growth of our elephant herd beyond the levels our ecosystem can support. It would be unfortunate, and indeed an irony of our times, if we, who have conceived and successfully implemented innovative wildlife conservation policies, should find ourselves being penalized for our success and the failure of others. The international community has an obligation to adopt new, dynamic and flexible policies that would enable countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and my own country to reap the benefits of their wildlife conservation successes. To act otherwise would be counter-productive and an injustice to the noble cause of wildlife conservation as a whole. My country intends to make constructive suggestions on this subject at the CITES meeting next year. To remain relevant and effective, the United Nations must stay at the centre stage of global activities. Its worldwide responsibilities cannot be delegated; nor can its Charter-enshrined priorities be subordinated to issues extraneous to its purposes and principles. We are taken aback by the efforts of those who seek to prescribe to the United Nations a reform exercise that would force the Organization to diminish and to reorient its Charter- enshrined role in promoting development to the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organization and the blind forces of the market. The Charter envisaged an identifiable role for the United Nations in promoting development, which is a prerequisite for, and the ultimate corollary of, peace. My delegation maintains that the United Nations is uniquely placed to play a policy-making and resource identification role. Its decisions must necessarily set the pace and direction for other institutions such as the Bretton Woods institutions and the World Trade Organization. In conclusion, the strength of the United Nations lies in its universality and its impartiality in implementing its mandate to promote peace and security, economic and social development, human rights and international law as outlined in its Charter. Whereas the Organization has clearly played a significant role in the containment and settlement of disputes through peace-keeping activities, and in the expansion and codification of international law, it has largely failed to have any significant impact on the development process in developing countries. The few developing countries that have managed to score any breakthroughs have done so in spite of the United Nations. As the General Assembly outlines its medium-term plan for the period 1998-2003, my delegation, together with others, will seek to ensure that the development process, particularly Africa’s economic recovery and development, is underwritten by the Organization’s irrevocable commitment. Finally, let me turn to the agenda item dealing with the election of the Secretary-General of this Organization. Since it is an item on the agenda of this Assembly, it is imperative that Member States freely express their views on this matter. We of Africa have a clear and unambiguous position. We believe that it is Africa’s turn to provide a Secretary-General. We have had one term so far and, following the normal practice, are entitled to a second term. The African leaders, meeting in Yaoundé, Cameroon, this year, endorsed the candidature of the incumbent, His Excellency Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali. We stand ready to engage all Members of this Organization in the process of finalizing consultations on this subject.