Haiti

The Republic of Haiti finds it a source of genuine satisfaction that the fifty-fourth regular session of the General Assembly is being presided over by Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, a man for whom we have a great deal of admiration. With positive results, he has competently and responsibly served his country, Namibia, which is quite rightly considered one of the symbols of the success of our Organization. We take this opportunity to wish him every success in the tremendous and noble task he has undertaken. We pay tribute to Mr. Didier Opertti, Foreign Minister of Uruguay, who so effectively conducted the proceedings of the fifty-third session. We also take this opportunity to convey our most sincere greetings to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, who, at a time when our world is facing many challenges, has known how to use his intelligence and the wisdom of his great experience to help the community of nations face up to the inevitable changes of the twenty-first century. We also welcome, with great satisfaction, the admission of the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of Nauru and the Kingdom of Tanga as full-fledged Members of our Organization. They will strengthen the universal nature of the Organization and enrich its diversity of points of view. We take the floor this 1 October, one day after the anniversary of the bloody coup d’état of 1991, a genuine act of assassination of democracy and of the dream of an entire people. Without the determined action of the United Nations and its Members, contemplating this sad and deadly event would have been even more painful for the people of Haiti today. We would therefore like to express once again our gratitude to the international community for having ensured the restoration of democratic constitutional order in Haiti. Since that restoration of democracy, the Government and the people of Haiti, helped by the international community, have worked zealously to ensure an environment favourable to the blossoming of democracy and economic progress. This effort has not yet yielded the results we had hoped for, because over the last five years the Republic of Haiti has had to confront problems arising from the complexity of its situation. But through the will of our people and its Government, the Haitian dream of democracy will become a reality. Above all, the Government of the Republic is still convinced of the critical importance of the renewal of its institutions, in particular of the Parliament, most of whose members had their term of office expire on 11 January 1999. To this end, fair, honest, democratic elections will be organized in the next few months. The head of State, Mr. René Préval, has repeatedly and solemnly affirmed his determination to create the conditions to make it possible for the elections to be organized by the Provisional Electoral Council. Of course, as guarantor of the functioning of the institutions, the President of the Republic has considered that the most important thing is the establishment of the physical conditions necessary for well-organized elections, rather than hasty elections the results of which might be called into question because of organizational shortcomings. For President Préval, the holding of the elections must lead to a solution to our crisis and not its perpetuation, or even the creation of yet another crisis. In order to work to consolidate its achievements, the Government hopes that a consensus will be found to continue technical assistance for professionalizing the National Police, in strict compliance with Haitian law. The Government of the Republic wants to avoid any interruption of the effort to thoroughly reform the judicial system and to promote full respect for all dimensions of human rights. 18 The fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly is undoubtedly a highly symbolic moment. As the last session of this century, it ought to come up with a vision that would make our Organization an essential and efficient instrument for meeting the challenges that await us in the twenty-first century. We know the contours of this vision, as they were sketched after the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen and the Rio Earth Summit. The sketch is filled in by the ideal of the peoples of the whole world, as expressed in our Charter: to save future generations from the scourge of war, to ensure respect for fundamental human rights, to promote social progress and to establish better conditions of living in greater freedom. Thus, our task at this fifty-fourth session should be to fully work out, by means of our discussions and the work of the various committees, the concept and ways of implementing this vision. The fifty-fourth session will also be an opportunity for the United Nations to give deeper thought to its mission of ensuring international peace and security and of promoting economic and social development. In this regard, the Republic of Haiti is happy to note that the situation in East Timor is improving following the actions of the international community and its cooperation with the Indonesian authorities. We hope that the presence of the multinational peace force will help bring the country out of the chaos into which it has been plunged. We urge the Indonesian Government and its allies in East Timor to fully respect the decision of the ballot box and to take measures to ensure East Timor’s peaceful transition to independence and democracy. The Republic of Haiti also welcomes the end of the state of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Agreement signed in Lusaka, under the aegis of President Frederick Chiluba, between the protagonists in this conflict is clear evidence that Africa is in the process of providing itself with the means to become master of its diplomatic and geographical destiny. The Republic of Haiti calls upon India and Pakistan to do everything possible to find a permanent solution to the Kashmir conflict and to put an end to their nuclear arms race, which is indeed a frightening process that diverts tremendous financial resources and brainpower to destruction when they could be put at the service of survival and development. Once again the Haitian Government reiterates its condemnation of all forms of terrorist activities that might cause material and human damage. We reaffirm our faith in the fundamental rights of man and in the general principles of international law as the basis of norms that govern the relations among States. In the face of the conflicts that threaten international peace and security, it is reassuring that the Director- General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Mr. Federico Mayor, has had the idea of promoting throughout the world the culture of peace, which is so vital to good relations within and between nations. The promotion of a genuine culture of peace is inseparable from the democratization of the international order. One of the fundamental aspects of this democratization lies in the solution to the question of equitable representation in the Security Council. It is time for this Assembly to reach a consensus on this subject of such crucial importance for the future of our Organization. An equally important point for establishing a genuine culture of peace is the implementation of United Nations resolutions in the realm of international security. Many resolutions have not been implemented when their implementation would be decisive, not only in the context of North-South relations, but also in the context of the indispensable relationships to be developed between States, international institutions and non-governmental organizations. Over the last two months, the Government and the people of Haiti have observed with sadness and helplessness the destruction wreaked and the terrible toll taken by the natural disasters that have struck Turkey, Taiwan, Greece, the Bahamas and the United States. We wish to reiterate to the people of these countries that we share their pain and offer our heartfelt solidarity, having ourselves, unfortunately, experienced such disasters. We take this opportunity to repeat that the Haitian Government is following attentively the evolution of relations between the two countries on the Taiwan Strait. Our Government notes with satisfaction that the two sides are undertaking measures to establish a climate of confidence, respect and prosperity, which will be of the utmost benefit to the peoples who live there. At the dawn of the new millennium, the fight for the elimination of poverty remains one of the most noble tasks of the United Nations system, in order to establish, as we are bidden by our Charter, better living conditions for the human beings living on this earth. 19 President Gurirab recently echoed the feelings of the vast majority of developing countries when he noted that globalization might open the floodgates of competition in such a way that certain States would be wiped off the map. Therefore it is up to the United Nations and to each country to examine attentively the means of remedying the ill effects of globalization on the social and economic structures of every country — and particularly its effects on small developing countries. Certainly globalization has its positive side, bringing human communities closer together politically, socially and culturally. But it must not be used as a pretext for a standardization that might neutralize the diversity that is the very strength of humanity. On the eve of the third millennium what should unite us more than ever, beyond our differences and often highly divergent interests, is the laying down of foundations to bring about the security of all and the elimination of poverty as the initial phase of a planetary process of true sustainable development.