May I first. Sir,
on behalf of my delegation and on behalf of the Government and people of
Gabon, convey to Ambassador Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria our warm congratulations
on his well-deserved election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its
forty-seventh session. His personal qualities and experience in international
affairs undoubtedly guarantee the success of our work.
Our congratulations also go to the outgoing President,
Ambassador Samir Shihabi of Saudi Arabia, whom we thank for the dynamic and
exemplary way in which he discharged his duties.
To the Secretary-General, whose recent election to head our Organization
honours all of Africa, we should like to reiterate our full support for
everything he is doing to promote preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and
peace-keeping, and particularly the peaceful advent of a new world order. His
great diplomatic experience is a guarantee of the fulfilment of his commitment
to carry out to the best of his ability his delicate and noble mission in the
service of the entire world community.
Finally, we welcome all those new States which have come upon the
international political scene recently. Their arrival, we are certain, will
strengthen the universality of our Organization and contribute to
strengthening the bonds of solidarity between Member States.
Since the end of the East-West confrontation our Organization has been
demonstrating its ability fully to play the role assigned it by the Charter
whenever Member States act collectively. It has demonstrated this
particularly in Afghanistan, Central America, Cambodia, Kuwait and Namibia.
This solidarity should be even more effective in settling other conflicts
which, regrettably, we witness elsewhere.
At the very opening of this session, the situation in Somalia is
particularly disquieting. How can we remain unmoved when we daily see on our
television screens faces bearing the imprint of war, disease and hunger? How
can we remain indifferent to the pain and tragedy of millions of women and
children whose only aspiration is to live in peace in their own environment
and to seek better development?
Is it not indeed scandalous that in our day and age war and the use of
force are still the means preferred by some to settle intercommunity
problems? Undoubtedly, this is a challenge to our collective intelligence.
In Somalia, as elsewhere, in a tremendous upsurge of human solidarity we
must make a collective effort to put an end to the fratricidal confrontations
in order to rebuild trust between communities linked by history and geography
that perforce must live in harmony.
For its part, and particularly in the case of Somalia, Gabon has taken
concrete steps along these lines.
This appeal equally applies to Mozambique, where natural catastrophes
have seriously exacerbated the complexity of a conflict on which discussions
are now under way. In this connection the Government of Gabon very much
valued the meetings in Rome on 7 August and in Gabarone on 18 September
between President Chissano and the leader of RENAMO, Mr. Alfonso Phlakama.
In another region of the continent, the situation in Liberia is also a
matter of grave concern. For two years now efforts to bring about peace on
the part of the Economic Community of West African States have encountered
obstacles despite the presence among the belligerents of 7,000 "White Helmets"
of the disengagement forces of the Economic Community of West African States
Monitoring Group (ECOMOG).
Apart from subregional action, which is highly commendable, the United
Nations has provided welcome aid to the Liberian population.
The international community clearly provides the necessary means for all
those who, despite their own difficulties, are making a contribution to
bringing about peace in those countries.
With respect to the situations in the Sudan, Rwanda, Niger, Mali and
Chad, the Government of Gabon will support all initiatives to bring about a
peaceful settlement of the disputes between members of the same family.
With respect to the situations in the Sudan, Rwanda, Niger, Mali and
Chad, the Government of Gabon will support all initiatives to bring about a
peaceful settlement of the disputes between members of the same family.
It is in this spirit that Gabon has often offered its good offices in the
settlement of conflicts in Africa.
The case of South Africa is of deepest concern to us. Indeed, the system
of apartheid has still not disappeared from the South African political
landscape. To be sure, a few months ago, under unprecedented international
pressure, the Government in Pretoria committed itself to a policy of reform
designed to eradicate this odious system. But for some months now we have
been witnessing an intensification of violence as a means of political
expression. The Boipatong massacre and the Ciskei events are unfortunate
examples which undermine the efforts to promote dialogue, which Gabon and the
international community at large so earnestly seek.
The promises of the South African Government gave some comfort to all
those who want a positive outcome to the situation in that country so that it
can join the comity of nations through the resumption of the Convention for a
Democratic South Africa (COPESA) talks. But nothing at the present time would
allow the international community to relax its pressure nor to reduce its
vigilance with-respect to Pretoria, particularly as our Organization, whose
recent initiatives deserve to be encouraged, is urgently demanding the
application of the principle one-man, one-vote.
With respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict, at the core of which is still
the question of Palestine, the new spirit now pervading international
relations, as well as the desire to reach a diplomatic solution voiced by the
parties involved, are conducive to giving a fresh and lasting impetus to the
peace process begun in Madrid in October 1991 which is currently continuing in
Washington.
How can we remain indifferent to the tragedy we are witnessing in the
former Yugoslavia, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Quite clearly,
what we have here is a major challenge where humanitarian assistance, even
with the help of military logistics, is not sufficient. Gabon, which wishes
to see a speedy peaceful outcome to this conflict, highly commends the leading
role now being played by the United Nations.
Generally speaking, all Member States expect our Organization to play a
decisive role in peace-keeping and in maintaining international security, as
well as in the eradication of poverty and in the struggle against famine.
That is why my country wholeheartedly supports the recommendations of the
Secretary-General contained in his "Agenda for Peace".
If it is to serve its purpose the Organization must restructure its main
organs in the light of the current international situation. To this end, the
political role of the General Assembly and the supervisory functions of the
Economic and Social Council should be further strengthened in order to make
the entire United Nations system more dynamic.
Furthermore, as President Bongo requested from this rostrum, first in
1977, when he was President of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and
then during the fortieth session of the General Assembly, the countries of the
third world should now be represented in the Security Council as permanent
members, in order to make decision making at that level more democratic.
International law is being completely rethought. Hallowed concepts of
yesteryear, such as "national sovereignty", "territorial integrity" and, above
all, "non-interference in the internal affairs of States", behind which the
international community was finding it more and more difficult to hide its
uneasy conscience, are now being given a new normative content.
Hence, for some years now, a new concept has appeared on the
international scene, and that is the "right to interference". It would
appear, a priori, to be contradictory with these very principles of "national
sovereignty", "territorial integrity", and particularly "non-interference in
the internal affairs of States", which underlie peaceful relations among
States.
But to assure that this right is not selective or abused, its exercise
should be the exclusive responsibility of the United Nations. Furthermore,
calling into question certain of these principles is not necessarily a
negative step. That step should be taken whenever these principles themselves
have led to crises.
In so doing, the United Nations could acquire more extended powers, and
hence given the appropriate means, which would enable it to exercise that
right, if need be, without any discrimination whatsoever.
In his most recent report on the work of the Organization, in 1991, the
former Secretary-General, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, wrote:
"No system of collective security will remain viable unless workable
solutions are sought to the problem of poverty and destitution,
afflicting the greater part of the world." (A/46/1, p. 12. VIII)
That is why United Nations action would also stand to gain if it were
similarly strengthened in the economic and financial fields. In this way, it
should continue in the direction it has already taken in order the better to
adapt itself to the new challenges facing mankind.
Economics now has a more prominent place in international relations. The
creation of an increasing number of subregional and regional economic
groupings, as well as the globalization of international trade, have turned
our world into one immense market whose working rules should be equitable.
The international community very quickly realized this requirement for
complementarity and solidarity when, in 1974, it established a new
international economic order.
Similarly, multilateral organizations, such as the European Economic
Community, by creating machinery to regulate world trade, have clearly
evidenced their desire to come to the assistance of the poorer countries by
creating the STABEX and SYSMIN systems.
In the same vein, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has
advocated for some years now constructive negotiations between producers and
consumers in order to strike a better balance between world supply and
demand. The efforts of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCIAD) are along the same lines.
In this struggle for development, we realize that the United Nations has
taken a number of initiatives, the most recent of which are: the International
Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade, the
United Nations Programme for the Economic Recovery of Africa, the Cartagena
Consensus and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
We can therefore say that, generally speaking, in recent years the world
has progressed to some extent towards greater solidarity among all peoples.
But there are still serious grounds for concern. Despite the progress made on
the debt problem, through the so-called Toronto, Houston and London measures,
the question of cancelling the debts of the least developed countries, and
considerably reducing them for the other developing countries, remains a
burning issue, particularly for the so-called middle-income countries.
Up to now Gabon, which falls into that category, has not benefited from
any of these measures, whereas at the same time it has seen a sharp drop in
its per capita income. It would be in the interests of no one, especially the
international community, if the African countries were to go into a downward
spiral of economic decline and indebtedness. Today everyone knows that the
measures that have been advocated with a view to enabling our continent to
escape from this impasse have, for the most part, proved to be inapplicable
because they are inappropriate. The balance of payments of some of our
countries has been affected by the international monetary system, which
influences international exchanges. Therefore, it is urgent that the
international community give much more backing to the developing countries, so
that they and the African countries in particular may participate in world
growth.
Africa, 70 per cent of whose exports consist of prime commodities, has
been hard hit by the detrimental effects of the fall in the prices of those
commodities, and it faces economic problems in addition to that of
indebtedness. Again, Africa has undertaken a programme of economic reform,
whose results because of the need simultaneously to implement political
reforms and the desire of Governments to achieve consensus in respect of these
programmes - have been very slow to emerge.
For all these reasons the international community should promote action
in three directions. First, it should stabilize, at a remunerative level, the
prices of non-petroleum products; secondly, it should readjust the
international monetary system by rationalizing policy on interest and exchange
rates; finally, it should provide a substantial increase in public aid to
African countries. In other words, we are advocating the creation and
implementation of a sort of "Marshall plan" for the African continent.
Generally speaking, the problem of combating underdevelopment is of central
concern to all of mankind. This is why solidarity should not be selective.
Nor should it be confined to mere declarations of intent the purpose of which
is to ease one's conscience. It should, for example, take the form of a
re-initiation of the process of negotiation on commodity agreements. The
success of this new form of cooperation effective solidarity between
peoples will affect the future of our planet and facilitate improvement of
the human condition.
I am quite certain that no delegation present at this meeting would like
the cold war to be replaced by North-South confrontation. That being the
case, it might seem illusory to pose certain problems albeit major problems
concerning the environment - if, at the same time, solutions are not proposed
for the benefit of those countries that have to exploit their raw materials in
a more or less intensive way.
Let us not be hypocritical. This is a requirement for survival, as was
demonstrated recently at the Rio summit on the environment and, quite
recently, at the summit of non-aligned countries. The conditions that are
necessary for the preservation of the environment, which is the real heritage
of mankind, should not be one-sided. The new concept of international law and
the new international order, to which I have referred already, can be reviewed
and corrected, and should take into account the new terms of world
equilibrium. Otherwise, economic growth and democratic development will be
jeopardized.
Despite the acute nature of the various problems to which I have just
referred, our Organization has a very gratifying record in the political and
diplomatic fields. It should also demonstrate its ability to meet the new
challenges facing mankind today. These include the questions of the
environment, AIDS and drugs. These subjects have introduced a new set of
problems into international thinking, and they require urgent and innovative
solutions. In this connection, the United Nations Conference on Environment
and Development has proved correct the vision of solidarity of those who have
always felt that the well-being of nations comes from consultation rather than
confrontation.
That Conference was a striking illustration of the ill-adaptedness of the
economic choices imposed here and there in the world, by comparison with the
resources available on the planet, and, I am quite certain, by comparison with
the real needs of our populations. The fact that this coincided with the end
of the cold war should make development as important a concept as that of
collective security, which has always been one of the main concerns of the
United Nations.
Undoubtedly development was one of the main objectives that the founding
fathers assigned to the Organization, but security needs have pushed
international cooperation in this area into the background. Its reinstatement
should take the form of a crusade against underdevelopment. I should like to
refer here to the concept of sustainable development, which was mentioned at
Rio in connection with my country's rational use of its forest lands. Gabon,
which has long since advanced from the stage of simple harvesting to that of
ecological management of its forest lands, could not fail to adhere to the two
conventions of Sio the conventions on biodiversity and on climatic changes.
Therefore, we shall be very pleased to host, in Libreville in
January-February 1993, the first African meetings as a follow-up to the Rio
Conference, and we extend a cordial welcome to the representatives of
participating States, and wish them a pleasant stay in Gabon.
I should like to conclude my remarks by calling for more solidarity -
solidarity in the settlement of disputes, in international security, in
co-operative relations between States and peoples, in relations between
international financial institutions, and in relations between all our
countries, without discrimination. In his report on the activities of the
Organization the Secretary-General says:
"We need a new spirit of commonality, commitment and intellectual
creativity to transform a period of hope into an era of fulfilment."
(A/47/1, para. 8)
We are talking here about the advent of this new international order a world
that is better and more human, one in which there is real solidarity.