Congo

It is a pleasure for me to convey to you, Sir, the satisfaction of the delegation of Congo at seeing you conducting our work. Your unanimous election to the presidency of the fifty-third session of the General Assembly not only denotes recognition by the international community of your great qualities as a statesman and experienced diplomat, but also attests to the important role played by your country, Uruguay, in the maintenance of peace in the world. 12 Mr. President, I wish to convey to you and to the other members of the Bureau our heartfelt, sincere congratulations and to assure you of the full cooperation of the delegation of Congo. I should like also to pay well- deserved tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Hennadiy Udovenko, for the competence and open-mindedness with which he conducted the work of the previous session. Finally, I wish to express the appreciation of our delegation to the Secretary-General of our Organization, Mr. Kofi Annan, who, in a world where violence, injustice and frustration predominate, has been tirelessly striving to assert the virtues of dialogue and tolerance and to promote peace and development. Peace and development: these two ideals have for decades posed a major challenge to the international community. It is very difficult to take the floor after all of the outstanding and talented speakers who have spoken from this rostrum. What more could I add to all of the points so eloquently made about Africa and the rest of the world? For more than a decade now, Africa has made the headlines only as the result of crises and conflicts: civil wars, inter-State wars, drought, famine and epidemics. All of these obstacles so impede the development of our continent that we cannot but wonder whether Africa will be entering the third millennium on the wrong foot. Unfortunately, Congo, my country, is an example of this. A year ago, Congo had been in the throes of a civil war for five long months. The international community and our Organization in particular strove hard to find a negotiated solution to the conflict. We wish to pay tribute to the commendable efforts made by the Secretary-General jointly with a numerous African heads of State. Unfortunately, we all know that these efforts were unsuccessful. We are convinced that respect for the state of law and good governance remain, in a sound economic environment, a prerequisite for the well-being of our peoples. And it is because they did not understand this point that the former ruling class imposed on the peaceful citizens of my country two civil wars in the space of five years, the latest of which — that of 1997 — was the most deadly and the most devastating. We do not intend to dwell on the many ways the former regime violated the rules of democracy, even if this would be helpful in understanding the causes of the tragic events that my country has experienced. Today the war is over. Congo is resolutely looking to the future. The future means national reconciliation; it means rebuilding our devastated country; it means resuming the democratic process. From 5 to 14 January last, a national forum was held at Brazzaville to study practical modalities to attain these goals. That forum, which brought together more than 1,400 participants representing all segments of Congolese society, established a transitional Parliament and set the duration for this transitional period at three years. The Government of National Unity and Public Salvation is now concentrating on the following priorities: the reconciliation of all the sons and daughters of the country; the rehabilitation of our infrastructure; the restoration of State administration; the resumption of the democratic process — census-taking started again last August; the reorganization of our national economy with, inter alia, the privatization of the major State companies; and the resumption of negotiations with international financial institutions, which concluded in June this year with the adoption of a post-conflict programme. Today, in the light of the results obtained, we can state that the transitional timetable will be respected. These encouraging results have yet to be consolidated, and our country is still fragile because of the turmoil in the subregion. The events taking place in the Democratic Republic of the Congo cause great concern to my country, since our stability largely depends on that of our neighbours. I therefore want to reaffirm the Congolese Government?s commitment to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Our country will never serve as a base of operations for the destabilization of this fraternal country. Understanding the costs of civil war and anxious to contribute to finding a political solution to this crisis, Congo (Brazzaville) has been working with its various contacts among all the States of the subregion. This was the case in Durban during the summit of the Non-Aligned Countries, when President Denis Sassou Nguesso met most of his counterparts, and more recently in Libreville, at the summit of Central African heads of State. Our country intends to honour its commitments under the relevant provisions of Conventions of the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations 13 relating to refugees and displaced persons. Therefore, I must solemnly repudiate the false allegations by certain media of a supposed agreement between the Governments of the two Congos to transfer displaced Rwandans located in Congo (Brazzaville) to Congo (Kinshasa) so that they can participate in the war. The displaced Rwandans living in Congo (Brazzaville) are in fact under the control of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and any movement of them is taking place without the support of our Government, which wishes to inform the international community that it refuses to accept any responsibility for the consequences. In Angola the hopes aroused by the Lusaka Protocol have been continually dashed by the bad faith and sudden reversals of position of Mr. Jonas Savimbi, who is thereby taking a whole segment of the Angolan people hostage, denying them the opportunity to pursue development tasks. My country firmly supports the Angolan Government in its efforts to achieve lasting peace in the country and to finalize rapidly and completely the implementation of the Lusaka Accords. My country completely supports the decision adopted by the Southern African Development Community heads of State or Government in Mauritius, describing Mr. Jonas Savimbi as the person solely responsible for the deterioration of the situation in Angola and calling upon other States to refrain from providing any support for Mr. Jonas Savimbi and his militarist wing. I would like to take this occasion to pay tribute to the memory of Alioune Blondin Beye, a worthy son of Africa, who gave the best of himself, including making the supreme sacrifice, in the search for peace in Angola. As regards other hot spots, the Congo always advocates negotiated solutions. Therefore, we welcome the ceasefire in Guinea-Bissau, and we hope that it will be used to work out a final solution to that conflict. The same goes for the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea; in this regard, we support the efforts of the Organization of African Unity mediation committee. We cannot overlook the crises and tensions prevailing in other parts of the world, notably in the Middle East, where the peace process relaunched by the Oslo Accords is now stalled, but also in South Asia, where the recent nuclear tests conducted by India and then Pakistan have heightened the already high level of tension. The establishment of just and lasting peace in the world requires full recognition of the destabilizing factors as well as of the real solutions to development problems. One only needs recall the extent to which peace and development are linked. In the light of the changes in the world, and after more than half a century of existence, the United Nations seems to be gradually and dangerously moving away from the vision of its founding fathers. Solidarity seems to be giving way to a selfishness that has no time for solidarity. This new trend is making increasingly difficult the management of economic questions, which have already been the subject of much thought, without producing any prospect of an improvement in the living standards of the peoples of most of our States. Violence, famine, disease and poverty continue to afflict our peoples. The underlying causes of these scourges are constantly the subject of a multitude of studies and various economic stimulation and development programmes, but without result, because of a lack of real commitment by the international community. The Agenda for Development, the international strategy for the development of Africa, the Secretary-General?s System-wide Special Initiative on Africa — to cite merely those examples — are just so many plans that no longer give reason for optimism. Today globalization is supposed to be the panacea. This at least is the philosophy of worldwide liberalization. But how can we be confident when the export opportunities for the developing countries are often neutralized by protectionism in a new guise, which uses various pretexts — technical standards, environmental and social concerns, or even concerns about human rights? How can we be confident when official development assistance continues to decline? How can we be sure when the weakest economies are bending beneath the burden of debt? With regard to Africa, we believe that through economic integration we can mitigate the undesirable effects of globalization. Through greater solidarity we can hope to meet the challenges we face. This year the international community is commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is very significant that this anniversary coincides with the establishment of the International Criminal Court, which our Government considers to be a major step forward. We believe that this event puts the finishing touch to the magnificent edifice 14 that the founding fathers began constructing more than 50 years ago. But today?s United Nations is not the same as the old one. Where once there were only a few dozen Member States, today there are 185. The problems of peace and development are not what they were in 1945. It is time to review the management of our communal house. It is time to reform the Organization, including the Security Council. It is time to democratize the Organization in order to better adapt it to the requirements of the coming millennium. I cannot conclude without expressing the compassion of the Congolese Government and those affected by the calamity now afflicting the Caribbean and the southern United States as a result of hurricane Georges. This wanton unleashing of the forces of nature reminds us that we are all, large and small, in the same boat — our planet Earth — and that we must show solidarity to one another.