CAR

I take pleasure in congratulating Mr. Opertti on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-third session, and I pledge my delegation’s full cooperation. I commend his predecessor, Mr. Udovenko, for bringing the fifty-second session of the General Assembly to a successful conclusion. I take great pleasure in expressing my pride in our Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan. His leadership and many achievements during the short period of his tenure are highly commendable. Just as this session of the General Assembly coincides with the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it also coincides, providentially, with the fiftieth anniversary of the commencement of peacekeeping operations by the United Nations. These coincidences are striking because, while one was envisaged in the Charter of our Organization and was the subject of painstaking negotiations, the other was a chance development, not having been envisaged in the Charter. Yet both have had a profound effect on the influence of the United Nations in global affairs and on the perception of the Organization by those whom it was established to serve and who were identified in the opening words of the Charter as “We the peoples of the United Nations”. The double celebration this year should also enable us to appreciate better the interrelationship between human rights and peacekeeping. There can be no question of human rights being enjoyed in a situation of conflict. Put another way, conflicts create conditions for the most outrageous violations of human rights, since, contrary to all international law and rationality, the most vulnerable in society — children, women and the aged — are often targeted and deprived of the most basic of human rights, the right to life. As we define and refine our Organization’s responsibilities in peacekeeping, which, by common consent, is now taken in its broadest sense to mean the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts, let us always be conscious that the universal enjoyment of human rights, one of the major aspirations of humanity, cannot and will not be achieved unless we devote as much effort to the elimination of the conditions that provoke the violation of those rights. I believe that it is with this fact in mind that international organizations, whether global, regional or subregional, have been devoting considerable time to devising effective means of preventing, managing and resolving conflicts in their various area of competence. Of course, the United Nations, with its unique role as the only global Organization invested with authority for the maintenance of international peace and security, is, appropriately, taking the lead in these efforts. Following “An Agenda for Peace” (A/47/277) and its supplement (A/50/60), and at the request of the Security Council, the 4 Secretary-General presented to us at this session his report entitled “The causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa”, document A/52/871. The report represents a very comprehensive and incisive study of the causes of conflict in Africa. The recommendations therein, if implemented by African countries as well as by the United Nations, could reverse the pestilence of conflicts which are ravaging the continent. In this connection, my delegation would like to underscore the role of the Security Council in dealing with African conflicts. While the Organization of African Unity (OAU) has demonstrated a commitment to taking the lead in the resolution of conflicts on the continent, the fact is that its Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution will take time and will require resources not immediately available to Africa if it is to evolve to its maximum capacity. In the meantime, the efforts of the subregional organizations, which are increasingly taking the initiative in their various regions, need to be adequately supported by the international community. My country, the Central African Republic, has been the beneficiary of such an initiative, which was taken by a group of African countries, to deal with the internal conflicts that erupted with three successive army mutinies in 1996. The Inter-African Mission to Monitor the Implementation of the Bangui Agreements (MISAB), which was composed of troops from Gabon, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Togo, was given strong logistic support by France. It operated in Bangui from January 1997 to April 1998 as both a force of interposition and a guarantor to ensure the observance of the peace accord which was brokered by four African heads of State. My delegation would like to pay very high tribute to the Presidents of Gabon, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Senegal and Togo for the great sacrifice they made in the interests of our continent. I should also like to pay great tribute to France for its invaluable support of the African initiative. At the request of my head of State, and with the agreement of the inter- African group, the Security Council graciously consented to send a United Nations peacekeeping operation to replace the inter African force. The United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA), which commenced operations in Bangui on 15 April 1998, is the first proactive mission established by the United Nations in Africa. It has been making a major contribution to the restoration of lasting peace and security in our country and has assisted the peace-building efforts of the Government and the people of the Central African Republic. It is a practical demonstration of the incisive observation of our Secretary-General, in his report entitled “The causes of conflicts and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development in Africa”, to the effect that “the deployment of a multidisciplinary peacekeeping operation may well represent the best chance to establish peace and build a foundation for lasting development, based on respect for human rights and the rehabilitation of civic institutions.” (A/52/871, para. 37) A major step in the restoration of the institutions of State in our country is the organization of a free, fair and transparent legislative election. In his letter to the Secretary-General requesting the assistance of the international community in re-establishing peace and security, my President, Mr. Ange-Félix Patassé, invited the United Nations, inter alia, to supervise the legislative and presidential elections in the country. That request was a measure of both the confidence which we have in the United Nations and our commitment to a transparent democracy built on the freely expressed will of our people. I wish therefore to express my Government’s satisfaction for the assistance of MINURCA in the preparations for the legislative elections. We are looking forward to the decision of the Security Council which will enable MINURCA to provide further assistance for the electoral process, thus giving all Central Africans the assurance of the freedom, fairness and transparency of this most important aspect of the democratic process. Needless to say, United Nations assistance in the process is a worthwhile investment in good governance, which itself is the sure foundation for peace, security and development. No effort should therefore be spared by our Organization in rallying to the support of those Member States that are making genuine efforts to instal a system that in itself constitutes a conflict-prevention mechanism. The cost of such support, which also constitutes an investment in peace-building, is in the end much less, and the results more satisfying, than those of a fire-fighting response after the outbreak of a conflict. Bearing these factors in mind, I wish to appeal, on behalf of my Government, to the Security Council to take a comprehensive approach that avoids a premature exit of MINURCA, thus compromising the objective for which the Mission was installed in Bangui. My Government has 5 exerted itself to fulfil the commitments made by President Patassé to transparency and accountability in his letter to the Secretary-General requesting the presence of the United Nations in our country. One major result of those efforts was the positive judgment of the Bretton Woods institutions which permitted the conclusion last July of a long-sought accord on enhanced structural adjustment facility. Needless to say, this would not have been possible without the assurance of security given by the presence and the activities of MINURCA. However, much remains to be done, and the presence and cooperation of MINURCA will be indispensable for success. Most important is the restructuring and retraining of our security services, both civil and military. The commencement by MINURCA of the retraining of the various categories of our police and gendarmerie services have already yielded some positive results, and the continuation of the programme, as is being done in other United Nations operations in other parts of the world, will prove an invaluable legacy of United Nations peace- building efforts in our country. Africa should not be denied this benefit which emanates from the reappraisal of the components of comprehensive United Nations peacekeeping operations. Civilian police training programmes have become an essential element of these operations, but they have not been known to commence and end in a period of nine months. An African situation cannot be presumed to be different, particularly when it is in the region now considered to be most prone to the phenomenon of conflicts. Besides, the restructuring of our armed forces is being commenced with the involvement of MINURCA, which was given a role to play by Security Council resolution 1182 (1998) of 14 July 1998. The joint committee consisting of representatives of the Government and of MINURCA is to elaborate the legal instrument which should form the basis for our defence policy and armed forces, as well as a comprehensive programme for a widely representative, national, and well-trained force that will also be a useful instrument for development. The hope of my Government is that the Security Council will allow MINURCA sufficient time to assist us in these indispensable peace-building endeavours. A withdrawal, as is being contemplated at this time, will not be in the interest of my country or of the Central African subregion, which is already in great turmoil. I cannot but recall once again the very pertinent observation of the Secretary- General in the report which he painstakingly compiled at the request of the Security Council: “the deployment of a multidisciplinary peacekeeping operation may well represent the best chance to establish peace and build a foundation for lasting development, based on respect for human rights and the rehabilitation of civic institutions.” (ibid.)