Guinea

It is a great pleasure and, indeed, an honour for me, to convey to the General Assembly the fond greetings of the people of Guinea, its Government and its President, General Lansana Conté, at the opening of this session, which so fortuitously coincides with the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of our Organization. The President returned to the Chair. I am very pleased to extend to you, Mr. President, my warm congratulations on your brilliant election to the presidency of the fiftieth session of the General Assembly. Your election and the outstanding efforts by your country, Portugal, within this great family of nations, are a cause of satisfaction to my delegation. I believe that with your experience and your abilities as a great diplomat, you will guide our deliberations with great success. I would join other delegations in paying a well- deserved tribute to your predecessor, Mr. Amara Essy of the sister Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, whose dynamism and great qualities as a sophisticated diplomat helped us move forward as our Organization sought answers to the challenges facing our world today. Also, I would here extend my Government’s appreciation to the Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for the enormous amount of work he has done and for the resolve and wisdom that he demonstrates in seeking solutions to all the fundamental issues, 16 particularly those relating to peace, security, development and democracy throughout the world. I should like to congratulate the people of Palau on their admission to membership in the United Nations as the 185th Member State. The presence of their delegation here with us confirms once more the universality of our Organization. It is clear that the last few years of this century are being played out against a background of crisis and conflict, creating an impression of uncertainty as to the future of the human race. But we must recognize that the international community has made considerable efforts in preparing global strategies for peace and security throughout the world, taking into account the environment, sustainable development, the emancipation of women and the protection of children. Despite these efforts, many parts of the world, sorely tried by poverty and backwardness, do not yet have sufficient food or enough drinking water, education or medical care. Civil war and natural disaster continue to endanger the economies of those same areas, which are already afflicted by a widespread world crisis. Entire nations, such as my own, the Republic of Guinea, pay a heavy price because of their geographical location. More than 600,000 refugees and displaced persons from Liberia and Sierra Leone are now living in our country. The Republic of Guinea will never abandon its humanitarian duty to its Liberian and Sierra Leonean brothers, and continues to suffer the consequences of a fratricidal war which has lasted for six years in one of those neighbours and three years in the other. It is true that relative calm, showing a clearer desire for peace in Liberia, has been noted since the agreements between the factions were signed on 19 August 1995 at Abuja. In the view of my delegation, this new choice of peace in Liberia also requires a clear-cut effort on the part of the international community. In this connection, one has to ensure better control of weapons flows in the region. The Government of the Republic of Guinea is resolved to take action to that end. Clearly, peace in Liberia will help to unblock the crisis in Sierra Leone and to establish in our subregion of West Africa an atmosphere of peace, security and lasting stability, which are all essential to our programme for economic integration. My Government also welcomes the Lusaka Agreements and we support all the efforts being made to implement those Agreements with a view to ending the crisis in Angola. It is our belief that if the political will shown on both sides is sustained, then the people of Angola will come to know the peace and stability they have yearned for so long and will be able to work for national reconstruction and economic and social development. Here we would pay tribute to the joint efforts made by the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and by the international community for peace and reconciliation in that brother country. On the question of Somalia, my delegation deplores the current blockage in the peace process. We would urge all parties to the conflict to demonstrate wisdom and mutual understanding with a view to finding a peaceful settlement to the crisis. Turning to Rwanda and Burundi, my delegation believes that to encourage major efforts by the international community, those involved in those societies must triumph over hatred, cultivate a spirit of forgiveness and promote love and dialogue. Today, the conflict in the Middle East is on a positive footing. In this regard, the advent of Palestinian autonomy in the Gaza Strip and Jericho, continuing negotiations for extending that autonomy to territories still under occupation, the Jordanian-Israeli agreement on borders and the Israeli-Syrian talks on the Golan are all significant advances that augur well for a comprehensive, just and lasting settlement of the question. United Nations resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, on recognition of the border between Iraq and Kuwait and on the situation in Afghanistan should, we believe, benefit from mutual understanding between those involved. The same holds true for the question of Western Sahara. In the Korean peninsula, we are pleased to see an easing of tension. My delegation would encourage the North and the South to pursue their efforts towards the independent and peaceful reunification of their country into a confederated republic in keeping with the principle of one State, one nation, two regimes and two Governments. Moreover, my Government is pleased that 17 the talks between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States of America have led to a negotiated solution of the nuclear issue on the peninsula and to an improvement in the relations between those two countries. In the former Yugoslavia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the multicultural and ancient civilization, born of the contributions of diverse peoples throughout the Balkans, is being jeopardized by human fury. My delegation believes that what is happening there, and indeed everywhere, should remind the international community of its responsibilities for peace and reconciliation among the peoples and their component groups. All the wars that are ravaging entire regions of the world today share, along with their countless dead, the phenomenon of an endless flow of displaced persons seeking, over mountains and through valleys, a place of refuge. Despite the international community’s spirit of solidarity, refugees and displaced persons experience the very worst deprivations. These days, their problem has grown to unprecedented proportions of gravity and complexity. Their numbers have increased from year to year, making it ever more difficult to manage the problem appropriately. In my delegation’s view, the crises that spawn refugees constitute genuine threats to regional stability and world peace. Guinea, which is participating in the United Nations security mission in the Rwandese refugee camps in Zaire, in keeping with a framework agreement signed with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and taking account of its own experience with Liberian and Sierra Leonean refugees, believes that no effort should be spared to calm extremism everywhere. That is why my Government supports all initiatives to strengthen the intervention capacities of the High Commissioner for Refugees. Guinea also supports the drafting of an agenda for humanitarian action along the lines of “An Agenda for Peace” and “An Agenda for Development”. Despite the end of the East-West conflict, nuclear weapons remain the greatest threat to international peace and security, in spite of the remarkable progress made in bilateral and multilateral disarmament negotiations. Many dangers still threaten our efforts to achieve a collective security that would include the related issues of development, environment and human rights. In certain key areas, there is an evident and growing trend in the trafficking and use of chemical and fissionable materials in conflicts, as well as the hidden or overt desire of some countries to possess nuclear weapons. These facts represent dangers that increase the responsibilities of the United Nations, which is called upon to take rigorous verification measures. That is why the Republic of Guinea welcomes the positive outcome of the New York Conference which led to the indefinite and unconditional extension of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. This was undeniably an important step towards nuclear disarmament and confirmed the special responsibility of the nuclear Powers. However, if it is to be effective, this achievement must be complemented by the immediate conclusion of a comprehensive nuclear-test-ban treaty. All nuclear tests must be prohibited. It is obvious that this quick overview of the major concerns of our age — those relating to international security — amply demonstrate the importance today of United Nations peace-keeping operations. My Government therefore welcomes the special attention given by the United Nations to the settlement of conflicts in the world. We support the relevant views expressed by the Secretary-General in his Agenda for Peace. None the less, while welcoming United Nations involvement in various theatres of operation throughout the world, we must also recognize that over the past few years the peace-keeping operations have, for the most part, yielded somewhat meagre results. This requires today, in the light of our experience, a reformulation of the entire issue of such operations. If they are to be effective, peacemaking and peace- keeping operations must be the subject of broader agreement and dialogue among all the States Members of the United Nations, without discrimination. It is in that context that Guinea welcomes the establishment and work of the mechanism of the Organization of African Unity for the prevention, management and settlement of conflicts in Africa. We urge the United Nations and the international community to give it all the necessary assistance. Economic and social development is a prerequisite of lasting peace and security. In developing countries, particularly in Africa, a sense of insecurity arises out of uncertainty in the future. It can thus be easily understood why we often see a collapse of political and social balances, leading to civil disorder and ethnic and religious conflicts. 18 Despite United Nations efforts in the economic and social field, the results remain meagre in some regions of the world, particularly Africa, which is still deeply affected by inequality, poverty and other serious problems that often weaken the social fabric and undermine the foundations of our States. Recent trends in the world economy have helped to worsen this already precarious situation. Thus, the debt burden remains the main obstacle to development in poor countries, forcing them to devote a major share of their scarce resources to it. The collapse of the prices of commodities, which are their main contribution to the world market, has added to their poverty. On top of these harsh conditions come the effects of the implementation, by some of our States, of structural adjustment programmes that are sometimes poorly prepared and often poorly implemented. If all of these various reforms undertaken by our countries are to bear fruit, all of the partners, national and foreign alike, will have to support Africa’s development efforts in an effective way. If they are to be mutually beneficial, the proceeds of all public and private assistance will simply have to take account of everyone’s respective requirements for well-being. Within the framework of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Guinea welcomes the Marrakesh Agreements that gave rise to the World Trade Organization. Those Agreements will be viable, however, only if they take genuine account of the need to promote the integration of the African economy into the world economy by developing its capacities and making it more dynamic. In this connection we strongly support the idea of setting up a commodities diversification fund. My delegation greatly appreciates the special attention given to Africa at the summer session of the Economic and Social Council in Geneva, which considered the conditions for implementation of the United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa in the 1990s. Bilateral initiatives must be supported in order to strengthen South-South cooperation on the one hand and to continue the North-South dialogue on the other hand. Moreover the Agenda for Development must focus primarily on Africa, where much of the population lives in poverty. Implementation of that Agenda, complementing the Agenda for Peace, will make it possible once again to measure the new political will that has emerged at recent international conferences on social development, population and development, and women. The Secretary-General’s Agenda for Development offers an appropriate framework for North-South dialogue and it must also enable the United Nations to provide better coordination for, and to make more operational, the policies and programmes implemented by its specialized agencies and institutions, which have had a very limited positive impact on the economies of developing countries so far. In this connection my Government notes with real interest and much hope that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations will be organizing a world summit on food security in November 1996. That world-wide meeting will make it possible we believe to formulate specific and appropriate solutions to the serious economic problems facing developing countries. Of course, all these hopes will be in vain if the States of the world are unable to crush drug-trafficking and abuse. While reconfirming our support for Agenda 21 and all the agreements on sustainable development, we believe that it is only greater political will that will make it possible to translate into action the decisions that emerge from these various meetings. At the Halifax Summit, held from 15 to 17 June last, the Group of Seven quite rightly recognized that sustainable development was one of the major challenges of the twenty-first century. At that meeting it was also said that better quality of life for all was the objective of sustainable development, the foundations of which are democracy, human rights, transparent and responsible management of public affairs, investment in the human individual and protection of the environment. Guinea welcomes the commitments entered into by the Group of Seven to support national efforts in this area. Protecting fundamental human rights, meeting human needs, achieving social justice and human development are still the focus of concern of the Government of Guinea in its ambitious economic and social reform programme, which has been under way since 1984. Guinea is party to several international conventions relating to human rights because it is firmly committed to promoting and protecting these fundamental rights and freedoms. 19 Today I am happy to be able to tell the international community that my country completed instituting its democratic republican institutions in June this year when we organized our multiparty legislative and municipal elections. The successful completion of this process of democratization, the establishment of a State of law, and the liberalization of the economy in the Republic of Guinea all benefited from the support and understanding of the international community as a whole and I should like to thank you all for this. The United Nations and its specialized agencies, as the paramount instrument for cooperation and multilateral agreement, see their responsibilities increased today more than ever before. Today this universal Organization has certainly acquired a certain prestige. Its help is requested in every area. To strengthen its effectiveness on this fiftieth anniversary of its founding, the United Nations must restructure and revitalize its principal organs in the light of the changes that have taken place in the international arena and taking account of the challenges facing mankind in the forthcoming millennium. The reforms must be based on the principle of equality among Member States at the level of decision-making bodies and also within the various organs. It is only in this way that our common heritage, this irreplaceable tool, this United Nations, will be able successfully to discharge its mission of preserving international peace and security and promoting a fairer world, more equitable and more prosperous world. The success of this institution does depend of course on an improvement in its financial situation at a time when its responsibilities are constantly increasing in this ever- changing international situation. The United Nations has existed for half a century now. The solemn celebration of its first 50 years coincides with the twilight of the twentieth century and it offers its 185 Members an opportunity to try to revitalize its activities and to agree on equitable representation within its principal organs. In Guinea commemoration of this historic event is taking place with the full support of our Government. May the decades to come bring greater understanding among people and among nations so as to ensure the greater happiness of mankind.