Gabon

As I address the General Assembly on behalf of the Gabonese Republic, I wish first of all to discharge the duty of sincerely congratulating you, Sir, on behalf of my delegation and on my own account, on your unanimous election to the presidency of the fiftieth session. The Assembly’s choice reflects the appreciation of all States Members of the United Nations for the contribution of your country, Portugal, to the quest for solutions to the problems besetting the world. Your election highlights your talents as a diplomat and statesman and your wide experience. It gives me pleasure also to express our gratitude and admiration to your predecessor, Mr. Amara Essy, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Côte d’Ivoire. The Gabonese Republic hails that fine diplomat and thanks him for the dedication and readiness to act he placed in the service of the world Organization at the forty-ninth 12 session; his work was a source of pride for the entire African continent. I cannot fail to mention the Gabonese Republic’s staunch support for the Secretary-General, His Excellency Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, in his tireless efforts in the service of peace, security and development. I wish now to say a few words about the unique nature of this session, during which the Assembly will convene in special meetings to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Organization. At those special meetings, Heads of State or Government will have an opportunity to assess the impact of some of the action we have taken pursuant to the purposes and principles of the United Nations. True, those purposes have not been completely fulfilled, but in all fairness we must acknowledge that there has been considerable progress, especially on respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and peace, without which nothing is possible. Yet development remains a major concern, despite the efforts that have been devoted to it. Every nation represented here is a reflection of mankind, whose common values the founders of the United Nations evoked. Among those values I would highlight those of greatest concern at the end of the twentieth century: peace, freedom and development. Gabon’s dedication to the ideal of peace is a constant element in its foreign policy and its diplomacy. The inclusion of that ideal in the Charter was most appealing to the leadership of Gabon and eased our accession to membership of the United Nations, on 20 September 1960. Hence, as a Member of the United Nations we took our proper place alongside other nations, in the harmony of our respective differences. I wish to pay tribute to the founders of non-alignment, who were the first to reflect in deeds, through the doctrine of peaceful coexistence, the principles enshrined in the San Francisco Charter. Twenty-five years later, the relevant resolutions of the General Assembly confirm that interpretation. We are duty-bound to go back to the source in order to respond to the need — the urgent need — for new, creative thinking in favour of peace. It is an honour and a duty to recall that Gabon’s experience in the settlement of conflicts has its living roots deep in Bantu civilization. Our view of solidarity among peoples gives a role to Gabon’s commitment to cooperate with all States Members of the United Nations whatever their ideology or the nature of their political regime. This promotes the virtues of dialogue and tolerance among peoples and nations, virtues we practice in our homes and within our families, virtues that, through the international action of President Omar Bongo, the Gabonese Republic has built into a principle of our diplomatic and political culture. Our idea of peace, then, is primarily functional in nature. It reminds us every day that the state of peace among nations is a continuous process, one which requires at all times vigilance, courage and consistency in our efforts. Gabon can state with pride that it is dedicated to the peaceful conduct of its relations with all the components of the international community. “We are judged by our actions”, a great thinker quite rightly observed. Those actions that we have been able to inscribe in the registry of peace, both bilaterally and multilaterally, follow the path traced by the Charter of the United Nations. They illustrate, first of all, our unswerving loyalty to the Organization, which makes us automatically involved in all the missions and all the actions it has undertaken anywhere in the world where peace has been threatened or might be threatened. The efforts made quite recently by the international community to heal the open wounds in Rwanda have had our full support. The efforts made by the same international community in Angola have often been supplemented by our direct or indirect involvement. It goes without saying that with regard to these situations my country appeals to the community of nations to continue its multifaceted assistance for the reintegration and rebuilding of those two countries. This appeal is addressed also to all the other areas of tension in Africa and in the rest of the world. These actions are also illustrated by our appreciation of and satisfaction with the progress achieved in the quest for peace in the Middle East with the signing of the Taba Agreement in Washington; and in Central Europe as a result of the new atmosphere brought about by discussions that made it possible for all the parties involved in the situation in the former Yugoslavia to meet together in New York. In our view, all these factors bear witness to the fact that the international community is prepared to attenuate as much as possible the anguish caused our peoples by the risks of war in the world. Nevertheless, every one of us would readily agree that real threats to peace in international relations still 13 exist today. The outline of a new world order is still hard for us to grasp; it shows us the paradoxical picture of a fragile peace. Yet our expectations of the establishment of this new world order are not fruitless. For the time being, Gabon gives due value to the dynamics which led, at the global and regional levels, to the creation of the mechanisms designed to prevent conflicts. While peace has the virtue of making us feel safer, freedom can open up prospects for individual and collective development. In the view of the founders of the United Nations, freedom is a decisive element for the establishment of an environment and an overall spiritual framework allowing for the emergence of social progress and the establishment of better living conditions. Those who signed the Charter received a mandate, as it were, to create the conditions for this, to the benefit of the people in their care. The results of this commitment to implement the principle of the right of peoples to self-determination and the principle of respect for human rights are known to all, just as we all know of, and regard highly, the actions taken by our Organization to inspire, to support and even to initiate policies undertaken in these fields. In this context, any policy contrary to this which calls these achievements into question will give rise to the reactions necessary to preserve the balance between States and to restore everyone’s rights. Therefore, our dedication to the principle of the inviolability of borders in Africa is a guarantee of our independence and our freedom, since it shows that we accept freedom for other States as well. My country’s experience in promoting and protecting basic political, cultural and social human rights in recent years has been outstanding. The establishment of a State based on the rule of law with a transition from a single- party system to a pluralist democracy has taken place smoothly. The results of this transition, and the promises born of this experience for democracy in our country, flowed from the fact that they dovetail with our cultural values, whose spiritual foundations favour the individual’s place in society, as the founder of and justification for our cities. In Gabon, dialogue is valid only for human beings since it is human beings who initiate it and carry it out for their own benefit. An example of this Gabonese practice of dialogue was the results achieved barely a year ago at the meeting held by representatives of the majority and opposition political parties in Paris in September and October 1994 to define together the ways and means for the consensual governance of our democracy that was then being threatened. These results will be reflected in the signing of the so-called Paris Agreements in the presence of international observers. Social conflicts and confrontations between opposing political forces can be overcome by rational discussions and tolerance of the opinions of others. We are truly convinced that coups d’état are not relevant in present times. That is why Gabon, through its President, Omar Bongo, firmly condemned the unfortunate events which occurred in Sao Tome and Principe, and more recently in the Comoros. Freedom, security and peace are in our view the very bases of our democracy. To be sure, this democracy is only taking its first steps, but it will undoubtedly enable the Gabonese people to reach a new stage in its history and its political life. Another dimension of the political and social problems in Africa and everywhere in the world is the status of women in society. In my country, women have the same rights as men. Our educational system ensures free access by all school-age children to instruction; that is in the interest of the entire Gabonese nation. In social terms, then, taking into account the recent concerns relating to the status of women and children, as illustrated in the World Summit for Children in New York in 1990, and the Beijing Conference in 1995, the Republic of Gabon has made choices that are in line with the spirit of the actions initiated by the United Nations. Once again, I would mention the founders of our Organization and praise their generosity of spirit in placing the happiness of peoples in the context of extending freedom. The solidarity advocated for States as the absolute prerequisite for defining ensuing strategies was designed to discourage them from any inclination of selfishness in the implementation of those strategies. Unfortunately, however, we must admit that this legacy has, instead, come to look more like “every man for himself”, a standard that has been set up as providing the ways and means to find happiness. The differences among nations have revealed the gaps between peoples the world over at the level of their development. However, in this sphere, the United Nations has tried to create a range of instruments and mechanisms designed to provide our Governments with the assistance they expect. Whatever the allegiance of the peoples represented 14 here, each and every one of us will acknowledge and appreciate, for example, the role of UNESCO in education, science and culture; of the World Health Organization on the basis of its contribution to the eradication of major endemic and pandemic diseases; or that of the United Nations Development Programme in carrying out development projects. Nevertheless, the overall verdict is still mixed. We believe that although our actions have allowed humanity to survive, they have not fully succeeded in improving the quality of life for most people. In both the South and the North, our world is still littered, not just with pockets but with vast tracts of poverty. All our States, small or large, are being eaten away, to various degrees, by the cancer of abject poverty. The United Nations recent decision to hold a world summit in Copenhagen devoted to social development was welcomed by Gabon, which was an active participant. President Bongo himself said that that Summit was the result of an in-depth analysis of the state of extreme poverty in which a large part of humanity was living today. Consequently, for our country, the programme of action drawn up at the end of the Summit — which, we are pleased to say, follows up the major guidelines already found in the United Nations programme of action for the establishment of a new international economic order, on the one hand, and the major principles of “An Agenda for Development”, on the other — should be translated into action, as hoped. We are all aware that, by the same token, this endeavour will require the mobilized contribution of all of the countries and bodies that constitute the international community. At the close of the twentieth century, Africa alone will have broken all records for underdevelopment. By way of example, it has three quarters of the least developed countries; it has the lowest level of growth; it is practically non-existent in international trade. Unfortunately, Africa is today a continent apart, despite its enormous potential. It, nevertheless, accepts the fact that responsibility for economic recovery is largely in its hands and that this task depends above all on its own efforts. But it is still obvious that the enormity of the crisis it is going through and the level of resources needed make international support for its efforts necessary. For Africa in general and for Gabon more particularly, a more appropriate approach to the debt burden would favour a solution to this issue, given the substantial inverse capital flows going to our creditors as a result of paying back our debt. Africa wishes to remind the world of its commitment to face its responsibilities with regard to debt and debt servicing. This was the position adopted by our Heads of State at the most recent Summit of the Organization of African Unity. Gabon supports this. However, it looks to the shrewdness of its creditors and in the understandable interest of all parties concerned in this issue, to help us obtain favourable treatment in conditions for repayment. Gabon effectively devotes more than half of its annual budget to debt repayment, thereby crippling its development efforts — this in spite of the fact that the machinery for debt reduction advocated in recent years has discriminated against us by excluding us from the list of beneficiaries. We suggest that the reason given, based on the high per capita gross national product, is unfair. This strange singling out of Gabon, which is still almost the only country in the so-called middle-income category in the southern Sahara, is not justified in reality. This situation places a burden on our economy and thereby affects our economic relations abroad. This appeal to the international community for fairer treatment of my country is not a case of begging — no more for Gabon than for the rest of Africa — because, as Omar Bongo stated at the Copenhagen summit: “Africa is not asking for charity”. In reality, helping our credibility and viability in economic and financial terms, actually strengthens the international trading system for the common good. This is not a matter of philanthropy but rather of common sense: helping the South means helping the North, and ultimately the entire world. At the end of this rapid reading before this Assembly, dealing with the themes of peace, freedom and development, my appeals to our Organization will be clear to all. It is expected to respond to the concerns I have just expressed. On the eve of the special meeting to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our Organization, I hope that all of its Members will realize the enormous import of this opportunity, for the world is changing before our very 15 eyes. The countries represented here are also changing, at different rates. Obviously, I cannot accept the idea that the United Nations itself could fail to keep up with this trend. For this reason, the measures advocated along these lines by the Secretary-General of the United Nations could be supplemented by others that my country would like to see, from the point of view of restructuring, and therefore readapting the United Nations system to the realities of today’s world. The present context is conducive to this. An overall reform of the system is required, for the security of our peoples, and of the States that comprise it, and in the final analysis, in the interest of renewing the United Nations itself. I conclude my speech, therefore, on this note of hope.