Botswana

Allow me, Sir, to express to you and to your delegation our sincere congratulations on your election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its fifty-second session. As you are an experienced United Nations diplomat, we entertain great expectations of your tenure of office as President of the Assembly. We wish also to pay tribute to the outgoing President, His Excellency Ambassador Razali Ismail of Malaysia, whose stewardship of the fifty-first session will forever be remembered for its creativity and dynamism. We wish him well and thank him and his country, Malaysia, for a job well done. The Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan, deserves in ample measure our gratitude for the professionalism he has demonstrated thus far in his leadership of the United Nations. His reports on the work of the Organization and on the wide-ranging reform of the United Nations system renew the confidence and trust we reposed in him when we elected him only nine months ago. We live in a rapidly changing world. The past few years have witnessed an unprecedented expansion of world trade and commerce, and the trend continues unabated. National boundaries are being transcended with ease in the interaction of national economies through a process which has been christened globalization. In the international political arena, there is increasing unanimity amongst the community of nations and other global actors that narrow national interests should be superseded by universal interests. These complex changes in the world outlook call for an enhanced role for the United Nations in international affairs lest change become brutal, especially for the developing countries. The United Nations has gained new international stature in recent years, thanks to the extirpation of the politics of paralysis of the cold-war era. “Blue Helmets” are today being deployed in situations formerly considered to be outside the range of the responsibility of the United Nations for the maintenance of international peace and security. The United Nations has also built international consensus through a series of conferences and meetings on areas and issues as diverse as women and development, youth, the environment, human rights, ageing, population, social development and human settlements, education and health, the outcome of which will guide the thinking and actions of the international community into the next millennium. Furthermore, the United Nations has proved its capability to deal effectively with the serious threats posed by nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, a capability which is often frustrated by a lack of political will and commitment on the part of Member States. 8 In short, in the present-day reality, no one country, big or small, rich or poor, weak or powerful, can exist in isolation or act unilaterally without suffering the consequences of its actions. Terrorism, drug trafficking, cross-border crime, the depletion of the ozone layer, acid rain, receding rain forests, advancing deserts, diminishing fresh-water reserves, poverty, disease and many more recognize no national boundaries; only collective action by the States Members of the Organization can arrest and reverse their advance. The United Nations is the mother of genuine multilateralism, and it should occupy centre stage in our thinking about international relations. The heavy responsibilities reposed in the world body by present-day international realities demand that the United Nations system should undergo substantial reform if it is to respond more efficiently and effectively to the needs and concerns of its Member States and their peoples, now and in the future. The United Nations system needs to be streamlined to remove administrative bottlenecks, weed out corruption and other malpractices and eliminate duplication in the activities of its organs, agencies, programmes, funds and offices. It is in that spirit that Botswana welcomes the recent reform initiatives of the Secretary-General as the basis for further discussion and debate on the reform process. My delegation will have occasion to pronounce itself on the various elements of the reform package in due course. At this juncture, I can only observe that Botswana is disposed to a holistic consideration of the package by the General Assembly. The reform proposals constitute a single unit, and its constituent parts should be discussed with that understanding in mind. This means, therefore, that those elements of the package — the greatest number, we would hope — which are acceptable to the majority of delegations, or on which general consensus is attained, should be implemented forthwith. True, many of the proposals are indeed revolutionary, as the Secretary-General himself concedes, and, if approved, they would in a positive sense change permanently the way the Organization operates. The reform package is the broadest and most extensive in the history of the United Nations and, in my view, is an appropriate response to the magnitude of the clamour for reform which has echoed through the halls of this Organization and which for some time now has even threatened its very existence. It would have been the height of absurdity for my delegation to have expected the whole reform package to be agreeable or acceptable to every delegation in this Hall, but I find the arguments and complaints from some quarters that the package does not go far enough preposterous to say the least. Reform, as the Secretary- General rightly reminds us, is not an event but a process. Reform should not and must not be apocalyptic. It cannot and must not become synonymous with the downsizing of the Organization to the extent that it would deprive it of the requisite human and material resources to render services to Member States, especially the developing countries. Such reform would be inimical to the efficacy of the United Nations. Reform should lead to a more efficient, more effective and more relevant United Nations, that is a United Nations with a capacity to foresee and respond adequately and expeditiously to imminent disaster situations around the world and to other needs and concerns of humankind today. The Secretary-General’s reform proposals have signalled the direction to take in the reform process; it is the collaborative response of the Member States which is awaited. I believe we are all very serious about reform of the United Nations; now is the time to approve and implement those reform proposals on which there is general consensus. Our commitment, seriousness and sincerity about United Nations reform would increasingly be called into doubt if by the beginning of the fifty-third session of the Assembly we had not implemented any of the reform proposals contained in the Secretary-General’s reform package. No one country, region or group of countries can arrogate to itself the right to dictate the reform agenda. What should be established is a balanced, equitable and non-discriminatory reform agenda in which the common wishes and interests of every Member State can find expression. This is the guiding principle my delegation will follow in its contribution to the ongoing reform process. The Secretary-General’s reform package is not the only momentous issue in the United Nations reform process. Close to four years have elapsed, and the debate on Security Council reform continues without an end in sight. It is obvious that, unless we can suddenly acquire Solomonic wisdom, we are unlikely to come to a successful conclusion of this debate in another four years 9 or even much longer. Yet there has emerged a body of thought which favours an increase in the membership of the Security Council, in both the permanent and non-permanent member categories, to reflect the configuration of today’s international political realities. Botswana was a member of the Security Council until the end of last year, and we are convinced more than ever before that the composition of the membership of the Security Council, as well as its working methods and procedures, needs reform. It is time for the debate on Security Council reform to be brought to a successful conclusion, so that all geographical regions can be equitably represented in the Council. We should not allow the debate to become sterile or degenerate into a dialogue between the deaf and the dumb. The financial health of the Organization is another issue which remains a source of deep concern and anguish to my delegation. The United Nations cannot be expected to deliver the goods without the necessary financial lifeblood. In other words, the United Nations cannot operate on the basis of a shoestring budget and be expected to carry out the heavy responsibilities imposed on it every day by Member States. It is therefore imperative that each and every Member State should meet its financial obligations to this Organization on time, in full and without any conditionalities, and clear all its arrears as a matter of urgency. The international community has made considerable progress in the struggle for democracy around the world since the end of the cold war. Today, peoples and nations across the spectrum of the African continent live in relative peace and tranquillity and are engaged in the reconstruction of their national economies, thanks to the emergence of a democratic culture. In spite of these positive developments, the reality is that Africa is still bedeviled by deadly conflicts. However, we are happy to acknowledge that fighting has ceased in Liberia. The Liberian people have at long last freely chosen their leaders, and their verdict was respected. The long-suffering and economically plundered Democratic Republic of the Congo today enjoys relative peace and security after a short but devastating crisis that ended with the overthrow of a 32-year dictatorship. The people of the Democratic Republic of Congo need the understanding and sympathy of the international community as they grapple with the reconstruction of their country. The final settlement of the conflict in Angola continues to elude the international community, but, thank God, there has been no resumption of hostilities so far. Progress is painfully slow, due to the failure by UNITA to honour its obligations under the Lusaka Protocol, and especially its refusal to disarm and demobilize its forces. The United Nations should monitor the situation in Angola very closely to ensure that the present slow progress does not assume a state of permanence or lead to a reversal of the gains made so far under the Lusaka process. The international community should continue to pay closer attention to the situation in Somalia and help the Somali parties hold a peace conference through which they can settle, once and for all, their long-running fratricidal conflict. There is a renewed sense of expectation that the efforts deployed to resolve the conflict in Western Sahara will bear fruit. It is our hope and wish that the Secretary- General, through his Personal Envoy, Mr. James Baker, will achieve a breakthrough which will lead to the final settlement of the Western Sahara conflict in the very near future. The situation in Sierra Leone is troubling. The overthrow of a democratically elected Government in Sierra Leone five months ago was a most unfortunate reversal of the political gains that had been achieved in that country. The international community has taken the correct line in making it clear that it will no longer tolerate any military dictatorships. The rejection and isolation of the military junta in Sierra Leone should serve as a warning to military leaders with similar designs that military rule is unacceptable, whatever the justification. The ballot, and not the bullet, should be the only way through which political leadership can change hands. While the situation in the Balkans remains generally tense, there is a light at the end of the tunnel signalling the arrival of a new era of national reconciliation in the constituent States of the former Yugoslavia. The time has come for the various ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia to realize that none of their countries can exist as an ethnically pure State without causing political tensions and reawakening centuries-old hatreds. Their future and destinies are, fortunately or unfortunately, inextricably intertwined by reason of geography and history. They should accept their fate for what it is. Conflict and war have failed to resolve the ethnic 10 composition of these States in the past, and are unlikely to resolve them in the future. We salute the Secretary-General for his recent initiative which brought together the leaders of the two sides in the Cyprus conflict in New York for talks. We encourage him to continue his good offices until the parties reach a final solution to this decades old conflict. Botswana supports the Middle East peace process. Experience has shown that peace in that complex cauldron of conflict cannot be achieved through war and bloodshed. Only painstaking and rigorous negotiations conducted in an atmosphere of give and take can lead to the desired result: the peace that everyone is yearning for in the Middle East. We hope that the State of Israel will realize the insensitivity of the construction of new settlements on Palestinian lands. This has contributed in no small measure to the current crisis in the Middle East peace process. No effort should be spared to put the Middle East peace process back on track so that the hopes and aspirations of the ordinary peoples of that region to live together in peace as good neighbours may be realized. We welcome the ongoing talks between the two Koreas, in which China and the United States are also participants. It is our ardent hope that the talks will lead to a decrease in political tensions in the Korean peninsula, and that the two Koreas will henceforth establish some common ground which will assist in the eventual reunification of their divided country. I wish to welcome the recent conclusion of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction. I wish the Convention enjoyed the support of all nations. Anti-personnel mines are diabolical and cowardly instruments of warfare which indiscriminately kill and maim their unsuspecting victims. They should have been banned a long time ago, before they claimed more lives and maimed many people. It is our fervent desire that the Convention will soon enjoy the support of all Member States. It is hoped that the experience gained in the campaign for the elaboration and conclusion of this Convention will be extended to all weapons of mass destruction. Several developing countries are still wrestling with daunting economic and social problems. The number of countries whose people still live in abject poverty and lack basic nourishment is on the rise, especially in Africa. Regrettably, multilateral assistance is declining rapidly in relation to the rising poverty in the developing countries. Only a handful of developed countries meet the agreed goal of 0.7 per cent of gross national product to official development assistance. At the same time, private capital flows have been directed to only a few countries. The United Nations funds and programmes are also unable to implement their respective mandates due to lack of resources. It is important that this trend be not only arrested but reversed through strengthened international cooperation for development. For meaningful development to take root in the developing countries, an enabling international environment should be established which can address such issues as macroeconomic stability, more open trade regimes in developed countries, stable financial systems, reasonable debt initiatives, such as those proposed under the World Bank’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Debt Initiative, and greater financial flows from developed countries to the developing countries. The international community must also make concerted efforts to support the development programmes of the developing countries in capacity-building, infrastructure and manpower development. Obviously, there will be an absolute need for a turnaround in the political and economic orientation of the developed countries in favour of global prosperity if these objectives are to be realized. It is such enlightened thinking, which promises economic and political rewards to the greatest number of the Member States of the United Nations, which is absent in the development bureaucracies of many developed countries. As always, our faith in the United Nations as a repository of the hopes and aspirations of humankind is genuine, deep-rooted and unassailable. We are a young and developing country in a troubled world — a world caught between the extremes of rampant globalization and resurgent isolationism. Our survival rests with this global Organization and its Charter, to which we pledge our unstinting commitment and loyalty.