Swaziland

Mr. President, on behalf of the delegation of His Majesty King Mswati III, Her Majesty the Indlovukazi and the Government and the people of the Kingdom of Swaziland, may I extend hearty congratulations to Mr. Harri Holkeri of the Republic of Finland on his election as President of this fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly. I also wish to pay my country's rich tribute to Mr. Holkeri's predecessor, Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Namibia, for his exemplary stewardship of the last session of the General Assembly. The Kingdom of Swaziland continues to develop quietly and peacefully, according to the wishes of our people. Against a backdrop of difficult economic circumstances, we have declared the year 2000 our Year of Delivery in a number of key economic, social and political areas. In the coming weeks, the Commission that is reviewing the national Constitution will complete its work, and we look forward to receiving its report. Those recommendations will be the result of an extensive and all-inclusive process of consultations and will reflect precisely the wishes of the entire Swazi nation. We believe this national exercise will further enhance the unity of the Swazi people and provide the best possible foundation for our continuing peace and stability. On the economic front, we continue to make every effort to achieve sustainable growth and to reduce the level of poverty among our people. In addition to encouraging both local and foreign investment, the Government this year launched an ambitious programme of initiatives called the Millennium Project, targeting the tourism and manufacturing industry subsectors. This project is designed to maximize the potential of the Kingdom in these areas and to reduce the current unacceptably high level of unemployment, which is threatening to undermine all our best efforts at development. Among the many challenges we face as a developing nation, there is no question that the HIV/AIDS crisis presents the most serious threat to our hopes of improving the lives of our people. In the last years of the twentieth century, much of the progress we have achieved in 32 years of independence in social welfare is being reversed by the rapid spread of this most terrible disease. HIV/AIDS represents the single most important issue facing our nation today, and we desperately need the support of the international community in our efforts to contain the threat to our very existence as a nation. We look to the United Nations to take a much stronger leadership role in this global crisis, and to help us to mobilize resources to reverse the catastrophic spread of the pandemic. During the Millennium Summit, the Kingdom of Swaziland joined other developing countries in expressing concern at the negative effects of globalization on our economies, especially in the context of the widening gap between the rich and the poor countries. We are, however, reassured by Summit's agreement to take measures to ensure that global trends such as globalization should have at their heart the principle of equitable benefit for all nations, regardless of size, level of development or economic strength. Thus, in recent years, we have waited with great expectation to benefit from initiatives, particularly in the area of preferential trade access, that have been broadcast by our international friends and partners as measures that are designed to help the developing world to overcome the negative effects of globalization. My delegation is optimistic, therefore, that the recently concluded Millennium Summit will indeed serve as an historic occasion of strengthening international peace and security, as well as the prosperity of our people, in order to establish a fair international order. Beginning with this session, what remains for all of us now is to see to it that the wishes of the founding fathers of the United Nations are fulfilled. Those wishes, ambitious as they may be, are not unreachable and can be achieved. This session, therefore, has the task of setting the pace for the dialogue that lies ahead. Both the Millennium Summit and this session of the General Assembly will have a 34 direct impact on the success of the United Nations in achieving the goals set by those great visionary leaders. Since the last session of the General Assembly, the Organization has held several global conferences. However, the implementation of commitments in some cases is regrettably slow. One of the priorities for the United Nations should be an effective, integrated and coordinated implementation and follow-up of all these conferences. The implementation should be further enhanced within the existing machinery of the United Nations through improving its functions. Peace-building is a prevention task of growing importance. With the disaster that befell the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), the United Nations is facing one of the most comprehensive tasks in its history, which perhaps has made the need to review peacekeeping operations more imperative. We remain concerned about the serious negative impact of the proliferation of conflicts in the world, particularly in Africa, on development capacity and on progress towards economic, social and political transformation. The situation in those countries affected by conflicts is appalling and deserves the Organization's urgent attention. In Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Angola, among others, have been the scene of terrible turmoil, mass murders, destruction of property and much suffering on the part of refugees over the years. The Organization of African Unity (OAU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have done much to contain and resolve some of these conflicts; and the United Nations has also rendered its support. While some progress has been made in resolving some of these conflicts, much still needs to be done, especially by the parties involved. The latter have a responsibility to observe agreements concluded and must work closely together with the United Nations and the regional organizations involved so that peace processes can be brought to a successful conclusion. With regard to the Middle East, we are encouraged by the continued efforts by President Clinton and other leaders to bring both Israel and Palestine to the negotiating table. We are hopeful that a long-lasting solution, which has eluded the region for so long, will be found soon. There is now more than ever a pressing need to finally carry out the long overdue substantial reform of the Security Council. The Council must fully recognize the new realities of the global landscape. It must have a more representative composition, and above all, it must be equipped to react to the crises and conflicts of today. Reform must involve enlargement to include both more permanent and non-permanent members, as well as strengthening its decision-making powers. The Kingdom of Swaziland unreservedly supports both the Non-Aligned Movement and the African Group positions in as far as the review of the composition and working methods of the Security Council is concerned. We do trust that the ongoing debate in the working group set up for this purpose will continue and that it will yield the much-expected results. The stage which the negotiations have now reached is such that it requires the commitment of all Member States if indeed the Security Council is to be equipped with all the tools it needs to be equitably representative. Participation of the United Nations membership at large in the decision-making process, transparency in its work and imposition of Charter restraints on the veto, with the aim of its eventual abolition, are indispensable imperatives. The enhancement of the relevance of the United Nations requires, first and foremost, strengthening the role and increasing the efficiency of the General Assembly through focusing its deliberations on contemporary challenges and problems facing the world, engaging it in timely and effective decision- making to address global economic and political issues and enabling it to seriously examine and effectively react to the work of the other organs of the United Nations, particularly the Security Council. In this context, we believe that the General Assembly, as the sole democratic universal and transparent organ, is the proper forum to carry out an in-depth analysis of the implications of the emerging debates on collective action. The Kingdom of Swaziland joins others in welcoming the Republic of Tuvalu as a new member of the Organization. The addition of Tuvalu brings closer to fruition the hope of the founding fathers to see a United Nations comprised of all the countries of the world. The United Nations is the only body that deals with all fields of human activity. It has been a catalyst of many initiatives that have improved the lives of peoples across the world. 35 In the same spirit of universality in which we welcome Tuvalu, the Kingdom of Swaziland wishes to reiterate its appeal to the United Nations regarding the question of the Republic of China on Taiwan. The Kingdom of Swaziland has in the past been in the forefront arguing in favour of the readmission of the Republic of China on Taiwan, and our position remains unchanged. The case for including the Republic of China on Taiwan in the activities of the United Nations and its associated agencies takes on even greater relevance in the light of the peaceful transition of Government following the successful expression of the wishes of the people of Taiwan in the elections earlier this year. Those 23 million people rightly consider it unacceptable that they are not represented in the one Organization that should be truly global, and that they deserve a review of the special circumstances surrounding their bid. The Republic of China on Taiwan has shown time and again its willingness to participate in efforts to bring about true global peace, development and stability, and we believe that the rest of the world is poorer for being denied their involvement. The Kingdom of Swaziland believes that this new millennium provides the perfect opportunity to raise this issue and to restore the right of the people of the Republic of China on Taiwan to participate fully in the activities of our Organization. There is no alternative to the United Nations. Its objectives and values are universal. We must spare no effort in seeing to it that the United Nations continues to meet the current and evolving needs of its entire membership. It must become the core instrument of effective and fair global governance, if it is to be completely transformed to be what its founding fathers had envisaged.