Kyrgyzstan

I wish to congratulate the President on his appointment to this highly responsible and important post. My delegation will work constructively with him during the course of this, the forty-ninth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Since the end of the Second World War, the fiftieth anniversary of which we shall be celebrating next year, the world has been engaged in peace-building. It has been a long road, and it has not been without its dramatic moments. Over the past half century the world has come to the brink of nuclear war many times. Now, with the end of the cold war, with the dissolution of the bipolar world, a new challenge has arisen in the shape of a series of wars and conflicts based on ethnic and religious intolerance that have exploded in many different areas of the world. In his report "An Agenda for Peace" the Secretary General spoke of the concentration of efforts towards preventive diplomacy, of steps for increasing international confidence-building and achieving early recognition of conflict situations. Such measures have taken on special importance in our countries with the fall of totalitarianism, because we have inherited many long- standing issues of conflict that had previously been hidden and suppressed by a regime of terror in the conditions of that time. The United Nations, in our view, could play a leadership role in the study of typical conflict situations. It could systematize the approaches, principles and paths for the resolution of traditional issues of dispute such as border issues, the sharing or allocation of water and other natural resources, the self-determination of nations and territorial integrity, and the protection of minorities on the basis of ethnic, religious, linguistic and other differences. This would allow the United Nations to establish a legal basis for decisions that would help decrease the potential for new conflicts and aid in the resolution of existing problems. Only by following the highest authority of law, and only on the basis of international law, can we weave a solid fabric of peace throughout the planet, in all of its smallest corners, no matter how remote or provincial. Violence and intolerance among people have led to unending war and bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia. The tragedy of Bosnia poses a challenge to all humankind. Fifty years ago the nations of this world, having united, put an end to nazism and genocide. Why then are we now moving so slowly in the face of the violence that is obviously based on ethnic and religious discrimination and that is reverberating throughout the planet? We stand for a political settlement of conflicts. We call for both sides to put an end to the bloody slaughter. In our view, the recommendations of the Contact Group provide a way out of this crisis and hope that peace can be restored in the heart of Europe. We greatly value the efforts of the Secretary- General, his Mission and the Observer Group of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) to resolve issues peacefully in Tajikistan. We welcome the recently signed cease-fire in Tehran, in accordance with which hostilities have temporarily ceased and political prisoners and prisoners of war are being released. We have great hope for the gradual end of this crisis and for the unification of the Tajik peoples, who have experienced more than enough sorrow and suffering, for the return of all refugees to their homes and for the restoration of peace with our neighbours. We express this hope now, before the coming winter, and call upon all 31 countries to render vitally important humanitarian aid to Tajikistan. We are following with great concern and alarm the situation in Afghanistan and welcome the efforts towards settlement. The restoration of peace in that country and the achievement of national reconciliation would bring long- awaited peace to the Afghan people, who have suffered so much, and drastically improve the situation in our region of the world. That region is exhausted from gunfire and war. It is yearning for trade and a return to tilling the soil. Notwithstanding the tremendous difficulties inherent in our search for peace and accord in that country, we urge the world not to give in either to moral or to donor fatigue. It is not possible to dodge responsibilities during this trying period because the deadly conflict in this country has been brought about by participation on many different sides. Afghanistan has a plethora of weapons. The country is prey to a non-stop and intensive arms race. Hope for peace can be guaranteed only if the international community devotes its unwavering attention and political will to unravelling the knot of the Afghan conflict. That is why my country has consistently called for completion and effective implementation of the Register of Conventional Weapons. We support the initiative of the United States announced by President Clinton on the ratification of and support for General Assembly resolution 48/75 K of 16 December 1993 on a moratorium on the export of land-mines. The Kyrgyz Republic has consistently stood for a comprehensive, effective reduction in conventional arms. We are actively and diligently working on the conversion of our defence industry to civilian production. Kyrgyzstan, as a non-nuclear State, signed the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and advocates transforming it into an agreement of unlimited duration. We welcome the efforts of all countries - and first and foremost the United States of America and France - to reach a consensus on the issue of a comprehensive nuclear- test ban. We support the initiatives put forward by President Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan on confidence-building measures in Asia, and we envisage our region of Central Asia, located as it is between two nuclear Powers, as an area free of nuclear weapons. That would be our Central Asian treaty. Our world, so full of anxiety and so weary, believes that hope for peace is not an illusion. I recall with great excitement the unseasonably warm day of 13 September 1993 at the White House in Washington when, after many years of conflict, a declaration of principles on Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and Jericho was signed by the Israeli Government and the Palestine Liberation Organization. It is with great satisfaction and happiness that we see together with us in this Hall representatives of the Government of South Africa that was elected on a democratic basis. Let us stock up on patience. We can achieve breakthroughs and visible results on the difficult path to peace and concord only if we do not give in to fatalism. United Nations peace-keeping efforts are achieving significant success in settling many of the conflicts of our time. We know that 75 countries are participating in 17 United Nations Missions overseeing the holding and monitoring of elections, rendering humanitarian assistance during disasters and restoring what has been destroyed, as well as ensuring a United Nations military and police presence. The issue of creating reserve peace-keeping forces has now been raised. From this rostrum we hear the commitment of dozens of countries to peace-keeping operations. We need the blue helmets of peace, not the mercenary black helmets of death which have recently participated with increasing frequency in conflict zones around the world. Fully aware that peace-keeping operations are an important factor in the future new world order, my country, with its highly qualified doctors, nurses, engineers and rescue workers, would like to participate in peace-keeping operations. We accept and support the proposals that many countries have made here at the General Assembly during discussions of peace-keeping issues with regard to the need and opportunities for conducting training of military and civilian personnel on both a multilateral and a bilateral basis. Such possibilities are also open to us as participants in the Partnership for Peace programme of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). As a country experiencing a period of emergency and in need of immediate assistance because of natural disasters and social hardships, we warmly support the proposal of Argentina’s President Menem that a civilian service be created to provide immediate humanitarian assistance under the auspices of the United Nations. 32 Development is the main problem facing young democratic societies. Thirty years’ experience of North- South collaboration has taught us, the new 1990s generation of independent countries, instructive lessons. It is easy for our achievements and our real advantages to become lost in the picture of the protracted drop in production levels and the destruction of the social infrastructure. The people of Kyrgyzstan are grateful to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other institutions in the United Nations family that have sought to help us at this difficult time. In the face of a sharp increase in drug trafficking, interwoven with transnational organized crime, first in our region and then through Russia to Europe and other continents, we need energetic and massive measures to block the drug-distribution routes and destroy production. The United Nations International Drug Control Programme has become truly critical in our region. As a whole, we would like to see greater action and coordination of the work of the United Nations specialized institutions with the new States, both at their headquarters and in their regional offices. It is noteworthy that not only traditional developed countries, but also developing countries, which bear the burden of their own numerous economic and social problems, have helped in the establishment of the newly independent States and their entry into the world order. And this has particular significance. We are firmly convinced that the timely rendering of full-fledged, effective assistance to us - countries with transitional economies that must now choose their own paths at this difficult time - will help us to stand more quickly on our own two feet, form the foundation for a market economy and develop democratic foundations for society. We ourselves will then be able to render speedier assistance to the more needy. We support such a policy of reaching out towards solidarity, mutual support and collaboration. Bearing in mind the close collaboration of countries with transitional economies with international financial and economic institutions, precise coordination and deeper interaction of the work of the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions are becoming increasingly necessary. The Kyrgyz Republic welcomes and shares the objectives and fundamental parameters of development set forth in the preliminary report of the Secretary-General, "An Agenda for Development". These are peace, economic growth, the environment, justice and democracy. The recent World Conference on Population and Development in Cairo and future Conferences on social development and the improvement of the status of women testify to the world’s deep concern about the situation of basic human needs at the turn of the next century. If human rights are all-inclusive, universal and inalienable, then these rights also pertain to all women and children on Earth. The improvement of the status of women is key to resolving vital social problems such as those involving population, education and health care. In other words, it is the most important issue on the eve of the twenty-first century for an agenda for humanity. In my country, we will fully support and are ready to cooperate with the newly appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. We in Kyrgyzstan, a country in which over 80 ethnicities reside, seek to create equal and just conditions for all of our citizens. There are no restrictions on the development of culture, the arts, education or media in the languages of all ethnic groups. Along with an increase in mosques, the number of Orthodox and Protestant churches is growing. Committed to ideas of friendship and concord, we are consistently working on programmes and measures to halt migration from our country and to preserve the present multi-ethnic composition of society. On the basis of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities adopted at the forty-seventh session of the General Assembly, my country, together with the Russian Federation, cosponsored a CIS convention on the rights of ethnic minorities, which is currently open for ratification to all other Commonwealth members. Democracy in my country is very fragile. Political pluralism, freedom of the press and speech, and adherence to human rights and fundamental freedoms in the Republic are not accidental gifts from above but genuine values for which a real struggle is being waged in society - the struggle between openness and isolation, blind force and respect for the law, totalitarian ways and commitment to freedom. But the people of Kyrgyzstan, headed by President Askar Akaev, having made its choice three years ago, firmly and unwaveringly stand for democracy and a market economy. 33 A tectonic political, social, and economic shift is taking place across the enormous Eurasian land mass. The success of the present transformations in Russia strengthens our own awareness of the irrevocability of the choice of the democratic way. Kyrgyzstan, like other nations of the Commonwealth of Independent States, is deeply committed to democracy, the principles of freedom and independence, and the philosophy and spirit of the creation of peace. My ancient people, yet still a young nation, like the "Manas" - a Kyrgyz epic poem of a million lines - the millennium of which we will celebrate in 1995, is undergoing a renaissance. We realize that a long and thorny path awaits us. But the most important thing on that path is peace, which is the same for everyone on this Earth and is indivisible.