Burkina Faso, 1992

At the

outset, I should like to convey the sincere congratulations of the delegation

of Burkina Faso to Mr. Ganev on his election to the presidency of the

forty-seventh session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. In him,

we pay a tribute to Bulgaria and to the qualities that earned him these

responsibilities.

We also pay a tribute to the devotion and conscientiousness with which

his predecessor, Ambassador Shihabi of Saudi Arabia, performed his duties.

Nine months after our Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali,

assumed his post, his energy, creative imagination and firm determination have

left their mark on the activities of our Organization. By strengthening its

universality, all the countries that have been admitted since the forty-sixth

session give us grounds for joy. We wish them all a warm welcome and we have

no doubt that we will all work together to attain the ideals of the United

Nations Charter.

Our times have seen the irrepressible aspirations of peoples to freedom,

national identity, and well-being flourish with more vigour and insistence

than ever before. For some, these aspirations arose from the depths of their

alienation, which they now reject; for others, from the example thus set by

the former. Baptized as a "wave of democratization", this tempest, sometimes

coinciding with developments already under way, swept away many inappropriate

or obsolete human edifices to lay bare the ruins or foundations from which we

must start building.

Born in 1987, the democratization movement in Burkina Faso, after years

of an emergency regime, led to pluralism, to the election of a Head of State

on 1 December 1987, and to general elections held in May 1992, in which the

political parties asked the people for their votes. Today, democratic

institutions are in place and the opposition, which sits in the Assembly, is

also represented in the executive branch, where it holds several ministerial

portfolios. This transition has been without jolts or major crises, and has

led to the social peace necessary to our development efforts.

This indispensable social peace is what is lacking in Somalia, where our

famished brothers are dying at a mind-boggling rate, whereas weapons are

ubiquitous there and have made that martyred country a victim bled dry by

intransigence and the absence of dialogue. In this respect, we welcome the

healthy reaction of our Secretary-General, who is trying to size up the true

scale of this tragedy and to find the requisite solutions. We are equally

grateful for the international humanitarian assistance channelled there. But

much remains to be done to curtail and end the sufferings of the Somalian

people.

Liberia is still in the throes of a civil war to which Burkina Faso and

the other countries of the region cannot remain indifferent. Burkina Faso,

shoulder to shoulder with them, will spare no effort to restore lasting peace

so that the policy of economic integration, begun within the framework of the

Economic Community of West African States, can also be pursued as well as

possible.

In Angola, general elections are under way after 16 years of conflict

suffered by the Angolan people. We hail the maturity of all Angolans, who

have thereby agreed to close a difficult chapter in their history. The United

Nations also played a positive role there. We hope that these developments

will be successful. In Mozambique, similarly, a solution is in the offing,

and we hope that a negotiated settlement will restore peace.

In South Africa, the hopes of the international community have been

dimmed by the massacres of Boipatong and Ciskei. These events certainly were

a manifestation of apartheid, whose death throes are just as repugnant and

bloody as was its existence. We need to remind the South African authorities

that they are responsible for the security of every South African and that

these tragic excesses cannot simply be ascribed to animosity among blacks. It

is now well established that subtle manipulation, together with an absence of

security controls, can fan the flames of an already explosive situation. The

resumption of the Convention for Democratic South Africa (CODESA) should take

place in a climate free of the suspicion born of manoeuvring and calculation.

In this respect, we believe that Security Council 765 (1992) of 16 July 1992

is only one step in the right direction. In order to assess the methods and

effects of violence, more than 50 observers will be needed.

In the Middle East, the process begun at the Madrid Conference has yet to

produce the hoped-for results. The Palestinian question remains and the

aspirations of the Palestinian people are legitimate and justified. The

political changes that have taken place in Israel raise hopes that we would

wish to see fulfilled on behalf of the people of the region.

In Cambodia, efforts must continue to be made by all to implement the

Paris Agreements. The unprecedented commitment of the United Nations should

be welcomed, encouraged and reinforced.

In the heart of Europe, a conflict is developing, the nature of which is

what observers tend to limit exclusively to Africa. Practices we thought had

disappeared with nazism and condemned alongside apartheid are emerging under

the label "ethnic cleansing". This is unacceptable. We cannot accept that

Bosnia and Herzegovina be crucified in the name of religion or ethnicity. The

London agreement and the Geneva negotiations must be complied with and pursued

by all parties sincerely desirous of peace and reconciliation.

That picture does not inspire optimism. The collapse of one of the two

blocs did not solve the world's problems. Rather, it emphasized the

North-South split; old wounds that are still open; internal contradictions

within regions; and divisions among nations.

In their millions, people are cast out into a life of wandering; children

are robbed of their childhood, and of their adolescence too; a future without

hope is already the lot of a growing number of people caught in the crossfire

between one world that is dying and another that is being born. In the midst

of all the uncertainty, the United Nations seemed to be a place of recourse

where East, West, North and South could meet to accept the principles of the

Charter and institute methods guaranteeing that armed force would not be used

save in the common interest, and to promote social progress and better

standards of life in wider freedom.

Security, solidarity, progress and freedom: these are words and concepts

that 47 years after San Francisco have yet to be given form in the interest of

the world's peoples.

The Secretary-General's proposals in his Agenda for Peace and in his

annual report on the work of the Organization form a good basis for discussion.

It must be recalled and stressed that security not based on the interests

of all, large and small, is self-limited. The maintenance of peace demands

weighty and onerous operations that must be commensurate with the needs. It

is right to stress preventive diplomacy: machinery for early warning and

action that can be put into play before a conflict breaks out or that can

prevent a conflict from taking place.

The United Nations, while in demand on all sides, remains available. It

is regrettable that among the defenders of this new role for the Organization

are those who by not paying their contributions are handicapping the United

Nations in this basic task.

We must ensure that the role of the Security Council does not give rise

to questions about its involvement, its impartiality or its sense of

fairness. The system devised 47 years ago has only been able to function for

two years, and already there are concerns, some of which are justified.

Depending on their geographical zone, conflicts seem to attract varying

degrees of vigorous attention from the Council. This makes us believe that a

structure created following the Second World War is now beginning to function

in a completely different context. Some even talk of an anachronism.

Clearly, the role and composition of the Security Council must be reviewed.

But we fear that the discussion might be limited to merely expanding a club

whose members would continue to view their status as a privilege, not a

weighty responsibility. The spirit and perhaps even the nature of the Council

must be changed. Clearly, we must begin the debate on the Security Council,

even if we are still bound by the terms of Article 108 of the Charter. The

democratization of international relations is necessary.

There can be no true security or just and lasting peace while three

quarters of mankind continues to live in destitution, wretchedness and

ignorance. That is a fact that has been repeated in this Hall over the years

by a majority of delegations. Today's world is a world in flux, where the old

questions remain and new solutions are taking too long in coming.

The North-South rift I mentioned before can be illustrated by figures,

including the well-known fact that 20 per cent of the world's population

receives 83 per cent of the world's income, while the poorest 20 per cent

share but 1.4 per cent of the world's income.

Beset by natural disasters, conflicts and the effects of an international

economic crisis, Africa still bears an external debt of more than

$236.7 billion; it faces tariff and customs barriers erected by some of its

economic partners; and it must deal with a high rate of population growth. To

this we must add the obligatory adoption of structural adjustment programmes

that will first cause pain before possibly doing some good. "Possibly" is the

right word, since these adjustments are put in place in a context of economic

uncertainty that jeopardizes the results for which we hope. Thus, we in

Burkina Faso are working to obtain all the necessary support so that slippages

will not call into question our political achievements, and particularly so

that the structural-adjustment programme can lay the lasting foundations of

genuine development and growth.

The rewards of the tireless efforts by African countries have not been

commensurate with the sacrifices we have made. The promises of the North

remain promises, just as the United Nations Programme of Action for African

Economic Recovery and Development has not been truly implemented, except by

Africans themselves. A new page has been turned with the new programme for

the 1990s, but that page remains blank. We hail the few industrialized

countries that have honoured their commitment to contribute 0.7 per cent of

their gross domestic product as official development assistance.

The international economic context is marked by increased monetary

instability, slower economic growth, high unemployment and the relative

failure of the Uruguay Round. But capital needs are first met among the

industrialized countries before they turn to so-called transitional

economies. Can we speak of competition for capital? Or must we say that

Africa is simply waiting for a response that has not been forthcoming? The

response we want to hear and to turn into reality is the economic integration

of our continent South-South cooperation along with allowing us the

latitude of choice. As we said at the forty-sixth session, Burkina Faso is

convinced that all our problems "can be solved only by dialogue and

negotiation between developed and developing countries with a view to bringing

about specific solutions through a multilateral approach to these problems".

(A/46/PV.4. p. 56)

That was our approach to the United Nations Conference on Environment and

Development the Earth Summit at Rio, and that was why we welcomed the

framework Convention on climate change and the Convention on biodiversity.

The establishment of a commission for sustainable development could

define the framework for what we have come to call the new global

partnership. But as we all know, the Rio summit will be meaningful only if it

is followed by the needed commitments with respect to additional resources and

technology transfers. The Earth Summit has made the link between environment

and development indissoluble.

We welcome the decision of the United Nations Conference on Environment

and Development to set up an intergovernmental negotiating committee to draw

up an international convention in the struggle against desertification.

Burkina Faso will participate actively in that process and could act as host

to some of the committee's meetings.

International events on the horizon include: the World Conference on

Human Rights in 1993; the International Conference on Population and

Development in 1994; the world summit for social development in 1995; and the

fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations, also in 1995. What they have in

common is their subject and their protagonist: man.

We have already said that no one is against human rights because those

rights are inherent in man. A partial, piecemeal vision of human rights would

doom mankind to exploitation and abandonment. The right to development, to

food, to housing, to primary health care and to education: all these are part

of human rights. To support that aspect without recognizing and accepting the

basic nature of the rights of the individual would clearly be an imperfect

approach to defining and solving the problem. Likewise, stressing the rights

of the individual while confining oneself to defending them would be to refuse

to see the world as it is today.

Indeed, earlier I spoke of the indomitable nature of the peoples'

aspirations to freedom, national identity and well-being. The revolution in

communication, the spread of ideas, the untapped potential of techniques and

technologies have turned our world into a global village. We cannot

indefinitely guarantee the security of the haves, the well-fed, to the

detriment of others without doing permanent damage to the dignity and

integrity of others.

That is why Burkina Faso believes that population questions are

fundamental, and that is why we spoke out in favour of the convening of the

world summit for social development. Nor can we approach the question of

human rights and questions of population and development without including

women, the mothers of the world.

These future conferences will be fairly meaningless if they do not lead

to commitments that will lead, in turn, to tangible, concrete and satisfactory

results. In that connection the follow-up to the World Summit for Children is

important, and I should like to take this opportunity to remind the

international community that in November at Dakar, Senegal, an African

regional meeting will be held, under the aegis of the United Nations

Children's Fund (UNICEF), to examine and evaluate responses to the commitments

undertaken at New York in 1990 and to assess the support that could be

supplied by all the members of the international community.

Those meetings are therefore based on the principle of our common

membership in the human race and on solidarity.

In 1995 the Organization will be 50 years old. The evolution in

international relations has created an ever-greater role for the United

Nations. We can even talk about a central role for it, as a crucial junction

where political, economic, social and environmental concerns can be expressed

and actually dealt with.

Hitherto regarded as a forum, the United Nations can now add to

cooperation, deliberation and the ongoing discussion of the trio of peace,

security and development its status as an unparalleled instrument at the

service of joint action for the common good.

Burkina Faso will follow and actively discuss the various reforms and

restructuring being planned for the whole of the United Nations system, for

it is our conviction that they afford the international community a unique

opportunity to implement the concept of global partnership.

It is only under those conditions that we will at last be able truly to

implement the noble ideals of the Charter. It will no longer be a question of

some pitted against others but, rather, of fighting the only fight worth

fighting: the fight for a humanity living at peace in a saved environment.