Burkina Faso, 1998

It is not without some emotion that I appear before this

Assembly both as Head of State of Burkina Faso and

current Chairman of the Organization of African Unity

(OAU), to extol, here in this sanctuary of nations, peace

and harmony between human beings.

To promote peace and security for our era and for

future generations is the objective of the nations of the

world gathered here. It is also the message which I bring

on behalf of Africa, being convinced that, armed with this

immense hope, the Organization for African Unity and

the United Nations, intimately linked, can make a reality

of humanity’s legitimate aspiration to a better destiny.

But first, I should like to congratulate you, Sir, as

well as the other members of the Bureau, upon your

election and the confidence placed in you to bring the

work of this fifty-third session to a successful conclusion.

I also congratulate your predecessor, Mr. Udovenko, on

the energy with which he discharged his duties.

Mr. Secretary-General, I would like to address my

congratulations to you and your staff on the work you

have done in so little time and offer my encouragement

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for the battles still to be won. It is entirely to the credit of

the whole United Nations system that it carries the torch of

peace higher every day.

The century which is drawing to its close will be

remembered as one of great challenges. Seriously shaken by

the two world conflicts, it also mustered the necessary

resources to sound the death knell of colonialism and

apartheid.

The liberation of colonized peoples and territories was

historically necessary to ensure greater justice, tranquillity

and well-being for our civilization, a civilization which

finally understood that its survival lay in the organization

of a genuine collective security. But the cold war, which

led to bipolar confrontation exacerbated by ideological

antagonism, made this security illusory. International peace

and security have not been consolidated with the end of the

cold war. Conflicts and disturbances which no authority

could contain quickly followed. The resurgence of these

crises and the inadequacy of the solutions proposed to

resolve them bring to mind the plight of the Danaïdes,

those mythological beings who were condemned to fill up

a bottomless barrel.

The international community’s failure to restore peace

to Somalia and to prevent genocide in Rwanda will stand

out in the history of the African continent. This failure has

undoubtedly greatly contributed to awakening our somewhat

lethargic consciences and forcing us to confront ourselves.

It has revealed to Africa, which may still have had its

doubts, the limitations of the United Nations.

The twentieth century thus ends with this

acknowledgement, which, though shocking for more than

one reason to those still lulled by the illusions of an age-old

humanism, is at least realistic and belongs to the new era

that is beginning. It is an acknowledgment that the United

Nations, to which Africa has given so much, cannot do

everything for the continent in its struggle to quell the

numerous hotbeds of tension and ensure its development.

The conclusion to be drawn from this fact is self-evident:

Africa must recognize this reality and come to terms with

it.

The thirty-fourth Assembly of Heads of State and

Government of the Organization of African Unity, held in

Ouagadougou on 8-10 June 1998, devoted the thrust of its

deliberations to this new reality, which challenges and

commands Africa to take control of its own destiny.

Assessing the scope and importance of the

responsibilities this entails, and which are theirs to

assume, the heads of States took the decision to affirm

their common will to focus fully — more than in the

past — on the prevention, management and resolution of

African conflicts. This commitment will certainly ensure

greater visibility both for the Organization of African

Unity and for the continent’s various regional

organizations in their search for peaceful solutions to

these conflicts.

Though Africa’s experience in taking control of its

own affairs is still quite recent, encouraging results have

been recorded in the management and resolution of

certain conflicts, results which deserve to be saluted here.

The task, therefore, is not beyond the capacity of

Africans.

It is my ardent wish that this experience be extended

to the whole continent, to the most ancient crises as well

as the most recent. From north to south, from east to

west, Africa must henceforth more systematically involve

itself in the management and settlement of conflicts

wherever prevention was not enough, where it did not

succeed in guaranteeing peace.

To this end, initiatives to strengthen the continent’s

capacity to respond quickly to crises have been generated

by Africans themselves. The advantage they have over all

other initiatives is that they are African. In order to be

developed and implemented, they need the unequivocal

support of the international community. Subregion by

subregion, they need to be developed, without exception

and in harmony.

Preventing, managing and resolving the conflicts in

Africa, whose number and complexity are increasingly

disturbing, requires solid and reliable mechanisms,

appropriate to local conditions, mechanisms dedicated to

the cause of peace, without which Africa cannot

undertake sustainable development.

Clearly, the world’s problems are immense, complex

and alarming. The extreme difficulty of dealing with the

establishment of peace in isolation gives multilateral

diplomacy an ever-growing role in the resolution of

conflicts.

The United Nations and regional organizations such

as the Organization of African Unity can bring a great

deal to this task. The OAU, for example, possesses a

Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and

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Resolution. Created in Cairo in 1993, this Mechanism,

whose effectiveness and practicality we are working to

ensure, should to be the crucible in which a genuine

preventive diplomacy can be forged.

That is all the more imperative since the consequences

of conflicts, whether internal or international, are always

devastating.

At the institutional level, therefore, we are equipped to

respond to conflicts, and we also have the will to do so,

for, as I emphasized during the thirty-fourth OAU summit,

“the issue of security and peace in Africa is primarily

of concern to Africans. No mechanism has any chance

of succeeding effectively over time if it is imposed

from outside.”

Of course, external solidarity, if it is sincere, will

always be welcome, given that in such a complex and

changing field concerted and resolute action can only be

beneficial. I have already emphasized that the management

of conflict situations often requires the deployment of a

level of human, material and financial resources beyond the

capacities of our countries. Thus, international organizations

should continue to show solidarity and partnership with

Africa.

I therefore call upon the United Nations, with its

wealth of experience, to contribute not only to

strengthening structurally the Mechanism for Conflict

Prevention, Management and Resolution in Africa, but also

to provide technical and logistical support, since in the end

we share the same ideal: assuring for our world the security

and peace essential to its development and flourishing.

In this test of international solidarity, one thing is

certain: Africa must definitively and first of all rely upon

itself. We Africans are aware that in order to be masters of

our destiny we must forge it ourselves. In response to this

imperative no sacrifice has been spared by any State of our

continent to establish an internal climate that is conducive

to growth and sustainable development. After the years of

uncertainty and stagnation, Africa has entered a new era,

marked by clear economic recovery in the wake of bold

reforms and characterized by greater austerity and

rationality in the management of public and State affairs.

This movement towards transparency in management and

good governance has been accompanied by the

establishment of homogeneous subregions in which the

common destiny of Africans is daily forged, thanks to the

sustained harmony of our principles and policies of

integration, the ultimate objective of which is the

establishment of an African economic community in the

first half of the twenty-first century.

At present Africa faces two challenges: peace and

political stability on the one hand, and sustainable

development on the other. In their struggle and daily

efforts to emerge from underdevelopment, African

Governments and peoples are not alone. They know how

to rely on the sincere support of their friends. This

includes the operational development system of the

United Nations, which I should like to commend for its

dedication to the uplifting struggle against poverty and

other forms of deprivation that afflict African peoples.

It is therefore regrettable that the United Nations

agencies that are at the heart of the struggle for human

security in Africa — such as the United Nations

Development Programme and the United Nations

Children’s Fund, to cite only two examples — are seeing

their financial resources slowly dwindle while the mission

entrusted to them calls for a redoubling of efforts and

resources. That is why I call upon all to demonstrate their

goodwill by contributing to the operational development

system of the United Nations the resources it needs in

order to assist Africa in confronting the challenges of

peace and development.

The same goes for the question of debt. It would be

desirable for the eligible countries to have their debt

rescheduled at the same time as they are initiating

reforms. It hardly needs recalling that debt is an

unbearable burden for our still fragile economies.

Globalization offers us the means and advantages

required to succeed in the boldest undertakings, provided

that we clearly define our objectives and involve our

peoples in the challenge of propelling Africa along the

path of progress. It is incontrovertible that globalization,

which implies a spirit of partnership, limits the

independence and initiatives of States. But can humanity

continue to flourish if the gap between rich and poor

nations, between the affluent and the destitute within the

same nation, grows inexorably?

The time has therefore come to rethink seriously the

responsibility of international institutions in the regulation

of the globalized economy in order to ensure a balance

between economic growth and social prosperity. To do

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that, it is more than indispensable and more than timely to

engage in a restructuring of the United Nations, and

especially of the Security Council, in order to make it a

true instrument for the application of the principles of

justice, equity and democracy.

Africa accounts for one third of the Members of the

United Nations. That is why it is unacceptable that, after

more than 50 years of our Organization’s existence, an

entire continent — Africa — should be absent from the

permanent membership of the Security Council, which,

paradoxically, debates problems that are for the most part

African.

If the United Nations were to apply the principle of

equity, would the sanctions against the Libyan Arab

Jamahiriya continue despite the opinion of the International

Court of Justice and, above all, despite the decisions and

resolutions of heads of State in the Organization of African

Unity, the League of Arab States, the Organization of the

Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement calling

for those sanctions to be lifted? Today Security Council

resolution 1192 (1998) has underscored the primacy of law

for resolving this dispute, and the majority of nations within

our world Organization hope that conditions of transparency

will be met so that the trial can be concluded, in the

interest of the victims and the Libyan people.

Moreover, Africa hopes that the Security Council will

dispatch a mission of inquiry to the Sudan in the wake of

the bombing of the pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum.

Africa forcefully condemns terrorism in all its forms

and manifestations and calls upon our world Organization

to create the necessary conditions for a frank debate of this

issue and for strong and concerted action against this

phenomenon, while keeping in mind that unresolved angers

and frustrations born of economic or historical conditions

restrict our capability to act.

In the same vein, can the United Nations continue to

deny the legal and international reality of a State such as

the Republic of China on Taiwan, whose 22 million women

and men are excluded from making any contribution to the

activities of our Organization?

I am among those who believe that Africa is on the

path of hope. I remain convinced that the economic,

political, cultural and social obstacles that confront Africa

call forcefully for its children to rediscover the road to

unity that will allow them to take effective control of

their destiny. Without union, Africa will remain on the

periphery of history. Common sense tells us that we

Africans must once and for all rid ourselves of that image

of the outstretched hand that bedevils us and build the

covenants of friendship, dignity and pride that will confer

so much solidarity and generosity. This quest for

independence does not deny the importance of solidarity

among peoples. It means reaching a new understanding of

human rights and the rights of peoples; it means taking on

the responsibility of knowing how to remain ourselves.