Central African Republic, 1996

On behalf of the delegation of the Central

African Republic, I should like to express our warmest

and most heartfelt congratulations to Mr. Razali Ismail on

his election to the presidency of this session. His proven

skill in international affairs assures us that our work will

be crowned with success. I would assure him of my

delegation’s cooperation.

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We also wish to extend to the outgoing President,

Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral, the deepest appreciation of

the delegation of the Central African Republic for the

competence with which he served the Organization

throughout his mandate.

Lastly, I should like to pay a heartfelt tribute to the

Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Boutros

Boutros-Ghali, for his courageous and tireless work, work

which does honour to Africa and which is often performed

in a hostile context, to have the principles of the United

Nations Charter prevail in all circumstances. The work of

our Secretary-General deserves to be encouraged and must

continue.

The evaluation of the United Nations 50 years of

existence revealed the Organization’s continuing

shortcomings in the accomplishment of its mission.

However, the end of the cold war, which allowed us to

glimpse a new era in international relations, opened

prospects for renewed cooperation commensurate with the

hopes that emerged at the end of the world’s division into

blocs. In that connection, the United Nations was at last to

rediscover its capacity to handle relations among States on

the sole basis of the application of the principles that have

brought us together here in this Hall.

Opposing tendencies continue to vie for attention at a

time when we must, with shared resolution, ensure respect

for an international rule of law. The world today has

changed. The aspiration to wider freedom and greater

recognition of equality is stronger than ever before.

Thus, the delegation of the Central African Republic

believes that the shortcomings and limitations of our

Organization, like those inherent in any human endeavour,

must be rectified, and they can be, if States give priority to

concerted action, to dialogue and a shared search for

solutions to the world’s problems. Together, we will be

better able to establish the universal values of the United

Nations. Indeed, that is our principal task.

The wider advent of democracy, its affirmation and its

implantation are of course primarily the choice of a people.

However, democracy, which is a universal value, is also the

struggle of all democratically minded people who share its

ideals, and the struggle of the United Nations, whose very

establishment was a response to an international order of

dictatorship and terror with the tragic consequences we all

known. We are therefore in duty bound to create true

solidarity so as to ensure the defence and spread of

democracy.

This is an appropriate time for me to dwell for a

moment on the case of my own country, the Central

African Republic.

In the space of one month, a country that was

already very far advanced in negotiations to conclude an

agreement with the Bretton Woods institutions was to

undergo two mutinies that proved to be attempts at coups

d’états. The world was presented with a shocking and

unfamiliar picture of my country, erasing the efforts of

the national community to turn its back on its past and

wiping out the efforts of Central Africans to devote

themselves, within the framework of their sovereign

choice, to the search for the means of developing the

Central African Republic, with its vast potential in

mining, agriculture and livestock and with its abundant

rainfall.

There were deaths, there was destruction, but above

all there was an attempt, by force of arms, to impose the

will of a tiny fraction of the nation on the majority. The

long struggle of the Central African nation freely to

choose its leaders at the ballot box was about to be

obliterated without any legitimacy or legality whatsoever.

Central African democracy is three years old. It is

developing in very difficult economic circumstances, and

it must find within itself the necessary spirit of

confidence, solidarity, hard work and organization. The

affairs of state of this young democracy must be given the

transparency needed for good governance and the

confidence to build at last a country whose potential will

enable it to provide its children with a healthy future.

That is the constant message that President Ange-

Félix Patassé, our Head of State, has expressed to his

compatriots ever since assuming office in the Central

African Republic. But there is still a long road to follow,

and one strewn with pitfalls, before we can arrive at the

tranquillity of older democracies that makes military

adventurism inadmissible.

While this destiny is mainly the responsibility of

each country, the Central African Republic believes that

defence of the universal values of freedom and equality

is also the responsibility of all democrats, whether or not

they are States. That is why I would like to take this

opportunity to express the gratitude of the Government of

the Central African Republic to those friendly countries,

especially France, the United States of America,

Germany, Gabon, Chad, Zaire, Congo, Senegal, Togo,

Benin, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Sudan, which gave their

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support, in the name of the principles of democracy, to the

choices of the Central African Republic and its institutions

during this difficult period. That same appreciation is

extended to the Secretary-General of the OAU, and above

all to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, for his

unambiguous and courageous position in defence of

democracy.

Collectively, the Central Africans overcame this

difficult stage in the history of their country because in

dark moments they always had the spirit to find a solution

to preserve the essential, the unity of the country,

reinforced by a common language, Sango.

Since then, the Central African Republic has been

working to find ways and means to strengthen the peace

and security it has restored. Hence, with the participation of

friendly countries such as France, Gabon, Senegal, and Mali

(with the contribution of its former President Amadou

Toumani Toure), the Government has organized national

structures for defence. It recently convened an important

seminar, with the support of the United States of America

on the role of the military in a democracy. This meeting

served to draw attention to the place of the army within the

nation; in other words, in a republic the armed forces must

be under civil authority.

Another dimension of restoring peace and security is

the relaunching of the economy. My country wishes to pay

tribute to the promptness with which countries such as

France, the Republic of China and Germany and bodies

such as the United Nations, through the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) intervened, either

providing direct support for the re launch or helping to

develop an emergency programme leading to a joint

meeting of donors in Bangui. The pledges made during that

meeting were encouraging and we hope for further such

offers of support during the round table planned for 1997.

But it is the intention of the President of the Republic,

Ange-Félix Patassé, to reach an agreement with the

International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. This

intention has been repeated and will be pursued.

The course taken in international relations since the

end of the cold war should prompt States to turn to

multilateral cooperation and United Nations principles

should come fully into play in crisis settlement. This should

apply to the question of the Middle East, where the current

peace process must be pursued and concluded without

delay. It should also apply to the situation in Rwanda and

Burundi, where regional initiatives must also back up

international efforts, in the Western Sahara, in Angola and

in Liberia, where it should be possible to implement the

United Nations plan of action.

The firm political will of all continues to be

necessary to achieve this, with a constant search for

mechanisms that build and strengthen confidence among

States. In this respect, the signing of the non-aggression

pact among States members of the United Nations

Standing Advisory Committee on Questions of Security

in Central Africa will certainly contribute, if observed, to

preserving good-neighbourly relations among the

signatories and will free the dynamic elements in one of

the richest regions of the world for integrated

development efforts.

In that same spirit, during this session the Central

African Republic intends to sign the Comprehensive

Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which it fully supported at the

draft stage.

Political will presupposes the strengthening of the

United Nations authority and its universal nature. That

authority flows from its rightful place in the world, a

world that has changed to such an extent since the

establishment of the United Nations that the working

methods of its organs need to be adapted. The United

Nations is no longer accorded the status it had during the

decolonization movement. There has been a loss of regard

for the United Nations, especially since the division of the

world into hostile blocs came to an end. States,

particularly the powerful ones, prefer to resolve problems

outside the United Nations, or consider that the

Organization should merely endorse their decisions. The

United Nations should not be used as a tool in this way;

therein lies the root cause of the powerlessness of which

it stands accused.

The restructuring efforts begun two years ago must

be pursued and stressed in order to achieve rational and

real structural reforms allowing the Organization to

operate more efficiently in various areas, beginning with

the Security Council. The Security Council should include

countries from both the North and South that can provide

the financial and political resources needed by the

Organization to defend peace. From this standpoint, the

Central African Republic delegation supports the

initiatives taken by Germany and Japan. The economic

weight of these countries and their activities to promote

development and peace give them an outstanding place in

international cooperation today.

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What is more, the democratization of international

relations also involves a strengthening of the universalist

nature of our Organization, because the United Nations,

with its mission to bring together all States and civilizations

of the world, can no longer refuse to admit States,

especially if those States are able to meet the obligations

inherent in the status of Member.

I should like to raise here the question of the Republic

of China in Taiwan. My delegation regrets that this

question is once again not on our agenda this year. Yet the

first consequence of the end of the cold war was the

reassessment of questions associated with this period, for

example the issues related to General Assembly resolution

2758 (XXVI), which artificially deprives the Republic of

China of its place in the United Nations. This is a flagrant

injustice that should be redressed by the international

community, which can surely not allow a sovereign and

independent State, in which free and democratic elections

have recently been held, to be indefinitely excluded, with

its 21 million inhabitants, from United Nations activities.

The European Parliament has recognized this. Last July it

adopted a proposed joint resolution requesting the United

Nations to study the possibility of participation by the

Republic of China in the activities of bodies that report to

the General Assembly.

Furthermore, there are many challenges facing the

world today requiring the general mobilization of all States,

including the Republic of China, whose participation in

efforts for peace and development throughout the world is

already highly appreciated. The delegation of the Central

African Republic therefore appeals to the General

Assembly’s wisdom and realism and invites it to examine

the question during its next session so that the Republic of

China in Taiwan can resume its seat in the United Nations.

It has been said time and again that the world has

become a global village, characterized by an intermingling

of cultures, ideas, economies, markets, norms of behaviour

and the ever more rapid coming together of peoples, despite

the barriers imposed by frontiers. My delegation believes

that the acceleration of the process of globalization will

lead to an increasingly integrated approach to development

management so as to find a global solution.

Given the proliferation of internal conflicts and

regional tensions, the harmful effects of economic disorder,

the spread of the AIDS pandemic, the rise of crime and

terrorism, violations of human rights, the ever-widening

international character of drug-trafficking networks and the

deterioration of the environment, there is no single area of

international relations that does not require a collective

effort on the part of States if it is to be mastered.

The Central African Republic would like to

emphasize the issue of the AIDS pandemic. This problem

requires the keen attention of the entire international

community, because no solution is near. The small size

and youthfulness of the country’s population explain why

the Government is paying special attention to this

pandemic, and to the question of health in general. That

is why we believe that agencies such as the World Health

Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the

United Nations Population Fund must be encouraged.

For the delegation of the Central African Republic

the hope that has been placed in the will of States to

mobilize for this vast international cooperative action will

truly make it possible to embark on the second 50 years

of the United Nations in a way that will avoid the pitfalls

experienced during the first 50 years of its existence.

In our lives as human beings there are always times

when we need to look within ourselves, and at our

existence, to see exactly what must be done and in what

direction to go. It is the responsibility of States to make

of the United Nations what they want it to be, taking

account of its failings, weaknesses, limits and

shortcomings.

States today must do all they can, with a constant

effort of political will, to support our Organization so that

multilateral cooperation has full scope. The defence of

peace and the promotion of sustainable development

during this time of globalization cannot succeed

otherwise.

The delegation of the Central African Republic

would like to share with the other members of the

international community the hope that, during the next 50

years, the world will embark resolutely on the path laid

down by the founding fathers of the Organization. An

important part of the attainment of the principles and

values of the Charter will be the implementation of the

proposals made by our

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dynamic Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros-Ghali, through the

Agenda for Peace, the Agenda for Development and, above

all, the United Nations System-wide Special Initiative on

Africa.