Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1996

During the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the

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United Nations, States renewed our faith in the ideals of the

Charter of this Organization. This means that past

experience has given us a new vision of the world, a keen

awareness of the interdependence of nations, all of which

seek to live in a work committed to peace, freedom and

justice.

It is with this conviction that my delegation extends to

Mr. Razali Ismail the warmest congratulations of the

Government of Zaire on his election as President of the

fifty-first session of the General Assembly. We would also

like to congratulate his fellow Assembly officers. And we

also congratulate Mr. Razali’s predecessor, His Excellency

Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral. The competence and

intelligence he showed as he guided the work of the fiftieth

session earned him the Assembly’s appreciation.

We would also like to pay a well-deserved tribute to

the Secretary-General Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and to

the members of the Secretariat, for their untiring efforts to

ensure the proper functioning of our Organization and for

their clear-sightedness and courage. Zaire also takes this

opportunity to express its support for Mr. Boutros-Ghali as

he stands for a second term as Secretary-General. This must

be our position. His predecessors from other continents had

this opportunity; Africa cannot accept otherwise.

During this half century, our free nations have won the

greatest victories in the fields of national liberation and

political independence. However, as we come to the end of

the twentieth century, we still face major challenges in the

economic, cultural and social fields, as well as in the area

of international peace and security.

Peace, freedom and stability together constitute an

indispensable prerequisite for development. No part of our

Earth, no country in the world, can be really secure while

there are still outstanding hotbeds of tension. And, today,

such hotbeds are on the increase, in Africa, in Asia and in

Central and Eastern Europe.

The situations in Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Liberia,

Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and the Middle East are all causes

for the concern weighing on international peace and

security. The United Nations, which is already seized of

these issues, should continue its efforts with the

encouragement of every one of us.

In Angola, a neighbouring country to Zaire, my

delegation can see positive developments in the domestic

situation. The integration of União Nacional para a

Independência Total de Angola (UNITA) forces into the

Angolan National Army should be promoted and

encouraged for the good of the entire population of

Angola.

For more than two years, Zaire has lived with the

tragedies of Burundi and Rwanda, which have lead to a

massive influx of refugees from these two countries onto

its territory. This grave situation, for which my country is

not responsible, has caused and continues to cause us

considerable human, material, environmental and other

forms of damage. In this respect, the international

community has been inexplicably reticent in its actions,

as if Zaire should shoulder this burden alone and

indefinitely. Zaire is indeed constantly being denigrated

even to the extent that it is often falsely accused of

supporting armed activity within Rwanda and Burundi. A

memorandum from the Government of the Republic of

Zaire on the lack of security in northern and southern

Kivu has already been submitted to the Secretary-General.

A few days ago, the Zairian towns of Bukavu, Uvira and

surrounding districts were shelled by armed elements

from Rwanda. The Assembly has heard Rwanda’s

pernicious and false representation of the facts. Inter-

ethnic massacres occurred in Rwanda in 1959, 1962 and

1972, not to mention 1994. This genocide in Rwanda was

designed, developed and executed in detail and with

delight by Rwandans against Rwandans, and by that I

mean by past and present leaders in power in Kigali.

Members can now understand why Rwanda, nursing its

planned aggression against my country, has refused to

sign the non-aggression pact patiently negotiated by all

the States of Central Africa, including Rwanda.

From this rostrum, my delegation solemnly declares

the following: First, Zaire does not accept and will never

again accept to act as anyone’s scapegoat. Secondly, Zaire

will do all it can to defend the security of its population

and its borders, and will call on its people and its friends

in its defence. Thirdly, Zaire is always prepared to

cooperate with the neighbouring Governments and

peoples of Rwanda and Burundi to ensure the voluntary

and dignified return of refugees to their respective

countries. Failing this, following the example of certain

European Governments with respect to refugees and

people without documentation, Zaire will have no choice

but to begin the enforced and unconditional return of such

people to their countries of origin.

Fourthly, as President Mobutu stated last year in this

forum, Zaire will never accept the de facto transformation

of a part of its territory into a “Hutuland”, whether

through a challenge to its territorial integrity or through

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the establishment of refugee settlements on its territory.

Anyone considering that can forget it.

Fifthly, given the sacrifices endured by its people,

Zaire calls on the international community to implement

fully the agreements that have been signed, and General

Assembly resolution 49/24 of 2 December 1994 on special

assistance to countries hosting refugees. Finally, Zaire

reaffirms the position it stated at the Copenhagen World

Summit for Social Development regarding the holding of a

world conference on refugees and displaced persons to find

a comprehensive and lasting solution to the refugee

question, which has disastrous consequences for

development, human relations and human rights.

The political, economic and social situation in Zaire

has deteriorated over six long years of transition. Despite

this difficult situation, Zaire has made it a point of honour

to pursue its democratic process, committing itself to

reestablishing the authority of the State, rebuilding the basic

infrastructure, improving the country’s economic, financial

and monetary situation, ensuring the security of persons and

property and observing human rights and fundamental

freedoms.

To date, Zaire’s main task has been to organize free,

democratic and transparent elections. This is why it has set

up a National Electoral Commission which is now ready to

get down to work, as observed by the delegation recently

sent to Zaire by the Secretary-General. Furthermore, the

draft electoral law and the bill on the organization of a

constitutional referendum are also currently under

discussion by the Parliament of Transition. Zaire wishes to

reaffirm before the entire world that the democratization of

its political system is irreversible, regardless of the

difficulties facing our country. For these reasons, the

Government of Zaire calls on the international community

to give it effective support in the establishment of these

new democratic institutions by June 1997 at the latest.

Democracy can only develop and last in a country that

enjoys economic development that allows for the protection

and promotion of human rights. Some human rights were

being promoted in Zaire long before the democratization

process. Thus, for example, despite the many social and

cultural constraints, Zairian men and women enjoy political

and vocational equality, including in terms of remuneration.

The noble mission of the United Nations Commission

on Human Rights certainly merits our encouragement. Zaire

has nothing to hide, and has thus accepted and accredited

the Secretary-General’s human rights representative, whose

office is in our capital, Kinshasa. Nonetheless, Zaire

deplores and vigorously condemns the malicious use of

the human rights issue for political ends, as can be seen

in the unfounded and unwarranted accusations levelled

against it at each annual evaluation session of the

Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

Preventive diplomacy should be the very basis of

peace-keeping operations. However, preventive diplomacy

would be meaningless if the international community

were not to grant it a standing, mobile military sector that

could be deployed wherever international peace and

security were to come under threat. Thus, in the

framework of the United Nations Standing Advisory

Committee on Security Questions in Central Africa, the

countries of this subregion, with the exception of Rwanda,

signed the non-aggression pact at the latest Organization

of African Unity (OAU) summit in Yaoundé.

In this first year of the second half-century of the

United Nations, safeguarding peace and cohesion among

peoples are issues of vital importance to all of us. Zaire

considers the adoption of the resolution recommending

signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

at the fiftieth session of the General Assembly to be an

important step towards comprehensive nuclear

disarmament. We do, of course, recognize that this is not

a perfect Treaty. It lacks the firm commitment of nuclear-

weapon States to renounce the use and threat of use of

such weapons in their relations with other States. It also

lacks a precise timetable for complete destruction of

existing weapons. It does not mention the banning of

nuclear tests in laboratories, which is the most

sophisticated modern way of developing such weapons.

Despite these imperfections, Zaire joined those

delegations that sponsored the resolution, and it voted in

favour of the text proposed. I wish to announce officially

that Zaire will sign this text tomorrow, 4 October.

From this rostrum we appeal to the nuclear-weapon

States to put aside their selfish interests and to commit

themselves firmly to the new path set out by the Treaty,

so that the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons can

become a living reality and so that nuclear weapons will

no longer threaten future generations, as they have done

since the end of the Second World War.

We cannot be at peace with ourselves if we fail to

take firm action for conventional disarmament as well.

I come from a region where the merchants of death

have dumped tons and tons of conventional weapons that

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kill people daily. We urge countries that manufacture and

sell these instruments of death to stop taking satisfaction in

the positive balance sheets of their international trade,

which includes arms sales. This is a shame for all mankind.

To those who would give lessons of morality and ethics, we

would insist that they look at the way they live and stop

sowing death and suffering. Life and happiness are the most

fundamental of human rights.

In addition to disarmament, worldwide elimination of

poverty is fundamental to the strengthening of peace and

the realization of comprehensive, sustainable development.

At the dawn of the third millennium, it is deplorable to note

that more than a billion people today live under conditions

of unacceptable poverty and are outside the mainstream of

economic and social progress because of imbalances in the

international economy.

My delegation hopes that, to remedy this situation, the

North-South dialogue will be guided more by the

imperatives and interests of mutual advantage and benefit,

as well as by genuine interdependence. Solidarity demands

fairer prices for commodities, access to the markets of

developed countries, easing the debt burden and increased

official development assistance so as to ensure sustained

growth and sustainable development.

Last year we commemorated our Organization’s

fiftieth anniversary. That occasion was an opportunity for

us to focus on the possibilities for an appropriate reform of

this Organization, which is unique in its mission and its

impact. I would like to offer my country’s reflections on

this subject.

We are now living in a period of extraordinary

contrasts. Despite the historic successes of our Organization

— including independence for many countries, the peace

process under way in the Middle East, the end of the South

African saga and the perceptible tendency of the United

Nations towards universality — we must observe with some

bitterness that areas of tension have flared up worldwide,

sparking anarchy, despair, poverty and death.

For this reason, Zaire believes that the Security

Council, which is the United Nations body that has

foremost responsibility for maintaining international peace

and security, and which by its present membership is no

longer representative, should be expanded and its

functioning improved. In this exercise, the main concern

should be to correct the clear imbalance in that body.

Expansion of the Council should take into account the will

of many countries to become members and the importance

of safeguarding its effectiveness. It should avoid making

it a body dependent on the General Assembly. For that

reason, we think that equitable geographic representation

would appropriately remedy the glaring imbalance in the

current representation of the Security Council. We

encourage the international community to give deep

thought to this question and not to forget that one

continent — Africa — is at the greatest disadvantage with

the current composition of the Council.

We refuse to be dragged into the dispute over the

veto power of permanent members. We are against the

emergence of a category of permanent second-class

members in the Security Council.

There is a need to look for ways to improve the

functioning of the Security Council. It is inconceivable

that a State that is concerned in a question being

discussed in the Council can participate only in a formal

meeting — if there is one — to hear the decision made.

If the State were officially involved in the informal

consultations on that issue, its direct contribution to the

members of the Council could enable them to adopt

decisions that would be well thought out and realistic

rather than being imposed.

We must have the courage to put an end to the anti-

democratic character of this important United Nations

body. All the parties involved should be given the

opportunity to defend themselves before the members of

the Council. This is a basic rule of the administration of

justice.

We take note of the report of the Open-ended

Working Group on the Question of Equitable

Representation on and Increase in the Membership of the

Security Council, and we encourage it to pursue its

consideration of this matter.