Costa Rica, 1993

It has been four years since the end of the

cold war and the fall of the old ideological order. Four

years ago we were told that war and global confrontation

had ended and that history itself had come to an end, giving

8 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

way to a new age. Today, yesterday’s hopes and illusions

are confronted by a reality with which we are all familiar.

What is keeping us from turning our world into a fertile

field and a common abode for all human beings?

These meetings are taking place at a time when a

feeling of hope animates the hearts of men. The agreements

signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation

Organization have shown that peace is possible and that

living in harmony does not require portentous events, but

only awareness and willingness. We all know that these first

agreements, if respected by both parties, can lead to a new

dawn not only for Israel and Palestine but for all the

countries of the Middle East - a new awakening of peace

and prosperity in which this sublime teaching of the Koran

can be made real:

"Those who believe (in the Qur-an),

And those who follow the Jewish (scriptures),

And the Christians and the Sabians,-

Any who believe in God

And the Last Day,

And work righteousness,

Shall have their reward

With their Lord: on them

Shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve." (Surah II, 62)

But while Israelis and Palestinians are shaking hands

and demonstrating their good judgement, the tragedy of

Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to fill the world with

shame. A Member State of the United Nations which is not

expressing ethnic or religious intolerance is trying to survive

the bloodiest harassment witnessed by Europe since 1945 -

nations respond with passivity and indifference. It is

shameful that an international community rejoicing at the

end of the cold war has not been able to take more decisive

and effective action in respect to the inhuman aggression

against Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Decade after decade, the echoes of that cold war were

heard in this Hall. The East-West confrontation was viewed

as the supreme obstacle facing the countries of the world in

attempting to respond to their peoples’s common yearning

for liberty, justice and development. The ideological

division, we were told, hampered the efforts made to ensure

that all humanity benefited from development.

Today we no longer talk about the cold war, nor about

ideological conflict, nor about the balance of terror.

Nevertheless, the reality of what happened during those

years continues to brand us. Some walls have come down

but still others have been built. The peoples of Asia, Africa

and Latin America remain forgotten, marginalized, second-

class human beings. The technological gap has become an

abyss. Material progress is increasingly remote from our

countries, and cooperation is decreasing before our very

eyes. The North-South dialogue has once again been

reduced to an implacable monologue or, in the best of cases,

a rhetorical exercise to which justice and equity are rarely

invited. And when we speak of new initiatives for

cooperation, such as those recently announced for the people

of Palestine, thought is given not to a global increase in aid

but, rather, to cutbacks in other programmes. As an old and

graphic Spanish proverb puts it: "You undress one saint so

that you can dress another ".

What does the new peace mean for the countries of the

third world? The assurance that their children will not be

killed by bullets, but will continue to die of hunger or

endemic diseases? The certainty that they will no longer

have to go to war, but will continue without schooling,

without a dignified life, decent jobs or proper medical care?

Sometimes ironic statements are made about the

optimism of the diplomacy of the 1920s, with its agreements

to renounce war and its naive faith in the capacity of the

League of Nations to resolve every difficulty. We all know

what happened in the end to optimism and that League, but

it seems that we have not really learned the lesson. If the

international community of the 1990s does not translate the

end of the cold war into a true effort to build one world, in

which there are no first- or second-rate countries, we shall

very soon experience realities more tragic than those we

have already known.

My country was overjoyed at the General Assembly’s

decision to choose you, Sir, to preside over the forty-eighth

session. You have the most sincere congratulations of Costa

Rica, a country that, like Guyana, forms part of the great

Caribbean brotherhood. We are certain that, under your

guidance, the General Assembly will be able to fulfil

mankind’s hopes for peace and development.

We should like to express our sympathy to the

Government and people of India at this time of grief for

them.

The present situation is especially critical for the

Central American and Caribbean States, which, because of

their territorial dimensions, demographic situations and weak

economies, are of little significance to the developed world.

When the small, peripheral nations like ours try to unite our

efforts, we are immediately faced with the locked doors of

the international financial organizations, the large economic

blocs and the transnational corporations, which even try to

create apprehension and confrontation among us.

Forty-eighth session - 8 October l993 9

We are not asking for handouts. Begging is not part of

a realistic and wide-reaching international policy. What our

countries need is greater understanding of our realities,

greater openness for our products, and more sincere and

effective support for our desire to live in peace and

democracy. What developing nations need is a change in

attitude originating from a sense of the inalienable identity

of humankind, a change in that amazing effrontery shown by

the developed world for our tragedies.

The case of Central America clearly demonstrates the

direction in which this widespread indifference is taking us.

It is taking us into a prolonged and difficult effort, in which

the international community is providing wide support. The

people of Central America left behind many years of bloody

convulsions. They decided to embark with enthusiasm on a

new life, cemented in peace, democracy and freedom. But

that joyful Central America, reborn for its children, has seen

how the doors close one after another. Those who were

interested in a Central America full of bloodshed and

trenches do not want to deal with a Central America of the

poor, the Central America that calls for cooperation for

development, for understanding of its human and economic

tragedies.

Figures can be deceiving. For example, it is said that

Nicaragua receives $500 million in foreign aid. That sounds

very good. What is not stated is that $450 million of the

$500 million goes back to where it came from to service the

external debt. In the meantime in that sister country even

more disturbing outbreaks of violence flourish, reflecting its

distressing situation. Recently an attempted coup d’état in

Guatemala failed, but that failure did not translate into

greater external support for the consolidation of Guatemalan

democracy in the sectors most needed.

We do not know in which Central American country

the next crisis will come, but it will not be long before it

happens. It is regrettable that those who said so much about

democracy and freedom and about peace and development

in Central America are no longer being heard from. Today

my delegation asks where is that support. What of the

promises, the golden offerings, the abundant talk of a few

years ago?

For example, let us take the case of banana production.

Throughout the bloody crisis in Central America the

European Community time and time again expressed its

support for a peaceful and negotiated solution. It effusively

supported the initiatives to transform Central America into

a land of freedom and democracy, to keep our countries

away from the strategic interests of the large hegemonistic

blocs. Now that results have been achieved, the same

Europe is placing strong barriers to the entry of Central

American bananas to its markets, without stopping to think

about the thousands of humble families that depend on this

activity. Other Latin American democracies are facing the

same attitude. As if that was not enough they are trying to

provoke a conflict between the banana-growing countries of

the Caribbean and those of Latin America, as if, following

the custom of colonial times and invoking a non-existent

antagonism between brothers, promoting divisions to hide

the barriers that in other cases they themselves denounce as

unjust.

Costa Rica believes that the time has come for frank,

open dialogue that will permit a fair and adequate solution

to this serious problem. For this reason we invite the

member countries of the European Community and the

producer countries of Latin America and the Caribbean,

without exception, to enter into political talks which,

together with the talks already under way at the General

Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), will facilitate a

rapprochement between the positions of the only two parties

to the problem, namely the producer and consumer countries.

These contacts should have as a basis the recognition of the

rights of the Latin American countries to sell their fruit in

the Common Market and the reaffirmation of preferential

treatment given to the Caribbean countries in the context of

the Lomé Conventions.

While democracy endeavours to put down roots in

Central America, markets for Central American products are

being restricted by developed countries, cooperation

programmes are being decreased or canceled, and attitudes

of inexplicable severity are being adopted in commercial and

financial negotiations, and even in diplomatic relations. The

Central America of peace and freedom is being dealt with in

a way that the Central America of violence was never

treated.

My country, which for many decades has not suffered

from the Calvary of dictatorship and civil war, which has

maintained intact its tradition of effective respect for human

rights, has also had to face the same attitudes of indifference

and lack of awareness. In this matter we draw attention to

the disturbing decision of the United States Government to

admit an administrative action brought before it against

Costa Rica in which it is argued that the Costa Rican

workers are not being guaranteed internationally recognized

rights. This claim ignores our labour legislation which deals

with rights and guarantees for workers and has gone further

in more than 50 years than those of many developed

countries, including the United States. The threat of

excluding Costa Rica from commercial preference systems

is not only a clear interference in its internal jurisdiction but

10 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

also ignores the basic principles governing coexistence

among nations, and, more specifically, respect for sovereign

rights, and that attitude is at variance with traditional

democratic principles and values which have always existed

between both peoples and Governments.

The task of consolidating the achievements of the

Central American peace process is everyone’s responsibility.

In the first place, as a new political commitment, the

securing of peace and democracy and making human

development a priority require a true national consensus

sustained by a broad and participatory commitment, one that

involves Governments and the organized sectors of civil

society.

Secondly, a renewed and creative attitude on the part of

Central American Governments is needed, an attitude that

will rework and update the regional political agreements and,

from a new point of view, will direct regional efforts

towards creating a new Central America. We want a Central

America where peace, freedom, democracy and development

will prevail and this requires national and regional consensus

on fundamental subjects such as enforcing the rule of law,

strengthening democratic institutions, developing a

democratic political culture, promoting and enforcing human

rights, economic and political decentralization, decision-

making at the local level, the modernization of production,

guaranteeing equality of opportunity, widening the

possibilities for economic participation, social development,

and, finally, preserving our heritage for the society of the future.

Thirdly, the collaboration and commitment of Central

Americans in the creation of this new Central America is

necessary, but at the same time the participation of the

international community is indispensable in order to fulfil the

commitments made by the region in its transition to peace,

freedom, democracy and development. In this perspective

Costa Rica urges the General Assembly to decide in due

course to offer its political and material support to this new

challenge that is Central America at the end of this century.

In the present state of affairs the role of international

and regional organizations as promoters and guarantors of

peace and supporters of harmony and cooperation among the

nations of the world is particularly decisive. For many long

years lamentations were heard about the problems created

for the United Nations by ideological conflicts which

hindered the Organization and made it impossible for it to

act dynamically and effectively. We have left such sombre

hours behind and without doubt there have been important

signs that this and other international organizations can and

must provide many valuable and decisive contributions to the

international community as a whole. Precisely for this

reason we find ourselves at a key moment and we must now

redefine and transform the United Nations and the regional

organizations and make them vital mechanisms so that a life

of peace, freedom and development will illuminate all the

countries of the world.

A little more than a year ago the Secretary-General

presented us with a series of important ideas regarding the

restructuring of the United Nations. My country has

expressed support for these wise proposals but at the same

time we consider that the present circumstances are

especially important and that this is an opportunity to

meditate profoundly on the appropriateness of emphasizing

more the role that international organizations should play as

builders of a world of peace and development for all

peoples.

My country considers that the United Nations cannot

continue to ignore the question of the Republic of China in

Taiwan. The existence of that exemplary country and the

future of its 21 million inhabitants demand a revision of its

relations with the United Nations. We firmly support the

establishment of an ad hoc committee to study and find

satisfactory solution to that problem in accordance with the

fundamental principles of international law.

For many years we have urged that the two important

instruments of the United Nations system be created and

start functioning. These two instruments - so indispensable

to the attainment of that system’s aims of peace and defence

of fundamental human rights - are the University for Peace

and the post of High Commissioner for Human Rights. We

ask for support for both institutions, which are true pillars

for the realization of the principles of the Charter.

My delegation applauds the efforts made by the United

Nations in situations like those that exist in Haiti and

Somalia. The defence of international peace and security

continues to be a basic responsibility. We therefore support

all efforts accepted in the cause of disarmament and arms

control, and we view with special concern the case of

countries that, like the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea, object to controls that are directed towards ensuring

the non-proliferation of nuclear arms. At the same time,

however, Costa Rica considers it of fundamental importance

that States Members of the United Nations not lose sight of

the Organization’s role in the task of making peace productive -

a "sublime task", to borrow the term used by Amilcar

Cabral to define the progressive advancement of mankind

towards dignity and infinite growth.

The world is one. Our shared concerns for peace and

the deterioration of the environment are an ample

Forty-eighth session - 8 October l993 11

demonstration of this. Why not also acknowledge that

mankind is one and that all who form part of mankind have

a right to development and freedom?

The commitments undertaken last year in Rio de

Janeiro at the United Nations Conference on Environment

and Development to join in the search for sustainable

development, in all its economic and environmental as well

as its political, social and cultural dimensions, constitute a

fundamental requirement if we are to achieve true peace and

a dignified life for all the peoples of today’s and tomorrow’s

world. The convening of the Conference and the agreements

reached there, notwithstanding their limitations, are major

achievements for the Organization. In this connection, the

fact that many countries, including my own, have engaged

in activities to carry out the commitments entered into there

is of great importance. We also welcome the actions taken

by the United Nations at the International Conference on

Population and Development, the World Conference on

Women, and the Global Conference on the Sustainable

Development of Small Island Developing States, aimed at

broadening discussions about the hoped-for development.

But if those efforts are to be successful, it is indispensable

that the promises made by the industrialized countries at the

Rio Summit be fulfilled - that is, that they provide new and

additional financial aid, something they have so far done on

a fairly meagre scale.

For nearly half a century, we have been living amid

division, struggles about ideologies, worries over

hegemonies. To a large extent, those sterile years are now

behind us, but so much remains to be done. We are still

confronted by hatreds of all kinds, by a polluted world, by

natural disasters, by illiteracy and by peoples suffering from

hunger and disease. However, if the international system

managed to avoid allowing the cold war to lead to military

catastrophe, surely it can find solutions to these other

catastrophes that are afflicting mankind. If we do not want

the military and ideological alliances of past years to re-

emerge, we must replace them as soon as possible with a

solidarity that is not founded on economic interests. My

delegation firmly believes that the Organization can and

must effect, as a priority, the qualitative transformation

required by the international community - that is, the

creation of a great family, without East or West, North or

South. Brothers and sisters know nothing of the points of

the compass.

In his book entitled Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe

tells of a community in Nigeria where the harvest was poor.

Attempting to encourage a young man, his father tells him:

"Do not be disheartened. I know you will not be

disheartened. You have a brave and dignified heart. A

dignified heart can survive a serious problem because the

problem does not impinge upon his dignity. But it is more

difficult and more bitter when you face it alone."

Hope resides in solidarity and in union. Mankind is

one. All the peoples of the world must understand that we

share the same future, that there are no longer problems that

affect only others or differing destinies for mankind.

Working together with goodwill and in one spirit, we

will be able to transform our world into a common home,

into a fertile ground for the promotion of and respect for the

dignity of all human beings, joined to face a common future

of peace, justice and freedom.