Djibouti, 1994

It is a special pleasure and

honour for me to extend to my brother, Amara Essy, my

delegation’s warmest congratulations on his election as

President of the General Assembly at its forty-ninth

session. He is a highly esteemed and valued friend to

many of us, and we can rest assured that his vast

diplomatic and political experience, coupled with his

proven leadership qualities, will guide this Assembly

through a very productive and successful session.

The Assembly is also most grateful for the

exemplary and skilful manner in which Ambassador

Insanally successfully conducted the affairs of the

forty-eighth session during his tenure as President.

We must also recognize the dynamic and resourceful

manner in which the Secretary-General has guided the

Secretariat of the United Nations during this period of

momentous internal and worldwide change. That the

ordinary citizens of the world and its many poor have a

humane and sensitive advocate in the halls of power of

the United Nations is a great stabilizing factor. We wish

the Secretary-General well in his unending efforts to bring

peace and development to all corners of our troubled

world.

As our Organization moves towards its fiftieth year,

there is an air of concern for the state of the world, its

24

people and the United Nations itself. Building upon our

emphasis last year on the rights of the individual, the

purview of the international community has expanded to

encompass the right of the individual to a better economic

and social life. The population Conference at Cairo

highlighted the pressures of population on economic growth

and development, and marked specific areas for action, with

targets and goals, and next year’s Copenhagen conference

on social development will explore widespread poverty and

unemployment, and the critical issue of social integration.

We have come to realize that these problems cannot be

solved in isolation by any of the principal actors - -

individuals, States or even the international community.

Only by cooperating and working together to reinforce the

special attributes of each can we begin to arrest the

pervasive social disintegration, endemic conflict and world

disorder that threaten our security and our future.

Fortunately, in the United Nations, whatever its limitations,

we have a truly international Organization at the centre of

all these issues, which needs only proper use and

reinforcement to reverse these corrosive trends.

As we review the developments of the past year in the

light of the triumphs and tragedies experienced by the

world body and by the international community, the picture

which emerges is one of persistent conflict and pervasive

poverty. Happily, some perennial points of antagonism,

such as South Africa and Palestine, have witnessed

extraordinary developments. For some, the dramatic accord

between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and

Israel, negotiated entirely by the Palestinians themselves,

continues to be viewed with a measure of astonishment.

True enough, the accord will not satisfy everyone, and

conditions remain on future progress, but after so many

decades of having a minimal voice in their destiny and of

paltry changes in their condition, the Palestinians have

made the first real breakthrough towards a Palestinian State.

Efforts towards political and democratic institutionalization

and administrative refinement, accompanied by widespread

political participation and empowerment, are evolving

slowly and may demonstrate to the international community

the level of support lent by Palestinians to the direction

implied by the accords. The substantial international

assistance pledged and envisaged to underwrite the requisite

stability and progress must be forthcoming in order to meet

the urgent needs of the Palestinian governing authority, and

to achieve the goals of a functioning and efficient

Palestinian entity.

The Palestinians have suffered long and hard under a

harsh and often difficult occupation, enduring numerous

false starts and misdirected illusions. They have now

embarked on the road to self-determination and should

receive the total support of the international community.

But the eventual realization of a full Palestinian State

must be clear, and any measures tending to render the

occupied territories merely "self administered" Bantustans,

supplying labor to Israel’s more developed economy,

must be resisted by all means.

Not only the continent of Africa, but the entire world

must take pride in the remarkable progress unfolding in

South Africa. Under the inspiring and extraordinary

leadership of President Mandela, South Africa has

become an exemplary model for the international

community of national reconciliation and unity. During

the recent dramatic period in its history, South Africa was

likewise fortunate to have had a visionary in the person

of Mr. de Klerk, who was aware of the role of timing and

recognized the need for change. While there have been

many players in the struggle against apartheid, certainly

none are more deserving of praise and recognition than

the majority people of South Africa themselves. South

Africa cannot fail to appreciate that all of Africa, and in

fact the world, shares in its joy. We can only urge

President Mandela and his country to continue to work

together to advance the task of restructuring South Africa

so that it truly realizes its undoubted greatness.

By now the world is painfully aware of the fate of

Rwanda, torn apart by sheer hatred and intolerance, by

leaders bent upon exploiting ethnic differences for selfish

gains. Employing all manner of fear, intimidation and

propaganda, they succeeded in stirring up nearly an entire

people to turn against another, until the eventual human

carnage, in so compressed a time span, was no doubt

unequalled in human history. Even now, the intransigent

leadership of the millions of suffering Hutus, eking out a

bare existence in the volcanic soils of eastern Zaire or the

other surrounding countries, refuses to acknowledge the

plight of their people, dissuading them with threats and

violence from returning to their country. Their actions

cannot be pardoned; the perpetrators of this insane

episode must be brought to justice and punished.

Otherwise, their implacable goal of rearming and

returning one day to the battle field promises a long night

of recurring horror for Central Africa. Regrettably, by

paying no heed to the early signs of pending troubles, and

by seeking ways to severely limit its involvement, the

world body lost the opportunity to play a significant part

in preventing this tragedy. Worse still, the difficulty in

assembling and suitably equipping a United Nations

peace-keeping force has not helped to instil in those who

25

have fled the confidence needed to return, and in those who

have remained the confidence needed to stay.

All this leaves the new Government of Rwanda in the

throes of a critical dilemma, requiring immeasurable soul

searching. For a country from which nearly one-third of

the population has fled - in the case of Rwanda some 2

million people - the numbers are so large and

disproportionate as to deny the Government a large measure

of the legitimacy it badly needs. Something very serious

must be done to bring the two peoples together in

meaningful national reconciliation, with a Government that

reflects this. Certainly the spirit and intent of the Arusha

Accord remains even more valid today in the light of what

has taken place.

Note must also be taken of the valiant efforts of the

United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR),

facing terrible odds in a situation of such frightening chaos.

Despite its small numbers, its attempts to alleviate the

suffering and protect the vulnerable undoubtedly saved

many lives and provided a measure of sanity in a sea of

madness. The world body should recognize with pride and

great appreciation what has been done by the personnel of

UNAMIR and its illustrious leader, General Romeo Dallaire

of Canada.

One reason for pessimism in Central Africa is the fact

that many of the factors that led to breakdown in Rwanda

are also present in Burundi. There the ominous rise in

killings, coupled with the accelerating pace of rearmament,

should cause extreme concern to the world community.

With the army at the epicentre of power, and with weapons

calling the shots, so to speak, government and politics could

remain tense and unstable. However, we are strongly

encouraged by the recent indications of an emerging

political consensus, as evidenced by the installation of a

new president. This is a positive trend which we hope will

manifest itself in all aspects of political, economic and

social activity.

The plights of Angola and Liberia are likewise grave;

both are locked in a destructive state of shooting

negotiations. In both, the humanitarian situation is again

regressing and a cease-fire is nowhere in sight; the gun is

again the preferred method of voting. Fortunately, progress

toward peace and an elected national Government is still on

its course in Mozambique, where the leadership seems to be

serious about ending the prolonged and destructive state of

conflict and engaging for the first time in building a

democratic State through national elections, scheduled for

October this year.

The United Nations Observer Mission in

Mozambique (UNOMOZ) is determined to fulfil all

targets and tasks on schedule and believes in the

prospects of success for the people of Mozambique. Its

strong

In Haiti, the long-anticipated international

intervention, sanctioned in Security Council resolution

940 (1994), has taken place. A multinational force has

peacefully secured the country, thanks in large measure to

the good deal of prudence shown, and the intense

diplomatic efforts undertaken, by the United States. We

are pleased that the junta has deemed it unwise to oppose

the world, and instead has agreed to relinquish power in

order to facilitate the return of the democratically elected

President, Mr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In other areas, Djibouti remains saddened by the

status quo in the bilateral discussions between the two

Gulf neighbours, Iran and the United Arab Emirates,

concerning the three islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb

and Abu Musa. We believe there is an urgent need for a

renewed and serious effort to resolve this dispute through

all possible peaceful avenues, including its referring it to

the International Court of Justice.

Bosnia remains a high-profile international

flashpoint. Despite the warning of dire consequences, the

Bosnian Serbs have rejected the final compromise

proposal of the five-nation Contact Group, which awards

them 49 per cent of the country, over two-thirds of which

they have taken by force. In the weeks since the

rejection, nothing has been done to punish the Bosnian

Serbs, as it had been intimated would be done. In fact,

the Serbs continue to apply consistent pressure on the

Bosnian Government and the United Nations, targeting

Sarajevo and its airport, blocking United Nations food

convoys and strangling safe areas such as Srebrenica and

Gorazde. Even "ethnic cleansing" has resumed. One

shudders to think what would have happened immediately

if it had been the Muslim party that had rejected the

proposal.

This inaction reflects the blatant unwillingness of the

international community to take any meaningful action

against the culprits, let alone punish them. This only

encourages further intransigence. The Serb reaction to

difficult situations consists in resorting to wild, radical

behaviour, eliciting retreat and concessions by the

peacemakers. One can never say what they will do

tomorrow, which means their word today has no intrinsic

value. To have rewarded Belgrade with a loosening of

26

the sanctions in the absence of a viable and comprehensive

peace agreement or concrete proof of compliance is to

mistake the form of this family dispute for its substance

perhaps because there is none. And what is the benefit for

the Bosnian Government, which agreed to the peace plan?

Will steps be taken to remedy the onerous military and

humanitarian imbalance? Will Serbia-Montenegro

recognize Bosnia within its current borders or agree to

cooperate with the International Tribunal? The proper

course of action, in the absence of any semblance of sanity

and settlement, is to lift the arms embargo against the

Bosnian Government. What else?

I would now like to address the question of Somalia.

The return to a functioning civil society in Somalia is, if

anything, even more remote, as meaningful inter-faction

talks have ceased, security is evaporating, the dream of

national reconciliation fading and the United Nations

Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM) focused on the process

of withdrawing. The only certainty in Somalia is political

uncertainty. As a neighbour that has observed and knows

all too well Somalia’s convulsive history, Djibouti can only

be distressed at the continuing problems and utter

hopelessness.

What is to be done? For too long the United Nations

has sought voluntary disarmament, conferences of national

reconciliation, interim government and hopefully, in the

end, a government elected by the people. Creating pressure

for this process is the looming departure of UNOSOM

scheduled for 31 March 1995, when operations may be

closed down. Although we anticipate that the people will

ultimately have the final say through elections, at present it

is the warlords and their factions that have been given a

comprehensive veto. On the assumption that they are the

powers that be in Somalia, considerable time has been spent

attempting to gain their agreement in the hope of eventually

reaching the people through them. But clearly the faction

leaders desire the political process to stop with them

without flowing through to the people. So at their door

everything stops, and the people are never given a say or an

input.

The obvious plan of the faction leaders is undoubtedly

to induce the United Nations to believe conditions are

propitious for withdrawal and then to settle scores among

themselves until someone is victorious. But in the process,

can we discount the possibility of a return to conditions of

starvation and famine, the kind of Somalia that existed prior

to the arrival of the United Nations? What will be the

immediate and long-term consequences or implications of

leaving Somalia in anarchy to the forlorn women, children

and innocent population of Somalia and to its neighbours,

which are already weighed down under an incessant flow

of refugees? Will there be a Somali State in the end?

Perhaps yes, perhaps no. It is hard, however, to preclude

a positive eventuality, however far-fetched that may seem

at present.

Clearly, what is absent from the whole process is the

voice of the people in the selection of true, legitimate

leadership and government to counter the present

abdication of power to bands of gun-holders. We must

find ways of directly giving voice to the people, leading

straight to legitimate government. Solidifying these steps

would then be the job of ample United Nations forces on

hand, drawing upon this Organization’s experience in

Cambodia, Mozambique and elsewhere. Certainly, the

thought of leaving Somalia with nothing in place and so

many lives at risk is both abhorrent and unacceptable, a

case where it will be interpreted that a "failed State" has

been abandoned by the United Nations. Walking out of

a society in a mess before reconstituting it as a

functioning entity will undeniably mark a precedent in the

history of the United Nations and will certainly represent

a far cry from the hopes, promises and commitments

enshrined in the Charter.

Although I have briefly explored situations in a

number of world trouble spots, the sad fact is that others

appear to be gathering wind in their sails, ready to burst

forth. Consequently, demands for expanded United

Nations involvement can be expected to rise, and the

question that must again be asked, based upon recent

experiences is: Could the Organization cope? More and

more we see peace-keeping patterns of an ad hoc nature,

struggling under the lack of equipment, logistics,

intelligence and manpower, poor coordination and

communications. But the fault can hardly be laid at the

feet of the United Nations if its urgent requests for

material and human resources are not met or are met

slowly or inadequately. With no force or equipment of

its own, and therefore required to begin each operation

from scratch, the resulting delays have severely hampered

timely United Nations reaction - leading, for example, to

genocide in Rwanda. And all this says nothing of the

difficulties stemming from ever-dwindling resources.

Such a state of affairs must be a cause for concern,

as the United Nations will increasingly be forced to limit

its responses to diplomatic initiatives, such as we have

seen in Haiti. In place of classic peace-keeping, we will

witness a growing reliance upon ad hoc multinational

intervention, the so-called posse response, but that too has

27

its limitations - for we are concerned with whether there is

to be meaningful collective security. If United Nations

peace-keeping withers, and in its place we are forced to

rely on ad hoc interventions, then we need to ask under

what basis that involvement will be forthcoming. In view

of these developing trends, the United Nations may be

forced to rely more upon simply letting conflicts run their

natural course, as in Somalia.

What this situation amply demonstrates is that the

United Nations needs a well-trained, mobile, standing force

with rapid deployment capability. Delayed deployment of

undermanned and under-equipped units, as was the situation

in Rwanda, fails to inspire confidence. The availability of

a rapid reaction force may at least address a good number

of probable conflict situations, often serving as a deterrent

simply by virtue of being in a position to act quickly.

It is fashionable these days to say that we live in an

international world, a "global village" in which nations can

no longer avoid the effects of developments in their

neighbours or the world. For Djibouti, this fact has a

particularly telling impact, for we have been forced to

grapple with the effects of years of past instability, warfare

and massive national disintegration in the Horn of Africa,

as in Somalia at present. From the financially debilitating

incursion of heavily armed militia to the equally draining

cost of demobilization that we face right now; to the flood

of refugees, the care and cost of which has overwhelmed

our infrastructure and health, educational and housing

services; to the crippling loss of vital markets, as in

Somalia, for our services; coupled with the devastation

brought by the seemingly unending drought and pestilence,

Djibouti has inevitably been slowly moving towards

negative growth and development in the last few years.

Yet, whatever the extent of our difficulties arising

from these circumstances, Djibouti has steadfastly sought to

remain a good-neighbourly State, contributing, to the extent

permitted by our meagre resources, to regional stability and

peace efforts.

Moreover, recognizing the need to further involve the

people of Djibouti in the complex process of development

and governance, we have an overhauled our political

structure and institutions.

Still there remains a disturbing predicament facing

Djibouti and other countries like it in the world, namely

that countries which are relatively stable, moderate and

democratic and which are contributing, and participating in

international efforts, to bring relief, reduce tensions, halt

aggression and conflict tend to be overlooked by the

international community. Despite the drain on our

meagre resources because of refugees and market losses,

and despite our continuing positive contributions to

regional and international peace efforts, it seems that the

general calm and freedom prevailing in my country are

lulling the world into believing that there are no really

pressing concerns or needs or for assistance. Too often,

little attention too often is paid to a nation, it seems, until

it is too desperate and near collapse, or until it is

perceived by the international community as a source of

new danger to peace and security, thereby qualifying it

for aid and assistance. This makes little sense, and is

indeed a mockery of the preventive measures that are

often-mentioned but seldom instituted. We deserve better,

but we remain quite confident that both our efforts and

our urgent needs for critical resources will be recognized

by our friends and development partners.

Djibouti, and all the countries of the Horn, have

been subjected to the ravages of destructive natural

causes, well beyond our individual power to cope with

them. Such is the inexorable drift of the Sahara

southward, or the severe drought conditions leading to

famine which now plagues the Horn. Overall, an

estimated 20 million people are at risk in 10 countries,

facing farms that are parched, rivers that are dried up, and

pestilence. Anticipating possible mass starvation resulting

from the lack of rain and water, food stocks were made

ready, only to be virtually depleted by a sudden

emergency elsewhere, as in Rwanda. A pervasive air of

hopelessness and apprehension now grips the nations of

the Horn, the urgency of which merits the immediate

concern and attention of the international community.

Adding to the difficulties arising from natural causes,

nations just as often face social forces over which they

have little control. Domestic macro-economic policies in

many industrialized countries, seeking to combat inflation

or balance international payments, often have drastic

effects on the demand for third-world products and on

commodity prices. The result, as one analyst explains, is

frequently declining terms of trade, sharply increased

interest rates, reduced exports, massive increases in

current account deficits, interest and debt-service

payments, all at a time of reduced aid and other capital

flows. External payment restraints, in particular, have

affected levels of domestic production in both industrial

and agricultural sectors, at times even production for

export, leading to inflation, acute financial crises and

mounting debt.

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Many third world countries simply lack the economic

capacity and flexibility to react in the short term. In the

long run, everyone benefits from greater coherence and

efficiency in the international economic system. Clearly the

world’s economic and financial system requires much more

order, predictability, coordination and fairness.

Along these lines, I feel it is imperative to refer again

to the issue of the restructuring and revitalization of the

United Nations in the economic, social and related fields -

in particular the relevant General Assembly resolutions

bearing particularly on the vital field of operational

activities for development, and the General Assembly’s

important coordinating role. As the most truly

representative body of the world’s people and States, the

General Assembly needs to return to its original role as

contemplated by the founding Member States and set forth

in the Charter. It must provide a more decisive lead in

strategy and policy, in reviewing, in critiquing and

approving the operation of the total system.

Likewise, as opposed to the extreme decentralization

current in United Nations economic activities and

institutions - each one a separate entity unto itself, often at

cross purposes - we must also return to the original role

foreseen in the Charter for the Economic and Social

Council as an economic security council. The Economic

and Social Council must remain open to receive and

address the concerns of Africa, which should not be

hampered in its effective and beneficial participation in the

Council and its subsidiary bodies. In this regard, we

welcomed the Secretary General’s report "An Agenda for

Development" which provided the opportunity for a

comprehensive review of world economic and social

problems, particularly in Africa. Africa’s development

concerns have been well documented in General Assembly

resolution 48/214 on the United Nations New Agenda for

the Development of Africa in the 1990s, which we hope

can serve as a basis on which the international community

can act in solidarity in mobilizing new and additional

resources to solve the pressing problems of the poor. For

if we are to address constructively the questions of

economic growth and development, of the formulation of

truly beneficial international macro-economic systems, we

need to begin to take those confidence- building measures

that will bring the North and the South closer and

strengthen the concept of partnership.

In the area of collective security, there remains

the imperative need to expand the Security Council and to

make it more transparent and democratic through an

increase in its membership and by making it more

accountable to the General Assembly. There should be

periodic reviews of the Council’s structure and functions

in line with international developments. A more equitable

geographical representation is critical, along with an

increase in permanent representation for developing

countries.