Gabon, 1992

May I first. Sir,

on behalf of my delegation and on behalf of the Government and people of

Gabon, convey to Ambassador Stoyan Ganev of Bulgaria our warm congratulations

on his well-deserved election to the presidency of the General Assembly at its

forty-seventh session. His personal qualities and experience in international

affairs undoubtedly guarantee the success of our work.

Our congratulations also go to the outgoing President,

Ambassador Samir Shihabi of Saudi Arabia, whom we thank for the dynamic and

exemplary way in which he discharged his duties.

To the Secretary-General, whose recent election to head our Organization

honours all of Africa, we should like to reiterate our full support for

everything he is doing to promote preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and

peace-keeping, and particularly the peaceful advent of a new world order. His

great diplomatic experience is a guarantee of the fulfilment of his commitment

to carry out to the best of his ability his delicate and noble mission in the

service of the entire world community.

Finally, we welcome all those new States which have come upon the

international political scene recently. Their arrival, we are certain, will

strengthen the universality of our Organization and contribute to

strengthening the bonds of solidarity between Member States.

Since the end of the East-West confrontation our Organization has been

demonstrating its ability fully to play the role assigned it by the Charter

whenever Member States act collectively. It has demonstrated this

particularly in Afghanistan, Central America, Cambodia, Kuwait and Namibia.

This solidarity should be even more effective in settling other conflicts

which, regrettably, we witness elsewhere.

At the very opening of this session, the situation in Somalia is

particularly disquieting. How can we remain unmoved when we daily see on our

television screens faces bearing the imprint of war, disease and hunger? How

can we remain indifferent to the pain and tragedy of millions of women and

children whose only aspiration is to live in peace in their own environment

and to seek better development?

Is it not indeed scandalous that in our day and age war and the use of

force are still the means preferred by some to settle intercommunity

problems? Undoubtedly, this is a challenge to our collective intelligence.

In Somalia, as elsewhere, in a tremendous upsurge of human solidarity we

must make a collective effort to put an end to the fratricidal confrontations

in order to rebuild trust between communities linked by history and geography

that perforce must live in harmony.

For its part, and particularly in the case of Somalia, Gabon has taken

concrete steps along these lines.

This appeal equally applies to Mozambique, where natural catastrophes

have seriously exacerbated the complexity of a conflict on which discussions

are now under way. In this connection the Government of Gabon very much

valued the meetings in Rome on 7 August and in Gabarone on 18 September

between President Chissano and the leader of RENAMO, Mr. Alfonso Phlakama.

In another region of the continent, the situation in Liberia is also a

matter of grave concern. For two years now efforts to bring about peace on

the part of the Economic Community of West African States have encountered

obstacles despite the presence among the belligerents of 7,000 "White Helmets"

of the disengagement forces of the Economic Community of West African States

Monitoring Group (ECOMOG).

Apart from subregional action, which is highly commendable, the United

Nations has provided welcome aid to the Liberian population.

The international community clearly provides the necessary means for all

those who, despite their own difficulties, are making a contribution to

bringing about peace in those countries.

With respect to the situations in the Sudan, Rwanda, Niger, Mali and

Chad, the Government of Gabon will support all initiatives to bring about a

peaceful settlement of the disputes between members of the same family.

With respect to the situations in the Sudan, Rwanda, Niger, Mali and

Chad, the Government of Gabon will support all initiatives to bring about a

peaceful settlement of the disputes between members of the same family.

It is in this spirit that Gabon has often offered its good offices in the

settlement of conflicts in Africa.

The case of South Africa is of deepest concern to us. Indeed, the system

of apartheid has still not disappeared from the South African political

landscape. To be sure, a few months ago, under unprecedented international

pressure, the Government in Pretoria committed itself to a policy of reform

designed to eradicate this odious system. But for some months now we have

been witnessing an intensification of violence as a means of political

expression. The Boipatong massacre and the Ciskei events are unfortunate

examples which undermine the efforts to promote dialogue, which Gabon and the

international community at large so earnestly seek.

The promises of the South African Government gave some comfort to all

those who want a positive outcome to the situation in that country so that it

can join the comity of nations through the resumption of the Convention for a

Democratic South Africa (COPESA) talks. But nothing at the present time would

allow the international community to relax its pressure nor to reduce its

vigilance with-respect to Pretoria, particularly as our Organization, whose

recent initiatives deserve to be encouraged, is urgently demanding the

application of the principle one-man, one-vote.

With respect to the Arab-Israeli conflict, at the core of which is still

the question of Palestine, the new spirit now pervading international

relations, as well as the desire to reach a diplomatic solution voiced by the

parties involved, are conducive to giving a fresh and lasting impetus to the

peace process begun in Madrid in October 1991 which is currently continuing in

Washington.

How can we remain indifferent to the tragedy we are witnessing in the

former Yugoslavia, particularly in Bosnia and Herzegovina? Quite clearly,

what we have here is a major challenge where humanitarian assistance, even

with the help of military logistics, is not sufficient. Gabon, which wishes

to see a speedy peaceful outcome to this conflict, highly commends the leading

role now being played by the United Nations.

Generally speaking, all Member States expect our Organization to play a

decisive role in peace-keeping and in maintaining international security, as

well as in the eradication of poverty and in the struggle against famine.

That is why my country wholeheartedly supports the recommendations of the

Secretary-General contained in his "Agenda for Peace".

If it is to serve its purpose the Organization must restructure its main

organs in the light of the current international situation. To this end, the

political role of the General Assembly and the supervisory functions of the

Economic and Social Council should be further strengthened in order to make

the entire United Nations system more dynamic.

Furthermore, as President Bongo requested from this rostrum, first in

1977, when he was President of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), and

then during the fortieth session of the General Assembly, the countries of the

third world should now be represented in the Security Council as permanent

members, in order to make decision making at that level more democratic.

International law is being completely rethought. Hallowed concepts of

yesteryear, such as "national sovereignty", "territorial integrity" and, above

all, "non-interference in the internal affairs of States", behind which the

international community was finding it more and more difficult to hide its

uneasy conscience, are now being given a new normative content.

Hence, for some years now, a new concept has appeared on the

international scene, and that is the "right to interference". It would

appear, a priori, to be contradictory with these very principles of "national

sovereignty", "territorial integrity", and particularly "non-interference in

the internal affairs of States", which underlie peaceful relations among

States.

But to assure that this right is not selective or abused, its exercise

should be the exclusive responsibility of the United Nations. Furthermore,

calling into question certain of these principles is not necessarily a

negative step. That step should be taken whenever these principles themselves

have led to crises.

In so doing, the United Nations could acquire more extended powers, and

hence given the appropriate means, which would enable it to exercise that

right, if need be, without any discrimination whatsoever.

In his most recent report on the work of the Organization, in 1991, the

former Secretary-General, Mr. Javier Perez de Cuellar, wrote:

"No system of collective security will remain viable unless workable

solutions are sought to the problem of poverty and destitution,

afflicting the greater part of the world." (A/46/1, p. 12. VIII)

That is why United Nations action would also stand to gain if it were

similarly strengthened in the economic and financial fields. In this way, it

should continue in the direction it has already taken in order the better to

adapt itself to the new challenges facing mankind.

Economics now has a more prominent place in international relations. The

creation of an increasing number of subregional and regional economic

groupings, as well as the globalization of international trade, have turned

our world into one immense market whose working rules should be equitable.

The international community very quickly realized this requirement for

complementarity and solidarity when, in 1974, it established a new

international economic order.

Similarly, multilateral organizations, such as the European Economic

Community, by creating machinery to regulate world trade, have clearly

evidenced their desire to come to the assistance of the poorer countries by

creating the STABEX and SYSMIN systems.

In the same vein, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) has

advocated for some years now constructive negotiations between producers and

consumers in order to strike a better balance between world supply and

demand. The efforts of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

(UNCIAD) are along the same lines.

In this struggle for development, we realize that the United Nations has

taken a number of initiatives, the most recent of which are: the International

Development Strategy for the Fourth United Nations Development Decade, the

United Nations Programme for the Economic Recovery of Africa, the Cartagena

Consensus and the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.

We can therefore say that, generally speaking, in recent years the world

has progressed to some extent towards greater solidarity among all peoples.

But there are still serious grounds for concern. Despite the progress made on

the debt problem, through the so-called Toronto, Houston and London measures,

the question of cancelling the debts of the least developed countries, and

considerably reducing them for the other developing countries, remains a

burning issue, particularly for the so-called middle-income countries.

Up to now Gabon, which falls into that category, has not benefited from

any of these measures, whereas at the same time it has seen a sharp drop in

its per capita income. It would be in the interests of no one, especially the

international community, if the African countries were to go into a downward

spiral of economic decline and indebtedness. Today everyone knows that the

measures that have been advocated with a view to enabling our continent to

escape from this impasse have, for the most part, proved to be inapplicable

because they are inappropriate. The balance of payments of some of our

countries has been affected by the international monetary system, which

influences international exchanges. Therefore, it is urgent that the

international community give much more backing to the developing countries, so

that they and the African countries in particular may participate in world

growth.

Africa, 70 per cent of whose exports consist of prime commodities, has

been hard hit by the detrimental effects of the fall in the prices of those

commodities, and it faces economic problems in addition to that of

indebtedness. Again, Africa has undertaken a programme of economic reform,

whose results because of the need simultaneously to implement political

reforms and the desire of Governments to achieve consensus in respect of these

programmes - have been very slow to emerge.

For all these reasons the international community should promote action

in three directions. First, it should stabilize, at a remunerative level, the

prices of non-petroleum products; secondly, it should readjust the

international monetary system by rationalizing policy on interest and exchange

rates; finally, it should provide a substantial increase in public aid to

African countries. In other words, we are advocating the creation and

implementation of a sort of "Marshall plan" for the African continent.

Generally speaking, the problem of combating underdevelopment is of central

concern to all of mankind. This is why solidarity should not be selective.

Nor should it be confined to mere declarations of intent the purpose of which

is to ease one's conscience. It should, for example, take the form of a

re-initiation of the process of negotiation on commodity agreements. The

success of this new form of cooperation effective solidarity between

peoples will affect the future of our planet and facilitate improvement of

the human condition.

I am quite certain that no delegation present at this meeting would like

the cold war to be replaced by North-South confrontation. That being the

case, it might seem illusory to pose certain problems albeit major problems

concerning the environment - if, at the same time, solutions are not proposed

for the benefit of those countries that have to exploit their raw materials in

a more or less intensive way.

Let us not be hypocritical. This is a requirement for survival, as was

demonstrated recently at the Rio summit on the environment and, quite

recently, at the summit of non-aligned countries. The conditions that are

necessary for the preservation of the environment, which is the real heritage

of mankind, should not be one-sided. The new concept of international law and

the new international order, to which I have referred already, can be reviewed

and corrected, and should take into account the new terms of world

equilibrium. Otherwise, economic growth and democratic development will be

jeopardized.

Despite the acute nature of the various problems to which I have just

referred, our Organization has a very gratifying record in the political and

diplomatic fields. It should also demonstrate its ability to meet the new

challenges facing mankind today. These include the questions of the

environment, AIDS and drugs. These subjects have introduced a new set of

problems into international thinking, and they require urgent and innovative

solutions. In this connection, the United Nations Conference on Environment

and Development has proved correct the vision of solidarity of those who have

always felt that the well-being of nations comes from consultation rather than

confrontation.

That Conference was a striking illustration of the ill-adaptedness of the

economic choices imposed here and there in the world, by comparison with the

resources available on the planet, and, I am quite certain, by comparison with

the real needs of our populations. The fact that this coincided with the end

of the cold war should make development as important a concept as that of

collective security, which has always been one of the main concerns of the

United Nations.

Undoubtedly development was one of the main objectives that the founding

fathers assigned to the Organization, but security needs have pushed

international cooperation in this area into the background. Its reinstatement

should take the form of a crusade against underdevelopment. I should like to

refer here to the concept of sustainable development, which was mentioned at

Rio in connection with my country's rational use of its forest lands. Gabon,

which has long since advanced from the stage of simple harvesting to that of

ecological management of its forest lands, could not fail to adhere to the two

conventions of Sio the conventions on biodiversity and on climatic changes.

Therefore, we shall be very pleased to host, in Libreville in

January-February 1993, the first African meetings as a follow-up to the Rio

Conference, and we extend a cordial welcome to the representatives of

participating States, and wish them a pleasant stay in Gabon.

I should like to conclude my remarks by calling for more solidarity -

solidarity in the settlement of disputes, in international security, in

co-operative relations between States and peoples, in relations between

international financial institutions, and in relations between all our

countries, without discrimination. In his report on the activities of the

Organization the Secretary-General says:

"We need a new spirit of commonality, commitment and intellectual

creativity to transform a period of hope into an era of fulfilment."

(A/47/1, para. 8)

We are talking here about the advent of this new international order a world

that is better and more human, one in which there is real solidarity.