Equatorial Guinea, 1994

I would be disloyal to the

feelings of the delegation of the Republic of Equatorial

Guinea if I did not from the outset join with the preceding

speakers in expressing my best wishes to you and

congratulating you on your well-deserved election to the

Presidency of this General Assembly. I wish you every

success and assure you of the complete cooperation of my

delegation. Please convey my congratulations also to the

other members of the General Committee, whose work is

not always given due recognition.

We also commend the work accomplished by

Ambassador Samuel Insanally of Guyana, who presided

over the last session of the General Assembly. And I wish

to express special appreciation to His Excellency

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, our distinguished Secretary-

General, for his deep commitment to the search for viable

solutions to the problems and difficulties confronting

mankind today.

This forty-ninth session of the General Assembly is

being held at a time when the international community is

expressing its concern at the bleak panorama that the

world offers us, and more than ever is proclaiming its

right to preserve peace and the socio-political and

economic stability of the world. This session of the

General Assembly, therefore, must not disappoint these

pressing aspirations of the human community, which has

every reason to continue to consider the United Nations

as the hope of mankind.

It is illogical and inconceivable to the peoples of our

world that after the fall of the ideological borders that

shaped the bipolar world, we should again be confronted

with new burdens and contradictions. My country is

deeply concerned at the negative effect of the wave of

violence in many parts of the world today. In record

time, we have seen evidence of many sources of tension

and conflicts that wipe out many years of United Nations

efforts. Everywhere panic and uncertainty prevail, owing

to the intolerance and arbitrariness that are real threats to

world peace. None the less, it would seem that we all

want to close our eyes and act as though we did not know

the causes of this instability. For the Republic of

Equatorial Guinea, the causes are all interdependent:

poverty, inequality in relations among nations,

unemployment, ignorance, and political and religious

intolerance.

This forty-ninth session of our General Assembly

must therefore reflect deeply in order to find a global

solution to these common denominators of all our

countries. The Republic of Equatorial Guinea wishes to

reaffirm here, from this rostrum, the confidence that it has

placed in the United Nations and our conviction that this

Organization is the ideal framework for resolving the

difficult, delicate and complex problems confronting the

international community.

In this grim international panorama, my country, the

Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is endeavouring to

preserve internal peace and political stability, and to

maintain a strict policy of good-neighbourliness and

cooperation with the other countries of central Africa. In

this framework, we have been strengthening the internal

socio-political structures that make it possible to

coordinate an integral, democratic system that guarantees

the individual and collective freedoms of our citizens.

Indeed in 1991, the Government began a transition on the

basis of established constitutional provisions and has been

establishing the political environment conducive to

political pluralism and a multiparty system. A number of

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legal regulations now govern the exercise of pluralist

democracy in my country. May I mention, among them:

the law of political parties, the law of freedom of

association and expression, our trade union law, the law of

freedom of the press and printed matter, the law of

freedom of religion, the law of complaints and petitions,

and all the other laws that govern the electoral process.

Therefore, the fact is that Equatorial Guinea today is

a free, democratic and independent country where peace

and stability prevail. With only 400,000 inhabitants, we

have 14 political organizations that operate freely and

democratically and constitute the pluralist expression of our

peoples. None the less, as everyone knows, there are some

who, because of their concealed interests, have attempted,

and continue to attempt, to thwart the will of some of our

political leaders in our democratic process. This is the root

cause of the disinformation campaign that is being waged

against my country.

Allow me to dwell a moment on this point. Because

my country is being subjected to a systematic international

campaign of disinformation through certain very well-

localized media. Hence a negative image is being projected

of my country, in total disregard of the efforts that have

been made since 1979 by His Excellency Mr. Obiang

Nguema Mbasogo, the President of the Republic of

Equatorial Guinea, to restore the respectability and honour

of my country after 11 long, bloody years of the

dictatorship of Macias Nguema, who was overthrown

without anyone helping us. Regarding this campaign of

disinformation, there is a saying that I would like to

reiterate here: “The truth is one, but untruth is manifold”.

Everything depends on the colour of the lens through which

one looks. There are some who, because of their own

unconfessed interests prefer to continue to look at us

through a dark lens; but we ask the international community

to assess our actions in a neutral and objective way, without

allowing itself to be influenced by third parties. We ask

that you view us through a clear lens that will allow you to

see the reality.

Please do not misunderstand me. We are not against

the contribution of the international community to the

efforts of the people and Government of Equatorial Guinea

for democracy and the promotion of human rights and

freedoms, but we do believe that these objectives cannot be

achieved by promoting and instigating ungovernability,

anarchy and civil disobedience in the developing countries.

We see some countries now using the international

community’s demand for respect for human rights and

democracy to mask activities that are aimed at

subjugating developing countries such as Equatorial

Guinea. None the less, we would like to point out that in

the course of this year, certain donors, such as France and

Spain and the United Nations Development Programme,

have made a positive contribution to our democratic

process by giving moral, technical and economic support

to our efforts to consolidate democracy. They have done

excellent work.

We believe that the escalation of domestic tensions

in many African countries today has a common cause:

political intolerance, fuelled and promoted by foreign

intervention in a country's domestic jurisdiction.

However, as the saying goes, “The master’s eye makes

the horse fat” — in other words, however they may be

assessed or distorted from outside, the realities in each of

the countries in those regions exist independently of the

interpretations placed on them.

We in Equatorial Guinea believe that development

and democracy can be promoted only in an atmosphere of

peace. We therefore feel that the United Nations should

put emphasis on its efforts at preventive action rather than

those designed to restore peace or serve as a buffer.

Measures such as the dispatch of evaluation or inquiry

missions to individual countries can be more effective in

avoiding conflicts like those currently taking place in such

fraternal and friendly countries as Angola, Rwanda,

Liberia, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia and so on.

Interventions after the fact have been shown to have

limited effectiveness.

Some peace-keeping missions and operations in

certain conflict areas have also undergone a qualitative

change. It is therefore urgent to redirect the mechanisms

through which the Organization functions and adapt them

to the changes in today's world.

We believe that in an increasingly complicated

world, and with limited resources, international relations

must be complementary. In this sphere the role of the

United Nations has become even more decisive. It is

hardly useful for some to attempt to monopolize the

solution to the world's problems if we do not all feel

sincerely involved. As an earlier speaker in the general

debate noted, there can be neither peace nor justice if

discrimination exists in international relations.

My country hopes that the new world scene will

witness the implementation of procedures for sincere

international cooperation on behalf of those countries that

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need it most, those countries that are struggling not just to

maintain the quality of life but often for their very survival.

The poverty and misery in all the countries on Earth calls

for action by others to remedy their plight.

United Nations efforts in the maintenance of

international peace and security contrast with the limited

progress achieved in economic and social development.

The global chasm separating rich and poor is steadily

widening. We need the solidarity of the industrialized

countries, on mutually agreed terms, if we developing

countries are to find a definitive solution to our external-

debt problem, the burden of which is another obstacle to

progress and greater social development.

It would be most promising if agreement could be

reached on the mechanisms to solve this economic,

financial and socio-economic problem. One such

mechanism might be a re-examination of the idea of

converting external debt into investment and into projects

with proven social impact.

The preservation of the environment and the fight

against drug trafficking are questions that demand

consideration. The 1972 Stockholm Declaration established

the foundations for some universal principles for the

protection of the global environment and efforts to control

pollution and combat desertification and deforestation.

Reality, however, called for new initiatives, which

culminated in the Rio Conference on Environment and

Development. We hope that the results of that Conference

will be of benefit to all and help ensure mankind's the

sustainable development and future well-being.

I should, however, like to emphasize the obligation of

the developed and industrialized countries — which bear

the greatest responsibility for the deterioration of the global

ecosystem — to those countries that today are being asked

to make the sacrifice of limiting their legitimate right to the

use of the riches nature has bestowed on them. Fitting

compensation must be forthcoming, particularly through the

funding of alternative projects and technological

cooperation.

Within its modest financial means, the Republic of

Equatorial Guinea has been and remains ready to take

action to improve its national environment as its

contribution to the task of preserving nature throughout the

world. The Government of Equatorial Guinea is also

giving its constant attention to the struggle against the

AIDS pandemic, and, thanks to the deep awareness of the

people of Equatorial Guinea and the assistance we are

receiving from international agencies, we shall spare no

effort to control it effectively. From this rostrum we are

appealing to the international community to join us in our

efforts to speed and support work in these sectors.

For all those reasons, we hope that the United

Nations will continue to enjoy the full support of all of us

in working to achieve a better world in the coming 50

years.