Haiti, 1999

The

Republic of Haiti finds it a source of genuine satisfaction

that the fifty-fourth regular session of the General

Assembly is being presided over by Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab,

a man for whom we have a great deal of admiration. With

positive results, he has competently and responsibly served

his country, Namibia, which is quite rightly considered one

of the symbols of the success of our Organization. We take

this opportunity to wish him every success in the

tremendous and noble task he has undertaken.

We pay tribute to Mr. Didier Opertti, Foreign Minister

of Uruguay, who so effectively conducted the proceedings

of the fifty-third session.

We also take this opportunity to convey our most

sincere greetings to the Secretary-General, Mr. Kofi Annan,

who, at a time when our world is facing many challenges,

has known how to use his intelligence and the wisdom of

his great experience to help the community of nations face

up to the inevitable changes of the twenty-first century.

We also welcome, with great satisfaction, the

admission of the Republic of Kiribati, the Republic of

Nauru and the Kingdom of Tanga as full-fledged Members

of our Organization. They will strengthen the universal

nature of the Organization and enrich its diversity of points

of view.

We take the floor this 1 October, one day after the

anniversary of the bloody coup d’état of 1991, a genuine

act of assassination of democracy and of the dream of an

entire people. Without the determined action of the United

Nations and its Members, contemplating this sad and

deadly event would have been even more painful for the

people of Haiti today. We would therefore like to express

once again our gratitude to the international community

for having ensured the restoration of democratic

constitutional order in Haiti.

Since that restoration of democracy, the Government

and the people of Haiti, helped by the international

community, have worked zealously to ensure an

environment favourable to the blossoming of democracy

and economic progress. This effort has not yet yielded the

results we had hoped for, because over the last five years

the Republic of Haiti has had to confront problems arising

from the complexity of its situation. But through the will

of our people and its Government, the Haitian dream of

democracy will become a reality.

Above all, the Government of the Republic is still

convinced of the critical importance of the renewal of its

institutions, in particular of the Parliament, most of whose

members had their term of office expire on 11 January

1999. To this end, fair, honest, democratic elections will

be organized in the next few months. The head of State,

Mr. René Préval, has repeatedly and solemnly affirmed

his determination to create the conditions to make it

possible for the elections to be organized by the

Provisional Electoral Council. Of course, as guarantor of

the functioning of the institutions, the President of the

Republic has considered that the most important thing is

the establishment of the physical conditions necessary for

well-organized elections, rather than hasty elections the

results of which might be called into question because of

organizational shortcomings. For President Préval, the

holding of the elections must lead to a solution to our

crisis and not its perpetuation, or even the creation of yet

another crisis.

In order to work to consolidate its achievements, the

Government hopes that a consensus will be found to

continue technical assistance for professionalizing the

National Police, in strict compliance with Haitian law.

The Government of the Republic wants to avoid any

interruption of the effort to thoroughly reform the judicial

system and to promote full respect for all dimensions of

human rights.

18

The fifty-fourth session of the General Assembly is

undoubtedly a highly symbolic moment. As the last session

of this century, it ought to come up with a vision that

would make our Organization an essential and efficient

instrument for meeting the challenges that await us in the

twenty-first century. We know the contours of this vision,

as they were sketched after the Stockholm Conference on

the Human Environment, the World Summit for Social

Development in Copenhagen and the Rio Earth Summit.

The sketch is filled in by the ideal of the peoples of the

whole world, as expressed in our Charter: to save future

generations from the scourge of war, to ensure respect for

fundamental human rights, to promote social progress and

to establish better conditions of living in greater freedom.

Thus, our task at this fifty-fourth session should be to fully

work out, by means of our discussions and the work of the

various committees, the concept and ways of implementing

this vision.

The fifty-fourth session will also be an opportunity for

the United Nations to give deeper thought to its mission of

ensuring international peace and security and of promoting

economic and social development. In this regard, the

Republic of Haiti is happy to note that the situation in East

Timor is improving following the actions of the

international community and its cooperation with the

Indonesian authorities. We hope that the presence of the

multinational peace force will help bring the country out of

the chaos into which it has been plunged. We urge the

Indonesian Government and its allies in East Timor to fully

respect the decision of the ballot box and to take measures

to ensure East Timor’s peaceful transition to independence

and democracy.

The Republic of Haiti also welcomes the end of the

state of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The

Agreement signed in Lusaka, under the aegis of President

Frederick Chiluba, between the protagonists in this conflict

is clear evidence that Africa is in the process of providing

itself with the means to become master of its diplomatic

and geographical destiny.

The Republic of Haiti calls upon India and Pakistan to

do everything possible to find a permanent solution to the

Kashmir conflict and to put an end to their nuclear arms

race, which is indeed a frightening process that diverts

tremendous financial resources and brainpower to

destruction when they could be put at the service of

survival and development.

Once again the Haitian Government reiterates its

condemnation of all forms of terrorist activities that might

cause material and human damage. We reaffirm our faith

in the fundamental rights of man and in the general

principles of international law as the basis of norms that

govern the relations among States.

In the face of the conflicts that threaten international

peace and security, it is reassuring that the Director-

General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and

Cultural Organization, Mr. Federico Mayor, has had the

idea of promoting throughout the world the culture of

peace, which is so vital to good relations within and

between nations. The promotion of a genuine culture of

peace is inseparable from the democratization of the

international order. One of the fundamental aspects of this

democratization lies in the solution to the question of

equitable representation in the Security Council. It is time

for this Assembly to reach a consensus on this subject of

such crucial importance for the future of our

Organization.

An equally important point for establishing a

genuine culture of peace is the implementation of United

Nations resolutions in the realm of international security.

Many resolutions have not been implemented when their

implementation would be decisive, not only in the context

of North-South relations, but also in the context of the

indispensable relationships to be developed between

States, international institutions and non-governmental

organizations.

Over the last two months, the Government and the

people of Haiti have observed with sadness and

helplessness the destruction wreaked and the terrible toll

taken by the natural disasters that have struck Turkey,

Taiwan, Greece, the Bahamas and the United States. We

wish to reiterate to the people of these countries that we

share their pain and offer our heartfelt solidarity, having

ourselves, unfortunately, experienced such disasters.

We take this opportunity to repeat that the Haitian

Government is following attentively the evolution of

relations between the two countries on the Taiwan Strait.

Our Government notes with satisfaction that the two sides

are undertaking measures to establish a climate of

confidence, respect and prosperity, which will be of the

utmost benefit to the peoples who live there.

At the dawn of the new millennium, the fight for the

elimination of poverty remains one of the most noble

tasks of the United Nations system, in order to establish,

as we are bidden by our Charter, better living conditions

for the human beings living on this earth.

19

President Gurirab recently echoed the feelings of the

vast majority of developing countries when he noted that

globalization might open the floodgates of competition in

such a way that certain States would be wiped off the map.

Therefore it is up to the United Nations and to each country

to examine attentively the means of remedying the ill

effects of globalization on the social and economic

structures of every country — and particularly its effects on

small developing countries. Certainly globalization has its

positive side, bringing human communities closer together

politically, socially and culturally. But it must not be used

as a pretext for a standardization that might neutralize the

diversity that is the very strength of humanity.

On the eve of the third millennium what should unite

us more than ever, beyond our differences and often highly

divergent interests, is the laying down of foundations to

bring about the security of all and the elimination of

poverty as the initial phase of a planetary process of true

sustainable development.