Cambodia, 1993

First of

all, may I be permitted to join previous speakers in

expressing deep sadness and sorrow at the loss of thousands

of lives in Killari, India, as a result of the tragic earthquake

on 30 September 1993. On behalf of the Government and

people of Cambodia may I offer our profound condolences

to the Government of India and to the relatives of the

victims.

It is a privilege and an honour for me to address the

General Assembly at their forty-eighth session as the First

Prime Minister of the democratically elected Royal

Government of Cambodia, where, in accordance with the

mandate given to the Organization by the Paris Agreements

of 23 October 1991, the United Nations has played a

historic, decisive and successful role in ending 23 years of

suffering and misery for our people.

May I express a warm welcome and congratulations to

Mr. Samuel Insanally of the Republic of Guyana on his

election as President of the United Nations General

Assembly at its forty-eighth session. I am sure that

Ambassador Insanally will lead the deliberations of this body

to a successful conclusion.

I also wish to convey our warmest thanks and

appreciation for the tireless work undertaken by his

predecessor, Mr. Stoyan Ganev of the Republic of Bulgaria,

for his judicious and capable management of the General

Assembly at its forty-seventh session.

Cambodia welcomes Andorra, the Czech Republic,

Eritrea, Monaco, the Slovak Republic and the Republic of

Macedonia to this international body. Their decision to

become Members of the United Nations will no doubt help

to strengthen peace and security in the world.

On behalf of His Majesty, Norodom Sihanouk, King of

Cambodia, of His Excellency, Mr. Hun Sen, Second Prime

Minister of the Royal Government of Cambodia, and on

behalf of our people, may I be permitted to express our

profound and everlasting gratitude to Mr. Javier Perez de

Cuellar, former Secretary-General of the United Nations; to

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, current Secretary-General of the

United Nations; and to Mr. Yasushi Akashi, Special

Representative of the Secretary-General of the United

Nations in Cambodia, who are the artisans of the success of

the United Nations operation in Cambodia, which has

brought to our people peace, freedom, independence and the

beginning of a period in which democracy will be

established in our motherland.

Availing myself of this solemn opportunity, I should

like to recall the important historic role played by Indonesia,

France, Thailand, Japan and the People’s Republic of China,

which hosted crucial meetings on Cambodia that have led to

the present positive results. I should like to express my

deepest gratitude to the following eminent personalities, their

Excellencies President Suharto and President François

Mitterrand, Mr. Roland Dumas, Mr. Ali Alatas, Mr. Gareth

Evans and Mr. Ahmed Rafeeuddin for their tireless

contributions to the success of this precious peace process.

We are most gratified by the many congratulatory

messages from Governments welcoming the promulgation of

the new Constitution of Cambodia and the reaccession to the

throne of His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk. Last, but

not least, the official recognition extended to the new,

democratically elected Royal Government of Cambodia

constitutes an act of justice, which to us is of great

encouragement.

The success of the United Nations operation in

Cambodia can be described as a combination of trust in the

good will of the international community to save Cambodia

and of the will of the whole Cambodian population to save

its homeland.

Forty-eighth session - 4 October l993 7

The Cambodian people, by their participation, in huge

numbers, in the free and fair elections held in our country

last May, played a decisive role in sowing the seeds of

democracy in Cambodia. His Majesty King Norodom

Sihanouk, father of the Cambodian nation, played a crucial

role in encouraging and nurturing national reconciliation

among all Khmers, and provided firm support for the United

Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) and

for Mr. Yasushi Akashi, the leader of UNTAC. The steps

taken by His Majesty ensured success for the last stage of

the peace plan, including the drafting of our new

Constitution and the orderly transfer of power.

I am indeed pleased to report that the peace process in

Cambodia continues in accordance with the Paris Peace

Agreements. The elections, in which, happily, huge numbers

of my compatriots participated, were free and fair. Despite

tremendous difficulties and constraints, the outcome was

most encouraging for the future of democracy in Cambodia.

Cambodia’s new Constitution, which was drafted by a

sovereign Constituent Assembly, established a constitutional

monarchy within the framework of a democratic and liberal

political system, under which the people are the sole source

of State power, and the judiciary is totally independent of

the legislature and the executive. The constitutional

monarchy represents the will of the people, expressed

through their elected representatives in the constituent

Assembly. Under the new Constitution, respect for human

rights and individual freedoms has a key place.

Even though we have the same leadership as we had

during the transitional period, when the provisional

Government was in power, the establishment of the Royal

Government of Cambodia will ensure the social stability and

peace that are so necessary to enable us all to dedicate

ourselves to the reconstruction and development of our

homeland.

We still need a peaceful settlement of the Khmer Rouge

problem. This problem must be resolved by the Cambodian

people. We hope that a solution will be arrived at during

the course of the November round-table discussions, at

which His Majesty the King will preside. In this regard, the

position of the Royal Government of Cambodia is perfectly

clear: we are ready to welcome the Khmer Rouge group as

advisers to the Royal Army and the Royal Government.

However, we demand that, in return, the Khmer Rouge

group assume the same responsibilities as were undertaken

by the other three former parties that signed the Paris

Agreements: that its administration be dismantled; that its

armies and its zones become part of a single national entity,

a unified and indivisible Cambodia whose territory and land

and maritime borders are internationally recognized, as was

the case in the 1960s; and that there be a central

governmental structure consisting of a national Assembly, a

Royal Government, Royal armed forces and a Royal

Administration.

The international community should guarantee the

independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of

Cambodia. Indeed, a unique international guarantee is

clearly enshrined in the text of the Agreement on a

Comprehensive Political Settlement of the Cambodia

Conflict of 23 October 1991, Part III, which is entitled

"Agreement concerning the sovereignty, independence,

territorial integrity and inviolability, neutrality and national

unity of Cambodia".

The Royal Government of Cambodia solemnly pledges

that it will scrupulously respect the relevant clauses of

articles 1 and 3 of Part III of the Agreement. Cambodia

requests that, in return, all signatories to the Paris

Agreements of 23 October 1991 respect the clauses

contained in articles 2, 4 and 5 of Part III.

The new Cambodia counts on all countries signatories

to the Paris Agreements to

"solemnly undertake to recognize and respect the

sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and

inviolability, neutrality and national unity of

Cambodia."

Notably, the parties must

"refrain from interference, in any form whatsoever,

whether direct or indirect, in the internal affairs of

Cambodia."

The Royal Government of Cambodia urges that those

countries which have not yet subscribed to the Paris

Agreements of 23 October 1991 do so in order to help

Cambodia and the Cambodian people, who have suffered so

much, to maintain and reinforce this fragile peace. This is

something that benefits not only Cambodia but the entire

Asia-Pacific region. Maintenance of peace will be the sole

guarantee of recovery and reconstruction in Cambodia.

8 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

(spoke in French)

We are determined to conclude this process, and we

shall do so by ourselves. However, after 23 years of war

and suffering, Cambodia is a devastated country. Thus, the

new Cambodia needs aid and assistance from the

international community. We pledge that we shall devote all

our meagre human and financial resources and the extremely

generous assistance of the international community to the

reconstruction and rehabilitation of our devastated and

impoverished country.

We welcome the great success of the Tokyo Ministerial

Conference on the Rehabilitation and Reconstruction of

Cambodia that took place in June 1992 and the success of

the international conference on the reconstruction of

Cambodia that was held in Paris last month. The success of

both these conferences is an indication of the international

community’s great compassion for the Cambodian people,

and we shall be for ever grateful.

The Royal Government of Cambodia is determined,

with the help of the international community, to take all

appropriate measures to meet this tremendous challenge. We

are determined to respect and abide fully by the

arrangements provided for in Part IV of the Paris

Agreements of 23 October 1991 on the rehabilitation and

reconstruction of Cambodia.

It is precisely because we are determined to achieve

these objectives that His Majesty King Norodom Sihanouk,

with the agreement of the United Nations Secretary-

General’s Special Representative for Cambodia, asks,

through the Secretary-General and the Security Council:

First, a United Nations integrated office should be

established in Cambodia.

Secondly, the offices of the specialized agencies, such

as the United Nations Development Programme, the United

Nations Children’s Fund and the World Food Programme,

should be retained in Phnom Penh.

Thirdly, we should maintain the human rights

component in Phnom Penh and expand it into a permanent

human rights centre.

Fourthly, we should continue the demining operations

within the framework of the Cambodian Mine Action Center.

Fifthly, we should actively maintain in Phnom Penh a

team of military observers, who would help us to build

confidence among the Cambodian people and would also

serve as a guarantee against external threats.

The Royal Government of Cambodia wishes to draw

the attention of the international community to the problem

of the mines which have been laid throughout Cambodia.

Current research shows that there are between 6 million and

10 million mines in Cambodian soil. The Royal

Government requests the ongoing cooperation of the

international community in removing as many of these mines

as possible. In particular, we request assistance from the

central database of the Cambodian Mine Action Centre,

which is one of the most crucial aspects of the whole

operation. The Cambodian Mine Action Centre has so far

cleared over 3,883,230 square metres of minefield. The

remaining task requires special equipment and a budget

spanning the next 5 to 10 years. We hope that the

international community can help us make our country safe

for present and future generations.

Also, as a signatory to the 1970 Convention on the

Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import,

Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and

as the Angkor monuments have been listed since December

1992 as a world heritage site, we request the international

community to give unstinting assistance to the Royal

Government of Cambodia in its struggle against the illicit

traffic of Khmer cultural patrimony, which has been subject

to unprecedented looting and vandalism. In order to recover

these valuable cultural properties, we appeal to all countries

which export such goods and through which they are

transported - whether or not they have ratified the foregoing

Convention - to adopt the following steps to help us. First,

they should prevent national museums and similar

institutions from acquiring any antiquities which are native

to the Kingdom of Cambodia. Secondly, they should ban

the import of these cultural properties as soon as they are

legally listed in the inventories of Khmer national patrimony,

if they are not legally licensed by the competent Cambodian

authorities for export purposes. Thirdly, they should take all

necessary steps to ensure that antique dealers and merchants

of cultural resources assist the Royal Government of

Cambodia in recovering and repatriating those cultural

treasures illegally exported from the Kingdom of Cambodia.

The Royal Government of Cambodia wishes to express

its deepest appreciation to the countries of the Association

of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) for their past and

ongoing efforts to help Cambodia and the Cambodian people

achieve peace, freedom and independence. We in Cambodia

Forty-eighth session - 4 October l993 9

note with sincere admiration the tremendous development

taking place in the countries of ASEAN, and we hope to

learn much from their extensive experience.

Cambodia very much regrets that conflict has engulfed

the former Yugoslavia, a country that always maintained

close and friendly relations with us. We sincerely hope that

the current negotiations will put an end to the suffering of

the innocent people of the various regions of that unfortunate

country.

Cambodia also regrets the renewal of conflicts in

Somalia, Angola and Georgia. We hope that the intervention

of the international community will put a swift end to these

conflicts that have caused so much bloodshed.

Cambodia congratulates the Palestine Liberation

Organization and the State of Israel for reaching initial

agreement on some of the issues that have divided them for

so many years and caused so much suffering to the

Palestinian and Israeli peoples. We urge them to pursue

their efforts to achieve permanent peace. My Government

is thus pleased to announce that Cambodia has officially

restored diplomatic relations with the State of Israel at the

ambassadorial level.

Cambodia welcomes the progress achieved in the

discussions between the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea and the United States of America. We support the

10-point programme proposed by President Kim Il Sung for

the peaceful reunification of Korea, and we also support the

total nuclear disarmament of the Korean peninsula.

We have followed with satisfaction the positive

developments in South Africa, where apartheid is being

dismantled. We are aware that many obstacles remain and

we hope that they can be removed without senseless violence

and in peaceful and constructive cooperation between the

black majority and the white minority.

(spoke in English)

Before I conclude, may I be permitted to pay profound

homage to the courageous military and civilian personnel of

the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia, who

have given their lives for the cause of peace in my country.

Their names are enshrined deep in our hearts.

Cambodia’s complex problems have been solved

peacefully thanks to the tireless efforts of Mr. Boutros

Boutros-Ghali, Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The Royal Government and people of Cambodia salute him

and highly commend and praise him for his just leadership

in the crucial Cambodia conflict and for bringing it to a

peaceful settlement.

The message the people of Cambodia have entrusted

me to convey to the General Assembly is one of gratitude,

of hope and of continuous cooperation with the international

community with a view to strengthening peace, democracy

and respect for human rights in Cambodia. We know that

our task is huge, complex and by no means easy, but we

pledge to do our utmost to bring it to a successful

completion.