Liberia, 1996

Permit me to express on behalf of my

country, Liberia, our sincere congratulations to you, Sir, on

your unanimous election as President of the General

Assembly. It is our expectation that your tenure will be

marked by the same distinction that has characterized your

service to your country, Malaysia.

I express our sincere appreciation to your predecessor,

His Excellency Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral of Portugal,

for efficiently conducting the proceedings of the historic

fiftieth session of the General Assembly.

I also wish to congratulate the Secretary-General,

Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, for his continuing dedication to

the cause of world peace and social justice, which has

provided the United Nations an opportunity to enhance the

dignity of all mankind in spite of the odds that continue to

frustrate our common aspirations and our efforts to build a

better world.

Liberia bears its share of responsibility for finding

solutions to the problems of our one world through this

Organization. Regrettably, the situation in Liberia has not

afforded us the opportunity to participate as actively as

might be expected.

It is an honour and privilege for me to stand before

this world body as Africa’s first female Head of

Government. However, it is sad to note that I have assumed

this leadership at a time when my country, Liberia, is

experiencing a tragic and senseless war.

The Liberian civil war, which began more than six

years ago, has unleashed one of the worst man-made

disasters in recent memory. It has claimed over 250,000

lives — about 15 per cent of the population; forced over

800,000 Liberians to seek refuge in neighbouring countries;

and left several hundred thousand others internally

displaced.

Regrettably, the most vulnerable groups — women,

children and the elderly — continue to be victimized by the

ravages of disease, hunger and malnutrition, which are

commonplace under such conditions. The wanton killing

of civilians and the destruction of basic infrastructure,

which intensified in April of this year, continue to retard

economic activities and deprive the people of their

fundamental human rights.

The painful reality of our child soldiers, child

labourers and abandoned children in the country point to

the formidable task that lies ahead as we seek to

rehabilitate them into productive citizens.

The displacement of large segments of the rural

population has curtailed agricultural production. Before

the war, agriculture accounted for 38 per cent of the gross

domestic product and 75 per cent of total employment. As

a result of continued hostilities, other potentially high

economic sectors such as rubber, timber, iron ore and

minerals remain inaccessible.

Since 1990, the Economic Community of West

African States (ECOWAS) has deployed a peacekeeping

force in Liberia, in keeping with Chapter VIII of the

Charter of the United Nations. It had been hoped that this

initiative, the first by a subregion, would receive the full

support of the United Nations. Unfortunately, the

assistance of the international community has been both

slow and inadequate, thereby imposing severe pressure on

the scarce resources of the member States of ECOWAS.

While ECOWAS, in the spirit of African

brotherhood and solidarity, has taken the initiative in

Liberia, its efforts must be complemented by the

international community through the provision of

substantial material and financial support to facilitate the

implementation of the peace process in the country. It is

therefore my appeal that the United Nations assume its

share of the burden of peacekeeping in Liberia. The

subregion is facing extreme economic hardships due to

external factors beyond its control.

After the failure of several peace agreements, the

member States of ECOWAS convened a meeting in

Abuja, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in August 1995.

At that meeting, a decision was taken to include for the

first time the leaders of the three major warring factions

in a six-man Council of State. Accordingly, a ceasefire

was implemented, and Monrovia was maintained as a safe

haven. The members of the Council of State were

inducted into office on 1 September 1995.

7

In April of this year, the resumption of fighting, with

the accompanying carnage and illegal seizure and

destruction of property, dealt another set-back to the peace

process. At this juncture, I extend the profound regrets of

the Liberian Government and people to the international,

intergovernmental, non-governmental and other

organizations that sustained losses as a result of the April

fighting. I pledge that our Administration will do all that

lies within its power to prevent the reoccurrence of such

lawlessness.

The events of April enabled the leaders of the

subregion to identify deficiencies in the Agreement and to

take measures to prevent the reoccurrence of such

breakdown in the implementation of the peace accord.

Although they reaffirmed the Abuja Agreement as the best

framework for finding a lasting solution to the Liberian

conflict, they nevertheless resolved that a change was

necessary in the leadership to restore confidence and

enhance its performance.

The parties unanimously selected me to lead Liberia

from a devastating war to conditions of peace. The

selection of a woman is a decision that deserves

commendation; for it is a major victory and a recognition

of the active involvement of Liberian women in the peace

process. The resolution of the Liberian conflict is therefore

a challenge not only to me but also to all Liberian women

and to the women of Africa and the world, whose advice

and continuing support I deeply appreciate.

Our leadership is challenged with the difficult task of

pursuing national reconciliation, national reunification,

repatriation and resettlement of refugees and internally

displaced persons, and the creation of an enabling

environment for the holding of free and fair democratic

elections by May 1997. Additionally, and more demanding,

we must ensure the successful disarmament of combatants

and their demobilization and reintegration into civil society.

This task requires us, as a matter of urgency, to first

disarm our children and redirect their lives. We also have

to address the immense suffering that the war has inflicted

on our people. We must establish an independent elections

commission to conduct free and fair elections under

international supervision.

I am confident that, with the support of the United

Nations and the international community, the tasks ahead

will be achieved. All of the parties to the conflict have

pledged to me their commitment to the implementation of

the revised schedule. Despite some signs of retrogression,

our timely intervention and appeals have been heeded,

thus averting the derailment of the process. We are aware

that our efforts to maintain the ceasefire must be

sustained at every stage of the peace process by timely

intervention and insistence that the terms and conditions

of the peace agreement must be respected by the parties.

There is a renewed hope for peace in Liberia as a

result of the decisions taken at the last Abuja summit.

The failure over the past six years to achieve peace in the

country made it imperative that long overdue measures be

taken to ensure the final and successful implementation of

the Abuja Agreement.

First, due care and consideration was given to the

selection of the Head of Government, with the view of

ensuring effective leadership and a sense of purpose.

Secondly, provision was made for the regular monitoring

and assessment of the implementation of the peace

Agreement. This responsibility was assigned to the special

representative of the Chairman of ECOWAS and the

ECOWAS Committee of Nine on Liberia. Thirdly,

ECOWAS member States agreed to impose sanctions on

any person or group of persons obstructing the

implementation of the peace Agreement. These necessary

measures will equally require the support of the

international community.

The Government and people of Liberia share the

conviction of the member States of ECOWAS, as well as

the international community, that the Abuja peace

Agreement provides the best framework for the resolution

of the Liberian conflict. As Chairman of the Council of

State, I reaffirm my total commitment to the full

implementation of the ECOWAS peace plan for Liberia.

We owe a debt of gratitude to the Government and people

of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as well as to other

member States of ECOWAS, for their untiring efforts and

sacrifices in the quest for peace in Liberia.

We also extend our gratitude to the Governments of

the United States of America, the Netherlands and

Germany for their recent assistance to the ECOWAS

Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). We thank other friendly

nations that have made, and continue to make,

contributions to the resolution of the Liberian conflict.

The Liberian Government appeals for assistance to enable

the deployment of additional troops to sustain the new

focus on disarmament and demobilization as well as

ensure thereafter the rehabilitation and reconstruction of

our war-torn country.

8

In order to facilitate the rehabilitation of these

children, we appeal to friendly Governments to help us

rebuild our educational institutions, especially those

providing vocational and technical training. As a caring

mother, I urgently need to rehabilitate and grant relief to

these children. It is one of my principal concerns. In this

regard, I express appreciation to the United Nations

Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP) for their assistance. It is

my hope that all mothers and all humanitarian,

governmental and non-governmental organizations will

support this worthy undertaking. The Liberian children,

indeed the children of our world, are our future.

As regards the international situation, while we will

continue to accord priority to the civil war in Liberia until

genuine peace is restored, we have not lost sight of other

important issues that are of vital concern to the international

community.

It is encouraging to note that since the end of the cold

war, Member States have increasingly taken measures in

support of general and complete disarmament, including

nuclear weapons. The establishment of zones of peace in

most regions of the world and the recent adoption of the

Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, which my

Government has already signed, are positive developments

in the field of disarmament. It is hoped that further progress

will be made in the total elimination of nuclear weapons

within a given time-frame.

Liberia, which is emerging from conditions of war, is

concerned about the unrestricted use of conventional

weapons, including anti-personnel landmines. The

international community must also focus its attention on

conventional disarmament, since these deadly weapons are

usually resorted to in most conflicts.

Internal strife in several countries resulting from

ethnic, religious and racial differences continues to cause

death and destruction in Angola, Burundi, Rwanda,

Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and my own

country. In order to spare the lives of innocent civilians, we

appeal to all parties to enter into dialogue and seek a

political settlement of their differences.

As we move towards the twenty-first century, we are

encouraged by the growing concern about the persistently

slow and unbalanced growth of the world economy. We

have experienced the direct impact of the uneven

distribution of resources both among and within nations.

The crisis in Liberia today is an expression of this

unevenness, which has a direct relationship to poverty and

instability.

It is worth mentioning that in every attempt at

finding a solution, such issues as the debt crisis and the

decline in official development assistance continue to

hamper our efforts to bring about the required reform in

favour of the development of our people. This situation

continues to undermine development in many regions of

the world, especially Africa. Today, Africa remains the

only continent where the level of poverty is causing

increasing hardship and despair, despite the courageous

efforts by many countries to undertake reforms.

Regrettably, programmes proposed by the

international community have yet to receive adequate

donor assistance to move Africa’s development forward.

We recall the priority programme for Africa’s economic

recovery and other measures to address the critical

situation facing the continent.

It is in this light that I commend the United Nations

System-wide Special Initiative for Africa launched earlier

this year. The initiative requires commitments amounting

to $25 billion over a period of 10 years, to be realized

through the reallocation of existing resources, and

complements the United Nations New Agenda for the

Development of Africa in the 1990s.

We therefore plead with the United Nations and its

agencies, international financial institutions and bilateral

donors to re-examine their attitudes towards Africa’s

development aspirations. We hope that a solution will be

found to the extreme burden that debt now imposes on all

countries, but especially on those coming out of crisis.

In spite of the difficulties facing Liberia, it has

continued to consider the role of women as crucial to the

development process by advocating an improved status

for women. Liberia has supported the decisions emanating

from conferences on the advancement of women,

particularly the Beijing Conference held in 1995. My

presence here today as Chairman of the Council of State

is a testimony to Liberia’s support for its women and for

the rights of women everywhere.

I take this opportunity to say that it would be

advantageous to all Member States of this Organization if

we, as world leaders, committed ourselves to a policy of

mutual respect for one another and for our respective

peoples and their legitimate aspirations in life. I am

convinced that prospects for a peaceful world will be

9

made greater if we summon the courage to equitably share

without restraints the material and technological resources

that represent our common inheritance on earth.

Once those considerations become our cherished

preoccupation and the noble focus of our collective

undertakings, the world will enjoy a better future: a future

that will know no bounds for the collective happiness of

mankind; a future that will be devoid of terrorism and war;

and a future that will not occasion famine, starvation and

human degradation; a future without jealousy, hatred or

envy.

We can make tomorrow better or worse. The question

is: which will it be? The United Nations system and the

entire international community will be judged on the basis

of their response to this important question.