Saint Lucia, 1995

The island State of Saint

Lucia shares the sense of history and the mantle of

responsibility that falls over the General Assembly on this,

the fiftieth anniversary of the birth of the United Nations.

We must exult in the realization that a vague dream of

peace in the aftermath of a world war has in five decades

firmed into a solid commitment by 185 nations to shoulder

the burden of the global community, embracing every

aspect of life around the world.

The elevation of Mr. Diogo Freitas do Amaral of

Portugal to the presidency of the General Assembly at its

fiftieth session is a distinct honour to his country and a

timely recognition of the high esteem in which he is held

by his colleagues in the international arena.

During this dramatic and exciting half century the

General Assembly has had its task cut out for it as it has

been called upon to deal with disruptions arising from

human failing, and often from human folly, which have

threatened to obstruct the path towards the fulfilment of the

ideals of the United Nations. However, some of the

Organization’s finest moments have occurred in this half

century — none more historic than when we presided over

the liquidation of apartheid and saw established the

multiracial State of South Africa. We have seen the end of

the conflict in Namibia, with the hope that this brings for

the economic and social progress of its people. We have

monitored the collapse of the Berlin wall. We have seen

democracy in Haiti. We have been able to deter aggression

aimed at fulfilling territorial ambitions, even while we have

been able to encourage the prospects for peace in the

Middle East.

Any inclination that we may have nurtured towards

self-congratulation is, however, arrested by events like the

slaughter in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda, the

“ethnic cleansing” operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina

and the seeming difficulty of ending the conflict. We are

reminded by these events of the task that still lies ahead of

us in fulfilling the dream of a better world.

We take pride in speaking of the equality of Member

nations irrespective of size, and indeed have gone a long

way towards ensuring such equality. We have admired

how extremely large and very small nations have had the

opportunity to contribute equally to the deliberations of

the Assembly and to its decision-making process. There

are however a number of impediments which still militate

against smaller nations such as ours.

The confrontational posture of the cold war had

given a strategic prominence to small States, then useful

as pawns in the global chess game between super-Powers.

Now that the small States have outlived their usefulness

as honest brokers in the super-Power game, the altered

political circumstances have left them stranded and

marginalized.

The pious promises of the developed world to

allocate a minuscule percentage of national income to the

provision of aid for the developing world have shrunk to

non-fulfilment; the thought of the strong economies

helping the weak has shrivelled like a raisin in the sun.

Saint Lucia has experienced a dramatic decline in

grant assistance — by almost 50 per cent between the

financial years 1993-1994 and 1994-1995; but we can ill

afford to sit around and merely moan. We recognize and

accept that we must use the fact of diminished aid to

increasingly spur on our own efforts towards greater

efficiency and increased productivity. But in striving

towards the achievement of this end, we find ourselves up

against multinational trading interests intent on adding to

the maw of their already well-nourished entities the

morsels of trade on which the survival of our economy

depends.

The European Union banana regime came into force

in June 1993 as part of the process of creating a single

European market, replacing a series of long-standing

national arrangements between individual member States

and traditional banana suppliers. The United States itself

has led the way in instituting various national and

international arrangements in the interests of its own

farming community. The existing banana regime seeks to

ensure that demand for bananas across the European

Union is satisfied, while at the same time providing

traditional suppliers of bananas to Europe from

developing countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the

Pacific with continued access to the European market at

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viable price levels. In doing so the European Union fulfils

a legal commitment under the Lomé Convention, that is

that the introduction of the single market should place

traditional suppliers in no worse a position than in the past.

That is achieved by a combination of tariff quotas and

licences which ensure that suppliers from the African,

Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) maintain — but cannot

increase — their market share of approximately 15 per cent

of the total European Union demand for bananas. This

facility is not aimed at victimizing United States firms or

indeed firms of any particular nationality. This is clearly

demonstrated by the fact that over 60 per cent of the

European Union’s market demand for bananas is satisfied

by fruit imported from Central and South America,

principally by three United States multinationals. It is

important to note that the Caribbean’s share of the world

market for bananas is a paltry 3 per cent compared to the

more than 70 per cent share of dollar bananas, mostly

controlled by these multinationals.

There is general nervousness and a creeping instability

threatening the Caribbean banana-growing States resulting

from the decision of the United States Trade Representative

to pursue Section 301 action in response to an application

by Chiquita Brands International and the Hawaii Banana

Industry Association challenging the European banana

import regime. We have since been advised that the United

States Government is to pursue a complaint against the

regime within the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since

the banana industry accounts for about 50 per cent of the

domestic exports of the Windward Islands and around 90

per cent of all agricultural earnings in Saint Lucia and

Dominica, it is indisputable that the collapse of the industry

which would accompany any tampering with the regime

would have a disastrous impact on the economies of these

very small countries.

In addition, the interdependence of Caribbean

Community (CARICOM) trading arrangements would, in

the circumstances, produce a ripple of economic downturn

and accompanying social unrest and political instability

throughout the CARICOM region. The resulting prospect of

massive unemployment, displaced family wage earnings and

an escalation in criminal and drug activity is too horrific to

contemplate. The Caribbean must call on the good sense

and high ideals of this body to use whatever influence it

has at its disposal to avert this looming danger. The United

Nations may well consider it useful to develop a framework

of international review and regulation with respect to the

activities and policies of transnational corporations, which

are becoming increasingly influential actors on the world

scene.

There is little need to emphasize the openness and

vulnerability of Caribbean economies. We are exposed to

the fury of natural disasters, as was evidenced by the

havoc wrought by Tropical Storm Debbie, from which

Saint Lucia is still recovering; the recent demolition of

Antigua and Saint Kitts by Hurricane Luis; and the

devastation of St. Croix, St. Thomas, St. Maarten and

Dominica by Hurricane Marilyn.

With severe limitations of size and resources, we are

now called upon to come to terms with changes brought

about by the process of liberalization and its requirement

to be competitive globally; we are therefore forced to

diversify our interests in reaction to the liberalization and

deregulation processes which are taking place in the

international marketplace. The classical response calls for

restructuring aimed at economic diversification,

accompanied of course by increasing efficiency and

productivity.

In terms of diversification the services sector holds

attractions. In this context many of our countries are

anxious to explore the field of offshore financial services

to enhance the Governments’ revenue base. We are,

however, alert to the dangers associated with that sector

and, while pursuing the benefits to be derived from such

institutions, we must be ever on guard for white-collar

criminals who, as part of their everyday activity, launder

their ill-gotten gains through the international financial

systems, using both public- and private-sector capital

projects for this purpose. Quite often the strategies

employed by quasi-investors to launder their wealth are

both innovative and sophisticated and require equally

sophisticated systems to deal with their ingenious

malpractices. Our growing States are not yet able to

acquire the kind of resources to engage in a full-fledged

war against such nefarious institutions.

Admittedly, the 1988 United Nations Vienna

Convention has sought to criminalize the laundering of

money derived from the illicit drug trade. But it is crucial

that our countries in the Caribbean area take a positive

stand to enforce the law and protect our communities

from these destructive practices. In this context,

international financial institutions should use their

influence, through moral suasion, to encourage member

countries, as a matter of urgency, to adopt the measures

necessary to achieve the objectives of the 40

recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force. In

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the Caribbean area our CARICOM colleagues will no doubt

embrace the nineteen recommendations of the Caribbean

Financial Action Task Force.

In the course of the year, our country attracted some

attention in respect of irregularities surrounding the use of

the Pérez-Guerrero Trust Fund. We did not flinch from the

costly decision to appoint a full commission of inquiry in

our anxiety to ensure the fullest possible accountability. In

these trying times, when cynics are ready to decry the

achievements of the United Nations and besmirch its

idealism, it is the bounden duty of all Member States to

wash off the stains of calumny and allow the ideals,

principles and performance of this illustrious body to

continue to inspire the world. The Phillips Commission

cleared both the Saint Lucia Government and the organs of

the United Nations of any complicity or blame in the affair.

This experience, however, points to the need for being on

constant guard against those who without scruples would

seek to compromise the traditions and the integrity of

government and of this body.

The end of the cold war has left many countries

stranded on the beachhead of marginalization. In the

context of the Caribbean, we are learning to deal with our

isolation by exploring new internal alliances designed to

foster pride in our patrimony, reduce our vulnerability, pool

our human resources and intensify our self-reliance. The

logic of this internationalization is to strengthen the links

between us in the Eastern Caribbean, within the context of

the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), even

while we consolidate the process of the closer integration

of the Caribbean Community. The circle of integration

expands in a growing relationship with countries in the

wider Caribbean basin and the countries of Latin America.

This new thrust of integration has found expression in the

recently established Association of Caribbean States, which

links the countries of Central and South America, as well

as other Caribbean countries such as Haiti, the Dominican

Republic and Cuba. We will, however, within the Lomé

Convention, maintain our long and valuable historical links

with Europe even while, by implementing the decisions of

the Summit of the Americas, we seek to expand and

consolidate our hemispheric ties.

This new Caribbean initiative has much to recommend

it. The concept cuts clear across the barriers of race,

language and culture to establish a market of 204 million

people with an annual trade volume of $180 billion and

establishes a regional base from which competitive strength

may be developed for dealing in the global arena.

In the case of Haiti, we can now look hopefully

forward with new confidence to the restoration of

democracy in an environment of peace and stability. The

new setting should pave the way for the Haitian people’s

achievement of economic, social and political well-being.

The re-establishment of democratic order leaves Haiti

poised to play a greater role, in concert with its

CARICOM colleagues, in helping shape the new

international order. The United States of America, the

CARICOM grouping and the United Nations itself can

feel satisfied over and take pride in the fact that their

sustained interest and cooperation have led to the

promotion of Haiti’s rehabilitation and economic

development. Saint Lucia renews its commitment to

support the consolidation of the hard-won gains in Haiti

in the hope that the country will finally enjoy the fruits of

democracy, with full respect accorded the inalienable

rights of its people.

In the case of Cuba, we are firmly convinced that

the cause of democracy can best be served by the

diffusion of its values through association and example

and not in a process of isolation. That is why Saint Lucia

joins its Caribbean colleagues in calling for an end to the

economic blockade of Cuba so as to allow that Caribbean

country the flexibility to develop the creativity of its

people and pursue its Caribbean destiny.

The winds of change which blew across Africa in

the fifties were fuelled by a strong pan-Africanism. It is

generally known that the ideas which generated the

liberation struggles in Africa came out of the cross-

fertilization of the ideas of African and Caribbean

thinkers. Caribbean thinkers like Saint Lucia’s Nobel

laureate, Sir Arthur Lewis, and others, such as C.L.R.

James and George Padmore, were strong influences on

persons like Kwame Nkrumah, Jomo Kenyatta and Sékou

Touré. This historic link between the Caribbean and

Africa must continue, especially at a time when the entire

international community is deeply concerned about the

critical economic and political conditions in Africa as a

whole. Our Secretary-General has openly expressed his

deep concern for the problems of Africa and the need for

this body to give them its urgent consideration.

At its fiftieth session, the General Assembly must

act in concert with the Secretary-General in giving high

priority to programmes of action for African recovery and

development. The United Nations New Agenda for the

Development of Africa in the 1990s must be pursued

urgently and vigorously. In this anniversary year, Saint

Lucia will pursue a conscious policy of establishing

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diplomatic relations with a number of African countries,

with a view not only to stimulating trade and cultural

exchanges, but, indeed, to recovering and stimulating that

vital interchange of ideas.

Saint Lucia is strongly supportive of the peace process

in the Middle East, which started with the signing on

4 May 1994 of the first implementation agreement of the

Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government

between the Government of Israel and the Palestine

Liberation Organization. The second phase of the agreement

was signed on 28 September this year. The agreement

between Israel and Jordan has deepened the process

considerably. It is our fervent hope that the skirmishes

between the Palestinians and the Israelis will not derail the

peace process in the Middle East. We further urge the

countries of the region to adhere to the Treaty on the Non-

Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons for the long-term stability

and development of the region.

In preceding sessions of the Assembly, my country has

drawn attention to the Republic of China on Taiwan’s

request to take its rightful place within this family of

nations. Our support for this request in no way implies an

attack on the sovereignty of the People’s Republic of

China, nor is it meant to vitiate the intention of resolution

2758 (XXVI).

My country is acutely aware of the need to protect the

fundamental principles of our institutions, but it is not

beyond the creativity of the Assembly to play a catalyst

role in resolving the impasse between the Republic of

China and the People’s Republic of China. Recent military

manoeuvres in the Taiwan Straits provide an eerie warning

of the possibility of deteriorating relations between the two

countries. The Assembly should not wash its hands of the

issues like Pilate, but should exhaust the possibilities of

preventive diplomacy rather than live to bemoan the tragedy

of inaction.

Saint Lucia continues to be of the view that Taiwan’s

presence in the United Nations will help to further the goals

and ideals of our Organization. Saint Lucia’s support for

Taiwan’s bid for a seat in this body is in the knowledge

that this does not preclude the eventuality of reunification.

As we stand on the threshold of a new century, at the

very same time as we are presented with an anniversary

opportunity to look back on a half-century of United

Nations activity, two vital processes loom large in the

perception of small States. These processes are

disarmament and decolonization.

It is our wish that the process of arms reduction

continue to gain momentum and to stabilize at a level that

will ensure the easing of tensions and conflicts whenever

and wherever they are waged around the globe. Attention

must be focused on those countries which devote large

slices of their national budgets to arms purchases and

production while numerous areas of the world languish in

poverty and disease. Civil and external wars could occur

in regions where the possession of advanced weaponry,

such as medium-range missiles with chemical, biological

or even nuclear warheads, by ambitious and threatened

regimes becomes a potentially lethal prospect. The search

for peace is the most compelling rationale for the

existence of the United Nations, and the indefinite

extension of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, together with

complete disarmament and the total eradication of

chemical weapons, will be the greatest global contribution

to a new world order. Saint Lucia has already ratified the

Treaty of Tlatelolco for the Prohibition of Nuclear

Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean.

With regard to the process of decolonization, the

target date of the year 2000 set by the United Nations for

the total eradication of colonialism is to be borne in mind.

In this context, the United Nations should continue to

promote the idea that referendums and other forms of

popular consultation on the future status of the Non-Self-

Governing Territories are appropriate means of

ascertaining the wishes of the people in this matter.

As the United Nations has grown in scope and

complexity over these past 50 years, so too have the

problems and complexities assumed new dimensions. We

have seen floods of refugees escaping civil wars all over

the globe, but now we are faced with the prospect of

environmental refugees fleeing from disaster areas and

natural catastrophes. Without wishing to sound like a

prophet of doom, I must say that the possible effect of

global warming upon agriculture in the developing world

is a further cause of concern. In recent months we have

faced the relentless fury of hurricanes, rising sea levels

and, in the case of Montserrat, one of our small

Caribbean island neighbours, the threat of volcanic

eruption.

We appreciate that these unfolding problems have

not escaped the attention of the United Nations. The

forty-second session of the General Assembly designated

the 1990s as the International Decade for Natural Disaster

Reduction, and a Plan of Action was adopted in May

1994 by the World Conference on Natural Disaster

Reduction. Our small countries view the transfer of

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technology in respect of early warning systems, monitoring

devices and up-to-date research on safer construction

methods as a matter of urgent priority. While we are

grateful for the short-term assistance given to such disaster

areas, it is vital that we should also focus on the long-term

goals of preparedness and prevention.

The question of equitable representation and an

increase in the membership of the Security Council was

included in the agenda of the thirty-fourth session of the

General Assembly, in 1979, the same year Saint Lucia

joined this Organization, and the same year that the

membership of the United Nations was tripled, from 51

original members to 152 members.

During the 16 years since 1979 we have been calling

for an increase in the membership of the Security Council,

especially of developing countries, to reflect the increased

membership of the United Nations and the reality of its

composition. Repetition is necessary to emphasize the

importance of the point that the policy-making arm of the

United Nations should reflect the diversity and universality

of the membership of this body and uphold the principle of

equitable representation that the Charter embodies.

Saint Lucia continues to support the recommendation

that the relationship between the General Assembly and the

Security Council should be strengthened. We also support

the view that the process of briefing and consultation

should be institutionalized, that the privilege of veto should

be phased out and that the efforts at developing greater

transparency and predictability should continue. Saint Lucia

will work with and support the efforts of our regional group

and of the Non-Aligned Movement to achieve these

objectives. It is our hope that, in this fiftieth year, we shall

exercise the courage and willingness needed to bring about

the overdue changes and reform of the Council.

Saint Lucia has taken the opportunity of the fiftieth

anniversary to reflect deeply on the role of small

marginalized States in the family of nations. We have

endured the ravages of a colonial past, been exploited by

multinational corporations, divided by the sea and

hamstrung by a desperate shortage of resources.

Today a new vision unfolds. We cannot hope to

conquer worlds as the early Conquistadors did. There are

no worlds to conquer, but worlds to recreate. In this

recreation of the post-cold-war world, there are

disappearing divisions between States once sworn enemies

in a drive to adjust to the dictates of the new world

economic order. The interdependence of nations is

highlighted against the background of diseases which

threaten the world, and the potential for destruction of the

very environment which guarantees the survival of

mankind.

These problems to be resolved must be approached

through the collective means available within this body.

However, solutions to be effective must take account of

differences in size, in resources and in the cultural

diversity of those who are to benefit from them.

Practicality must take precedence over mere dogma,

and idealism must not be allowed to lose ground to a

narrowness of realism that pays little heed to

circumstances. Saint Lucia sees the United Nations as a

solid bulwark for the creation of a new order. Its

commitment to world peace, human rights, gender

equality, racial equality and sustainable development for

the peoples of the world is the touchstone of our

aspirations.

My country stands prepared to assist in the retooling

and reshaping of the organs of the United Nations to

enable it to face the global challenges which lie ahead of

us. These challenges are as demanding of Member States

as they are of the organs of the United Nations. Our focus

will be to work in concert with our colleagues in the

Caribbean Community and our colleagues in the

Association of Caribbean States to increase our efficiency

and productivity with a view to playing a full role in the

international arena. We will explore with other Member

States ideas for fostering a new ethos in the international

forum, in which size, wealth and influence will be

subordinated to the concourse of ideas.

Finally, Saint Lucia will endeavour to join the global

search for a more relevant and edifying system of values

which will inspire generations of young people to

embrace the concerns which five decades ago motivated

the founding fathers of this noble Organization.