Mauritania, 1999

At the outset, I wish, on behalf of the Islamic

Republic of Mauritania, to congratulate His Excellency

Mr. Theo-Ben Gurirab on his election to the presidency

of the General Assembly at its fifty-fourth session. I am

convinced that his experience and his wisdom will enable

him to guide the work of the session to a successful

conclusion. My delegation assures him of its complete

cooperation in that noble task.

I take this opportunity also to express my thanks to

his predecessor, Mr. Didier Opertti, for the distinguished

manner in which he has conducted the session just

concluded.

I would also like to pay a well-deserved tribute to

the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi

Annan, for his tireless efforts in reforming and

restructuring the Organization, and in improving its

functioning and strengthening its role in all areas so that

it can adapt to the requirements and challenges of the

day. In this regard, we welcome the valuable report on

the work of the Organization that he presented at the

beginning of these proceedings.

Mauritania welcomes the Republic of Kiribati, the

Republic of Nauru and the Kingdom of Tonga to the

membership of our Organization. We would like to

express our readiness to work with them to achieve the

objectives of the United Nations.

We have to undertake immediately the reform of the

United Nations and the restructuring of its organs in order

to serve the world’s common interests. No one can deny

that the circumstances in which the Organization was

founded more than 50 years ago have changed a great

deal, and that important new changes have occurred in all

areas since then. This only makes a re-examination of the

structures and working methods of the Organization more

imperative. It is in this spirit that my delegation supports

the expansion of representation in the Security Council in

accordance with the principles of democracy, transparency

and equity in order to ensure equitable geographical

representation in that body, and to reflect the universal

nature of our Organization, as laid down in the Charter.

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As we meet at the threshold of the third millennium,

a large portion of humanity still lives in conditions that do

not enable people to satisfy their legitimate hopes and

aspirations to live in a world where peace, justice and well-

being reign. In spite of some encouraging indicators in

certain developing countries, the general tendency is that of

a widening gap between developed and developing

countries. The latter are going through profound changes

over which they have no control, affected by, among other

things, their debt burden, deterioration of commodity prices,

poor access to international markets and weakness of

foreign investment. This situation should alert the

Organization of the need not to limit its actions to the

traditional maintenance of international peace and security.

The situation calls for the Organization to strive to lighten

the heavy burden under which the developing countries

languish in the economic and social fields. The United

Nations must also help these countries step up the pace of

their economic growth. In this regard, donor countries

should increase their official development assistance,

increase their foreign investment and open up their markets

to the products of developing countries in order to help

bring about a new world order based on dialogue,

cooperation and solidarity.

In this context, and since debt constitutes a burden that

the developing countries are incapable of bearing, it is

imperative to give the question of debt the attention it

deserves. We express the hope that initiatives taken to help

the most heavily indebted poor countries will make it

possible to eliminate the obstacles that are neutralizing and

frustrating their development efforts.

Today the world faces many troublesome situations,

the consequences of which are felt beyond the frontiers of

the countries immediately involved. Such situations threaten

security, nationally, regionally and internationally, and call

into question the progress achieved towards economic and

social development. We are required to find proper

solutions for such problems. By way of example, I would

mention terrorism, human rights violations and poverty.

In this regard, my country reiterates its condemnation

of terrorism, whatever its origin and form. It calls on the

international community to strengthen cooperation and

dialogue in order to combat this phenomenon with

determination and firmness.

Last year the General Assembly commemorated the

fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, which coincided with the fifth anniversary of the

World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna. That was

an opportunity to evaluate the results of the

implementation of the Vienna Declaration and Programme

of Action and the remaining obstacles in this area, and to

identify necessary measures for the full implementation of

the recommendations that the World Conference on

Human Rights had adopted and that my country is

striving to translate into reality.

We should also mention the special session on

population and development held by the General

Assembly in this very Hall at the end of last June at

which the Programme of Action of the Cairo International

Conference on Population and Development was

reaffirmed. We hope that the results of that meeting will

help improve the standard of living of all peoples and will

help bring about sustainable development thanks to the

strengthening of the correlation between questions of

population and those of development. In this area, I

would like to point out that my country has stepped up its

efforts to promote the status of women and to combat

illiteracy in all its forms, and it has produced programmes

with beneficial effects for the family, for children in

particular and for society in general.

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania has adopted a

foreign policy based on immutable principles of

promoting good-neighbourly relations, peaceful

coexistence and the enhancement of regional and

international cooperation. On the basis of these principles,

my country attaches particular importance to

strengthening stability and to containing the numerous

sources of tension throughout the world, which are likely

to jeopardize international peace and security and

compromise the development efforts of nations.

While reaffirming its whole-hearted support for the

peace process, my country believes that no just,

comprehensive and lasting peace can be brought about in

the Middle East without the application of the principle of

land for peace as agreed at the Madrid Conference, and

the comprehensive implementation of Security Council

resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 425 (1978), which

guarantee Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Palestinian

territories, as well as from the Syrian Golan Heights,

southern Lebanon and West Bekaa, and the restoration to

the Palestinian people of all their legitimate rights, first

and foremost their right to self-determination and to the

creation of their independent State with Jerusalem as its

capital.

Today, as we embark on a new era, the international

community is looking forward to reviving the peace

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process and to restoring it to its proper track. In this regard,

we believe that a resumption of negotiations on all tracks

between all parties concerned is a most urgent measure. We

therefore invite the two sponsors of the peace process to

shoulder their responsibilities and to exert greater efforts to

preserve the opportunity of a comprehensive, just and

lasting peace in this region.

In the Gulf region, we hope to see a combination of

regional and international efforts that would restore stability

and concord to the region. In this regard, my country

reaffirms its commitment to and respect for international

legality and the resolutions of the United Nations, and

repeats its rejection of anything that may be prejudicial to

the independence and the territorial integrity of Kuwait.

We also reaffirm our repudiation of any measure

likely to threaten the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq.

We call for lifting the embargo that for eight years now has

been inflicted on the Iraqi people, who have suffered

enormously, especially children, women and the elderly.

In the Maghreb region, my country is working

together with its brothers in the Arab Maghreb Union to

establish cooperation and dialogue in order to fulfil the

aspirations of the peoples of the region.

As regards the Western Sahara, my country welcomes

the positive steps taken towards the implementation of the

United Nations plan to resolve the dispute. We reaffirm our

readiness to do everything in our power to promote the

implementation of this plan.

With regard to the Lockerbie incident, my country

welcomes the efforts undertaken to achieve a final

settlement of this question, including the suspension of the

sanctions imposed against the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.

Although we are pleased by the success of certain

diplomatic démarches, we nevertheless feel that it is time

for the Security Council to take the necessary steps to lift

this embargo once and for all.

As regards Guinea-Bissau, my country welcomes the

settlement that was achieved within the framework of the

Abuja and Lomé Agreements, and we support the

transitional Government. In particular, we support the

implementation of commitments entered into at the Geneva

round table and aimed at organizing pluralistic elections and

at the reconstruction of the country.

Furthermore, while expressing our profound concern

about the persistence of conflict in Somalia, we hope that

our Somali brothers will engage in constructive dialogue

and in a spirit of responsibility and patriotism so that a

peaceful settlement can be reached and Somalia will again

be united and will regain its national sovereignty in an

atmosphere of stability and concord.

My country also welcomes the Peace Agreement

reached between the legitimate Government of Sierra

Leone and the Revolutionary United Front, and fervently

calls for stability and reconciliation in that country, which

suffered tremendously during eight years of devastating

war.

My country also notes with satisfaction the gradual

return of peace to the Republic of the Congo and urges

our Congolese brothers to continue their negotiations,

with a view to bringing about a peaceful settlement of

their dispute so that that fraternal country can once again

live in peace and harmony.

As regards the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

we welcome the diplomatic efforts of the fraternal

countries of the region, in particular South Africa and

Zambia, as well as the important role played by the leader

of the Libyan revolution, Colonel Muammar Al-Qadhafi,

in containing the crisis. In this regard, we welcome the

signing of the Lusaka Agreement.

As to Angola, my country expresses its profound

regret at the resumption of fighting between the

Government forces and the UNITA movement. In this

regard, we reaffirm our wholehearted support for Security

Council resolutions 864 (1993), 1127 (1997) and 1173

(1998) and urge UNITA to respect the obligations it

entered into under the Lusaka Protocol to restore peace

and security.

On the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, we

urge the two parties to respect the ceasefire and to try to

find a peaceful settlement, on the basis of the plan of the

Organization of African Unity. In this context, we place

great hope in the good-offices mission of Mr. Abdelaziz

Bouteflika, current Chairman of the OAU, to bring about

a peaceful and equitable settlement of the conflict.

On Kosovo, my country notes with satisfaction the

progress achieved in putting an end to the violence,

restoring confidence and reconstructing what was

destroyed over the long period of war.

The United Nations was created in order to achieve

objectives shared by all humanity: the maintenance of

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peace, security and stability throughout the world. The letter

and the spirit of the Charter of our Organization provide for

a just balance between the rights and obligations of all and

aim at achieving these common interests of the international

community. Therefore, today, as we are about to enter the

third millennium, we are duty-bound to devote our efforts

to honouring the commitments laid down in the Charter and

to work together to build a new world order based on

justice and directed towards preserving international peace

and security.