Malawi, 1993

The Malawi delegation is

pleased to join other delegations in congratulating you, Mr.

President, on your election to preside over the business of

the General Assembly at its forty-eighth session. Guyana is

a sister country which is held in high regard and admiration

by Malawi. You are an illustrious son of Guyana and are

highly qualified and fully prepared to lead and manage the

enormous tasks which must be accomplished at this session

of the General Assembly. My delegation wishes your

presidency great success.

At its forty-seventh session the General Assembly

considered important and, in some cases, intractable issues.

This would not have been possible were it not for the

painstaking patience, efficiency and diplomatic skills of its

President, Mr. Stoyan Ganev, a distinguished international

jurist and former Foreign Minister of Bulgaria. The Malawi

delegation congratulates him on a job well done.

My delegation wishes to express its profound sorrow

for the considerable suffering, loss of life and destruction of

property caused by the earthquake which occurred on 29

September 1993 in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The

heartfelt and sincere condolences of the Government and the

people of Malawi unreservedly go to the Government and

the people of India as they struggle to alleviate the painful

after-effects of this tragedy.

We are thankful to God for giving Malawi good rains

in the season just ended. The drought experienced in the

last two seasons was severe and devastating in its effects.

All of southern Africa suffered terribly from this scourge.

Malawi’s economy was seriously affected by the drought,

beginning in February 1992. In 1991 economic growth was

7.8 per cent in real gross domestic product. It declined in

real terms by 7.9 per cent during 1992, which represented a

precipitous fall in real income for the people. The volume

of maize, our staple food, was only 600,000 tonnes in 1992,

down from the 1991 production level of 1.6 million tonnes.

In 1993 Malawi had a good harvest of close to 2 million

tonnes of maize. However, complete recovery from the

drought will take some time.

My delegation would like to take this opportunity, on

behalf of my Government and the people of Malawi, to

thank the United Nations system and, in particular, the

Department of Humanitarian Affairs, which were the major

catalysts in the United Nations -southern African

Development Community drought relief programme. We

also thank the bilateral donors and the non-governmental

organizations which, together, saved the day for Malawi and

the whole southern African region with massive imports of

food, medicines and other humanitarian assistance supplies.

However, the Malawi economy continues to be confronted

by a major balance-of-payments deficit problem arising from

the large volume of maize imports during the drought.

Malawi has been hosting a large number of refugees

from Mozambique, who started entering Malawi in large

numbers in 1986, and by 1992 the refugee population in the

country had soared to about 1.5 million people. The Office

of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the

World Food Programme, non-governmental organizations

and many other interested parties that have throughout been

intimately involved in this humanitarian task will agree that,

despite the severe adverse impact of hosting such a large

number of people, Malawi is managing one of the most

successful refugee programmes in the world, thanks to the

prevailing peace, which is due to stable political leadership,

good and reliable security structures and a fairly efficient

administration.

Mr. Martini Herrera (Guatemala), Vice-President,

took the Chair.

The problem of the Mozambican refugees in Malawi,

which was a consequence of the civil war between the

Government of Mozambique and RENAMO, will come to an

end as all protocols of the Rome General Peace Accord are

implemented in full. Malawi, which was represented at the

historic signing of the Peace Accord on 4 October 1992,

commends President Chissano of the Republic of

Mozambique and Mr. Dhlakama, President of RENAMO, for

signing the Peace Accord. We strongly encourage them to

continue to work closely together and with the United

Nations to ensure that peace and political stability are firmly

established in Mozambique. This is a prerequisite for the

reconstruction of that great and beautiful country to

commence and for progress to be realized in all areas of

development. My delegation is therefore fully supportive of

Security Council resolution 863 (1993) and calls on all the

parties to implement it speedily.

The Government and people of Malawi wish to see the

uninterrupted repatriation of their brothers and sisters to their

homes in Mozambique in safety and security. We therefore

call for the specific prioritization of the de-mining

programme, the demobilization of the armed forces and their

18 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

placement in the designated assembly areas, and the

finalization of discussions on the draft electoral law. The

people of Mozambique demand this, and it is also in the

vital interests of Malawi, which has suffered tremendously

from the adverse impact of the 16-year civil war in

Mozambique.

My delegation wishes to stress that the cost of hosting

over 1 million refugees not only is very high but, for

Malawi, has reached a crisis point. This cost is paid in the

displacement of Malawians from agricultural land; in

over-grazing, deforestation and environmental degradation;

in tremendous pressures and strain on the Government

administrative infrastructure, budgetary and human resources;

and, not least, in the strain on the socio-economic

infrastructure such as schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and

water supplies. My delegation is taking this opportunity to

appeal to the donor community for assistance in all these

areas, which are crucial for the country’s sustainable

development.

The General Peace Accord in Mozambique is close to

the heart of Malawi. I therefore wish to reiterate that

Malawi will continue to collaborate with Mozambique

closely - at the bilateral level, between the Governments of

the two sister countries; through the Tripartite Commission,

whose members are Malawi, the Office of the United

Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and

Mozambique; and through the Malawi-Mozambique Security

Commission - until the peace process has been consolidated.

Peace and the return of normal life in Mozambique will

guarantee Malawi the use of its traditional, and shortest,

routes to the sea via the ports of Nacala and Beira. The

reopening and full use of these ports will represent

considerable savings through highly reduced transport costs

and in limited foreign exchange resources.

My country undertook the most historic event since

independence by holding, on 14 June 1993, the national

referendum which was initiated by our President, His

Excellency Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda in order to give the

people of Malawi the opportunity to choose between a

one-party and multi-party system of government. My

delegation is pleased to report to this Assembly that by all

accounts, including those of the United Nations, it was a

peaceful, free and fair exercise. Sixty-three per cent of the

population voted for a multi-party system of government.

Their decision was respected and accepted by my President

in a landmark statement on 17 June 1993, which included an

announcement of his intention to amend the Constitution to

allow for the formation of political parties, to call for a

general election in a year’s time and to declare a general

amnesty to enable political exiles to return home and

participate in the political process.

My delegation takes this opportunity to convey to the

Secretary-General, Mr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the gratitude

of my Government and the people of Malawi for the

assistance the United Nations system provided in making the

national referendum exercise a resounding success.

Intergovernmental organizations such as the European

Community and other bilateral donors also provided Malawi

with invaluable assistance during this period. My

Government is most grateful to all of them. What has

happened in Malawi demonstrates beyond question the

repeatedly stated commitment of my President and his

Government to peaceful reforms, good governance, human

rights and democratization. Those who did not believe in

the seriousness of this commitment have been proved totally

wrong.

For the last 29 years of its independence, Malawi has

been preoccupied with socio-economic development, which

is rural-based in its reality, as a matter of sustained and

deliberate Government policy. The country had no other

choice because it is completely agricultural, with a large

small-holder agriculture component as its backbone. The

political leadership consistently and untiringly preached the

doctrine of respect for the land and farming to the ordinary

people in the villages throughout the country. This has paid

off in the disciplined commitment the Malawi people have

to farming. As a consequence, over the years a large

proportion of donor financing has focused on the agricultural

sector.

Allow me to take this opportunity to thank, on behalf

of my Government, all the multilateral donors - the Bretton

Woods institutions and the African Development Bank,

among others - and the bilateral cooperating partners for the

unremitting assistance they have given Malawi, enabling it

to implement successfully its agricultural programmes and

projects over these past years. Without this assistance, it

would not have been possible to achieve the sense of

discipline and respect for farming that is now consolidated

in the people of Malawi, which confirms a vision that the

Malawi leadership has carried out with practical zeal and

tenacity.

Regrettably, in the very recent past, Malawi’s modest

achievements in the agricultural sector and the economy in

general have had to go through severe and unpalatable

shocks well beyond the Government’s control, such as the

drought and refugee problems. But, more than that, the

economy has had to cope in the past year with the sudden

Forty-eighth session - 12 October l993 19

suspension of donor assistance by the Government’s

developed partners. Consequently, the country’s balance-of-

payments financing requirements were badly affected and

this disproportionately imposed considerable negative results

on the economy’s performance. For example, private-sector

firms performed far below capacity and the financing of

almost all agreed development projects stopped suddenly and

completely. Malawi is small, poor and landlocked. It is

also in the category of least developed countries, with a

population of only about 9 million. Malawi could therefore

hardly sustain or cushion this kind of massive damage to its

economy. Its external debt burden soared, its terms of trade

deteriorated badly and the livelihood of the ordinary men,

women and children in the villages was badly affected.

The issues of human rights, good governance and other

conditionalities that were behind these actions by the donor

community have now, I am happy to say, been dealt with

decisively, each one in an irreversible manner and, where

applicable, by Act of Parliament. For example, due process

of law is firmly established and in practice in Malawi.

There are no political detainees in any of its prisons. The

International Committee of the Red Cross is workinq closely

with the Government, and has already visited all prisons and

made recommendations for improvements where this has

been found to be necessary. There is freedom of expression

in the country. As I speak, over 20 newspapers and

magazines are in circulation. So far, six political parties

have registered and are bracing themselves for the

forthcoming general election.

At present the Malawi Congress Party, which is

continuing to rule the country until the people elect a new

government, has, together with other political parties in the

country, established the National Consultative Council and

the National Executive Committee, which have clearly

defined powers to oversee the transitional process in the run-

up to the general election. Each of the political parties,

including the Malawi Congress Party, has equal

representation on the National Consultative Council and the

National Executive Committee. Those institutions ensure

and guarantee that there is dialogue between and among

Malawians, who discuss and resolve whatever differences

may exist on the issues affecting the transition. Those

institutions replace the President’s Committee on Dialogue

and the Public Affairs Committee, which were established

immediately after the referendum and, in addition, are

designed to work closely with the Government and the

National Parliament. The United Nations, particularly

through its Electoral Assistance Unit in the Secretariat here

in New York and through the Centre for Human Rights in

Geneva, has been a catalyst in this whole transitional

process. My Government is therefore most encouraged,

being convinced that the peace and stability that have existed

since the holding of the national referendum will continue

until and after the forthcoming general election, which is

expected to take place some time in May 1994.

These positive and irreversible developments I have

described give my Government the confidence that all its

bilateral- development partners and its major multilateral

donors will fully resume development assistance flows and

balance-of-payments support to Malawi. This, we hope, will

be done without further delays, in the interests of reviving

the economy quickly and reducing the severe damage it has

sustained and the unnecessary continued suffering of its

people.

The Malawi delegation is grateful to the United Nations

Development Programme (UNDP), in particular, because it

was the first to confirm, in a report to its Governing Council

at its fortieth session, in June, that there existed in Malawi

an enabling political, economic and social environment to

implement its Fifth Country Programme. The Malawi

Government has no need to prove its abiding commitment to

development. Allow me, therefore, to take this opportunity

to appeal to the donor community not to reduce its pledges

of funding to the UNDP. To do so would have catastrophic

effects on the whole democratization process, on the ongoing

field programmes and projects and also on the successful

projects being implemented under the Fifth Country

Programme.

At this juncture the Malawi delegation wishes to

reaffirm its unwavering support of the recently adopted

Tokyo Declaration on African Development, which

represents the first concrete action and commitment of the

United Nations New Agenda for the Development of Africa

in the 1990s. Malawi, a least-developed country, would also

like to take this opportunity to lend its unwavering support

to the Programme of Action for Least-Developed Countries,

which found its expression in the Declaration issued by the

Ministers of Foreign Affairs of least-developed countries

when they met here in New York on 30 September 1993,

and to the Declaration of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of

the Group of 77 that was adopted on 5 October 1993. We

hope that the donor community will respond positively and

act accordingly on these specific problems affecting the

developing countries. Their decisive resolutions are pivotal

to the role of the United Nations in development and integral

to the call issued in General Assembly resolution 47/181 for

the Secretary-General to prepare a comprehensive report on

an agenda for development and for the Assembly to discuss

it in its preliminary form at this current session.

20 General Assembly - Forty-eighth session

Malawi is not oblivious of the wider political

atmosphere that is affecting international relations and

causing serious problems with regard to peace and security.

The desperate situation and horrendous scenes of the civil

war in Bosnia and Herzegovina represent one such example.

It is the strong conviction of the Malawi Government that

peace is the only answer to the unending violence we are

witnessing in the Balkans. There is an extremely urgent

need to end the suffering of the people there - innocent men,

women and children. My delegation strongly supports all

efforts of the United Nations and the European Community,

and those of other parties, to resolve the problem through the

ongoing negotiations in Geneva and elsewhere. The problem

is a human catastrophe, notwithstanding its tragic, historical

roots.

With regard to Somalia, my Government is of the view

that the Somalis should resolve their problems themselves.

However, the prerequisite for realizing that objective is to

establish and consolidate peace throughout Somalia and to

help create processes that will make it possible for the

country to reaffirm its sovereignty. Tremendous

humanitarian-assistance achievements have already been

made to alleviate the plight of the Somali people, who are

suffering from hunger, starvation and death in the midst of

mayhem, anarchy and the complete collapse of civil

authority. The United Nations and the international

community, through the contributions of selfless non-

governmental organizations and all nations - particularly the

United States, which has contributed troops under the United

Nations flag - deserve to be thanked for bringing Somalia

back to life. In the view of my delegation, it is imperative

that the United Nations and the international community be

allowed to complete this wholesome task by establishing

conditions for peace and civil authority based clearly on the

Addis Ababa agreements of 27 March 1993. The Malawi

delegation fully supports the present United Nations role in

Somalia.

Similarly, it is the strong conviction of my Government

that the present situation in Angola calls for strong and

dramatic action by the international community. The United

Nations has been selfless in what it has done in Angola,

where the untold suffering of women, children and the

elderly goes on unabated and is indeed completely

inexplicable and totally unnecessary. The Malawi delegation

calls upon the Organization of African Unity, the United

Nations and the signatory Powers to the Bicesse Peace

Accords to compel the UNITA leadership to come to the

negotiating table with the Angola Government to establish

peace, security and stability in the country. My Government

fully supports Security Council resolution 864 (1993), which

has now been put into effect. Dr. Savimbi and the UNITA

leadership must not ignore international concerns and the

content of that resolution. They must honour and respect the

results of the United Nations-supervised general election,

which by all accounts was free and fair.

With regard to the situation in South Africa, the Malawi

delegation wishes to put on record its complete support for

the historic agreement by the Multi-Party Negotiating

Council in Johannesburg, whose successfully negotiated

transitional institutions have now been enacted into law by

the parliament in Cape Town. Those institutions are

designed to oversee and control the influential factors in the

run-up to the general election on 27 April 1994. I refer in

particular to the Transitional Executive Council and to the

Independent Broadcasting Authority, the Independent Media

Commission and the Independent Electoral Commission.

My delegation takes this opportunity, on behalf of the

Malawi Government, to congratulate all the parties on the

Negotiating Council and, in particular, the African National

Congress and Mr. Nelson Mandela, its President, and the

President of South Africa, Mr. Frederick de Klerk and his

National Party. It has been a very long haul to reach this

historic stage, and the imperative is therefore clear, namely,

that all possible assistance by the United Nations, the

Organization of African Unity, the European Community,

the Commonwealth Secretariat and friendly Governments

and people of good will must now be intensified in order to

remove all forms of violence, ensure that the general election

takes place on 27 April 1994 and that a non-racial,

democratic government is installed in South Africa, based on

the will of the majority of its people.

My delegation welcomes the historic agreement on

mutual recognition between Israel and the Palestine

Liberation Organization (PLO) which was signed on 13

September 1993 in Washington, D.C. It provides a

framework for lasting peace in the Middle East, and in the

view of the Malawi delegation, it deserves all the support it

can receive from all well-disposed sources. History dictates

that this should be so. This agreement is a prerequisite to

international peace, security and political stability beyond the

Middle East.

The PLO/Israel peace agreement is yet another

demonstration of the dramatic changes in international

relations that have taken place in the last three to four years,

following the collapse of communism and the end of the

cold war. It is in this context, that my Government is

optimistic that the still unresolved major international

political issues will be similarly dealt with, issues such as

Forty-eighth session - 12 October l993 21

the problem of North and South Korea and that of the

People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China on

Taiwan. In the view of the Malawi delegation, the time has

now come for serious consideration to be given to the

eligibility of the Republic of China on Taiwan to become a

Member of the United Nations. We cannot talk about

human rights and the universality of the United Nations

while in the same breath ignoring the existence of over 20

million people in the Republic of China on Taiwan.

Finally, allow me to make observations on two

pertinent issues. First, my delegation welcomes the recent

pronouncement by the United States delegation on

supporting the membership of Japan and Germany in the

Security Council. This announcement is definite recognition

that the time has come for representation in the Security

Council to reflect the changed international political scene

and reality as well as geographical balance. The Security

Council must not only be transparent in its decision-making;

it is a political necessity that it also reflect what the world

is today, and not what it was 48 years ago. There is no

other organ in the United Nations today which makes such

momentous decisions affecting international peace and

security. My delegation is therefore strongly of the view

that Africa equally deserves to have a permanent seat or

equal and balanced representation of some kind, in the

Council. The Malawi delegation looks forward to the

expected deliberations on this issue, which will inevitably go

beyond the life of the forty-eighth session of the General

Assembly.

Representation on governing councils of the respective

United Nations agencies and bodies is another important

subject before the General Assembly at this session, in the

context of the reform, restructuring and revitalization of the

United Nations in all its aspects. My delegation supports a

negotiated approach to the points of disagreement between

the developing countries and their partners in development

as a whole. The only way forward is for the two groups to

work together and arrive at a consensus by the end of

November 1994. My delegation will support the view taken

by the Group of 77 on this issue, when it comes to a

conclusion in due course.

I wish you, Sir, and the Assembly fruitful deliberations.