Papua New Guinea, 1995

It is an

honour for me to address this Assembly on behalf of

Papua New Guinea and in my capacity as the Chairman

of the South Pacific Forum, which met three weeks ago.

At the outset, allow me to congratulate Mr. Diogo

Freitas do Amaral upon his election to preside over the

General Assembly at this session, which also marks the

fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations; and to

congratulate also his predecessor for the efficiency and

fairness with which he conducted the forty-ninth session.

In my capacity as the Chairman of the South Pacific

Forum and on behalf of Papua New Guinea, I warmly

welcome the Republic of Palau, a sister country from our

region, as the 185th Member of the United Nations.

As we mark this fiftieth anniversary, our celebrations

are tempered by the fact that many of the dreams and ideals

of the United Nations remain elusive. A world of greater

freedom, prosperity and security - the fundamental goals of

the United Nations Charter - unfortunately has not yet been

attained. Much remains to be achieved by the United

Nations, and that, to a great degree, depends on the

collective support of each and every Member nation.

Papua New Guinea retains a strong belief that the

international community cannot do without the United

Nations, despite its shortcomings. If it was necessary in the

aftermath of the Second World War, it is even more so

today. In 50 years, the United Nations has contributed

immensely to positive international interactions and has

provided the codes of conduct that today we take for

granted in our international dealings.

As one of many countries governed under the watchful

eye of the United Nations before becoming a full Member

at independence, Papua New Guinea is firmly committed to

rejuvenating and strengthening the world’s paramount

international Organization.

Everything that needs to be said for the good of

humanity has been said many times over in this very Hall.

Noble and practical sentiments have always been expressed,

often in the strongest terms. What too often have been

lacking are political will and international statesmanship.

Therein lies the difference between wishful thinking and

turning our hopes and dreams for humanity into reality.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the

United Nations, I am proud to say that Papua New Guinea

pledges full commitment to the principles and objectives of

the Organization.

We should together strive to build a better world for

this generation and for those to come, in the next 50 years

and beyond. In areas where the United Nations has been

successful, we have to recommit ourselves, and where it

has not been successful, now is the time to correct and

rebuild inadequate systems. Our ultimate objective must be

to promote a more effective, more accountable, more

responsible and more caring United Nations, capable of

meeting the challenges of the twenty-first century.

We must consider very carefully how we should usher

in and embrace the twenty-first century. The end of one

century and the beginning of another provides us with a

natural period of reflection and self-examination. It is time

to resolve to untangle, and rid ourselves of, all that has

stopped us from creating a better world.

For that reform, we require a fresh start with greater

determination, less cynicism, and hearts open more widely

to the plight of all humanity. That is our collective

challenge between now and the year 2000. The

international community must demonstrate the necessary

resolve, courage, vision and moral will to make this world

a better place.

In setting the agenda for a better future, we must

first understand our shared history. We must know that

within the United Nations, our collective search for true

peace is deeply rooted in events that took place just

months before this Organization came into existence.

I speak of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki. They did not just change our world forever —

these events changed the very way we think. Effectively

the closing acts of the Second World War, they forced

upon the world an urgency in the search for peace. It is

an urgency that has never been lost, as morality and the

heart of man battle to keep pace with technology in all its

forms.

It is a race that the United Nations is running. It is

a race that it cannot afford to lose.

If peace is in the hearts of men, and men in turn are

the heart of nations, and nations the heart of the world,

then we must fully realize just how profound a change we

must undergo to find true peace. The extent to which the

world discovers and embraces peace will be reflected in

the way it faces up to other threats to humanity.

One of the challenges that I believe is eating away

at the health and lives of all nations is the abuse of

drugs — and it truly is a world problem.

The drug trade preys upon the youth of the world,

shattering the lives of individuals and the peace and

prosperity of communities. It has truly established its own

foul “united nations”.

The criminals — and they are criminals of the

lowest order — have broken down barriers of nationality,

politics, race, religion and culture far more successfully

than has this Assembly, as they ply their evil trade.

The networks they have established make

multinational corporate giants look like small players, and

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have become so entrenched that they can be met only with

an equally determined and broad-based international

response.

That task must be placed at the door of the United

Nations because, quite simply, no other group, no nation,

can take them on alone.

Victory in the battle against the drug barons will

require the same qualities needed in every other serious

endeavour of the United Nations — political will and

collective determination. Without these factors, we risk

losing generations to destructive substance abuse. The price

is too high. We must fight as one against this evil.

It is battles such as this that collectively we must take

up. If we do not commit ourselves to fights for decency

such as this one, we will never find the courage required to

attain true life and peace in this world.

On the question of the expansion of the Security

Council membership, we urge the five permanent members

of the Council to join us in looking critically at the

continuing relevance of their privileged positions and to

consider how the Security Council might operate more

effectively.

Papua New Guinea fully supports the permanent

membership of Japan and Germany on the Security

Council.

We are also aware of the need to support shared

objectives and decisions with adequate resources. We are

especially concerned that the ongoing financial difficulties

should be resolved promptly, so that the United Nations can

function to its full capacity.

No one should rest satisfied while we are faced with

the perpetuation of social and economic disparities between

and within nations — largely the result of parochial

interests being pursued at the expense of genuine human

concerns.

It is precisely this short-sightedness that has resulted

in United Nations failure in some areas in the past.

Decency and justice must prevail in fact, and not just

in words.

Papua New Guinea, as an active participant in and

beneficiary of the Lome Convention between the European

Union (EU) and the African Caribbean Pacific Group of

States (ACP), is greatly honoured to currently hold the

presidency and the chairmanship of all Lome Convention

institutions, including the ACP-EU Joint Assembly, the

ACP Council of Ministers and the ACP Committee of

Ambassadors.

We feel confident that we will play a substantive

role, under the Lome Convention, in addressing these

inequities. We are also hopeful that the international trade

and economic situation will improve with the advent of

the World Trade Organization, with protections to ensure

that the weak are not manipulated by the strong.

The problems of debt management and servicing

continue to plague many developing countries. In trying

to address them, we do not believe there are universal

solutions. Every case must be dealt with individually and

on its own merits. To do otherwise will simply cause

serious social and political dislocation.

In this regard, international lending institutions such

as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

(IMF) should demonstrate the requisite sensitivity and

tact. We do not believe there is a single recipe for all

problems, particularly as they relate to structural

adjustment programmes of the type which we in Papua

New Guinea have only recently ploughed through and

adopted, after refinements to meet our own particular

circumstances.

We live in a rapidly changing world, and it is a

world dogged by confusion and distortion as it struggles

to set new bounds of acceptability and compatibility.

With the decline of the cold war, our optimistic

hearts thought we might at long last enter a period of

peace, security and prosperity. Much of that optimism has

today given way to doubt and concern.

The challenge to the resolve and the resources of the

United Nations is arguably as great as it has ever been —

in Bosnia, the former Soviet Union, Rwanda, Somalia and

elsewhere.

Some of these trouble-spots have highlighted the

United Nations problems and been a source of acute

embarrassment to the United Nations, which has too often

been reduced to shameful impotence. The tragedy — the

overwhelming tragedy — of this is that lives have been

lost; people have died in huge numbers. The simple fact

is that so many of them would still be alive today if the

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United Nations had more effectively fulfilled its role once

it had decided to intervene.

When we lay this accusation at the door of the United

Nations, let us make no mistake about it: we do not and

cannot distance ourselves from these failings. We, the

members, are the United Nations. We are responsible for

what it does, or fails to do. We must lay much blame at the

door of the Member States which, collectively, have so

lacked political will and moral courage.

The reforms that will bring about increased political

will and a more humanitarian view must occur within each

and every Member nation. As the United Nations celebrates

its fiftieth anniversary, we would like to stress that if it

wants to be a true world forum, then it should exclude no

country, large or small.

At a time when reconciliation is superseding

confrontation the United Nations, in accordance with the

spirit of preventive diplomacy, should do its best to ease

the tensions between both sides of the Taiwan Straits. Peace

and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region are at stake.

On a global scale, we thought there was a hope for

peace and prosperity on the horizon when the international

community gathered in Rio for the Earth Summit on

Environment and Sustainable Development.

We all pledged and acknowledged at the Rio Summit

that something had to be done, because humanity was

endangered by environmental degradation and climate

change, and we adopted “Agenda 21” as the framework

document.

All Governments took the document firmly in hand,

but sadly their grip today appears to have slackened.

This experience and others call into question the

usefulness of further global conferences, when the results

of the ones already held are so generally disappointing.

We have had all the special world conferences, such

as the ones in Barbados on small island developing States,

in Cairo on population, in Copenhagen on social issues, in

Berlin on climate change and the recent Fourth World

Conference on Women, held in Beijing — although in

fairness to the latter, we should give it more time to

produce results. We should consider a moratorium on such

gatherings until we begin to see practical benefits coming

through. The talking has been done; it is now time for

action.

Environmental issues have become an all-

encompassing international agenda. In the context of an

interdependent world, we have a collective responsibility

guided by the framework of international conventions to

manage and develop our resources sustainably. The goals

of sustainable development can be realized only through

effective intergovernmental cooperation and through

regional and international efforts.

For its part, the South Pacific Forum, made up of 16

nations, including Palau, which joined at the most recent

Forum, has adopted both national and regional strategies

to develop and implement environmentally sound

programmes. Together with our fellow members of the

Melanesian Spearhead Group, we have become party to

the Lakatoro Declaration on Oceania Cooperation on

Denuclearization.

Papua New Guinea and the other 15 members of the

South Pacific Forum recently expressed extreme outrage

at the French Government’s resumption of nuclear testing

at Mururoa and resolved to review the status of their

dialogue with France. In total disregard of our stand,

France detonated its second nuclear test, at Fangataufa

Atoll, at 9.30 a.m., Papua New Guinea time, on Monday,

2 October 1995. Consistent with the resolution of the

South Pacific Forum nations, I now, regrettably, in my

capacity as Chairman of the Forum, announce the

suspension forthwith of all post-Forum dialogue with

France.

I am pleased to report that the twenty-sixth South

Pacific Forum paid close attention to the changed regional

and world security situation. The Forum’s concept paper

“Securing Development Beyond 2000” looked at security

issues well beyond the scope of military threats and

military solutions. We focused on increasing security on

a sustainable basis by promoting trade, transport and

tourism in and for our region. We addressed the need for

regional arrangements on environmental damage, natural

disasters and other emergencies; as a result, we are

working to have a comprehensive and detailed plan of

action for the region.

That is a Forum document to which we are party;

but for Papua New Guinea’s part, we have our own

national guiding document, “The Pacific Plan”, for our

relations with our Pacific neighbours.

In considering Pacific issues, the Forum was

conscious that small island States are very vulnerable and

have unusual needs. Their economies are constantly under

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threat from natural disasters such as cyclones, volcanoes

and the looming danger of rising sea levels. When such

States are hit by cyclones, it is akin to the ravages of war,

and their economies and infrastructures face severe strains

that seriously hamper and set back their development.

Papua New Guinea therefore appeals to the international

community to render support consistent with the Barbados

Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of

Small Island Developing States to assist their efforts to

achieve greater self-reliance.

Small nations, including many in the Pacific, have

suffered from declining international concern since the end

of the cold war. Geo-economic considerations have largely

replaced the geo-political considerations of the past, with

new webs of alignment replacing the old and familiar ones.

This has forced regionalistic tendencies upon nations, which

in some respects has crippled moves towards a true global

partnership.

Member nations will be aware of the internal crisis

that Papua New Guinea has faced on Bougainville, one that

has demanded enormous energy, time, patience and

resources from the Government of my country. I am

pleased to inform the Assembly that my Government, since

taking office in August of last year, has wholeheartedly

sought a successful resolution to the Bougainville situation,

so far with notable success. Please allow me to express the

appreciation of the people and the Government of Papua

New Guinea to the United Nations, and to the

Secretary-General’s office in particular, for the cooperation

and understanding extended to us throughout this process.

I am thinking particularly of the support the United Nations

offered to the Bougainville Peace Conference of October

last year, which, I am pleased to say, with the coming

together of the South Pacific peace-keeping force, put flesh

on the words of the Secretary-General on the value of

regional approaches to conflict resolution. I believe that

today the benefits of that wise policy are there for all to see

in the situation on Bougainville, which has vastly improved

over the past 12 months.

We also wish to assure the international community of

our absolute commitment to human rights in dealing with

this situation, as guaranteed in our Constitution. Indeed, it

is a fundamental regard for the right of all our people to

live free and peaceful lives that has driven me and my

Government to search tirelessly for a resolution to this

crisis.

There is no such thing as a minority group in Papua

New Guinea because we come from numerous and diverse

linguistic, cultural and social backgrounds. We have over

800 tribes and languages among 4 million people, in a

country the size of Malaysia. In effect, we are all

minorities in our land. As such, every group has a

legitimate place in Papua New Guinea.

For us and for other developing nations, the focus of

social issues falls squarely on the question of empowering

people to eradicate poverty, get an education and live

healthy lives. When that is achieved, the people are then

in a position to expand their participation in the social

and economic development of their nation. Without those

basics, theirs is simply a battle for survival.

Increasing marginalization of the poor and of

minorities remains a major problem within every country,

regardless of economic or political status. We support the

view that a new paradigm of development has to redefine

the needs of people in terms of securing the basics of life

such as housing, food and water. This can be achieved

only by empowering people through decision-making and

through direct participation in the development process.

In that connection, I wish to draw the attention of

the Assembly to a report to be prepared by the

Secretary-General on the United Nations initiative on

opportunity and participation, which I hope will receive

the serious consideration it deserves.

One of the hallmarks of United Nations achievement

has been the decolonization of peoples under colonial

domination. As we commemorate the fiftieth anniversary

of the United Nations, we can proudly testify that the

United Nations has generally fulfilled its duties and

responsibilities with respect to the decolonization process.

My country and many others represented in this Hall are

testimony to the honourable achievements of this

Organization in decolonization. Less than three weeks ago

my people joyfully celebrated the twentieth anniversary of

the independence of Papua New Guinea.

While we acknowledge and commend the United

Nations for its decolonization achievements, its task is not

yet complete. There are still many Territories under

colonial domination of one form or another. In

recognition of the unfinished task relating to colonialism,

the General Assembly has adopted a resolution

proclaiming the International Decade for the Eradication

of Colonialism. This carries great hope for those who are

still under the yoke of colonialism.

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The end of apartheid in South Africa brought a great

sense of relief and enlightenment, not just there but

throughout the world. In that vein, colonialism — another

blight on humanity — should be done away with and

consigned to the pages of history as a degrading

phenomenon of a bygone age.

There is a need to take a case-by-case approach in

addressing the problems of the Territories under colonial

administration to ensure that the wishes of the people

concerned are adequately and realistically taken into

account in determining their eventual political status.

In our immediate region, we are keen to see the

decolonization process in New Caledonia allowed to take its

due course, consistent with United Nations principles and

practices. While we acknowledge the progressive attitude

taken by the French Government with regard to New

Caledonia, we are concerned that certain negative and

counter-productive policies still exist. In that regard, we call

on France to fulfil its decolonization responsibilities quickly

and with dignity.

The eradication of colonialism before the year 2000

will place us on a more enlightened plateau. It will make

the world a better place, more equipped to take on the

challenges of the future with justice and dignity for all.

The United Nations undoubtedly stands for humanity.

It provides the best possible avenue to peace, security and

prosperity. While we all acknowledge the worthy objectives

of the United Nations Charter, no country can claim that it

has given full and complete support to the Organization.

Unfortunately, the United Nations has time and again

been used for parochial pursuits, whether in respect of

peace-keeping, human rights or environmental areas or in

Security Council deliberations. In this very imperfect world,

it would be naive to have ever expected perfect solutions

from the United Nations. I say again that it is, however, an

Organization that my Government strongly believes the

international community cannot do without. If the United

Nations did not exist, we would have to invent it. Fifty

years on, our task is to reinvent it, to make it better, to

allow it to fully and ably serve humanity. This is a most

noble goal that must be pursued with pragmatic intensity

and determination.

The fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations is the

time for each and every Member nation to recommit itself

to the purposes and principles of the United Nations

Charter. We must do it for peace, and with the vivid

recollection of Hiroshima and Nagasaki never far way. If

we are to welcome the new century as we should, then

the United Nations Charter provides the yardstick for the

challenges ahead.

There are many global issues confronting us today,

and the United Nations provides us with the best

chance — the only chance — of handling them

successfully. So let us act for the sake of all humanity. In

this global age we must mend our ways. We must think

with global heads and attend to humanity’s needs with

global hearts. Only then will our attitudes have kept pace

with the realities we face. Only then can we leave a better

world for our children.