Papua New Guinea, 1996

On behalf of

the people and the Government of Papua New Guinea, I

congratulate you, Mr. President, on your election to preside

over the General Assembly at its fifty-first session. The

warm relations that have developed between our two

nations make it a particular pleasure to welcome you to

your high office and to wish you well in carrying out

your duties. I would also like to record our sincere

appreciation for the wise leadership with which your

predecessor guided our deliberations during the historic

fiftieth session of the General Assembly.

The rapid approach of the year 2000 raises the

question whether — and how — we are going to try to

make the turn of the century a turning point for the

United Nations. Despite the many thought-provoking

speeches made for the fiftieth anniversary, I regret to say

that signs of fundamental and far-reaching changes

required remain elusive. Yet we live at a time when the

only constant factor is change. The preamble to its

Charter makes it quite clear that the United Nations itself

was — and is — intended to be an agent of change. If

our Organization is to remain relevant to the challenges

ahead, then it, and we the Members, must adapt and keep

on adapting, as the world continues to change.

Invented to raise humanity’s sights beyond the

horizon of destruction caused by world war, the United

Nations must be continuously reinvented in order to play

an effective role in a rapidly changing world. The United

Nations has in fact been successful at one kind of change:

adding to our agenda responsibilities and activities in

areas such as peacekeeping, peacemaking, human rights

and sustainable development. It has, however, been very

much less successful in rationalizing its operations and

administrative support.

Humanity needs a much more focused, trim and vital

United Nations. Without internal reform, the risk of

overload is only too real — and, arguably, overload is

already here. Even more importantly, we, the Members of

the United Nations, have to do more, much more, to

adapt key institutions to the changed and still-changing

circumstances of a post-colonial, post-cold-war world.

Almost everyone agrees what the main issues and

options are. Yet as far as its permanent membership goes,

the Security Council in particular remains, much as it has

always been, the product of decisions made before most

Member States became independent. Some of the

strongest critics of the cost and alleged inefficiencies

of the United Nations come from States that are among

the slowest in paying their membership dues. While

they criticize weaknesses in the Organization’s

performance, they are often among the most eager

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advocates of giving it new assignments. Their

actions — and inaction — suggest that they confuse

cutbacks in the resources available to the United Nations

with real reform.

Like other members of the Non-Aligned Movement,

Papua New Guinea is firmly committed to reforming the

Security Council. While we recognize that those whom

existing arrangements most favour are well placed to delay

or block change, we firmly believe that the Council’s

composition should be altered. It must take better account

of the geographical distribution and sovereign equality of

Member States. Concerned that it seems to be taking longer

to reform than it originally took to form the United Nations,

Papua New Guinea’s voice and vote are emphatically for

change. We believe that the time for action is now.

Papua New Guinea has embarked on an ambitious

programme of domestic reforms, including both

constitutional and economic-policy changes. Having

legislated a new system of provincial and local-level

governments in order to improve the delivery of services to

our people, we are actively engaged in implementation.

Twenty-one years after giving ourselves a “home-grown”

Constitution, we are now engaged in a comprehensive

process of reform that is equally “home-grown”.

My Government is just as determined to bring about

comprehensive structural adjustment. Following decisions

to devalue and float our national currency, the kina, we are

now reducing the size of the public sector. We are making

the official interface with the private sector more

business-friendly and encouraging commercial enterprise.

While international agencies and foreign aid donors provide

valuable support, the impulse, direction and pace of reform

are emphatically Papua New Guinea’s own. Being a

member of the Government that led Papua New Guinea to

its independence, I cannot allow our national sovereignty —

or our Government’s ability to respond to our people’s

needs — to be compromised now.

Experience of the difficulties of reform at home has

reinforced my Government’s commitment to reforming the

United Nations. The principles remain the same. We

strongly support efforts to ensure that the world has a truly

effective, flexible and responsive Organization through

which to cooperate in meeting the challenges of the twenty-

first century.

The United Nations is founded on the idea that

security involves much more than military defence against

threats of armed attack. Conscious of the threats and

limitations on self-defence that we face together with

other small island developing countries, Papua New

Guinea has always regarded collective security as an

important key to national security. Diplomacy is the

means by which we seek to cooperate with all other

States committed to peace.

As the current Chairman of the Melanesian

Spearhead Group (MSG), I am pleased to report that we

welcomed Fiji as a new member at our Summit in June.

We also adopted a document — “Melanesia Beyond

2000” — which outlines our objectives and strategy for

the MSG’s second decade.

We have emphasized our commitment to cooperation

on a wide basis and have also agreed to a proposal on

weapons control. The South Pacific Forum is developing

the idea on a region-wide basis. Following the extreme

outrage that the South Pacific felt when France resumed

its testing programme in French Polynesia last year, I can

now report that the programme has ceased. The remaining

nuclear Powers with interests in our region — France, the

United Kingdom and the United States of America —

have signed the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty

(Treaty of Rarotonga). France has been readmitted as a

post-Forum dialogue partner.

As much as we welcome the developments during

the past 12 months, Papua New Guinea believes that

more is required before our region can be described as

genuinely nuclear-free. Outstanding needs include a

broader treaty, systematic monitoring of former test-sites,

cleaning up, compensation and the provision of alternative

sources of income for the people of French Polynesia.

The Treaty of Rarotonga is complemented by the

MSG’s Lakatoro Declaration on Denuclearization in

Oceania. Subregional and regional efforts are again

complemented by similar arrangements negotiated during

the past year in South-East Asia and Africa, as well as by

the much older arrangements that apply to Antarctica and

Latin America. Papua New Guinea welcomes the

Brazilian proposal to link these arrangements into a

comprehensive nuclear-weapon-free zone covering the

entire southern hemisphere. Having supported the recent

passage of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty,

we would now like to see it extended to outlawing

simulations, limiting the development and acquisition of

new nuclear weapons and, ultimately, bringing about

complete disarmament.

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The South Pacific Forum has expressed support for the

early conclusion of negotiations over a legal regime

covering civil liability for nuclear damage.

Committed to furthering cooperation against threats to

our region, the South Pacific Forum is working on an

arrangement through which member States can respond to

legitimate requests for assistance from one another’s

disciplined services, including police. The same

arrangement could also be used for consultations intended

to help prevent, manage and settle disputes. We continue to

broaden, deepen and diversify other areas of security

cooperation, including law enforcement.

Consistent with agreements reached at the regional

level, Papua New Guinea has adopted a comprehensive

code of logging practice designed to promote the

sustainable use and in-country processing of a rich

renewable natural resource.

We are gravely concerned at the threat that climate

change poses to the very survival of low-lying atolls. Entire

countries in our region face the risk of extinction. Papua

New Guinea joins with other developing countries in calling

on the advanced industrialized countries to look beyond

their immediate self-interest and adopt specific targets for

reducing greenhouse emissions, an issue which generates

considerable emotion among us.

Together with other coastal States in the region, we

look to distant-water fishing nations for cooperation in

giving effect to the United Nations Agreement on straddling

fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks so that it does

not weaken existing regional arrangements.

In the wider Asia-Pacific region, Papua New Guinea

calls for a reduction of avoidable sources of stress,

uncertainty and risk on the Korean Peninsula, both for the

sake of the countries directly involved and because of their

potentially adverse effects on other countries.

Concerned about events earlier in the year, I repeat

last year’s call for the United Nations to do its best to ease

the tensions between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Important regional organizations in the Asia-Pacific have

found ways of following the principle within the region.

The European Parliament has adopted a resolution

recommending that the United Nations identify options for

Taiwan to take part in the activities of bodies answerable to

the General Assembly. The United Nations has an

obligation to assist in maintaining a secure environment in

which economic growth and other forms of development

can continue for the benefit of the peoples of the region

as well as their partners around the world. It is therefore

time to address the question of Taiwanese participation in

institutions and processes set up to further the universal

objectives of the United Nations Charter.

Respect for the national sovereignty of Member

States is basic to the United Nations Charter. Small island

developing countries tend to be especially vulnerable to

a wide range of possible threats. Their development, and

even their very survival, often depend on international

cooperation and law.

Having achieved national independence under United

Nations supervision, Papua New Guinea is firmly

committed to the United Nations Special Committee on

the Situation With Regard to the Implementation of the

Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial

Countries and Peoples. Despite criticism from certain

quarters, we were therefore pleased to welcome and host

the Special Committee’s regional seminar held in Port

Moresby in June. Together with all other members of the

Melanesian Spearhead Group and the South Pacific

Forum, we remain firmly committed to the orderly

decolonization of New Caledonia, with special safeguards

for the indigenous Kanaks. We will not accept illegitimate

attempts to delay or derail complete implementation of

the Matignon Agreements. Having reviewed the French

Government’s record elsewhere in the region, we ask

ourselves whether French Polynesia, as well as Walis and

Futuna, should be included in the United Nations list of

Non-Self-Governing Territories. The international

community has a duty to see that France meets its

responsibilities to the people of our region and a prime

responsibility must be the right of self-determination.

On Bougainville, my Government is firmly

committed to doing all that we can to resolve the crisis

that has racked the Bougainville Province in my country

since 1989. I therefore negotiated a cease-fire, arranged

a regional peacekeeping force and agreed to peace talks

in October 1994, only to find that the militant leaders

would not honour the agreements reached. Even so, my

Government has been prepared to talk to those who will

talk to us. We have established the Bougainville

Transitional Government and continue to provide

protection for people forced to flee from their homes by

the criminal actions of an armed and militant minority.

We continue to restore services and to encourage

reconciliation, but the mounting toll of destruction, injury

and loss of life caused by the militants gave the National

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Government no alternative but to lift the ceasefire on 21

March this year.

Even now, rival gangs of armed criminals continue to

threaten the lives of innocent people, trying to destroy what

the people, provincial leaders and the national Government

are doing and reconstructing. They undermine all efforts to

maintain the rule of law. In a particularly barbaric attack on

8 September this year, 12 members of our security forces

were killed at the Kangu Care Centre in South

Bougainville.

Despite the worst efforts of the Bougainville

Revolutionary Army and its sympathizers abroad, my

Government is standing firm. We will not give them the

satisfaction of departing from our basic objective of

restoring peace and rebuilding all they have destroyed.

We appreciate the understanding displayed by the

United Nations Commission on Human Rights when it

considered the Bougainville situation earlier this year. It has

always been a complex domestic issue. In keeping with the

mutual respect for national sovereignty that is basic to

international law, Papua New Guinea calls on all other

States to refrain from statements and actions that send

misleading signals to those who violate our laws; to

cooperate in preventing smuggling and other illegal

violations of our borders; and generally to prevent outsiders

from interfering illegally in Papua New Guinea’s internal

affairs. In so doing, we add the reminder that it is not the

foreign meddlers who will suffer most from the effects of

the crisis — it will be the people of Papua New Guinea,

including the overwhelming majority of Bougainvilleans,

who consider themselves to be part of our nation and

entitled to the same rights as all other Papua New

Guineans.

Conscious of the violations that have occurred on all

sides and of the need to avoid any repetition, my

Government is in the process of trying to strengthen

existing arrangements by establishing a national commission

on human rights.

My Government has embarked on an ambitious

programme of structural adjustment, because we — and not

some outside body — think that we should in order to

ensure that development can be sustained for future

generations. While we accept external advice and appreciate

external assistance, we have not yielded to, and will not

give in to, external pressure. It is crucial that the official

conduct of such bodies not raise basic questions about

relations between these institutions and the sovereignty of

the member States that they are supposed to serve.

National and collective self-reliance are both means

of achieving and integral to the objective of sustainable

development. They are critical to maintaining and

strengthening the security and sovereignty of States.

National self-reliance is among Papua New Guinea’s

constitutional goals and directive principles. Collective

self-reliance through South Pacific cooperation is among

the commitments contained in my Government’s Pacific

Plan and implemented through our current national

budget.

My Government’s proposal that Papua New Guinea

should enter into a form of permanent association with

the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is

intended to further the process by which we cooperate

with neighbouring countries to promote collective

self-reliance. We appreciate the positive interest that

ASEAN members have expressed in the idea and we

strongly support closer cooperation between ASEAN and

the South Pacific Forum.

As the only Pacific island country directly involved

in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Council

(APEC), but by no means the only such country likely to

be affected by the process, Papua New Guinea has

proposed that APEC set up a scheme to help build

capacity among the 13 small island developing countries

in the region so that they are not left or pushed behind.

The proposal that we are now developing in greater

detail is emphatically not intended to be yet another

open-ended aid programme under a different name.

Rather, it is intended to help small island countries

manage their way through the transition to the

achievement of APEC’s vision of open-ended regional

free trade by the year 2020.

As an active participant in institutions established

under the Lomé Convention, Papua New Guinea would

like to encourage other member States to give early

consideration to the kinds of changes that would facilitate

development processes and objectives consistent with

World Trade Organization rules.

Conscious of the aid fatigue now spreading through

many advanced industrial countries, we urge Governments

and people of goodwill to recognize the time and effort

that development requires. With a few very honourable

exceptions, donor countries have not reached — and in

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many cases have fallen far behind — aid targets to which

they agreed a generation ago.

Thus, not only has aid been reduced, but recipients are

even more locked and tied to donors’ own preferences. The

effect that the failure to honour commitments can have on

national forward planning can be very severe. It underlines

the need for a reduced reliance on aid and for the

development of a greater degree of self-reliance.

In view of the vital role that the business sector can

play in mobilizing capital for investment and trade, we

welcome schemes designed to assist in the development of

the private sector. We especially welcome the contributions

made to such schemes by the advanced industrial countries.

We cannot achieve all our reforms without the support

of world institutions. That is accepted. However, those

institutions themselves need to operate with greater

flexibility and to be more sensitive to the particular needs

of Governments to preserve democracy, the environment

and their people’s national identity and culture.

My Government takes a global view of Papua New

Guinea’s foreign relations and of issues on the United

Nations agenda. We encourage official agencies, business

and non-governmental organizations both to “Look North”

and to “Work the Pacific” for mutual benefit with close

neighbours. Conscious that we must not overlook

longstanding friends, we give high priority to reinforcing

core relationships. Our overall objective is to continue

reform at home in order to meet the challenges of global

change.

We will continue to support wider efforts at reform,

including those directed at and through the United Nations,

in order to meet the challenges of global change and

embrace the imperatives of reform in readiness for the

twenty-first century.